A SINGULAR DYING SPEECH.

THE following extraordinary address was publicly made on the scaffold at Wicklow, in Ireland, in 1738, by a man named George Manly, just before he was hanged for murder. He spoke in these words :-" My Friends,-You assemble to see -What?-A man take a leap in the abyss of death. Look, and you shall see me go with as much courage as Curtius, when he leapt into the gulph to save his country from destruction. What then will you say of me?-You say, that no man without virtue can be courageous. You see I am courageous. You'll say I have killed a man. Marlborough killed his thousands, and Alexander his millions: Marlborough and Alexander, and many others who have done the like, are famous in history for great men. But I killed one solitary man. Ay, that's the case. One solitary man. I'm a little murderer, and must be hanged. Marlborough and Alexander plundered countries. They were great men. I ran in debt with the ale-wife; I must be hanged.

"Now, my friends, I have drawn a parallel between two of the greatest men that ever lived, and myself; but these were men of former days. Now I'll speak a word of some of the present days: how many men were lost in Italy and upon the Rhine, during the last war, for settling a king in Poland! Both sides could not be right; they are great men; but I killed a solitary man I'm a little fellow. The King of

Spain takes our ships, plunders our merchants, kills and tortures our men; but what of all that? What he does is good; he's a great man, he is clothed in purple, his instruments of murder are bright and shining, mine was but a rusty gun; and so much for comparison.

"Now I would fain know what authority there is in Scripture for a rich man to murder, to plunder, to torture, to ravage whole countries; and what law it is, that condemns a poor man to death for killing a solitary man, or for stealing a solitary sheep to feed his family? But bring the matter closer to our own country; what is the difference between running in a poor man's debt, and by the power of gold, or any other privilege, preventing him from obtaining his right, and clapping a pistol to a man's breast, and taking from him his purse? Yet the one shall thereby obtain a coach, and honors, and titles. The other-What ?-A cart and a rope.

"From what I have said, my brethren, you may perhaps imagine that I am hardened: but believe me, I am fully convinced of my follies, and acknowledge the just judgment of God has overtaken me; I have no hopes, but from the merits of my Redeemer, who I hope will have mercy on me, as he knows that murder was far from my heart, and what I did was through rage and passion, being provoked thereto by the deceased.

"Take warning, my dear comrades. Think! Oh think! What would I now give, that I had lived another life!"

THE FORCE OF FEAR.

Ar the close of the winter of 1825-26, about dusk in the afternoon, just as the wealthy dealers in the Palais-Royal at Paris were about lighting their lamps and putting up their shutters, (the practice of the major part of them at nightfall,) a well-known money-changer sat behind his counter alone, surrounded by massive heaps of silver and gold, the glittering and sterling currency of all the kingdoms of Europe. He had well-nigh closed his operations for the day, and was enjoying in anticipation the prospect of a good dinner. Between. the easy-chair upon which he reclined in perfect satisfation, and the door which opened into the north side of the immense quadrangle of which the splendid edifice above-mentioned is composed, arose a stout wire partition, reaching nearly to the ceiling, and resting upon the counter, which traversed the whole length of the room. Thus he was effectually cut off from all possibility of unfriendly contact from any of his occasional visitors; while a small sliding-board that ran in and out under the wire partition served as the medium of his peculiar commerce. Upon this he received every coin, note, or draft presented for change; and having first carefully examined it, returned its value, by the same conveyance, in the coin of France, or indeed of any country required. Behind him was a door communicating with his domestic chambers, and in the

middle of the counter was another, the upper part of which formed a portion of the wire partition above described.

The denizen of this little chamber had already closed his outer shutters, and was just on the point of locking up his doors and retiring to his repast, when two young men entered. They were evidently Italians, from their costume and peculiar dialect. Had it been earlier in the day, when there would have been sufficient light to have discerned their features and expression, it is probable that our merchant would have defeated their plans, for he was well skilled in detecting the tokens of fraud or design in the human countenance. But they had chosen their time too appropriately. One of them, advancing towards the counter, demanded change in French coin for an English sovereign, which he laid upon the sliding board, and passed through the wire partition. The moneychanger rose immediately, and having ascertained that the coin was genuine, returned its proper equivalent by the customary mode of transfer. The Italians turned as if to leave the apartment, when he who had received the money suddenly dropped the silver, as though accidentally, upon the floor. As it was now nearly dark, it was scarcely to be expected that they could find the whole of the pieces without the assistance of a light. This the unconscious merchant hastened to supply; and unlocking, without suspicion, the door of the partition between them, stooped with a candle over the floor in search of the lost coin. In this position the unfartunate man was immediately assailed with repeated stabs from a poniard, and he at length fell, after a few feeble and ineffectual struggles, senseless, and apparently lifeless, at the feet of his

assassins.

A considerable time elapsed ere, by the fortuitous entrance

of a stranger, he was discovered in this dreadful situation; when it was found that the assassins, having first helped themselves to an almost incredible amount of money, had fled, without anything being left by which a clue might have been obtained to their retreat.

The unfortunate victim of their rapacity and cruelty was, however, not dead. Strange as it may appear, although he had received upwards of twenty wounds, several of which plainly showed that the dagger had been driven to the very hilt, he survived; and in a few months after the event, was again to be seen in his long-accustomed place at the changer's board. In vain had the most diligent search been made by the military police of Paris for the perpetrators of this detestable deed. The villains had eluded all inquiry and investigation, and would in all probability have escaped undiscovered with their booty but for a mutually-cherished distrust of each other. Upon the first and complete success of their plan, the question arose, how to dispose of their enormous plunder, amounting to more than a hundred thousand pounds. Fearful of the researches of the police, they dared not retain it at their lodgings. To trust a third party with their secret was not to be thought of. At length, after long and anxious deliberation, they agreed to conceal the money outside the barriers of Paris until they should have concocted some safe plan for transporting it to their own country. This they accordingly did, burying the treasure under a tree about a mile from the Barrière d'Enfer. But they were still as far as ever from a mutual understanding. When they separated, on any pretence, each returned to the spot which contained the stolen treasure, where of course he was sure to find the other. Suspicion thus formed and fed soon grew into dislike and hatred,