pledget into the wounded breast. In removing it, Margaret's finger became entangled by a black string passed round the youth's neck, to which a small locket was suspended. She had hastily moving it aside, when the light held by one of the sailors fell upon the medallion, (a perforated gold pocket piece) and her eye glancing towards it at the same moment, a half choaked exclamation burst from her lips, and, looking up, I saw her motionless, breathless, her hands clasped together with convulsive energy, and her eyes almost from their sockets, in the stare of indescribable horror with which they were rivetted on the suspended token. At last, a shriek (such a one as my ears never before heard, the recollection of which still curdles the blood in my veins) burst from her lips, and brought her daughter and husband (even the unfortunate man himself) to the spot where she stood absorbed in that fearful contemplation. She looked up to wards her husband (on whose brow cold drops of agony were thickly gathering, whose white lips quivered with the workings of a tortured spirit) she gazed up in his face with such a look as I shall never forget. It was one of horrid calmness, more fearful to behold than the wildest expressions of passionate agony, and grasping his fettered hand firmly in one of her's, and with the other pointing to the perforated gold piece, as it lay on the mangled bosom of the dead youth, she said in a slow steady voice, "Look there! what is that?-Who is that, Richard ?" His eyes rivetted themselves with a ghastly stare on the object to which she pointed, then wandered wildly over the lifeless form before him; but the tremulous agitation of his frame ceased, the convulsive working of the muscles of his face changed into rigid fixedness. and he stood like one petrified in the very burst of despair. Once more she repeated, in the same calm deliberate tone, "Who is that, Richard ?" and suddenly leaning forward, dashed aside from the face of the corpse the dark locks that had hitherto concealed it. "There, there!" she shrieked—“ I knew it was my son !" and bursting into a frenzied laugh, she called out, "Amy! Amy! your brother is come home! come home on his birth-day! Will nobody bid him welcome? Richard won't you speak to your son, to our dear Maurice! won't you bless him on his birth-day ?" And snatching her husband's hand, she endeavoured to drag him towards the pale face of the dead. He to whom this heartrending appeal was addressed, replied only by one deep groan, which seemed to burst up the very fountains of feeling and of life. He staggered back a few paces-his eyes closed-the convulsion of a moment passed over his features, and he fell back as inanimate as the pale corpse that was still clasped with frantic rapture to the heart of the brainstruck mother. IT WOMEN. T has often been a subject of meditation with me, whether there be really any difference between men and women-I mean in their intellectual powers. It is argued by some, that there is naturally no difference whatever, and that all the difference we observe is produced by art. Education has certainly a wonderful influence in fashioning the mind, and some philosophers have carried this principle so far, as to ascribe to it all the varieties in the animal creation. They say that man is indebted for his superiority solely to some accidental peculiarities in his organization; that had he had the hoof of an ox, the nails of the wolf, or the claws of the lion, he would have been no better than these animals. I confess I do not hold with this sort of philosophy; I rather think, with Galen, that man is wise not because of his hands, but that he had hands appended to his wrists instead of the hoofs of a horse, because of his pre-eminent wisdom. And I think, in like manner, it will be easy to shew, that there is a natural, or as the Marquis of Londonderry would say, a fundamental difference between the sexes, wholly independent of social institutions. Were there not this difference, how is it that women in all ages and in all countries, have held only a subordinate station in society? Education is insufficient to account for this circumstance, because it is in nature for every thing ultimately to triumph over adventitious obstacles, and attain that rank for which it is qualified. Besides, we do not observe that education exerts such an omnipotent influence over the destiny of individuals. Most persons, remarkable for intellectual eminence, have attained it in spite of peculiar disadvantages; it has ever been the lot of Genius to contend with the difficulties of fortune, birth, and education. Allowing, then, that females labour under disadvantages from this source, is it not surprising that they do not exhibit similar instances of triumphing over them? yet we do not find such instances. If they afford any extraordinary examples of intellect, they are always, I apprehend, an inferior grade. Thus they have produced no philosopher equal to Newton, no poet like Homer, no conqueror like Alexander, no dramatist like Shakspeare,― nor, to my mind, any cook equal to the great Doctor Kitchener. Eminent women, no doubt, there have been; but when we examine their productions, we seldom, I think, fail to discover traces to which sex they belong: the peculiarities of their nature usually reminding us of the fable of Esop, quoted by Bacon; when puss sat demurely at table, in man's attire, till a mouse crossed the room. The late Madame de Stael was a striking instance of this sort. No female displayed greater and more varied powers of intellect; yet in her occasional vanity and especially in her personal antipathies, she evinced all the weaknesses (shall I say?) of her sex. Queen Elizabeth is another instance of a masculine mind conjoined with womanly infirmities. She was never weary of listening to discourses on her "excellent beauties," and her most grave ministers found no way so effectual to her favour, as by telling her, that "the lustre of her beauty dazzled them like the sun, and they could not behold it with fixed eyes." But perhaps the rarest example of intellectual manhood is Cathe rine the Second, Empress of Russia: she indeed seems to have very little of woman in her nature; even her vices were of a manly order-ambitious, cruel, and imperious; and in her amours she appears, in some respects, to have usurped the place of the opposite sex, and treated her numerous lovers more like her mistresses than admirers. I have chosen these three examples as being the best known, and exhibiting the strongest claims to an equality with man. I perhaps might have found living instances of great merit, but I prefer confining my observations to those that are dead. The examples, however, that I have quoted, by no means decide the question: it is not by particular instances, but by comparing the most eminent of both sexes, that a fair inference can be drawn. But, perhaps, after all, it is only a dispute about words, arising from the standard to which we refer. Man's superiority is not universal. If he possess the comprehension of an angel, he has neither the eye of an eagle, nor the fleetness of a greyhound. If he excel woman ("lovely woman," as the poets say) in arts and arms, and science and philosophy, in foresight and grandeur of soul, how vastly inferior is he in all the softer graces, in tenderness, delicacy, and sentiment! What, indeed, would he have been without woman, or where would he have been ! "Oh, woman! lovely woman! Nature made you But there is no end to such a theme. I shall conclude these observations, by remarking three paradoxes concerning females, the first shewing how much more individual security depends on public opinion than positive institutions. Although females are excluded from power, and apparently without protection, yet no class is more secure in the enjoyment of its rights. With out representative in parliament, they are least of all obnoxious to oppressive laws; excluded from juries, the bar, and the bench, their offences are always viewed with indulgence. They have no minister in the church, yet no class is prayed for more fervently; nor have they any part in the army or navy, yet both are enthusiastic in their service; nor in the magistracy, yet alderman and justices of peace are almost proverbially devoted to their interest. In short, every where, and on every occasion, they are treated as pri vileged beings, entitled to precedency; and thus do they enjoy the honours and immunities through courtesy, which the most unquestioned right and superiority would scarcely procure them. It is certainly a most refined and nobly principle which grants from generosity that respect, reverence, and devotion which the most unbounded power could scarcely command. If that chivalrous feeling which protects the interests of the fair from violation from a sense of their weakness, were to be extended to the poorer classes from a sense of their destitute condition, there cannot be a doubt that their rights would be far more effectually guarded than by universal suffrage and annual parliaments. So much more omnipotent is opinion than law. The second paradox is somewhat connected with the first. Though females are considered unqualified for superior stations in society, yet they sometimes exercise sovereign authority; though they are considered unfit to discharge the functions of an admiral, a judge, a commander-in-chief, or even a parish beadle, yet they are sometimes placed, by the principle of hereditary succession, at the head of the army, the navy, and the administration of justice. The last paradox is this: one would imagine in the warm regions of the south, where men's passions are the most violent, females would have attained the highest rank; instead of which, it is in the cold countries of the north that modern gallantry had its origin. Tacitus gives an interesting account of the distinguished manner in which our German ancestors treated their women in their almost impenetrable forests. They worshipped them as a sort of supernatural beings; their household gods in peace, their most valued treasure in war, and their counsellors and companions at all times. This high homage no doubt, arose from the extreme delicacy which prevailed respecting the sexual intercourse. It was esteemed dishonourable to be intimate with a woman till the twentieth year; a custom which, Sir Walter Scott observes, was not only favourable to health and morals, but contributed to place females in that dignified rank which they held in society. "Noth- of their hopes, with the sad conviction ing," continues the same writer, "tends so much to blunt the feelings, to harden the heart, and to destroy the imagination, as the worship of Vaga Venus in early youth." The German wife, once married, seldom endeavoured to form a second union. Polygamy was unknown; and adultery, which rarely occurred, was punished with great severity; while the unfortunate offender had no chance to obtain a second husband, however distinguished by beauty, birth, or wealth. These customs sufficiently account for the high estimation of women among the Gothic tribes. The divinity of females is in their chastity: when that is violated, the veil of the temple is rent, and they ceased almost to be objects of devotion. They are then reduced to that state of humiliation in which we find them in the seraglios of the East. Is it surprising, then, that they guard with such watchfulness the secret of their power? To them it is the wand of harlequin; and such as betray it to the enemy are very naturally shunned as traiteresses to the interests of their order. Indeed it is a double treachery, equally injurious to both sides: by it the women lose their dominion, and the men, who had probably fed on heavenly visions, awake, in the fruition of Philip of their own mortality. There is another consideration arising out of this subject, which may, perhaps, be worth noticing. We learn from it, that European gallantry is not formed on the models of ancient chivalry, but that it is derived from a much higher source-from that source from which we derive our most valued municipal institutions. Indeed chivalry (whatever may be said to the contrary, as has been elsewhere observed) was but a gloomy, ascetic, and absurd superstition, which very soon after its institution degenerated into the coarsest brutality and licentiousness. Mr. Dymoke, at the Coronation, I have often thought, was but a poor representation of the stern, subacid knights of yore; his gaudy plumes and tinsel trappings had as much relation to the Godfreys, Orlandos, and Bertrands of the old time, as a modern drawing-room has to the hall of William Rufus.-But I have done, Mr. Editor. In looking over the beginning of this epistle, I find that there are some matters at which your fair readers may probably cavil: you know, Sir, my object is merely truth and fair play; should I therefore have inadvertently fallen into any considerable errors, I shall most willingly submit to correction. TO A STREAM. WHITHER, tell me, Stream! Down the rocks where Echo lies, Kissing every heedless flow'r With a liquid lip of foam? 'From the mountain urn Where the wild linnet sings To the woods below; O'er the meadow's golden dress, And the sleeping vales, I roam.' Wild and silly Stream! Ere the wish be vain, Turn to thy grassy spring, Murmurer! again. Tears, tears of sorrow deep, For a dear and distant home. RICHARD BELVOIR. ALL HALLOW EVE IN IRELAND. In the hinder end of harvest upon All Hallow eve SOME years ago, I had the pleasure of passing an All Hallow Eve at the house of a substantial farmer in the vicinity of the town of Sligo. I had been wandering the whole day, about the beautiful and romantic glen of Knock-na-ree, and entered the hospitable abode of my worthy Milesian friend just as the dim twilight was melting into the dark gloom of an autumnal evening. A sparkling turf fire enlivened the hearth, and a number of the neighbouring young rustics were mingled with the ruddy children of mine host about the room; while the elder folks encircled the glittering blaze, or crouched beneath the immense chimney that jutted far out into the room. Large pieces of hung beef and rusty bacon adorned the walls, a spinning-wheel was turned up under the ladder which ascended to the loft, the white wooden piggins and well-scoured trenchers were placed in meet array on the wellfilled shelves, and the huge dresser proudly exhibited its store of shining pewter to the admiring eyes of the youthful peasants. A door, which stood ajar in one corner, purposely betrayed the treasures of "the best room;" a double chest of drawers, a polished oaken table, and several antique and quaintly-figured chairs reflected the beams of the burning turf, and faintly illuinined the sacred apart ment. The buxom good wife, arrayed in a striped linsey-wolsey gown, was regaling her friends with merry lamb'swool, while her lively children and their young guests indulged in the usual superstitions and quaint customs of All Hallow Eve. Three of the eldest lasses were lurking in a dark corner busily employed in kneading a cake with their left thumbs. Not a sound escaped from their clenched lips; the work King James VI. proceeded in mute solemnity; a single word would have broken the charm, and destroyed their ardent hopes of beholding their future husbands in their dreams after having partaken of the mystic dumb-cake. While this work was going on siJently in the corner, a group of sturdy boys in the centre of the floor were indulging in all the uproar of boisterous merriment at the glorious game of snapapple. A burning candle was affixed to one end of a short skewer, and a ripe ruddy-cheeked apple stuck at the other. The skewer was suspended by its middle with a piece of strong cord from the dusky ceiling, and being gently put in motion, the eager boys thronged tumultuously forward to catch the delicious apple in their mouths, as it performed its swinging evolutions. Many a furzy head was set in a blaze, and many loud laughs and chirruping exclamations emanated from the merry group before the prize was carried off. Several young girls were roasting pairs of matrimonial apples on the hearth. One they dignified with the lordly title of "The Baron," and the other was supposed to be his lady-wife. And truly it was a bitter satire on the married state. The scorching apples resembled many a foolish couple in the land. Such sputtering and foamingsuch angry fuming at each other-such prodigious perspirations-such vindictive tones and contemptuous hissings on both sides, and then such melting quietness for a moment, interrupted by a sudden swelling-up, or a burly look, that renewed the sputtering and fuming, until both were utterly exhausted! The married folks looked on and laughed prodigiously, ever and anon exchanging those most eloquent and volume-speaking looks, which often pass between man and wife. Some of the younger children were * The fairies. |