MISCELLANIES.

THE EVILS OF PROSPERITY.

Ir is an everlasting truth, that man is in more danger from prosperity than from adversity. Bion being asked what was the most dangerous thing in the world; answered, "to be most fortunate.' "You will wisely shorten sail," says Horace to his friend Murena, "when too much swelled by a prosperous gale."

-sapienter idem

Contrahes vento nimiùm secundo
Turgida vela.

Plato thanked the gods that he had been
a pupil of Socrates, who always despised
Fortune and her gifts. Cicero says, that
those who court fortune are more blind
than fortune, who never advanced any
one without reducing him again to mi-
sery.
E. M. A.

LOSS OF A CHARACTER.

THE following anecdote, which we give (says the Inverness Courier) exactly as the fact occurred, may be considered as an illustration of simplicity and integrity. A respectable farmer of Ross-shire, travelling a short distance on horseback, having occasion to cross the river Conan, found, on the banks of the stream, a young woman also desirous of getting across. She informed the farmer she was in quest of a situation, and had an excellent character from her last place. As the river was high, the good-natured farmer took the girl up behind him on his horse, and conveyed her across the water. Unfortunately, however, the written certificate of character fell out of the young woman's bosom, where she had put it for safety, and was carried off by the stream. She was in great distress at this mishap, till her kind conductor assured her that he would give her a character; and this pledge he redeemed on their arrival at a house on the opposite side, in the following brief but pithy words: "Tenth September, 1833. These certify that the bearer, Peggy Mackenzie, lost her character this day, while crossing the river Conan with me, Andrew Munro." This very equivocal statement was given in perfect good faith and sincerity. The girl accepted it with many thanks, but was soon convinced that the honest farmer's words did not correspond with his intentions, and that she required--what is generally difficult to obtain a new character.

A CLENCHER.

AN American paper says, the following is one of the methods of catching tigers adopted in India. "A man carries a board on which a human figure is painted, as soon as he arrives at the den, he knocks behind the board with a hammer, the noise arouses the tiger, when it flies in a direct line at the board, and grasps it, the man behind clenches his claws into the wood and so secures him!!" M. N.

LAW OF LOVE.

A young lawyer being very assiduous in his attentions to a lady, a wit observed "that he never heard of people making love by attorney;" " very true," replied the other, "but you should remember that all Cupid's votaries are solicitors." M. N.

IMPERIAL GRATITUDE.

As the Emperor Basilius Meredo was exercising himself in hunting, a sport in which he took great delight, a stag running furiously against him, fastened one of the branches of its horn in the Emperor's girdle, and dragged him a good distance, to the imminent danger of his life. A gentleman of the retinue instantly drew his sword, and cutting the Emperor's girdle asunder, disengaged him from the beast, with little or no hurt to his person: but observe the reward-he was sentenced to death, for putting his sword so near the person of the Emperor, and suffered accordingly.

THE PHYSICIAN AND THE LAWYER.

THERE is a strong characteristic and professional difference between a phy. sician and a lawyer. The physician has intercourse with affliction, with pain, with death; his voice is naturally attuned to mildness and gentleness; his step is light and quiet; his face is susceptible of a look of sympathy; he has to do with humanity in its feebleness, to listen to the complaints of the suffering, to bear with the moans of the distressed; it is part of his business, to be and to look amiable; who can speak unkindly to the dying?

A brute of a doctor is a brute indeed!-But a lawyer deals with rogues, parchments, and subtleties; he aids and abets men in their deepest and deadliest struggles; he comes in contact with humanity when its covetousness is rampant, when its revenge is craving, when its passions and its thoughts converse with living interests, and when antipathy is most strongly developed. Therefore he has a keen eye, a ready skill, a bold

and blustering confidence of manner; he is professionally hard-hearted, however constitutionally kind he may be.

ANECDOTE OF VOLTAIRE.

ONE of the happiest repartees of Voltaire is said to have been made to an Englishman, who had previously been on a visit to the celebrated Haller, in whose praise Voltaire enlarged with great warmth, extolling him as a great poet, a great naturalist, and a man of universal attainments-The Englishman answered that it was very handsome in Monsieur de Voltaire to speak so well of Monsieur Haller, inasmuch as he, the said Monsieur Haller, was by no means so liberal to Monsieur de Voltaire. "Alas!" (said Voltaire with an air of philosophic indifference) " I dare to say we are both of us very much mistaken!"

MARCH OF KNOWLEDGE.

A few days since, a gentleman was travelling through Northamptonshire, when the guard of the coach pointed out the spot where the battle of Naseby was fought. "There sir," said he, there's

where Charles the Second was killed!""Charles the Second!" exclaimed the traveller, wondering what would follow, and affecting ignorance of the fate of the first monarch of that name, "You mean Charles the First?" "Oh no, sir," replied the guard, assuming an air of importance at the bare thought of his accuracy being doubted; "I'm sure it was Charles the Second, for I know a man who comes from that place!" G. T.

A PRIOR ENGAGEMENT.

ARTHUR MOOR, Esq. one of the Commissioners of Trade and Plantations in the time of Queen Anne, who was afterwards proscribed for malversation, and excepted out of the Act of Grace in 1717, was married to a lady who happened to be a violent politician, but always in opposition to her husband. This lady being once in company with Lord Bolinbroke, his Lordship, alluding to the humour then prevailing of impeaching some members of the preceding administration, of whom he was one, said, "Madam, I hope that you will favour me with your company to Tower-hill, on the day that I am to be beheaded." To which she immediately replied, "I assure you, my Lord, I should be very glad to wait upon you on such an occasion, but I am afraid that I shall be obliged on that day to attend my man to Tyburn."

ROYAL SIGNATURES.

THE late king signed many papers when he was blind. It was curious to see the George R. sometimes begun without ink in the pen, sometimes ending without it, and at others running off the paper. It has been mentioned, that Henry the Eighth in his latter days had a stamp to sign with. The reason was, that he was so fat he could not write: he could not bring his hands properly down upon the paper. We are to fancy him turning himself, as a turtle might do with its fin, and stamping as the swing would let him: or the paper was brought beside him, and adjusted to his hand. It was in this state the tyrant signed his jealous order for the deaths of the Duke of Norfolk and his son, the gallant Earl of Surrey, the poet: the latter of which unfortunately took place.

THE four mendicant orders of the church of Rome carried the art of beggary to the highest perfection. One of these holy beggars was accustomed, in traversing Normandy, to demand a dinner of a poor farmer; but upon one occasion had the misfortune to arrive when the farmer and his wife were occupied in their grounds, and having carried their dinner with them, had left the cupboard bare. The friar was hungry, and hunger is ingenious. Addressing the eldest of the three children, a girl of eight years, he asked her if she had ever seen flint soup,? "No, father," replied she, with gaping mouth of curiosity. "Bring me a good round fat pebble."-Soon found.-" And the small soup kettle full of water." Placed on the fire, and the pebble amidst.

"Our pot begins to boil; perhaps you have a cabbage in the garden?”— "Yes, father, and carrots.' A good child; bring some. "No bread ?""No, but there is a little flour.""Good, good.' After a long pause, "Perhaps you could find a little morsel of butter ?"-" Yes, father, for I did not eat it all."-"My dear, we shall have an excellent flint soup." It was indeed, an excellent soup meagre, and the friar desired that the pebble might be preserved for another occasion.

THE Colony of Jamaica is divided by a tremendous mountain ridge, which traverses the whole island, and separates its two principal towns.* The road which connects Spanish Town with the residence of the sovereign's representative, is of the most grand and romantic character. Cut by manual labour from the solid rock, it traces its path now at the base of some giant mount, which frowns above in towering grandeur; then at the edge of some tremendous precipice, into whose capacious bosom the streams from

*The whole ridge bears the name of "Mont Diablo."

the surrounding hills pour their fluid bodies with impetuous force, and dashing against the rocks which line the chasm, send upwards a splendent cloud of spray, which shuts from the gazer's eye the full depth of the terrible descent. To one of these, negro superstition has ascribed the rather awful name of "Devil's Cave;" and the passenger who looks down from his dizzy elevation, into the apparently boundless depth, may, without much stretch of imagination, fancy it to be the true passage to the infinite abyss. the verge of this dreadful chasm the road, or ledge of rock, is so very narrow, that the start of his horse, even a false tread, would hurl the luckless traveller into eternity; and yet habitude has destroyed the idea of danger, and its passage is made at all hours and seasons, without fear or concern.

On

The estate of Algoa, which numbered on its plantations five hundred slaves, is situated at the commencement of this ascent, on the side of Spanish Town. It was the property of a gentleman, who, receiving it as an inheritance, had never seen or wished to see this source of his wealth, but had left the care of his slaves to the tyranny of an overseer. It is to

this that the distresses of the negroes, in a country which teems with fertility, and upon whose face Nature has spread her beauties in wild and bounteous profusion, are mainly owing. The proprietor, who derives more pleasure from a residence in the mother country, to which he is endeared by early association and ties of family, or who is unwilling to expose his constitution, perhaps enervated by luxury and dissipation, to the influence of a tropical sun, commits his property to the hands of men, whose sole interests are vested in their salaries; and who frequently, elevated from the lowest state of dependence, abuse their new and strange authority, and exercise their tyranny in proportion to the meanness of their former state. Johnson, the Algoa overseer, had been raised from a servile station by his employer, on whose kindness and notice he had thrust himself, and had been further advanced by him to this place of trust. Unlimited power over five hundred fellow creatures roused his latent feelings of tyranny, which glowed more fiercely from their long restraint. Each day witnessed a repetition of the lash, and heard the cries of the wretched sufferers, whose anguish but sharpened his inhuman appetite, and gave zest to his cruelty. Among the slaves was an African, whose parents had been snatched by the cruel hand of power from their native land, and had left as a legacy to their offspring, hatred to their white oppressors, and that crafty cunning, which is natural to the Negro character. This man had, by some misfortune, incurred the dislike of his overseer, who visited on him the slightest fault with terrible severity. He had long groaned under the lash of this heartless tyrant-had murmured with his fellows- had cursed with them his oppressor, and cherished in his bosom the prospect of vengeance, which only wanted opportunity and circumstance to heighten to certainty. He had a wife, who had caught the eye of the ruthless monster, to whose licentious appetite the infamous morals of the country afforded a terrible example, and a ready encouragement. Saba was drafted to another property, and the triumph of the overseer was complete.

The bad state of moral feeling leads that degraded female class to imagine, that honour is attached to their infamous intercourse with the whites; and the exemption from labour, which their master's partiality secures, is a strong incentive to the delusion. Saba had borne unflinchingly the lash-his scarred flesh

had quivered beneath its daily infliction -he had murmured, but not resisted; but this was a spark, to light up in the breast of the injured slave the smothered flame of vengeance. This roused his fury, and determined him to revenge his own and his companions' suffering.

Saba had heard that Johnson would pass the mountain ridge about the close of day, and he determined to destroy him on his passage. With a single companion he laid wait, about six miles from Algoa, for his victim, who was approaching in all the confidence of security.

The sun was just setting, and the night would soon have shut from his eyes surrounding objects. The dark clouds which were spread in the west, like a mantle to receive the sinking orb, gave promise of a storm, which in the tropics is neither a mild nor a transient visitor. Johnson had just urged on his horse through the bushy pass, along which he was proceeding, when a pistol discharged before his head, made the startled animal recoil on its haunches, and hurl his unprepared rider from his seat. A wild shout burst from the lips of the successful African as he rushed with a malicious grin upon his prostrate prey. The cowardly wretch entreated for the mercy which he knew he deserved not, and his shrieks of terror and vain implorings for life, were re-echoed as if in mockery by the hills. The negroes bore their victim to the verge of the "Devil's Cave." He guessed their purpose, and in the agony of his despair made the most extravagant promises for the safety of his life. They enjoyed his terrors, and mocked his entreaties; and seeing all hope from supplication vain, he tried resistance; but the grasp of an injured husband bound his limbs, and baffled his utmost exertions; and with Herculean strength Saba hurled him into the yawning gulf -a shrill cry burst from the lips of the overseer as he descended—then all was still, and the murderers departed to their huts.

and numbers of the slaves thronged the approach to the scaffold.

The prisoner advanced with dauntless air through the crowd, assembled from pity, curiosity, or malice. His eye wandered through the groups, as if seeking some old acquaintance, from whose friendship he would so soon be separated— perhaps to impart his last wishes, or receive the approbation of his conduct. He seemed to search in vain; and with deep dejection in his look, he was on the point of ascending the fatal ladder, each step of which would conduct him nearer to destruction, when suddenly uttering a shrill cry, he darted towards a solitary slave, who, impelled by an unfortunate curiosity, had come to witness the execution. It was the informer, it was the man to whose treachery Saba was about to become a victim. The wretched betrayer had seen the movement, and foreboding the cause, had attempted to escape vengeance by flight. In an instant he was prostrate on the earth, beneath the grasp of his powerful and injured foe, who drawing from his carelessly examined garments a concealed knife, plunged it into his heart. In another instant Saba had been seized, and led to the death which awaited him: he mounted the scaffold with a proud consciousness of having achieved a glorious object, and his features were brightened with a smile of satisfaction. The cord was adjusted, the signal given, and this unfortunate victim of tyranny and revengeful passion ceased to exist.

S. ROBERT DUNBAR.

NAVAL FRAGMENTS.- No. II.

THE FRENCH FISHERMAN.

WHEN I returned to the quarter-deck, I found the officer of the middle watch waiting to relieve me; but my thoughts were so much engrossed with the expected story of the fisherman, which he promised to narrate to us before I went down to the captain, that, instead of going to my hammock, I reseated myself in a coil of rope close to the mizenmast; and after we had each of us taken a glass of grog to keep the cold out, the old man began his story thus:

"Were I to go back, gentlemen, to 1729, the year in which I was born, I

should probably speak of events in which, at this distant period, you cannot feel much interest, especially as they relate to the history of an humble French fisherman. It will, however, astonish you to hear that my ancestors were English; and little did our progenitors think, when, after the capture of Rochelle, they were induced to remain there, that the welfare of their children would be for ever blasted by the cold-blooded, unnatural decree of their own country. At the age of five-and-twenty I married the daughter of a respectable innkeeper of Rochelle, and with our small capital I purchased the sloop, of which there does not now remain the shadow of a shade. She was all we possessed in the world, and well and faithfully she served our purposes for a period of sixty years! We had five children-three boys and two girls; but they all died in their infancy, except the youngest, who was the father of my little boy here; and he was taken away from me in my old age, to fight under the banner of the Emperor. Vive l'Empereur! mon fils!'—' Vive l'Empereur! Vive Napoléon!'" responded the boy, as he drew from his bosom the little cotton tri-coloured flag, which, in the bustle of the day, had escaped the observation of every one else. I will not attempt, at this distant period, to describe the powerful effect which this little incident had upon the old man he caught his grandson in his arms, clasped him with energy to his bosom, and it was some moments before he recovered himself sufficiently to renew his narrative.

"The father of this boy, gentlemen, was, ten years ago, the finest looking man I ever beheld, He was tall, athletic, and vigorous. He had the strength of a lion, with the docility of a lamb. My child," said the old man as the tear glistened in his eye, "was both brave and generous. Mais hélas, messieurs

We carried on our humble occupation together, with every prospect of happiness. During the summer we helped to supply the market of Rochelle with the produce of our labour, and in the winter our sloop brought wine from Bourdeaux. We were one evening seated, after the toil of the day, upon a rude bench, which he constructed in the front of our cottage, when the fatal mandate arrived which made my only child a conscript. His wife.

poor