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serving does not, it seems, show Count Casimir | thing in his case," said one of the gentlemen, galproper respect."

"And what has Casimir to do with that peasant?"

"How strange and absent you are, general! How should I know ?-he probably amuses himself."

"Well, then, I forbid you, sir, ever to amuse yourself with that man-do you hear? If you disobey me, and I discover it, you may depend upon being sent immediately to the gymnase of the nearest town ;" and the count rode forward. "Military men,' ," said the countess, with a slight shrug, "have such strange manners and fancies! The idea of sending Casimir to a gymnase to a common school!-now many people, not knowing him, might imagine from such a speech that he is actually brutal, whereas it is no such a thing. The worst that can be said of the count is, that, at such a time of life, one has no delicacy of sentiment-the keen edge of sensibility has been worn off by friction with the world. The only drawback to marriage," she added, turning to her younger guests, "is the roughness of man's mind compared to our own refinement. This I feel more than another, perhaps, who am gifted with such extreme sensibility. As if I could live without my Casimir! Is not the taking him from my sight striking me blind? why not at once deprive me of ears, if I am no longer to hear his voice?"

The angel wings were fast spreading at her back when the tenderest of mothers was awkwardly interrupted by a rough, fat, old German baroness, whose thirty-two quarterings seemed to croak in her guttural accents as she exclaimed :

lantly.

The countess turned on him the most virtuous of glances, and again the glory seemed to shine around her head. When, however, she reëntered the chateau, and was alone in her boudoir with the unhappy Josephinka, who had felt the angel's talons oftener than she had seen her wings, the countess inquired, in somewhat harsh tones, if she knew anything of Jakubski, or had ever heard the name. Josephinka had not. She must be very stupid, considering the time she had been at the castle. Josephinka did not defend herself. The countess felt nervous and irritable. Josephinka had an unfortunate way, when agitated, of losing her head completely; and that morning, in her trepidation, went the length of leaving her mistress with a walking-boot on one foot, and a satin shoe on the other, a delinquency which was only discovered as the countess was about to adjourn to the salon. This was too much. The unlucky abigail's attention was called to the error she had been guilty of; and, to the no small amusement of Casimir, her cheek was made acquainted with the sole of the said slipper.

When the angel entered the drawing-room, however, not one feather of her wings was ruffled; and there were few men more envied by the male portion of the assembly than the happy possessor of so much sweetness. As the general entered the apartment, his eye was attracted by a letter, or, more correctly speaking, a petitionfor there was no mistaking the manner in which it was folded and directed-that lay, conspicuously, among many more elegant and far-travelled epistles upon the table. Hastily snatching it up, Bah! machère, is that the way you bring up he thrust it into the breast-pocket of his coat. boys to be men in Poland-tying them to their Ladislas," said the countess, in a coaxing mothers' apron-strings? His majesty the empe- voice-for the room was full-"you know the ror has been kind enough to take six of mine suc-petitions belong to me by right-they are the only cessively, and yet I am not aware that my sight or hearing were ever affected by the fact, and you should see what proper men they are-perfect giants, my dear. Now poor little Casimir is so

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secrets of yours I wish to surprise; but really you have done so much for your estate, and I am so little known here as yet, that my own egotism prompts me to demand admittance into your counsels on such occasions."

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"You are building something there," said one at his desk, with the paper unfolded before him. of the ladies. "What may it be?"

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Neither the style, the hand-writing, nor the orthography were perfect; yet all were superior to what might have been expected from a person whose education had been neglected; nor was the letter couched in terms that betrayed a vulgar mind. It was an appeal of Pavel's. He represented how he had, in every respect, conformed to the general's desires-how he had never alluded, nor would even now allude, to the past; but that

day's meeting had shown that the count could not hold the stalls, in balls, in private theatricals, in wash it out of his memory. Why not spare a lotteries, there are none more charitable than yourbeing who had never offended, the consciousness selves. You don't dislike going begging for the of being hated? Why not spare himself so de- poor from house to house, with the rarest veils on testable a sight? Why not give him (Pavel) the your heads; but as to unseen, unknown charity— means the only boon he had ever asked-not as to obliging where the obligation bears no echo pecuniary, but legal, of quitting the domain-liberty to sell the small property which had devolved upon him? This was all he would ever demand. He had been refused education-been refused every chance of bettering his moral condition-all

-Well, vanity, thy name is woman.'" "Of course," said the countess," you have a type in your remembrance to whose perfection I cannot pretend to aspire."

The count was fairly silenced, and, as usual on

he now asked was the power, not of making him- such occasions, beat a hasty retreat. self happier, but of suffering less. "Descend The steward was triumphant. He had received into your heart," were the concluding words-two commissions for Pavel, which he was fully "consult your own conscience, and then deny me aware would chafe his high spirit to the uttermost, this request if you can."

The count, crushing the letter in his hand to a ball, flung it among his waste papers, then ringing the bell, ordered his steward to be called.

"Duski," he said, "let the youth you pointed out to me this morning know that he is to send no more petitions here.”

"Has he had the insolence?"

and which he, of course, determined to execute in a manner most likely to produce that effect. The countess, to spare her beloved Casimir any chance of collision with the paternal will, which she knew to be as inflexible as her son's stubbornness was unconquerable, had held an interview with Duski, in which she had commissioned him to forbid the young peasant Jakubski the approach to the

"That's no concern of yours-have the good- chateau, or its immediate vicinity, so long as the ness to do my errand without comment."

Duski retired with a deep obeisance.

"Wretched boy!" murmured the count, as the door closed; and the rest of the day he was more morose than ever. When he entered the countess' boudoir, he held an open letter in his hand-she was alone with Casimir.

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family should be on the estate. No reason for this contemptuous treatment did she assign. The steward transmitted the command of his master and mistress in a manner which seemed to make them both emanate from the former. Pavel listened with suppressed passion.

"The count is right," he said at length, with a bitter laugh-" quite right."

Well, Sophie," he said, "here is a petition that chiefly concerns you. It from the daughter "Do these words imply a threat against our of an officer in your father's regiment—a Pole-lord ?" said Duski; but Pavel turned his back a gentleman at least so she says. She wishes upon him, and left the hut.

her father, who has lost his reason, in consequence of a brain fever, to be placed in the lunatic asylum at Lemberg, and her brother at the free school, her work being by no means adequate to their care and maintenance."

"A bad son, a bad son," said old Jakubska, from her corner-“ a bad everything. You can't think what I have to suffer from Pavel. He lays my food before me as one does before the bruteshe never opens his mind to me on any subject, and

"Oh, I'll send her a few florins," said the hardly ever speaks to me at all." countess, negligently.

"But, my dear, she does not ask florins—she represents herself to be the daughter of a gentleman. It is our interest, our protection, that she desires. She says she is obliged to pay guardians night and day for her father, and the boy grows up wild for want of proper training."

"Nonsense!" said the countess, pettishly"what do poor people want with education?— when one has no money, one makes oneself a footman; and as to the father, it wants no interest to get him into the hospital.”

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Well, my dear Sophie, you know best what answer to make to your own petitioners: but it seems to me that you ought to bring your professions and your practice into more harmony."

"My dear general, there are very few ladies, I believe, so widely known as myself for their unsparing exertions in favor of the poor."

"Ay," said the general, "you fine ladies have a way of your own in such matters. So long as your charity can vent itself in bazaars, where you

"Ay," said the steward, "he is a discontented, disaffected soul—we have our eye on him—he 'll bring himself and you into trouble one day—but it's all your own fault. Why did you, against the express command of our lord, get him taught reading and writing? And then a precious example he has had in you, mother Jakubska—if you could see yourself with your watery eyes!" "It's weeping over my son that does it-I shall go blind with sorrow before long."

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Ay, sorrow and brandy," said the steward. He was about to depart, but a sudden thought arrested his footsteps. "He, doubtless, takes from you the pension my lord allows you?"

"That," the old woman said, shaking her head, "would be nothing; but never a word of comfort can be got out of him-never a word, good, bad, or indifferent; and nobody," continued the gossip, "will come near me, and my limbs are too weak and too stiff now to carry me far, so that I am but a poor, lone body, abandoned like a dog in his kennel-if it was n't for the drop of brandy that you

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speak of, master Duski, how could I ever keep my | her family was numerous and young-there are heart up?" many on the estate more deserving"Not another word, Duski," interrupted the count, severely; "look to it that the pension be paid regularly, and in full.”

"I believe," mentally ejaculated the steward,

The steward treasured in his memory that portion of the widow's complaints which suited his own views. Indeed, he had only listened to them in order to extract from her something that might prove prejudicial to the object of his enmity. Noth-" that if the late countess had chosen to dispose of ing could be more groundless than the old woman's malicious insinuations. Far from losing anything by Pavel, to which she had a claim, she continually drained his own resources; but she had tact enough to perceive the version of the story which was most pleasing to the steward.

Stanoiki by will to an utter stranger, the count would yield possession. Well, I don't understand great folks he looks pretty sharp after his money, too, on ordinary occasions, and clips my reckonings close enough, and he is not ashamed to lavish it on those worthless people."

From that day forth, Pavel did not darken the precincts of the castle; but the young count's pleasure in his future domains was much curtailed, by not having the savage-looking peasant to torment, and watch the effect of his dawning tyranny in his physiognomy. The visitors soon wearied of the monotony of the place, and departed, leaving the house more empty and more silent, much to the relief of the general, but greatly to the chagrin of his wife. At last autumn came, and with it a pretext for departure; for the countess could never spend a winter away from the capital; and her husband, seeming to take no more pleasure in a tête-à-tête than herself, made no objection to the plan of removing to Lemberg.

A few days later, Duski was again in the count's presence, with a large book under his arm, the domain register, on whose pages were noted down, in categorical order, the names of the vassals, and various details concerning them and their families, as well as the exact allotment of each, and a specification of the tithes, charges, and feudal services belonging to its tenure. Then followed observations on the more or less regularity of performance, a black cross marking the names of those who had attempted to pass off light weights of corn, grumbled at lending their cattle, or kept more than their lawful number, by which means they could lend their master their worst teams, and keep their best for their own use. There were, too, notices on the general character and behavior of the several The peasantry felt no regret when the travelling families, of course more or less favorable, accord-carriages were seen undergoing preparations for ing to the number and value of each peasant's vol- the journey. Their master had fulfilled none of untary contributions to the steward.

The count, after looking over the most recent annotations, turned hastily the pages, as if in search of a name which he could not immediately find; at last, losing patience, he said hurriedly

"And that young man-that Jakubski-what of him?-what sort of character does he bear in the village?"

"The very worst, my lord. He ill-treats the poor, old, bed-ridden woman, his mother, and takes from her all the money your grace has been so good as to allow her. Moreover, he is averse to the discharge of his duties-it is next to impossible to extract the dues from him. He is a sulky, illtempered man-it could scarce be otherwise, son of such an old drunkard as his mother."

their expectations; and they accused themselves of folly in ever having entertained them. They gazed in gloomy silence on the chariot containing the count and countess, each leaning back in a corner. their son sitting between them, as it rolled away from the chateau, followed by several britzskas with their suite. The countess affected to sleep, to avoid being troubled with her husband's conversation, who, however, was wrapt in thought, whilst Casimir was assiduously emptying a large paper of bonbons, with which, despite the general's desires in that respect, his mother never failed to gratify her beloved Casimir.

This journey, how little satisfactory soever it might be to any of the parties concerned, was, to the great vexation of the countess in particular, to

A shade of pain passed over the count's counte- be frequently repeated; but, as she said to some of

nance.

"If I might humbly venture to suggest," continued the steward, "that woman wants no pension now-her son can manage the land his father and brothers left. When the late countess granted it,

[GED'S INVENTION OF BLOCK-PRINTING.] THE Monthly Review for February, 1782, contains a brief article on the "Biographical Memoirs of William Ged, including a particular account of his progress in the art of block-printing." "We have here," it says, 66 some authentic documents of an ingenious though unsuccessful invention, and some fugitive memoirs of the inventor and his family. Mr. Ged's scheme for block-printing, with his execution of the specimen which he produced, were certainly curious; but had his invention been found

her most intimate friends, "Every one in this world has a cross to bear;" a favorite expression with many people who hardly know what it is to have a cross in life.

in all respects superior to the method of printing by single types, we cannot suppose that it would have proved unsuccessful. Sufficient trial was made, and though perhaps some unfair practices were chargeable on certain persons who were interested in opposing or undermining Mr. Ged's undertaking, yet both our universities and private printers seem to be nothing loath in consigning not only the artist, but his performances, to that oblivion from which these Memoirs are designed to rescue them."

From the Spectator, of 8 Sept.
PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY.

re

DOCTRINE floats upon the uncertain waters of language, and cannot but share in its fluctuations as the stream grows broader and more open to the winds of thought; but there are things more steadfast than doctrine. The spectator of the world's life, through the last two generations, cannot fail to derive consolation and support under every doubt from observing the remarkable train of phenomena in the matter of ecclesiastical affairs. We are not now considering any theological doctrines, their nature and merits-which is indeed a function that we uniformly disclaim; but we are simply reviewing the relation of such matters to the external world, intellectual and material. We observe that, while controversy has not at all laxed in its activity, it has lost much of its malignancy, on all sides; as if men, through all their dissensions, more firmly united in the faith that with the development of human faculties must come a more enlightened and a more worthy conception of the divine powers that rule the universe. Whatever may be the merit of doctrines now severally advocated, we believe it is impossible to deny these striking facts-that zeal, though not less zealous, is less intolerant; that orthodoxy is less supercilious, dissent less oppugnant, inquiry less presumptuous; to a great extent bigotry has laid aside its malignancy, and free-thinking of the freest kind is no longer blank scepticism. In every distraction of council, through every change of doubt, a more reverential and trusting recognition of eternal influences is apparent; and at the same time, even the highest representatives of orthodoxy are awakened to a remembrance that authority may be graced and strengthened by beneficence; which is indeed to the simple and ignorant the highest and most intelligible manifestation of authority. There can be no question that the Church of England has lost an immense amount of influence, for extending its moral authority and for strengthening its own position, by neglecting its office as the adviser and helper of the poor, the ignorant, and the helpless; an office performed by every church that zealously and intelligently seeks its own enlargement.

the adviser and helper of his flock, by his acuteness in fulfilling that office actively and efficiently, and by his untiring zeal, which no worldly interest or failing health could abate. His promotion to the rectory of Christ Church in Southwark, by the Bishop of Winchester, is an example which can scarcely fail to animate others. Again, in asking Mr. Brown to name a successor for Bethnal Green, who should be able to continue the ministry in a similar spirit, the Bishop of London has given a high authoritative sanction to the same view, from a quarter in which many would have been very unwilling to look for it.

Meanwhile, controversy and doctrinal warfare go on, not interrupted, though elevated and perhaps sweetened, by this sort of spiritual chivalry, which recognizes a broad truth denied by none but a very debased and perverted ignorance-that active beneficence cannot be oppugnant to truth nor uncongenial to divine will.

TRAVELLING IN ITALY.

THE following lively sketch of a short journey in the Italian States, is extracted from a letter of our own correspondent" in the London Times: Naples, August 18.

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I reached the office of the malle poste (in Rome) at 5 o'clock in the afternoon precisely, and as I had been told that the arrangements were of the most positive nature, and that as the clock struck the coach would start, I had been fully employed— newspaper correspondents ever are-up to the last moment, and even abandoned an excellent cutlet, on this bustle, for when I arrived the coach was quietly "time" being called; but I might have saved all in the remise, the horses busy with their last feed of barley, and the courier taking his siesta. The only persons I saw employed were a priest, and a clerk of the post-office, who appeared to entertain a most confidential communication.

The courier and the clerk looked hard at the stranger, and seemed to have a design on him. I paid no attention to what they said, until both opening a double battery at once explained that my consent was required to robbing the administration, and at the same time suffocating myself by admitting two extra fares. To this I stoutly demurred; but when asked in the name of God and of religion not to separate three sisters of charity, who had A new spirit, however, is awakening. Lord how could I hold out? I insisted, however, on the been ordered by their superior to proceed to Naples, Ashley has avowedly been animated in his benev- exclusion of the extra gentleman; and thus it was olent exertions among helpless and proscribed settled that in this bonnet-box of a malle poste were classes by a spirit of piety, and has evidently ex- to be packed five instead of four-namely, the torted a respect for that spirit which would have courier, myself, and the three sisters. I hope they been very generally denied to its mere dogmatic are not fat, I inwardly exclaimed; as yet we had assertion. Within the church itself, we have seen nothing of them, the thing being so well mannoticed the labors of such men as the late incum-aged to avoid the inspector's eyes that the screw was bent of St. Matthias, Bethnal Green; and the sequel, the events that have occurred since our notice of "The Poor Man's Pic-nic," have been not less interesting. The Reverend Joseph Brown is, we believe, held by the highest authorities to be unexceptionable in his ministry; however, that by which he has been distinguished is not doctrinal force of utterance or polemical vigor, but his enlarged conception of the office of a pastor as

to be put on outside the gates. There, true enough,
were the priest and the three good women in wait-
ing; two monsters of obesity, and the third a sweet
pretty creature of eighteen, with a shape like a
poplar tree, and a pair of dark eyes never intended
by nature for a nunnery. Fortunately the two stout
ladies occupied one seat, and the novice sat between
me and the courier, for the first time in her life
having been so close to two men, and for the first
time having embarked on so long an excursion.
I never met such simple-minded, good creatures,

in my life; models of neatness and propriety in nervousness, carried about her, order was restored. mind and person, innocent and cheerful as lambs, The fat sisters blubbered, the novice trembled. Fra and nothing starched about them, save their nicely- Gerolimo came off with flying colors, and though folded snow-white bands and tuckers. The guard the dear ladies slept no more, and each in turn told them how well I had behaved, and they were would mistake a distant tree for a robber, the night predisposed in my favor, particularly when they passed over tolerably well, until we passed the saw a sleek, portly, well-fed personage, such as Pontine Marshes, and daylight appeared to guide "our own correspondent" ever should be, and I us to Terracina. Then we took leave of the Rogained at once their good-will and unbounded con- man States, and at a short distance further on, we fidence. I took care that my traveller's stories halted before a sentimental gateway which marks should be worthy of their ears; and when I told the Neapolitan frontier. them of my campaigns, and how I got lodgings on the banks of the Mincio, by persuading an old lady that she was secretly beloved by Charles Albert, and a bed at the French camp by representing myself as Pio Nono in disguise-how I had tamed the wild Indians in Mexico, and converted the harem at Constantinople, they were struck with astonishment, and absolutely loved me for the "danger" I had passed. The great object of their curiosity was to ascertain who I and on what business I was going to Naples and Gaeta. On that head I was tormented in a manner worthy of the Inquisition, and the novice declared she would close her dark eyes, and not let me see them again during the whole journey, unless I told the truth.

was,

We were all paraded before the gate, while an inspector from the board of health was satisfying himself that we had no cholera about us, and inquiring most particularly how long it was since we had quitted England. Receiving to all questions very satisfactory replies, the word "avanti" was heard, and forward we went, the courier taking the lead, the sisters of charity in line, and "our own" bringing up the rear. Thence we went on to Fondi, where is the frontier custom-house, and as I was the bearer of despatches for a northern court, I was treated with profound respect, and neither was my luggage nor that of the sisters examined. As the Neapolitan malle poste takes but one passenger, my three companions had to be removed to another carriage. The Fra and his sisters parted perhaps never to meet again. How we did shake hands!,

Thus entreated I could no longer refuse, and with strict injunctions to secrecy, admitted I was the Archbishop of California, travelling incognito, and only known, when it was necessary I should be THE GREAT SUGAR DISCOVERY. known, as Fra Gerolimo. This frank avowal won their entire confidence. The two stout ladies would WE had occasion, some days ago, to translate have smothered me, and sweet sister Agatha was from the Courrier des Etats Unis a brief account melting with affection. No wonder, the weather of a great discovery by M. Melsens, a Belgian was at tallow heat, and we were five in the malle poste. I not only gave mine, but I won their full confidence, and I found that the two fat souls had spent their whole time in visiting hospitals, and waiting on the sick. As to the young thing, she had been locked up in a convent at Tivoli for the last six years, and she was now going to be immured at Naples for the rest of her blessed life, or at least until the beauty of her shape was gone, and the lustre of her dark eye faded. I had a long

chemist, of a process by which he could, almost at once, extract the saccharine matter-or, in other words, precipitate the sugar-from the juices of the beet root and sugar-cane; expressing some doubt whether "a pinch of the marvellous substance," which M. Melsens was said to employ, could produce such an extraordinary result.

the discovery continues to occupy all minds, not The Journal des Debats, last received, states that conversation with her, as the two older sisters dropped in sleep their double chins in their ample only in France, but wherever the production of white bosomkerchiefs; and I can say that a sweet-sugar is of importance. The results upon a grand er, gentler, or more angelic victim was never offered scale, in one of the principal factories in Belgium, on the altar of good works, than the resigned and during the past season, have justified fully, it is beautiful Agatha. said, the scientific deductions and experiments of the laboratory.

Thus we travelled on, the fat sisters buried in sleep-the courier making the most of his time in the same manner-and no one awake and talking but the novice and myself, until we arrived at the stage between Albano and Velletri, and were told that the up mail had been robbed and the passengers ill-treated. What an alarm was now in our little camp, and how did the stout frame of Fra

Gerolimo advance in value! The fat nuns wished
to throw themselves into my arms, and Agatha
nestled close to my side in the full confidence of
artless friendship. The robbers had quarrelled
among themselves.
One was murdered by the
knives of his companions, and as his body was
found, suspicion was directed against others seen
in his company, against whom the police were in
full pursuit. I calmed my dovecot by showing that
as the police were on the roads, all other robbers
would take care to be out of the way, and that it
was not probable the mail would be plundered twice
in the same day. The courier took the same line
of argument, and with our joint aid, and of a
vinaigrette, which sister Martha, who was given to

At Paris, the experiments ordered by government appear to have been not less conclusive. Two commissioners of the Belgian government, Messrs. Paul Claes and J. T. Stas, charged to inspect them, in stating the result in their official report, give the following summary—which, we must say, is not altogether of the most lucid character.

1st. The process of M. Melsens, when introduced, will constitute an entire change in the manufacture of sugar, both from the cane and the beet.

2d. It will permit the extraction of 33 per cent. more sugar from the beet root than is generally obtained at this time in most of our factories.

3d. It permits the employment of means of such a character that the yield of the sugar-cane may be doubled.

4th. It will furnish sugars of superior qualities, both as regards whiteness and flavor.

5th. The chemical agent, which is the base of the new process, has no noxious qualities.

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