sisters married Sir Thomas Esmond, of the county Wicklow. In this family of Esmond it was believed that always before the occurrence of deaths in the family, a skeleton figure, which on some occasions was said to drag a chain up the great staircase of the hall, gave warning of the event. I was young, on what is called a religious visit to Friends of Ormathwaite Hall, in Cumberland, and one of her there. She was returning from Helston to Penryn. where she had been holding a meeting, and several Friends were in company in gigs and various kinds of carriages. On arriving at a considerable descent in the road, a large heavily-laden carrier's waggon was seen at a considerable distance slowly advancing towards the foot of the hill. At this moment she earnestly desired The son and daughter of Lady Esmond, at that time the friend who was driving her to stop, and also to de-grown up, came over into Cumberland on a visit to their sire the whole party to do the same, until the advancing aunt. One morning the brother entered the breakfast waggon had ascended the hill upon which they were. room with a pale and anxious countenance, and after The request seemed singular, but as it was made by a being questioned of the cause, he was at length induced person who was considered to have, if not authority to relate, with great agitation, that on the preceding amongst them, at least a right to be attended to, a halt night he had been visited by that forewarner of death, was made, and all eyes were fixed upon the waggon. At which was well known to the house of Esmond, and the foot of the hill the road was narrow, and there was which had announced to him a triple death in the faa considerable piece of water on their right hand, at the mily; his mother's, he said was one, and his own and very place where, had they driven forward, they would his sister's the others. Spite of the painful effect of these have met the waggon. Arrived at this point of the words and the secret apprehension they excited, all road, to their infinite surprise, and without any appa-wished to laugh him out of his fears and his firm belief. rent cause, the waggon was overturned, and falling upon that side of the road where they would have been, entirely blocked it up. This seemed at once like an interposition of Providence in their behalf, and turning to the American Friend, all eagerly inquired the motive for her request, which, though it had appeared a moment before so strange, had evidently been the means of saving the lives of some of them at all events. In reply, she told them that before leaving her own country she had a dream, in which she had seen this very spot, with the descending hill, the piece of water to the right, the narrow road at the bottom, and the advancing waggon, which had been overturned in her dream, at the very place, and thus causing the death of many people. Coming thus forewarned to the spot, she had been enaabled to foresee the danger and enable all to avoid it. The above was related to me by one of the party who was present. III. The following day, however, brought news which startled every one; a letter from Ireland announced the severe illness of the mother, and summoned her son and daughter home immediately. They embarked at Whitehaven for Ireland, but they never saw their mother alive, nor yet did they reach Ireland; the vessel in which they sailed was wrecked, and they two perished. V. About sixty years ago there lived a very extraordinary man amongst the Quakers named Joseph Rule. He had a little independent property, and travelled about from place to place wherever he "felt his mind drawn;" and there he resided for the time, furnishing a room for himself with the utmost simplicity, according to his own view of what was right. His exterior man was very singular even among the Friends, who are singular to all the rest of the world. Like the famous Quaker preacher, Thomas Woolman, he had" a scruple" against all kinds of colour and dyes. Blessed are the poor in heart, for they shall see God;" this was the rule of his life, and as an outward emblem of the inward faith, he wore white garments; and everything he possessed, even to his furniture, was of this spotless and innocent colour; and as, in his declining life, his hair and his beard, which he never shaved, were white as snow, these contributed still more to make his appearance singular and impressive. It is related of Thomas Scattergood, likewise a preacher among the Quakers, and an American, that one Sunday, at Bristol, at the close of the morning service, he rose and said, that it was deeply impressed upon his mind to request that no one then present should absent himself from the afternoon gathering for worship. He could not tell, he said, for what purpose he was required to make this request, but still the feeling of its being his He was reckoned among Friends an effective, if not an duty was so deeply impressed upon him, that he could eloquent preacher, and, wherever he went, large numnot be easy to omit it. The congregation separated, and bers of people attended his preaching, perhaps no little the afternoon gathering was attended by all who heard attracted by his remarkable appearance. On one occahim, with the exception of three young men, who had sion, however, when he happened to be at Bristol, a made an engagement to join a pleasure party on the wa- number of young men censured his peculiar mode of ter. The boat in which this party went out being up-dress, and expressed themselves strongly against his sitset, all lost their lives. ting at the head of the meeting, among the preachers, when, according to their ideas, he was such a ridiculous object, adding, that a seat behind the door would be much more becoming for him. Very similar to this is the circumstance which is told of Martha Routh, a well-known preacher of the last generation among the Friends of Manchester. She stated also before the dispersing of the Sunday morning meet- This dissatisfaction of the young men reached the ing, that her mind had been also deeply impressed with ears of Joseph Rule, and as he had no desire to hurt the the sense of some person who was absent from religious minds of any one, he on the following Sunday, to the worship having met with death in an unexpected and vi- astonishment of every body, took his seat behind the olent form, and that she could not be easy without pub-meeting-house door, where he was scarcely visible. The licly mentioning it. In the course of the day every one was amazed and awe struck to learn that a young man, a Quaker, who during the time of public worship had gone to bathe had been drowned, and that, as it appeared, at the very moment when the preacher's mind was under this painful exercise of suffering and death. IV. My great grandmother was a native of Ireland, and one of seven daughters; she married William Brownrigge, young malcontents, no doubt, were a little consciencestricken by this sight, but much more so when he rose, and, as was related to me by one who was himself a prime mover in the affair, delivered one of the most heart-reaching and beautiful discourses that ever left the lips of man; the subject of which was, "That every thing is as nothing in comparison with the approval of God and our own souls." (To be continued.) THE WEEKLY RECORD. TESTIMONIAL TO WILLIAM LOVETT. sical-this is a most magnificent demonstration of moral power! It is sublime in the united forbearance and fortitude of the million. Before the grand and combined demand of the people for their rights, the iron soul of armies melts, and regal despotism crumbles into dust! The French people have vindicated the philosophy of Christianity. They have destroyed the tyrant's faith in armies--they have shewn that a soldier is still a man, and feels the force of truth and right in a people relying on God and themselves still armed when unarmed. Men of England! you have now your duty to perform. Send your congratulations to your brother people of France. Let them know your joy in their triumph-a triumph for the whole world. You must do more. You will not be behind any nation in moral heroism. You have your own rights to rescue-your own sufferings to redress? Will it, and by union and the powers of the British Constitution-you may condense into a few days years of ordinary reform. On Wednesday last, a soiree was held at the National Hall, Holborn, to present William Lovett with a testimonial in honour of his services in the cause of liberty and popular progress. This testimonial consisted of a beautiful silver tea-service, and a purse containing one hundred and forty sovereigns. There was a large company, and though circumstances prevented the attendance of several of the expected guests, as Dr. Bowring, George Thompson, Dr. Epps, and others, we observed on the platform, John Humffreys Parry, who took the chair; Mrs. Parry, W. H. Ashurst, Dr. Oxley, Charles Gilpin, Henry Vincent, INSCRIPTION FOR THE PEDESTAL OF THE EQUESTRIAN Dr. Bateman, William and Mary Howitt, Mr. Linwood of Nottingham, Richard Taylor, Mr. Smith the Secretary to the AntiSlavery League, Frederic Rowton, and a number of other wellknown advocates of freedom and universal intelligence. The meeting was ably addressed by the chairman, Mr. Linwood, Richard Taylor, Henry Vincent, and others. The Budget of Lord John Russell, and the struggle going on at the moment in Paris, did not fail to excite deserving comment, and to give occasion for the outbreak of the indignant feeling of the public, against the recreant despots of the day, more odious for their professed liberalism, who so shamefully attack the pockets, the liberties, and the lives, of those they have been selected to pro tect. The following, drawn up by W. J. Fox, is the address accompanying the testimonial. "The Testimonial this day presented to William Lovett is intended both as an expression of gratitude for public services, and of respect for private worth. The Subscribers rejoice to feel that they cannot distinguish between the patriot and the man; but find that the self same qualities of integrity, purity, firmness, zeal, and benevolence, which have secured to William Lovett the lasting attachment of those who know him, have also been the characteristics of his political career. Whether enduring the loss of his goods, for refusing to be coerced into military service; or that of his liberty, for protesting against the unconstitutional interference of the Police with the People; whether founding the Working Men's Association, for the attainment of political rights, or the National Association, for the promotion of social improvement; whether embodying the principles of democracy, in the memorable document called the People's Charter, or shewing the means of redemption in his work, entitled "Chartism, a new Organization of the People;" whether cultivating by instruction, the intellectual and moral nature of destitute children, or by numerous addresses from the above named associations recommending Peace, Temperance, Justice, Love, and Union, to erring multitudes and nations; in labours which will make themselves known, by their results to posterity, or in unrecorded scenes of friendly and domestic intercourse, William Lovett has been ever the same; and may this memorial now presented to him serve as an assurance that the feelings of his friends, admirers, and fellow labourers in the cause of humanity are strong and unchanging, like the truth of his own character, public and private, by which those feelings have been produced. "It is the fervent wish of the Subscribers, that his future life may be long, happy, and successful, as his past has been true, honourable, and beneficent. "Signed on behalf of the Subscribers, J. HUMFFREYS PARRY, Chairman. GLORIOUS TRIUMPH OF THE FRENCH PEOPLE. Once again, and for the third time, the French People have conquered their government! This time it is perhaps, the most glorious triumph which illuminates the History of the World. Mark the moral progress, men of England, and rejoice. The first French revolution was the carnage of a people bursting from slavery, and feeling only their wrongs and the strength of their arms. The second was a transition fact-half moral, half phy STATUE OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON AT THE Passenger who lovest thy kind, and dost really believe in the Gospel as God's announcement of "Peace on Earth and Goodwill amongst Men"-pause-read-and seriously reflect! What is it that curses the nations, paralyzes commerce, makes widows and orphans, and crushes the poor beneath enormous national debt? It is the erection of monuments like these. Behold! This is the statue of the Big Butcherman. Would'st thou know what it costs to create a fame like his? Read the history of the great wars in which this man rose and flourished. There thou wilt find that to thine own nation alone the cost of these wars has been upwards of THREE THOUSAND MILLIONS of MONEY and to Europe of FIVE MILLIONS OF THEIR FELLOW MEN! In reading these murders, monstrous as they are arouse thy faculties, stretch thy imagination to the utmostmake wide thy soul and thy understanding for the comprehension of all the evil included in them-for it is enormous, and not easily conceivable. Lands over-run by human fiends with fire and sword,; cities ransacked and demolished; men massacred; women outraged; children left destitute, and, the in dustrious millions made the miserable slaves of this huge debt of Moloch, groaning under it every day. Canst thou find one blessing that it has produced? Canst thou not enumerate a thousand curses? Nations impoverished instead of enriched; trade ruined instead of promoted; tyranny everywhere confirmed iustead of destroyed. The greatest of idiots is therefore the man who loves war; the greatest monster he who erects monuments like these. He plants devilry in the carth; he dooms millions of men to butchery; he prepares widows and orphans by tens of thousands. Man sets his traps and laughs at the stupid animal that pulls the string, or, like the mole, roots out with its nose, the peg that brings down death; but the devil sets a far larger trap for stupid man, and laughs as he too pulls the strings or roots out the peg of destruction. The DEVIL'S TRAP IS WAR-the string is the bloody cheat of martial fame, the peg is a monument like this! Behold idiotic self-murderer! the very heavens blacken the imperial monument, and the Big Butcherman, turning his back on the seat of commerce, and seeming to snuff the air of desolation from the aristocratical regions of the West, looks like the Moloch that he represents on earth. SECOND REPORT OF THE METROPOLITAN SANITARY COMMISSION. We owe to the Writ of Supercedeas which abolished the six Metropolitan Commissions of Sewers, the appointment of the present efficient and influential Board, the institution of an ordnance survey of the Metropolis, and the vigorous commencement of cleansing the courts and alleys and undrained districts by machinery, to the First Report of the Sanitary Commission. sults of equal importance will flow from their Second Report. It has aptly come out during the progress of the Sanitary Bill through Parliament, and must materially strengthen the bands of Ministers in passing their measure. Re The objects of the Report may be characterised as threefold. The condensed statement of certain important facts established by the mass of evidence collected by the Commissioners. The elucidation of the causes which have produced and continue to produce the results thus established as existent; and the recommendations of the Commissioners as to the measures to be adopted with a view to improvement. drained lands in the direction of houses, marsh diseases are constantly noticed among the adjacent population. That there is no doubt that the mists and humidity arising from suburban ill-drained land, is carried amidst the habitations in the adjoining districts, on ordinary seasons, and exercises a pernicious influence on the health of the population. That these are conditions most detrimental to the sanitary state of London, we have not the slightest doubt. The chief recommendations of the Commissioners, as to practical measures of reformation are as follows, The establishment of local dispensaries, where persons af The first portion of the Report is occupied with the subject of the impending arrival of Asiatic Cholera. We are assured that this disease, unchanged in character, continues steadily to advance; and we are moreover directed to observe, that the frightful increase of disease and mortality during the past year must lead us to the conviction that we are in precisely that state which is favourable to the development of any epidemic which may attack us. That, moreover, the kind of diseases lately pre-fected with the premonitory symptoms which may be called the valent, and now continuing in unabated intensity, are those first stage of cholera should be placed under immediate medical formerly observed to be the forerunners of cholera-namely, treatment. influenza, typhus, and diarrhea. The fact that the track of cholera is identical with the track of the two last diseases is also proved beyond a doubt. The low, damp neighbourhoods of rivers, the marsh countries, the undrained, crowded and filthy portions of cities, these are the localities ravaged by whichever epidemic is prevalent. The establishment of Boards of Health, with a view to their assisting in carrying out in their several districts such measures as may be considered best adapted to check disease. and That power should be given to the Commissioners of Sewers, enabling them to cover in all open ditches; to drain roads; to substitute for ditches tubular drains in connection with the general drainage levels. That in connection with these works, facilities should be given to owners and occupiers to drain the marsh lands adjacent to the suburban districts by advances on loan. That where land continues in a state of marsh, compulsory powers of drainage should be given and exercised in relation to it. In the whole of this admirable report, we trace the combination of powers brought to bear upon the subject by the two men whose services the country may now congratulate itself with the prospect of possessing to carry out the measures they recommend. We allude, of course, to Mr. Chadwick and Dr. Southwood Smith. AT PLYMOUTH. Two important facts of a cheering character connected with The the subject of cholera are also established and announced. first is the absolute abandonment of the opinion that cholera is contagious, and hence the abolition of all attempts to stop The evidence adduced its progress by isolation of the sick, &c. in confirmation of its non-contagious character is decisive. The calamities of its actual presence (if it does appear among us) need therefore, no longer be increased by panic fear, and the hardening of the heart against the afflicted. The second fact which we have characterised as cheering, is that cholera is not, as is usually supposed, a pestilence which attacks suddenly and without warning, and against which no precaution can shield us. It is incontestibly proved, on the contrary, that it invariably gives warning of its approach, being always preceded by diarrhea of the common kind, sometimes without pain. That BRANCH OF THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION this first stage of the disease which varies in intensity and duration in different subjects, is quite manageable by the ordinary medical treatment, and a simple remedial treatment is prescribed. That the disease if thus taken in time would be capable of removal, but if allowed to pass into the second stage, becomes one of the most intractable and fatal diseases in the This fact proved by the universal experience of all intelligent observers of the nature and treatment of Asiatic cholera, and clearly stated in the present Report as the result of the evidence collected by the Commissioners is a most important one. In passing from the ascertained fact of the presence of an appalling amount of disease and death to a renewed consiteration of the causes of it, the Commissioners leave the field they have already traversed, and going beyond the precincts of the great metropolis with its multiplied abominations, begin to wage a new war with the marsh lands in the vicinity, the ditches by which they are intersected, and all open roadside ditches in general. world. Having observed the excessive mortality in the northern districts and certain of the suburbs, as compared with the central portions of the metropolis, we directed our attention to their sanitary condition, and we find That large tracts of land, in Poplar, the Isle of Dogs, the tracts of land near the river Lea, and on the southern side in Surrey and Kent, by Grecenwich and Plumsted, are, what their names import, marshes; but marshes in an exceedingly bad condition; and that much of the other uplands in the suburbs consists of stiff undrained clay land, excessively charged with moisture. That these marsh and undrained lands, are extensively intersected with open, ill-kept, and stagnant ditches. That there being no systematic land drainage, and no proper pre-appointed system for the drainage of land intended to be used for the sites of houses, or of new suburban dwellings; when new dwellings are constructed, a great part of the drainage from the suburban houses is carried into these stagnant ditches. That in one of these marshes, the proportion of open ditch is 18 to 450 acres, or one acre of ditch to 24 acres of land; stagnating and giving off emanations from the decomposition of animal as well as vegetable refuse. That marsh diseases prevail at times amongst the agricultural population of the Essex, Plumsted, and other marshes; and that after the wind has prevailed for some time from these ill From A large meeting took place on the evening of the 17th, in the Mechanic's Institute, for the formation of a branch of this Association, which has for its object, the promotion among young men of sound religion, apart from all sectarian considerations. It appeared from the addresses of a deputation which attended from London, that the society was first formed there, about four years since, by a few young men employed in a commercial house; that it was a direct result of early closing, and, therefore another answer to the oft repeated argument that young men would mis-apply any time that might be given them. these few beginners it has gradually extended its influence, and has branches in most of the large towns, as Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Hull, Derby, Exeter, &c., its operations in every place being rewarded with the most inspiring success, The means which they employ are prayer meetings, Bible readings and conversations, lectures and essays, in which various subjects are treated of in a religious manner, the distribution of appropriate tracts, and in fact any means which will lead to the promotion of Christianity. A managing committee, chiefly composed of employers, having been appointed, and a large number of names enrolled, the meeting separated. An interesting feature of this meeting, was the presence and co-operation of several ministers of different denominations. Plymouth, Jan. 21st., 1848. CONTENTS. T. M. E. Memoir of Anna Cora Mowatt. By MARY HOWITT-Scenes and Characters from the French Revolution, translated from Lamartine's Histoire des Girondins for Howitt's Journal. The Press and the Journalists-Literary Notices: Festus. A Poem. By PHILIP JAMES BAILEY-Three Letters on Sanitary Reform. By CHARLES F. ELLERMAN-Visits to Remarkable Places. By WILLIAM HOWITT. The Giants' Causeway-War-Remarkable Dreams, Warnings and Providences. (Continued)-Record. PRINTED for the proprietor by WILLIAM LOVETT, of 16, South PRICE 140. STAMped, 23d THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. King of free men-of the grandeur of his mission as the cherisher of the universal happiness,-a happiness based on achieved Christianity, the moral and political THE great fact of the day which has cast every other equality of all God's children, the knavish-minded into the shade is the wonderful outbreak of the French charlatan, set about to restore all the beggarly elements people. With the suddenness of a tornado, with the of the old kingship of force, fraud, and oppression. His magnificent explosion of a volcano, without its prepa- brute nature would sink itself to the brutish level of ratory warnings, it has burst forth, and scattered the thrones built on bayonets, crosiers, and police. He deworks and the workers of despotism into fragments. stroyed the liberty of speech and of the press; he conEvent has followed event like so many flashes of light- verted his Parliament into a nest of the vilest corrupning, each a startling piece of history, and a warning to tion; he heaped up again all the ancient extravagance nations and to ages. There is no country that has done of expenditure and taxation; he turned his capitalso much to destroy the evil prestige of kingship and the that capital in which the boldest deeds of liberty had old philosophy of governments—the divine right to do been done-the saddest sacrifices of patriotism had been wrong as France. In none of her achievements has made, where a throne had been demolished, and royalty she achieved so much as on this occasion. The grand chopped asunder by the guillotine,—that capital he fact which this third, and it is to be hoped, final Revolu- turned into a rat-trap. His forts and armies were artion has developed-that which strikes all minds with rayed to blow resistance, even of millions, to the devil wonder and confidence,-is the stupendous moral march in an instant. He cooped in the people who chose him, which that country has made since the year 1789. The and set him up above all his father's house to crush them struggles, the bloodshed, the bickerings, and the final into a bloody mass. He was busy with the old work of fall into a military dictatorship, which marked the first self aggrandisement-knitting and fitting together royal Revolution, were not less demonstrative of the imper-alliances-where he could not knit and fit, he welded fect moral growth and the inexperience of the people, them with the hammers of his huge military force. The than of the intense love of liberty which animated them. man grew mad with his successful villainy, and relying They felt all that they had suffered, how they had been on the great intellect of one whom nature meant for a degraded, and they burned for vengeance. They saw great man, he committed the last insane act of closing that they had all the world arrayed against them-a the safety valve of the popular engine when it was altreacherous court at home, and a host of armed tyrants ready hissing with the steam of indignant feeling; and abroad trembling for their usurpations over the human the consequent explosion hurled him, his monarchy, family, and eager to stamp out with millions of iron and and his whole race, to the destruction that they demercenary heels the spark of liberty which they had served;-but which has come like a judgment of God— kindled on their national altar-and they were exas- sudden, terrible, and complete. perated. Unaccustomed to government-misunderstanding each other-exposed to the desperate schemes of ambition kindled in bosoms that had learned neither self-controul nor true public principles-they fell to the work of mutual destruction, and the multitude, yet raw, uneducated, and unchristianized, gloried in the sanguinary spectacle, and stimulated the ferocity which led to the annihilation of liberty. beggary and death-but have taken care not to shut down the safety valve of complaint, or their fate would have been-what his is? Could neither the cunning king nor his cunning minister just have looked across the channel and seen how our rulers manage these matters? Could they not have seen that by leaving open the safety valve of popular complaint-allowing us to throw off our wrath in talk and newspaper declamation-they can go on for years, perhaps for ages, laying on us as much burden as they please. Could he not see that our government Behold the mighty change! Years have not rolled has loaded us with the debts of all Europe, crushed our over France without the advance of knowledge and commerce, swamped our colonies by monstrous mothe acquisition of a deep experience. Never had a peo-nopolies, filled our towns with misery, and Ireland with ple greater cause of quarrel; never did a people conduct that quarrel with a promptitude, a rapidity, and a success so wonderful; with a forbearance so sublime. The king who had injured them was no hereditary king. In his case it was not an oppression simply, but a treason, the basest and most detestable of treasons. After all that they had done, suffered, and achieved for liberty; after all their struggles, their bloodshed, their political martyrdom, and military conquests and reverses after all, in fact, that they had paid of life, of honour, of everything that is dear to man for their national enfranchisement, they elected a constitutional monarch, and he betrayed them. The man to whom they entrusted the sacred deposit of their freedom, set deliberately about to annihilate it. He had nothing of the old monarchical humbugs to plead-there was none of the cant of right divine hanging about him as an apology for tyranny. He was the man of the people. Every atom of right, authority, and advantage that he possessed, was their gift. He stood there their own deliberately chosen chief magistrate-the guardian of their liberties, and administrator of their laws. The man became a traitor-a traitor of the worst description--a traitor to his country and to the whole cause of humanity. He set about to build up everything that they, his country, his benefactors, had destroyed as the pestilence of the earth-to destroy everything that they had built up. Dead to the glorious distinction of being the first monarch of the new era of the world--the era of knowledge, truth, and freedom-incapable of comprehending the greatness of his position, the freely-chosen But the point which it concerns us to fix our eyes upon in this glorious demonstration, is the magnificent power of popular fortitude and wisdom which it has displayed to the world. A people rising in the face of 100,000 soldiers, of a deadly cordon of fortifications, and of a murderous police in arms in the very heart of them, and dissipating all the might of arms, the force of governmental subtlety, and the splendour of royalty like a mere morning mist. The whole has gone to pieces with a suddenness that resembles nothing but the shifting of a theatric scene. Is this then monarchy How wretched a thing it is! Is this then military power? How despicable it is! Is this then a people exercising its will? How glorious! If after this there be a monarch unpunished for his treason to the state, we may be sure that there is a people equally remiss. If there be liberty infringed there is a degraded nation! The French have destroyed the last portion of the prestige of tyranny, and we owe them a debt which we can only repay by asserting our own rights as boldly and as nobly. We have seen in this country how the coward but greedy vampire of aristocracy shrinks and trembles at the first brave word of the nation. We saw it at the time of the Reform Bill-we saw it but the other day at the production of the audacious Whig budget-yet, we lie prostrate at this moment, enduring abuse, extravagance, and extortion, which we exclaimed against half a century ago. Tax |