You have been good enough to advocate the cause of governesses, and in your last number I see held forth, that they themselves might greatly improve their condition, by taking a higher view of their duties. Allow me, sir, to refute this assertion; I speak from experience, and that tells more than any theory. I give you the inferences drawn from facts, as they come almost daily under my notice, and form a past, which will remain a dark spot in my memory,-from years that tell ages in one's life. Yet, on my part, no self-esteem was wanting, and I had at the same time the highest notions about education, that any school or system can set up; I believed it a noble employment, that it might grace any person, who understood the sacredness of its duties, till I heard people say, when seeing some one unknown to them-the stranger was not a lady, but a governess. I started at this piece of information, and looked bewildered round, till I convinced myself of the full truth of that remark. A governess is not a lady;-for the common laws of society, considered any where and every where as a matter of course, are done away with, whenever she shows her face. But what then is she? I could not clearly see this. There is no rank, no grade, nor station, which I could discover, that such a well-born, well-bred, well-educated animal might belong to and no class of society certainly will claim her as its own; I therefore came to the conclusion, she must be a species of her own, a fine nonentity,-created by the Almighty for the exact purpose of teaching children, of eating, sleeping, and being extremely happy, and cheerful-a quality always to be expected as a matter of course.

Mrs. Jameson, like me, speaking on this subject from experience, asserts in her essays on governesses :-that she never met with one, who, after the lapse of two years, had not lost her health and spirits. She says this of her countrywomen, who are well able to endure more, as being in their native atmosphere in the reach of some friends or relations, but I speak of foreigners, and in particular of Germans from the shores of the Rhine and the Elbe, where one is rarely to be found, who does not aspire to mental cultivation, where every babe is taught to rate mind above matter,-and these little Germans could rarely afford a smile, after having resided six months in a schoolroom. When stating this as a fact, I speak of the rule, and not of the exception, which I can name in this case as well as in any other. I speak moreover of the young, the intelligent, of those, whose birth and education did not intend them to find in foreign lands the means for their subsistence,-I speak of refined and highly cultivated minds.

"What do they want?"-is the question frequently asked, when I have told a long "Jeremiad" of one or the other of these poor victims. It is perfectly true, that they have all the best things, that "vulgar minds struggle for"-they have money, clothes, and comfort, and food; and what can they want more? Still there is scarcely under God's sun a being existing, altogether so degraded, that it would do without this trifle, which must outweigh all the substantial advantages a governess enjoys, this is the respect for her employment.

ever young she is, she has now become a chaperon, and may serve as an escort for ladies much older than herself. If she were still a woman, this would be rather odd; but having become a sort of undefined animal, she may do anything, and what she wants is merely a particular sort of dress, like the policemen, that every body, who meets her, may directly know that he sees a governess, and not be deceived by her appearance, mistake her for a woman, and address her as-a lady walking by herself.

The number of young compatriots of mine, who, pale and dejected, sick in mind and body,-might sit as so many originals to the much admired picture of "A Governess," seen in the exhibition two years ago,-is not small, sir, and it is most painful to watch the effect of the slow poison administered daily to them. They feel they cannot raise themselves in a profession, that will never honour them, however much they may honour it, and this conviction takes away the stimulant, necessary to every right-minded man or Woman upon God's earth, whatever their employment may be.

Novels and "Little Rebecca" have hitherto not improved the condition of this unhappy class of beings; if facts would tell better, I should be most happy to furnish them. I am, Sir, your's, A GERMAN GOVERNESS IN LONDON. EFFECTS OF ABBATOIRS IN TOWNS.

ON THE PERNICIOUS

We are rejoiced to find that that powerful engine-public opinion-is at length brought to bear upon the disgraceful old remnant of our barbaric ancestors-Smithfield-with all its horrors. Influential names are appended to a prospectus for the abolition of Smithfield as a cattle market; and for the erection of Abbatoirs in the suburbs of London. So far good, for all circumstances connected with cleanliness in our city, are of vital importance; for thus not only would the slaughter of animals be effected at a distance from its inhabitants, but as a consequence, their reeking hides would no longer clog the footways, in Leadenhall and other markets. Still the plan, if adopted, would be but temporary, Smithfield itself was selected as the most appropriate spot, for the purpose to which it has so long been applied; it was once a spacious field, outside the walls; the wants and cupidity of man have erected buildings which closely encompass this space, and have brought it into the heart of London.

Thus with cemeteries: it has been wisely enacted that they shall be situated in the precincts of large towns; but most inefficient have been the government precautions hitherto; an act should be passed, to prohibit the erection of habitations, within a certain distance of the cemetery; if a quarter of a mile, for example, were the required space; that space might, with the best results, be devoted to agriculture; and thus pure air would be imbibed by the inhabitants.

In consequence of the neglect of this necessary law, popu lous neighbourhoods spring up almost simultaneously with the formation of, and abutting on the cemetery. Nor can we doubt that if the projected markets and abbatoirs in the suburbs, should be commenced, they also will be surrounded by dwel lings for the convenience of persons employed in the operations; and in no great length of time, every monster slaughter house, would become a similar nuisance to that of Smithfield and its accessory-Newgate Market.

In the course of the masterly evidence given before a com

relative to "Railways, and their effects on agriculture," that gentleman, with his usual acumen, introduced the subject of Abbatoirs; and being interrogated respecting "the advantage of transporting the carcases of animals, as compared with the old system," the reply was,-" Without a railroad it is impossible to transport fat cattle, any greater distance than from 50 to 70 miles, without great deterioration but railroads will afford the means of transporting cattle 300 or 400 miles, with great advantage; and in carcases they may be transported 700 miles; and in that way, may be brought from the most distant parts to populous districts, at a very small additional expense, which, with the expense of transporting either beef or mutton in the carcase, does not amount to one-third of a penny for 500 miles; so that you may have meat nearly as cheap in London, as you have it at Inverness."

introduction of live cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry; or, at all events, that they should be placed under restrictions, hereafter to be considered. Our reasons are numerous-namely, in the first place, the contemplated buildings for the purposes of slaughtering the animals, and disposing of the offal, could be erected at one-fourth of the expense proposed, for the suburban abbatoirs. In the second place, no rural neighbourhood whatever need be desecrated by the "sounds and sights unholy," which must inevitably attend the contention of drovers, with the victims of their brutality, when both are collected in large numbers. Thirdly, the expense of re-conveying into the country those portions of the beasts, which, in large towns, constitute a nuisance; but are invaluable to the agriculturist. Fourthly-That an extensive abbatoir cannot be conducted with that attention to cleanliness, which one on a small scale could and would be, now that Commissioners are to be appointed for the surveillance of rural districts. By the facility of conveyance afforded by railways, every small farmer, butcher, poulterer, and pig-killer, who may prefer to avoid the middle man, and trade on his own account, could supply bis salesman in London with prime joints, reserving the inferior parts (all of which, under the present, as well as the projected, system of establishing suburban slaughtering houses, must be sent to the capital); so that cheap meat in the country, such as would be purchased by the poor-and which is now too scarce-they could then obtain in sufficient quantities. Fifthly-The village butcher has continual opportunities to adapt the refuse of his stock to the purposes of manure, if he be an occupier of land; and if he be not, may have instant communication with the farmers in his neighbourhood, to whose fields or mixens the offal could be conveyed before it became offensive; and sixthlya shamble, whether in the metropolis, or in mere hamlets, being the nucleus round which various trades collect, would, if confined to the latter localities, tend to draw away from the overwhelming, still increasing, magnitude of London, those trades which depend on the slaughterer: thus tanners, hide factors, glue makers, bone digesters, tripe manufacturers, parchment-makers, even cats'-meat vendors, with their filthy piles of garbage, must not be omitted-these, and many other noisome avocations (which swell the objectionable bulk of foul matter, now in constant fermentation, in the midst of our dense population,) would of necessity be drained off innocuously into the country; where, from the smallness of these nuisances, and their distance from one another, no possible injury could accrue to the health of the community.

We are quite aware that we should meet with many objections to these sanitary suggestions: every man whose interest would be jeopardised, will be violent in his deprecation of them; but these persons are the dust in the balance; they constitute that small number which must suffer, when any public benefit is to be achieved. It unfortunately is always thus in all those great undertakings which cause innovations; and we ought not to flinch from the performance of a duty which would ensure the health and well-being of the million, because we may put to temporary inconvenience a few individuals, and cause them the loss of a few pounds.

In all sincerity of purpose, the foregoing suggestions are offered for consideration in quarters where benefit may arise from discussion of their validity; and although the advantages contemplated may never be realized to their full extent, a modification will surely be effected, and our end be so far attained.

It should be remembered that our remarks are borne out most satisfactorily, not only by Mr. Smith's evidence, quoted above, which states that "carcases may be conveyed 700 miles without deterioration;" but also by late complaints of extensive and serious injury done to living animals during their transit by railways. If, then, we find such cogent reasons advanced against the present plans of transporting live animals to the London market, and would prevent the cruelties and atrocities of metropolitan slaughter-houses, what other plan remains than that which we have suggested?

PRESENT STATE OF SOCIETY.

Edinburgh, May 4th, 1848. Madam and Sir, Wishing every blessing on your efforts in the cause of humanity and equity, I venture a few remarks. In the present state of society the struggle for existence is so fearful, that all who have any hope of reaching it are eager to clutch a mouthful out of the fleshpot of that potent noun of multitude called Government. While they see others comfortably feathering their nests at the public cost, they willingly wink at wrong in the hope that their own turn may come, or at least some help

ing hand may reach them, more forward and fortunate in the strife than themselves. Nor is this to be wondered at, bread is not now earned by the "sweat of the brow;" the drops are wrung from the very heart till its well springs are dry, and all high and holy hopes forgotten. It appears to me that at present a large portion of the community require to be instructed in the advantages to be gained from an enlightened and just Government, guarded by responsibility from corrupt desecration like the present. And a still larger portion require to be informed of the right meaning and use of Government. They see something like the car of Juggernaut set in motion by the craft of those who profit by it, and supported by extortions and oblations from slaves and fools, whom in grateful return it crushes under its wheels into the dust, and they fancy if they could only overturn and get quit of this machine, they might without further trouble swing up to heaven in a basket. Could they effect the overturn they would find out their mistake; whereas, a little pains and patience would convert the car into a serviceable waggon to carry us all over the rough roads of this world as smoothly and comfortably as may be. It almost seems drivel in a world of change to predict changes. But that compelled by human wretchedness will be very unlike the gradual and beneficial changes that take place in the moral and physical world, when neither warped nor checked. However, it will be our own faults if we suffer; for with due preparation we might enter into a new and better state of things, noiselessly and harmlessly, and gently as into a cloud.

Sir,

I remain, respected Editors,
Your obliged and faithful servant,

J. B.

ARISTOCRACY AND THE MIDDLE CLASSES.
Scotland, May 4th, 1848.

You are mistaken if you think that the middle classes dont feel the baleful influence of the aristocracy, as much as the people-they are only "biding their time." Many of the middle classes were deceived at the time of the second French Revolution. Hack writers were employed to frighten them by articles "on Parliamentary Reform and the French Revolution,” (vide Blackwood's Magazine for 1831-2,) the falsity of which now appears. Those of them who supported the aristocracy at that crisis are now treated with contempt, and loathe the name of "Conservative" in consequence.

In the towns they are taxed for the support of the poor expatriated wretches who are forced upon them in thousands by the "clearings" of the Highland Lairds; why rather should not these deer-stalking magnificoes be compelled to receive the importation of an "Army of Labour" upon their broad acres, at present reserved for a few wild muir-fowl? What right have they to oppose the Laws of Nature, and prevent the Earth being "replenished and subdued" by the labour of man. Let them "Be wise in time, 'tis madness to defer." We are, Sir,

Your obedient servants,

TWO OF THE MIDDLE CLASSES. ARRIVAL OF THE ICARIANS IN TEXAS; AND DEPARTURE OF A SECOND DETACHMENT.

M. Cabet announces the receipt of a letter from the first detachment of the Icarians, the particulars of which he proposes to give in the next Populaire. It is dated the 23rd of April, from Shevreport, on the Red River. From fifteen to twenty young Icarians were also to embark, on the 30th of May, from Havre, as a second detachment, full of energy, courage, and devotion. The Revolution has naturally interfered extremely with the original plans of embarkation, but it is expected that these will be gradually resumed. We shall give the details of the letter referred to if possible in our next number.

CONTENTS.

Poets of the People. No. V. Victor Hugo. By Dr. SMILES—— Epitaph. By EBENEZER ELLIOTT-Saw Up and Saw Down. A Tale-A Spring Song. By EDWARD YOUL-Memoirs of Dr. Channing. By PARKE GODWIN-Sonnet. By CALDER CAMPBELL -The Wife of Audubon-LITERARY NOTICE: Married Life of an Artist; Albert Durer. Translated from the German by Mrs. J. B. STODART-RECORD: Governesses-Pernicious Effects of Abbatoirs in Towns-Present State of Society-Aristocracy and the Middle Classes.

PRINTED for the proprietor by WILLIAM LOVETT, of 16, South Row, New Road, in the Parish of St. Pancras, County of Middlesex, and published by him at 291, Strand, in the Parish of St. Clement Danes.

PESTALOZZI IN HIS SCHOOL. PESTALOZZI may be termed the first founder of the Ragged Schools. At the age of twenty-two, when he had purchased a little estate at Neuhoff, in Switzerland, and determined to lead a simple country life, he became aware of the wretchedness and ignorance of the peasantry. It was then that he determined to devote his life to the benefit of the poor, and assisted by his wife, whom he married the year after he settled at Neuhoff, he began to collect poor children, and even beggar children and outcasts, into his house, and instruct them. His efforts were treated by his neighbours and the world as all such efforts are. They were ridiculed and pronounced to be actual folly and insanity. Every well informed reader knows through what opposition, misfortune, and trouble, arising from the exhaustion of his own means, the revolutionary disturbances of the times, and the wranglings of those that even came forward to assist in his plans for elevating the people, Pestalozzi passed his life. His plans, however, succeeded; and have spread over all the civilized world; they have been introduced, more or less, into all popular systems of tuition, and to him the education of the people owes more than to any man who ever lived. He was born on the 12th of January, 1746, at Zurish; and on the 12th of January, 1846, the centenary of his birth was celebrated all over Germany and Switzerland with great festivity, and many Peoples' Schools were founded in honour of his memory. So it is; the benefactors of mankind go through the world with sorrow and misrepresentation-ruin dogs them, and the worldly-wise shake their heads at thembut the seed they sow grows in spite of frost or drought, and the after-ages reap the harvest which was watered with their tears. Be strong, hearts of humanity! and the blessing which heaven sends, though it seem to come late, shall last long, and it shall continue to walk the earth so long as you walk the heavens, and send up to you perpetual proofs in glorious and regenerated souls, that your painful pilgrimage through Time, was a new highway to Eternity.

AUSTRALIAN LIFE. PROSPECTS FOR EMIGRANTS.

MR. WILKINSON bas added one more to the valuable and attractive works on our great Australian empire, which open up so cheering a prospect for the "cribbed, cabined, and confined population of this suffering country." We lately introduced Mr. Westgarth's useful work on Port Phillip; Mr. Wilkinson's volume is on the sister colony of South Australia, or Port Adelaide. The great distinctive feature of Adelaide is its extraordinary mineral wealth, which is as amusing in description as any Arabian Tale. Though the discovery of this metallic affluence was made only three or four years ago, the mass of ore raised and exported to this country is enormous. The Burra Burra Mining Company only purchased this tract in 1845. They gave £10,000 for as many acres of land; and, beginning with only £2,000 as a working capital, in the space of three weeks they raised two thousand tons of what was said to be a pure red oxide of copper. They have now built a village, containing, in October 1846, four hundred inhabitants, and have raised in one year no less than 7,200 tons of copper ore, worth, on an average, at least £25 per ton, equal in value to £180,000, at a cost, including all expenses of preliminary charges, and also buildings and improvements of £16,624. But this is only one portion of the unexampled profusion of metallic wealth which not only fills the ground for scores of miles in that country, and probably to an exhaustless degree, but which lies scattered over its surface in nearly pure lumps of copper, silver, lead, and gold.

The first mine was discovered within sight of the town, on a broad, bold range that rises from the plain on which Adelaide is built. The road from Mount Barker, and the different parts to the east of Adelaide, passed over this range; and, as the hill was steep, large drags were placed behind the drays, to enable the bullocks to hold back, and steadily descend the hill. One of these drags, striking against a stone in the road, broke off some shining substance, which was found to be good lead ore; and when this was seen, every person was in a state of excitement, until the place was opened,

FRITH OF CLYDE.

VAST world of waters! whose continuous flow

Pervades the sunny south, where monsoons sweep; Or dares the rugged north, where breezes blow O'er ice-bound regions, girdling in the deep: Thy giant waves in wrath tumultuous leap, Or lave in sportive mood the pebbled shore,

Where wandering we sublime emotions reap Where on rapt fancy's wing we would explore

Emblem of dark eternity! the storms

That riot on thy breat will pass away;

The hills exulting in their granite forms

Before Time's touch will crumble and decay, Their atoms mingling with thy wild waves play; And in thy majesty and might, proud sea,

The rock-girt isles will own thy surges' sway, As o'er their heads elate thy waters free Resistless dance in foam to wild winds' minstrelsy. Thou mighty mirror of the Eternal Power,

Who holds as in a chain the orbs that fly Thro' heaven's immensity, or paints the flower

That courts the gaze of the lone wanderer's eye, With what delight, when eve has dimmed yon sky, I seek thy sounding shores, where the rapt soul, Borne on the breath of Nature's harmony,' Bounds from the earth o'er passions wild control To bask where cloudless years through endless ages roll. Paisley, April 1848. JOHN MITChell.

veys, and grand mining companies.

All this turned out well; and fortunate it was that it did so; for if no mines of value had been opened, the excitement had so altered the channel of labour and steady industry, that the consequences would have been bad. In reality, then, the mines are not only plentiful and abundant, but the ores are extremely rich, perhaps exceeding in value any before discovered elsewhere. New comers are particularly struck with the great show of wealth: but it has developed itself so gradually to the colonists, that they are becoming indifferent to it, and think little of new mineral discoveries, having made up their minds by anticipation to all such, and merely say," Ah! no doubt, it is everywhere." The rage for carrying about specimens has, moreover, sub

South Australia; its Advantages and its Resources. Being a Description of that Colony, and a Manual of Information for Emigrants. By George Blakiston Wilkinson. London: John Murray.