turer of cotton prints, who was known by the nickname of Parsley Peel, because of having copied that plant on his prints that of your fathers, who, with a mutiny at the Nore, a rebellion in Ireland, and disaster abroad, yet submitted with buoyant vigor and universal applause and not seeking, even when fortune (with the funds as low as fifty-two) to a and the favor of his country smiled upon property tax of ten per cent. I believe him, to fortify himself by matrimonial you will not subject yourselves to so in- alliance with the aristocracy, for he marjurious and unworthy a contrast. My ried the daughter of an old general, Sir confident hope is you will prove your- John Floyd, who had sprung from the selves worthy of your mission as the ranks he has raised himself by no inrepresentatives of a mighty people, and direction, by no unworthy concession, that will not tarnish the fame which by no sycophancy. you With the sterling it is your duty to cherish as the most glorious inheritance." This trust was not disappointed. After a most protracted and arduous debate, both measures were carried; and it has been most satisfactorily proved by the best of all arguments-experience that the most sanguine anticipations of the Premier from these measures have been amply realized. The course of Sir Robert since that period is familiar to most of our readers. Sir Robert has continued in charge of the government up to the recent resignation of a week-when failing to form a ministry, Lord John Russell had an opportunity of doing, with regard to Sir Robert and the Duke of Wellington, what they had done on a former occasion with regard to him and Lord Melbourne-recommending to the sovereign to take back the old ministry. Sir Robert's able speech on resuming his station has been so recently published in the newspapers, that we need here only advert to it, as a new illustration of the manliness and just self-estimation of this eminent Commoner, whose life and career we have here endeavored to illustrate. If we have not wholly failed in the effort, we shall have interested our reader, we trust, in the character of this selfmade man, whose own ability, industry, and wisdom have made him the most marking statesman of Europe. Sprung from obscure parentage-his grandfather being a very small manufac * characteristics of a thorough Englishman, proud of his country, confident in her power, and studious of her prosperity, he has devoted his nights and days, all the best faculties of his mind, and the vigor of his frame, to her service. Through a long series of years-and most eventful years, too-he has had occasion once and again to change opinions apparently well settled, and to support measures he before had warmly resisted. On each of the great topics of the Currency, of Catholic Emancipation, of Parliamentary Reform, of Free Trade, and of the Corn Laws, Sir Robert Peel has been on both sides. Yet so clearly has he borne himself in his great offices, so disinterested has been his career, and so frank and satisfactory his explanations on every occasion of change of opinion, that no party doubts his integrity or distrusts his motives. But what then, it may be asked, becomes of consistency-or is there no virtue in that old-fashioned quality? All depends, in this matter, upon definition and upon motive. He who, in public life, pays no regard to altered circumstances, to new developments, to the changes, in short, which time and events work in the relations of nations as of men, but adheres doggedly to opinions formed under very different lights, or in the absence of all light, may indeed be a very consistent, but would certainly be a very unwise and a very unsafe, politician. Tried by results both to his country and to himself, who shall now say that Sir *On this head the following scene may be recalled. In the House of Commons, in 1830, Brougham, after making an attack on the policy of the Duke of Wellington, said, "But him I accuse not. I accuse you, (addressing the ministerial benches,) his flatterers, his mean, fawning parasites." Sir Robert Peel started up and said, "I ask the honorable and learned member if he means to accuse me of being such? The honorable and learned gentleman addressed himself to this side of the House, and said, 'I mean to accuse you, his flatterers, his fawning parasites.' I am sitting on this side of the House; I am the representative of the opinions of those who sit here; but I put the question to the honorable and learned gentleman, not on their behalf, but as an individual; and I ask of him, does he presume to say of me that I am the mean, fawning parasite of any man?" Brougham disclaimed all personal application of the remark, or personal imputation; and so the matter ended. Robert Peel, in the changes we have in these pages briefly noted, on such great questions as the Currency, Corn, Reform and Catholic Emancipation, has not acted both wisely and honestly? As early as 1826, the Edinburgh Review, though of diametrically opposite politics, spoke of him as a "wise, honest and high-principled man" and three years later, remarking upon and applauding his change on the Catholic question, that same Review (March, 1829) said: "Amidst great personal difficulties, he has chosen that which, being the most fair and manly, ought to be the least painful and least unsatisfactory for himself. The choice could be to him only one of evils. He was in the old British dilemma-the sea before him, the barbarians behind. *The man who never changes his mind must be about as great a fool as the man who is always changing it; and if there be an occasion when such an intellectual process ought to meet with indulgence, it is when perhaps you save a kingdom by submitting to it. The great malignant sophism by which party zealots pander to ignorance and passion, lies chiefly in the abuse of a single word, by which a change of opinions and apostacy are assumed to be the same. The blindfold consistency on which all authority, experience and warning are thrown away, is nothing but a second-hand infallibility made out of a worse-grained wood than any papal chair. Old as I am, I put myself to school,' was once esteemed a merit." The secret of Sir Robert's power lies in his thorough knowledge both of his own resources and of the English people. On this head we adopt this language from Fraser's Magazine: "When Sir Robert Peel made his emphatic declaration, on resigning the government in April, 1835, that his future life would be spent in the House of Commons, he was, perhaps unconsciously, establishing one of the landmarks by which the present age will be distinguished from its predecessors. His prophetic promise embodied the conviction of a statesman preeminent in the wisdom which studies the signs of the times, that hereafter the popular or representative branch of the legislature, regulated no doubt, to a great degree, by the will of the monarch and the theoretical right of veto of the peers, will be the really influential power in the state. Looked at inferentially, that declaration showed that he had formed a correct estimate of his own position and powers. Sir Robert is an ambitious man, but his ambition is of a high and honorable character. He covets fame, and a niche in the history of his country, more than personal rank or dignities. His ambition is not that which would be satisfied, though it has been flattered, by having two queens as his voluntary guests, with an earl's coronet glittering in the distance. Yet to one who with manly independence points continually to the origin of his family," such distinctions might count as something. Sir Robert Peel's ambition grasps at what is emphatically the power of modern times, influence over the opinions of his fellowHe wishes to leave the impress of his own mind upon the character of his countrymen. He hopes to be regarded, if not as the pilot who weathered the storm, at least as having held the helin amidst the eddies and whirlpools of exasperated rival interests. Represented as they are in the House of Commons, which is the scene of their action, he who would influence them must learn the art of commanding the ear and swaying the passions or prejudices of that assembly. Of that art Sir Robert Peel has obtained the mastery. Therefore he acts wisely, with the examples of Pultney and Chatham before him, in not quitting a sphere where his triumphs are certain, and where the amount he may store up of good for his country, and fame for himself, is incalculable." men. It will, we think, be conceded that no living statesman has so largely impressed himself upon the policy and character of his country, and measurably upon the policy of the world, as Sir Robert Peel. He is the one man of England. He is now in a position alike eminent and critical. Poising himself upon resources which never yet have failed him upon the conviction of his own honest desire to serve his country, and upon the popular favor-he has to contend against the interests, the prejudices and the resentments of the great Conservative mass with which he has heretofore acted. On every account his success is to be desired. His own country will benefit by it—our country will benefit by it; and more than all, additional encouragement will be given to merit and talent, however lowly born, by the renewed and signal triumph over all the prejudice and all the opposition of a long-derived aristocracy of an able, upright, wise and virtuous MAN. 'It is said that among his constituents at Tamworth he rather boasts himself of his humble descent, and claims the nearer affinity with them because sprung from their ranks. "I am, you know," he says, "the son of a cotton spinner, and my wife is the daughter of a common soldier." "But Sir Robert, at the same time, exhibited no slight amount of self-knowledge. ADVENTURES ON THE FRONTIER OF TEXAS AND MEXICO. 66 No. VI.-Concluded. BY CHARLES WINTERFIELD. Ir was several hours before the wretched Antone had sufficiently recovered for me to leave him. The fright, the drenching, and the blows he had received from the boy, united, had almost annihilated what energies of life there were in his shriveled carcass. With his crushed eye, and the ghastly saffron of his face, he was a sufficiently unpleasing companion beneath the glooms of that deep forest, which were only fitfully informed with moonlight. I was glad enough when I saw him able to sit up unassisted, and rose to leave him, for I could do nothing more now. He was not strong enough to walk to the Rancho, leaving out of the question the impossibility of his obtaining admission there, even should he reach it. Besides, I had merely compromised with my own conscience in saving the life of the miserable creature; and now, that had been accomplished, I felt no special yearning of the spirit" towards him, which might keep me at his side to comfort him in the darkness; and truly, did he seem to need a comforter. When he saw that I was going to leave him he clung franticly to my limbs, and with the idiotic mouthings of his terror made a most dismal pleading for me to stay. It was time for me to be at my post, and for fear the moans of even this reptile humanity might move me too much, I shook his clenched grip violently off and started hastily for the Rancho. His voice followed me as I struggled through the dense brush-for some distance. The creature's feeble wits had been temporarily addled by the night's work. Hideous as portions of it had been, and painful as those sounds were, I remember-just as they were dying away-that I burst into a hearty laugh as the ludicrous contrast presented itself of valiant Sir Braggadocio Antone in the glory of one of his boasting feats, and the writhing, pitiable thing I had just left. The nerves, when overstrung through scenes like these, grow unnaturally impressible, and vibrate to strange humors. One feels sometimes as though he would laugh though tottering on the sheer brink of some red shaft to Tartarus. Curious problem!-this monstrous trinity, Man-part fiend, part angel, and part brute. It It would require a strong reliance upon the evidence of things unseen, to suppose any part of him could be developed in such a life as that on this Frontier, other than his fiend and brute natures. I reached the log-recovered my gun, and set off for my post the way I camealong under the bank of the river. Midnight, I knew, was very near if not passed, and this was the time for the attack upon the Rancho to commence. would be disgraceful for me to fail of being there at the crisis. I hurried on regardless of mud and water, for the last few hours had sufficiently familiarized me with both. I soon gained a point where, from the top of a bank, sheltered by the trees, I could command a perfect view of the Rancho beneath the clear moonlight. The intervening space was open, with the exception of a few scattered trees. Its low, square bulk looked as dark as death-not a glimmer of light or the faintest sound came from it. The great gate was in front of me. A little to the left, and separated by a short interval was the lower picketing of the sheep-pen -a large enclosure in which the immense flocks of sheep and goats belonging to such Ranchos are collected at night. These creatures are easily" stampeded" or frightened, and will make noise enough to wake the seven sleepers in the effort to escape. I saw the figures of men stealthily gliding from tree to tree as they approached the gate, or creeping around the Rancho, picketing beneath its shadows toward the same point-so I was just in time. It occurred to me from the caution with which the men moved that they had perceived evidences of alertness on the part of the people of the Rancho, which I had not suspected. According to the plan of attack we were to lie in wait on each side of the gate to be ready for a rush if it should be thrown open for the shepherds to come out to quiet their flocks. Already the hoarse bark of the shepherd-dogs had announced to the silence that something was wrong. This is a very noble and fierce race of these animals, original in, and peculiar to, Mexico. They are taken when young, and nourished at the dugs of a she-goat, and ever afterwards live with the flock —a foster-child and a protector. Their deep-mouthed savage baying seemed now about to precipitate matters. The men threw themselves flat upon the ground while the crash of broken bars was followed by the sudden and stunning clatter and ba-a-ing of near a thousand panic. stricken animals. I took instant advantage of the confusion to glide over the interval unnoticed, and take my place in the nearest party of the Rangers. The dogs came through the broken bars along with their maddened and rushing charge. They dashed at us at once. The men who had been ordered not to fire, were prepared to dispose of this difficulty very quietly, and at a few strokes of their long, heavy Bowie Knives, emphasized by a muttered curse or so, the most fierce of the gallant fellows were silenced. A very large old white bitch sprang so suddenly at the Colonel's throat that he had a severe struggle before he shook her off with a cloven skull. He had been standing near the gate of the Pen, which he had broken the moment after throwing the wolf-skin among the flock which had caused the panic. The men around me could scarcely suppress their laughter while he was engaged in this novel battle; while he who had been sufficiently chafed before, was rendered wildly furious by the startle of absolute danger from a quarter so unexpected. In the mean time the people of the Rancho were aroused, as the confusion of voices and hurrying to and fro of lights sufficiently showed. The idea flashed through my mind that everybody seemed to wake up very suddenly; for, judging from the clamors inside, every soul in the Rancho must have been astir in a few minutes. Suddenly there was an entire lull of these sounds, and we heard bolts and chains rattling at the gate. The moment these sounds reached us, the Colonel bounded to the side of the gate where it opened outwards. He said in a sharp, eager whisper, “Ready, boys!— follow me;" and then crouching close to the wall, I could see his dim figure against it bent in the attitude for springing, and his eyes literally emitting flames in the concentration of his fury. We all shifted our positions in preparation for bounding quickly up. There was a pulseless pause. There seemed to be some difficulty in getting the gate open, while we forgot to breathe in watching the moment when it would swing back. This unaccountable stillness, so simultaneous and only broken now by the noise at the gate for the flock was far enough off running like mad-struck me as ominous, and it proved to be so with a vengeance. Instead of the gate being thrown open, there was a sudden commotion on the top of the high picketing just over it; and before we could think what it meant, a shower of some fluid was suddenly plumped upon the heads of the Colonel and those who were nearest him. A portion of it was spattered upon me, and I felt that it was hot as lava. The convulsive spring and the involuntary yell of agony which followed from those upon whom this fiery benediction fell most bountifully, bore witness to its singular fervency. There were two or three figures visible for an instant on the top of the picketing, one of which I thought was that of the old Señora. A shrill, taunting laugh broke from it, which reminded me of all that would be hideous in the quaverings of a dozen screech-owls united in one prolonged scream; while the arms were tossed wildly to and fro for a moment, and, as we fired, it suddenly disappeared. It was the old Jezebel beyond a doubt. We had been too much discomfited and flurried; it was uncertain whether we had hit any of them! The fact that that infernal laugh still continued to be heard, even above the jubilant triumphing roar of the Mexicans inside, settled this doubt. We had been nicely overreached. A rich scene was now presented. The Colonel was on the ground rolling, writhing and moaning with the pain, while others of the party, in various postures, were making no less expressive demonstrations. There was a strong smell of tallow in the air, and the clothes of the unfortunates rapidly whitened as the fluid cooled, until they looked like anticking ghosts in the moonlight. 66 He, he!" chuckled Bill, who was at my side and had in a great measure escaped, "how hot it is, Colonel-told you she war kin to old Split-foot!" Nothing but his broad-brimmed hat and buckskins had saved the Colonel from instant death; as it was, between the exquisite agony and his baffled rage, he was quite frantic. He howled out a furious imprecation in answer to this quaintly timed jest, and rising, staggered towards Bill, as I thought, with the intention of striking him. He only seized him by the arm and shook him violently, nen thrusting his purple and distorted ace close to that of the Trapper, he said n a sharp whisper, while his lips were perfectly rigid "We'll try it on HER, Bill Johnson!we'll roast her-wont we, Bill-alive." "Kern it no use-she wont burn-but we'll try." Bill said this in a stern, lowered voice, and with something like an expression of hopelessness which struck me as caused by the superstition which had taken hold on him with regard to the old Señora. The men were clamorous-such of them as had been scalded-with ungovernable rage; and cries of "strike a fire," -"run for wood,"-" we'll burn it down,"- burn her up," &c., were followed by immediate action. There was to be no child's play now, I saw; and, indeed, found myself excited as the rest, and justifying the most ferocious extremes of retaliation. In the midst of the curses and clamors, the indomitable Fitz shouted out to some of the tallow-coated sufferers who were most obstreperous Boys, keep cool-don't catch afire you wick-ed fellows; you had better keep yer light under a bushel to-night-we shan't need it, I judge." "Yes, but we shall have the light like a city set upon a hill-wont we?" said the Bravo, laughing, while he struck fire with his flint and steel. There was something very ghastly in this profane wit, but it was sufficiently in keeping with the men and the occasion. Hays, who had been severely scalded, and between the pain and the shame, was more excited than he had ever been known to become before, now went hurrying to and fro to organize the measures for instant attack. Fragments of dried wood and arms-full of moss were brought from the forest close at hand, and piled up against the gate, while the few little huts we have spoken of as on the outside of the picketing which faced the river, were stripped of everything they contained which was inflammable. Boards, beds, cotton garments, &c., were thrown upon the heap, in the coolest disregard of the wailings of their unoffending owners. With the greatest difficulty I managed to prevent them from dragging the bed from under the poor wounded Mexican-concerning my interest in whom I have detailed before. Women and children were fluttering around the scene, making most dismal complainings. As these formidable preparations were now completed, we had time to perceive that everything had become still again in the Rancho. "Fire it up, boys! fire it up! Where's any fire?" These hoarse words from the Colonel sounded startlingly distinct in the sudden pause. "Here it is!" said the Bravo, coming forward with a bundle of blazing moss in his hand. 66 "Look sharp, Bravo," Bill sung out from behind. The old hell-cat's on hand above there!" I looked quickly around. Bill was standing some distance in the rear, on a knoll that commanded a better view of the top of the picketing, and held old Sue in such a position as would enable him to fire at the first movement he saw. At the same moment a low titter was heard from above. "That's she!" gnashed the Colonel, as he drew six-shooter up to his face. We all did the same with our guns. "Shoot a little finger if you see it, boys!" The reckless Bravo, who had not hesitated an instant, or even looked up, was kneeling beside the pile applying the fire, when suddenly three or four figures were jutted above the top profile of the picketto be fired at by our whole platoon and disappear as quickly. Before we had time to wink our eyes, a number of figures appeared again, returned our fire, and sent down a new shower of-hot water this time-upon the Bravo. (They were too cunning to try the inflammable tallow now.) The Colonel's repeater was fired instantly again, and the shriek which followed the second disappearance showed that it was with effect. "No stuffed shirts that time, I reckon!" he chuckled, as he shifted the chambers of his piece. They had drawn our whole fire into shams. " "He he!" shouted Bill, as he loaded. Boys, she's made a tarnal pack o' peagreen fools of us. Half er ye hold fire next time! Listen how the witch-critter sniggers at us!" Sure enough, that pleasant screech was sounding in a sort of spasmodic ecstacy behind the picketing. The Bravo, who was mutely writhing in the "shirt of Nessus" which had been so unceremo |