faithful slaves rub their own clear of any lurking drowsiness; and then tug their respective mistresses by the toe or the shoulder, to rouse them up to perform the ablutional devotions usual at the dawn of day. All start mechanically, as if touched by a spell; and then commences the splashing of water, and the muttering of prayers; presenting a singular contrast to the vivacious scene of a few hours before. This duty over, the fair devotees shake their feathers like birds from a refreshing shower; and tripping lightly forward, with garments, and, perhaps, looks, a little the worse for the wear of the preceding evening, plunge at once again, into all the depths of its amusements. Coffee, sweetmeats, kaliouns, as before, accompanying every obstreperous repetition of the midnight song and dance; and all being followed up by a plentiful breakfast of rice, meats, fruits, &c., towards noon the party separate; after having spent between fifteen and sixteen hours in this riotous festivity. Original Poetry. SONGS. THE LAST ROSE OF SUMMER. AH, look upon those withered flowers, A sun-beam pass'd and kissed those flowers, A wind breathed by and waked the lyre, The lute lay broken on the ground! These things are emblems of my heart; You taught me first love's happiness, LOVE'S LAST WORDS. Light be around thee, hope be thy guide; Bright be the hearth, may the eyes you love best Be thy life like glad music which flonteth away But yet while thy moments in melody roll, And yet let the shadow of sorrowing be Paragraphs. ORIGINAL ANECDOTES-LITERARY NEWS-REMARKABLE INCIDENTS, &C. On the most correct documents it is calculated that no less than one hundred thousand human creatures are likely to fall victims in Ireland, to Famine or Fever, in many cases to both; and if means are not immediately applied, other parts of Ireland, as well as the South and West, will most likely soon be visited with the same shocking scene of men, women, and children, living, or endeavouring to live, on the leaves of trees, sea weeds, and other vegetables, on which horses and dogs cannot be preserved alive in consequence, the typhus fever is sweeping off hundreds of our fellow-creatures, where famine has not done so. CANOVA'S DEAD CHRIST. Canova is executing at Rome a new group of figures regresenting a dead Christ, the Virgin, and Mary Magdalene. The same subject has often been treated by artists, and, among others, by M. Angelo. It is, however, asserted, that Canova bears away the palm from all. ANECDOTES. Posthumous Travels.-The Royal Prussian General, Meine von Minutolt, lately made a scientific tour through Egypt and Syria, where he formed an excellent collection of Egyptian antiquities, and got safely from Alexandria to Trieste, where they were placed on board a vessel, to be conveyed to Berlin ria Hamburgh. During one of the late violent storms, the ship was unfortunately wrecked, between Heligoland and Cuxhaven. A few light boxes, containing mummies, were lately driven ashore on the coast of Balje, in the dukedom of Bremen. The country people, on opening them, were not a little terrified on finding that they contained dead bodies-which they immediately buried. The mummies have, however, been dug up, and delivered to the Prussian authorities. ALOYS REDING. When the French armies entered Switzerland, at the commencement of the revolution, Aloys Reding resumed the sword in favour of his country, and performed many splendid actions. But the armies of his enemies were too numerous, and treachery and cowardice thinned his own ranks. At length the time arrived which was to decide the issue of the contest. Certain death appeared to await the whole band of heroic Swiss. On the sublime heights of Morgarten, Reding appeared at the head of his troops. Morgarten had been a theatre for the performance of great actions; and calling to mind the When the chieftain had finished his SPIDER THREAD. It had long been a question among philosophers, whether it was possible to render the labours of the spider subservient to the benefit of mankind. In the earlier part of the last century, this question was partially solved by M. Bon of Languedoc, who fabricated a pair of stockings and a pair of gloves, from the threads of spiders. They were nearly as strong as silk, and of a beautiful grey colour. The predatory habits of the spider, how. ever, would seem to oppose an effectual barrier to their being bred up in sufficient numbers to render such a manufactory at all productive. The following arguments against the probability of any real or permanent advantage resulting from this attempt were published by Reaumur, whom the Royal Academy, had deputed to inquire into the matter. The natural fierceness of spiders renders them unfit to be bred and kept together. Four or five thousand being distributed in cells, fifty in some, one or two hundred in others, the big ones soon killed and eat the smaller ones, so that in a short time there were scarcely one or two left in each cell; and to the inclination of devouring their own species is attributed the scarcity of spiders, when compared with the vast number of eggs they lay. Reaumur also affirms, that the web of the spider is inferior in strength and lustre to that of the silk worm, and produces less of the material fit for use. The thread of the spider's web can only bear a weight of two grains without breaking; and the bag sustains the weight of thirty six grains. The thread of a silk worm will bear two drams and a half, so that five threads of the spider are necessary to form a cord equal to that of a silk-worm; and as it would be impossible to apply these so closely together as to avoid leaving any empty spaces from which the light would not be reflected, the lustre would consequently be considerably less. This was noticed at the time the stockings were presented to the society by M. de la Hire. It was further observed, that spiders afford less silk than silk-worms, the largest bags of the latter weighing four grains, the smaller three grains, so that 2,304 worms produce a pound of silk. The bags of a spider weighs about one grain; when cleared of the dust and filth they lose about two thirds of that weight. The work of twelve spiders therefore, only equals that of one silk-worm, and a pound of silk will require, at least 27,648 spiders. But as bags are solely the work of the females, who spin them to deposit their eggs in, there must be kept 55,296 spiders to yield one pound of silk; and this will apply to good ones on ly, the spiders in gardens barely yielding a twelfth part of the silk of the domestic kinds. Two hundred and eighty of them would not produce more than one silkworm; and 663,555 such spiders, would scarcely yield a pound of silk! FRUIT TREES IN GERMANY. In the Duchy of Gotha, there are many villages which obtain a rent of two or three hundred dollars, or more for their fruit trees planted on the road side, and on the commons. Every new married couple is bound to plant two young fruit trees. The rent is applied to parochial purposes. In order to preserve the plantations from injury, the inhabitants of the parish are all made answerable, each of whom is thus a watch upon the other; and if any one is caught in the act of committing any injury, all the damage done in the same year the authors of which cannot be discovered, is attributed to him, and he is compelled to atone for it according to its extent, either by fine or corporal punishment. SECOND SIGHT. Mr. Editor. Having seen in the Literary Gazette an extract from Colonel Stewart's admirable work,† mentioning an extraordinary instance of second sight occurring to a gentleman in 1773, I cannot forbear relating a conversation which I held with a young man at Brecon, S. Wales, within two years, on a vision seen by him and his father's servant at the same time, and therefore the more extraordinary. Mr. told me that he was walking from his own home to a village four or five miles distant, one afternoon, on some business which required the farming servant to accompany him; just as they came to the bridge which there crosses the Usk, they perceived a funeral procession, and he expressed some surprise to the man that they had never heard of any death in the neighbourhood, and they began to guess who it could be. The funeral advanced; they saw various people, both on horseback and on foot, with whom they were perfectly well acquainted, and with whom they would have spoken on any other occasion; and these persons came so near to them, that they found it necessary to stand close up into one of the corners* of the bridge. When the funeral had gone past they proceeded, and soon reaching the toll bar, enquired of the man who lived there, whose funeral it was they had He replied, no met on the bridge? + See Ath. p. 221. The bridges in S. Wales are generally built with abutments, which form triangular recesses on the bridge. funeral had passed that day, nor had he heard of any person in the neighbourhood being dead. In great surprise, they eagerly mentioned the names of various persons, especially those on horseback, who lived in the neighbourhood; he knew them well, but declared positively they had not passed the bar that day, and it was not possible for them to have gone over the bridge without doing so. Two or three days after this, a gentleman farmer in the neighbourhood died,and the man at the toll-bar through which the funeral passed, said it was attended by the same persons in the same situation described to him by these two men, so far as he could judge; and several of them Mr. (the relater) declared he had seen and questioned, and they told him that they had attended the funeral mounted, or dressed, in the very way himself and his father's servant described them; but that on the evening when the vision took place, they were employed in their ordinary occupations. The young gentleman from whom I received this account was well educated, and of good family. He appeared to be two or three and twenty years of age; was at that time improving himself in a solicitor's office of great respectability, and lived in the house where we had lodged for some weeks. There was nothing in his conversation or conduct which indicated either humour or fancy; still less was there in him the appearance of melancholy or superstition; he was rather a dashy young man, who would have laughed at the story from another person. He was by no means forward to relate this circumstance; but being asked to do so by lady in the room, in consequence of some conversation which had arisen, he did so in a plain and manly way; as one who sincerely wished the thing had never happened to him, but could conscientiously repeat the facts and assert them. I enquired the time when this took place; he said it was between five and six o'clock in a summer evening, the year before, viz. 1819. I then said, May I ask, sir, if you were perfectly well at the time, and if you had dined? He replied, "I dined with my mother at two o'clock, and might have taken a single glass of wine with her or not, I cannot recollect,but certainly not more. I was as well as I am now, and when the funeral first appeared, was speaking to the man on the business we were going upon, and had no thoughts in my mind whatever, nor had either of us the slightest idea that we had not seen a common funeral, until we were compelled to give it up by the toll-keeper, and many other people on the road, who must inevitably have seen it as ourselves; nor did any funeral take place in the neighbourhood until the one I have mentioned, about a week afterwards. To the circumstances I have mentioned I can safely take my oath, and so can the man that accompanied me, who is well known as a very honest fellow, and still in our service.” There were many names mentioned and incidents particularized in this story, which I have either forgotten, or remember insufficiently for recapitulation; but this is the substance, and is too remarkable to be forgotten, or in my opinion accounted for by any ordinary elucidation; and being completely before us as to the time, persons, and place, has, at least, the advantage of being fairly examined. SUPERSTITION. The age of miracle has not followed the age of chivalry into oblivion. A very recent Continental Journal (June 1822) contains and Council of Bossagues, that on the 12th the affidavit of M. Donnadieu, the Mayor of last May, a girl of fifteen years of age, paralytic for more than three years, was miraculously cured on the day of the festival of St. Fulcran, the patron saint of the place. PUNS. A Waterman the other day boasting of the proficiency of some of his pupils in the now fashionable art of rowing, declared that one of them was so expert, he would a wit," he must be a Ro-man.” soon "make a man of him," "Then," said Puns do not deserve the reproaches heaped upon them; they enliven society; and we have heard hundreds of them in compaBad or good, here are two. În a parnies where no pocket was ever picked.ty, chiefly of medical gentlemen, discussing the power of animals to communicate hydrophobia, it was asserted by a learned Doctor, that the infection had been Many inferences were made from this fact, communicated in one instance by a duck. ill an extra-professional visitor observed, that the strongest lesson he could draw from it was, to "beware of Quacks." THE QUAKERS. Notwithstanding that the principles of the Quakers will not allow them to sanction war, much less to contribute to its support, unless when compelled, yet in the rebellion of 1745, a deputation of this society waited on Sir W. Yonge and Lord Ligonier, with an offer to furnish, at their own expense, to the troops employed in his majesty's service during the winter in the north, a supply of woollen waistcoats to be worn under their other clothing. The offer was accepted. DUCHESS OF BOLTON. Lavinia Fenton (afterwards Duchess of Bolton) was tempted by Rich from theHaymarket to Lincoln's Inn Fields, in 1728, by a salary of fifteen shillings per week: on the success of the Beggar's Opera, to secure this valuable actress, he raised it to thirty shillings! and such was the rage of the town respecting her, that she was obliged to be guarded home every night by a considerable party of her confidential friends, to prevant her being run away with. ORIGINAL LETTERS. ANNE CLIFFORD, COUNTESS OF DORSET, PEMBROKE, AND MONTGOMERY. The letter, which she is said to have written to Sir Joseph Williamson, then secretary of state, who sent to nominate to her a member for the borough of Appleby, was first printed in a paper written by Lord Oxford for The World, and again introduced by that noble writer, in his article relative to this high-spirited woman. "I have been bullied by an usurper; I have been neglected by a court; but 1 will not be dictated to by a subject; your man shan't stand. "Anne, Dorset, Pembroke, and Montgomery." We have given place to the above, by way of introducing two other letters not generally known, one by a royal, the other from a humble, personage. The first is from Queen Elizabeth to Heton, Bishop of Ely, who, it seems, had promised to exchange some part of the land belonging to his newly-acquired see, for a pretended equivalent; but demurred when he entered on the office, either from a hope of enjoying his dignity without the penalty, or from a sense of shame at so palpable an injustice towards the church, probably the latter, because the letter is said to be preserved in the Episcopal Register of Ely, as a sort of proof of the compulsion. "Proud Prelate, I understand you are backward in complying with your agreement: but I would have you know, that I who made you what you are, can unmake you; and if you do not forthwith fulfil your engagement, by God! I will immediately unfrock you. Your's, as you demean yourself, "ELIZABETH." We know not what punishment will be inflicted on us for inserting, as a climax to these royal and noble epistles, the letter of an unfortunate lieutenant of foot; but it seems to us so characteristic, and so spirited a composition, that our readers shall have it. The billet was found by the Secretary at War on his table, after the loss of Minorca to the French, and is perfect of its kind. "SIR-I was a Lieutenant with General Stanhope when he took Minorca, for which he was made a Lord. I was a Lieutenant with General Blackney when he lost Minorca, for which he was made a Lord. still. I am a Lieutenant Sir, &c. &c. A. B." DIFFERENT KINDS OF FEAR. When the British under Lord Nelson were bearing down to attack the combined fleets of Trafalgar, the first Lieutenant of the Revenge, on going to see that all hands were at their quarters, observed one of the men devoutly kneeling at the side of his gun; so very unusual an attitude in an English sailor exciting his surprise and cu riosity, he went and asked the man if he was afraid?" Afraid!", answered the honest tar, with a countenance expressive of the utmost disdain, "No: I was only praying that the enemy's shot may be distributed in the same proportion as the prize money, the greatest part among the officers." When the brave Corporal Caithness was asked after the battle of Waterloo if he was not afraid, he replied, "Afraid! why I was in all the battles of the Peninsula!" and ly related to a fear of losing the day, he having it explained that the question meresaid, "Na, na, I did na fear that! I was only afraid we should be all killed before we had time to win it." BRITISH CARPENTER. On the surrender of Lord Cornwallis in the revolutionary war of America, the crew of the Loyalist, a frigate of 22 guns, was immediately conveyed to the Count de Grasse's fleet. Of that fleet, the Ardent, captured off Plymouth, made one, but she |