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independence at the mercy of the powerful governments of Europe If the navy of the North should withdraw its protection, there is not a southern State on the Atlantic or the Gulf, which might not be recolonized by Europe, in six months after the outbreak of ?

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LVI.

MAN'S NATURAL RIGHT TO THE SOIL.

G. A. GROW—1860.

The associations of an independent freehold is eminently calculated to ennoble and elevate the possessor. It is the life-spring of a manly national character, and of a generous patriotism; a patriotism that rushes to the defence of the country and the vindication of its honor, with the same zeal and alacrity that it guards the hearthstone and fireside. Wherever Freedom has unfurled her banner, the men who have rallied around to sustain and uphold it have come from the workshop and the field, where, inured to heat and to cold, and to all the inclemencies of the season, they have acquired the hardihood necessary to endure the trials and privations of the camp. An independent yeomanry, scattered over our vast domain, is the best and surest guarantee for the perpetuity of our liberties; for their arms are the citadel of a nation's power, their hearts the bulwarks of liberty. Let the public domain, then, be set apart and consecrated as a patrimony to the sons of toil; close your land office forever against the speculator, and thereby prevent the capital of the country seeking that kind of investment-from absorbing the hard earnings of labor without rendering an equivalent. While the laborer is thus crushed by a system established by the Government, by which so large an amount is abstracted from his earnings for the benefit of the speculator, in addition to all the other disadvantages that ever beset the unequal struggle between the bones and sinews of men and dollars and cents, what wonder is it that misery and

want so often sit at his fireside, and penury and sorrow surround his death bed?

While the pioneer spirit goes forth into the wilderness, snatching new areas from the wild beast and bequeathing them a legacy to civilized man, let not the Government dampen his ardor and palsy his arm by legislation that places him in the power of soulless capital and grasping speculation; for upon his wild battle-field these are the only foes that his own stern heart and right arm cannot vanquish.

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And situated

Upon the say:

'Tis nate and dacent And quite adjacent To come from Cork

On a summer's day.
There you may slip in,
To take a dipping
Forenent the shipping
That at anchor ride;

Or in a wherry
Cross o'er the ferry
To "Carrigaloe,"

On the other side.

Mud cabins swarm in
This place so charming,
And sailors' garments
Hung out to dry;
And each abode is

Snug and commodious,
With pigs melodious

In the straw-built sty.

And lots of murphies,

Dead sprats and herrings

And oyster-shells;

Nor any lack, O!

Of good tobacco

Though what is smuggled
By far excels.

There are ships from Cadiz,
And from Barbadoes
But the leading trade is

In whiskey-punch;
And you may go in
Where one, Molly Bowen,
Keeps a nate hotel,

For a quiet lunch.
But land or deck on
You may safely reckon,
Whatsoever country

You come hither from

On an invitation

To a jollification

With a parish priest

That's called "Father Tom."

Of ships there's one fixed
For lodging convicts-
A floating "stone jug"
Of amazing bulk;
The hake and salmon,
Playing at back gammon,
Swim for divarsion

All round this hulk.

There "Saxon" jailors
Keep brave repailers
Who soon with sailors

Must anchor weigh—
From th' Em'rald Island
Ne'er to see dry land
Until they spy land

In sweet Bot'ny Bay.

LVIII.

THE "PROFESSOR OF SIGNS; OR, TWO WAYS OF TELLING A STORY."

When James VI removed to London he was waited on by the Spanish Ambassador who had a crotchet in his head that there should be a Professor of Signs in every Kingdom."

He lamented to the King one day that no country in Europe had such a Professor, and that even for himself he was thus deprived of the pleasure of communicating his ideas in that manner. The King replied:

"Why, I have a Professor of Signs in the northernmost College of my dominion, at Aberdeen, but it is a great way off, perhaps six hundred miles."

"Were it ten thousand leagues off, I shall see him, and am determined to set out in two or three days."

The King saw he had committed himself, and wrote to the University of Aberdeen, stating the case, and asking the Professors to put him off in some way, or make the best of him.

The Ambassador arrived-was received with great solemnity and soon inquired which of them had the honor to be Professor of Signs. He was told the Professor was absent in the Highlands, and would return nobody could tell when.

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"I will await his return though it be a year."

Seeing that this would not do, as they had to entertain him at great expense, they contrived a strategem.

I

There was one Sandy, a butcher, blind in one eye, a droll fellow, with some wit and roguery about him. They told him the story, instructed him to be a Professor of Signs; but not to speak a word under pain of losing the promised five pounds for his success.

To the great joy of the Ambassador, he was informed that the Professor would be home the next day.

Sandy was dressed in a wig and gown, and placed in a Chair of State in one of the college halls. The Ambassador was conducted to Sandy's door and shown in, while all the Professors waited in another room in suspense and with anxiety for the success of their scheme.

The Ambassador approached Sandy and held up one finger, Sandy held up two; the Ambassador held up three, Sandy clenched his fist and looked stern. The Ambassador then took an orange from his pocket and held it up, Sandy took a barley-cake from his pocket and held that. The Ambassador then bowed and returned to the other Professors, who anxiously inquired the result.

"He is a wonderful man, a perfect miracle of knowledge; he is worth all the wealth of the Indies."

"Well," inquired the Professors, "tell us the particulars."

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'Why," the Ambassador replied, "I held up one finger, denoting there is one God; he held up two, signifying that there are Father and Son. I held up three to indicate the Holy Trinity; he clenched his fist to show that these three are one. I then showed him an orange, to illustrate the goodness of God in giving to his creatures the luxuries as well as the necessaries of life; and this most wonderful philosopher presented a piece of bread to show that the staff of life is preferable to every luxury."

The Professors were, of course, highly delighted, and the Ambassador departed for London to thank the King for the honor of knowing a Professor of Signs.

The Professors then called upon Sandy to give his version of the interview.

"The rascal!" said Sandy. "What do you think he did first? He held up one finger, as much as to say, you have only one eye.

Then I held up two, to show that I could see as much with one as he could with two. And then the fellow held up three fingers, to say that we had but three eyes between us. That made me mad, and I doubled up my fist to give him a whack for his impudence, and I would have done it but for my promise to you not to offend him. Yet that was not the end of his provocations; but he showed me an orange, as much as to say, your poor, rocky, beggarly, cold country cannot produce that. I showed him an oat meal bannock that I had in my pocket to let him know that I did na' care a farthing for all his trash, and signs neither, sae lung as I hae this. And, by all that's guid, I'm angry yet that I did not thrash the hide off the scoundrel."

So much for two ways of understanding a thing.

LIX.

THE PICKET GUARD.

a "All quiet along the Potomac, they say,
Except now and then a stray picket
Shot on his beat as he walks two and fro,
By a rifleman in the thicket.

'Tis nothing-a private or two now and then
Will not count in the news of the battle,
Not an officer lost-only one of the men,
Moaning out, all alone, the death rattle."

All quiet along the Potomac to-night,

Where the soldiers lie peacefully dreaming,
Their tents in the rays of the clear Autumn moon,
Or the light of clear camp-fires gleaming,

A tremulous sigh, as the gentle night wind
Through the forest leaves softly is creeping.
While stars up above with their glittering eyes,
Keep guard for our army is sleeping.

There's only the sound of the lone sentry's tread
As he tramps from the rock to the fountain,

a Spoken roughly, like a soldier. b Pure Narrative, with expression.

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