which emphatically suggest to me, after a fit of ill humour expended in all sorts of vituperative reflections upon the whole vexatious race, that these our erratic fellow-travellers, in our enforced march through life, albeit their frequent stumbles, and the trouble they give us to keep them upward in the right path, spite of their faults and foibles, their failings and our revilings, form an essential and indispensable part and parcel of our home comforts, and it is but a just conclusion-borrowed from the poet's playful admission of the beau sexe-in respect to servants, that we have but to feel the want to acknowledge the need of them, and that

"Howsoe'er we scorn and flout 'em,

We may live with, but cannot live without 'em."

MARKED MEN.

THE great Lord Bacon has recorded his conviction that, individuals bearing upon their persons some natural, or otherwise indelible mark are, for the most part, fortunate in their lives. But, it is unnecessary to remind the intelligent reader (and all our readers are intelligent !) that Bacon wrote-flourished-between two or three hundred years ago, and, without intending any scandal against Queen Elizabeth, whose chancellor, by the way, he became, -we (to adopt the plural unit) we mean to maintain, that opinions, which might have had force as well as foundation in her day, may be-and are at "this present writing," as much out of date as her Maiden-Majesty's ruff; and we are quite sure that had Bacon lived to be older he would have been cured of his skin-deep impression.

We are indisputably wiser than he was by several centuries, and, repudiating his old saw, as having lost its edge by long usage, we are prepared to confute and supersede all such time-serving theories, showing, if not their utter fallacy, at the least, very startling exceptions to the rule laid down by that man of mark and statesman-philosopher, who, whatever data he might have had to go upon, has left no abiding proofs (as we mean to do) whereon to support his bald dictum, which would, in our day, have raised the spotted-boy to the highest pinnacle of earthly glory, instead of his little dotted body being confined, as it was, to one spot in a showman's van. But to our text.

Has it never struck the inquisitive observer, while casting his morning eye over the first page of the Daily Press, that, under the heads of Absconded— Run-away-and Missing the absentee is almost always described as noticeable for some indelible, personal particularity, native or acquired? Some distinguishing trait, some obvious freak of nature, some complexional stain, some mal-conformation, some striking peculiarity or unseemly blur, and in some cases, as if dame Nature had purposely stamped their possessors for erratic pursuits. Or should these born characteristics in any instance fail to be conspicuous, the object in question is sure to bear about him, in lieu of such, some casual but equally indelible blemish, some oddity of dress or manner which points out the fugitive, and renders his iden

tity easy to his pursuers. And these, forsooth, are the men whom Bacon has declared fortunate!

The frequency of our remarks upon this interesting subject led us ultimately into somewhat of a contemplative, philosophical, and philanthropical cast of thought-superinduced by being ourself a marked man-and urged us to enquire the more curiously into the original and prompting cause of such moral defection in such people-which struck us to have something in it not hitherto dreamed of in our philosophy; and, as we have no unreasonable desire (or expectation) to have our positions blindly adopted, or our assertions taken upon trust;-as we possess no swinish obstinacy of character, in short, have nothing like Bacon in our composition (although we wish we had a little of his Attic salt to preserve our writings from their fated oblivion), we proceed to place before our reader the origin and ground of our present speculation and ultimate conclusion.

For some time after our first observations, having, perhaps, as we have hinted, a peculiar interest in such insertions, we occupied ourself in collecting cases from our daily paper under the aforesaid heads; and subsequently, in comparing, and drawing inferences from their agreeing tendency, our speculations, vague and unsubstantial in the beginning, have at length found a solid and abiding ground whereon to build a theory which will not only supersede Bacon's rusty Saw, but show that

marked men are remarkable for an erratic and truant disposition; wherefore, we contend, they should be statistically rated, exempt from personal responsibility, and not amenable to common-law, moral or politic-born, as they doubtless would be found, had Varley consulted their nativity, under an erratic planet, and guided by a fatality which sweeps their way, and marshals them to"-vaIn fact, regulates their irregular walk

grancy. through life.*

But let us proceed to the promised proofs, and place before our now impatient reader some stray specimens of the cases aforesaid, which we take up severally, without selection or regularity as to dates, presenting them, however, in their authentic form, as extracted from the columns of the " Times" and other newspapers.

In September, 1842

Absconded, with sums of money, James Herry" (query, Hurry?). This person is described as having "a delicate complexion, prominent forehead, hair

That excellent artist and eccentric man, the late Mr. John Varley, one day in conversation with the writer, incidentally referred to the last time he was tossed by a bull! and afterwards observed carelessly, in reply to the surprise excited by the apparent recurrence of an accident which seldom befalls people in general not more than once in their lives, if at all—" Oh! I was born under a particular aspect," (that of Taurus, perhaps) "which decreed that I should be often tossed by a bull! It's my fate!"