dealings in trade, and his unexceptionable private life. On one occasion he was asked at his barber's, on which side of two political parties he was going to vote, at an election to be holden that day. He replied, with something of a flush on his countenance, that he believed he should avoid voting on either side; such had hitherto been his practice. 'Yes, I guess it has!' whispered a man in the chair, as he arrested the barber's hand, and wiped the soap-foam from his lips; 'fact is, he can't vote. He was three years in the state-prison!' Now this was the fact. He had been three years immured in the penitentiary of a neighboring State, for a crime committed in the heat of passion, and he has to many friends given an account of the mental agony which he endured on first entering the institution. It was not so much the physical suffering; the tedious, sleepless nights in his narrow cell; the sorrowful silence in which he plied his incessant and thankless labor; his coarse and scanty food; not so much these, as the companionship of the hardened wretches around him, whose crimes he could only imagine from the character of their faces, as he caught glimpses of their features in the turning of a gang in marching, or in the chapel on the Sabbath. The degradation of spirit it was that almost broke his heart. It mattered little,' he thought, 'how much he might be abused, what insolence of office he might suffer, or how deeply the iron in the dungeon might enter into his soul. Who would care for the unhappy convict? If he should repent and become a reformed man, no one would believe him, no one would employ him; and he would be compelled to give proof of his moral improvement by suffering starvation unto death." For the first two or three weeks, he was almost mad with the intensity of his mental suffering; and he remained in this state until one Sabbath morning, when the keeper, who was a Churchman by persuasion, permitted the Episcopal service to be read to the prisoners, at the request of a young relation, who was a student at a neighboring theological seminary. 'Never,' has our informant often heard the ci-devant state-prisoner say, 'never shall I forget the effect of one of those blessed prayers upon my mind. It taught me that I was not utterly forgotten and cast away, in my desolate abode.' The prayer runs as follows: 'O GOD, who sparest when we deserve punishment, and in thy wrath rememberest mercy, we humbly beseech thee of thy goodness to comfort and succor all those who are under reproach and misery in the house of bondage: correct them not in thine anger, neither chasten them in thy sore displeasure. Give them a right understanding of themselves, and of thy threats and promises; that they may neither cast away their confidence in thee, nor place it any where but in Thee. Relieve the distressed, protect the innocent, and awaken the guilty; and forasmuch as thou alone bringest light out of darkness and good out of evil, grant that the pains and punishments which these thy servants endure, through their bodily confinement, may tend to setting free their souls from the chains of sin; through JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.'・・・ THE Pinch for Snuffers' was long ago anticipated by the lamented OLLAPOD, in an article on 'American Ptyalism.' There are 'statistics' in the present paper, however, which we do not remember to have encountered before; for example: If the practice of moderate snuff-taking be persisted in for forty years, it has been correctly ascertained that two entire years of the snuff-taker's life will be dedicated to tickling his nose, and two more to blowing it! If time is money, therefore, is n't snuff-taking a habit which costs more than it comes to?' Perhaps so; but for all that, we say, let the devotees of the dust enjoy their 'sneezin', as it is termed in Scotland; for to them its titillations are most delici-ishi-ishi-ishious! . . . WE are sorry to be compelled to decline the elaborate article of our Charleston correspondent, who desires an allusion to his paper in this department of our Magazine. It has been well said, by one whom we are sure our contributor would consider authority, that the wisdom as well as the common feelings that belong to such subjects, lie upon the surface in a few plain and broad lines. There is a want of genius in being very ingenious about them; and it belongs to talents of the second order to proceed with a great apparatus of reasoning. We may be wrong; but it has occurred to us, that the great defect in the written efforts of many clever newspaper and magazine essayists of the South, consists in their being 'elaborated to tenuity, or argued to confusion.'. . . AMONG the publications received too late for notice in the present number, are Geological Cosmogony; or an examination of the geological theory of the origin and antiquity of the earth, and of the causes and object of the changes it has undergone; by a Layman: Mr. ROBERT CARTER, at 58 Canalstreet, publisher; the Spanish Guide for Conversation and Commerce, in two parts; being a Sequel to the author's Spanish Grammar and Translator: by JULIO SOLER, one of our most successful and popular Spanish teachers; a prospectus of a work entitled' Annals and Occurrences of New-York City and State in the Olden Time;' being a collection of memoirs, anecdotes, and incidents, concerning the city, country, and inhabitants, from the days of the founders; intended to exhibit society in its changes of manners and customs, and the city and country in their local changes and improvements; with pictorial illustrations; Mrs. CHILD'S Letters from New-York ;'

and Dr. PEREIRA's new work on food and diet, with observations on the dietetical regimen, suited for disordered states of the digestive organs; and an account of the dietaries of some of the principal metropolitan and other establishments or paupers, lunatics, children, the sick, etc., etc. We have heard this work highly commended by competent judges; but to our humble conception, there is something very auldwifeish in publishing a book to tell people how to devour their food. There is no mystery in the matter. Hunger and thirst are simple, strait-forward instincts, not likely to be much improved by artificial erudition. We have late numbers of the Rivista Ligure,' of Genoa, for which we are indebted to the courtesy of our consul at that capital. Brief notices of the following works are in type: Usury;' THOMSON'S DAY'S Algebra,' The New Purchase,' The Karen Apostle,' etc. . . . OUR readers have lately had an opportunity of enjoying several of the early prose-papers of the gifted SANDS. Here are a few pleasant poetical extracts from a New Year's Address, written seventeen years ago, touching among other things upon ADAMS's election, the great Erie Canal celebration, KEAN's reception at Boston, hard times, broken banks, etc.:

THE next thing that deserves reflection
Is Mr. ADAMS, his election:

With which we all must be content,

And say 'GoD bless the President."
How far his talents may be great
The aforesaid Poet cannot state;
All that he knows of his abilities,
Is that he interchanged civilities
With him one morning at the Hall,

When he shook hands with great and small;
And also got some punch and vivers
The Corporation gave to divers.

You all do know that the last stitch
Of work is done on the Big Ditch;
And saw, no doubt, the grand procession
That was got up on the occasion;
When soldiers, tailors, printers, furriers,
Free-masons, soap boilers, and curriers,
Cordwainers, college-boys, and bakers,
Butchers, and saddle-and-harness-makers,
Boat builders, coppersmiths, and tanners,
Walked forth with badges and with banners,
And every other craft and mystery,
(A show unparallelled in history.)

The Poet had no place assigned

In the parade with his own kind;
He stood apart amid the squinters,
The carrier trudged among the printers,
Distributing from time to time

Small odes that were pronounced sublime.
The Poet also was worse slighted,
Not being to the Hook invited;

Of course he has no just conception

Of the Lake's marriage with old Neptune,
Or if the salt sea felt compunction
With the fresh lake to make a junction;
Or whether Neptune took the sense
Of Doctor MITCHELL'S eloquence;
But all who witnessed the solemnity,
Returned from sea with full indemnity,
Pleased with the punch, the sail and speeching,
Returning thanks they had no reaching,
Or collapsed flues to spoil the pleasure,
Although they steamed beyond all measure.

The child that is unborn may rue,
He did not live that day to view.

6

To mention now we can't refrain
How naughty KEAN came back again,
Despite of many a rotten pippin,
Contrived his ancient orb to keep in,
And (such the morals of the age !)
Once more to re-usurp the stage;
Acquiring bravos, praise, and pelf,
And Richard is again himself."
But when to Boston bold he went,
The winter of their discontent'
Began to blow with so much force.
He gave his kingdom for a horse,"
And galloped off at such a pace,

As if six Richmonds' were in chase.

But hark! a voice! a voice of squalling:
Cotton is falling-falling-falling!
Credit grows low, and faith is shaking,
Banks won't discount, and firms are breaking:
Dead lies the Eagle of New-Haven,

And many honest fks are shaven;

Stopped are the Lombard and the Derby,

And many people suffering thereby.

Cash has grown scarce, and none can know it
Better than him the carrier's poet,
Who having in the funds no money
Looks on the moil as rather funny.
He to whom scarce for ever cash is
Little regards the daily smashes;
But what of this? the radiant sun
Will shine as he has always done,
And round, and round him as of old,
The earth her annual course will hold;
Eyes will be bright, and hearts be gay.
At ball, at opera, and play:

As sweetly to the brilliant ring,
The syren of the stage will sing:
And the full burst of melody

Will soar, as strong, as clear, as high,
Though hearts are broke, and hopes have fled,
And you have failed, and I go dead;
And suns will set, and moons will vary,
And men die, as is ordinary.

'The Clubs of New-York' we recognize to be from the pen of a lady. She writes, however, of clubs as they exist in London, not in this metropolis, where they are few, and far less exacting of the time and affections of their members. We quite agree with our fair correspondent in her animadversions upon the devotion which they attract from the heads of families. Mrs. MALAPROP argues that married men ought to give up their clubs, 'because HERCULES gave up his when he got spliced!' ... A WORD to our friend 'H.' at 'H-, on the Hudson: We have long cherished the intention to avail ourselves of your kind offer; but we shall lay down no more pieces of stone in the infernal pavement. Cordial thanks, however, in any event... Lucy' is a very good versificatrix, but she greatly lacks condensation. Try again; and 'take your time, Miss Lucy.'... 'NEANIAS,' of Danville, Kentucky, is again unsuccessful. 'Tis true 'tis pity, and pity 't is 't is true.' Let him not be discouraged, however. PERHAPS our musical readers will relish a little intelligence 'from the other side,' touching their favorite science. We learn from that mad wag, PUNCH, that the society of Musical Antiquaries have traced the origin of Scottish Minstrelsy to Norway; so that it is possible the lays of BURNS are remotely connected with the Scandinavian SCALDS. We hear also of a remarkable concert given by an artist to whom a distinguished maestro had bequeathed his sheet-iron fiddle. 'He has all the rapidity and tone

...

of his master, and equals every other great solo-player of the day, in never knowing when to 'leave off!' 'THE beautiful sentence quoted in your last' Gossip,'' writes a correspondent, "That charity which Plenty gives to Poverty is human and earthly, but it becomes divine and heavenly when Poverty gives to Want,' has recalled to my mind an old song, which L-should be glad to see in your pages:

In the course of an article, some passages of which appear in preceding pages, an imaginary GIFFORD lashes MILTON for his careless and ungrammatical style, his awkward ellipses, etc.; but even these are turned to beauties in his hands. What could be more forcible and striking than the last of the three following lines?— and yet who but MILTON could brave such an indefensible ellipsis? It is not unlike that sublime grammatical error, 'Angels and GoD is here!' which few would venture to correct:

'Should GoD create another Eve,

And I another rib afford, yet loss of thee
Would never from my heart.'

THE following papers are either filed for insertion or under consideration: the second and concluding part of the Innocent Galley-Slave; Fiorello's Fiddlestick;''Thoughts on Immortality; Letter from Boston;' 'Lines to Fanny;' 'The Doomed Ship;' 'On the Death of a Class-mate;' 'A Fourth of July Excursion;' 'Chronicles of the Past;' Lines by 'B. F. R.' 'Exercises of the Alumnæ of the Albany Female Academy,' etc. 'The Floral Resurrection' shall take place when the Spring-time o' the year is coming.' By a careless oversight, the beautiful lines of our favorite IONE, although in type, were excluded from the present number.

GILES'S ORATION BEFORE THE NATCHEZ FENCIBLES.-A thin, brief pamphlet lies before us, containing an oration delivered at Natchez, (Miss.,) on the fourth of July last, before the corps of the 'Natchez Invincibles' and other citizens, by WILLIAM MASON GILES, Esq. We regard it with favor and with dislike. Its spirit is truly American, patriotic, in all respects unexceptionable, and most honorable to the writer. Its style, however, is not creditable to the writer's taste it is in many parts of the oration stilted and inflated. There is a lack of care and revision also; but this may be attributed to the great haste and bodily disability which we are informed attended its production, and which indeed we cannot doubt; since in the brief letter which announces the yielding of the orator to the solicitations of his friends, of a copy for publication, there are at least two errors which would favor a verdict of damages in an action for assault and battery upon old PRISCIAN. We allude to the substitution of 'will' for 'shall,' and vice versa. Speaking of days sacred to Liberty, the Sabbath-days of Freedom, the orator remarks: 'All nations, where freedom and knowledge have found an asylum, have had such anniversaries; days when the strife and bustle of business have ceased; when all cares being laid aside, and every energy concentered and tuned in unison to the jubilant strain which should arise from hearts grateful to the past for its valor and virtue, and, nerved for the future, prepared to transmit to posterity the precious casket of freedom unsullied by any cloud of dishonor, and unsoiled by any losel whether from domestic or foreign hands. A style like this 'permeates the inmost recesses' of the realms of taste, Mr. GILES, VOL. XXII.

37

6 allow us to say.' A common error is here forcibly alluded to by the orator: We are apt to talk of our release from Great Britain on the fourth of July, 1776, as a 'liberation from slavery.' We never were in slavery. As men, as Anglo-Saxons, as subjects of the British empire, we, in this country, were always freemen, and never yielded our birth-right; it was the attempt to curtail our rights, to interfere with our domestic polity, and to check our career of greatness, that led to the Declaration of Independence; but the eternal and immutable truths of that sacred instrument were written upon our hearts, were embodied in the colonial charters and institutions, were the household words of the nation for generations before they were penned by a committee of Congress. Every where, for a century and more previous to the date of our Independence, in the primary assemblies of the people, in the legislative halls, in judicial tribunals, from the press, and by word of mouth, the colonists knew and proclaimed their rights; and thus Great Britain came to believe that we were determined on severing every tie which bound us to the land from whence we came. Does this look like slavery?' We commend this oration warmly to our readers, for its truly American tendency and spirit.

'LIFE AND SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY.'-Two superb volumes thus entitled, executed in a style of typographical neatnesss which would be remarkable in any other press save that of the printer, DICKINSON of Boston, have just been issued by Messrs. ROBERT P. BIXBY AND COMPANY of this city. They reach us at a late hour; leaving us only time and space to state, that here, in addition to a copious biography, are gathered together a far larger and better collection of Mr. CLAY'S public performances than has heretofore been given to the public. The speeches, addresses, etc., amount to eighty in number; and cover all the ground, and embrace all the prominent events, of his public life. No labor,' says the compiler, in an inflated and carelessly written preface, 'has been spared in seeking for them; and it is believed that few if any which have been reported will be found wanting in the collection.' A brief but comprehensive memoir is prefixed to each, illustrative of the subject and occasion on which it was delivered, and the fate of the question. Mr. CLAY's eloquence, however, is said to be of that order, that no written or verbal report of his words can do any justice to it. The ease of his delivery, the music of his unsurpassed voice, and the 'grace beyond the reach of art' which characterizes his carriage and gesture, are described as calculated to win the applause of all who have ever had the good fortune to hear him in public debate. We must not neglect to notice the pictorial attractions of these volumes. They contain a full-length portrait of Mr. CLAY; a view of his birth-place in Virginia; of his present seat at Ashland, Kentucky; and of the fine monument erected in his honor, near Wheeling, Virginia; the whole transferred to steel from original paintings, by our excellent engraver, Mr. DICK. The volumes are destined to a wide sale.

'THE BLAND PAPERS.'- We have received from the hands of Mr. H. BARNUM, of Virginia, a copy of a handsome book, of some two hundred and ninety pages, printed at Petersburg, Virginia, bearing the title of 'The BLAND Papers; being a selection from the manuscripts of THEODORICK BLAND, Jr., of Prince George county, Virginia. To which are prefixed an Introduction, and a Memoir of Colonel BLAND. Edited by CHARLES CAMPBELL.' The volumes before us contain a great number of important manuscripts and letters connected with our revolutionary struggle, written by persons of the highest distinction, from General WASHINGTON downward, whose confidence and friendship, we may add, Colonel BLAND had the happiness to enjoy, without abatement or interruption, during his whole life. We anticipate no small degree of pleasure from the perusal of these rare and accidentally-discovered documents. The work is divided into three parts, with an appendix. The three parts consist wholly of letters; the appendix comprises not only letters but other miscellaneous writings, such as military orders, congressional papers, etc. The first part is composed of correspondence held prior to the revolutionary war; the second part of correspondence held during the war; and the third part of correspondence held subsequently. The BLAND Papers' are on sale in this city at Messrs. BARTLETT AND WELFORD's, Number seven, Astor-House.

NEW POEM, BY ROBERT TYLER, ESQ.-The Brothers HARPER have published, quite in a model style of drawing-paper and typography, a poem by ROBERT TYLER, Esq., entitled 'Death, or Medorus' Dream.' We receive the volume at the moment of closing our pages, and have not as yet found time to examine it with a leisurely eye. If we may judge of its character, however, from the extract entitled 'Death,' which appeared originally in these pages, and which was widely copied and commended, we may safely predict that the poem will find favor with the public, and add to the author's reputation. We shall recur to the volume on another and more convenient occasion.

THE old town of Ipswich, in the Bay State, exhibits many rare relics of antiquity. Purchased under the title of Agawam, in the early settlement of the colony, and granted in the year 1632 to twelve freeholders who made oath of their 'intention of settlement,' it dates back its origin among the very first townships of NewEngland. At that time, and for many years afterward, it was the northern frontier of Massachusetts, and was constantly exposed to the attacks of the tribes of Indians in its neighborhood. Though its population was composed mostly of tillers of the soil, the buildings, unlike all other farming towns of the commonwealth, were erected for common safety upon a single street; and even to this day its sturdy yeomanry live in town, though the farms they cultivate are many of them miles distant in the country.

The old street is still in existence, and we venture to say that it has not its parallel in all New-England. Antique domicils, exhibiting the English architectural style of the seventeenth century; sturdy block-houses, erected to defend the early settlers from the hostile incursions of the crafty foe; barns, shops, and crazy woodsheds, leaning and trembling in extreme decrepitude; and chairs, tables, bureaus, bedsteads, and pictures, all relics of a former age, each one of which would be a gem in the cabinet of an antiquary, daily exposed for sale in the windows of the trucksters or on the counter of the auctioneer; are found in rich profusion through this old street of the Pilgrims. But better than all else is the churchyard, the original burial-place, with its green graves and gray headstones; its turf-sward running far up the hill to the tall elms and luxuriant evergeens that crown the summit; and its nameless hillocks, catching the evening sunlight as it falls in long lines athwart the green-slope, and reflecting it back upon the passer-by with peculiar brightness! I love those old grave-stones, half sunk in the