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tration of the laws against felony is the key-stone that binds the arch of depredation. Without magistrates and officers who do not prevent crime, but nurse it, men individually would peril their lives against those who invade their property. But all this possible bloodshed is now saved. A well ordered police, the stipendiaries at once of the public and those who ease the public of their superfluous possessions, accommodates all difficulties, and gradually, the rights of thieves are as effectually recognized as the rights of any other pains taking class of the community. Look at this arrangement, and see, not only how much it has contributed to the respectability of the profession of larceny, but what an insurance of their lives it gives to society, by rendering robbery a quiet, gentlemanly art, in which violence is only the argument of bunglers, and which is carried to the highest point of perfection by that division of labour, upon which all excellence, whether mental or mechanical, must be built.

It occasionally happens that the most brilliant example of professional success is apprehended, convicted, and hanged. This is a part of the contract by which the commonwealth of thieves has purchased its charter. The compact is-for the police a share of profits, and no trouble for the sons of Mercury, protection in general, and a very sparing selection of needful victims. When the time arrives that the career of individual happiness and friendship is to close, there is no shrinking. The ripened felon is a soldier, under the orders of a commander whom he honours, and it is to him a gratification to look back upon the years of comfort he has secured by this compro mise with power, instead of being perpetually hunted into some pitiful occupation, which the world calls honest, by a vigilance which should never sleep. At last he dies. Well! in the latest moment he is a privileged being. Fame hovers around him, from the bar to the gallows. He exhibits great composure on his trial; leaves his defence, with a dignified satis faction, to his council; bows to the judge, when he pronounces sentence; and, is fashionably dressed in a complete suit of black." Then come the consolations of spiritual friends. In the interval between the condemnation and the Recorder's report, he becomes perfectly satisfied that he is purified from every stain ;-after the fatal mandate arrives, he declares that his only anxiety is to die, lest he should fall into his former errors, and be deprived of that everlasting happiness which he now feels will be his portion;

and he leaves the world with such exultations of pious people attending him, as martyrs were wont to monopolize,bowing to the admiring crowd, and "sucking an orange till the drop falls."

We apprehend that in this rapid sketch we have said enough to prove that one calling is still open to the talented and the ambitious, and receives adequate encouragement from the highest authorities. That such a profession, indeed, should have attractions, in comparison with which all others fade into nothingness, is perfectly natural; for the thief feeds upon the fat of the land, in his pilgrimage through this life, and passes from it with the most assured prospects of the highest rewards in the next.-London Magazine.

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THE DIVERSION OF SHOOTING AT THE
BIRD.

The people of Hamburgh amuse themselves on the 1st of July by practising the following diversion called " shooting at the bird; it is celebrated as follows. of the senators, and attended by a miliA company of archers, headed by one tary escort, proceed to a spot out of one of the city gates, where they aim at the wooden figure of a bird, fixed upon a lofty pole. The senator is entitled to the first shot, and the others in succession, till the effigy falls. This amusement sometimes continues a whole week. The person who brings down the last fragment of it is decorated with a silver breastplate and medal, and is formally proclaimed "king" for the ensuing year."

Science and Art.

VELOCITY OF STEAM BOATS.

THE immense increase of power requisite to obtain a small increase of velocity, ought to have its influence in determining the speed of a steam boat during a long

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The mechanical power, or power of a steam engine to impel a boat in stillwater, must be as the cube of the velocity. Therefore, if an engine of twelvehorse power will impel a boat seven miles per hour, it will require one of thirty five horse power to impel the same boat at the rate of ten miles per hour. The action of what is called a twenty-five horse power engine, is just equal to the impulse given by 1000 cubic feet of water falling through the height of ten feet.-New Mon.

POWER LOOMS.

The estimated number of looms pro pelled by water and steam power in the United Kingdom, including those in preparation for working previous to the stagnation, and as near as any calculation can be made, is 58,000. The average produce, taking it at 22 square yards a day, makes 1,254,000, or 1741 yards a minute; weekly, 7,524,000; monthly, 31, 300,000; yearly, 376,200,000. Al lowing six yards to each person for yearly consumption, will supply 62,700,000, and will cover 62,700 acres of ground, and in length would extend 213,750 miles and reach across the Atlantic Ocean seventy-one times.-Ibid.

DESTRUCTION OF SNAILS BY COMMON

SALT.

M. Em. Rousseau had applied common salt as a manure to a small piece of garden, and remarked that where snails had come in contact with the salt they quickly died. Wishing to confirm the fact, he strewed the salt upon the ground, and placed a number of snails amongst it; all those which came out of the shells and touched the salt immediately threw out a greenish, globular froth, and in a few minutes were dead. The fact may be turned to account by agriculturists and gardeners.-Bull. Univ. D. viii. 276.

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ALEXANDER THE GREAT.

Alexander making a libation to the heof Achilles, and placed a crown of gold roes at Troy, poured oil upon the tomb son in the world; for while he lived. upon it, saying, he was the happiest perPatroclus was his friend; and when dead, Homer perpetuated his memory.

FRANCIS I. KING OF FRANCE.

tinguished of the kings of France, wheThis monarch, who was the most disther considered as a warrior, or a patroniser of learning or the Liberal Arts, being about to invade Italy, called a council of war to advise with his officers, which way he should lead his forces over the Alps, ing, told them they should rather consult which Amaril, the king's fool, overhearhow to bring them back again out of importance. Well had it been for the Italy, as being an affair of the greatest brave monarch and his followers, had he listened to the wise advice of his witty dependant, for scarce a man of them ever saw France again.

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DATE. DAYS.

Diary and Chronology.

DIARY.

DATE

CORRESPONDING CHRONOLOGY.

May 15 Thurs. St. Dympna, 7th May 15 Ascension Day is set apart to commemorate

cent. Ascension

Day, or Holy
Thursday.

Sun ris, 13m af. 4
-sets 47m af. 7

16 Frid. St. Abdas.

High Water,

41m af. 3 morn
57m af. 3 even

17 Satur, St. Possidius.

Sun ris. 11m af. 4
sets-49m af. 7

18 SUN. Sunday af Ascen

LES. for the DAY
Deut. 12 c. morn
Deut. 13 c. even.
St. Potamon, bi
shop of Hera.
clea, in Egypt,|
died, A. D. 341.

13 Mond. St. Dunstan.
Easter Term ends
High Water,

25m af. 5 morn.
44m af. 5 even.

-20 Tues. St. Ethelbert,
Sun ris 7m af. 4
-sets 53m af. 7

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--

our

Saviour's ascension into Heaven. 1821. Died, John Bonnycastle, the author of several valuable and scientific works, one of which, the Scholar's Guide to Arithmetic, has passed through no less than twelve editions. His Trea tise upon Astronomy is the most popular of all works written upon that sublime Science, being remarkable for perspicuity, it has become a general library book, and remains a testimony of the attainments of the author. -16 St. Abdas, was a Persian bishop. He was a man of great virtue and zeal. He destroyed the Vesta or Deified fire of the Persians, which act so enraged their king, that he caused him to be put to death, and ordered the destruction of the Christian churches.

1568. On this day Queen Mary, of Scotland, after the dispersion of her friends by the Regent, Murray, who pursued her with inveteracy for escaping from her confinement in Lochleven castle, fled into England, imploring the protection of Elizabeth, who acted towards her with the great. est baseness, and under the idea of granting her an asylum, betrayed her into a prison. -17 St. Possidius was bishop of Calamus, in Africa, and died A. D. 430. He was a disciple of St. Augustin.

1729. Expired, the learned divine, Dr. Samuel Clarke, the translator of Sir Isaac Newton's Optics, and editor of the Commentaries of Cæsar. Dr. Clarke was a profound scholar, a close rea. soner, an acute critic; well versed in mathematics and philosophy, and a man of unaffected mild and amiable manners.

-18 1806. On this day Bonaparte assumed the title of Napoleon, I. Emperor of the French.

1802. Died, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, a physician and poet of celebrity; author of the Botanic Garden, Zoonomia, or the Laws of Organic Life; the Loves of the Plants, and numerons other works. His works prove him to have been a poet, botanist, and philosopher of no ordinary powers -19 St. Dunstan was made bishop of Worcester by king Edgar; he was afterwards bishop of London, and archbishop of Canterbury. He died A. D. 988, in the 64th year of his age. Of this saint many miracles are related, among which is the familiar legend of his holding the Devil by the

nose.

1536. Beheaded, Anne Boleyn, the ill-fated wife of the tyrannical Henry VIII, and mother of Q. Elizabeth. She was tried and condemned for alleged unchastity with her brother and four others, although the charge of incontinence was never substantiated.

1795. Died, James Boswell, the friend and Biographer of Dr. Samuel Johnson, who he accompanied on a tour to the Western Isles of Scotland, in 1773, of which tour he wrote an interesting account.

-20 St. Ethelbert, king of the East Angles, son of Ethelbert, who was converted to Christianity by St. Austin, and was treacherously murdered by Offa, the king of the Mercians, who under the guise of inviting him to marry his daughter, caused him to be beheaded, and thereupon seized his kingdom.

1793. Died, at Geneva, the distinguished Natu ralist, Charles Bonnet, T. 78. He was a man of great learning, and author of many works on metaphysics.

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ing that which he commanded, was the ship of a celebrated rover, equally famed for his courage, strength of body, and successful piracies. It was commanded by a gentleman named Thomas de Longueville, a Frenchman by birth, but by practice one of those pirates who called themselves friends to the sea, and enemies to all who sailed upon that element. He attacked and plundered vessels of al nations, like one of the ancient Norse Sea-kings, as they were termed, whose dominion was upon the mountain waves. The master added, that no vessel could escape the rover by flight, so speedy was the bark he commanded; and that no crew, however hardy, could hope to resist him, when, as was his usual mode of combat, he threw himself on board at the head of his followers.

Wallace smiled sternly, while the master of the ship, with alarm in his countenance, and tears in his eyes, described to him the certainty of their being captured by the Red Rover, a name given to De Longueville, because he usually displayed the blood-red flag, which he had now hoisted.

20-SATURDAY, MAY 24, 1828

306

"I will clear the narrow seas of this " said Wallace. rover," Then calling together some ten or twelve of his own followers, Boyd, Kerlie, Seton, and others, to whom the dust of the most desperate battle was like the breath of life, he commanded them to arm them selves, and lie flat upon the deck, so as to be out of sight. He ordered the mariners below, excepting such as were absolutely necessary to manage the vessel; and he gave the master instructions, upon pain of death, so to steer, as that, while the vessel had an appearance of attempt ing to fly, he should in fact permit the Red Rover to come up with them and do his worst. Wallace himself then lay down on the deck, that nothing might be seen which could intimate any purpose of resistance. In a quarter of an hour De Longueville's vessel ran on board that of the Champion, and the Red Rover casting out grappling irons to make sure of his prize, jumped on the deck in complete armour, followed by his men, who gave a terrible shout, as if victory had been already secured. But the armed Scots started up at once, and the Rover

He

found himself unexpectedly engaged with men acccustomed to consider victory as secure, when they were only opposed as one to two or three. Wallace himself rushed on the pirate captain, and a dreadful strife began betwixt them with such fury, that the others suspended their own battle to look on, and seemed by common consent to refer the issue of the strife to the fate of the combat between the two chiefs. The pirate fought as well as man could do; but Wallace's strength was beyond that of ordinary mortals. dashed the sword from the Rover's hand, and placed him in such peril, that, to avoid being cut down, he was fain to close with the Scottish Champion, in hopes of overpowering him in the grapple. In this also he was foiled. They fell on the deck, locked in each others arms, but the Frenchman fell undermost; and Wallace fixing his grasp upon his gorget, compressed it so closely, nowithstanding it was made of the finest steel, that the blood gushed from his eyes, nose, mouth, and he was only able to ask for quarter by signs. His men threw down their weapons and begged for mercy,

and

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