OR the last four years, the civilized world have had their eyes and hopes directed to his efforts to accomplish the long desired project of effecting a Northwest passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific; and although expedition after expedition has been sent out in search of Sir John, and all the northern whale-marine have been stimulated by patriotism, enterprise, and liberal offers of reward by the British government, and by the wife of the bold pioneer, yet no tidings of a reliable character have been received from the expedition; and the commercial world are in a state of painful, and almost breathless anxiety relative to its fate. Of the numerous exploring expeditions which have left the British shores, from the days of Cook to the present time, few, if any, have excited so much interest as that now shrouded from our view by the icy curtain which clings, for the greater part of the year, around the North Pole. Behind that curtain, Sir John Franklin and the gallant party under his command, disappeared on the 26th July, 1845; since which period no authentic intelligence of them has been received, nor indeed any account at all beyond the rumors of boats, REMINISCENCES OF A LAWYER. "EVERY MAN HIS OWN LAWYER." SMARTER trader, a keener appreciator of the tendencies to a rise or fall in colonial producesugars more especially-than John Linden, of Mincing Lane, it would have been difficult to point out in the wide city of London. He was not so immensely rich as many others engaged in the same merchant-traffic as himself; nothing at all like it, indeed, for I doubt that he could at any time have been esteemed worth more than from eighty to ninety thousand pounds; but his transactions, although limited in extent when compared with those of the mammoth colonial houses, almost always returned more or less of profit; the result of his remarkable keenness end sagacity in scenting hurricanes, black insurrections, and emancipation bills, whilst yet inappreciable, or deemed afar off, by less sensitive organizations. At least to this wonderful prescience of future sugar-value did Mr. Linden himself attribute his rise in the world, and gradual increase in rotundity, riches, and respectability. This constant success engendered, as it is too apt to do, inordinate egotism, conceit, self-esteem, vanity. There was scarcely a social, governmental, or economical problem which he did not believe himself capable of solving as easily as he could eat his dinner when hungry. Commonsense business-habits (his favorite phrase) he believed to be quite sufficient for the elucidation of the most difficult question in law, physic, or divinity. The science of law, especially, he held to be an alphabet which any man-of common-sense, and business habits-could as easily master as he could count five on his fingers; and there was no end to his ridicule of the men with horse-hair head-dresses, and their quirks, quiddits, cases, tenures, and such-like devil's lingo. Lawyers, according to him, were a set of thorough humbugs and impostors, who gained their living by false pretence-that of affording advice and counsel, which every sane inan could better render himself, The existence of a Northwest passage has been a favorite dream for centuries. The hope of discovering a shorter passage to India, the original pursuit of Columbus himself, may be regarded as the first incitement to the numerous attempts which have been made by the English, and others, since 1585. Accordingly, in the early part of 1845, it became known that the intrepid veteran Sir John Franklin, who had but recently returned from an arduous and anxious service at the antipodes, as Governor of Van Diemen's Land, had been nominated by the British Admiralty to command an expedition for the above object. Little time elapsed before the ships were ready for sailing. They were the EREBUS, Sir John Franklin, captain, with seventy officers and men, and the TERROR, Francis Raw. don M. Crozier, captain, with sixty-eight men. On the 26th day of May the expedition departed. In May, 1850, the clairvoyants who were connected with the famous "spiritual knockings," pro fessed to have been informed, that Sir John Franklin He was unmistakably mad upon this subject, and he carried his insane theory into practice. He drew his own leases, examined the titles of some houseproperty he purchased, and set his hand and seal to the final deeds, guided only by his own commonsense spectacles. which Mr. Stanley, as the organ of the ministry, had introduced a few evenings previous, and was rewarded by a perfect deluge of loquacious indigna heiress. A common-sense, business-like letter in The question was addressed to me, and I, like my partner, could not at the moment precisely recall why those names sounded upon our ears with a certain degree of interest as well as familiarity. instant" Crowther & Jenkins!" I echoed. True: what do we know about Crowther & Jenkins? Oh, I have it !—they are executors of a will under which young Linden's pretty bride, that is to be, inherits her fortune." "Pass the decanter," he exclaimed the I dined at Laurel Villa, Fulham, about two Once he bid, at the Auction Mart, as high as months after this conversation. and Linden and I fifty-three thousand pounds, for the Holmford found ourselves alone over the dessert-the young estate, Herefordshire, and had he not been outbid- people having gone out for a stroll, attracted doubtden by young Palliser, son of the then recently-less by the gay aspect of the Thames, which flows deceased eminent distiller, who was cager to obtain past the miniature grounds attached to the villa. the property, with a view to a seat in parliament | Never had I seen Mr. Linden in so gay, so mirth which its possession was said to almost insure-ful a mood. he would, I had not at the time the slightest doubt, have completed the purchase, without for a moment dreaming of submitting the vender's title to the scrutiny of a professional adviser. Mr. Linden, I should mention, had been for some time desirous of resigning his business in Mincing Lane to his son Thomas Linden, the only child born to him by his long-since deceased wife, and of retiring, an estated squirearch, to the otium cum, or sine dignitate, as the case might be, of a country life; and this dis-hurra!" position had of late been much quickened by daily increasing apprehensions of negro emancipation and revolutionary interference with differential dutieschanges which, in conjunction with others of similar character, would infallibly bring about that utter commercial ruin which Mr. Linden, like every other rich and about-to-retire merchant or tradesman whom I have ever known, constantly prophesied to be near at hand and inevitable. { "Indeed; and what may the news be?" "Fill a bumper for yourself, and I'll give you "Ah?" exclaimed Mr. Flint, as he put down a toast. Here's to the health and prosperity of the paper, and looked me gravely in the face-" I the proprietor of the Holmford estate; and may he remember now; their names are in the list of banklive a thousand years, and one over !-Hip-hip-rupts. A failure in the gambling corn-trade too. I hope they have not been speculating with the He swallowed his glass of wine, and then, in young woman's money." his intensity of glee, laughed himself purple. "I told you," he began "some time ago about Crowther & Jenkins being the persons in whose names Catherine Arnold's money stood in the funds ?” Yes," replied Flint; "and I see by the Gazette they are bankrupts, and, by your face, that they have speculated with your intended daughterin-law's mouey, and lost it!" 46 Positively so!" rejoineg Mr. Linden with great heat. "Drew it out many months ago! But they have exceedingly wealthy connections-at least Crowther has-who will, I suppose, arrange Miss Arnold's claim rather than their relative should be arraigned for felony." The words were scarcely out of his mouth when "You needn't stare so," he said, as soon as he Mr. Linden was announced, and presently in walkhad partially recovered breath; I am the pro-ed that gentleman in a state of considerable exciteprietor of the Holmford property, bought it for fifty-ment. six thousand pounds of that young scape-grace and spendthrift, Palliser, fifteen thousand pounds less than what it cost him, with the outlay he has made upon it. Signed, sealed, delivered, paid for yes. With such a gentleman the firm Flint & Sharp terday. Ha ha! ho! Leave John Linden alone had only professional interviews, when procrastina. for a bargain! It's worth seventy thousand pounds ting or doubtful debtors required that he should put if it's worth a shilling. I say," contiuued he after on the screw--a process which I have no doubt he a renewed spasm of exuberant mirth, "not a would himself have confidently performed, but for word about it to anybody-mind! I promised Palthe waste of valuable time which doing so would liser, who is quietly packing up to be off to Italy, necessarily involve. Both Flint and myself were, or Constantinople, or the devil-all of them, perhowever, privately intimate with him-Flint more haps, in succession-not to mention a word about especially, who had known him from boyhood—{it till he was well off-you understand? Ha! ha! and we frequently dined with him on Sunday at-ho! ho!" against burst out Mr. Linden. "I his little box at Fulham. Latterly, we had on pity the poor creditors though! Bless you! 1 these occasions met there a Mrs. Arnold and her shouldn't have had it at anything like the price, daughter Catherine-an apparently amiable, and only for his knowing that I was not likely to be certainly very pretty and interesting young running about exposing the affair by asking law. person, to whom, Mr. Linden confidently informed yers whether an estate in a family's possession, as his son Tom had been for some time engaged. this was in Dursley's for three hundred years, had "I don't know much about her family," observed a good title or not. So be careful and not drop a Mr. Linden one day, in the course of a gossip at word, even to Tom, for my honor's sake. A delithe office," but she moves in very respectable so- cious bargain, and no mistake! Worth, if a penny, ciety. Tom met her at the Slades; but I do know seventy thousand pounds. Ha! ha!-ho! ho!" she has something like thirty-five thousand pounds "Then you have really parted with that enorin the funds. The instant I was informed how mous sum of money without having had the title matters stood with the young folks, I, as a matter to the estate professionally examined?" of common sense and business, asked the mother, Mrs. Arnold, for a reference to her banker or so licitor-there being no doubt that a woman and a minor would be in lawyers' leading-strings-and she referred me to Messrs. Dobson of Chancery Lane. You know the Dobsons?" "Title! Fiddlestick! I looked over the deeds "I ought, you think, to have risked losing the "That Catherine Arnold, when she came of age -it wants but a very short time of that now-would be entitled to the capital of thirty-four thousand seven hundred pounds, bequeathed by an un ele, and now lodged in the funds in the names of the trustees, Crowther & Jenkins of Leadenhall Street, by whom the interest on that som was reg-the not long delayed entrance of the young couple ulary paid, half-yearly, through the Messrs Dobfor the maintenance and education of the son, necessitating a change of topic, Linnocently inquir- "Felony you are mistaken, my good sir. There is no felony-no legal felony, I mean-in the matter. Miss Arnold can only prove against the estate like any other creditor." "The devil she can't! Tom, then, must look out for another wife, for I am credibly informed there won't be a shilling in the pound." And so it turned out. The great corn firm had been insolvent for years; and after speculating desperately, and to a frightful extent, with a view to recover themselves, had failed to an enormous amount-their assets, comparatively speaking, proving to be nil. The ruin spread around, chiefly on account of the vast accommodation paper they had afloat, was terrible; but upon no one did the blow fall with greater severity than on young Linden and his promised wife. His father ordered him to instantly break off all acquaintance with Miss Arnold; and on the son, who was deeply attached to her, peremptorily refusing to do so, Linden senior threatened to turn him cut of doors, and untimately disinherit him. Angry, indignant, and in love, Thomas Linden did a very rash foolish thing; be persuaded Catherine Arnold to consent to a private marriage, arguing that if the indissoluble knot was once fairly tied, his father would as a matter of course he being an only child--become reconciled to what he could no longer hope to prevent or remedy. RURAL REPOSITORY. The imprudent young man deceived both him- were published with those of the other passengers self and her who trasted in his pleasing plausibili.who had embarked, and we had of course conclud. ties. Ten minutes after he had disclosed the marriage to his father, he was turned, almost penniless, out of doors; and the exasperated and inexorable old man refused to listen to any representation in his favor, by whomsoever proffered, and finally, even to permit the mention of his name in his hearing. 139 time directed by the will for the property; and having persuaded the niece to give a written aued that they had perished, when a letter reachedthorisation for the immediate sale, the executors, us from Belfast, stating that through some delay chiefly, Sawbridge supposed, prompted by their on the part of Mrs. Arnold, they had happily lost own necessites, sold the estate accordingly. But their passage in the Erin, and embarked in the the niece not being of age when she signed the next steamer for Belfast, where they arrived in per- authority to sell, her consent was of no legal value; fect safety. We forwarded this intelligence to and she having since died intestate, Edwin MajorHolmford, but it elicited no reply. ibanks, her cousin and undoubted heir-at-law--for We heard nothing of Mr. Linden for about two the property could not have passed from her, even months, except by occasional notices, in the "Her- by marriage-now claimed the estate. Charles eford Times," which he regularly forwarded to the Dursley, the brother, was dead!" and," continoffice, relative to the improvements on the Holm-ued Mr. Sawbridge," the worst of it is, Linden ford estate, either actually begun or contemplated by its new proprietor. He very suddenly reappear. ed. I was cooling my heels in the waiting room of the chambers of the Barons of the Exchequer, Chancery Lane, awaiting my turn of admission, when one of our clerks came in half.breathless with "You are wanted, sir, immediately; Mr. Flint is out, and Mr. Linden is at the office raving like a madman. I instantly transferred the busi. ness I was in attendance at chambers upon to the clerk, and with the help of a cab soon reached home. "It is of no use," said Mr. Flint, on returning for the last time from a mission undertaken to extort, if possible, some provision against absolute starvation for the newly-wedded couple. "He is as cold and hard as adamant, and I think, if possible, even more of a tiger than before. He will be here presently to give instructions for his will." "His will! Surely he will draw that up himself after his own common-sense, business fashion?" "He would unquestionably have done so a short time since; but some events that have late-haste. ly occured have considerably shaken his estimate of his own infallibility, and he is moreover, determined, he says, that there shall be no mistake as to effectually disinheriting his son. He has made two or three heavy losses, and his mind is altogether in a very cankered, distempered state." Mr. Linden called, as he had promised to do, and gave us the written heads of a will which he desired to have at once formally drawn up. By this instrument he devised the Holmford estate real and personal, of which he might die possessed, to certain charitable institutions, in varying proportions, payable as soon after his death as the property could be turned into money. "The statue of mortmain does not give me much uneasiness," remarked the vindictive old man with a bitter smile. "I shall last some time yet. I would have left it all to you, Flint," he added, " only that I knew you would defeat my purpose by giving it back to that disobedient, ungrateful, worthless boy." "Do leave it to me," rejoined Mr. Flint with grave emphasis," and I promise you faithfully this -that the wish respecting it whatever it may be, which trembles on your lip as you are about to leave this world for another, and when it may be too late to formally revoke the testament you now propose, shall be strictly carried out. That time cannot be a very distant one, John Linden, for a man whose hair is white as yours." It was preaching to the winds. He was deaf, blind, mute, to every attempt at changing his resolve. The will was drawn in accordance with his peremptorily-iterated instructions, and duly signed, sealed, and attested. Not very long after. wards, Mr. Linden disposed of his business in Mincing Lane, and retired to Holmford, but with nothing like the money-fortune he had once calculated upon, the losses alluded to by Mr. Fiint, and followed by others, having considerably diminished his wealth. Mr. Linden was not raving when I arrived. The violence of the paroxysm of rage and terror by which he was possessed had passed away, and he looked, as I entered, the image of pale, rigid, iron, dumb despair. He held a letter and a strip of parchment in his hand: these he presented and with white, stammering lips, bade me read. The letter was from an attorney of the name of Saw. bridge, giving notice of an action of ejectment, to oust him from the possession of the Holmford estate, the property, according to Mr. Sawbridge, of one Edwin Majoribanks; and the strip of parchment was the writ by which the letter had been quickly followed. I was astounded; and my scared look questioned Mr. Linden for further information. will never get a farthing of his purchased money from the venders, for they are bankrupt, nor from Palliser, who has made permanent arrangements for continuing abroad, out of harm's reach. It is just as I tell you," he added, as we shook hands at parting; "but you will of course see the will, and satisfy yourself. Good-by." Here was a precious result of amateur common. sense lawyership; Linden could only have examined the abstract of title furnished him by Palliser's attorney, and not the right of Dursley's executors to sell; or had not been aware that the niece could not, during her minority, subscribe an effective legal consent. I found Mr. Flint at the office and quickly imparted the astounding news. He was as much taken aback as myself. "The obstinate, pig-headed old ass !" he exclaimed ;-" it almost serves him right, if only for his Tom-fool nonsense of " Every man his own lawyer." What did you say was the niece's name?" "Well, I don't remember, that Sawbridge told me; he was in such a hurry; but suppose you go at once and look over the will?" "True; I will do so;" and away he went. "This is a very singular affair, Sharp," said Mr. Flint on his return from Doctors' Commons, at the "I do not quite understand it," he said in a same time composedly seating himself, hooking hoarse, palpitating voice. No possession or title his thumbs into the arm-holes of his waistcoat, in the venders; a niece not of age--executors no crossing his legs, and tilting his chair back on its power to sell-Palliser discovered it, robbed me, hind legs. "A very singular affair. Whom, in absconded, and I, oh God! am a miserable beg-the name of the god of thieves-Mercury, wasn't gar!" he called?-do you suppose the bankrupt executors to be? No other," continued Mr. Flint, with a sudden burst," than Crowther & Jenkins!" The last words were uttered with a convulsive scream, and after a few frightful struggles he fell down in a fit. I had him conveyed to bed, and as soon as he was somewhat recovered, I hastened off to ascertain from Sawbridge, whom I knew very intimately, the nature of the claim intended to be set up for the plaintiff, Edwin Majoribanks. I met Sawbridge just as he was leaving his office, and as he was in too great a hurry to turn back, I walked along with him, and he rapidly detailed the chief facts about to be embodied in the plaintiff's declaration. Archibald Dursley, once a London merchant, and, who died a bachelor, had We ultimately obtained a respectable and re- bequeathed his estate, real and personal, to his munerative situation for Thomas Linden in a mer. brother Charles, and a niece, his sister's child-twocantile house at Belfast with which we were pro-thirds to the niece, and one-third to the brother. fessionally acquainted, and after securing berths in The Holmford property, the will directed, should be the Erin steamer, he, with his wife and mother-in-sold by public auction when the niece came of age, law, came, with a kind of hopeful sadness in their looks and voices, to bid us farewell-for a very long time they and we also feared. For an eternity, it seemned, on reading the account of the loss of the Erin, a few days after wards, with every soul on board! Their names unless she, by marriage or otherwise, was enabled, "The devil!-and the niece then is-" "Catharine Arnold-Tom Linden's wife-sup. posed to have been drowned in the Erin! That's check-mate, I rather fancy-not only to Mr. Ed. win Majoribanks, but some one else we know of.The old fellow up stairs wont refuse to acknowledge his daughter in-law now I fancy!" This was indeed a happy change in the fortunes oi the House of Linden; and we discussed, with much alacrity, the best mode of turning disclosu. res so moinentous and surprising to the best account. As a first step, a letter, with an enclosure, was depatched to Belfast requiring the return of Thomas Linden and family immediately; and the next was to plead in form to the action.— This done we awaited Catharine Linden's arrival in London, and Mr. Liuden senior's convalescence for his mental agitation had resulted in a sharp fit of illness-to effect a satisfactory and just arrangement. Mr. and Mrs. Arnold arrived by the earliest steamer that left Belfast after the receipt of our Letter; and much astonished were they by the intelligence that awaited them. Catharine Linden was for confirming the validity of the sale of the Holmford estate by her now authoritative consent at once, as a mere act of common justice and good faith; but this looking at the total loss of fortune she had sustained by the knavery of the executors, and the obstinate, mulish temper of the father-in. law, from whom she had already received such harsh treatment, could not for a moment be permitted; and it was finally resolved to take advantage of the legal position in which she stood, to enforce a due present provision for herself and busband, and their ultimate succession to the estate. John Linden gradually recovered; and as soon as it was deemed prudent to do so, we informed him that the niece was not dead, as the plaintiff in the action of ejectment had supposed, and that of course, if she could now be persuaded to ratify the imperative consent she had formerely subscribed, he might retain Holmford. At first he received the intelligence as a gleam of light and hope, but he soon relapsed into doubt and gloom. "What chance was there," he hopelessly argued," that holding the legal power, she would not exercise it? It was not," he said, " in human nature to do otherwise;" and he commissioned us to make liberal offers for a compromise; half-he would be content to lose half his purchase-money; even a greater sacrifice than he wonld agree to anything. indeed, that would not be utter ruin-that did not involve utter beggary and destitution in old age, Three days after this conversation, I announced to him that the lady and her husband were below, and desirous of seeing hin. "What do they say?" he eagerly demanded, "Will they accept of half-two-thirds? What do they say?" "I cannot precisely tell you. They wish to see you alone, and you can urge your own views and offers." He trembled violently, and shrank nervously back as I placed my hand on the door-handle of the private office. He presently recovered in some degree his self-possession, passed in, and I with drew from the humiliating; but salutary spect. cle, of obdurate tyrant power compelled to humble itself before those whom it had scorned and trampled upon The legal arrangements which Flint and I had suggested were effected, and Linden senior, accompanied by his son, daughter-in-law, and Mrs. Ar. nold, set off in restored amity for Holmford House. Edwin Majoribanks abandoned his action, and Palliser, finding that matters were satisfactorily arranged, returned to England. We afterwards knew that he had discovered the defect of title, on applying to a well-known conveyancer, to raise a considerable sum by way of mortgage, and that his first step was to threaten legal proceedings against Crowther & Jenkins for the recovery of his money; but a hint he obtained of the futility of proceedings against them, determined him to offer the estate at a low figure to Linden, relying upon that gentleman's ostentatious contempt of lawyers that the blot in the title, subjected only to his own common-sense spectacles, would not be perceived. XENOPHON tells us of an Egyptian, who being gent by his wife to purchase perfumes, brought her a jar of fresh water. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATION 8. WH For the Rural Repository. SYLVAN PENCILINGS. BY PETER SYLVAN. WHAT is Nature? what are the waving trees of the hill-side? what are the flowers which adorn the sweet residences of the city? what are the birds whose notes of symphony echo through the "long drawn aisles" of the neighboring woods? What are all these but a portion of the creation of that Being whose beneficent hand continually supports, protects, and blesses man-man, "the noblest work of God!" {which envelopes the very soul in its slimy darkness of horrors, and permits not one ray of hope to illume our bewildered consciousness. On the strength of the sufferer's mind depends the result. If finely attuned to the more ethereal joys of life and unused to its cares and dissapointments, the cord of life is snapped the broken in. strument is before us, no more to lull us by its pleasing melody or charm us by its soul-endearing strains. But such is not the state with all. Used to the rougher storms of life and to the buffeting of despair, they may still weather the gale and through crippled in their unequeal contest may still regain the shore and be enabled again to try the tempest's force and dare to explore the tortuous paths of existence. Although the first have the most intense strugthegle with the phantom, still it is but short, they Then, may we not stand beneath the branching trees and meditate? May we not look upon flowers and admire? May we not listen to strains of forest minstrelsy, and feel a newer joy pervade the soul, vibrating its most tender chords? We may. But Readers! need we wander far from our home thresholds, to be made happy by communion with Nature? We may "look through Nature up to Nature's GOD," by contemplating the beautiful and sublime scenery, which may be viewed from our own Prospect Hill. The city below with its "heaven directed spires" glittering in the sun. beams; and the verdant mountains towering cloud-ward in the distance, beyond the glorious River, all suggest thou hts of an ideal description. Instantly, on beholding, the mind is filled with conceptions relative to the unrivalled glory of Eden, that celestial Paradise, along the dells of which the Poet shall walk, and within whose bowers the Artist sit, with the glad consciousness that neither frost not blighting wildew may destroy the blessed obje ets of their solicitude! "O Nature' whose Elysian scenes disclose - ་་ THE AIM OF EXISTIENCE. HEN we look at the desultory wanderings of the restless being, around us, we opine the cause of their apparent disunity and diversity of opinion in corresponding situations, to be the want of aim in their objects and desires. All pretend to have some declared aim either beyond the world or in it, but do their actions testify to the sincerity of their assertions? The only rational proof for us is in pratice rather than profession. are soon overcome while the last have often to prolong the contest through the remainder of life with the wounds of their first encounter still unhealed. When thus deprived of one of the aims of existence the most effectual and certain remedy is to supply its place by some of other of less dangerous tendency and of easier attainment Not relapse into indifference or neglect, that is the surest way to lure the phantom back, but occupy the thinking powers in some more harmless pursuit. There are also means by which we can avoid this deadly encounter. It is in the proper choice of our aims. let us always choose those which will if obtained, best advance our true interests and then even a defeat will not so far weaken us. Not that we should be disheartened and be un ambitiously content with low airns easy of attainment, but if we dare aspire to darling hopes and nobier aims we must be well prepared not only for the struggle but also for the defeat, for it is then only we shall be true conquerors. J. D. C. T BIOGRAPHY. MADAME DE MAIN PENON. HIS most extraordinary lady, who, from a humble situation, and a variety of misfortunes, rose, at last, to be the wife of Louis XIV. was descended from the ancient family of D'Aubigny, Her grandfather was a man of considerable rank, and highly renowned as a champion for the protestants, aud as he perceived, at last, that there was no safety for him in his own country, he fled to Geneva, where he died in the year 1630. Happiness, or that state of the mind which keeps its predominating qualities in a state of pleasur The son of this D'Aubigny, soon after the death able excitement, seems to be the predisposing of his first wife, was, in December, 1626, married cause to all human actions. But there are times a second tine, to a lady of a respectable family, and periods when the mind, from the failure of with whom be lived only a few weeks, when he some long anticipated hope falls back on inanity - was cast into prison in Paris, in consequence of when the chain of mental pleasures and joys snaps some heinous accusation against him. Madame from its shell-bound tension and throws us back D'Aubigny exerted her utmost influence to procure into a state of hopeless dejection and despair.—his enlargement; but to no purpose. As, howThere are none but have felt this, for there are ever, her attachment to her husband increased in none but have indulged in budding hopes and proportion as he became more miserable, she obtainpleasurable anticipations built on baseless founda-ed liberty to shut herself up in prison along with tions, and which like aerial castles, have vanished ere their completion. him, where she had two sons. She, at length, got permission from court to have her husband removed When such a time comes, the worst effects to the prison of Niort, that she might be nearer the are to be feared, it is the most deplorable situation assistance, which they derived from their relations. in which the human mind can be placed. Be- In this prison, Madame de Maintenon was born, hind is a tortuous and difficult path which we can- November, 27th, 1635, from which miserable situ. not retrace while before us is mist and gloomation, however, she was taken a few days after by Madame Villette, her aunt by the father's side. which prevented her from solicting benefits With a view to rescue herself from the state of dependence to which she found herself subjected, she was obliged to marry that famous old buffoon, the abbe Scarron, who subsisted only on a pension allowed him by the court, for his wit and parts; but when he died, she found herself as indigent as she was before her marriage. Her friends, indeed, endeavored to get her pension continued, and presented so many petitions to the king, about it, all begining with "The widow Scarron, most humbly prays your majesty, &c." that he was quite weary of them, and has been frequently heard to exclaim, "Must I always be pestered with the widow Scarron?" At last, however, through the recommendation of Madame de Montespan, the king settled a much larger pension on her, with a genteel apology for making her wait so long, and afterwards made choice of her to take care of the young duke of Maine. The letters she wrote on this occasion charmed the king, and were the origin of her advancement; her own personal merit effected all the rest. He bought her the lands of Maintenon, the only estate she ever had; and, finding her pleased with the acquisition, called her publicly "Madame de Maintenon," which was of great ser. vice to her in her good fortune, by releasing her from the name of Scarron. In the mean time, her elevation was to her only a retreat; the king came to her apartment every day after dinner, before and after supper, and continued there till midnight; here he did business with his ministers, while Madame de Maintenon, employed in reading, or needlework, never showed any desire to talk of state affairs, and carefully avoided all appearances of cabal and intrigue, nor did she ever make use of her power, to procure dignities or employments for her own relations. But the same natural dispositions, "Hoxie, is it you?" Turning to his wife, "That nervous old character has got into one of her hysteric fits and sent the poor man all this way, this rainy night, for me"-" Huzie, what's the matter with your wife?" "Oh, distressed all over." The Doctor fumbles over his drawers." Here's some powders, sir, that will do just as well as if I see her. They are to be taken every half hour until relieved." But, Doctor, they wont do. She says she must see you and I should not dare to return, without you." The husband pleaded, and the physican yielded,—ordered Sam to "harness ”— took in Hoxie, and the old bay mare soon leaped over the ground, and the Doctor was by the bed. side of his patient. He took his seat,-pulse regnlar-tongue clear "Doctor, says the woman, "I will pay you any price if you will cure me." About the later end of the year 1685, Louis XIV. married her, being then in his forty-eighth, she in her fiftieth year; and that piety with which she inspired the king to make her a wife, became by degrees a settled disposition of mind. She prevailed on Louis to found a religious community at St. Cyr, for the education of three hundred young ladies of quality; and here she frequently retired from that melancholy, of which she complains so pathetically in one of her letters, and which few ladies will suppose she should be liable to in so el--voice strong, but such groans. evated a situation. But, as Voltaire says, if any thing could show the vanity of ambition, it would certainly he this letter. Madame de Maintenon could have no other uneasiness than the uniformity of her living with a great king; and this made her once say to the count D'Aubigny her brother, "I can hold it no longer, I wish I was dead."-after an emetic had operated. The patient was Louis. however, died before her in 1715; when she retired wholly to St. Cyr, and spent the rest of her days in acts of devotion; and, what is most surprising, is that her husband left no certain provisions for her, but only recommended her to the duke of Orleans. She would accept no more than a pension of about thirteen thousand dollars per annum, which was punctually paid her till her death, which happened, April 15th, 1719. A collection of her letters has been published, and translated into English. MISCELLANY. PAYING THE DOCTOR. But BY UNCLE SOLOMON That can be done," replied he in a firm voice. "But you don't understand my disease. "To be sure I do." He accordingly sorted out some dozen powders to be taken every half hour treated as if bilious, for, when a person sends for a physician, who is not sick, the best remedy is to make them so. The jalap was administered, and such a retching and throwing, such a gagging aud groaning, was seldom heard. There were no hysterics now, all was real; and the physician meant to make it so. The powders were severally taken, and by ten o'clock the next morning, Mrs. Hoxie was really a sick woman. The physician called and again prescribed. He determined to make an apothecary's shop of his patient's stomach, for he had been called for nothing long enough. The second and third day found Mrs. Hoxie confined to her bed. A sore mouth began; calomel was working in her system: a regular course of salivation followed, which was all intended to cure the return of the hysterics. Mrs. Hoxie was confind to her bed a fortnight, to her chamber a month, and to the house six months; and when she went out she looked like bleached cotton. At the close of the year, the Doctor "The night is dark, it rains tremendously, and presonted his bill for "attendance," which amountventure out.- ed to twenty-five dollars! prescription for UT do you not think you can endure the distress till morning?" inqured Hoxie of his wife, who was groaning bitterly of a pain here, and a shivering sensation there, and a nervous agitation every where. I fear the Doctor will not like to Towards spring, Mrs. Hoxie's spirits began to revive, and with them a desire to fix up a little.Her parlor wanted a new paper, a new carpet, and new couch. She had just twenty-five dollars Just as if I can tell all the pains and aches I feel to you. No, Mr. Hoxie, that is not the way I treat you when you are ill. -Don't I get flan-dividend of her own money, and she owed it for nels and heat them, and apply decoctions and ten thousand remedies. I always thought if I should be sick, it would be just like this.” Mr Hoxie sighed. "If you are afraid of the pay, mercy knows I have done enough for you to earn it, but more than that; I have money of my own. I will pay the Doctor, myself for coming." Mr. Hoxie took a lantern and wended his way across a long field into the public road, and after walking some two miles in a violent rain storm, he reached the physician's residence. It was midnight, but he gave the bell a severe twitch which aroused the Doctor at once, "Hallo! who's there?" her sickness. The gratitude she felt to her physician at the time of her recovery knew no bounds. "Doctor," said she, " if you charge me a hundred dollars, you shall have it." But a womanly pride now predominatod ;-she must have the furniture -she would not pay the Doctor. He was a rich man, got his money easy, and if she had had a homopathist, all her neighbors said she never would have been sick.-She never meant to have him again, and so she did not care if he were ever paid! She bought the furniture, and destroyed the Doctor's bill. When Charley Hoxie was sick with the measles, his fond mother sent for a homopathist.But the treatment did not seem to agree with the "A friend, who wants you to attend a sick wo- child, he grew sicker, and his mother now longed man." for her old aliopathic physician. But there was |