sit down-there's no fear-nothing will happen us." Harry sat down, but still gripped the blunderbuss, and Jack lit his tobaccopipe. Whilst the old woman was on her knees, striking her breast, and repeating her prayers with great vehe mence. The sad cry was again heard, louder and fiercer than before. It now seemed to proceed from the window, and again it appeared as if issuing from the door. At times it would seem as if coming from afar, whilst again it would appear as if coming down the chimney, or springing from the ground beneath their feet. Sometimes the cry resembled the low, plaintive wail of a female in distress; and in a moment, it was raised to a prolonged yell, loud and furious, and as if coming from a thousand throats; now the sound resembled a low, melancholy chant, and then was quickly changed to a loud, broken, demoniac laugh. It continued thus, with little intermission for about a quarter of an hour, when it died away, and was succeeded by a heavy, creaking sound as if of some large waggon, amidst which the loud tramp of horses' footsteps might be distinguished, accompanied with a strong, rushing wind. This strange noise proceeded round and round the house two or three times, then went down the lane which led to the road, and was heard no Jack O'Malley stood aghast, and Harry Taylor, with all his philosophy and scepticism, was astonished and frightened. more. A dreadful night this, Moya," said Jack. "Yes," said she, "that is the deadcoach, I often heard it before, and have sometimes seen it." Scen, did you say ?" said Harry; "pray describe it." "No, no," she said, "I am none of that family at all at all." A solemn silence now ensued for a few minutes, and they thought all was vanished, when again the dreadful cry struck heavily on their ears. Open the door, Jack," said Harry, "and put out Hector." Hector was a large and very ferocious mastiff, belonging to Jack O'Malwherever he went. ley, and always accompanied him Jack opened the door, and attempted to put out the dog; but the poor animal refused to go, and as his master attempted to force him, howled in a loud and mournful tone. "You must go," said Harry, and he caught him in his arms and flung him over the half-door. The poor dog was scarcely on the ground when he was whirled aloft into the air by some invisible power, and he fell again to earth lifeless, and the pavement was besmeared with his entrails and blood. Harry now lost all patience, and again seizing his blunderbuss, he exclaimed, "Come, Jack, my boy, take your pistols and follow me; I have but one life to lose, and I will venture it to have a crack at this infernal de ously. The two men now sallied forth; the wild cry still continued, and it seemed to issue from amongst some stacks in the hay-yard behind the house. They went round and paused; again they heard the cry, and Harry elevated his blunderbuss. "Don't fire," said Jack. Harry replied not; he looked scornfully at Jack; then put his finger on the trigger, and-bang-away it exploded with a thundering sound. An extraordinary scream was now heard tentimes louder and more terrific than they heard before. Their hair stood erect on their heads, and huge, round drops of sweat ran down their faces in quick succession. A glare of reddish blue light shone around the stacks ; the rumbling of the "death-coach" was again beard coming; it drove up to the house, drawn by six headless, sable horses, and the figure of a withered old hag, encircled with blue flame, was seen running nimbly across the hay-yard. She entered the ominous carriage, and it drove away with a horrible sound. It swept through the tall bushes which surrounded the house; and as it disappeared, the old hag cast a thrilling scowl at the two men, and waved her fleshless arms at them vengefully. It was soon lost to sight, but the unearthly creaking of the wheels, the tramping of the horses, and the appalling cries of the banshee continued to assail their ears for a considerable time after all had vanished. The brave fellows now returned to the house; they again made fast the door, and reloaded their arms. Nothing, however, came to disturb them that night, nor from that time forward; and the arrival of the dead man's brother from London, in a few days after, relieved them from their irksome task. Old Moya did not live long after; she declined from that remarkable night, and her remains were decently interred in the churchyard, adjoining the last earthly tenement of the loved family to which she had been so long and so faithfully attached. The insulted banshee has never since returned; and although several members of that family have since closed their mortal career, still the warning cry was never given; and it is supposed that the injured spirit will never visit her ancient haunts, until every one of the existing generation shall have slept with their fathers." Jack O'Malley and his friend Harry lived some years after. Their friendship still continued undiminished like "Tam O'Shanter and "Souter Johnny," they still continued to love each other like "a very brither," and like that jovial pair also, our two comrades were often "fou for weeks together;" and often over their cruiskeen would they laugh at their strange adventure with the banshee. It is now, however, all over with them too; their race is run, and they are now tenants of the tomb." CRITICAL NOTICES. Physic and Physicians, a medical sketch-book ; exhibiting the public and private life of the most celebrated medical men of former days; with memoirs of eminent living physicians and surgeons-2 vols. London, Longman and Co. ; IN Johnson's Life of Akenside the following striking passage occurs, which seems to have given the first suggestion of the volumes before us, and of other compilations of the same kind : -"A physician in a great city seems to be the mere plaything of fortune his degree of reputation is for the most part totally casual; they that employ him know not his excellence they who reject him know not his deficiency. By an acute observer who had looked on the transactions of the world for half a century, a very curious book might be written on the fortunes of physicians." A very curious and interesting collection of materials for such a work is brought together from facts scattered through nearly four hundred volumes by the writer of this book. The volumes have the appearance of being hastily though faithfully compiled. Of the lives of physicians of former days the best written is that of Radcliffe. The volumes have the fault inseparable from books of anecdote, that the very liveliness fatigues, and the feeling of unconnectedness harasses and disappoints the reader. Many pages of the book cannot be read at a time from the want of any continuous, sustaining interest. On the other hand, we scarcely know a pleasanter book as a companion for an idle half-hour. The chapters on medical emigration, and that on army and navy surgeons, and medical officers in the East India Company's service contain much valuable information. We transcribe one or two passages taken almost at random from these volumes. The authority on which the following incident is told ought to have been given : PROVIDENTIAL PRESERVATION OF DR. HARVEY'S LIFE." When Harvey arrived at Dover, with several other young men, in order to embark for the Continent, in their way to Italy, they went with their passports to Sir Henry Brooke, then commanding at Dover Castle. When Harvey presented his passport, Sir Henry told him he should not go, but must remain his prisoner. Harvey desired to know the reason, and be informed what offence he had committed. The governor replied it was his pleasure, and gave him no further satisfaction. In the evening, which was beautifully clear, the picket sailed with Harvey's companions on board. In the to find a single passage that could be well separated from the context. The Cheltenham Anthology-Original Poems and Translations from Greek, Latin, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French Poets-Edited by William H. Halpin.-London: Simpkin and Marshall. How this volume, printed so many years ago as to have "survived much immortal song," is now lying on our table, demanding our notice, is to us a mystery, which we fear even Old Nick himself could not explain; as surely as the devil dealt with Doctor Faustus, and as surely as there are books of ma "THE RIGHT SIDE.-Dr. Darwin married the widow of Colonel Pole.gic in the College library, containing Early in her widowhood she was rallied in a large company upon Darwin's passion for her, and was asked what she would do with her captive philosopher? 'He is very fond of churches, I believe, and if he would go there for my sake, I shall scarcely follow him. He is too old for me.' Nay, madam, what are fifteen years on the right side?' She replied, with an arch smile, I have had so much of that right side." MEDICAL MYSTERY. -" Although mystery is the essence of quackery, it will be necessary to have recourse to it in order to ingratiate yourself in public estimation. Secrecy is commonly mixed up in medical affairs. It is said that a great city practitioner, half a century ago, had little closets like a pawnbroker's shop, to indulge this feeling of fanciful patients, that they might not be seen by their fellow-sufferers. The Compte de Virey carried this mystery so far as to make the slightest indisposition a state secret. He one day called a surgeon to dress a wound in his leg; and when a similar one broke out on the other, he sent for a different surgeon, that the disordered state of his limbs might not be known-a circumstance which was the cause of his death. To a person who inquired for him after his death, his secretary said, He is dead, but he does not wish it to be known." Ninian, a poem, in three Cantos. By John W. A POEM containing many passages of the hand-writing of the former worthy "Tis pleasant to rise at the dawn of light, With her own brilliant dyes, And the clouds scud away o'er the mountain; And the blossomy broom Lends the air a perfume, And the sun sparkles bright o'er the fountain. "The flowrets awake, and refreshed with dew, He sucks up a treasure of sweetness. In the light breeze the wheaten field And basks in the sun's ripening glances On its green sappy head, Now bounds to her covert with fleetness ! "The rook in the rivulet bathes his wings; The minnow springs; As light as a skiff o'er the billow. Aroused by the cock's merry warning, And the maiden whose dreams Leaps lively and fresh from her pillow. "The hours of the sluggard delightless creep, Whom wine and sleep In dulness steep; Who shuts out the ray Of the young summer's day, And through life's blessed morning still dozes; He knows not the health and enjoyment, That spring from our raral employment, Nor the spirits and ease We inhale with the breeze, Whilst health paints our cheeks with her roses." The Song of the Bell and other Poems. Trans lated from the German of J. F. C. Schiller, London, Hatchard and Son. 1839. The author of the volume before us, like other translators, lays down laws of translation which it would be desirable enough to adopt, but which have been found impracticable. "Brevis esse laboro-obscurus fio," was the complaint of a great master of language. The author of these translations from Schiller speaks of the unfaithfulness of English metrical translations in general. Closeness is sacrificed, he says, "to what is imagined to be more poetical beauty" he adds, the less an original is departed from in any manner, whether form or otherwise, the less danger is there of a deviation from its more essential points." The object of all translation must be to exhibit the meaning of the original. To effect this, different writers will adopt, according to their knowledge of the powers of the language in which they write, different methods. To attempt more than this-to exhibit some thought of his own, instead of his author's, is the greatest fault of which a translator, as such, can be guilty; and one which, though often ignorantly imputed to our metrical translators, does not, we think, often occur. transcribe a stanza from the translation of Schiller's "Die Ideale," in the volume before us. We "Then wilt thou leave me, Faithless One, With all thy charming fancies lightJoys, sorrows,-all, for ever done; Inexorable will take flight? Its golden age-my life's fresh morn, Can nothing, Truant ! hinder thee? In vain! swift roll thy waves-on borne Into Eternity's vast sea." We request of our readers to peruse more than once the English lines which we have just transcribed, before they look at the German original. Till we looked at the original, we most unaffectedly declare we did not discover the meaning of the English lines. It seemed to be an address to a faithless mistress. This obscurity is the unhappy result of an industrious attempt to translate literally, and a determination not to have one line more or one line less in the English version than is in the German original. We transcribe the original. "So willst du trenlos von mir scheiden Mit deinen holden Phantasien, Mit deinen Schmerzen, deinen Freuden Mit allen unerbittlich fliehen? Kann nichts dich, Fliehende, verweilen, O meines Lebens gold'ne zeit ? Vergehen! deine Wellen eilen Hinab ins meer der Ewigkeit." We hold, as fully as the author of these translations can do, that no beauty whatever in a translation atone for the absence of fide сап other lity; but a translation of the mere words of an author may as entirely disguise an author's meaning as any process. Witness the Latin verbal translations in the old school editions of the Greek poets, which, in any case of doubt, never remove the difficulty.. The "Song of the Bell," in this volume, is far better performed than any other exercise. The others—all from Schiller-are, "The Ideals," "Fridolin," Knight Toggenburg," Rudolph of Hapsburgh," "The Distribu 46 tion of the Earth," " Woman's Worth," and "The Invincible Fleet." THE GOVERNMENT A FACTION-THE FACTION A GOVERNMENT. WELL the seemingly interminable session being at length ended, the nation is released from the painful spectacle of a profligate ministry and their abandoned supporters struggling day by day, through humiliation and defeat, for measures either fraught with national ruin, or teeming with national degradation. The present ministers may well be denominated "the disowned." Their adherent, Lytton Bulwer, has furnished the synonyme by which they should be distinguished. The Radicals disown them because of their remnant of whiggery; the Whigs disown them because of their savour of radicalism. The great body of the Conservatives reject and abhor them, because of their departure from constitutional principle, and despise them because of their reptile tenacity of official life, which they hesitate not to prolong by the most despicable and dishonourable expedients. Never, since England was a nation, were men invested with supreme power in such a state of universal excommunication. And yet, the very universality of the contempt, and scorn, and loathing, with which they are regarded, by all sorts and conditions of men, may be said to be their chief stay in the elevation to which they have attained, and which they cannot be suffered much longer to maintain without bringing signal ruin upon their country. The Radicals and Revolutionists of every grade, regard them as a stopgap government, by whom better men are excluded from power, who might nip in the bud their pestilent designs; from whom concessions may be extorted which would materially facilitate VOL. XIV. their favourite projects; until the time comes when discontent and turbulence shall have reached their highest point; when secret connivance will give place to open countenance; and either ministers must adopt extreme opinions, or yield the palm of office to the more honest and enterprising favourers of revolution. Therefore it is that the present ministers have entitled themselves to radical support. They have caused themselves to be regarded as a mere locum tenens government, until radicalism has become sufficiently strong to seize the reins of power. Nor have that faction any reason to be dissatisfied with the progress that has been already made towards the attainment of their objects. The ballot has been made an open question. That, in itself, is a great point gained. An education grant has been proposed and carried, by which the views of the infidel and the latitudinarian must be promoted. Patronage has been lavished upon individuals of their body, by which they must have been greatly soothed; and they may calculate upon the most active interference of government on their behalf, when engaged in contested elections. Then, the colonies have been regulated almost entirely by their arbitrament; and if Joseph Hume does not occupy the place of the official secretary, it is his spirit that animates the individuals by whom the colonial office is filled; and the influence of his principle is felt in the Canadas almost in as great a degree as that individual is himself an object of scorn and contempt, to every loyal subject, in any portion of the British empire. No one, therefore, can deny, that 2 c |