Section 1.-Philosophy.-(7 members.) Section 4.-Political Economy and Mr William Jacob, London. Mr Porter, London. Mr Nassau Senior, London Section 5.-General History.-(7 Dr Lingard, London. Such is a general account of the National Institute of France in 1850 -doubtless the most illustrious literary and scientific body in the world, whether we consider the men who compose it, or the great additions which it has made to human knowledge. There is, perhaps, no feature in it more remarkable than the unanimity with which the vacancies among its members are filled up. A commission is chosen by ballot, to give in a list of candidates for any vacancy. If the place of an astronomer, for example, is to be supplied, members of the astronomical section will, of course, compose the committee; but if the vacancy is among the foreign associates, the commission is chosen out of all the classes, a list of candidates is made out, and the claims of each are discussed. The candidate whom the commission prefers to all the rest is placed on the first line, and the names of the other candidates in an alphabetical order. The election takes place at the meeting of the Institute subsequent to that to which the commission reports, and the candidate on the first line is always elected by a large majority. In the case of the last election, for example, of a foreign associate of the Academy of Sciences, there were 7 candidates in alphabetical order. Forty members were present at the election; and the votes given were, 28 for the candidate on the first line, and 7, 3, 1, 1, votes for 4 of the other 7 candidates, three of the candidates having received no votes. A POSTMAN'S STORY. PART II. My father was the eldest son of Advocate Forbes, a gentleman well descended, though not over clever, and possessed of little property in his rank; but he married, as people said, well, his first wife being the only child of old Ross Frazer, one of the richest merchants in the Lawnmarket. There was a wild story concerning this man's former life. He was said to have been the son of a Highland laird, who ruined his heritage by a profligate youth; then joined a crew of smugglers; afterwards took to the slave-trade; and at last eloped with a Jamaica merchant's daughter. The father was himself from Scotland, and a Frazer, which, perhaps, induced him to receive the pair, and learn his strange son-in-law his business; and Ross contrived to give him such satisfaction, that, on his death, he inherited a large share of it, with which it seemed good to him to remove to Edinburgh, where, in process of time, he made his fortune in the Lawnmarket. When Advocate Forbes married his daughter, old Frazer was retiring from business to a house he had purchased in George's Square. His West Indian wife was long dead, and, with the negro housekeeper whom she left him, he had for years led a life which most people thought over-strict and solemn. His window-blinds were never lifted on Sunday. No large companies were admitted in his house, and he would not suffer a song in his presence. He was a great judge of sermons, too, and a rigorous supporter of church discipline; but he kept the bulk of his fortune in his own hands, allowing Mrs Forbes an annuity by way of portion, and early made known his resolution of adopting her eldest son. At seven years old, my father was placed under his management, a robust, lively, high-spirited boy, and many an after-year he spent between the High School, the dwelling of Advocate Forbes (which the first mistress was said to have kept completely under petticoat government), and that sombre, silent house in George's Square, at all which, it may be supposed, he learned many different lessons. Whether it was owing to these, or his natural disposition, Tibby could not rightly inform me; but, as he grew older, a mighty difference of opinion arose between him and his grandfather. The old man would allow of no Sunday walks, no holiday recreations, and scarcely any young companions, to all which my father was strongly inclined; besides, Frazer had kept from his early days a wild Highland pride, which led him to despise all business and professions whatever; indeed, it was said that he never visited his old haunts and relations from shame, not at any of his former misdeeds, but for having been a merchant. He had, therefore, set his heart on making my father at once strictly pious and a gentleman; for the one purpose, keeping a rigid hand over his boyhood, and for the other, bringing him up in perfect idleness; while he hoarded his hard-earned thousands, in order to purchase back the mortgaged estate of his family, of which his grandson was the intended laird. The boy was reared in that prospect, and, as he grew up handsome and clever, had naturally a high opinion of himself; but they liked him in all quarters for a ready hand to help in either sport or trouble, so the want of occupation and the love of company led him to unsafe friends and places, and before my father was sixteen, he had got a private acquaintance with cards, dramshops, and low playhouses. Matters of this kind occasionally came to the old man's knowledge, calling forth fierce bursts of anger and harsh doings to his grandson, which at first made the boy more careful in concealment, and, when he grew older, sent him to still wilder lengths in folly; but he had two brothers growing up, who, though younger than him, and in many ways less promising (for Advocate Forbes' younger sons were said to divide their father's character between them-the one being slow, but steady, when gain was before him, and the other an easy goer, but polished and crafty)— yet it was wonderful how, as my father's years and trespasses increased, these dull boys crept into the good graces of their grandfather. But his favourite project of making the eldest a laird could not be given up; and, little kindness as there was in old Frazer's nature, he had a hankering after the bold, high-spirited boy. Things were in that posture when the advocate's first lady was called to the house appointed for all living, to his great sorrow, though some said he mourned for the annuity; but a year after her death, the boys got a stepmother. His former spouse had been a mighty manager; and as it is believed the second choice always goes by contraries, the advocate made a singular variety in his wedded life, for the second Mrs Forbes was aptly compared, even by her own minister, to one of the lilies of the valley mentioned in Scripture, for she toiled not, neither did she spin; nor, I may add, mind the household concerns at all, which were entirely left to the care of my mother, who came home with the bride as a servant. Mrs Forbes had been brought up in the west country; and, though such ways are not usual, I have heard, in that quarter, my mother often said that no one could ask an easier mistress; for, if she got a chair to sit upon, a novel to read, or a story to talk over, the whole world went well with her; which easy temper continued to the last of her days, and must have been a special change to the advocate. However, the peace thus obtained did not lengthen his earthly journey; for, partly, as some thought, for the want of his former lady's superintendence, and partly because it was common among the gentlemen of that time, he took to hard drinking, which brought on apoplexy, and in his fiftieth year he left Mrs Forbes a widow, with three step-sons and as many daughters. The family were poorly provided for, but George and Charles had hopes in their grandfatlier, and Mrs Forbes and her girls in their half-brother, who had now grown up a gay, frank, idle young man, and always favoured his stepmother, because, good woman, she took no account of his doings. Disputes between him and his grandfather had also grown warm and many, for which reason he frequented the house in Buccleuch Place, where he and my mother got acquainted. Tibby told me, and I had cause to believe her, notwithstanding the changes produced by care and toothache, that my mother was then a comely, sensible girl, respected above her station, and dressed beyond the common of servants. Her first acquaintance with Master William began in the way of jokes, and was cemented by sundry good advices she ventured to give him on a new fashion he had taken up of having no religion at all, which came out at that time among the learned men and gentry. My father had heard a good deal of it from the companions of his own choosing, whose numbers were much increased; and taking upon him to talk in the same style one Sunday morning in the hearing of his grandfather, old Frazer at once took fire, and a quarrel rose between them, the like of which had never been heard in George's Square; but it ended in the old man's burning the will he had made in his favour, and turning my father out of doors. Whereupon Master William took up his quarters in a change-house he happened to know, and married my mother next Tuesday-Tibby said, she verily believed to be revenged on all his relations at once. Indeed, it was a great blow to their pride; but a good wife she was to him, and brought him a portion of five pounds, saved out of her wages, and a chest of clothes, as I have heard, perfectly genteel. Father of mine as he was, I hope it is excusable to say she had no great bargain. He would allow my mother to follow no industry, saying he would maintain her like a lady, by turning his talents to account; so he first became a newspaper reporter, next a clerk, and then a player; in none of these having time to prosper, partly because fortune went against him, and partly on account of the dram-shops, in which he latterly began to exceed. In the midst of these doings, the family kept enlarging, and at times it was wonderful how they lived; but at last, when Marion was quite a baby, my father got money all of a sudden. Things were made comfortable about the house; he spent an evening or two with his old companions at the accustomed change-house, where his habits had grown worse and worse, though Tibby said there had never been anything but peace between him and my mother; and one night, when they were all in bed, he came back in great haste and fear; gave my mother half of all the silver he had left about him, and said, God bless her and the children, for he must be off. She never saw him afterwards; but next day there was a rumour in the town that William Forbes had forged a bill on his grandfather, for which he would be prosecuted and hanged, if the police could find him. Old Frazer had never relented to his grandson, and his wrath was said to be privately stirred up by the two younger brothers, whom he now began to look after, but never thought of like William. By his means, George was put into the profession of a writer, and Charles got a place in the Post Office, where he advanced himself still higher. But this is going forward in the story. The boys had never shown any civility to their brother since his marriage; all the Forbeses were angry, though William's stepmother said he might have done worse; and whether the younger brothers had any part in promoting the old man's resolution to prosecute him to the death or not, they got the blame of it; but William was never taken. The last report concerning him was, that he had sailed from Leith on board a Hamburgh vessel, which was sunk at sea by a French privateer. His relations put on a sort of mourning for him, though they never mentioned his name, nor acknowledged my mother and her family; and being of a high spirit, and something helped by friends, she opened a shop in Bristo Street, where, somehow, the neighbours gave us all her name, ard, in process of time, Master William and his deeds were all but forgotten. As for old Frazer, he lived long, as some hard people are apt to do. The Forbeses didn't forget to pay him attention; and in his last days, when he could be brought to allow them, a long deceased brother's children gathered about him also; to whom, it was said, the larger portion of his money was bequeathed, supposing he had done quite enough for Mr George and Charles. They were the Frazers of our first flat, having set themselves up in Edinburgh, that the ladies might get high matches, and the sons the education of gentlemen. To the eldest and best portioned of the former, Master George, who inherited his father's strong scent of a fortune, and dislike, not to say insufficiency, for business, was doing a wooer's duty, when he caught sight of my father, as one risen from the dead; which, Tibby informed me, neither she nor my mother had supposed him, much as they were astonished at his entrance. For, years after the tale of the ship was rumoured and believed, dim intelligence of him had come through strange channels: once, a sailor-looking man stepped into the shop at nightfall, and gave my mother a parcel, containing a new gown for herself, and some ill-chosen things for the children; at the same time telling her in a hasty whisper, that they came from her husband, who had been long his comrade in a French prison, till they escaped together, and joined the British navy; but he warned her to keep the secret of his being alive, as "the lawyers would forgive anything but quill-work, it came so near their own trade." Again, a passing soldier, so drunk that he could tell her nothing, laid on the counter a plated ring, wrapped in a bit of soiled paper, with her name upon it, in my father's handwriting; as Tibby remarked, "he aye sent back useless things, and she kent the last o' them wad be himsel'." But both she and my mother, who now quitted the closet, agreed that, considering the disposition the Forbeses had always shown towards William, and that they and the Frazers had got his fortune among them, it was better Mr George should continue to believe he had seen a stray traveller from the other world, as that was the only circumstance by which they were ever induced to show any kindness to the family. Here it is worthy of remark, that what my poor father most dreaded, was to be recognised by his relations: but how to dispose of the man now came on the carpet. My mother would not hear of sending him away, dangerous as his staying was, and we knew he couldn't be in the house without taking the neighbours' attention; but, for the great friendship that was between them, Tibby proposed that her sister-in-law, who kept cheap lodgings on a top flat, opposite Moray House, in the Canongate, would receive him on her responsibility. "They'll think him the faither o' my bairn," said she; "they ne'er kent who he was, and there's no' muckle difference in ony o' the sort." "O! Tibby," said I, "had ever you a bairn?" "The warld's a' wrang sin' the like o' you learned to ask questions," said she; with which courteous answer I was obliged to put up for that occasion. It was by this time daybreak, and being all weary, we were glad to go to rest-myself on three of the kitchen chairs, which I ranged along the closet door for greater security, and didn't awake till my mother, watchful woman, came to tell me that the younger children were getting up, when we together prepared and told them a story touching a relation of Tibby Thompson's, who, having arrived late, was accommodated with my bed, which served to keep them quiet till they got ready and marched away to church, under my special guardianship, with leave to come home at the close of the sermon. A fervent discourse it was, I have been told, though, doubtless to my own great loss, I slept the whole time of its delivery; but I had passed a sleepless night, and many bags awaited me on Monday morning. My mother had pretended sickness; but, when we returned home, the closet was empty, and my father established in his new quarters. He came over in the evening, still Tibby's relation, to see the younger children; and I marvelled in my own mind to see how James and Marion drew to him, little as they knew, but by the great kindness he showed to them, though John kept a sort of distance; and from seeing my father look curiously at him, I first began to suspect how matters stood, but never imagined then what great things lay before the boy that called me brother. It was really surprising how sober and respectable my father looked in the clothes my mother had kept for him. The man was evidently tired of a wild, wandering life, and willing to settle down in any corner allowed him. There was peace and no want then at our fireside; but no rest for him there, and he had to live alone in Mrs Howdison's cheap lodgings. Indeed, I must not forget to note in this place the many efforts he made to work honestly and quietly for his own support, and do something to help us; but, being obliged to live privately, and avoid observation, which he did wonderfully, by help of the many years that had passed since his departure, and the changes they made in himself, it was scarcely possible for him to get any regular employment, though he sought it, of all sorts, from writing letters to porterage, and sometimes earned a little. All the neighbours remarked Mrs Howdison's quiet lodger, and his frequent visits to our house; gradually they began to know him as Tibby Thompson's runaway spouse, for most people averred she had such a connection. Who he really was, was slowly discovered |