66 both in some approximate degree get to conform | stuff that has followed from it, will first of all to the same. Heaven's laws are not repealable require to be undone, and have the ground cleared by earth, however earth may try-and it has been of it, by way of preliminary to " doing!"trying hard, in some directions, of late! I say, Already one hears of black Adscripti glebæ; no well being, and in the end no being at all, will which seems a promising arrangement, one of the be possible for you or us, if the law of Heaven first to suggest itself in such a complicacy. It is not complied with. And if "slave" mean appears the Dutch blacks, in Java, are already a essentially "servant hired for life"-for life, or kind of Adscripts, after the manner of the old by a contract of long continuance, and not easily European serfs; bound by royal authority, to give dissoluble-I ask, Whether in all human things, so many days of work a year. Is not this somethe contract of long continuance" is not pre- thing like a real approximation; the first step tocisely the contract to be desired, were the right wards all manner of such? Wherever, in British terms once found for it? Servant hired for life, territory, there exists a black man, and needful were the right terms once found, which I do not work to the just extent is not to be got out of pretend they are, seems to me much preferable to him, such a law, in defect of better, should be servant hired for the month, or by contract dis- brought to bear upon said black man! How soluble in a day. An ill-situated servant, that ;— many laws of like purport, conceivable some of servant grown to be nomadic; between whom and them, might be brought to bear upon the black his master a good relation cannot easily spring up! man and the white, with all despatch, by way of To state articulately, and put into practical solution instead of dissolution to their complicated lawbooks, what on all sides is fair from the West case just now! On the whole, it ought to be renIndia white to the West India black; what rela-dered possible, ought it not, for white men to live tions the Eternal Maker has established between beside black men, and in some just manner to these two creatures of His; what he has written command black men, and produce West Indian down, with intricate but ineffaceable record, leg-fruitfulness by means of them? West Indian ible to candid human insight, in the respective fruitfulness will need to be produced. If the qualities, strengths, necessities and capabilities of each of the two this will be a long problem; only to be solved by continuous human endeavor, and earnest effort gradually perfecting itself as experience successively yields new light to it. This will be to "find the right terms" of a contract that will endure, and be sanctioned by Heaven, One other remark, as to the present trade in and obtain prosperity on earth, between the two. slaves, and to our suppression of the same. If A long problem, terribly neglected hitherto ;— buying of black war-captives in Africa, and bringwhence these West Indian sorrows, and Exeter-ing them over to the sugar-islands for sale again Hall monstrosities, just now ! But a problem which must be entered upon, and by degrees be completed. A problem which, I think, the English people, if they mean to retain human colonies, and not black Irelands in addition to the white, cannot begin too soon! What are the true relations between negro and white, their mutual duties under the sight of the Maker of them both; what human laws will assist both to comply more and more with these? The solution, only to be gained by earnest endeavor and sincere experience, such as have never yet been bestowed on it, is not yet here; the solution is perhaps still distant: but some approximation to it, various real approximations, could be made, and must be made ;this of declaring that negro and white are un-child on each arm, the principal thoroughfares of related, loose from one another, on a footing of perfect equality, and subject to no law but that of supply and demand according to the Dismal Sci- | But if it is, I say, the most alarming contradiction ence; this which contradicts the palpablest facts, to the said laws which is now witnessed on this is clearly no solution, but a cutting of the knot earth; so flagrant a contradiction that a just man asunder; and every hour we persist in this is cannot exist, and follow his affairs, in the same leading us towards dissolution instead of solution! planet with it, then, sure enough, let us, in God's What, then, is practically to be done? Much, name, fling aside all our affairs, and hasten out to very much, my friends, to which it hardly falls to put an end to it, as the first thing the Heavens me to allude at present: but all this of perfect want us to do. By all manner of means; this equality, of cutting quite loose from one another; thing done, the Heavens will prosper all other all this, with " immigration loan," " happiness things with us! Not a doubt of it—provided your of black peasantry," and the other melancholy premiss be not doubtful. English cannot find the method for that, they may rest assured there will another come (Brother Jonathan or still another) who can. He it is whom the gods will bid continue in the West Indies; bidding us ignominiously, Depart, ye quack-ridden, incompetent! be, as I think it is, a contradiction of the laws of this universe, let us heartily pray Heaven to end the practice; let us ourselves help Heaven to end it, wherever the opportunity is given. If it be the most flagrant and alarming contradiction to the said laws which is now witnessed on this earth; so flagrant and alarming that a just man cannot exist, and follow his affairs, in the same planet with it; why, then indeed- But is it, quite certainly, such? Alas, look at that group of unsold, unbought, unmarketable Irish "free" citizens, dying there in the ditch, whither my Lord of Rackrent and the constitutional sheriffs have evicted them; or at those "divine missionaries," of the same free country, now traversing, with rags on back and London, to tell men what "freedom" really is ;— and admit that there may be doubts on that point! But now furthermore give me leave to ask, | in Northampton, Mass., was one of the most emiWhether the way of doing it is this somewhat sur-nent men in New England, and greatly endeared to prising one, of trying to blockade the continent of a numerous circle of friends, in every walk of life, Africa itself, and to watch slave-ships along that extremely extensive and unwholesome coast? The enterprise is very gigantic, and proves hitherto as futile as any enterprise has lately done. Certain wise men once, before this, set about confining the cuckoo by a big circular wall; but they could not Watch the coast of Africa, good part manage it! of the coast of the terraqueous globe? And the living centres of this slave mischief, the live coals that produce all this world-wide smoke, it appears, lie simply in two points, Cuba and Brazil, which are perfectly accessible and manageable. If the laws of Heaven do authorize you to keep the whole world in a pother about this question; if you really can appeal to the Almighty God upon it, and set common interests, and terrestrial considerations, and common sense, at defiance in behalf of it—why, in Heaven's name, not go to Cuba and Brazil with a sufficiency of 74-gun ships; and signify to those nefarious countries: that their procedure on the negro question is too bad; that, of all the solecisms now submitted to on earth, it is the most alarming and transcendent, and, in fact, is such that a just man cannot follow his affairs any longer in the same planet with it; that they clearly will not, the nefarious populations will not, for love or fear, watching or entreaty, respect the rights of the negro enough; wherefore you here, with your seventy-fours, are come to be king over them, and will on the spot henceforth see for yourselves that they do it! Why not, if Heaven do send you? The thing can be done; easily, if you are sure of that proviso. It can be done; it is the way to " suppress the slave-trade;" and, so far as yet appears, the one way. Most thinking people!-If hen-stealing prevail to a plainly unendurable extent, will you station police officers at every henroost; and keep them watching and cruising incessantly to and fro over the parish in the unwholesome dark, at enormous expense, with almost no effect; or will you not try rather to discover where the fox's den is, and kill the fox? Most thinking people, you know the fox and his den; there he is-kill him, and discharge your cruisers and police-watchers! A cer Oh, my friends, I feel there is an immense fund of human stupidity circulating among us, and much clogging our affairs for some time past! tain man has called us, "of all peoples the wisest in action;" but he added, "the stupidest in speech"-and it is a sore thing, in these constitutional times, times mainly of universal parliamentary and other eloquence, that the "speakers" have all first to emit, in such tumultuous volumes, their human stupor, as the indispensable preliminary, and everywhere we must first see that and its results out, before beginning any business! (Explicit MS.) manners, and in almost every region of the country, by the His retirement from the Asylum, to which he had devoted the best years of his life, was made necessary by his declining health. It occasioned a universal sentiment of regret. Since that time, he has been a resident of Northampton, where, in the more private walks of life, he won the same affectionate admiration which followed him throughout his official career. He was in the 64th year of his age at the time of his death.-New York Tribune. TO LADY FRANKLIN. BE of good courage, lady! still, though tried, Yet live in hope! though better tidings lack, Sound were the barks those hardy hearts that bore; In joy and honor stand on England's shore. And drifting o'er the vast profound, That Hand of might, outstretched upon the sea, DR. SAMUEL B. WOODWARD, whose death took Lady! may send thy husband back to thee. place on the evening of the 3d inst, at his residence] Punch. From Chambers' Journal. A SKETCH FROM LIFE. ingly pretty. There was the high brow, showing little talent, but much sense; the candid, loving, and yet half-wicked dark eyes; the straight nose, and short, curled upper lip; but there the face I AM One of the many from whom Heaven has changed, as faces sometimes do, from beauty into seen fit to take away the individual interests of life, positive ugliness. The lower lip was full-pouting that, perchance, they might become universal.showing that it could look both sulky and senSometimes I could almost liken myself to a mirror, sual; and the chin retreated-in fact, positively which receives on its silent, solitary breast the ran away!" I said to myself, "If the under fleeting images that pass it by, and so takes them, for the time being, as companions to its own void heart, while it makes of them life-pictures to be reflected abroad. These passing interests I create for myself continually. They seem, too, to meet me voluntarily on every side, not merely in society, but in chance rencounters along the waysides of life. I rarely journey five miles from my home without discovering, or, if you will, manufacturing, some pleasant and useful passage in human life, which makes me feel one with my fellow-creatures, as though the world stretched out its loving hand to the solitary one, and called her "Sister!" half of the character matches the under half of the face, the young husband there will find a few more difficulties with the wife he has married than with the lassie' he wooed." So I turned to his countenance, and speculated thereon. It was decidedly handsome-Greek in its outline; in expression so sweet as to be almost feeble; at least so I thought at first when he was smiling, as he ever did when he looked at her. But in a few minutes of silence I saw the mouth settle into firm horizontal lines, indicating that with its gentleness was united that resolute will and clear decision without which no man can be the worthy head of a household-reThe other day I took my way homeward. Read-spected, loved, and obeyed. For in all households er, I may as well tell the truth, that I am a little, one must rule; and woe be to that family wherein old maid, living in London, and working hard that its proper head is either a petty tyrant, or, through I may live at all; also that, in order to add a small his own weakness, a dethroned and contemned mite to my slender modicum of health, I had abided slave! for a brief space at that paradise of cockneysSouthend. A very respectable paradise it is too, with its lovely green lanes extending close to the shore of what is all but the sea; its pleasant cliffs feathered with rich underwood, which the tide almost kisses at high water; making the whole neighborhood as pretty a compound of seaside and rural scenery as the lovers of both would wish. When my "fairie barque" (the London steamboat Dryad, please, reader) wafted me from thence, I felt a slight pain at my heart. One suffers many such on quitting earth's pleasant nooks. "I ought to have got used to good-by' by this time," thought I to myself, half patiently, half sadly, and began to divert my attention by noticing the various groups on deck. I always do so on principle, and it is hard if I do not find some "bit" of human nature to study, or some form of outward beauty in man, woman or child, to fall in love with. Travelling alone, (as I ever do travel-what should I fear, with my quiet face and my forty years?) I had plenty of opportunity to look around, and soon my eye fell on two persons, meet subjects to awaken interest. Therefore, when I noticed the pretty, wilful ways, and sometimes half silly remarks, of the bride, I felt that this young, thoughtless creature might yet have cause to thank Heaven that she had married a man who knew how to rule as well as cherish her. Until now I had not speculated on their station or calling: it was enough for me that they belonged to the wide family of humanity. But as my musings wandered idly on into their future life, I took this also into consideration. Both had a certain grace and ease in mien and speech, though, through the wife's tones, I distinguished the vague drawl which infects most classes of Londoners. But the husband looked and spoke like a gentleman. I felt sure he was such, even though he might stand behind a counter. A third individual broke their tête-à-tête -a middle-aged cockney, père de famille-evidently some beach acquaintance made at Southend. His chance question produced an answer to my inward wondering. She "Oh," said the bride, "we could only stay at Southend a few days, because of mypaused a moment, and then changed the word husband into "Mr. Goodriche. He cannot be longer away from business." The young bridegroom, then, was "in business" one of those worthy, laboring bees who furnish the community with honey. I thought how hard he must have toiled by counter or in shop to have gained so early in life a home and a wife. spected him accordingly. I re They were a young couple who sat opposite to me-so close that I could hear every word above a whisper. But whispering with them seemed pleasantest, at least for a long time. I should have taken them for lovers, save for a certain air of cheerful unreserve which lovers never have, and an occasional undisguised " my dear" falling from both their lips. At last, keeping a watch over the girl's left hand, I saw it ungloved, and thereon the wed- My "interesting couple" began a lively chat ding-ring! It rested with a sort of new importance, with their new companion at least the wife did. as though the hand were unused to its weight. Un-She put forth all her smiles, all that battery of fasconsciously she played and fidgeted with its shining circlet, and then recollected herself with a smile and blush. It was quite clear my new pets were a bridegroom and bride. Here, then, was a page in human life open before me: I tried to read it line by line, romancing where I could not read. Full opportunity I had, for they took no notice of me : they saw nothing in the world but their own two selves. Happy blindness! I believe much in physiognomy, so I amused myself with deciphering theirs. The girl's face was strik cination with which she had probably before her marriage won her spurs on the field of conquest, and been dubbed “a most shocking flirt." And in the shadow that gathered over the quiet husband's face, I saw the reflection of that which must often have bitterly troubled the peace of the still more retiring lover. True, the girl was doing nothing wrong-her new friend was old enough to have been her father, so no jealousy could be aroused ; but still she was taking her attention and conversation from her husband to give it to a perfect stran ger. She would not have done so had he been only her lover still. Alas! that women should take so much pains to win love, and so little to keep it! Each minute the young husband spoke less, and his countenance grew darker. She only laughed, and chattered the more. Foolish-foolish one! There came on a heavy shower, and there was a rush below. "Come with us to the further end; I will find a place for you," kindly said the blithe young wife, turning back to the little old maid. I thanked her, but declined. For the world, I would not have prevented the chance that, in the solitude of a crowd, some word or look might pass between husband and wife to take away his gloom. Yet when I left the cabin, I saw her sitting-bonnetless, and laughing with a childish gayety-between her silent, grave husband and the disagreeable old man. I went to my quiet place at the stern of the boat, and turned away so that I could see only the turbid river and the dull gray sky. It was as complete solitude as though I had been on Robinson Crusoe's raft in the midst of the Pacific. I pondered over life and its mysteries, as one does who is used to loneliness-who is accustomed to dwell, as it were, on a mountain top, seeing the world and its inhabitants move below like puppets in a show. And herein does fate half atone for ties riven, and ties never formed that in such a life one learns to forget self and all individual joys and griefs, loves and hatreds, are swallowed up in universal sympathies. finds it trodden into ruins by the very idol whom The young husband glanced once only at his wife; but that was enough. The lower lip-that odious lower lip, which had at first awoke my doubts!-was the very image of weak, pouting sullenness. But its weakness was its safeguard against continued obstinacy; and I saw-though the husband did not see-that, as she bent over the side, tear after tear dropped silently into the river. There was hope still! She was leaning over the gangway door, a place scarce dangerous, save to the watchful anxiety of affection. However, the fact seemed to strike her husband; for he suddenly drew her away, though formally, and without any sign of wishing for reconciliation. But this one slight act showed the thoughtfulness, the love-oh, if she had only answered it by one kind look, one word of atonement ! But no; there she stood-immovable. Neither would yield. I would have given the world could of Heaven-for the love of him-for the peace of your whole life, be the first to say, forgive me! Right or wrong, never mind. Whichever have erred, it is your place--as weakest and most loving to yield first. Oh, did you but know the joy, the blessedness of creeping close to your husband's wounded, perchance angry heart, and sayingTake me in there again; let us not be divided more! And he would take you, ay, at once; and love you the more for the forbearance which never even asked of his pride the concession that he was also wrong!" I pondered much on the two young creatures II have whispered in the wife's ear, "For the love had left below; and, woman-like, I thought chiefly of the woman. She seemed to me like a child toying with a precious jewel, little knowing what a fearful thing it is to throw away love, or to play lightly, mockingly, with those feelings on which must rest the joy or woe of two human souls for a lifetime. And passing from this individual case, I thought solemnly, almost painfully, of the strange mysteries of human life, which seem often to bestow the priceless boon of love where it is unvalued and cast away. Unconsciously I repeated the wellknown words, "To him that hath shall be given, and from him that hath not shall be taken away.' But my soul answered meekly, "Only on earth, and life is not long-not long!" Perhaps this long speech was partly written in his eyes; for when, by chance, they met the young wife's, she turned away, coloring crimson; and at And turning once more to the group of my fel- that moment up came the enemy once more, in the low-voyagers, I saw the two in whom I took such shape of the intrusive elderly gentleman; but the an interest. They were standing together, a little husband's lecture, whatever it was, had its effect apart, leaning on the vessel's side. He was talking in the girl's demeanor. She drew back with a to her, not angrily, but gravely-earnestly. In the quiet womanly reserve, strongly contrasted with expression of his face I scarce recognized the man her former coquettish forwardness, and left “Mr. who had borne smilingly all her idle jests, sportive Goodriche" in possession of the field. And I liked contradictions and caprices, an hour ago. She the husband ten times better for the gentlemanly tried them again for a few minutes: but in vain. dignity with which he shook off all trace of iliThen she hung her head, and pouted. Soon quick, humor, and conversed with the intruder. The wilful answers came. I heard them not; but I was boyish lover seemed changed into the firm, selfsure of the fact from her flushed cheek and spark-dependent man. And when the wife timidly crept ling eye, as she disengaged her arm from his. Man's patience is never eternal, not even in the honeymoon; he spoke to her firmly, while his face darkened into positive anger, and then there was a sullen silence between them. The time passed, and still they remained in the same position together; but oh, what a sea of sullen anger was between them! Neither saw the other's face; but I saw both. He stood gazing up into the leaden clouds, his mouth firmly set, and yet twitching every now and then with suppressed feeling. Was it, perchance, the bitter disappointment, almost agony, of the man who has with pain and toil built for himself a household hearth, and up, and put her arm through his, he turned round and smiled upon her. Oh how gladly, yet how shyly, she answered the slight token of peace! And I said to myself, "That man will have a just, and firm, yet tender sway; he will make a firstrate head of a family!" I saw little more of them until near the journey's end. They were then sitting in the half-empty cabin alone together; for, to my delight, and perhaps theirs, the obnoxious individual of middle age had landed at Blackwall. Very quiet they seemed; all the exuberant happiness which at first had found vent in almost childish frolic was passed away. The girl no longer laughed and jested with her young husband; but she drew close to his side, | other cities of South America, are nearly all her head bending toward his shoulder, as though, French, who, through their honesty and good conbut for the presence of a stranger, it would fain duct, generally realize small fortunes, with which droop there, heavy with its weight of penitence they in most cases return to spend their latter days and love. Yet, as I watched the restless look in in their own country, their attachment to home her eyes, and the faint shadow that still lingered being stronger than that of any other European on the young man's face, I thought how much had nation. been perilled, and how happy-ay, ten times happier-would both have felt had the first quarrel never been! In the confusion of departure I lost my young friends, as I thought, forever; but on penetrating the mysterious depths of an omnibus, I heard a pleasant voice addressing me—“So you are again our fellow-passenger to But I will not say where, lest the young couple should "speer" for me, and demand why I dared to "put them in print." And yet they would scarce be wroth did they know the many chords they touched, and the warm interest they awakened in a poor withered heart which has so few. It was the dreariest of wet nights in LondonHeaven knows how dreary that is!-but they did not seem to feel it at all. They were quite happy quite gay. I wondered whether for them was prepared the deepest bliss of earth-the first "coming home;" and I felt almost sure of it when the husband called out to the conductor, "Set us down at ;" naming a quiet, unobtrusive, new-built square. He said it with the half-conscious importance of one who gives a new address, thinking the world must notice what is of so much interest to himself; and then the young people looked at one another, and smiled. I said to the wife-drawing the bow at a venture" What a miserable night!-Is it not pleasant coming home?" She looked first at her husband, and then turned to me, her whole face beaming and glowing with happiness, "Oh, it is-it is!" They bade me good-night, and disappeared. I leaned back in my dark corner, my heart very full; it had just strength to give them a silent blessing, and no more. I remembered only that I had been young once, and that I was now an old maid of forty years. From Chambers' Journal. FRENCH PEDLERS IN ITALY. Genoa is the principal resort of the French pedlers, who have taken the place of princely merchants, and help to keep alive the remnant of a commerce which once accumulated opulence in the city, and extended its ramifications over half the world. When you walk through it, melancholy seizes you at every turn. Streets and palaces without inhabitants, warehouses without goods, a custom-house where almost no duties are paid, and a mole which has now too frequently no ships to shelter from the weather. Such is Genoa! But wherever men are congregated, they must discover some means of earning a livelihood. Pomp and grandeur have no other basis than industry, as the owners of the immense fortunes once found in Genoa have proved to their cost. They went on spending, supposing their revenues would last forever. But time by degrees brought them to the end of their treasures, and the descendants of grandees with pompous titles, and of merchants, each of whom possessed a little navy of his own, now in many cases subsist by supplying goods to French pedlers, who have intelligence, enterprise, and perseverance. We have been unable to ascertain the number of persons engaged in carrying on this obscure department of the trade of Genoa; they must, however, be numerous. When preparing to start on their toilsome and not unperilous enterprise, they go to the warehouse of the merchant, with whom they deal always in pairs, with capacious knapsacks on their backs. As might be expected, they bestow much care on the selection of their goods, which necessarily consist of small articles, or things that will pack close-such as handkerchiefs, shawls, dresses, cheap lace, ribbons, reels of cotton, needles, &c. To these they add a quantity of Genoese silver jewellery, remarkable for its tastefulness and elegance. Did these men possess the art of communicating their experience to the world, no travels would perhaps be so interesting as theirs. They pass over, two in company, from Genoa to the north of THERE is in Northern Italy a peculiar branch of Corsica, where they part company-the one taking trade, carried on almost exclusively through the the eastern, the other the western side of the island, instrumentality of Frenchmen. These individuals, agreeing to meet on a given day at the port whence chiefly from Languedoc and Provence, repair at a they embark for Sardinia. They then traverse particular season of the year to Genoa, sometimes together this boisterous channel, and on reaching with a small capital, but much oftener without. the larger island, separate again, fixing for their They find, however, no difficulty in obtaining rendezvous on another port, whence they usually credit. In the first place, those who have been sail for the coast of Spain, unless they have in the long known, and established their character for hon-mean while disposed of the whole of their goods. esty, readily become security for the new-comers; It might at first be supposed that the contents of and if this were not the case, still the incipient two knapsacks would not enable men to proceed pedlers belong to a class of men so remarkable for thus far. Nor do they always, or even perhaps punctuality and uprightness in their dealings, that generally. But sometimes it happens that our even the most suspicious merchants would think Corsican and Sardinian villagers are not in the they ran no risk in trusting them. Our prejudices humor to buy, or have no money, or have just may at first perhaps render us a little incredulous; made their purchases of other pedlers. In this but the fact nevertheless is, that French people case the wandering merchant must trudge on to the engaged in trade are generally well-principled; at next village or hamlet, to meet perhaps the same illleast they have been fortunate enough to achieve an luck there. By these means a small stock goes a honorable reputation, and in whatever foreign coun- great way. Besides, as progress is made in civilitry they settle, are looked upon as perfectly safe in zation, and villages grow up, through trade or otherall matters of business. The shopkeepers of Bahia, wise, into towns, the shop takes the place of the Buenos Ayres, Rio de Janeiro, Valparaiso, and pedler's pack, and people grow ashamed of owing VOL. XXIV. 17 CCXCIX. LIVING AGE. |