This salt, so widely spread over earth and sea, pervades also the whole animal and vegetable creation; "and indeed," says the illustrious Zohar, "since the great God makes nothing in vain, surely salt must serve some great use." But if sages and physicians have glorified it as a panacea, a modern knight-errant has assailed it as a poison. Having heard the blast of their wide-mouthed trumpets, we may be diverted by the squeak of his shrill whistle. Salt, according to the late Dr. Howard, is the source of all our misery and all our woes. The salt-box is that vase of Pandora, from which sprang the cohorts of sin and disease. When man was placed in paradise, it was ordained, say the antisalt philosophers, that he should feed on earth; yet only through the medium of the vegetable creation. It was the primal sin of Adam that he ate raw salt, passing over the plant through whose intermediation the earth converts its own substance into a state fitted for the nourishment of animated beings. Salt was the forbidden fruit: it cost man the loss of paradise : since then it has been his earthly curse. "The operation of this crude mineral substance, which has not been softened and rendered mild by passing through the vegetable state, is most certainly fatal to the combustion of the vital flame." A fertile source of disease, it is said, by these authorities, to be denounced in hidden terms in the Bible. The eating swine-flesh an abomination so emphatically forbidden in Isaiah, is swine-flesh and salt. It was against pickled pork that the prophet directed his denunciation; and this interpretation of the learned doctors proclaims to the whole nation of Hebrews that they may eat freely of pork-roasted, boiled, or fried-so that they abstain from bacon and ham.

contains. Euripides poetically designates to pieces; and, at Syracuse, a fountain. the ocean as the salt tears of Saturn. The lost its sweetness, and became salt. It sea is still the chief source of the salt would appear that the bishop was transwhich we use. There are one hundred lated to another sea, and, let us hope that and forty-five millions of square miles of he was benefited by translation. sea; each gallon of its water containing forty per cent of salt. The whole mass therefore amounts to six thousand four hundred and forty-one billions of tons; so that, if the sea were evaporated and the salt crystallised, the latter would form a layer seven hundred feet thick over the bottom of the sea, or two thousand feet thick over the solid land of the earth. But we draw largely for our salt upon the masses deposited upon the earth in early ages. These occupy various positions. In one place salt is buried in cavernous mines, which its beauty glorifies; in another, it covers the surface of the land with a silvery efflorescence. The largest and most celebrated salt-mine-that of Wielickza, in Gallicia, possesses a bed of salt extending four hundred and sixty miles, and has a thickness of one thousand two hundred feet. Salt here too retains its sacred relations. Cunigunda-pious princess-drew down the knowledge of the locality of this mine by her prayers. A ring which she threw into a salt spring in Hungary was found in these mines. The miracle attested her claim to their discovery. The accounts of the salt-plains of Abyssinia are shrouded in mystery. The heat there, is so great, that by day no mortal can endure it. During those hours the merchants hide themselves beneath sheltering rocks; when the moon rises and they come forth from the crevices, the whole plain lies before them white with salt, glistening like silver in the pale moonbeams. They fill their sacks, but not without danger; for, says tradition, in the fissures and cavities of the rocks lurk demons, who entice travellers to their destruction, calling them by name, and feigning to be old acquaintances. The sacred thirst for gold urges them on; and trembling, they traverse the plain, guided by pillars of salt, spectral sign-posts, standing like tall white ghosts, left mourning in the wilderness, like the wife of Lot. Saltsprings such as we have at Droitwich and Nantwich afford capital table-salt. Those of Sicily are celebrated; their origin is stated thus: In eleven hundred and sixtynine an earthquake rent the ground, destroying fifteen thousand commoners and a bishop. Towns and castles were shaken

No absurdity is so monstrous but that some throats have capacity to swallow it. Even Dr. Howard had his followers. How Pliny, and Plato, and Blaise de Vigeuères, would have held up hands of horror and affright at this unholy heresy! The whole experience of ages, and collective wisdom of nations, stand opposed to the mad denunciation. So far is salt from being useless, that man and animals have from the

earliest times sought it with incredible [pear to ward off low forms of fever. It pains and devoured it with marvellous deals death to parasite growth. So far is avidity, Its use has been held to be a it from being unholy, that, since the birth privilege essential to pleasure and to health: of revealed religion, its history has been its deprivation, a punishment productive bound up with the history of ceremonial of pain and disease. Its uses in the econ- rites, and as Elisha healed with it the omy are manifold and important. With- waters of Jericho, so it found a place in out it there would be no assimilation of the modern rite of baptism. Sole, saith food, no formation of gastric juice. Nutri- the proverb, et sale nihil sanctius et utilius: tion would cease: life would languish, and Nothing is more holy or more useful than utterly waste. Salt, moreover, would ap- the sun and salt.

From Frazer's Magazine.

EDINBURGH DURING THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

earliest of June. It is a time of those tical matters; and as a court of justice, delightful long twilights which Scotland it has the power to inflict every degree of gains over the southern counties of Eng-punishment upon clergymen, from censure land, by some six or seven degrees of or temporary suspension from duty, up latitude farther towards the north. By to deposition from the office of the holy the twenty-fifth or twenty-sixth of May ministry, and deprivation of their benethe streets swarm with clergymen of every fices. Also in any case where the people possible diversity of appearance, and from of a parish bring forward objections to every corner of Scotland: old college the minister presented by the patron, friends, who had parted as striplings, meet the General Assembly decides in the last again as responsible fathers of families; instance whether these objections have at the railway stations we are constantly been supported by sufficient evidence, being run against by men with white and whether they are such as ought to stocks and large portmanteaus; the lodg- prevent the induction of the "presentee" ing-houses are crammed with them; not to the living. only does the General Assembly of the Kirk meet at this time, but also that of the "Free Church," which has closely copied the organization of the national establishment: there are more clergymen, for the time, in Edinburgh than there are priests in Rome.

The tourist or visitor from the south, who has sauntered along that unrivalled Princes street, must have observed, high up on the Castle Rock, a little way down the slope towards Holyrood, a noble spire, of, we believe, some two hundred and fifty feet in height, and in its design not unworthy of Pugin. That spire marks the position of "The Assembly Hall," a handsome Gothic building, which was erected at a vast expense for the use of the General Assembly, and is so arranged as to be used as a church during the remainder of the year. It stands in the heart of the Old Town, amid black houses of enormous height. There would seem to be some ecclesiastical gravitation to the spot, for we counted four or five places of worship within thirty yards of the Assembly Hall;-a parish church, an episcopal chapel, and a Free Kirk, the latter crowded every Sunday by the admirers of Dr. Guthrie. A little way down the High street stands the cathedral or High Church of Edinburgh; and pursuing our way down the same street, which grows always dirtier and more odoriferous as we advance, we arrive at the palace of Holyrood, surrounded by numbers of the most wretched abodes on the surface of the earth.

The General Assembly is the supreme court of the Scottish Church. Its powers are something like those of the House of Lords-at once legislative and judicial. It legislates absolutely in all matters purely spiritual. It possesses absolute power to order the clergy in all ecclesias

The General Assembly consists of about three hundred and sixty members, of whom rather more than two hundred are clergyman. It is a representative body, made up of lay and clerical delegates from each presbytery, and of delegates from the universities and royal burghs. The delegates from each presbytery are elected annually, one minister being sent for every five parishes, and one lay elder for every two ministers. In presbyteries where the clergy like attending the Assembly, each minister has thus the opportunity of being a member of it only once in five years; but the same lay elders, who are generally noblemen, or gentlemen of good position, are sent every year. The representatives of the universities and burghs are also, for the most part, the same year after year. We have heard of one venerable and excellent elder who has been a member of every Assembly for the last fifty-eight years. It may be easily supposed that members who are present every year, acquire an acquaintance with forms and proceedings which enables them to take a much more prominent part in the affairs of the Assembly than is possible for members who come up only once in four or five years.

The Queen is represented in the meetings of the Assembly by a High Commissioner,. almost always a Scotch_nobleman. He is addressed as "Your Grace" during his fortnight of vice-royalty; the national anthem is played wherever he goes, and the streets are pervaded by his footmen in royal liveries. The day before that appointed for the meeting of the General Assembly, he takes up his quarters at Holyrood, where he maintains some faint echo of its old royal times. He is allowed £2000 to defray the expenses of his position, but it is well known that several

Commissioners who did things in truly royal | and champagne. On entering the picturestyle have spent some thousand pounds gallery we perceive the Commissioner, a additional during their few days of office. tall, bald old man, arrayed in uniform, atHeralds, pursuivants, beef-eaters, pages, tended by his chaplain and purse-bearer, and attendants without number, throng in court-dresses, and by a couple of pages, the courts of Holyrood and the precincts boys of twelve or thirteen, in red coats, of the Assembly Hall, and furnish a white breeches, cocked hats, and swords. cheap and highly-appreciated exhibition The demand for hair-powder on the part to the ragged urchins of the Canongate. of all the officials at Holyrood must cerIt is a curious position that the Commis- tainly tend to raise the price of that comsioner holds in the meetings of the Assem- modity. Each person who is presented bly. Representing his royal mistress, he is passes before his Grace, with a profound present to signify the protection and coun- bow of greater or less awkwardness; and tenance of the State afforded to the Church, it is amusing, after one has passed the orbut he is permitted to take no part in the deal, to notice the awe-stricken faces of deliberations of a church which acknow- some of the country ministers, in fearful ledges no temporal head. He is present, expectation of what lies before them. It but not in any way assisting in the pro- is recorded that a number of years since, ceedings; observing, but not interfering. the University of Glasgow prepared an It is understood that under certain cir- address of congratulation to the Earl of cumstances he might interfere, but it Errol, the Commissioner of that day, and would be very difficult to define these intrusted the presentation of it to the circumstances. Once, in the stormy Principal. On entering the presence-room days before the secession of 1843, the the eye of that gentleman was unluckily Commissioner was appealed to, but he caught by a dazzling group of the magis took care to make a general reply, which trates of Edinburgh, presenting a most signified nothing whatever. imposing array. The Bailie -was powdered and decorated above his fellows, and the bewildered Principal at once felt that this must be the Commissioner, and approaching the Bailie with great reverence, he proceeded to read his address. The worthy magistrate was thunder-struck beyond the power of speech, and it was not till the Principal had made an end of speaking that he became aware of his mistake. We understand that from eight hundred to one thousand individuals are usually presented at the first levee, and about three hundred of these, selected at the discretion of the purse-bearer, receive invitations to dinner at the Palace in the evening. The Commissioner has a large dinner-party every day, but the party on the first day of the Assembly is much the most numerous.

Let us suppose that the day appointed for the meeting of the Assembly has come at last. It is ushered in with a great ringing of bells, and his Grace the Lord High Commissioner-we give him all his honors-holds his first levee. By ten o'clock in the morning great crowds are thronging the usually quiet precincts of Holyrood. Going with the crowd, we are carried up stairs to the picture-gallery, a long and narrow chamber, of antique aspect, hung round with faded portraits. The levee is very numerously attended. Members of Assembly, magistrates, judges and barristers, military men,-in short, every person of the least standing in Edinburgh and its neighborhood-all go to pay their devoirs to the representative of royalty. Court-dresses are rarely seen. The Commissioner at the recent Assembly was Lord Belhaven, who has been sent by the Whig Governments for a number of years. The late Marquis of Bute was Sir Robert Peel's Commissioner; and the Earl of Mansfield was Lord Derby's. Both these noblemen made their arrangements on a scale of truly royal magnificence, and fond traditions are preserved among the members of the Assembly of the multitude of their carriages and horses, the gorgeousness of their liveries, and the incomparable quality of their turtle, claret,

The route

The levee being over, the Commissioner goes in state to attend divine service in the High Church of Edinburgh, the scene of Jenny Geddes' exploits. The procession is really an imposing one. taken is varied year by year: this year it was the direct line up the Canongate and High street. Unluckily, the day was a very rainy one, and the effect of the procession was a good deal diminished by the circumstance. Still, all the usual arrangements were carried out. The streets were lined with cavalry; and as we looked at

the really fine animals which most of the | our English friends (who had not heard troopers bestrode, we could not but "own him preach before, and were unprepared a wish to bite our nails, to think such for his oddities of accent) when he gave out horses ate their tails." A tremendous his text, "He that is unjust let him be crowd occupied the foot-pavement; and unjust stull; and he that is fulthy, let him every window of the tall black houses be fulthy stull." Service being concluded along the line was crammed with human in the High Church, there is a great rush faces. The sheriffs, bailies, and judges, to the Assembly Hall, which is within all arrayed in their robes, occupied the three hundred yards; and every corner of foremost carriages; the Commissioner it is speedily thronged. By the interest came last, in a carriage drawn by six of a friend who was a member of Assemhorses, preceded by a troop of cavalry. bly, we were admitted to that part of the All the heraldic resources of Scotland house which is allotted to members, and were of course employed to add dignity whence the best view of the proceedings to the affair; and as the parade swept is obtained. Entering by a door under slowly past, amid the jubilant strains of the tall spire already alluded to, we find two fine military bands, it was evident that ourselves in a handsome vaulted lobby. the sight afforded unmingled satisfaction Long tables placed on either side are to the thousands who witnessed it. Ar- covered with letters addressed to various rived at the High Church, his Grace was members of Assembly: the letters on the received by the Sheriff of Mid-lothian, and left being invitations to dine with the Comconducted to a throne erected under a missioner, and those on the right to breakmassive canopy, in the front of the gallery fast with the Moderator. Passing through facing the pulpit. The front pews of the this lobby, we proceed along a large tuntwo side-galleries were occupied by the nel-like passage, requiring artificial light magistrates and judges, and by some of even by day, on either side of which are the clerical officials of the Assembly. The many committee-rooms and other official service on this occasion is always conduct- chambers. At the end of this tunnel, we ed by the Moderator or President of the ascend a short wide staircase; and passing previous General Assembly: this year Dr. through a door guarded by two or three Bell, minister of Linlithgow, a clergyman beadles, and covered by curtains of crimwhose dignity of appearance and manner son cloth, we find ourselves in the Assemwell fit him for such a position. The Mo- bly Hall. Its first aspect is extremely derator is always a minister of long stand- imposing. It is a gothic building, with a ing in the church. Dr. Bell's ordination very handsome groined roof, which somedates from 1822. Like some of our high- what offends the eye by its over-flatness. er dignitaries in England, the Moderators The intention in this deviation from the are seldom very popular preachers: they canons of Gothic architecture, was to renare selected rather for their tact, judg- der voices speaking from any point in the ment, and aptitude for business, than for hall more easily heard. All the benches their power of drawing crowded congre- are of massive oak, and have crimson gations.* Whoever goes to the High cushions. The place allotted to the altar Church on the opening day of the Assem- in England is occupied by a dais, elevated bly, will certainly hear a sermon charac- about six feet above the floor of the house, terized by good sense, good taste, and and enclosed by a massive railing of oak. great affection for the Kirk, but will sel- In the centre of this platform stands the dom find any thing very striking, either throne, surmounted by a canopy of richlyin matter or manner. There are excep- carved oak. In this throne sits the Comtional cases now and then, when such a missioner, his purse-bearer on his right, man as Chalmers, a great preacher as well and his chaplain on his left, and surroundas politician, is the ex-Moderator. Weed not only by pages, yeomen, and heralds, remember well the eloquent discourse he preached in that capacity; and likewise the astonishment he excited in some of

but by an array of the beauty, rank, and fashion of the neighborhood. A little interest with the purse-bearer (who is a much greater man than the Commissionthe Throne-Gallery, which can accommoer,) will procure an order of admission to date forty or fifty persons. And on those days when an interesting debate is expect