I have found you so soon; your uncle R-, who landed at Glasgow a few days since from the West Indies, has just arrived; and you must come home immediately, as he only means to stay till to-morrow morning, when he sets off for London.' This was a most annoying interruption; but it was some comfort to me that Maria appeared as much annoyed as Į did. She hastily took leave of me, and accompanied her cousin towards Mrs. B's abode. I gazed after her, till a bend in the street hid her from my sight; and from that day to this, I have never seen Maria, nor scarcely ever heard of her. She accompanied her uncle to London the following morning, and his house became from thenceforth her home. For some time I felt strongly desirous to write to her; but her altered circumstances made me feel it inexpedient to do so; since, though her uncle might have sanctioned an engagement already formed, it was very unlikely he would permit her to contract one with a person whose future prospects were so uncertain as mine. I therefore thought it better to wait till I could offer her a home; and ere that was the case, my views as to the requisite qualifications for a Christian minister's wife were totally altered. Her aunt and family soon left the neighbourhood; so I lost all trace of the charming Maria. Had we turned into the other street, our fate would have been fixed before her cousin could have found us. And thus He of whom I was then ignorant, graciously interposed to prevent me from becoming the husband of one whom I can now perceive to have been a vain and frivolous woman.'

Such was my friend's narrative; and I doubt not that some who read it will be reminded of similar

interpositions of their heavenly Father, when they wished to walk in the sight of their own eyes; and who have been brought to bless him for hedging up their path with thorns. May his watchful care over them in years that are past, induce all that call themselves his children to trust him implicitly for the years yet to come; and thus shall they be free from those endless anxieties which we so often bring upon ourselves by transgressing this commandment: "Take no thought for the morrow."

MARTHA MARKWELL.

TRIALS.

THOSE stones which are appointed for a glorious building are first under the saw and the hammer, to be hewed and squared; and those Christians in whom the Lord will take most delight, he usually thereunto fitteth by trials and extremities. He that is brought to tremble in himself, may with most confidence expect to rejoice in God.-Bishop Reynolds.

EVIDENCE.

THERE has rarely been a publication more replete with interest and entertainment than the 1490 pages of folio, comprising the evidence given before the House of Lords last year, on the much-disputed subject of Irish national education. Some part is undoubtedly painful, as shewing the depth of spiritual darkness encompassing individuals who ought, in their station, to be burning and shining lights; or displaying the reckless career of modern liberalism, spurred on by its subtle rider, Popery: or opening up scenes that would be irresistibly laughable, did pot their wretched absurdity involve such ruinous consequences to the rising generation: or demonstrating how easily the judgment, the very principle of a pious Englishman, may be warped by the shrewd management of Pat, when he wishes to make, in common parlance, a cat's-paw of his esteemed and unsuspicious guest. Besides all this, we have a splendid display of much that might never have been known beyond the immediate neighbourhoods where it took place, had not the House of Lords, by summoning, swearing, and questioning the principals in those noble duels, compelled them to bear that witness of themselves which no other means could have forced them to do. We have some notion of treating our readers, who may not have access to the books in question, with specimens of each of the

foregoing varieties: at present we will only give an extract or two from one of the latter class. Be it remembered, that Dean Murray was commanded to repair to London, from the bosom of his home, in the sphere of his quiet, noiseless, though most active labours and being put upon his oath, to answer truly whatsoever questions might be propounded by their lordships, he could not possibly avoid furnishing us with the beautiful piece of autobiography that we are about to transcribe. The evidence was published, too, by order of the peers; beyond the controul or interference of any concerned.

The Dean of Ardagh underwent as close a scrutiny as any person: he was known to be so decided an opponent of the miserable system, and to have passed his life in such pursuits as would certainly best qualify him to sit in judgment on an educational plan for his dear country people. Thus was he obliged to declare some of his experience. After stating that he had ceased his ministry in the church for a time, and retired to his private property in the diocese of Limerick, and devoted himself wholly to the work of educating the poor, the result of which was the solid conversion of above 460 individuals from popery, and that he was then presented to the deanery of Ardagh, the examination proceeds:

'When you became resident at Ardagh, did you establish schools there?'- Exactly the same as elsewhere.'

'What schools did you establish at Ardagh?'. 'I built a large house, containing two very fine schoolrooms, and apartments for the master and mistress.'

'It has been stated in the passage you have read, that there was a certain sum at your disposal for

charitable purposes; in dealing with that, and building those schools, did you exceed that sum?'-' Yes, I did, very considerably.'

'Out of your own funds you largely contributed to those purposes?'-' Every farthing that I possessed, both in the church and out of the church, with the exception of what supported us, was applied to the purpose of benefiting the people in different ways.'

'Was Mrs. Murray, from the earliest period of her life, equally earnest in education with yourself?’— She was a schoolmistress from fourteen years of age to this present time.'

• Did this donation of a friend, to be expended by you in this way, come to you in consideration of the zeal and the skill she had shown in teaching the poor?' A gentleman from India was passing through the town where she resided before we were married, and he had the curiosity to see her school, and he visited it, and spent a day at her father's; and when he returned to India he sent her £2000, to enable her to extend the schools.'

In another examination, the dean is led to show some striking fruits of his labour:

'At Lough Neagh, do you remember any remarkable proof of the effect of scriptural instruction upon the population within your experience?'-' I do. The three Sundays next to midsummer-day there were tents pitched there; the country people from ten or twenty miles round all collected then round a holy well which was there, and it was a scene of debauchery for three weeks of the most disgraceful character. Some time after, I brought the people there under instruction in my own way; and they themselves, although it was to their own detriment,