boy. I told him the truth calmly, and calmly he heard it all. On the day of his condemnation, she had been deprived of her reason, and, in the house of a kind friend, whose name he blessed, now remained in merciful ignorance of all that had befallen, believing herself, indeed, to be a motherless widow, but one who had long ago lost her husband, and all her children, in the ordinary course of nature. At this recital his soul was satisfied. The son said nothing, but wept long and bitterly. "The day of execution came at last. The great city lay still as on the morning of the Sabbath day; and all the ordinary business of life seemed, by one consent of the many thousand hearts beating there, to be suspended. But as the hours advanced, the frequent tread of feet was heard in every avenue; the streets began to fill with pale, anxious, and impatient faces; and many eyes were turned to the dials on the steeples, watching the silent progress of the finger of time, till it should reach the point at which the curtain was to be drawn up, from before a most mournful tragedy. "The hour was faintly heard through the thick prison walls by us, who were together for the last time in the condemned cell. I had administered to them the most awful rite of our religion, and father and son sat together as silent as death. The door of the dungeon opened, and several persons came in. One of them, who had a shrivelled bloodless face, and small red grey eyes, an old man, feeble and tottering, but cruel in his decrepitude, laid hold of the son with his palsied fingers, and began to pinion his arms with a cord. No resistance was offered; but, straight and untrembling, stood that tall and beautiful youth, while the fiend bound him for execution. At this mournful sight, how could I bear to look on his father's face? Yet thither were mine eyes impelled by the agony that afflicted my commiserating soul. During that hideous gaze, he was insensible of the executioner's approach towards himself; and all the time that the cords were encircling his own arms, he felt them not, he saw nothing but his son standing at last before him, ready for the scaffold. "I faintly recollect a long dark vaulted passage, and the echoing tread of footsteps, till all at once we stood in a crowded hall, with a thousand eyes fixed on these two miserable men. How unlike were they to all beside! They sat down together within the shadow of death. Prayers were said, and a psalm was sung, in which their voices were heard to join, with tones that wrung out tears from the hardest or the most careless heart. Often have I heard those voices singing in my own peaceful church, before evil had disturbed, or misery broken them;-but the last word of the psalm was sung, and the hour of their departure was come. 66 They stood at last upon the scaffold. That long street, that seemed to stretch away interminably from the old Prison-house, was paved with uncovered heads, for the moment these ghosts appeared, that mighty crowd felt reverence for human nature so terribly tried, and prayers and blessings, passionately ejaculated, or convulsively stifled, went hovering over all the multitude, as if they feared some great calamity to themselves, and felt standing on the first tremor of an earthquake. "It was a most beautiful summer's day on which they were led out to die; and as the old man raised his eyes, for the last time, to the sky, the clouds lay motionless on that blue translucent arch, and the sun shone joyously over the magnificent heavens. It seemed a day made for happiness or for mercy. But no pardon dropped down from these smiling skies, and the vast multitude were not to be denied the troubled feast of death. Many who now stood there wished they had been in the heart of some far-off wood or glen; there was shrieking and fainting, not only among maids and wives, and matrons, who had come there in the mystery of their hearts, but men fell down in their strength, -for it was an overwhelming thing to behold a father and his only son haltered for a shameful death. "Is my father with me on the scaffold?-give me his hand, for I see him not." I joined their hands together, and at that moment the great bell in the Cathedral tolled, but I am convinced neither of them heard the sound. For a moment there seemed to be no such thing as sound in the world;—and · then all at once the multitude heaved like the sea, and uttered a wild yelling shriek. Their souls were in eternity -and, I fear not to say, not an eternity of grief." Blackwood's Magazine. ORIGIN OF THE SLAVE TRADE. It will to some appear singular that the Slave trade should have originated in the air of humanity; yet such was the fact, and it exhibits an instance of one of the best and most humane men being guilty of cruelty, when his mind was under the influence of prejudice. Barthelemi de las Casas, the Bishop of Chiap, in Peru, witnessing the dreadful cruelty of the Spaniards to the Indians, exerted all his eloquence to prevent it. He returned to Spain, and pleading the cause of the Indians before the Emperor Charles the Fifth, in person, suggested that their place as labourers might be supplied by negroes from Africa, who were then considered as beings under the proscription of their Maker, and fit only for beasts of burden. The emperor, overcome by his forcible representation, made several regulations in favour of the Indians; but it was not until the slavery of the African Negroes was substituted, that the American Indians were freed from the cruelty of the Spaniards. CROSS-READINGS. The performances of Grimaldi, in the last new pantomime have been uncommonly applauded-by the King's Most Excellent Majesty in Council. Parliament will certainly rise soon-by desire of several of the nobility and gentry. The King of Naples is incog.-among the last brood of lions at Exeter Change. The whole Bench of Bishops-ride their own horses, pay or play. We hear, that the honor of knighthood is to be conferred -on all the scavengers in and about London. Warm debates are expected in the House-a constant supply fresh from Billingsgate. On account of the great scarcity of money-we hear there will be a vote of credit. Some persons pretend there will be a new coalition-a cement much stronger than common glue. Last week there was a new ballet at the King's Theatre— the dancing-dogs are really wonderful. Wednesday two link-boys of Covent-Garden districtkissed His Majesty's hand on being appointed. A very beautiful lady, just turned of fifteen-drank half a gallon of porter at a draught, for a considerable wager. 13. Ipse morietur quia non habuit disciplinam, et in multitudine DEATH, in a very ludicrous attitude, with the abbot's mitre on his head, and his crosier on his shoulder, has seized him by the cloak, whilst the other endeavours to disengage himself, and appears to be throwing his breviary at his assailant. If Hollar copied the original wooden cut of this subject, he has very much deviated from the admirable character of the fat and pampered abbot. IS IT MY WIFE! A NOBLE lord in the county of ***** falling desperately in love with one of his tenant's daughters, he took every opportunity of accomplishing his determined purpose of ruining her; but " so coy a dame was she to him," not all his vows VOL. III.] [No. XVI. L of never-ceasing love, nor all the vast profusion of toys and presents that he proffered her, nor the alluring proposition of a settlement, that would have insured her state and equipage for life," could win her to his bed."-Her virtue served but as feul to his fire. What was to be done? Disclose his unconquerable and unconquering passion to her fatherhum!-yea, now there are hopes indeed; a father's poverty may supersede a father's love; a lavish bribe may annihilate at once a parent's duty. He succeeded to his wish. The terms indeed were high-a thousand pounds! but " All for love or the world well lost." The father received the wages of his consent and aid, and (true to his promise) introduced his lordship into his daughter's chamber at the dead of night, with a solemn promise, that no assistance should be consequent of any cries of distress. Cries, indeed, for some time were made; but what did they avail? "The cruel spoiler triumphed, cropt the fair rose, and rifled all its sweetness;"-but" at length the morning came," when, behold! who did the noble enamorato find himself embracing? No other than his "wedded wife," whom the justly artful and resenting father had privately acquainted with "the story of her husband's love."-What followed this discovery ?Disappointment-rage-distraction-desperation-sullenness-reflection-shame-contrition-intercession-reconThe rescued victim then was led, blushing, by her honoured, honourable parent, to the presence of the noble, and now happy couple: when her ladyship (praising her virtue, and folding her in her arms) generously doubled to the lovely girl the sum that had been paid by his lordship to her father, as the intended purchase of her honour. cilement-pardon. THEN, spent with weary wandering, on the bank Or listening to the murmurs of the glen, |