No. XLI. Price One Penny, And now the time in special is, by privilege, to write and speak what may help to the further discussing of matters in agitation. The Temple of Janus, with his two controvcrsal faces, might now not unsignificantly be set open : and though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let her and falsehood grapple. Who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter Her confuting is the best and surest suppressing.— MILTON'S AREOPAGITICA. LOCAL STATISTICS. MORTALITY. No. III. The table for the summer quarter, ending Sept. 30, 1842, shows that, in the 114 districts, there were 39,069 deaths registered in that quarter; being an increase of 879 over those of the spring quarter. The average number of deaths registered in the four preceding summers was 36,595 ; but, as the population increases, in the town districts, about 1.74 annually, the average applicable to the summer of 1842 is 38,208, which is less by 861 than the deaths which were actually recorded. The mortality was 2 per cent, greater than the summer average, which is at the rate of 23 deaths annually in a population of 1000. In the summer quarter of 1842, the mortality was at tbe rate, of 23.4 annually in a population of 1000 ; namely, 23.0 in the metropolitan districts, and 23.6 in the provincial towns. Where there had been an increase, the Registrars referred it to scarlatina and bowel complaints, com- prising diarrhoea and cholera, which had been more prevalent than usual in the season, though in a mild form. In the quarter ending Sept. 30, 1842, the deaths registered in the four districts of our own locality, were Halifax 488 I Bradford 820 Huddersfield 444 I Leeds 1,133. The average numbers of the deaths registered in the four summer quarters of 1838— 39— 40— 41, were Halifax 470 I Bradford 705 Huddersfield .... 465 | Leeds 1,019. It appears that the deaths in the Bradford and Leeds district were above the average; in the Hud- dersfield district below it; and in the Halifax district very near the same. Seven of the Registrars in the Bradford district subjoined remarks to their returns, as follows:— Bradford, East division:—" I have a decrease of 33 deaths from last quarter's return ; and I have had 11 deaths from diarrhoea, 7 from cholera, and 10 measles ; and only 1 death from small pox, that a male, aged 44." Bradford, West End:—" There is more than an average of deaths, this quarter. A great many in- fants have died of convulsions, and many of the measles.'' Manningham ••—" Chiefly owing to the prevalence of diarrbcea amongst children, tbe number of deaths, this quarter, is at least 60 per cent, above the aver- age." Dringhlington :—" The measles still prevail, which, together with a few cases of fever and consumption, will account for the increase." Pudsey :—" The number of deaths, in this district, during the past quarter, has not been above the average ; but the cases of nhtbisis appear to be much on tbe increase, as no less than 15 deaths, out of 57, have been occasioned by it, and nearly the same pro- portion during the preceding quarter." Horton :—" Although less oy 4 deaths than in the corresponding quarter of last year, yet English cholera, typhus, and measles, have prevailed." Bowling :—" In the last quarter there has been a great falling off in the number of deaths, for which I cannot account. I have registered 8 deaths caused by cholera morbus, which disease has prevailed very much." Three of the Registrars in the Leeds district sub- joined remarks to their returns, as follows : — Leeds, North-.—" The number is about 30 more than wat registered in the corresponding quarter of 1841 ; caused mainly by the prevalence of diarrhoea amongst children." Kirkstall:—" Above the average number. The increase is owing to the prevalence of scarlatina and phthisis ; also a few cases of measles. Died of phthisis 15, scarlatina 14, measles 6." Whitkirk •—" The deaths, during the last quarter, are above the average, occasioned by an unusual mortality among children, from hooping- cough and measles." THE MISERIES, MISFORTUNES, MISHAPS, AND MISADVENTURES, OF A SHORT- SIGHTED MAN. COMMUNICATED BY HIMSELF. [ Concludedfrom our last.) L A novel and gigantic scheme is talked of among our French neighbours, which is, to establish a covered in garden at Paris, to be heated by a new and ingenious method. Cafis, shops, libraries, ball rooms, restau- rants, baths, and a theatre, are to surround it. 25 millions of francs, to be raised by a company, is the sum to be called for. The indictment had charged me,— how untruly I— with having taken the purse with force and arms, and against the peace of our Sovereign Lord the King, his crown and dignity. Had it, as I am informed, only said something about a statute made and pro- vided, I, who never used force for any thing in my life, nor any arms but those I was born with ;— who love my king, and know not what a statute is ;— should long ago have filled a felon's grave. To make short of this part of my history, in a few weeks, by due course of law, I fonnd myself with my life preserved, my liberty restored, and my fame and happiness utterly blasted. My first act, after my enlargement, was to call upon the friendly attorney whose timely interference had saved my life. He drew himself up, when he saw me ; and refused my preferred hand. " No, sir," said he. " I cannot accept your thanks, while I should be ashamed of your acquaintance. I hold it my duty to the profession to which I belong, never, when not engaged for the prosecution, to allow tbe life of an innocent man to be taken away, in my sight, without giving him every chance the law ad- mits him to. I will send you my bill, with the fee paid to counsel. But for Mr. , as well as for myself, I must decline any personal intercourse with one whose acquaintance could not fail to dis- honour our character, and injure our practice " With these words he motioned me to the door, and desired his clerk to show me down stairs. This person el- bowed me as I passed him, and slammed the door in my face. Behold me now arrived almost at the last stage of my misfortunes. My reputation, which I prized so higlilv, was gone ; my friends, whom I had loved so dearly, deceived by false appearances, were gone too ; and I was an outcast from that society in which, for many years, I had filled so respectable a place. It is not surprizing that my health should sink under such an accumulation of unmerited suffering. I had a long and severe fit of illness. For many weeks, my wretched life was despaired of; and, when I did begin to mend, it was by verv slow and painful degrees. A nervous fever had fixed itself upon my spirits; and there were moments in which I almost regretted tbe accident by which my existence bad been prolonged. At length, my naturally good constitu- tion, fortified as it had been by a life of tranquillity and temperance, surmounted my disease ; and, after a tedious convalescence, I recovered. During my illness, I had made earnest efforts to resign myself to my strange fate ; and those efforts were not wholly vain. I was greatly supported by the feeling of conscious innocence, which I would not have bartered for any degree of earthly prosperity whatever. One source of consolation, too, still remained for me. My wife was alive, although far distant; and to her I looked as to the only tie that still bound my wishes and affections to this world. I was not with- out a vague hope that, through her means, some ex- planation might be brought about with my father- in- law. She had now been absent nearly two years ; for much time had been occupied by the cruel occur- rences which I have attempted to describe, as well as by my tedious illness and more tedious recovery. I had contrived to send some money to her, and I had written once to inform her of my strange, mistake concerning the ships at Gravesend, and to assure her, in moving terms, of my innocence on that score ; but never could I conqner my reluctance even to hint at subsequent events. How was I to tell her that her husband had been tried for theft,— found guilty,— and only by a mere accident remained unhanged I The bare idea, of such a disclosure distressed me beyond measure ; and one attempt that I did force myself to make to entei upon the humiliating subject, by letter, brought back the complaint upon my nerves, with such violence that I was obliged to relinquish it. In short, I resolved to spare myself for the present; so I wrote to my wife to desire her to sail in the first ship for England. I told her that many things, of a most distressing and extraordinary nature, had happened during her absence, and that I would inform her of every one of them, in time; but that my health and spirits were weak, and that she must indulge me in my ear- liest wish not to recur to any past events whatever, till I should voluntarily begin the subject myself. I called upon her to show that perfect obedience to my wishes, for which she had always been so remarkable. I charged her, moreover, to know me, in future, by no other name than " Perkins," and to call herself, from the moment she received my letter, " Mrs. Perkins." This name I had assumed immediately after my trial. I had borne it ever since, when I lived in an obscure street in the city of London ; and my nurse and physician had known me by no other. I proceed with my letter to my wife. I desired her merely to land in England, and then to take a passage instantly on board a packet for Calais. There I bade her go to the hotel of Mons. , Rue , and await my arrival, — always under the name of" Per- kins" ; and I ended with these words :—" Be not uneasy at my altered appearance. I am a man of many sorrows. Be not surprized if I should be long silent on all that has passed. Your curiosity shall have full satisfaction, in time. With your accustomed obedience to my wishes, avoid all topics which can carry my mind back to my former state. Let us have new amusements, new prospects, new names. I am changed, in many ways ; but you will find me the same in my constant affection for you. Till death, your faithful husband, Peter Perkins." I despatched my letter, and calculated that it would be from nine to ten months before I could hope to see my wife. I endeavoured, by frequent little excur- sions into the country, to make the lime pass less heavily; always keeping my assumed name and character, and carefully avoiding those places which are the most frequented by my brethren of tbe city. My health continued to improve ; but no change of scene, no pure country air, no faint hope of future comfort, could lighten the load that oppressed my spirits: and tbe dreaded disclosure I bad promised to make to my wife, acted as a spell that broke my slumbers by night, and embittered all my waking hours. Month after month passed away, and I now ex- pected her speedy arrival. I went to Calais. It was late in the evening when I arrived ; and I had some difficulty in finding the hotel of Mons. . With a heating heart and trembling knees, I asked if " a Mrs. Perkins happened to be there." More voices than were at all necessary, answered in the affirmative. Every door flew open, with officious haste ; and in less than a minute I stood before her. She received me with gentle kindness, spoke of the weather, and gave me time to recover from the agi- tation of my nerves. We drank tea together, and took a quiet walk by moonlight. I can ill express the gratitude I telt for the delicate and kind manner in which she showed her obedience to my wishes, aud abstained from all questions. Still, I could not rally my spirits, and felt like a criminal before her, and I hardly dared to raise my eyes from the ground. I was pained to observe that she too was somewhat altered. Her complexion was faded ; and, even with my poor eyes, I could perceive that she had helped it with a little rogue : but this circumstance, which at any former time I should have resented highly, now only filled me with tenderness. The Indian climate had injured her health,— perhaps bad reached her liver; and she had attempted to repair tbe ravages it had made upon her bloom, by a littls innocent art, which I, for whom it was employed, might well ap- preciate and excuse. Time passed on. Not once, during several weeks, had she suffered a word to drop from her lips, by which I could perceive that her mind dwelt upon the past, or that she felt the smallest concern as to the future ; and I began to think there was a ninth wonder in the world,— an incurious woman ! But one morning, when I was waiting for her at the breakfast- table, and reading the English news, I perceived that she entered the room with a degree of solemnity that waB not usual with her. She took a letter from her pocket, and placed it with dignity on the table. Then, putting her handkerchief to her eyes, she said,—" Mr. Perkins, I feel very awkward. I am unwilling either to pain or to hurry you ; but my situation is extremely awkward. We have passed a whole month together; and a subject, absolutely necessary to my peace of mind, has never yet been alluded to by you. You must allow me to say that it is time the promises contained in that letter should he performed." This mild reproach was too just, too natural, to excite in me any feelings but those of kindness and confidence. My heart was warmed and opened. I had, indeed, passed a whole month in her society, and 161 THE HALIFAX FREE PRESS. a month of perfect tranquillity,— I had almost said happiness. We had never before lived so perfectly- well together; for there used to be, in the best of times, frequent little unpleasantnesses and jarrings, which I had considered as inseparable from the married state. The ice was broken, and I resolved to tell her every thing. " Mrs. Perkins," said I, " this very day your wishes shall be realized. From this moment I give you my full confidence You deserve it for your exemplary discretion and obedience to my directions. Oh ! my dear," I continued, with considerable emotion, " to secure such a happy meeting, who would repine at our former miserable parting ?" " Former miserable parting!" said she, and she turned half round to stare at me. " Mr. Perkins 1 What do you mean ?" At this moment the door was thrown open with violence, and another lady rushed into the room, with an open letter in her hand. What a sight for me to see, and live 1 This, indeed, was my wife,— my real wife, from India. She bad heard enough, from the people of the hotel, to justify the excite- ment in which she presented herself before us. For some minutes we were all three silent;— she from excess ol rage, I from utter despair, and the other lady from astonishment. I handed this last- mentioned person to the window. I put on my best double spectacles ; and I examined her closely with the light full upon her features. Too truly she was a stranger to me ; but she was not unlike my wife : and that unhappy circumstance, acting as it did in concert with my fatal defect of sight, had caused me completely to mistake her. I could now perceive, ( alas 1 how much too late I) that she was consider- ably older than my wife; and that the rouge, which to my poor naked eye had seemed hut as a slight tinge, was laid on thickly. In short, as I looked upon her, I lost every hope of making my innocence apparent to Mrs. Perkins. What an explanation followed 1 Jealousy had transformed my poor woman into a perfect fury. She accused me of wilful intrigue, and ; but I should be ashamed to repeat her words. The other lady forgot all her dignity of deportment, and called loudly upon me to perform my promise, and to marry her directly. Each presented me with an open letter signed " Peter Perkins." One of these I had no difficulty in acknowledging. It was my last letter to my wife, desiring her to quit India without loss of time, and to meet me at Calais. The other lady's letter ran thus:—" Madam, I am so well satisfied with your last answer to my advertise- ment, that I have to request you will forthwith give me the meeting at the Hotel of Monsieur , Rue , at Calais, If, after a short time spent in each other's society, we think we can be happy together, and should your person, manners, and disposition ac- cord with the description you have favoured me with, I shall be happy to make you my lawful wife, bring you to England, and present you to my friends ; taking care to conceal from them the circumstances of our first acquaintance, which they and a foolishly punc- tilious world might consider as too romantic for one of my years, but which the cautious timidity of my temper has induced me to propose. I wish you to see me before you make up your own mind. I am an elderly man; silent and grave ; formal in my manners ; precise in my dress ; and retired in my habits. A defect in my sight, and a stoop in my gait, serve but to add to the peculiarity of my appear- ance. If, however, I have reason to Hatter myself that you have no objection to me, when you shall have seen me, such as I am, and have made some trial of iny temper as I said before, 1 shall be happy to make you my wife. To prevent curiosity, it may be as well if you assume my name at once. I remain, Madam, your most obedient servant, Peter Perkins By the time I had come to the end of this letter, and had begun in some degree to unravel this perplex ing maze of fatal coincidences, both ladies were in strong hysterics. What could I do ? I had never before seen any one in hysterics ; and 1 thought they were both dying. I ran to my wife ; but she pushed me from her. I approached the other lady ; and my wife's screams were dreadful to hear. They soon brought not only Monsieur and Madame , but half Ca'ais to their assistance. The French love a scene, and we indulged them At last, Madame succeeded in quieting my wife and Monsieur —— tranquillized the other lady. I cleared the room, and then addressed my wife. " Mrs. Perkins," said I; " I hope you are satisfied I hope you have sufficiently exposed a husband who may have been unfortunate, but who has not been wilfully guilty. It is too true I have for some time n. istaken this lady for you. My unfortunate defect of sight " " Hold your tongue, Sir 1" replied this infuriated woman, interrupting me. " Hold your tongue; and do not add insult to falsehood. Mistake that Jezebel for me '. For stark blind, that would be impossible. O Mr. B , Mr. B !. None are so blind those that won't see 1" She flung out of the room with these cutting words; and I have n^ ver set eyes upon her since. It is now six years since this finishing stroke took place ; and there is little left for me to say, before I take a long leave of my reader. My wife, when she left me in the manner I have stated, went directly to England, and to her father. She told her ow story, in her own way; and took care to expose me wherever my unlucky name was known. My former friends were already extremely welldisposed to believe any thing in my disfavour. I read my own story,— it may be supposed how garbled 1— in the newspapers. It appeared in the shape of a warning against a notorious character, " One Peter B , alias Peter Perkins." My father- in law is since deed. He has left his daughter sole heir to his wealth ; but under the conditions that she should resume and use or. lv- her maiden name, and never see her wretched husband more, nor help him with one farthing. On failure of these conditions, she will forfeit the whole pro- perty in favour of the next heir. How I have supported life under all these trials is a riddle to myself. Sometimes I am half resolved ta turn my back for ever on my native land, and seek a new existence either in New Zealand, or in the Far West of the United States; but there is a spell upon me, and it binds me to the spot where I first drew my breath ; and I do believe I should pine and die in any other atmosphere. Perhaps I may be expected to allude, once more, to the ' lady with whom, the attentive reader will recollect, I was left tete a tete at the hotel of Monsieur , at Calais, by my own wife. That lady took advantage of the opportunity thus afforded her, and made a pathetic appeal to my finest feelings. I had no better, indeed no other, compensation to offer her for the uneasiness and disappointment I had so unwittingly occasioned her; and I begged her acceptance of a sum which was the full half of the small pittance I had preserved from the wreck of my fortune. She accepted it with apparent confu- sion and reluctance ; but I soon discovered that she was the first to laugh at me for my generosity. I likewise found that it was long since that lady had a character to lose. She had come to Calais on a speculation ; having answered an advertisement which appeared in a public print under the head ' Matrimony." The advertisement was a hoax, and the reader knows who was the victim. That lady sent me, towards the end of the year, a great pug- nosed, red- headed, ill- disposed brat, at least a year and a half old ; and she has taken her oath, before a magistrate, contrary to all probability and as far as I can judge to truth, that he is my son ! All I know about it is, that the law obliges me to educate, provide for, and own him ; and that already he is the worst plague of my most miserable existence. Peter B . spirit of the journals. THE SESSION.— After a long and wearisome session, parliament has separated, leaving all things in worse state than it found them on its meeting. The Repeal agitation is proceeding with increased vigour in Ireland ; the division in the Scotch church is not cured by the act which Lord Palmerston well described as framed to retain in the church those who had shown that they did not mean to quit it; the revolt in Wales is unsubdued; the commercial dis- tresses in England undiminished ; the disorder in the finances unremedied. But that we are at the season for proroguing the parliament, the state of the country would seem to demand the convoking of parliament. Never was there so much amiss in the country, and never so little attempted in the way of remedy or corrective. The Arms Bill is the great work of the session. It is all that the legisla ture can otfer Ireland for her pacification. And even this miserable measure was not shaped to meet the present dangers in Ireland. Its adaptation, whatever it is, is to another antecedent state of things : and, because there has always been such a law, for the last fifty years, it is continued, with some alterations for the worse. The fact that the Arms Act has existed for half a century is its decisive condemnation ; for it has co- existed, during that length of time, with all the violence and outrages it was intended to prevent. Government, however, has the same sort of faith in its Arms Act, that the ignorant have in the horse- shoe, which they nail to their doors with the sage reflection that there is no knowing what what would not happen if it were not there. * * We do not blame the government for not having attempted to grapple with the repeal agitation by any new and extraordinary powers ; but what we com plain of is its neglect and rejection of the conciliatory influences which, judiciously employed, would breali up the confederacy against the integrity of the empire. We should join in the praise bestowed on Sir Robert Peel for refraining from strong measures if we saw in his policy any substitute for strong measures,— any better means, dispensing with coercive resources by removing the occasion. But the rejection of the worst course is not accompanied with any adoption of the opposite one. To strip the traveller of his cloak, it were idle to play the part of Boreas ; but it is to no purpose that you decline blustering, if you do not consent to try what may be done by sunshine. Sir Robert Peel, however, appears equally to renounce foul and fair means. In one half it is the Whig policy without the propitiatory- part : in the other, the Tory policy without the assertion of authority. There is the Whig forbear ance as to the freedom of opinion; and there is th Tory offensiveness in every branch and province o the administration, to render that opinion as hostile as possible to the government. As Sir Robert Peel took the. commercial reforms of his Liberal predecessors, excepting in the articles of corn and sugar, so he has taken their Irish policy, excepting the main element of conciliation. He is now face to face with the agitation, which has sprtin into giant existence on the discontents which bis go vernment has in so short a period so abundantly re vived. On what can he depend for the decline of this formidable organization? " It is a nonsense and a contradiction," says an able writer, " toexpec to obtain ends not hitherto compassed, except by the use of means hitherto untried." This is not pre- eisely the case. The ends have been compassed means tried with success by the preceding govern ment; and Sir Robert Peel has the example which he can profit to obtain the same happy re suits : but if he obstinately chooses to adhere his own system of doing nothing to conciliate tl. people of Ireland, and nothing to control the me tiacirig organizations arising from their provoked discontent?, what end to the evil can he possibly an ticipate ? What but the increase of it can he reason- ably reckon on? The nutriment which the agitation as had, and upon which it has grown to its- present magnitude, it will continue to have so long as the policy of the government remains unchanged. What rational expectation can there be that it will die away, the causes of its existence continuing in malignant force ? Sir Robert Peel's hope that the repeal agitation will die out of itself, is the ingenious thought of Sir Abel Handy, when his house is on fire. HANDY, JUN : Zounds ! the house is in a blaze. SIR ABEL : Don't say so, Bob. HANDY, JUS: What's to be done! Where's your famous preparation for extinguishing flames ? SIR ABBL : It is not mixed. HANDY, JUN : Where's your lire- escape[? SIB ABEL : It is not fixed. HANDY, JUN : Where's your patent fire- engine ? SIR ABEL: ' Tis on the road. HANDY, JUN: Weill you are never at a loss. SIR ABEL : Never. HANDY, JUN: What's to he done ? SIR ABEL: I don't know. I say, Bob, I have it:— perhaps it will go out of itself. HANDY, JUN: Go out! it increases every minute. The most barren session in the history of parlia- ment has also been one of the longest ; much time having been expended in the discussion of measures ultimately abandoned. Sir Robert Peel, when re- proached with his omissions, by Lord John Russell, put his finger in his eye, and whimpered out that it was the fault of the Opposition, which obstructed him. If there has been much cry about little wool, the blame lies with him who brought hogs to the sbear- ' ng. As Lord Palmerston told Sir Robert, on the occasion alluded to, the fault has been with the minis- try, who could not shape a measure in accordance with the feelings and opinions of the community. * * After all pains in the preparation of it, the Education Bill was fit only to be thrown away. But, asks Sir Robert, " Were we not justified in making the attempt to prevail upon the church to re- linquish and surrender some of its feelings and pre- judices on the subject of a combined system of education ? And were we not equally justified when, despairing of coidial concert and harmonious co- opera- tion, we, like prudent men, did not persist in forcing a measure, against the will of those classes without whose co- operation and concert and assistance we could not hope for a successful working of the mea- sure But the wide miscarriage in the attempt proves that you did not understand the feelings of the country, and that you were not statesmen. You had abundant time and opportunity for taking your sound- ing and exploring yonr channel; and you ran your ship high and dry ashore. The conclusion simply is, that you did not know what yon were about. The Arms Bill is another example not only of badly- aimed but of clumsilv- shaped legislation; the clauses, as Lord Howick said, having been drawn up in so slovenly a way, that the very objects for which the government required the measure, would have been defeated, if the bill had been passed as proposed byministers- * * * It used to be said that the Tories, with all their faults, were good men of business, clever craftsmen ; and that, though the principles of their le- gislation might be questioned, they showed skill and dexterity in their modes of giving effect to them in their measures. This fallacy is completely dissipated j and the Tories have now an unrivalled character for bungling in the shaping of their measures, the training and principles of which are pretty nearly on an equality. In administrative ability, too, they have been found egregiously wanting, and their predecessors have risen greatly in the comparison ; and people begin to ask what one thing they are good for, excepting always deceiving and betraying constituents, The Morning Chronicle blames ministers for " the miserably ludicrous speech that they have had the audacity or stupidity to put into the mouth of her Majesty." But, wretchedly bad as the thing undeni- ably is, we really do not see how they could have done better. What had they to say, what one thing bad they done, that they could turn to matter of congratu- lation ? All things considered, they have, we think, made the most of their materials. But for the troubles in Ireland and Wales, her Majesty would have been almost speechless, for these topics make three- fourths ol the matter of the speech. Besides these, there are only the acknowledgements of course, and a little mouthful of English church, and a little mouthful of Scotch church. Had the Dogs Bill passed it might have made a paragraph, but it was lost in the Lords. We can easily imagine how much the poor ministers were puzzled tospin out this speech, and how difficult they must have felt it to say any tiling about the nothing they had done. Another such session and the Queen will be dumb. For the fitness of things, if her Majesty is to say nothing at the end of the session, it would be well that she should also say nothing at the commencement ; for it looks ill to see her M jesty unable to advert to the accomplishment of important measures of improve- ment, such as reforms in the administration of justice, which she had been advised to recommend to her parliament. And the effect is worse when, in place of the omitted mattei, there is allusion lo Ihe discon- tents aud tumults which are, in part certainly, refer- able to defects in the administration of justice, which her Majesty's advisers have neglected to remedy. It is a shameful thing for a government to have confessed the occasion for law reforms, without having suppUed what was wanting. The references to the agitation in Ireland and the tumults in Wales, are both followed by promises, in the first instance, of amendments in the existing laws, tending to improve the social condition of the country; and, in the other, of inquiry into the cir- cumstances that have led a peaceable people to in- subordination. It is thus confessed that in bo. b cases, there lias been wanting what the legislature or the government ought to have afforded ; and that THE HALIFAX FREE PRESS. 3 • the commotions lmve had the effect of draw- ing attention to the grievances. So true is the maxim of Bentham, that " never but by making the ruling few uneasy, can the oppressed many hope for a particle of relief." As kings of old used to come forth to their palace gates and administer justice, when the clamour of ttie complainants reached a certain pitch ; so governments now attend to the wrongs of the people, when a sufficient uproar and commotion are made about them. But for Rebecca's outrages, the Welsh would have been fleeced and oppressed by their magistrates till doomsday. Tbe Queen is made to tell tbe Welsh, in substance, that they will be punished for what they bave done against the laiv, but that what they have done against the law shall obtain for them, after chastisement, inquiry and redress. This will serve at least encourager les autres. Her Majesty's lecture to the Irish agitators is more questionable in point of propriety. It seems to us that " to throw words into the air," as they phrase itiu tbe East, is not consistent with the Royal dig* ii: y. No reasonable being can suppose that tbe language put into the Queen's mouth will have the slightest effect in checking the agitation ; and why is the Monarch to be exhibited in the part of a slighted lecturer ? But a speech was to be made ; and how could the ministers have filled it up without this matter, to the introduction of which their poverty and not ttieir will doubtless consented ? Aud this is to be observed in ttieir defence, that the repeal agitation is strictly a product of their policy ; and that therefore they have some right to treat of it amongst the things for which they are responsible.— Examiner. PARLIAMENTARY WISDOM.— Legislatorial blun- ders are as amusing as they are instructive. So care- lessly have acts of Parliament been framed, that one, in prohibiting the doing of a certain act, und. r pain of transportation, contained a clause for dividing the penally " between the King and the informer." The 61I1 George III., cap. 48, passed for the protection of timber trees, enumerates all the trees which it was supposed would come under this denomination. Seven years afterwards it was necessary to pass another act, adding to the enumeration, poplar, alder, larch, maple, and hornbeam trees. An act of Edward VI. made it a capital felony to steal horses ; it was doubt- ful if this included the stealing of a single horse, and an explanatory act was accordingly passed to compose the doubt. In one session there was a law made sub- jecting hackney- coachmen to a penalty if they had not a check- string ; and the next session another law was made requiring the coachman to hold tbe string in his band. Lord Rochester, the wit of 11 Charles's day," is said to have complied with the directions of an act of Parliament requiring a lamp to be placed over every door ; but lie would not suffer it to be lighted, the act containing no words to that effect. Sheridan used to compare the numerous acts amend- ing the errors of precedi ng acts, to the story of The House that Jack built. " First comes a hill imposing tbe tax ; then comes a bill to auiend the bill imposing the tax ; then a hill to explain the bill for amending the bill imposing the tax; followed by another bill for remedying the defects of the bill to explain the hill for amending tbe bill imposing the tax ; aud so on ad infinitum."— Sun. OUR CHATTER BOX. Our Correspondents who reside in Halifax need not transmit their communications by post, except they prefer encouraging tbe penny post. There is a letter- box in our publisher's window. " To Somebody," by G. has come to hand, and is under consideration. The remainder of our abstract of tbe " Ninth An- nual Report of the. Poor Law Commissioners " is in type, and shall appear in our next. DISSENTERS' MARRIAGES.— Several months ago, we declined inserting a communication 1 elating to the inconsistency of those dissenters who go to church to be married ; but we briefly stated the purport of the communication. A correspondent has banded to us the Patriot of the 24th ult. containing some cor- respondence on the subject. It appears that, in a Puseyite newspaper called the English Churchman, a letter lias been published, quoting our paragraph, and adverting to tbe inconsistency in question, as show- ing '' the practical opinion of dissenters, at least that which tbe more respectable and intelligent portion of tliem form, of their much vaunted system." The writer, having referred to certain parties, proceeds, —" It would be only natural to suppose that they would have been united in their own con- venticle, and in the presence of their own pastor. But no such thing. They displayed their good sense, the position sectarianism holds in their estimation, and that a scripturally- performed marriage is not, after all that has been said thereabout, ' a grievance,' by being married at the parish church." In a subse- quent number of tbe English Churchman appeared a letter from another correspondent, who treats the affair as " a subject of sorrow rather than congratu- lation ;" and observes,—'' that schismatics, who are ipso facto excommunicate, should come to tbe church, when they, in the height of their condescension, choose to patronize it, should demand baptism for their children, compel the marriage office of the church, and extort from the clergy the burial service for their dissenting friends and relations, shows in- deed the Egyptian bondage under which we labour; truly ' we work in chains.' " He urges that the church ought to reject such applicants for her services; and that " the only way to make the communion of saints respected, is to treat her services as privileges, and to show, by our jealous custody of them, that we know them to be such." He proceeds to object to " that miserable tone which triumphs in so grand an event" as certain dissenters " cutting the meeting- house, & c., for a single day, because they thought the church genteel and respectable. Why, Sir," lie con- cludes, " the doors should have been harred in their faces, and they should have sought admission humbly, and on their bended knees, as grievous sinners and earnest penitents, and it, would have been the truest charity to tell them so." We have thus given the substance of these, letters ; and are of opinion that, at this distance of time, there is no need for occupy- ing our space with any farther notice of the subject. '" Scraps" anFpickings! SPEEDY TRIP.— A gentleman at one of the West End clubs was sent to Coventry the other day in less than five minutes.— Punch. Sir George Mackenzie once stated that an old woman, in the island of St. Kilda, claimed 1 elation- ship with him, on the ground that her mother's aunt had suckled a sister of Sir George's grand- mother 1 It is said, that the Welsh is the least corrupted of the 14 vernacular languages of Europe ; and the worst, being confined and abounding in gutturals. A SAD MISTAKE.— 111 the practice of politely bowing strangers out of a pew where there is still room to spare, is there not a lack of even worldly courtesy ? " Have you not mistaken the pew, sir ?" blandly said one of these Sunday Chesterfields, as, with emphatic gracefulness, he opened the door. " I beg pardon," replied the stranger, rising to go out, " I fear I bave ; I took it for a Christian's." GRAVE AMUSEMENT.— The following is the intro- duction to a piece of poetry in a late periodical :— " The following lines were written more than sixty years ago by one who has for many years slept in his grave, merely for bis own amusement." A long game of chess has jtist been concluded in Cincinnati. The players have been engaged every day, with the exception of Sundays, from eight o'clock in tbe morning until ten in the evening, deducting three hours at dinner and one at supper. The time actually occupied in playing the game was one thousand three hundred and eighty hours. PIGEONS.— A bird which bad been sent from Lon- don, 200 miles by railro id, was lately thrown at the time directed, and arrived in London under two hours and a half. One hundred pigeons sent from Antwerp were liberated from London at seven o'clock on the morning of the 17th of November, 1831, and tbe same day, at noon, one of them arrived at Antwerp ; a quarter of an hour afterwards, a second arrived. The remainder were all at home early tbe following morning. A LONG NAME.— The newly baptised Portuguese Princess is called, Dona Maria Anna Fernando Leo poldiria Michaella Raffaella Gabriella Corlota Antonia Julia Victoria Praxedes Francisca de Assiz Goozaga de Braganca e Bourbon Saxe Coburg Gotha LOUD STOWELL AND SIGHT- SEEING.— Lord Stow, ell used to boast that there was not a sight in London he had not seen, and, according to a current story, he bad seen some more than once. He was paying his shilling to see a new mermaid, when tbe man at the door, apparently ashamed to cheat so good a customer, refused to take tbe money, saying—" No, no, my lord, it's only the Ould Say- Sarpent." The distraints upon the Society of Friends this year, chiefly for ecclesiastical purposes, are about £ 10,000. PALLIATION.— " Pray, Sir," said the commissioner to an insolvent brought up to be discharged on his petition, " and pray, Sir, bow could you wilfully, and with your eyes open, contract such a number of debts, without any visible means of paying them ?" " My Lord," said the petitioner, " you labour under a great mistake. I never in my life wilfully con- tracted a debt; on the contrary I bave invariably done everything in my power to enlarge my debts." The total amount of paper money in circulation in the three kingdoms during the last eight months was £ 34,545,794. The bullion in the Bank of England during that period- was £ 11,872,000. Lord John Manners has elicited from the attorney- general, the declaration that it is lawful to play at cricket on Sundays, provided you do it in your own parish I We reproach tbe United States with their institu- tion of slavery. " The reproach is just," says a prisoner in the Queen's Bench, "* but England lias kept me ten years in durancefordebt, while Kentucky lias long got rid of this blot, and Maryland is about to follow the example." One hundred guineas have been placed at the dis- posal of the Rev. Dr. Vaughan, president of the Lancashire Independent College, as a prize for the best essay on tbe education and improvement of tbe people of Great Britain. INCOMBUSTIBLE THATCH.— It has been proved by repeated experiments, that straw, saturated with a solution of lime or common whitewash, is incombus- tible. The fact is of gieat importance to the rural population ; especially as thatch is not only rendered fire- proof, but more durable. A solution of alum has been tried, but being soluble, the rain destroys its virtues. \ A correspondent of the Essex Herald says there is a gentleman in that county so essentially conservative in principle and feeling, that he invariably uses tiie light blue ( or double] postage label on his letters ; and where, in most cases at least, the penny stamp would suffice. A CHEAP LUXURY.—" Last summer," says a correspondent of the Bristol Mirror, " I, by way of experiment, when strawberries were plentiful, at Inched threads to their stalks, and bung up a few, which were over- ripe, to dry. I placed them inside a window facing the south, where they remained from June until March, when I tasted them, and the result was most satisfactory. That sweet refreshing acid, peculiar to the strawberry, was in full per f'ection ; the flavour of tbe fruit, without any watery taste, was delicious; it dissolves in tbe mouth as slowly as a lozenge, and is infinitely superior to tbe raisin. The strawberry, thus preserved, is a- sto machic." FISHING WITH SLEDGE HAMMERS.— A person writing from Frankfort, Kentucky, to an eastern editor, states that a new mode of fishing is practised in the small streams in Kentucky during low water. It is termed " sledge hammering," and is performed by a man wading about with a sledge hammer on his shoulder, and to every rock which lie approaches he gives a violent blow with his hammer. Tbe stunned fish rise from beneath the rock to the surface, and are basketed. It is worthy of remark, that in the borough of Leeds, containing a population of 150,000, a period of eighteen days recently elapsed, during which the coroner was not called upon to exercise his vocation. Colonel Sibthorp has announced his intention to inquire the difference between an English furlong, a German mile, and an Anti- corn- law League.— Punch. Dr. Hook has so far set at naught the sentence ptonounced by the " six doctors," as to dedicate to Dr. Pusey his sermon entitled " Mutual forbearance recommended in things indifferent." Sir W. Foller, says the Western Times, netted, in special retainers, at these assizes, £ 4,000 in fees, and without diminishing his ordinary attention to the interests of his constituents. SINGULAR CORRECTION.— In a recent number of the Lancet, we find the following notice of an erra- tum.—" For Mr. Cheese, read Mr. Cheer." Judge Colquitt, of Columbus, Ga. recently spoke for several hours before tbe Supreme Court at Pen- sacola, on an important law case, and in the evening he preached to a crowded audience at the Methodist Episcopal Church. PUPPYISM.— A dandy went into a haberdasher's shop to purchase a watch riband, which cost 4d. He laid Is. on the counter, and the shopman gave him 6d. only, forgetting the copper was due to him ; so after a short time the lounger, looking at the man, said, " Fellow, fatigue me with the 2a." A CURIOUS RAFFLE — A notice, of which the following is a copy, was recently posted in the window of a public house at Bromley, Middlesex :— ' A coffin to be raffled on to- morrow evening August 8,1843." The raffle came off on the evening appointed ; and the winner took home the coffin, which had been made for another person and turned out a misfit, for the double purpose of making a cupboard of it during his lifetime, and a repository for his remains after death. A LEARNED EDITOR.— The editor of the Liverpool Standard, in an article on the Welsh disturbances, says, " We bave in the principality a loyal Saxon people, hitherto the devoted supporters of peace and order."— What will the ancient Britons say to this ? The following remarkably cool announcement ap- peared in a Paris paper, the other day :—" A widow, a foreigner, 30 years of age, and very rich, wishes to marry herself. Address ( postage paid) Madam P—,. Rue St. Honors, No. 400 " Charles X. at his coronation, gave a gold snuff box to one of his old servants. Being reduced to distress by the revolution, like many others, the man found himself under the necessity of offering bis valued token for sale. A friend recommended him to apply to- Maria Theresa, Queen of Sardinia and an Archduchess of Austria, who not only sent him the- full value of the box, but desired him to retain it in his family. A CHANCELLOR'S SALARY.— Upon an average of three years during the war, Lord Eldon's net income was £ l9,233 ; and in the year 1811 it amounted to. the enormous sum of £ 22,737. A CONFESSIONAL AWKWARDLY SITUATED.— In the Cathedral of Girgenti, in Sicily, the slightest whisper is borne with perfect distinctness from the great western door to the cornice behind the high, altar, a distance of two hundred and fifty feet. By a most unlucky coincidence, the p. ecise focus of divergence at the former station was chosen for the place of the confessional. Secrets never intended for the public ear thus became known, to tbe dismay of tbe confessors and the scandal of the people, by tbe resort of the curious to the opposite point, ( which seems to have been discovered accidentally,) until at. length one listener, having bad his curiosity somewhat, over gratified by bearing his wife's avowal of here own infidelity, this tell- tale peculiarity became genera lly kHown, and tbe confessional was removed, — Herschell's Treatise on Sound. A PUNNING CANDIDATE.— The Chevalier de Rim- ini, one of the candidates for a chair which had be- come vacant in the French Academy, no longer en-, tertainiug any doubt of tbe celebrated Abb£ Maury's having the preference, wrote to the President, M. de Marmontei, to say that he gave up all further preten- sions ; and concluded his letter with the following pun— Omnia vincit amor, nos et cedamus amori ( a Maury) to show how deserving he- was of the honour to which he bad aspired. PRICES OF GRAIN IN LINCOLNSHIRE ABOUT 1540. — The following is extracted from a letter in the Plumpton correspondence, written by a clergyman, who appears to have acted as steward to a landowner during his. absence,, to his employer :—" As for bar- ley, is now much ready and in chambers ; for wheat,, that suchtbat now ready the substance is gone. Your men also kiln- dry. Beans is at Gainsborough [ the nearest market town to Waterton, whence the letter is written] £ 6 score ; and barley at £ 4 and 13, nobles a score ; and wheat is at Hull at £ 2 a score." THE POLICY OF CONFESSING ERROR.— A man should never oe ashamed to own he lias been in the wrong; which is but saying in other words, that he- is wiser to- day than I10 was yesterday.— Pope. PREJUDICE.— Prejudice may be considered as a, continual false medium of viewing things ; for pre- judiced persons not only never speak well, but also, never think well of those whom they dislike; anil the whole character or conduct is considered with an. eye to the particular thing which offends them.— Butler. A good example is the best bell t o toll people to church. 4 THE HALIFAX FREE PRESS. THE FREE PRESS. PEEL THE STONE CUTTER. A very nice little bit of snug controversy is just springing' lip into an interesting stale of vitality, in the columns of those twin luminaries of the political hemisphere, the Bradford Ob- server aud the Halifax Guardian. The subject of debate is the very delicate and interesting inquiry whether the Premier,— tbe slippery Baronet who. Sitting at the helm of state, Guides Britain's vessel to her fate, did, or did not, in his school- boy days, employ liis otium cum dignitate in the honourable vocation of a stone- cutter. The Bradford Observer, philosophically leaving all meaner things To low ambition and the pride of kings, has turned its attention ta this early occupation of the embryo Premier ; and thus announces the important result of its laborious investi- gations :— SIR ROBERT PKEL AT HIPPERHOLMR SCHOOL.— On the pre- mises of Mr. Avison, of the White Swan Hotel. Halifax, there is a large stone flag which has been recently removed from a farm in the possession of that gentleman at Hipper- holme on account of its deriving a fictitious value from the following circumstance :— It is said, on unquestionable au- thority, that Sir Robert Peel passed some of his early yearsat Hipperbolme school, and, moreover, that, once upon a time, he exhibited his " longing after immortality" bycarving, with his own hands, on a block of stone which served the humble office of fence- post, the following inscription :— R. Peel. No hostile hands can antedate my doom. This, then, is stated to be the identical stone, which has just been removed from " the desert air," as an object to feast the wondering eyes of the curious. Oid Time has slightly impaired the carving; but stillthewoik bears ample evidence of its having been executed with much taste and skill, and strongly shows the Premier's early promise in the use of the chisel I The retort courteous of the Halifax Guardian appears in the following paragraph ;— ERRONEOUS STATEMENTS— A paragraph is on its way taking the circuit of the papers, springing from an obscure print in a neighbouring town, and notorious for its blundering state- ments, which states that a stone flag has been discovered and is now in the possession of Mr. Avison, of the White Swan, Halifax, on which are carved the words—" R. Peel. No hostile hands can antidate my doom." The nonsensical paragraph goes on to state that the stone was taken from a farm adjoining Hipperhoime School, and that the carving is the workmanship of Sir R. Peel when a pupil at the school I The only par*, of the tale that can be said to be true is that relative to the stone being taken from a farm at Hipperhoime and having the words inscribed upon it. In this district there are many Peels, and we know of several named " R. Peel," one of whom may have received an education at Hip- perhoime school, and may have been the j uveuile stone- eutter at the time. We have been assured, on most respectable authority, that the statement of the Bradford Observer is quite accurate; and that the Right Honourable Baronet who now figures away as First Lord of the Treasury, is,— if, with the example of Mr. Cobden before our eyes, we dare to utler it,— actually and " personally re- sponsible" for the said significant inscription now in the possession of mine host of the White Swan. To this question, however, we shall not now attend. The Observer is, we doubt not, fully prepared to sustain the veracity of it- most important statement; and, believing it to be true, be it our part to moralize on the im- portant light which the disclosure throws upon the present character and conduct of the quon- dam stone- cutter. Sir Robert's bungling manner of scrambling through the duties of the premiership, is now fully and clearly accounted for ; and " no mis- take." In his boyhood, his chosen occupation was that of a stone- cutter ; and it cannot there- fore be wondered at that, in ambitiously at tempting to become a statesman, he carried with him the " cutting" propensities of his ori. ginal vocation, and at last became " a cut- purse of the empire."* The way in which he " cuts" his friends, also furnishes melancholy proof of the continued in- dulgence of the " cutting" propensity. Even many of his own partizans, — those upon whose broad and unscrupulous shoulders he has been shoved upwards into a temporary show of dig- nity and authority,— seetn now ready to admit, with Launce, that " he is a stone, a very pebble stone, and has no more pity in him than a dog ;" f and, in the bitterness of their disappointment, to exclaim, I told you all, When first we put this dangerous stone a rolling, ' Twould fall upon ourselves. J One of the most eloquent and sagacious of * Shakespeare— Hamlet, f Shakespeare— Two Gentlemen of Verona. J Shakespeare— Henry viii. our living poets * has told us that Tbe child is father to the man ; and although we do not mean positively and literally to assert that Sir Robert Peel is, in every sense of the expression, the child of that Robert Peel, the aforesaid stone- cutter ; yet, as the propensities of early life are usually, if not invariably, the propensities of maturer years, we do assert that there is strong internal evidence of the personal identity of Sir Robert Peel with the youthful stone- cutter of Hipper- holme school. Of this, as we shall sho. v, there is proof the most satisfactory. To trace the progress of the son of the cotton- lord, from his juvenile efforts in the stone- cutting line, up to his present proud pretensions as a legislative tailor,— a cutter- out of Queen's speeches and acts of parliament, would be in- tensely interesting ; but we have neither space nor leisure for so extensive and recondite a research. We must content ourselves, for the present, with exhibiting a few of those more prominent features of character and conduct that establish the identity of the individuals. The classic inscription which has so un- wittingly given rise to the pending controversy, is the first witness that we call into the box. " No hostile hands can ante- date f rny doom," were the ominously prophetic words cut upon the flag- stone, at Hipperhoime, by the premier in embryo ; and who does not instantly call to mind the similarity,— we may say the identity, of the sentiment here expressed, with the feeling and sentiment that fluttered the heart of the premier in esse, when lie poured forth his never- to- be- forgotton and ever- to- be- re- membered denunciation of the hostile doom- threatening hand which,— onseen by other eyes, I see a hand you cannot see, I bear a voice you cannot bear ;— beckoned to his fear- stricken conscience, in the celebrated oration of the arch- leaguer Cobden ? The same testimony supplies additional evidence of the identity of the two parties. The school- boy began the inscription with his own name,— with the chiselled autograph of the great I by myself I ; and has it not always been the practice of Sir Robert,— excepting in those cases where there was discredit, and not praise, to be obtained,— to magnify himself,— to make himself the egomet ipse, the magnus Apollo of all the intentions, the movements, and the measures, of the administration ? Has it not been ever " I and my king,"— Ego et rex meus ? Here again, then, we sse that " the child was father to the man." Again, the operations of the chisel are as familiar to Sir Robert Peel now, as they were to him when he played in the barley- croft at Hipperhoime. Cutting holes and hewing into fragments are still the characteristics of his pro ceedings,— as witness his treatment of almost every bill laid before parliament, whether in- troduced by members of his own administration, or emanating from the honourable members on the opposition side of the house. Now, too, in his riper years, Sir Robert retains his pristine affection for blocks of stone ; for it is notorious that he selects the members of his government from such blocks as he can best hew and chisel to suit his particular ends. iiungling execution of the work he under- takes was always characteristic of a stone- cutter, as our immortal dramatist testifies :—" A tailor, sir, a stone- cutter, or a painter, could not have made him so That Sir Robert is still a bungler aud nothing more, needs no farther proof than the records of the late session of parliament, and the present state of the country. A scavenger once said of one of his fellow- workmen, that he was, to be sure, well enough for common plain work ; but give him a bit of fancy work,— set him to sweep round a corner or round a lamp- post, and it was beyond his capacity. It is just the same with Sir Robert, in politics as well as in stone- cutting. W hen a lad, he could cut plain Roman letters pretty well, and especially the great I; but when he came to try bis hand at a little ornamental flourish, it proved an effort beyond his reach. Is it not the same now in his attempts at statesmanship ? Is he not still a bungler, equal only to very common- place affairs, and wholly incapable of grappling with large and important questions ? We might point to the hard- heartedness of Sir Robert, as another proof of identity ; for, when he'turns a deaf ear to the supplications of half- famished people, he might with truth, if he had any truth iu him, exclaim, Does not the stone rebuke me, For being more stone than it ?* One more feature of similarity, and we have done. Sir Robert is still, as a statesman, in the lowest grade of his profession. He is no more to be compared with the great statesmen whose names grace our annals, than a common hewer of stone,— a mere cutter of epitaphs, is to be likened to a Nollekens or a Chantrey. He is, after all, nothing more than a base foul stonp. Made piecious by the foil of England's chair. f THE CORN DEALER AND HIS CORN. The Halifax Guardian, of Saturday last, in- forms us that one of our fellow- townsmen, " a man ofmarkj and note on the Exchange," is at present in a very singular and ominous predi- cament. That sagacious oracle, ( which is, of course, any thing but " notorious for its blun- dering statements,") makes the following alarm- ing announcement:— ' Mr. D. Ratnsden, of Kingston, near this town, has a field of oats awaiting the arrival of reapers, and is in such a state of forwardness that, if not speedily cut down, the produce will fall out of the ear." Alas ! for poor Mr. Ramsden ! What a severe punishment for not being an over- bashful man ! How dreadful it is to think of " forwardness" so untoward as to make it necessary that he him- self should be " speedily cut down," lest his oats should " fall out of the ear!" Whether the unhappy gentleman has, or has not, yet " sown his wild oats," we dare not venture to inquire; but he certainly seems likely to reap them with a xengeance. We have sometimes heard,— and so, we dare say, have some of our readers ; and our ears have tingled again at the recital,— of those troublous times, " When hard words, jealousies, and fears, Set folks together by tbe ears." Such occurrences have always been painted to our imagination in the most terrible colours ; but here is an event of still deeper terror,— a tragedy of still greater horror,—" a field of oats ;" and its produce about to " fall out of the ear," unless its owner be " speedily cut down !" Oh ! for pity sake, prevent the immolation ! We have, indeed, heard of such an event as a man being " cut down," alter having had a rope, in a suspicions sort of noose, placed in a somewhat peculiar position beneath his ears ; and in some cases that " cutting down" lias been a friendly act of sympathizing humanity : but here we have a man doomed to be " cut down," without the previous performance of so interesting a funicular experiment; and to be " cut down," loo, not to save his own ears, either from the pillory or from cropping, but to save the ears of his own over- ripened oats. " Thestory must take the ear strangely," § we are very much inclined to think ; and, " If aught of oaten stop, or pastoral song, May hope, chaste eve, to soothe thy modest ear,"|| we would invoke thee to interpose, and avert a consummation so devoutly lo be deprecated. Perish the corn, and save the corn- dealer ! * Shakespeare— Winter's Tale, t Shakespeare— Richard iii. I Quere— Does this mean that he belongs to the Corn Exchange in Mark Lane ?— Printer's Devil. Does it not, rather imply that, be is one of those ignoramuses that make their marks ? Another P. D. § Shakespeare— Tempest. II Collins— Ode to Evening. POETRY. ~ 7) RIGTNALT~ WOMAN'S TEAR. * Wordsworth, f The Halifax Guardian, with its characteristic ignorance of the true meaning of words, prints this word antidate. Does its erudite editor know no difference between ante and anti ? t Shakespeare— Lear. Oh ! what on earth can e'er outvie The tear which gleams in woman's eye ? When pity prompts that tear to fall. What sight so sadly beautiful i • Tl » brighter than the brightest gem In earth's most costly diadem : The purest pearl may not compare With lovely woman's gentle tear. The dewdrop on the lily's breast Is loveliness itself confest; But, Oh ! than dew drop bright and clear More lovely far is woman s tear. Halifax, Aug. 18,1843. J. T- HALIFAX:— Printed and Sold, at the General Printing Office of H. Martin, Upper George Yard