Star.
London, England, 1826-01-06 00:00:00

THE NEW YEAR.

• ,
FROM THE NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

I stood between the meeting Years,
The coming and the past,
And asked of the future one,
Wilt thou be like the last ?

The same in many a sleepless night,
In many an anxious day?
Thank Heaven! I have no Prophet's eye
To look upon thy way !
For doerow, like a phantom, sits
Upon the last Year's close.
How much of grief, how much of ill,
In its dark breast repose!
Shadows of faded hopes lit by,
And ghosts of pleasures led :
How have they changed from what they were !
Cold, colourless, and dead !
• I think on many a wasted hour,
And sicken o'er the void ;
And many darker are behind,
On worse than nought employ'd !
Oh, 'Vanity I alas, my hew, •
How widely bast thou stray'd,
And misused every golden gift,
For better purpose made !
I think on many a once-loved frietad,
• As nothing to me. now •
And what can math the ;apse of time
As does an altered brow?
• Pexhaps 'twas but •a-careless!word
That severed Friendshies chain ;
And angry Pride stands by each gap,
Lest they unite again !
Less sad, albeit snore terrible,
. Who;
think upon the dead,
• Who,- quiet in the lonely grave,
Lay down their weary head !
• •
For Faith, and Hope, and Peace, and Trust,
Aar piste their happier lot
Thnush brokeu is their bond of love,
At leist we broke it not ! . •
Thus thinking of the-meeting Years,
The coming and the past,
I weeds must ask the future one;
Wilt thou be like the last ?
Th ere came a sound, but not of speech,
That to any thought replied,
44 Misery is the nuariage-gift
*That waits a mortal bride !
" But lift thine hopes from this base earth,
-"this waste of worldly care,
And wed thy Faith to yon bright sky,
For Happiness dwells these !"
- -

L. E. I.

_ -
SWISS .ASSASSUIS.
; • . LUCERNE, Demise* 113.
For several v eeks the inquiry into the death of 'M
Keller has been continued, and a great number of per•
sons have been examined. Clara Wendel and her sister,
before their journey to Zurich, were conducted to the
spot where the crime was committed. The following
is an extract from the depositions made at Lucerne by
the own now detained at Zurich.- .The day on which
the,crinse was committed, Krusi Hans and his accom-
plices had met at one of their places of rendezvous,
about half A league &Om Lucerne. They then went to
tavern outside of the walls, and drank; afterwards
they were summoned into the town, and to a cabaret,
where they found Doctor Corragioni, and, according to
some depositions, Eine other Gentle Men. Towards
the evening they left the town in two parties, and re-.
pelted by. two different roads to a little wood not far
from the country houses of MM. Keller and Pfyffer.
They were afterwards summoned by a servant to M.
Pfyffer's, who was then Prefect of Lucerne. On arrive
ing at h's house, some drink was given them; some of,
them blackened their faces. On their leaving the'
house, M. Pfyffer reminded them of their promises and
engagements. They then watched for M. Keller; two
of the assassins, piecing themselves as sentinels on
the road to Lucerne. At a given signal, when M. Keller
appeared on the road, he was seized by Krusi Hans,
and two of his accomplices, and forced over a perpen-
dicular precipice, at the bottom of which runs the
river. The crime being completed, the assassins re.
turned to the house of M Pfyffer, where they again re-
ceived some drink ; some of them afterwards went down
t:, the river, the 'teas, to see if the body had been cast on
shore. One r f the Womenassertsthat she was in the house
of the Prefect, when the daughters of M. Keller came
there, deploring the loss of their father in accents of
the greatest despair. The murderers then • returned
into the town, and went to Dr. Corragioni, where they
again received some drink. The Doctor drank with
them, and then paid them. This is differently stated
in some of the depositions ; some say they received five
Innis, others say they nar=y received a few florins. The
depositions vary als) as to the time when the asassins-
uon was committed ; some say that AI. Keller was
thrown into the river by day-light, as he was walking
and reading a book ; at a later period to ey declared
.that it was done in the evening, and even in the night.
If these stories are accurate, two Magistra ec, generally
respected,must have associated with a bad of robbers;
they must have called to the meeting won:en and
children; two of the persons detained were then only
fourteen and fifteen years of age; tley hav'e made ct:n.
tideuts of one of their servants and a geadat me, and
generally have net four or five scoundrels in different
cabarets, and drank with them ; they have braved the
suspicions which their conduct must have inspired, and
in these public places they concluded their agreement.,
• —Their borises were open to this horrible band ; and
. these, under lire eyes of their own family and domes-
tics. they encouraged them to commit the crime for
which they prepareti.drem by wine. Finally, it was in
an open apothecary's shop that their wages, were given
them ;. and it ways in drinking that they celebrated the
success of their horrible crime. We do not think it is
'necessary to add a single word in'explanation of these
circumstances.

Mr. etEws, allritish. Cabinet Messenger, passed
t`-tough Berlin on the I.lth ult. on his way from Lon-
alon to St. Petersbuigh.
Vie Liverpool Albion says—" According to the state.
scent published by the hrokers, the st-ick of cotton in
this port on the 31st 44. would have been 20,700
bags • but, from the returns, made on Sat day morn-
ing gom the holders, it appears to have *en-41.000-
.1U import,'dtiring the past-year, into this pr rt alone,
amounted to 706,303 bags. The returns of the stocks
its Landau and Glasgow have not yet been received."
()a the 7th of November the steamboat Bake,
towing don the ship Virginia, from New Orleans,.
bound bi New York, tonic the below, and the flame,
spiead with such great rapidity that the crew barely
had time to effect. their escape on board of
.the ship.
The Virginia was cut loose and drifted asliure, but was
got off in a short time,without suffering mirth daniagt.