The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-07-15 00:00:00

RIBANDISM AND ITS RAMIFICATIONS

Some strange revelations, in connection with this startling
system, have been made within the last few days, at the
Longford Assizes. The trial of a man, named Francis
M`Canna, has displayed, in a new and unexpected light, the
ample and elaborate range of tactics adopted by the organised
and sanguinary adherents of ribandism. The leading facts
of the case are extracted from the report furnished by a local
journal ; and it will be seen that, not contented with dis-
seminating the poison of disaffection throughout this country,
the sympathies of traitors in America and France are sought
to be enlisted.

Francis M`Canna was given in charge to the jury, upon an
indictment which charged that he, on the Bth day of May,
in the fifth year of the Queen's reign, at the parish of Co-
lumbkill, in the county of Longford, unlawfully and know-
ingly had in his possession a certain copy, written, of certain
passwords, made use of by the Riband Society, for a purpose
of the said society, he not being able satisfactorily to account
for his possessing the same, which said passwords were as
follow, that is to say :

" The times are on a change.
Spain will rebel.
Beware of all country places.
We can't know who to trust.
May the foes of old Erin melt and decay,
Like the leaves in October that's blown away.
Don't get in a passion, sir.
I humble to you, sir."
And in other counts, for having other passwords in his pos

session
Mr.

Schoales, Queen's counsel, stated the case for the

prosecution

Two police constables proved the finding the riband docu-
ments in a trunk belonging to the prisoner.
Peter Tally examined by Mr. Schoales—ln the month of

April last a man named Keenan spoke to me in the market
of Granard. He asked me would I like to get on. He
brought me into a room where there were five or six persons.
The prisoner was in the room. I did not know him before.
Was introduced to him by Keenan. The prisoner was to
make me a ribandman, but I would not accept of it. Keenan
said to prisoner, " Here is a man I can recommend." The
prisoner seemed to think well of it. We talked a little upon
the riband business. The prisoner said he was a ribandman.
He said he was head man among them. There was some
talk of towns. The prisoner mentioned the towns of Scrabby,
Granard, Arvagh, and Edgeworthstown, round to the Cal-
lows' side. He also mentioned the county of Westmeath,
and said be had some power over these places. Keenan said
something of people sending cattle to Lord Lorton to graze,
which Keenan complained of. The prisoner said he would
come down to Keenan's and settle the affair. Mr. Howley
and the police then came in and searched us all, but finding
no papers went away. After Mr. Howley and the police
were gone, NV Canna was very angry with them for searching
us, and with Mr. Howley, for bringing about things that
happened about five or six years ago. M' Canna also said he
would haae a stock purse made, and have some of them taken
down.

To the prisoner—l had not known you before that day.
Keenan said, " This is the man I was speaking to you
about." You said " Very well." Keenan spoke to you
about getting me on. I don't think it a fair question to ask
me if ever I was a ribandman.
The Court told witness he was not bound to answer that

question.
Witness—l suppose I was stopped being mule by Mr.
Howley coming in. I said nothing about Michael Gill. I
had not seen Mr. Howley that day until he came in. I had
no conspiracy to get up evidence for Michael Gill. You
said you would have a stock purse made to take Mr. Howley
and some of them down. You said you were head man of
Scrabby and Arvagh, and the other places. I had no ill-will
to you, and never lodged informations against you. I was
served with a summons to come here. I never said if I got
back I would set Michael Gill free again, as I did for the
murder. I never spoke to you of the evidence I made for
Gill. Keenan and you both said you were bead men over
the town of Granard. I did not swear by the contents of
anything after Mr. Howley went out, or demand whisky. I
might have boasted of snapping a paper, after they went out.
I think I did snap the paper from the policeman. It was an
old process the policeman had taken out of my pocket.
P. C. Howley, Esq. resident magistrate, examined by Mr.
Fox—Witness went on the 25th of April last to the house of
a man named Hourigan, in Granard, and found five persons
at a table in a room there. The prisoner, Tally, and Keenan
were three of them. Searched them, but found nothing
treasonable on their persons. These are the passwords
(identified the paper found in the lid of the trunk, on which
they were written).
James Hagan, examined by Mr. Henderson-1 am a na-
tive of Sligo. I know of the existence of a secret society
which was known by the name of the Sons of the Shamrock
or ribandism. lam upwards of 16 years a member of that
society. When I was made I was sworn on my knees to 14
articles: The first article was—

" I do declare, in ii; presence of Almighty God, that I
am here to join the Sons of the Shamrock of my own free
will and accord.

" 2nd—That I will not buy anything from a heretic or
orangeman, when I can get the same as good and cheap from
a brother."

There were 12 other articles. The society were known by
secret signs and passwords. (The witness here repeated the
passwords mentioned in the third and fourth counts of the
indictment, which were the passwords for last October.)
The passwords are changed four times a year. There are
different officers of the society. The county delegate is
highest ; next parish-masters, next committee or council
men, and lowest of all the common members. The re.
newels are made by the county delegates. I was a county
delegate for Sligo and partly for Longford. Was at a meet-
ing of delegates on the 26th of December last, at Derrymore,
county of Armagh. There was one delegate there from
Monaghan and two from Armagh. I sent `• goods," which
mean passwords, to Longford, about the 15th of January
last. The passwords for last October are written in this
copy-book.
By the Court.—l think I can't read them out of the copy-
book they are so badly written.
To Mr. HENDERSON.-4 can't say that the words written
on this paper (which was the paper found in the lid of the
trunk) are passwords. I think they are the Leinster pass-
words. There are Ulster and Leinster societies, which are
quite different and opposed to each other. Both societies
are exclusively Roman Catholic.
[The witness here, after some time, was enabled to read
the greater part of the passwords written in the copy-book,
which he did.]
To Mr. Henderson.—The words I have just read are part
of the October passwords, mentioned in the third and fourth
counts of the indictment. The objects of the society were
directly opposed to orangeism. If any member of the society
was dispossessed of his land, and any one else took it, he
would not get long to live. If you annoyed any of the so-
ciety you would get a good hiding, if you got off with that.
In such cases a meeting was called by the parish master, who
directed what was to be done to the people giving offence.
I have made, I am sure, 2000 members, from 1825 to 1831,
which was before I became a delegate. It is the parish mas-
ter's not the delegate's duty, to make members. About one-
third of the lower class in this country are ribandmen. This
county and Sligo belongs to the Ulster society, and have no
connection with the Leinster society. I have known several
foreigners at the meetings of the delegates. There was one
last.] They
in 1838, and one from America in December
last. They could make themselves known to us. The dele-
gates can make themselves known to each other without the
common members knowing how. I don't consider myself
now to belong to that society. I gave it up when I was ar-
rested, and five papers taken which were built up in the wall.
The information was close. The October passwords were
settled at Middletown, in the county of Armagh. I was in
gaol when they were made. I sent my parish master to the
meeting, and he delivered the passwords to me, and I sent
them_To the p
toDeronnisisLeere.Lto be distributed
to a
s in this county.
ve myself and family.
After I was first ar• I turned
rested I did business as a delegate, and
the Crown knowing it. Thomas M`Kenati was delegate for
Longford. There were eight delegates who sat at the meet-
ing of the 26th of December, at Derrymore. It was when
the Middletown meeting was held that I was in gaol. That
meeting was adjourned to Keady, where the passwords were
given out, and brought to me by my parish master. The
streetr Armagh. say
meeting at Middletownr was fixed at the meeting at Derry-
ngoolulseen:
inanidristlahe.
De
To the Court.-..The Yeooe meeting was fixed in Wood's
meeting is, that they were given written in the copy-book know that the passwords
given out at the Middletown
passworgzetu to me by my parish master.
I sent the October
The case for the prosecutionnhibnerie closedc. here.
The prisoner examined a man named Rose M`Canna, and endeavoured
Keenan, and his
rebellious document came accidentalre4
.into his possession.
to prove that the
a was sentenced to seven years' transportation.
His lordship then addressed the jury, who returned a verdict
of Guilty.

The four peers who. formed H
theminority against the second
reading
the Dukes
the Tariff Bill, in the ouse of Lordst week,Sta
w
he Dukes of Richmond and Buckingham, Earl
hope, and Lord Beaumont.

The following summary of the character of this eminent
man is from his life by Maxwell, and is very succinct and
masterly :—" One duty yet remains to be discharged ; and
the professional character of him whose military command,
commencing at Assaye, and concluding at Waterloo, embra-
cing such opposite services and scenes, shall be briefly and
impartially considered.
"The time, however, has yet to come when that character
shall be correctly estimated. When party prejudices have
died away—petty jealousies subsided—the grave received its
honoured tenant—and in Ossian's words, ' the gray stone
rests upon the chief',—then, and not till then, will public
opinion be dispassionately exercised, and justice awarded to
the greatest man whom England has produced.
" In a double view Wellington's character is to be examined;
for two epochs of a long life were devoted, and almost ex-
clusively, to very opposite pursuits—war and politics. The
history of one epoch we have completed ; and as the memoirs
of the second are reserved for a future duty, we will simply
content ourselves with observing, that as a politician, many
have been abler, but none honester than the Duke of Wel-
lington.
" The intrinsic value of a soldier's character must not be
tested by merely what he has done, but by the circumstances
under which his exploits have been achieved. What was the
opening of Wellington's Peninsular career? He debarked
with an army, not 10,000 strong, to operate against an able
General, commanding five and twenty thousand disposable
soldiers, and at a period immediately subsequent to disas-
trous campaigns in which the qualities of British soldiers had
been unjustly depreciated, while those of their opponents ac-
quired, by admirable discipline and consequent success, a re-
putation amounting to invincibility.
" That delusion Wellington's first victories dispelled. Was
he then cordially supported by his allies, and liberally sus-
tained by his friends ? No : abroad and at home, he was
harassed by the suspicions of one party, and paralysed by the
misconduct of the other; and, while an object of deadly
jealousy to the imbeciles with whom he was obliged to act,
whose errors he was forced to remedy, whose madness he
was expected to control, the keenest shaft reached him from
that country to which he should have looked confidently for
support; and in England, while goaded out of doors by the
rabid outpourings of unwashed demagogues, within the walls
of St. Stephen's he was exposed to the baser attacks of dis-
honest statesmen, who, to attain an unworthy end, would
have blasted the hopes of Britain, and left Europe at the
mercy of a man whose ambition the extent of a world could
not satisfy.

" As a great commander, the amount of Wellington's re-
putation depends upon a simple question :—Was he the first
or second of his age ;
" That he was less vast in his designs, less daring in exe-
cution, neither so rapid nor so original a commander as Na-
poleon, must be admitted, and being later in the field of
glory, it is to be presumed that he learned something of the
art from that greatest of all masters ; yet something besides
the difference of genius must be allowed for the difference of
situation ; Napoleon was never, even in his first campaign o:
Italy, so harassed by the French, as Wellington was by the
English, Spanish, and Portuguese governments. Their sys-
tems of war were, however, alike in principle ; their opera-
tions being necessarily modified by their different political
positions. Great bodily exertion, unceasing watchfulness,
exact combinations to protect their flanks and communica-
tions, without scattering their forces,—these were common
to both. In defence firm, cool, enduring; in attack, fierce
and obstinate; daring, when daring was politic; but always
operating by the flanks in preference to the front : in these
things they were alike; but, in following np a victory, the
English general fell short of the French emperor. The battle
of Wellington was the stroke of a battering ram—down went
the wall in ruins. The battle of Napoleon was the swell and
dash of a mighty wave, before which the harrier yielded, and
the roaring flood poured onwards, covering all.*
" It has been objected to the Duke of Wellington's cha-
racter as a great man, that he was constitutionally cold and
impassable—stern in the exaction of duty—careless in re-
warding merit—the end his mighty object—the means a mat-
ter of indifference. The charge is false ; and had the publi-

cation of his extensive correspondence possessed no other
value, it would have proved in an hundred instances, that

misfortune obtained his sympathy, and the widow and or-
phan met frequently in him a warm and an eloquent sup-
porter.
" That his firmness approached severity may be imputed
rather to the circumstances under which he acted at the mo-
ment than to any natural harshness of disposition. Had he
not possessed the sternest determination, the conflicting ele-
ments of which his army was composed could neither have
been reduced to order, nor could their discipline have been
maintai,led. To restrain military license, to assure the de-
linquent that his offences would be punished, examples were
necessarily made; and their salutary effects were best evi-
denced by the fact, that the conduct of the allied army was
as remarkable for peaceable demeanour in cantonments as it
was for its heroism and efficiency in the field.
" To form a great general, mental and physical qualities
are essential ; and with both Wellington was largely gifted.
In the vigour of manhood, few were better fitted to endure
privations and fatigue. An economist in time, the space
allotted for personal indulgence was brief—his hours for re-
pose were limited—his meals were simple and rapidly de-
spatched—and hence the greater portion of his time was
passed in the saddle or bureau ; and no hospital or canton-
ment escaped his visits, nor did a letter or report remain un-
answered. _ _ _ . _ . _

" In his manner and address the Puke was always frank,
and, when he pleased, dignified and graceful. Easy of
access, the soldier's connp:aint was as attentively listened to
as the remonstrance of the general. If a favour were re-
quired, it was promptly granted, or as decisively refused;
and on the merits of a statement, when once a decision was
made, influence would be used in vain, and entreaty pass
unheeded. _ . _

" In personal simplicity, the Duke's costume was in keep-
ing with his character. He despised everything like parade,
and, excepting when their services were necessary, dispensed
with the attendance of his staff. Nothing could be more
striking than the plainness of his appearance in public,
when contrasted with the general frippery and parade of his
opponents; and the peasantry could scarcely be persuaded
that the unpretending personage who courteously listened to
their story, or returned a passing salute, was the great
captain whom conquest had attended from the Tagus to the
Seine.
" In estimating the military talents of Napoleon and Wel-
lington—for to compare either with any other commander of
the age would be absurd—to the former, a superiority has
been generally conceded for the decision with which he fol-
lowed up a defeat, and the important consequences which
always were attendant upon his victories. Both were ad-
mitted to have possessed an inimitable skill in handling
masses of men, with the same facility that ordinary com-
manders directed the movements of a brigade. Their com-
binations were beautiful—their conceptions grand—they
were not the laboured efforts of military art, but the out-
breakings of military genius—formed in a moment—executed
as rapidly—changed, should circumstances require, and
adapted to meet the emergency that might arise. If Wel-
lington did not push his victories to grand results, let us in-
quire the causes; and when Napoleon's military improvisa-
tion is delared unequalled, let us see how far Wellington's
was behind.

" The circumstances under which these two great com-
manders conducted their eerupaigns were different ; for
Napoleon bad never Wellington's difficulties to contend
with. The former was a free agent. His battles were deli-
vered to clear away obstacles that impeded an advance, while
Wellington's were generally received to enable him to main-
tain a position in the country. Napoleon, when victorious,
had always the means in hand to push his success, and secure
the fruits of conquest. Wellington's battles were frequently
defensive; and the heavy repulses which masterly combina-
tions enabled him to inflict were unadorned with the trophies
which accompany a bold advance ; and often his most bril-
liant fields were followed by regressive movements, which
always follow a defeat, and rarely attend on victory.
" That Wellington possessed within himself the rapid re-
sources and daring confidence which mark a great com-
mander, his conduct when placed in dangerous positions, or
at the crisis of a doubtful day, will best establish. j. What
operations could me more masterly than his retreat across
the Tagus,: or his advance across the Douro? What act
more daring than to hold the height of Guinaldo with two
weak divisions, within cannon shot of an army strong enough,
not to defeat, but annihilate him ? Look at the sudden ruin
inflicted on Marmont at Salamanca—the seizure of Arinez§—
the counter-stroke at Sauroren ! Follow the footsteps of the
Peninsular army from Rolica to Toulouse. Commence his
history at Assaye, and close it on the night of Waterloo.
Test his military character by his acts—let him then dispute
the palm with Napoleon—and who will pronounce him second
to any general of the age ?
" In the prime of manhood, Wellington's appearance indi-
cated both activity and strength. In height be was nearly
five feet ten inches ; his shoulders were broad, his chest ex-
pansive, his arms long; the hand large but well formed ; the
wrist unusually bony ; the whole frame-work evincing a
capability of enduring the extremity of fatigue. The keen
gray eyes were brilliant, and his sight remarkable acute.
His face was long, the features striking ; the nose acquiline.;
the brow open and developed ; and ' the lower portion of the
face contradicting, in a singular manner, the stern and al-
most iron expression of all above the mouth.'
" The general expression of the duke's face was cheerful.
In, probably, the most trying moment of his career, when
the failure of the attack on the great breach at Badajoz was
communicated, he was observed to be pale, but perfectly
collected.' In the hour of his triumph, when he had ascer-
tained the extent of his conquest, and found that the laurels
of Salamanca were added to his wreath. the admirable his-
torian of his wars 11 thus describes him as he stood :—` I
saw him late in the evening of that great day, when the ad-
vancing flashes of cannon and musketry, stretching as far
as the eye could command, showed in the darkness how well
the field was won ; he was alone—the flush of victory was
on his brow, and his eyes were eager and watchful, but his
voice was calm and even gentle. More than the rival of
Marlborough, since he had defeated greater warriors than
Marlborough ever encountered, with a prescient pride he
seemed only to accept this glory as an earnest of greater
things.'

" What he is now, the portrait taken expecially for this
work will faithfully depict.
honouredSeventy-one head,
a ad th wintersoae
ga
ay have
nervessh ed
whichtheir swnaorwas
could not shake, have felt the hand of time, and owned his
uponlimaes
power—but, though the frame has yielded, the mind retains
''
its vigour, and the heart beats firmly as it once did upon the
battle-field. Like the oak of that proud ship which bore
the flag of Nelson, decay is placed upon the surface, but the
core remains intact. True to his country, that voice which
turned the heady fight' to victory, still gives its fearless
counsels in the senate—uninfluenced by party predilection,
and reckless whether its honest sentiments accord with po-
pular opinion, or provoke the clamour of the crowd.
" When a century shall have passed away; when beauty
fades into kindred dust. statesmen are forgotten, the rotten-
ness of demagogues is exposed, and a new generation won-
ders only how a past one could be fooled—in the page of
England's history one ilium will stand out in bold relief—
and one consenting voice pronounce—that the greatest soldier
Britain had produced, was Arthur, Duke of Wellington."

" * Napier.
As for the Englishman's hardiness and enterprise,
bear witness the passage of the Douro at Oporto, the capture
of Ciudad Rodrigo, the storming of Badajoz, the surprise of
the forts at Marabete, the march to Vittoria, the passage of
the Bidassoa, the victory of the Nivelle, the passage of the
Adour below Bayonne, the fight of Orthez, the crowning
battle of Toulouse ! To say that he committed faults is only
to say that he made war; but to deny him the qualities of a
great commander is to rail against the clear mid-day sun for
want of light. How few of his combinations failed. How
many battles he fought, victorious in all r —Napier.
By the Bridge of Orzobispo.
" § At Vittoria.
" 11 Colonel Napier."

The Limerick Board of Guardians have resolved to dismiss
any of the paupers who refuse to eat
POPERY UNCEjANGED.—The liberalism of the day must
indeed be possessed of gigantic influence, nay, of power equal
to omnipotence, if, as we are repeatedly told, she has actually
effected a mutation for the better in that which ever was, and
still remains, " infallible." Mad, and worse than mad,
must the people of England be, if, with the broad-blown
banner of haughty Rome flaunting to their gaze, with the
blood-dyed inscription, " semper eadem, burning in cha-
racters of flame upon it, the conviction of the solemn truth
flashes not across their mind with irresistible energy,—that
the same measure she meted out in the plenitude of her
power to our martyred forefathers will she measure out to us,
should we, by our lethargy or impiety, suffer ber again to es-
tablish her despotic sway, in these highly-favoured islands.—
From Germ of Protestant Truth.

- -
PORTRAIT OF FEARGLS O'CONNOR, BY ONE WHO
KNOWS HlM.—The designing demagogue will soon make
himself apparent. He generally talks loudly about himself.
He is his own trumpeter ; a chronicler of his own patriotism.
Before the crowd he plays the sycophant; flatters their pre-
judices—and, with a mouthful of vague generalities, endea-
vours to win their cheers. He praises men, in the hope that
they may be pliable enough to worship at his shrine, and
when he finds they are not made of blending material, he
whispers against them, or he openly assails them. He lies
without remorse. He would sacrifice father or uncle to
assist his purpose. Like the glass man, he strives to
make the people believe that everybody is about to tumble
up against him and break him. He is an inventor of plots
against his own sacred authority; a sort of Louis Phillippe,
who gets up " assassinations" in order to invest himself
with the air of a martyr. A man who talks at random ; a
seer, or political prophet, who discovers things that never
happen. One who takes credit before the public for deeds
of liberality, and wonders " why othersdo not dothe same,"
and in private violates his word and honour to the parties
the world believes him to have served. A maker of pro-
mises by wholesale. A fellow big with importance, a fair
and palpable mixture of knavery and folly.—Vide Henry
Vincent's Speech on the late Chartist Conference.

THE BARINGS.—Tbe present partners of the house of
Baring Brothers, are Thomas Baring, the youngest son of
Lord Ashburton ; Francis Baring (the Chancellor of the
Exchequer) ; Captain Mildmay, a baronet of small fortune,
Lord Ashburton's son-in-law ; and Joshua Bates, a Yankee,
w
from Boston, whose beginning was as super-cargo of a mer-
chant vessel. The first of the Barings that came into notice
was the father of the present Alexander Baring, now Lord
Ashburton. He was the son of a German toy.shop-keeper,
in Exeter, in England. The foundation of Baring's fortune,
was made as contractor to the British government in their
vain attempt to hold America in chains, and which tacked
two hundred millions to the national debt in England. The
Barings managed to keep on terms with both belligerents.
The present lord was then the traveller of the house, and
became acquainted with Mr. William Bingham, who was an
agent in the service of the Americans for obtaining sup-
plies abroad for carrying on the revolution. On the termi-
nation of the war, Baring and Bingham turned to account
the profits they had out of the contest, purchasing up mili-
tary and Other claims against both governments, which they
procured for mere trifles, and got them admitted into the
funded debt of the United States and of Great Britain. Mr.
Bingham got rich, lived in princely style in Philadel-
phia, and had fine daughters. Mr. Baring wooed and
married one, and his brother married a second. These
two commissaries, by joining together, progressed to that
degree of opulence and power which has astonished
the world. In 1834, Alexander Baring retired from
the house of Baring Brothers, taking with him a large
fortune—leaving behind £BOO,OOO on interest ; but in 1836,
the house was affected by the general pressure which took
place, and Lord Ashburton came forward and lent them
£500,000, which is yet due, together with the original
£BOO,OOO. The house has an agency in Liverpool, New
York, New Orleans, and at several points of the Continent of
Europe—it is largely interested in the bonds and advances of
the American State, and the present visit here of Lord Ash-
burton will disclose a page of very important matter in the
current history of Britain and America.—American paper.
WINDERMERE.—" Saw ye ever banks and braes and knolls
so beautifully bedropt with human dwellings? There is no
solitude about Windermere. Shame on human nature were
Paradise uninhabited ! Here, in amicable neighbourhood,
are halls and hnts—here rises, through groves, the dome of
the rich man's mansion—and there the low roof of the poor
man's cottage beneath its one single sycamore ! Here are
hundreds of small properties hereditary in the same families
for hundreds of years—and never, never, 0 Westmoreland !
may thy race of statesmen be extinct—nor the virtues that
ennoble their humble households! See, suddenly brought
forth by sunshine from among the old woods—and then
sinking yway into her usual unobtrusive serenity—the lake-
loving Rayrig, almost level, so it seems, with the water, yet
smiling over her own quiet bay from the grove-shelter of her
pastoral mound. Within her walls may peace ever dwell
with piety—and the light of science long blend with the lustre
of the domestic hearth. Thence to Calgarth is all one forest
—yet glade-broken, and enlivened by open uplands ; so that
the roamer, while he expects a night of umbrage, often finds
himself in the open day, beneath the bright blue bow of
Heaven, haply without a cloud. The eye travels delighted
over the multitudinous tree-tops—often dense as one single
tree—till it rests, in sublime satisfaction, on the far-off
mountains, that lose not a woody character till the tree-
sprinkled pastures roughen into rocks—and rocks tower into
precipices where the falcons breed. But the lake will not
suffer the eye long to wander among the distant glooms.
She wins us wholly to herself—and restlessly and passion-
ately for a while, but calmly and affectionately at last,. the
heart embraces all her beauty, and wishes that the vision
might endure for ever, and that here our tents were pitched—
to be struck no more during our earthly pilgrimage. Ima-
gination lapses into a thousand moods. 0 for a fairy
pinnace to glide and float for aye over those golden waves !
A. hermit-cell on sweet Lady-Holm ! A silvan shieling on
Loughrig side ! A nest in that nameless dell, which sees but
one small slip of heaven, and longs at night for the reas-
cending visit of its few loving stars ! A dwelling open to all
the skyey influence on the mountain brow, the darling of the
rising or the setting sun, and often seen by eyes in the lower
world glittering through the rainbow!"—Recreations of
Christopher North.
WHISPERS.—MUCII has been done by whispers. Royal
favourites have been undermined and ruined. Reputations
have been stabbed. Boarding school misses, and even nuns,
have been induced to run away from schools and elope from
commas, and throw themselves, literally and bodily, into the
arms of lovers. Wiies have been tempted to bid their hus-
bands good night and their gallants good morning, and if
they had children, to forget them, as if their little voices
were less sonorous upon the soul than the whispers of flat-
tery. Conspiracy has been matured, murders planned,
treasons contrived,-, and country maidens seduced, all in
whispers. Sighs are whispere far more expressive than the
loudest lamentations of grief, or the loudest protestations
of love. The breath of life is in a whisper, and when it in-
creases to an audible sound, it is the vulgar and common
language of every-daY wants' requests, denials, demands,
excuses, pretences, and lies. Whispering is the grand
mover of the social machine, the steam-engine of creation,
and the nine qua non of our temporal, moral, and religious
existence. He that has ears—which is rather common since
the pillory was abolished—ht him hear; he that has under-
standing—which is rather uncommon—let him ponder on
these truths.

ANEcpoTE OF BRAHAM.—The Boston Transcript gives
the following;---" A somewhat laughable incident occurred
the last time Mr. Braham was here. The incomparable
vocalist had heard so much about the celebrated Elder Knapp,
that he one evening went with some members of his family
to hear and see the somewhat eccentric divine. Having been
obliged, on account of the crowd, to listen to the sermon at
something more than a ` respectful distance,' the prince of
tenors, when those who were seeking after religion were
invited to come forward and seat themselves in the pews near
the pulpit, wishing to obtain a nearer view of the preacher,
(not being able, owing to his short-sightedness, to distinguish
a man from a mouse a rood from his nose,) and not under-
standing the purport of the invitation, walked deliberately
up the broad aisle, and seated himself in one of the pews in
close proximity to the sacred desk. As he was, with the aid
of his eye-glass, scrutinising the figure and features of the
elder with the eager gaze of curiosity, completely absorbed
in his work, a reverend or lay gentleman enquired of him, in
tones of soothing tenderness, what was the state of his mind,
and how he felt? Never better in my life, thank you,'
responded the vocalist, on the point of grasping the hand of
the stranger, who had, as he thought, merely enquired after
the state of his health."

ST. SWITHEV'S DAY (July 15).---The predilection for the
period of forty days is as remarkable in these ancient prog-
nostications of weather as in many customs'derived from re-
mote ages, which have given us the term quarantine. This,
or rather quarantena, among military and monastic writers,
denotes a space of forty days: In a truce between Henry
the First and Robert Earl of Flanders, one of the articles is
to this effect :—lf Earl Robert should depart from the treaty,
and the parties could not be reconciled to the king within
three quaradtines, each of the hostages should pay one hun-
dred marks. By the laws of Athelbirht, who died in 1016,
the limitation for the payment of the fine for slaying a man
at an open grave was fixed in the Saxon manner to forty
nights, by which they computed instead of days. The privi-
lege of sanctuary was also confined within the same number
of days. By the ancient eustuniale of Preston, about the
reign of Henry the Second, a condition was imposed upon
every newly-made burgess, that, if he neglected to build a
house within forty days, lie should forfeit forty pence.
There seems to be no reason to question that this precise
term is deduced from the period of Lent, which is itself
an imitation of the fast of Christ, who may have chosen forty
days in imitation of the fast of Elijah, who copied the fast of
Moses, who stated that the diluvial rain was upon the earth
forty days and nights. The Pagans themselves observed this
number in the mysteries of Ceres and Prosperine, in which the
wooden image of a virgin was lamented over durinc, forty
days, or rather nights, if the computation be not here the
same as among the northern nations. Tertullian relates, as
a fact well known to the heathens, that for forty days an
entire city remained suspended in the air over Jerusalem—a
certain presage of the millenium. The following are in-
stances of this predilection shown by the founders of our
legal polity, when they had occasion to limit a short interval
of time for any particular purpose:—Anciently, no man was
suffered to abide in England above forty days, unless he
were enrolled in some tithing or decennary. A widow shall
remain in her husband's capital messuage forty days after his
death, withip which time her dower shall be assigned. The
tenant of knight's fee, by military service, is bound to attend
• .
the king forty days, properly equipped for warfare. By
privilege of parliament, members of the House of Commons
are protected from arrest for forty days before the next ap-
pointed meeting. The acts fpr preventing the introduction
of the plague direct that persons coming from infected places
most remain on ship-board forty days before they be Per-
mitted to lapel.—Customs of the Middle Ages.

QUACKERY.—Quackery, like sin, is very ancient. It
flourished in ancient Rome as well as in modern Europe,
Nor does it depend for its prosperity on the ignorance of the
uneducated classes. "The desire of wealth and health,"
says Pitt, " seems to put all understanding on a level ; the
avaricious are duped by every bubble—the lame and unhealthy
by every quack." The faith of that singular compound of
folly and knavery, the world, is kept up by peers, judges,
and bishops, by clowns, operatives, and old women, who fur-
nish certificates to the value of nostrums, and testify in
favour of imposture, delusion, and villany. Every material
substance and medicament from the inert herb and common
weed to simple water, having no properties beyond mere
matter, have been at one period or other boasted up to the
vain and empty nothingness of a great name, as the best
remedy in the world for the inward bruises of all mankind.
Indeed, each has possessed in turn the same reputution, and
produced the same imputed benefits as a panacea for the cure
of every disease under the sun ; and their imaginary, virtues
have heen witnessed and attested by persons from the throne
to the garret. In this country the sale of quack medicines
has kept pace with the " march of intellect. Forty years
ago they yielded an annual revenue to the state of about
£14,000. In 1841, the amount realised was £50,000. For
the last half century English governments have looked upon
this vile revenue as more valuable, in their judgment, than
the health of the people, the prosperity of the regular pro-
fession, and the improvement of physic. " They manage
these things better in Franicete There the compositions of
all the nostrums are divulgtd, con:ipulsorily, to the Academy
of Uedicine ; after which a license is given for the sale of
them, if they are not injurious to the public health. The
sale of hurtful nostrums'is prohibited by penalties. As to
other nostrums, the quack may self—the dime
Caa7 bay—the
government only interfering with " the liberty of the sub'.
,lect" (whether that subject be quack or dupe', for the Protec:
tion of life.--Abridged from a PaPer Dr'. F'orabo•• ke ofCheiter, °°

Comitg," as the rheumatism said to
the teetotaller last winter. " The impulse of the moment,"
as the soda-water said to the cork when the string was off.
" You 'll follow me where'er I go," as the night said to the
morning. .` I feel deeply affected by your tale (query, tail),"
as the weeping-young lady said to the honey-bee. " I never
shall see thee more," as the mechanic said when he gave his
week's wages to his wife. " 1 'll make every inquiry," as
the lady's maid remarked when she peeped into the letter of
her young mistress. " When I kiss, you pout," as the wasp
said to the swollen lips of the cottage beauty. " This is dan-
gerous ground," as the fly observed of the treacle. " I 'in
going on a visit to the Isle of Sky," as the smoke said when
parting with the chimney top. " All commands executed
with dispatch, and upon very reasonable terms," as the pub-
lic hangman added at the foot of his signboard. " This as-
sembly is forthwith dissolved," as the south wind said to the
ice and snow.

intelligriut.

TUESDAY, JULY 12.—Wind W.N.W. moderate

ARTZTVED.—Evergreen, from St. John, N.II ,—Agenora, Giffney,
from Mobile—Eli Whitney, Harding, from Savannah—Salvatore,
Crace, from Genoa—and Sir Thomas Mansell, from Guernsey.