scended to, and being come to the last stair, stooped forwards, and struck the pen-knife with his whole force into the earth. But as he was rising, in order to quit so dreadful a place, he felt something pluck him forward; the apprehension he before was in, made an easy way for surprize and terror to seize on all his faculties; he lost in one instant every thing that could support him, and fell into a swoon, with his head in the vault, and part of his body on the stairs.

Till after one o'clock his friends waited with some degree of patience, though they thought he paid the titled dead a much longer visit than a living man could choose. But finding he did not come, they began to fear some accident; the verger, they found, though accustomed to the place, did not choose to go alone; they therefore went with him, preceded by a torch, which a footman belonging to one of the company had with him. They all went into the Abbey, calling, as they went, as loud as they could; no answer being made, they moved on till they came to the vault, where, looking down, they soon perceived what posture he was in. They immediately used every means they could devise for his recovery, which they soon effected.

After they got him out of the Abbey to the fresh air, he fetched two or three deep groans, and, in the greatest agitation, cried, Heaven help me! Lord have mercy upon me!' These exclamations very much surprised them, but imagining he was not yet come perfectly to his senses, they forbore farther questions, till they had got him into the tavern, where, having placed him in a chair, they began to ask how he did, and how he came to be so indisposed.

He gave them a faithful detail, and said, he should have come back with the same sentiments he went with, had not an unseen hand convinced him of the injustice of his unbelief.

While he was making his narrative, one of the company saw the penknife sticking thro' the fore-lappet of his coat. He immediately conjectured the mistake, and pulling out the pen-knife before them all, cried out, Here is the mystery discovered; for in the attitude of stooping to stick the knife in the ground, it happened, as you see, to go thro' the coat-and on your attempting to rise, the terror you was in magnified this little obstruction into an imaginary impossibility of withdrawing yourself, and had an effect on your senses before reason had time to operate.'

This, which was evidently the case, set every one, except the gentleman who had suffered so much by it, into a roar of laughter. But it was not easy to draw a single smile from him; he ruminated on the affair, while his companions rallied aud ridiculed this change in him; he well remembered the agitations he had been in.

'Well,' replied he, when he had sufficiently recovered, there is certainly something after death, or these strange impulses could never be.What is there in a church more than in any other building? what in darkness more than light, which in themselves should have power to raise such ideas as I have now experienced?Yes,' continued he, 'I am convinced that I have been too presumptuousand whether spirits be or be not permitted to appear, that they exist, I ever shall believe.'

ENGLISH YEOMEN.

This proud title, like that of esquire, had once a very different sig. nification from that now attached to it: each of them was associated with military service. Esquire is derived from escu, or bearer of a shield; and yeoman from yuw, or the bearer of a bow; for this instrument of war anciently bore the name of the wood of which it was made.

LOVE.

When the Grecian sculptor carved out his deities in marble, and left us wondrous and god-like shapes, impersonations of ideal grace unap proachable by modern skill, was it through mere mechanical superiority? No: it was the spirit of faith within, which shadowed to his imaginiation what he would represent. In the same manner, no woman has ever been truly, lastingly, deified in poetry, but in the spirit of truth and of love. -Loves of the Poets.

LORD SURREY.

In the reign of the second Grand Duke of Tuscany, of Lorenzo's family, (Cosmo the First) Florence beheld a novel and extraordinary spectacle; a young traveller from a court and country which the Italians of that day seemed to regard as we now do the Esquimaux, combining the learning of the scholar and the amiable bearing of the courtier, with all the rash bravery of youthful romance, astonished the inhabitants of that queenly city, first, by rivalling her polished nobles in the splendour of his state and gallantry of his manners; and, next, by boldly declaring that his lady-love' was superior to all that Italy could vaunt of beauty -that she was 'oltre le belle, bella' -fair beyond the fairest; and maintaining his boast in a solemn tourney held in her honour, to the overthrow of all his opponents! This was our English Surrey.- Loves of the Poets.

CHARGE OF A LAW.SUIT AT
MARSEILLES.

THEY have been for ages past all memory an incorporated body, and have enjoyed certain privileges, which are regularly confirmed by letters patent from every king after his acces sion. In particular, they chuse their own judges, who are four in number, and are called Les prudes bom

The charge of a law-suit before them, by regulation strictly observed, cannot exceed two-pence halfpenny sterling to each party, and this sum is consigned when they enter the court. Those rustic natural judges, selected by the people subject to their jurisdiction, have maintained an uniform reputation for the good sense and integrity of their determinations. I have an engagement to visit their court soon, and may set down farther remarks concerning them.

Travelling Memorandums.

BEES.

where

THERE are in Sloane-street, Chelsea, in the window of a provision warehouse, several bee-hive the living bees may be seen daily at work, by means of a glass window inserted in each hive. There is no garden attached to the house; and the entrance and exit to each hive are at an orifice opening on a small yard attached to the house. It is said, that the bees are healthy, and their work forward, for the time of year. Here, therefore, is an experiment proving that bees may be kept in the very heart of a populous neighbourhood, and at a considerable distance from the resources of their food, &c.

The person who has made the experiment (Mr. Ridge) has ascertained that his bees procure their food, and the materials of their cells, &c. in Battersea Fields, which are at least a mile distant from their place of habitation.

PRIVILEGE OF PEERAGE.

In a case heard before the Commissioners at the Court of Requests, in Vine-street, on Tuesday week, Lady Elizabeth M-resisted the payment of a debt of 4s. 6d. by claiming 'the privilege of the Peerage.' The amount sued for was chiefly for watch-glasses and keys, supplied to her Ladyship in 1825, by a Mr. Fish, watch-maker, at the West end of the town. The plea was held to be good!

DRAMATIC LAWYERS.

The profession of the law may boast of numbering a great portion of our most celebrated dramatists among its members. The following authors occur to me, who all practised or studied the law; and a little research I have no doubt, might swell the list considerably :

Fielding, Beaumont, Sheridan, Sir J. Denham, Southerne, Gascoigne, Murphy, Tobin, Congreve, Sir G. Etheredge, Forde, Theobald, M' Nally, Row, Norton, Sir A. Cockain, Foote, Shadwell, Colman, Sen. and D'Urfey.

The list of living dramatists, includes the following :

Morton, Barry, Cornwall, Jameson, Colman, Reynolds, Sir J. Carr, Horatio Smith, Dallas, Diamond and Horace Twiss.

CONVERSATION.

VULGAR AND GENTEEL MODES OF SELF-DESTRUCTION:

than the mere mixing and swallowing of a poison.

(Hints for the Examination of Medical Witnesses.)

FAMILY JARS, NOT JARS OF
SWEETMEATS.

Mr. Joseph Lane, of Keesevillee, advertises his wife Charlotte as having eloped from his bed and board, without any justifiable cause. Whereupon Mrs. Charlotte replies that Mr. Joseph never had any bed, but that she has taken HER bed with HER, and that she leaves it with the public to say whether being knocked down and turned out of doors is or is not a justifiable cause for leaving his board? "Oh! Matrimony, thou art like

To Jeremiah's figs,
The good were very good-the bad
Too bad to give the pigs!"

American Paper.

FRENCH PEERAGE.

THE feudal origin of the French peerage was under the second race of the kings of France. Among the characteristic circumstances of the first age of that institution was the regulation that peeresses in their own right should be entitled to sit in the high court, and to participate in its judgments.

In the second age of the peerage, which dates from the year 1297, and which was marked by the elevation of the princes of the blood to the dignity of peers, under Philippe-leBel, took place the union of the court of peers with the court of parliament; a union which was the result, not of any law, but of usage, and the force

of events.

The third age of the French peerage, comprehending the period between the years 1505 and 1550, exhibited thespectacle of foreign princes invested with the dignity.

Finally, during the last age, from 1550 to 1789, simple gentlemen became peers; and the first was Anne de Montmorency, constable and high steward of France. The revolution swallowed up both peerage and the monarchy. The restoration could not revive the ancient peerage; but a new one was created; and the conservative senate of the empire seems like a kind of bond among them. Essai sur l'Institution et l'Influence de la Pairie en France, par C. O. Barbaroux.

Bright Isle, that gems the ruby west, Thy son is sleeping his dreamless sleep;

And Erin's child is happy and blest In the land that gives him a soldier's grave!

While the whooping peons wandered by.