disease, and to perform it were but subjecting myself to the imputation of insanity." Adelaide was for a superstitious adherence to the desire of her deceased parent; but as all argument and entreaty failed to effect Sir Mortimer's acquiescence in this point, she resigned herself, with mingled feelings of grief and horror, to behold her mother's remains deposited in the family vault at Chapel. arrangements being completed, The necessary on the fifth day after the lamented lady's decease, a large party assembled at the hall, in order to attend her remains to the grave. ve. The funeral was splendid,--as splendid as the obsequies of members of ancient and wealthy families commonly are; and as a couple of old domestics watched from the windows of the hall, or rather, we should say, from one of its three hundred and sixty-five windows, the long line of the procession slowly winding through the well wooded park, they could not forbear contrasting with the humble sentiments of their departed lady, the faulty ostentation of their lord upon this melancholy occasion. An unfortunate accident, however, delayed the mourners in their progress to the place of interment: in turning out of the park, a wheel of the hearse caught one of the posts of its gates, the driver, apparently, not aware of the nature of the impediment, urged his horses to make a desperate effort against the opposing power; and the effect of this resistance was, as might have been apprehended, to tear off the wheel: the car dropped-the crowd in the rear pressed dread 75 fully upon it; it halted; a scene of infinite confusion ensued, and tive, the last equipage of poor one of the horses becoming resmortality, laid, in a few seconds, Sir Mortimer at that moment rea shattered ruin upon the road! membered, with a feeling of painful interest and self-condemnation, the Lady Dorothea's last request; and his sigh was answered by a look from Adehe was but too ready to interlaide of woe and sorrow, which pret into a reproach. Matters being arranged as well as time and circumstances allowed, the remains of the late Lady of Flixton, borne in a splendid coffin, were at length deposited in the on the shoulders of several men, last home of the Adair family. Upon the return of the mourners, they were met by the domestics aforementioned, and a party of villagers, whose countenances were fraught with horror and astonishment; and having forced Sir Mortimer into the hall of his mansion, he beheld, with an amazement and dread fully equal to their own, that apartment split from the ceiling to the ground! The fissure was not indeed very wide, but quite evident, and the owner of Flixton Hall inquiring at what hour this accident occurred, learnt with dismay that it happened precisely at the moment when the body of his deceased lady was lowered into the family vault!! erings, at this very day, attest to Iron cramps, and leaden soldthe curious visitors, the fact of the singular and apparently supernatural fracture. An apartment believed to have been the dormitory and dying chamber of the Lady Dorothea Adair, is men tical collision. Unembarrassed by the possession of distant points of attack, and free from the glance of ambition, she is secure and concentrated in herself. She may choose her part, or stand aloof, she may interfere or persevere in preserving her neutrality with greater ease and dignity. She is not liable to be disturbed by paltry debates concerning the freedom of navigation of rivers, or the lines of military roads intersecting her territories; she does not see her towns garrisoned and her provinces occupied by the friendly forces of an overwhelming neighbour. The outline of her kingdom is no imaginary line drawn through a lake with all its entanglements of islands, or meandering among streams or over mountains. The Icy and Northen oceans, the Baltic sea, the Sound, and the Cattegat, guard her boundaries, and alike preclude all idea of aggrandizement on her part, and destroy all thoughts of aggression on the part of others. On the side of Russia alone she has a land frontier; but marked as it is by the course of rivers, and minutely set out in the act of demarcation of 1819, nothing but the most obstinate violation of the law of nations could possibly tempt either party to meditate its transgression. The general security of Sweden is the guarantee for her internal repose. The peasant cultivates his fields without any apprehension that the marching or countermarching of hostile or friendly armies will plunder his stores or trample over his crops. Hence, and from the especial protection accorded by the late and the present monarch to the different branches of agricultural industry, so great a progress has been made, that from being unable to supply herself with corn, as was the case not many years since, Sweden now annually grows sufficient to leave a considerable surplus, after the quantity necessary for the year's consumption has been deducted. In the cities of Sweden, the merchant fears neither siege or bombardment, nor that legitimate plunder so often levied under the name of contributions on the cities of the continent. And even most of her seaport towns, lying as they do on the banks of arms of the sea, but at a considerable distance from the main, and well protected by fortifications to guard the entrance, are less liable to assault than those harbours which are scarcely a bombshot distance from the ocean. THE PORTFOLIO. ESSAY ON THE STATE AND CONDITION OF ATTORNIES CLERKS. (For the Portfolio.) Gentle Reader! art thou a philanthropist?-Art thou one of the Committee for the relief of the Spanish and Italian refugees, or for the sufferers by the fall of the Brunswick Theatre? Dost thou look with an eye of compassion on the Spitalfields weavers ?-Listen, then, to a tale of many woes. But soft! ere I proceed there is one more question-Art thou an Attorney? If so, read not the following lines, lest the truths there told may grate harshly on thine ear. I hate beginnings as I hate the, no not the devil; for folks, knowing the close affinity between that personage and the 77 lawyers, won't believe me. What shall I say? Why, writing from nine in the morning until dinner time (that is to say, if there is any dinner in anticipation) at the rate of 15 or 16 folios an hour, with the "Governor" at one's elbow, picking his teeth, and interlarding that graceful operation with exclamations of "Dear me, that will never be done in time-can't you write faster??" Brethren! ye can appreciate my feelings. My object is to expose the avarice, unreasonableness, propensity to imposition, and in some cases, idleness, which characterise the Attorney, and the hard work, close confinement, wretched pay, and cringing behaviour, which are the lot of the unfortunate clerk. How shall I do it? Shall I tell my own story? No, that won't do : people would accuse me of egotism. I will set forth, plainlythe things which are expected of a lawyer's clerk, the means which are given to execute them, and the general manner in which he is treated. An attorney's clerk is an animal whose wants, privations, and distresses are but little known. They have not made the noise in the world that mechanics, mauufacturers, &c. have done. In fact, their grievances, in many instances, cannot be understood by those who are ignorant of Law Offices and technical terms. An attorney's clerk is expected to write an expeditious and very superior hand. The pens in many offices for the use of clerks are what are termed bank pens, of a most inferior description, at about 2s. or 2s. 6d. per. 100, and if an unfortunate wight should happen to use more than one in the course of a week, he is stormed at for an useless and extravagant fellow, who has no care for the interest of his employer. The Attorney, on the other part, says, it is not his business to write a good hand, as he keeps clerks for that purpose, and yet you generally find his inkstand graced with Hudson's Bay or swan quills of the finest quality, which are regularly counted every day, fearful lest any should find their way into the lower office: nay, many clerks have actually been obliged to purchase pens, for their own use, rather than use those provided for them, and stand the brunt of the abusive language which follows the necessary consequence of bad materials-bad writing. (To be continued.) Scientific. The Chevalier Bilberg, knight of the Swedish Order of the Polar Star, and a celebrated natu ralist, has just arrived in England, bringing with him a valua ble collection of upwards of 40,000 insects, which it has been the chief business of his life to prepare. COMPARATIVE LONGEVITY. M. Domeril reported on two statistical memoirs of M. Benoi son de Chateauneuf. In the first, the author proposed to show, that want, which exercises such a dreadful influence on the life of man, is equally fatal at an advanced age. For this purpose, he compared the mortality of 600 persons in the higher ranks of society, and of a mature age, with the mortality among the poor, and found the latter more than double the former. The second memoir regarded the mortality in the different countries of Europe since the commencement of the nineteenth century. The author's researches were made in different departments of France, in England, Holland, Switzerland, and some districts of Russia: and the constant result of them was to show, that of 100 persons, only 25 attain the age of 60 years; and that from 70 years, the decrease of life is most rapid. Mountainous countries, in whatever latitude they may be situated, are those in which the duration of life is longest. INTRODUCTION OF VEGETABLES, &c. INTO ENGLAND. Asparagus, cauliflowers, beans, and peas, were introduced about the time of the restoration of Charles II. The delightful ornaments of our garden (flowers) are also foreign productions. The jessamine came from the East Indies; the tulip, the lily, and several others, from the Lavant; the tuberose from Java and Ceylon; the carnation and pink from Italy; and the auricula from Switzerland. Nuts, acorns, crabs, and a few wild berries, were certainly the only vegetable food indigenous to our island; and the meanest labourer is now fed with more wholesome and delicate aliments, than the petty kings of the country could obtain in its uncultivated state. THE PORTFOLIO. apples and pears to fill & cask within two inches of the top; bruise them slightly, and place them in the cask by the bunghole; then pour in sufficient water to fill it; leave this to ferment until the liquor acquires the proper taste of cider; then draw it off, and replace water as often as it will retain a sufficient degree of strength. In cider countries of France where this process is used, the cost of this production does not exceed one penny per gallon. HARDY KINDS OF OLIVES. Two new species of the olive have been discovered in the southern district of the Crimea: this discovery will render it practicable to rear this useful tree in much more northerly climes than has been hitherto possible. The shoots, which were planted in the botanical garden of Nikita, have lived through one of the hardest winters ever known, though the severity of the weather would have been fatal to the French or Italian olive. Varieties. HOLMAN THE BLIND TRA- THE last accounts we have heard of this extraordinary individual is, his visit to the Brazils, where he was met by a friend of ours in December last. He had come from the coast of Africa, and was about to sail for Buenos Ayres, undetermined as to his future movements. He was in good health and spirits. MARCH OF INTELLECT IN We have received a prospectus of "the Oracle of Tralee," a periodical 79 Lying and quackery are the order of the day once more. We are told that "a gentleman" at Vienna has "brought to perfection the longdesired art of flying in the air." The said art must have travelled a considerable distance, then, in a very short time, for we never yet had occasion to know that it had taken the first steps of its journey. This "gentleman" is said to have "reached, in his last essay, a height of more than 900 feet, and to have proceeded, quite at his ease, for a great distance, hori zontally." Our informant says, with great naiveté, that "no particulars are given, to enable us to judge of the merits of the pretended invention." Verily, "particulars” were quite superfluous. Only let us see this "gentleman" flying along horizontally, at the height of 900 feet from the ground, and we will spare him all particulars, and permit the merits of his invention to pass unquestioned. Another "gentleman" has invented a horse, which resembles the Trojan one in being made of wood, but altogether surpasses that wonder of antiquity, inasmuch as it draws a gig at rate of ten miles an hour "without turning a hair." FINERY. Fragments from a Note-Book. There is nothing which more strongly betrays an insecurity of footing in society, than being what is conventionally termed -fine. Decided rank, and decided fashion, require no effort for the maintenance of their claims; and those alone cling fiercely to the rock, who are con |