St. Julien thought, and knew, other wise; he saw that he was now lost, without the least chance of escaping the impending accusation; nothing would now avail him; not even the high character and respectability of his connections would have any influence; justice would have its victim, and he must be that victim.

As soon as she had risen, Suzette hastened to her father-in-law to inform him of the agony of mind under which her husband suffered, and to beseech him to ascertain the cause, if it were not in his power to alleviate it. The elder St. Julien was surprised at Suzette's recital; he could not conceive that any thing could have occurred to distress her husband, as she had told him their affairs were in a highly prosperous situation; he would walk over, however, and speak to him on the subject.

On arriving at the house, they entered the breakfast-room-St. Julien was not there; they therefore ascended to his own room, it was true they found him, but what a sight for a wife and father! The body of St. Julien lay distended on the ground, whilst in one of his hands was grasped a pistol, the contents of which had been lodged in his head; the blood oozing from his forehead, streamed down his face, working its way along the ground. The unhappy man, driven to desperation by seeing his character and prospects in life blasted for ever, and unable to bear the dreadful images conjured up by his excited imagination, had, in a moment of phrenzy, seized the pistol, and by his own hand closed his career of life.

MR. PITT.

J. M. B.

THE following effusion of wit richly deserves to be preserved. When first published it fascinated every reader; and no one laughed at it more than Mr. Pitt himself.

CORONER'S INQUEST.

"On Saturday last the jury sat on the body of Mr. Tibbs, late overseer of the poor of the parish of Parlington, near Walmer Castle, Kent.

"The first witness examined was Mr. Ezekiel Wigsby, a respectable officer of the excise, who deposed, that ever since the first reading of Mr. Pitt's Defence Bill, the deceased had manifested an unaccountable degree of melancholy and depression of spirits ; that, two days before he hung himself,

he heard the deceased say, that if Mr. Pitt's Bill passed, there would not be ten churchwardens in the kingdom who would not endeavour to make away with themselves, and that he for one would prefer leaving this world with the unspotted fame of an overseer of the poor, rather than be stigmatized after death with the name of Crimp or Recruiting Officer.

"Mrs. Tibbs, the inconsolable widow of Mr. Tibbs, was next sworn; and deposed, that Mr. Tibbs, ever since the Defence Bill was talked of, frequently started in his sleep, uttering expressions of the most unintelligible sort, such as 'Quota! Quota! Quota!' That the deceased often spoke in terms of great disrespect of a person of the name of Pitt, who, he said, would give him more trouble in running up and down the country, than his health and strength were equal to. That the deponent supposed the person so alluded to must be some one whom Mr. Tibbs, as a parish officer, had a against, as the father of some illegiti mate child; but she has since heard, and believed, that the deceased spoke of and concerning Mr. William Pitt, of Walmer Castle, Kent, a gentleman whose character has ever been irreproachable as to any such charge.

warrant

"Mr. Oliver Orifice, surgeon and apothecary, deposed, that he was called in to view the body of Mr. Tibbs, and had applied, though unsuccessfully, the various experiments advised by the Humane Society, such as thumping, scratching, and blowing into the deceased. The relations of Mr. Tibbs, unwilling to impute his death to suicide, attributed it chiefly to indigestion at a vestry feast held the day before. Accordingly, at their request, the deponent opened the stomach of the deceased, and found only the ordinary remains of a parish dinner, and a few pellets of printed paper, which, though certainly of an indigestible nature, could not have been the cause of his death. On unfolding the pellets of printed paper, there appeared the words, 'Be it farther enacted;' ' Permanent Defence Bill;' 'Overseers and Churchwardens ;' 'Fines and Penal

ties.'

"The worthy rector of the parish of Parlington deposed to the moral and religious conduct of Mr. Tibbs. He was confident, that as a man and a Christian, he would never have committed an act of suicide, but that he had merely hung himself in his pub

lic character as an overseer.

The rector owned that he had a vote for the University of Cambridge, but still must say, that he thought Mr. Tibbs's catastrophe was ascribable to Mr. Pitt's new Defence Bill, and the more so, as it had already driven great numbers of parish officers to acts of despair in the western and midland parts of England, who were found in canals and horse ponds daily and hourly, having destroyed themselves as the Chinese do, from mere motives of alarm and apprehension.

"Mr Coroner informed the parson he could not receive this as evidence.

66 Serjeant Flanagan was lastly call ed in, and deposed, that he had known the late Mr. Tibbs ever since he had been with his recruiting party in Kent; that on Wednesday last, Mr. Tibbs enquired of him, the deponent, what a parish officer could do to raise men for an army? That the deponent told him, he must refuse parish relief to all who refused to enlist; that Mr. Tibbs replied, that he had a soul to be saved, and so had several of the neighbouring justices, and that he would take no such step;-that the deponent then informed the deceased, that he must buy a drum, and three hundred yards of ribbon for cockades. Mr. Tibbs said, if he bought a drum, he did not know how to beat it, and looked very melancholy; that he saw him soon after go into a collar-maker's shop, hard by, who sells halters, patent blacking, and other quack medicines.

"Here the evidence closed, which Mr. Coroner summed up with his usual clearness and impartiality. The jury retired a very short time, and brought in a verdict of Wilful murder of Mr. Tibbs, overseer, by Mr. Pitt's new Defence Bill.'"

A WORD OR TWO ON BEGGARS. For the Olio.

I SHALL begin by noticing those beggars who attack one in the street. To describe them all would require a volume of no ordinary size; the insect tribe have not a more numerous species; "their name is legion for they are many. I speak not of the numberless wretched creatures who now haunt the streets of London, with wan countenances and attenuated frames, who have not served their apprenticeship to beggary and vagabondism.— These miserable beings have my pity;

the beggars by birth and education,the downright" cadgers,"* (whence is the word derived ?) are the very refuse of our species;-they are the English Lazzaroni.

Observe that bleared-eyed old man wipe with the back of his left hand his colourless lips, as the door of the ginI beg pardon, the “Wine Vaults," bangs behind him. His right, palsied by intemperance, grasps a bundle of religious tracts. He advances with a look of assumed humility, and, offering you his wares, eructates his gin in your face. You refuse him, he turns upon his heel and growls a curse upon your stinginess. See, he is more successful with the fat woman who is about to turn the corner. She gives him a penny, and his eye is again turned upon that terrestrial hell-the ginshop.

There is another of the race, but in a different garb. He has a paper cap and a white apron, and solicits you to "lay out a trifle with a poor tradesman.' Listen to his canting drawl; his voice is gentle and soft now, but he will be the loudest in the shilling gallery to-night.

There is another. This vagabond has nought of dress save a Guernsey frock, a pair of white coarse canvas trowsers, and a sailor's hat; his feet are guiltless of shoes, for he needs them not; the soles are harder than those of a pair of dancing pumps. He sets up his back and shivers, and would have us believe that, like poor Tom, he is "a-cold." Not he, his skin is like leather. Could you get a peep at his naked back, you would find evidence of the frequent startings' he has received on board the man-of-war in which he served. Should a war come, the hangman may be saved a labour, and his name be found amongst those "who fell in their country's

those who compassionate her condition. Oh! what a glorious evening will she spend with her gossips in St. Giles's.

But these are not the only creatures who live by begging. You will hardly take up the Times journal, or, indeed, any other newspaper, without finding at least a couple of advertisements appealing to "the affluent and humane." There are a few hundreds in London who live by this description of begging. These rogues have, however, the advantages of education; their appeals' are generally couched in good language, and are, I am credibly informed, attended by astonishing success I had almost forgotten the humbler portion of this latter class, who bore the wealthy with "begging letters," as they are called. These precious vouchers are written by fellows who earn a tolerable livelihood by the sale of them. They were once most successful, and the bearers have been known to make twenty pounds in the course of a day. But the newspapers have now opened the eyes of the dullest, and begging letters are consequently at a discount.

There are few counting-houses in the city which have not been visited at certain periods by a woman who was once an actress, but who now subsists upon the profits of a work, (her own composition) copies of which she carries about with her in a little basket. Woe unto the unfortunate wight upon whom she happens to call; there is positively no getting rid of her. Like Abernethy, "you must buy her book," or she will bore you to death, and tell you a long story of her sufferings, with an air and tone as though she had a part in a melodrame. Her voice, too, is gentle and

soft; but her nose inclines to the rubicond, and her breath savours somewhat of rum; you may avoid the sight of the one and the scent of the other, for "the small charge of a shilling." Take chambers in the Temple, and she will find out the new comer in less than a week; she knows every stairs within the sacred precincts, and will pounce upon you as soon as you are settled in your new abode.

But these are not all the beggars I would describe; the rest of their fraternity shall have the benefit of some further remarks when an opportunity offers. For the present, rogues of all kinds adieu !

***

It was on one of those dark, gloomy days, in the month of June, which characterises the winter season at the Cape of Good Hope, that I embarked on board the brig L- then lying at anchor in Table Bay, full of the delightful anticipation of again seeing my native land and friends.

It was at the time blowing a gentle breeze; but the heavy clouds that were rolling in dense masses along the dusky sides of Table Mountain, the moaning of the sea, which fell with a solemn and foreboding sound upon the ear, and the portentous blackness of the heavens all around, announced the speedy approach of the north-wester, that so often proves destructive to the shipping in the bay, by driving them with irresistible fury from their anchorage, on to the much dreaded beach.

The captain having remarked that it was a threatening day, and that we should have a stiffish bit of a breeze directly, judged it expedient to put out to sea, and there to brave the violence of the storm, rather than run the risk of being driven on shore.

"Get the ship under weigh, my lads," he shouted.

The cheerful ". ay, ay, sir," and the heavy clanking hauls of the windlass indicated that his orders were instantly

in execution; the topsails that were hanging loose and flapping in the wind were sheeted home,-down fell courses and top-gallant sails;-the jib and stay-sail were run up, the yards braced up sharp; and the vessel began to cut her way through the waters, gracefully bending to the influence of the breeze, and reeling under the press of her lofty sails; after several successful tacks we beat out of the bay. The land was now entirely hidden from our view by the thick haze ;-the sea birds, with a screaming cry, winged their flight towards the land, instinctively aware of the approaching tempest, and as night set in the rain fell heavily.

66

"It looks devilish dirty to windward," exclaimed the captain, wę shall have it just now I take it. Furl your top-gallant sails-all hands upon deck to reef the topsails."

He had scarcely given these orders, when the gale came on with tremendous fury; the ship was hove down 'till her lee gunwale was completely under water; the haulyards were let go, but it was too late, the main-top mast giving way to the heavy pressure of the wind, went over the side with a dreadful crash. The wreck was cleared away as quickly as the darkness of the night would permit :-the wind whistled loudly through the rigging, but the captain's hoarse voice was heard shouting his orders amidst the howling of the storm; the ship pitched violently, at every heave her head plunged into the boiling foam, that sparkled with phosphorescent light around her bows.

The fore top-gallant and royal yards were sent upon deck,-and the masts struck-the topsail close reefed-the hatches battened down, and every thing made tolerably snug for the night.

Being exhausted with fatigue, I retired to my berth in the hope of obtain ing a little rest; but the creaking of the bulk heads-the violent motion of the vessel, and last, but not least, the incessant din of various articles of crockery clashing together in the steward's pantry, put the idea of sleep out of question, but to any one who has been in a similar situation, the assertion is unnecessary. I continued holding on by my hands and knees for about two hours, and was, at length, literally hove out of my berth.

Gentle reader, when thou art seated before a cheerful blazing fire, and hearest the hollow blast whistling

loudly around thy dwelling, and the rain beating against the windows thereof, think of the dangers of the poor mariner, who is exposed to all the pitiless fury of the contending elements, on a cold dreary night, drenched with the soaking spray, 'till he has not a dry thread left, his hands and feet benumbed with cold, and his whole frame scarcely susceptible of pulsation, and then draw thy chair a little closer to the fire, and think thyself happy thou art not in his comfortless and perilous situation; and congratulate thyself again, when reclining on thy pillow, that thou art not liable to be rumbled and jolted about, until every bone in thy skin acheth, and then to be hove out of thy berth without a minute's warning.

Having too much value for my bones to risk a second summerset, I fortified myself with a glass of grog and went upon deck;-the pitchy blackness of the night rendered it impossible to see half the ship's length, we were now under close reefed fore topsail and foresail; the mainsail had been shivered during my watch below; the vessel was muddy, plunging her way through the mazes of the ocean,-now borne up on the bosom of an enormous billow, and now sweeping into a deep hollow trough of the sea, with a gigantic wave on either side, rising higher than the topsail yard, presenting a terrific, but grand, and majestic scene, calculated to impress a degree of awe in the breast of the spectator, on beholding the sublime working of one of the noblest productions of the great Creator.

At intervals, a sea would curl over our weather bow, and drench the deck clean fore and aft; the gale was increasing every moment, when an order was given to furl the fore topsail, but before the sail was stowed, a sea struck the ship, which caused her to give a more than ordinary lurch, by which two poor fellows were precipitated from the topsail yard; they uttered a wild despairing cry for help as they whirled past us, and then naught was heard but the fearful howling of the tempest, and the dashing and roaring of the angry surges that lashed around us; to save them was impossible, they must have drifted a considerable distance astern before the ship's way could have been stayed, and no boat could have lived a second in such a hurricane.

Sea after sea broke over us, 'till the

bulwarks were carried away-the boats washed from the davits-the hencoops, pigs and sheep, were all swept overboard, and the decks were completely cleared. In this way we continued for three days under reefed foresail and storm staysail. Toward the evening of the third day the gale moderated, and gradually died away. As morning dawned, the wind veered round to the south-west-the reefs were shaken out of the remaining topsail-a jury topmast and royal masts swayed up, the yards slung across, stunsail booms rigged out, and with all the canvas she could carry, bore away right before the wind for St. Helena.

Ir was the close of a beautiful autumnal day, that romantic portion of the year which presents the loveliest objects and images to the poet's dreaming fancy, when the thick woods, with all their trembling leaves, seen as if transformed by magic to a wilderness of rainbow hues, spray, bough, and leaf, glowing with every imaginable shade of crimson and golden orange, as if tinged by the very dyes of sunset; their vivid beauty harmonized by the cool verdure of an unchanging evergreen, or the sober colouring of some, which, having unfolded their emerald freshness to spring's first call, had now, indeed, assumed the dim and darkening tint of the falling leaf; the beautiful day was departing, and the sun almost at its setting. was reflected from the crystal of a fairy lake, on whose surface a solitary lily reared her silvery diadem-the "nymph queen of the waters."

A rich flood of the parting glory streamed through the open casement of a dwelling, the unpretending style of whose simple architecture was scarcely above that of the many cottages whose white walls shone out like half hidden pearls in the windings of the glen below; but a certain air of elegance in the arrangement of its little garden, now only rich with autumnal flowers; the fretted window open to the lake, festooned with the heart-shaped ivy's richest garlands, and the aromatic break of fragrance wafted from some exotics in an alabaster vase, all spoke it the abiding place of some gentle

heart, which the romance of feeling had made its own-it was indeed such; the pastor of the hamlet dwelt there, and the pure spirit of the sweet and smiling Lilias Vernon, his gentle daughter, had given a chaste and joyous beauty to all around that quiet sanctuary of innocence and peace.

How beautiful was she!-not the beauty of bright festivals-the rose queen of gay vernal fetes, when the proud city's loveliest daughters come out to the cool forest glades with laugh and song, and in the very heart of nature's temple, the leafy greenwood sigh for the artificial enjoyments of masque and revel in their far off palaces, leaving without regret the sweet quiet of the wilderness of boughs and the green sunny nooks, where, perchance, a young fawn has crept to slumber, tired out with its own frolicsome chace, -the shadow of trembling leaves playing over its white quivering sides, and its graceful head, pillowed by the emerald moss and clustered wood violets at the trunk of an aged tree, till startled by the light laugh of the fair forest rangers, it opens its large bashful eyes, and springs away like a shooting star far into the depths of its own solitudes. Lilias was not one of those gay winged Psyches of the world-those bright creations of art: her beauty had the touching eloquence of sensibility-the charm of thought. I can almost fancy I see her now in the small apartment she loved so well,-for there she could sit in the hallowing light of sunset, till her spirit was wrapt in dreams of a brighter land beyond the radiant west. I wander strangely from my story, but let me not call it such-'tis a mere recollection of the past, and there are sad and fearful words to speak ere it closes, so I would fain linger over what is yet too beautiful for tears.

Lilias Vernon stood by the open casement; the clear beauty of her cheek deepened to a richer glow, and even the transparent fairness of her neck,

"Like a lily leafe just blown," tinged with a passing rosebloom from the reflection of the crimson west; the light playing over her bright chesnut curls, seemed as if encircling her graceful head with a celestial halo;this and the light flow of her white and simple dress, her aerial form, and the picturesque beauty of her attitude, as with her small white hands clasped, and half raised as in devotion, she looked up to the glowing sky