MFG MERRITIES.-Meg Merrilies is in Galloway considered as having had her Origin in the traditions concerning the celebrated Flora Marshal, one of the roval consorts of Willie Marshal, more commonly called the Caird of Barullion, king of the gypsies of the Western Lowlands. That potentate was himself deserving of notice, from the following peculiaries. He was born in the parish of Kirkmichael, about the year 1671; and as he died at Kirkcudbright, 251 November, 1792, he must then have been in the one hundred and twentieth year of his age. It cannot be said that this unusually long lease of existence was noted by any peculiar excellence of conduct or habits of life. Willie had been pressed or enlisted in the army seren times, and had deserted as often; besides three times running away from the naval service, He had been seventeen times lawfully married; and besides such a reasonably large share of matrimonial comforts, was, after his hundreth year, the avowed father of four children, by less ligitimate affections. He subsisted in his extreme old age by a pension from the present Earl Selkirk's grandfather. Will Marshal is buried in Kirkcudbright church, where his monument is still shown, decorated with a scutcheon suitably blazoned with two tuns' horns and two cutty spoons. Now I cannot grant that the Idea of Meg Merrilies, was in the first concoction of the character, derived from Flora Marshal. Yet I am quite content that Meg shou'd be considered as a representative of her sect and class in general-Flora, as well as others.-Notes to Guy Mannering.

ADVANTAGES OF BRUSSEIS.-The air in the upper part of the city is salubrious, and the climate, perhaps better on the whole than England; but the winters are sharper and the summers hotter: fogs are less frequent, and the spring generally sets in a fortnight earlier than in any part of Great Britain. Our countrymen will be disappointed who settle in Brussels as a place of amusement, for no capital can be more dull; and the natives are not ready of access, which is probably as much the fault of their visitors as themselves. As a station for economy, it can be highly recommended, provided no trust is put in servants, and every thing is paid for with ready money. The writer of this article resided in Brussels for a dozen years, and he knows this from experience. If an establishment, large or small, is well regulated, a saving of fifty per cent. may be made, certainly, in housekeeping, compared with London. House-rent is dearer in proportion with other articles of living, and the taxes are daily augmenting. The horse-tax is more than double that of England; and the King of Netherlands can boast that he is the only sovereign in Europe who has a tax on female labour. William Pitt attempted a s milar measure, but was mobbed by the housemaids, and abandoned it.-Sketch of Brussels in 18.9.

ANECDOTE OF BURNS.- -One Sunday morning, some time before Burns commenced author, when he and his brother Gilbert were going to the parish church of Tarbolton, they got into company with an old man, a Moravian, travelling to Ayr. It was at that time when the dispute between the old and new light Burghers was making a great noise in the country; and Burns and the old man entering into conversation on the subject, differed in their opinions about it, the old man defending the principles of the old light, and Burns the principles of the new light. The disputants at length grew very warm in the debate, and Burns, finding that with all his eloquence he could make nothing of his antagonist, became a little acrimonious, and taunting. ly exclaimed, "Oh! I suppose I have met with the Apostle Paul this morning." No," replied the old Moravian coolly, "you have not met with the Apostle Paul, but I think I have met one of those wild beasts which he says he fought with when at Ephesus."-Courier.

MUSICAL PRODIGIES.-The musical patrons of Munich have been amused by the performances on the violin of two children, brothrs, Ernest and Edward, the one seven, the other five years old, the sons of Herr Eichhorn, musician to the Duke of Saxe Cobourg. The elder played alone the first theme from the eleventh concert of Kreautzer, and the adagio and rondo from the seventh concert of Rode; and with his brother a pot pourri, Bricklayers and Cobblers,' and variations of Jakoby. The two children played, not with childish uncertainty, or timid bowing, but with a masterly effect, and fine and correct expression, quite astonishing.-The Athenaum.

INHABITANTS OF MEDINA.-The individuals of different nations settled here have in their second and third generations all become Arabs as to features and character; but are, nevertheless, distinguishable from the Mekkans; they are not nearly so brown as the latter, thus forming an intermediate link between the Hedjaz people and the northern Syrians. Their features are somewhat broader, their beards thicker, and their body stouter, than those of the Mekkans; but the Arab face, the expression, and cast of features, are in both places the same. The Medians in their dress resemble more the Turkish than their southern neighbours: very few of them wear the beden, or the national Arab cloak without sleeves; but even the poorer people dress in long gowns, with a cloth djobbe or upper cloak, or, instead of it an abba, of the same brown and white stripe as is common in Syria and all over the desert. Red Tunis bonnets and Turkish shoes are more used here than at Mekka, where the lower classes wear white bonnets and sandals. People in easy circumstances dress well, wearing good cloth cloaks, fine gowns, and, in winter, good pelisses, brought from Constantinople by way of Cairo; which I found a very common article of dress in January and February, a season when it is much colder here than Europeans would expect it to be in Arabian deserts. Generally speaking we, may say that the Medinans dress better than the Mekkans, though with much less cleanliness: but no national costume is observed here; and, particularly in the cold of winter, the lower classes cover themselves with whatever articles of dress they can obtain at low prices in the public auctions; so that it is not uncommon to see a man fitted out in the dress of three or four different countries--like an Arab as high as his waist, and like a Turkish soldier over his breast and shoulders. The richer people make a great display of dress, and vie with each other in finerv. I saw more new suits of clothes here, even when the yearly feasts were terminated, than I had seen before in any other part of the East. As at Mekka, the sherifs wear no green, but simple white muslin turbans, excepting those from the northern parts of Turkey, who have recently settled here and who continue to wear the badge of their noble extraction.-Burckhardt's Travels.

THE GREAT MAN'S TABLE.-Let us contemplate him a little at another special scene of glory, and that is his table. Here he seems to be the lord of all nature; the earth affords him the best metal for his dishes, her best vegetables and animals for his food; the air and sea supply him with their choicest birds and fishes; and a great many men, who look like masters, attend upon him; and yet, when all this is done, even all this is but table d'hote; it is crowded with people for whom he cares not, with many parasites, and some spies, with the most burthensome sort of guests the endeavourers to be witty. But every body pays him great respect; every body commends his meat, that is, his money; every body admires the exquisite dressing and ordering of it, that is, his clerk of the kitchen, or his cook; every body loves his hospitality, that is, his vanity. But I desire to know why the honest inn-keeper, who provides a public table for his profit, should be but of a mean profession; and he who does it for his honour, a munificent prince. You will say, because one sells, and the other gives-nay both sell, though for different things; the one for plain money, the other for I know not what jewels, whose value is in custum and in fancy.—Cooley's Essays.

NEW INSTRUMENT FOR DISCOVERING SYMPTOMS OF DISEASE BY SOUND.-An improvement on the Stethoscope has been invented by Dr. Piorry, of Paris. He calls his instrument a Pleosimetre; it consists of a plate of ivory, wood, or metal, or other solid, thin, and sonorous substance, to be applied to the part of the body which it is desired to examine. The instrument, so applied, is to be struck slightly with the finger, and the sound it gives out will correspond with the state of the organ, and enable the physician to judge of its condition. The Pleosimetre, it is said, has proved, on experiment, to be an infallible guide in cases of dropsy of the chest and belly, in diseases of the liver, spleen, bowels, lungs, or of the heart, as well as in abdominal tumours. The inventor, who has also published a book explanatory of his discovery, has received a prize of 2000 francs from the Royal Academy. M. Duméril, in making his report on the subject to the Academy, affirmed that M. Piorry had certainly discovered a new method of distinguishing the symptoms of disorders, and that there was every reason to believe that his work would prove of great utility.-Athenæum.

FRENCH PRESS. Le Compilateur, has an article on the state of the press in France, by which it appears that there are now in Paris 152 journals, literary, scientific, and religious, and seventeen political—in all 169. Of these papers, 131 are constitutional, or, as they are called, liberal-the eighteen others being more monarchical in their spirit. The 151 constitutional journals have, it is stated, 197,000 subscribers, 1,500,000 readers, and produce an income of 1,155,200 francs; the eighteen others have 21,000 subscribers, 1,92,000 readers, with an income of 437,000 francs. It goes on to give the names of the editors of the ten principal papers, as follows:-Le Moniteur, the official paper, from 2,500 to 4000 subscribers, principally public functionaries-MM. Massabiau, Pouchet, Amar, Aubert de Vitry. -Le Constitutionnel: 18,000 to 20,000 subscribers-MM. Etienne, Jay, Dumoulin, Leon, Thiests, Thiessé, Année, Desvoisins, Count de Laborde, Thierry, Rolle.Journal des Debats: 13,000 to 14,000 subscribers MM. Bertin-Devaux, Duviquet, Feletz, Lesourd, Guisot, Salvandy, St. Marc-Girardin, Becquet, M. de Chateaubri and.-Quotidienne: 5000 subscribers-MM. Laurentie, Michaud, Soulier, Mennechet, Merle, Larose, Audibert, F. Lalone, Bazin, and Charles Nodier.-Courier Francais; 4,500 subscribers-MM. Chatelain, Keratry, Jouy, Avenel de la Pelouse, A Jussieu, Moreau, Guyet, De Pradt, B. Constant.-Journal du commerce: 3,500 subscribers-MM. Best, Larrejuy, Rouen, Deslojes, J. Gensoul. Leclerc, Guillemont, Thomas.-Gazette de France; 7000 subscribers-MM. de Genoude, Colnet, Sevelingues, Boisbertrand, Benaben, de Rougemont, R. Perrin, Mme. Bolly, and the Counts de Peyronnet and de Corbiéne-Messager des Chambres: This paper, which since the accession of the Polignac ministry seems to have taken up liberal ideas, has 2,500 subscribers-MM. A. Romien, J. Janin, Brucker, Veron, Royer, &c. its late editors were MM. Malitourne and Capefigue.-Tribune des Départemens, a new paper, 100 subscribers-M. Daunou, and the writers of the Revue Encyclopédique. Nouveu Journal de Paris: 1000 to 1,500 subscribersMM. Leon-Pillet, Montglave, Eusèbe Salverte. These are all published in the capital: those printed in the provinces it calculates at seventy-five journals, exclusive of papers for advertisement, and ministerial bulletins. Of these, sixty-six are constitutional, supported only by their subscribers of the same way of thinking. One, the Memorial de Toulouse, is supported by the archbishop of that diocese: four are, it is asserted, paid from the secret funds of the Jesuits; the other four are described as monarchical, but of the little influence. With respect to the state of public opinion in France, it averages, according to the same authority, among 100 electors in one college, twenty-five revocable public functionaries, four judges, five advocates, four attorneys, six notaries, three physicians, ten merchants, and forty-three persons of no distinct profession. These latter give forty votes to constitutional candidates: and with eight merchants, two physicians, four notaries, one attorney, two advocates, three judges and revocable functionery, make up in all sixty constitutional votes out of the 100.-Lit. Gazette.

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TO ANY ONE WHOM BAD WEATHER DEPRESSES.-If you are melancholy for the first time, you will find upon a little enquiry, that others have been melancholy many times, and yet are cheerful now. If you have been melancholy many times, recollect that you have got over all those times; and try if you cannot find out new means of getting over them better. Do not imagine that mind alone is concerned in your bad spirits. The body has a great deal to do with these matters. The mind may undoubtedly affect the body; but the body also affects the mind. There is a mutual re-action between them; and by lessening it on either side, you diminish the pain on both.

If you are melancholy, and know not why, be assured it must arise entirely from some physical weakness; and do your best to strengthen yourself. The blood of a melancholy man is thick and slow. The blood of a lively man is clear and quick. Endeavour therefore to put your blood in motion. Exercise is the best way to do it; but you may also help yourself, in moderation, with wine, or other excitements. Only you must take care so to proportion the use of any artificial stimulus, that it may not render the blood languid by overexciting it at first; and that you may be able to keep up, by the natural stimulus only, the help you have given yourself by the artificial.-Indicator.

SHERIDAN. His wife's voice and the opera of the Duenna were the foundation stones of Sheridan's fame. He drew the plan of that successful drama from an old Italian novel, and having finished it, was perpetually dunning the manager of Covent Garden to bring it out at his threatre, but for a considerable time without effect. Mr. Harris at length one day said to him, "Well, I am going down to Hampton Court to dine with Mr. Brummell, who, you know, is a judge of dramatic literature; you shall go with me, and take your opera in your pocket." This being carried into effect, and dinner over, Mr. Sheridan was called upon by the judges to read this opera. After a preface, enumerating the manifest disadvantages which a piece of the operatic kind must labour under in a bare recital, he began to read the performance; but had proceeded no great length, when the critics began to yawn; he, however, courageously persevered and they preserved their patience with equal resolution, now and then encouraging him with a "well! and so!" and "what next?" until he arrived at the Friar's scene, when they suddenly stopped him, with “ Pshaw! pshaw ! Mr. Sheridan, is it possible you can be mad enough to conceive that an audience would swallow such a damned absurdity as a company of Friars singing a song!! Zounds, Sir, the people would rise, tear up the benches, and hurl them at the chandeliers." Upon this Mr. Sheridan coolly put his opera in his pocket, with this observation, "Either you, Gentlemen, are, or 1 am, a dd blockhead." On the first night this unfortunate-fortunate piece was within a hair's breadth of a public, as well as a private damnation, and Leoni was so alarmed at the reception which he met with in the first act, that it was absolutely necessary to push him on by main force, in the second; but when they came to the Friars' scene it was received with such bursts of applause, that all apprehensions vanished, and the opera has been ever since esteemed the best in the stock of Covent Garden house. It was reported to have redeemed the theatre from a state of bankruptcy!— Dramatic Magazine.

TURKISH SPORTS.-" The only remnant of Saracen chivalry existing in Turkey is the Jereed tournament. I witnessed one in honour of the birth of a child in the imperial harem, and certainly never beheld so imposing a spectacle as this immense assemblage of people exhibited: upwards of 60,000 persons of either sex, in all the varieties of Eastern costume, and in which all the colours of the rainbow were blen ded, were seated on the sloping sides of a natural amphitheatre: the Sultan sat above, magnificently apparelled, surrounded by his black and white slaves in glittering attire. He appeared about forty-four years of age; his figure majestic, and his aspect noble: his long black beard added to the solemnity of features, which he never relaxed for a moment; and while all around were convulsed with laughter at the buffooneries of a Merry Andrew, who amused the multitude, be kept his dark eye on the juggler, but he never smiled. Hundreds of horsemen were galloping to and fro on the plain below, hurling the jereed at random; now assailing the nearest to them, now in pursuit of the disarmed. Their dexterity in avoiding the weapon was luckily very great, otherwise many lives must have been lost; as it was, I saw one cavalier led off with his eye punched out, and another crushed under a horse. These accidents never interfered for a moment with the sports; one sport succeeded another. After the jereed came the wrestlers, naked to the waist, and smeared with oil. They prostrated themselvs several times before the Sultan, performed a number of very clumsy feats, and then set-to. Their address lay in seizing upon one another by the hips; and he who had the most strength lifted his adversary off his legs, and then, flinging him to the earth, fell with all his force upon him. Music relieved the tedium between the rounds, and several occurred before any mischief was sustained. At last one poor devil was maimed for life, to make a Turkish holiday; he had his thigh-bone smashed, and was carried off the field with great applause! Bear fighting was next attempted; but Bruin was not to be coaxed or frightened into pugnacity; the dogs growled at him in vain. During all these pastimes, the slaves were running backwards and forwards from the multitude to the Sultan, carrying him innumerable petitions from the former, which he cannot refuse to receive, and seldom can find leisure to read. The departure of the pacific bear terminated these brutal sports; and every one, except the friends of the dead man and the two wounded, appeared to go away delighted beyond measure. All the amusements of this people are of the same cruel character.”—Madden's Travels.

A HOLY HERMIT.-A hermit, named Parnhe, being upon the road to meet his bishop who had sent for him, met a lady most magnificently dressed, whose incomparable beauty drew the eyes of every body on her. The saint having looked at her, and being himself struck with astonishment, immediately burst into tears, Those who were with him wondering to see him weep, demanded the cause of his grief. "I have two reasons," replied he, "for my tears; I weep to think how fatal an impression that woman makes on all who behold her; and I am touched with sorrow when I reflect that I, for my salvation, and to please God, have never taken one-tenth part of the pains which this woman has taken to please men alone."

-Mirror.

LUDICROUS EXAGGERATION.-Men of wit sometimes like to pamper a favourite joke into exaggeration; into a certain corpulence of facetiousness. Their relish of the thing makes them wish it as large as possible: and the social enjoyment of it is doubled by its becoming more visible to the eyes of others. It is for this reason that jests in company are sometimes built up by one hand after another," threepiled hyperboles," till the overdone Babel topples and tumbles down amidst a merry confusion of tongues. Falstaff was a great master of this art. He loved a joke as large as himself; witness his famous account of the men in buckram. Thus he tells the Lord Chief Justice, that he had lost his voice "with singing of anthems ;" and he calls Bardolphs' red nose "a perpetual triumph, an everlasting bonfire light;" and says it has saved him "a thousand marks in links and torches," walking with it"in the night betwixt tavern and tavern." See how he goes heightening the account of his recruits at every step:-" you would think I had a hundred and fifty tattered prodigals, lately come from swine-keeping, from eating draff and husks.A mad fellow met me on the way, and told me, I had unloaded all the gibbets, and pressed the dead bodies. No eye hath seen such scarecrows.-I'll not march through Coventry with them, that's flat.-Nay, and the villain's march wide be. twixt the legs, as if they had gyves on; for indeed I had most of them out of prison. There's but a shirt and a half in all my company; and the half-shirt is two napkins, tacked together, and thrown over the shoulders like a herald's coat without sleeves."-Indicator.

DOLPHINS. The two Plinys have each a story of a Dolphin. The Elder says, upon the authority of three grave writers, Mecenas among them, that there was a boy, who by alluring a Dolphin with bread, at last became so intimate with him, that he would ride to school to and fro on his back from Baie to Puteoli. The boy died, and the fish pining after him, died also, and was buried in the same tomb. The Younger Pliny gives an account of another at Hippo in Africa, where a boy venturing to swim farther out than his companions, was met by a Dolphin, who after playing about him a little, slipped under him, and taking him on his back, carried him out still farther, to the great terror of the young delphinestrain. Luckily however, he soon returned to shore, and landed his rider safely. The next day the shore was crowded with people, waiting to see if the Dolphin would appear again; and the boys went as usual into the water. The fish did reappear, and came among the younkers, who swam back as fast as they could. It then played all sorts of inviting gambols about the coast, till the people, ashamed of their timidity, gradually got nearer, and at length touched and stroked it. The boy then, losing his fear like the rest, and vindicating his first privilege, swam by his side, and at length leaped upon his back, when the Dolphin carried him about as before, and landed him as safely. Unfortunately, the deputy-governor of the province took it into his head that the good natured fish must be a god; and seizing his opportunity, when the creature had got upon shore, poured some precious ointment upon it. The ointment happened not to be to the Dolphin's taste; it absented itself for some days; and when it returned appeared sick and feeble. However, it recovered its spirits; but the novelty by this time bad drawn such a concourse of high visitors to the place, whom it was the little town's business to entertain gratis, that it is supposed the poor fish was secretly killed, to save further expenses. Alexander the Great is said to have been so struck with the attachment evinced by a Dolphin to a youth, that he made the latter a priest of Neptune.-Indicator.