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of the days of merry England. Darnick is surrounded and intersected with gardens and orchards -a place of snug white cottages, mossy pales, little wickets, and nice by-paths, with roses, evergreens, and beehives; mossy and herbaceous, teeming with all pleasant sights, and delightful scents, and worthy to have been the "Our Village" of Sir Walter Scott. And why should we forget Gatton-side-that straggling village over from us, yet more rural and picturesque than Darnick, and equally snug? And there is the chain-bridge connecting Gatton-side with Melrose; and to the east of it, Allerslie, the residence of Sir David Brewster, philosopher, or Knight of the Guelphic order, and, we believe, first in the list of that literary and scientific band of knighthood since Sir John Leslie has died without issue. What could have tempted the Lord Chancellor to this preposterous dubbing, to which he never would have submitted in his own person, we shall not stop to inquire; but, casting a hasty, sweeping, farewell glance over the northern points of this grand panorama, Lauderdale, and the Lammermuir range, of which, from our old Mid-Lothian Roman Camp, we surveyed the other side, we just nod over to Friarshall, Langlee, and the Pavilion, and soberly descend to Melrose town, and to the nearer examination of the beautiful ruins of that Abbey on which we have been all day long casting many a furtive glance. It is a clear afternoon, and the moon near the full. Dinner will not occupy many hours; and, while it is preparing, we shall make survey the first. For survey the second, we all know the hour, and the guide too. If thou wouldst view fair Melrose aright,

Go visit it by the pale moonlight;
For the gay beams of lightsome day
Gild but to flout the ruins grey.

When the broken arches are black in night,
And each shafted oriel glimmers white;
When the cold light's uncertain shower
Streams on the ruin'd central tower;

When buttress and buttress alternately
Seem framed of ebon and ivory;

When silver edges the imagery,

And the scrolls that teach thee to live and die;
When distant Tweed is heard to rave,

And the owlet to hoot o'er the dead man's grave,
Then go but go alone the while-
Then view St. David's ruin'd pile;
And, home returning, soothly swear,
Was never scene so sad and fair!

ON ITINERATING LIBRARIES. THE following inquiries were lately made to me respecting the plan of the East Lothian itinerating libraries, the replies may perhaps suggest some useful information to persons who are disposed to introduce the plan into their neighbourhood. I shall also be happy to give any additional information concerning that economical mode of diffusing knowledge to any person who may wish it.

Q1. How many itinerating divisions of fifty volumes would be desirable to form one library?

For the commencement of a system of itinerating libraries, four or five divisions would be a very good beginning, or even fewer. If that number were stationed each for two years in a place, it would be eight or ten years before they went the circuit, and in that time it is probable as many more divisions would be added to the establishment. Ten or twelve divisions could be easily managed by one person, who felt an interest in the plan; and it would be

better to divide the labour by different sets all over the country, than to oppress an individual with a large establishment. I prefer the divisions being two years in a place to a shorter period; as at first the lighter and more entertaining reading is chiefly in demand, and were the books changed every year, I should be apprehensive of too strong a taste being formed for amusing works; but when it is stationed for two years, the readers have time to read Q. 2. At about what expense can each division be procured?

the more solid and useful books.

I think a division of fifty volumes bound, or half bound, with book-case, catalogue, labels, advertisements, and issuing book, may be procured for from L.10 to L.12; but the cost will depend very much on the kind of books wanted, and their being recently published. Very good divisions might be selected for from 1.8 to L.10. As perhaps the principal hinderance to the introduction of itinerating libraries has been the trouble of setting on foot the first divisions, I would be willing to superintend gratuitously the getting up any number of divisions, with the necessary apparatus, which any individual or society may wish, and to procure, at the wholesale prices, any books they may require.

Q. 3. At about what expense per annum may each division be kept in repair?

If the books are bound, or half bound at first, I suppose five shillings per annum would both keep them in repair and supply any volumes which may be lost, and which it might be difficult to get the reader to replace; if the books are in boards with linen backs, seven or nine shillings ayear will repair and bind them as they require.

Q. 4. How long, with care, may such books last? Part of our books have been in active circulation for eighteen years, as at the commencement they were used as a Sunday-school library; and forty volumes out of fifty are that twenty years may be considered the period they will last. yet fit for circulation, and wil! last a few years longer, so

In forming an establishment of itinerating libraries, I would recommend the raising as much money from the friends of the institution, as would purchase four or five divisions to begin with, and that they be placed in different stations, with an intimation that if the books are well read, they will be succeeded by other divisions every second year; that during the first year they will be issued to any person who will pay one penny a-volume for reading it; that in the second year they will be issued gratuitously to any person above twelve years of age, who will take care of them. I consider it of great importance to allow gratuitous reading, as there are many young persons who are not able to pay even a penny a-volume; and others are not willing to pay until a taste for reading is formed in them. As another means of raising funds and promoting the objects of the institution, I would recommend that, after its commencement, all the new books should be kept for at least one year, for the use of annual subscribers of five shillings, or such other sum as may be thought proper. I adopted this plan in 1822. Previous to that period, the greatest number of our annual subscribers was eight; they now amount to more than one hundred and fifty; and besides adding largely to our funds, this measure has introduced into a considerable number of the most respectable and influential families of the district, a number of religious and useful publications. I have allowed these subscribers the privilege of recommending books, to double the amount of their subscriptions, on condition that they are not, in the opinion of the committee, injurious to the interests of religion or morals; this privilege has been used by them with great discretion, and they have frequently assisted me in procuring very proper books.

In consequence of our having a number of subscribers at the neighbouring towns of Dunbar and North Berwick, new books are purchased with their own subscriptions for the use of these stations; besides which, the new books that have been one year at Haddington, are sent to North Berwick and Dunbar, so as to be double the value of their subscriptions; and the new books which have been at Dunbar

and North Berwick, are kept another year for the Haddington subscribers. By this arrangement, all the subscribers have access to many more volumes than their own subscriptions would have purchased. And after this they are formed into divisions for general circulation. In a large town, as Edinburgh or Glasgow, a similar plan might be followed, by placing divisions within the reach of the different squares and streets of the genteel population, many of whom, I am persuaded, would subscribe for the use of the books for the younger branches of their families, as well as for themselves.

As it is of much importance to gratify the annual subscribers with the books they wish to read, as early as possible, in the issuing-book for them, I have adopted the plan of writing the name of the book on the top of the page, and writing the name of the borrower below it, with the date when the volume is issued; and as a volume is frequently called for when some person has it, I also enter the names of the persons who want it, in the same manner; and when it comes in, it is immediately sent to them, and the date is affixed to their name. By this means some volumes are never permitted to stand idle in the book-shelf. The issuing-book for the general readers is more easily kept. The names of the usual readers are arranged alphabetically, and the number of the book is marked opposite their name, and under a column for the month in which they are issued; and when they are returned, the number is merely crossed. It is very useful to call in all the books once ayear for examination, and to get repaired those which require it.

It is not advisable to require any entry money in addition to the first annual subscription, as it is usually a hinderance to new subscribers. When an addition to the catalogue of the new books is printed, which should be once a-year, if it is sent gratuitously to the respectable families in the neighbourhood, it will usually procure more new subscribers than will pay the expense of printing it.

Christian name, has been an objection, founded on a scruple of conscience, to the payment of tithes, and other demands of an ecclesiastical character. Apprehending that the mo tives of our conduct herein are not generally well under. stood, and anxiously desiring also that our own members may be encouraged and strengthened to act consistently with our Christian profession, we think it right, at the present time, briefly to set forth the reasons of our testimony on this important subject.

ter.

We have uniformly entertained the belief, on the autho rity of Holy Scripture, that when, in the fulness of time, according to the all-wise purposes of God, our blessed Lord and Saviour appeared personally upon the earth, He introduced a dispensation pure and spiritual in its charac He taught, by his own holy example and divine precepts, that the ministry of the Gospel is to be without pecuniary remuneration. As the gift is free, the exercise of it is to be free also: the office is to be filled by those only who are called of God by the power of the Holy Spirit; who, in their preaching, as well as in their circumspect lives and conversation, are giving proof of this call. The forced maintenance of the ministers of religion is, in our view, a violation of those great privileges which God, in his wisdom and goodness, bestowed upon the human race, when He sent his Son to redeem the world, and the power of the Holy Spirit, to lead and guide mankind into all truth.

Our blessed Lord put an end to that priesthood, and to all those ceremonial usages connected therewith, which were before divinely ordained under the Law of Moses. The present system of tithes was not in any way instituted by Him, our Holy Head, and High Priest, the great Christian Lawgiver. It had no existence in the purest and earliest ages of the Church, but was gradually introduced, as superstition and apostacy spread over professing Christendom, and was subsequently enforced by legal authority. And it further appears to us, that in this enforcing as due Besides the subscriptions from individuals, we have had "to God and the Holy Church,” a tithe upon the produce of occasional donations to the East Lothian Itinerating Libra- the earth, and upon the increase of the herds of the field, ries from different missionary societies, formed within the an attempt was made to uphold and perpetuate a Divine district. As the libraries have much of the nature of a institution appointed only for a time, but which was abroHome Missionary institution, there is, perhaps, no plan by gated by the coming in the flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ. which such societies can promote the interests of religion, The vesting of power by the laws of the land in the king, at so little expense, and in so inoffensive a manner, as by assisted by his council, whereby articles of belief have been supporting itinerating libraries in their respective districts, framed for the adoption of his subjects, and under which by applying a part of their funds to this purpose, and there- the support of the teachers of these articles is enforced, is, by promoting the interests of religion at home. This would in our judgment, a procedure at variance with the whole ultimately increase their funds for foreign objects, by in-scope and design of the Gospel; and as it violates the rights creasing the number of their subscribers.

Although the principal object of the East Lothian Itinerating Libraries is to promote the interests of religion, we have introduced a number of volumes on all branches of knowledge which we could procure, of a plain and popular nature; and this, I am persuaded, has made the institution much more popular, and also increased the number of religious books which have been read.

Much of the success of such institutions will depend on the zeal of the librarians, and on their acting gratuitously; and also by giving a moderate degree of publicity to the plan, by reports, catalogues, and advertisements.

SAMUEL BROWN.

Manager of the East Lothian Itinerating

Libraries, Haddington.

[This was written some time ago, and Mr. Brown has now, we doubt not, farther progress to report. ]

THE QUAKERS AND THE CHURCH.

A BRIEF STATEMENT

Of the Reasons why the Religious Society of Friends object to the Payment of Tithes, and other Demands of an Ecclesiastical Nature.

THE Religious Society of Friends has now existed in this country for nearly two centuries as a distinct Christian community. Amongst other circumstances by which we have been distinguished from our fellow professors of the

of private judgment, so it interferes with that responsibility by which man is bound to his Creator.

course conscientiously object also to all demands made In accordance with what has been already stated, we of upon us in lieu of tithes. We likewise object to what are termed Easter-dues, demands originally made by the Church of Rome, but continued in the Protestant Church of England, for services which we cannot receive, We also object to Mortaries, sums applied for and still enforc ed in some places, as due to the incumbent of a parish on the death of the head of a family. Neither do we find, in the example or precepts of our blessed Lord and his kindred nature, which all had their origin in times of the Apostles, any authority for these claims, or others of a darkness and corruption of the Christian Church. And we further consider, that to be compelled to unite in the support of buildings, where a mode of religious worship is observed in which we cannot conscientiously unite, and in paying for appurtenances attached to that mode of worship from which we alike dissent, is subversive of that freedom which the Gospel of Christ has conferred upon all.

considerations, we have felt it to be a religious duty to Deeply impressed with a conviction of the truth of these fuse active compliance with all ecclesiastical demands which have been made upon us; or to be parties to any compromise whereby the payment of them is to be insured. That this conduct has not arisen from a contumacious spirit, we trust the general character of our proceedings will amply testify. And we trust also that it will be

readily admitted, that political considerations have not governed our religious Society, but that we have been actuated by a sincere desire to maintain, in the sight of God and man, a conscientious testimony to the freedom and spirituality of the Gospel of Christ, and thus to promote the enlargement of his kingdom upon earth.

In their support of these views, our pious predecessors underwent many and grievous sufferings, which they bore with Christian meekness and patience.

Seeing that we have, as a religious society, invariably made, on this subject, an open confession before men, we earnestly desire that we may all steadfastly adhere to the original grounds of our testimony; nor allow ourselves to be led away by any feelings of a party spirit, or suffer any motives of an inferior character to take the place of those which are purely Christian. May none amongst us shrink from the faithful and upright support of our Christian belief, but through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, seek after that meek disposition, in which our Society has uniformly thought it right to maintain this testimony, and which we desire may ever characterize us as a body. It becomes us all, when thus conscientiously refusing a compliance with the law of the land, to do it in that peaceable spirit of which our Lord has left us so blessed an example. May we all be concerned, in accordance with the advice of this meeeing, given forth in the year 1759, " to demonstrate, by our whole conduct and conversation, that we really suffer for conscience-sake, and keep close to the guidance of that good Spirit, which will preserve in meekness and quiet resignation under every trial. For if resentment should arise against those whom we may look upon as the instruments of our sufferings, it will deprive us of the reward of faithfulness, give just occasion of offence, and bring dishonour to the cause of truth. Cavilling or casting reflections upon any because of our sufferings, doth not become the servants of Christ, whose holy example and steps we ought in all things faithfully to follow."

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In conclusion, it is our earnest prayer, that it may please the Supreme Ruler of the Universe to hasten the coming of that period when the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ shall shine forth with unclouded brightness, when righteousness shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea, and when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.

Signed, in and on behalf of the yearly meeting, by
SAMUEL TUKE.

USEFUL NOTICES.

4

cloth; when it is dry, place the wrong side upon a light gauze, then give it a coat of Spanish white, take a painted canvass not dry, and place the picture upon this canvass, put it into a press, and when the painting is completely dry, if the operation has been well performed, the painting will be found on the new canvass, and will not be at all influenced by wet the gauze, leaving the first to dry before the second is given, weather. Some persons give two coats of Spanish white upon and it is not till this second is completed that they put the painting upon the canvass.-Quarterly Review.

CURIOSITY OF ART-A very singular, and to the public a yet unknown art was practised a few years since in Paris, by which, impressions of different sizes, either larger or smaller than the original design, were taken from the same copperplate. It would seem, that, according to the ordinary way of printing, it would be impossible to take from a plate an impression smaller or larger than the plate itself; but this has been done by Gonord, a watchmaker in that capital, and it has been ascertained, that, whether the copy be larger or smaller than the plate, it retains all the traces of the original with the nicest accuracy. It is supposed to have been executed in this manner. An impression of the same size as the plate, is taken on the surface of some soft substance, such as the elastic compound of glue and treacle used in conveying landscapes of china ware: this substance is confined in a tube broader at one end than at the other. If a part of the substance be then removed from face at the wider end, and the tube be placed with the wider the narrow end, after the impression has been taken on the surend upwards, the elastic substance will fall, and the printed surface be compressed within a smaller space. The edges of the tube are then cut to a level with the elastic substance, and if the impression upon it be conveyed to paper, the copy will be smaller than the original plate. If we wish to have a copy larger than the original plate, it may be done by removing the substance to a wider tube, in which the printed surface will be made to expand to the requisite dimensions. These, however, are but conjectures, Gonord has hitherto preserved the secret of his process.

A very beautiful mode of representing small branches of the most delicate vegetable productions in bronze has been emfoot-ployed by Mr. Chantrey. A small strip of a fir-tree, a branch of holly, a curled leaf of broccoli, or any other vegetable production, is suspended by one end in a small cylinder of paper, which is placed for support within a similarly formed tin case; the finest river silt, carefully separated from all the coarser particles, and mixed with water so as to have the consistency of cream, is poured into the paper cylinder by small portions at a time, carefully shaking the plant a little after each addition, in order that its leaves may be covered, and that no bubbles of air may be left. The plant and its mould are now allowed to dry, and the yielding nature of the paper allows the loamy coating to shrink from the outside. When this is dry, it is surrounded by a coarser substance; and, finally, we have now the twig with all its leaves imbedded in a perfect mould. This mould is carefully dried, and then gradually heated to a red heat. At the ends of some of the leaves or shoots, wires have been left to afford air-holes by their removal, and in this state of strong ignition a stream of air is directed into the hole formed by the end of the branch. The consequence is, that the wood and leaves which had been turned into charcoal by the fire, are now converted into carbonic acid by the current of air, and after some time the whole of the solid matter of which the plant consisted is completely removed, leaving a hollow mould, bearing on its interior all the minutest traces of its late vegetable occupant. When this process is completed, the mould being still kept at nearly a red heat, receives the fluid metal, which, by its weight, either drives the very small quantity of air, which at that high temperature remains behind, out through the air-holes, or compresses it into the pores of the very porous substance of which the mould is formed.

BOTANY.-The East India Company have presented to the Linnean Society their magnificent Herbarium, containing the plants collected between long. 73° to 114° E. and lat. 32° N. to the equator, by Konig, Roxburgh, Ruttler, Russell, Klein, Hamilton, Heyne, Wight, Finlayson, and Wallich. It includes about 1800 genera, more than 8000 species, and amounts in duplicates, to at least 70000 specimens,-the labours of half a Century. For many years a large portion of these vegetable riches were stored on the shelves of the India House, without Any one sufficiently conversant in Indian Botany to arrange and render them subservient to the cause of science. On the arrival in this country of Dr. Wallich, the distinguished superintendent of the Company's Garden at Calcutta, in the year 1828, who brought with him an immense accession to the Herbarium from various parts of India, especially Nepal and the Burmese Empire, the Court of Directors instructed him to make a catalogue of the aggregate collection, and to distribute duplicate specimens to the more eminent societies and naturalists throughout Europe and America.-This immense labour has occupied Dr. Wallich for the last four years; and it is the chief selection from these various Herbaria, destined for the museum of the India House, which the Court of Directors have, with princely munificence, presented to the Linnæan Society.The liberality of the East India Company has been duly appreciated throughout the wide circle of science.

METHOD OF PLACING AN OLD PICTURE UPON A NEW CANVASS IN OIL COLOURS.-When your picture has been properly placed, and the old canvass has been removed with due caution, wipe the wrong side of the picture with a fine

Dear provisions must produce one of the following effects they must either lower the condition of the labourer, or raise the rate of wages. Nobody can wish the former result; you must, therefore, wish high wages to be the result of dear corn; but if wages are high, the price of goods must be high; but if the price of goods be high, our manufacturers cannot compete with foreigners; but if they cannot compete with foreigners, ourexport trade is diminished, and the prosperity of our manufac turing population is undermined; and if their prosperity is undermined, they will consume fewer provisions; the demand for agricultural produce in the manufacturing counties will be restricted; the surplus produce will remain in the hands of the farmer, and the ultimate result will be a fall of rents, occasioned, be it remembered, by an attempt to raise them. Let this sink deep into your minds.-Lord Milton.

an injudicious law or regulation repealed, Dr. Chalmers would say that the benefit thence resulting must be immaterial; inasmuch as population will forthwith expand to the increased limits of subsistence. Were this true, it would afford

ON DR. CHALMERS' LATE WORK. THOUGH apparently desultory, one leading idea pervades Dr. Chalmers' work. He lays it broadly down in the first chapter, that all the miseries that afflict the labouring classes are the result of their own errors and misconduct; a convenient excuse for every species of abuse. Fortunately, that "there is no possible help for them if they will not help themselves;" that "it is to a rise and reformation in the habits of our peasantry that we should look for deliverance, and not to the impotent crudities of a speculative legislation." Dr. Chalmers never for an instant loses sight of this principle. It is, in his estimation, the "one thing needful." With it all will be right; without it all will be wrong. Amendment, he contends, can come from no other

source.

The error of Dr. Chalmers has arisen from his laying too much stress on the principle of population, as explained by Mr. Malthus. Neither the repeal nor abolition of the most burdensome taxes or regulations, nor the discovery of new machines and processes for reducing the cost of production, can, in his estimation, be of any real service. They may enlarge the field over which population is spread; but it is impossible they should have any considerable or lasting influence over the people. Unless the principle of increase is controlled by the greater prudence of the poor, resulting from their better education, every thing that may be done for them will be as dust in the balance, or will injure rather than improve their situation. "The additional food that may have been created, will be more than overborne in the tide of an increasing population. The only difference will be a greater instead of a smaller number of wretched families a heavier amount of distress, with less of unbroken ground in reserve for any future enlargements-a society in every way as straitened as before; in short, a condition of augmented hardship and diminished hope, with all the burden of an expensive and unprofitable scheme to the bargain."-P. 39.

It is obvious, however, that these results can take place only on the supposition that the population is instantaneously, or at least very speedily, adjusted according to variations in the supply of food and other accommodations. But this is very far, indeed, from being the case. It is always an exceedingly difficult matter to change the habits of a people as to marriage. That they are influenced by external circumstances, no one doubts; but there is a vis inertia to be overcome, that always prevents them from changing to the extent that circumstances change. Suppose that, in consequence of legislative enactments, or of any other cause, wages in Great Britain were generally doubled, nobody believes that this would double the marriages next year; and though it did, the population could not be doubled for very many years; and a period of eighteen or twenty years would have to elapse before the stimulus given by the rise of wages could bring a single labourer into the field. It is clear, therefore, that, during all this lengthened period, the labourers would enjoy an increased command over the necessaries and conveniences of life; their notions as to what was required for their comfortable and decent support, would consequently be raised, and they would acquire those improved tastes and habits that are not the hasty product of a day, a month, or a year, but the late result of a long series of continuous impressions. Did the supply of labour adjust itself, like the supply of most commodities, proportionally to every variation of demand, these results would not follow, and Dr. Chalmers would be right in ridiculing all expectations of "extrinsic assistance." But every one knows that the very reverse is the case that the population cannot be speedily increased when wages rise; and that time is afforded for the formation of those improved habits that are of such essential importance.

Without undervaluing education, we at the same time

contend that extrinsic circumstances have a material and

lasting influence over the condition of society; that though "the crudities of speculative legislation" may not raise the "standard of enjoyment," it may be raised by judicious legislative enactments; and that, however well a people may be instructed, their condition is always powerfully influenced by the conduct of their rulers. Were an oppressive tax, or

however, we do not labour under any such incurable fatality. We are acted upon as well by external circumstances, as by the monitor within. Were a repeal of the corn laws, the introduction of an improved system of cropping, or of some new and more powerful manure, to occasion a fall of twenty or thirty per cent in the price of bread, we doubt very much whether the ratio at which population is at present increasing would be sensibly affected. But supposing it were, half a century at least must elapse before wages could be proportionably reduced through such an increase; and the population being accustomed, during all this interval, to an increased command over the necessaries and enjoyments of human life, would have their "standard of sufficiency" raised, and "would utterly refuse to multiply upon their former diet." Let us not, therefore, attempt to make the theory of population a scape goat for the errors of blundering legislators. It is not so mechanical a principle as Dr. Chalmers would seem to suppose. It is influenced, no doubt, by a "moral and Christian education;" but it is also powerfully influenced by good laws and wise govern. ment.-Edinburgh Review.

THE DECAY OF GENUINE PSALMODY. THE gradual disuse in the parochial service of those venerable tunes by Purcell, Croft, Jeremiah Clarke, Isaac Smith, Ravenscroft, &c. from which the music of the Church of England, and chiefly, the style of the genuine psalm tune, derives its character, is a source of regret to many judicious organists. In a few of the chapels about the Inns of Court, the old purity of melody and harmony is still preserved; but in parish churches, where music is exposed to the influence of vulgar tastes, and the organist only holds his place by the tenure of pleasing the majority, there are commonly adopted tunes of the basest and meanest description, which no art of the harmonizer can render tolerable. These tunes have an original taint of vulgarity in the intervals and in the motion of the melody, which no ingenuity can cover, and thus the impressive solemnity which once distinguished the music of the Established Church no longer exists; and the vocal branch of the service is merged into one "base, common, and popular style.” The passion in congregations for singing thirds, or some thing different from the air of the psalm, is one main cause of the banishment of the old tunes, which, independently of their grave character, do not readily admit of having thirds placed beneath the melody. This conceit of making harmony extempore, each man and woman his and her own part, has reached such a pitch, that it is impossible to be placed in the midst of a church where every one sings, without receiving the most distressing sensations. Notes the most horribly false reach the ear on all sides, and not only when one of the ancient discarded melodies happens to embarrass the congregation, but even in their new especial favourites, whenever the sequence of thirds is interrupted. The organist himself cannot escape, and he is frequently obliged to play more commonplace harmonies than the tune would otherwise suggest, to avoid the clash which a certain chord would make with the sounds emitted by the congregation. His own taste, by perpetually accommodating itself to the ignorance of others, as the least of two evils, be comes insensibly lowered; and a situation which might afford real pleasure in the discharge of its duties, were the music of the church what it ought to be, is at length associated only with feelings of pain and degradation. Bad voices become neutralized by numbers, and their effect is covered by the organ; but wrong notes nothing can disguise or render palatable. The evil has arisen from the spread of a superficial knowledge of music, an assumption of superiority to the organist, and a desire to be pleased rather than im proved; and that our statement is not chimerical, attendance at many of our churches will convince the competent

hearer.

wives."

"For

The old psalm tunes bequeathed to us by our forefathers the women." "How shall we go home," he has heard them are so strictly in keeping with the spirit of the church ser- exclaim, "and see our children dying of hunger;-they have vice, and even with the architecture of the buildings, that had no food for these two days, and we have nothing to give for their purpose they are unequalled. We are never bet-them." There was many "a black and pale face in Scotland;" ter acquainted with their value as compositions, than when and many of the labouring poor, ashamed to beg, and too honest to steal, shut themselves up in their comfortless houses, and modern attempts in the same way are brought before us, would sit with their eyes fixed on the floor till their very sight and which stand in about the same relation to the arche- failed them. The savings of the careful and industrious were types of the style, as a new prayer to the collects, or a new soon dissipated, and many who were in easy circumstances church to one of Sir Christopher Wren's. The beauty of the when the scarcity came on, were sunk in abject poverty ere it church service consists in its order and regularity, and free- had passed away. Human nature is a sad thing when subjected dom from innovation. There is no thought of altering the to the test of circumstances so trying. As the famine increased, appointed course of morning and evening prayer through- people came to be so wrapped up in their own sufferings that out the year, or the fashion of the steeple, or the chiming "wives thought not of their husbands, nor husbands of their of the bells; why should the music of the church (not one of its least important parts) be exposed to change, and made pleasing to the vulgar ear, and conformable to the vulgar taste, rather than to exalt and purify the minds of the congregation? To please (especially bad judges) is, we imagine, not the first object of psalmody. But on this matter every one appears to have a voice, but the man whose decision upon the fit and unfit should be imperative-the organist. The clergyman interferes not, still less the bishop, to protect this officer of the church in the stern and unflinching discharge of his duty; and rather than be at feud with the parish, or expose himself to the numberless ill-offices of spies, he at length reluctantly gives up his own inclination. Hence the departure from the severe simplicity of the old psalm tune, from solemn chords and rich changes of harmony, for the present insipid style of church music; and instead of variety, monotony the most wearisome is the consequence; for nothing is more tedious and samely thau the constant march of thirds. But the old tunes, sung alternately by trebles and tenors in unison, and left free for the organist to accompany with such harmonies as his fancy and feeling might suggest, would be productive of the most gratifying variety and the noblest effects. This is one of the most delightful ways in which the organ and voices can be employed, and one by which many verses of the same psalm may be rendered interesting and various. It imposes no restraint upon the accompanyist-it leads to no wrong notes, for the progression is plain and easy. Each of the performers in a London congregation is so engrossed by his own voice that he does not hear his neighbour-this is the reason that the confusion gives him no offence.—Atlas.

YEARS OF PESTILENCE AND FAMINE IN
SCOTLAND.

ONE night, in the month of August 1694, a cold east wind, accompanied by a dense sulphurous fog, passed over the country, and the half-filled corn was struck with mildew; it shrunk and whitened in the sun, till the field seemed as if sprinkled with flour; and where the fog had remained longest (for, in some places, it stood up like a chain of hills during the greater part of the night) the more disastrous were its effects. From this unfortunate year until the year 1701 the land seemed as if struck with barrenness; and such was the change in the climate, that the seasons of summer and winter were cold and gloomy in nearly the same degree. The wonted heat of the sun was withholden; the very cattle became stunted and meagre, the moors and thickets were nearly divested of their feathered inhabitants, and scarcely a fly or any other insect was to be seen even in the beginning of autumn. November and December, and, in some places, January and February, became the months of harvest, and labouring people contracted diseases which terminated in death when employed in catting down the corn among ice and snow. Of the scanty produce of the fields much was left to rot on the ground, and much of what was carried home proved unfit for the sustenance of either man or beast. There is a tradition, that a farmer of Cromarty employed his children, during the whole winter of 1694, in picking out the sounder grains of corn from a blasted heap, the sole product of his farm, to serve for seed in the ensuing spring.

In the meantime the country began to groan under famine. The little portions of meal which were brought to market were invariably disposed of, and at an exorbitant price, before half the people were supplied; and then, says Walker, there would ensue "a screaming and clapping of hands among

David Dean's friend, Peter Walker, the pedlar, quoted in our lath number, in the article on the Infectious Nature of Superstition.

broke out in November, 1694, when many of the people were
The pestilence which accompanied the terrible visitation,
seized by "strange fevers and sore fluxes of a most infectious
nature," which defied the utmost power of medicine.
the oldest physician," says Walker, "had never seen the like
before, and could make no help.' In the parish of West
Calder, out of nine hundred “examinable persons," three hun-
dred were swept away; and in Liviston, in a village called the
Craigs, inhabited by only six or eight families, there were thirty
corpses in the space of a few days. In the parish of Resolis,
whole villages were depopulated, and the foundations of the
houses, for they were never inhabited afterwards, can still be
pointed out by old men of the place. So violent were the effects
of the disease that people who in the evening were in apparent
health, would be found lying dead in their houses next morning,
"the head resting on the hand, and the face and arms not un-
frequently gnawed by the rats.' The living were wearied with
burying the dead; bodies were drawn on sledges to the place of
interment, and many got neither coffin nor winding sheet. "I
was one of four," says the Pedlar, "who carried the corpse of
a young woman a mile of way; and when we came to the
grave, an honest poor man came and said, you must go and
help me to bury my son; he has lain dead these two days.
We went, and had two miles to carry the corpse; many neigh
bours looking on us, but none coming to assist. I was credi-
tably informed," he continues, "that in the north, two sisters
on a Monday morning were found carrying their brother on a
barrow with bearing ropes, resting themselves many times, and
none offering to help them." There is a tradition that in one
of the villages of Resolis, the sole survivor was an idiot, and
that his mother was the last person who died in it of the disease.
He waited beside the corpse for several days, and then taking
and left it standing upright beside a garden wall. Such were
it up on his shoulders, he carried it to a neighbouring village,
the sufferings of the people of Scotland in the seventeenth cen-
tury, and such the phenomena of character which these suffer-
ings elicited. We ourselves have seen nearly the same process
repeated in the nineteenth, and so invariably fixed are the prin-
ciples of human nature, and the succession in even the moral
world, of cause and effect, that the results have been nearly

the same.

CO-OPERATIVE MELODIES.

THE BREAST'S BRIGHTEST GEM.

AIR." Hurrah for the Bonnets of Blue."

MRS. GRIMSTONE.

M.

HERE'S Wealth for the merchant in mines,
There's wealth for the student in tomes,
And there's wealth for the Bacchant in wassail and wines
When in riot and revel he roams:

But the wealth of all wealth is a heart

By no narrow feeling confin'd,

That looks round the world with a wish to impart
Its glowings, to gladden mankind.
Then hurrah for the breast's brightest gem,
That kindles at sympathy's call;

Here's the love and the blessing of all unto them
Whose hearts hold a blessing for all!
There's pride in the pomp of a throne-
There's pride in the patriot band-

When they stand in the breach unsustained and alone,
And strike for their loves and their land:
But there's pride that is purer than this,
That runs like a rill in the soul,
'Tis a holier pride, for it aims at the bliss,

Not of one spot of earth, but the whole.
Then hurrah for the breast's brightest gem,
That kindles at sympathy's call;

Here's the love and the blessing of all unto them
Whose hearts hold a essing for all!

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