fair creature" too pure for earthly stay"-to make one of that bright band of cherubim, which encompasses in glory and in joy the throne of the living God. But glorious as the change may be, it is a hard thing for the fond mother to part thus easily with her little one:

"Tis hard to lay her darling
Deep in the cold damp earth;
His empty crib to see,
His silent nursery

Once gladsome with his mirth.

To meet again in slumber
His small mouth's rosy kiss ;
Then waken'd with a start,
By her own throbbing heart,
His twining arms to miss.

To feel (half conscious why)
A dull, heart-sinking weight,
Till memory on her soul
Flashes the painful whole,-
That she is desolate !

And, then, to lie and weep,
And think the live-long night,
Feeding her own distress,
With accurate greediness,
Of every past delight :-

Of all his winning ways,
His pretty, playful smiles,
His joy, his ecstacy,
His tricks, his mimicry,
And all his little wiles.

Ah! these are recollections,

Round mothers' hearts that cling;

That mingle with the tears,

And smiles of after years,

With oft awakening !"

Yet, after all, how little does individual misery or misfortune, affect the great mass of mankind! "When I reflect," observes Pope in a letter to Addison, "What an inconsiderable atom every single man is, with respect to the whole creation, methinks it is a shame to be concerned at the removal of such a trivial animal as I

am.

The morning after my exit, the sun will shine as bright as ever, the flowers smell as sweet, the plants spring as green; the world will proceed in its old course; people will laugh as heartily, and marry as fast as they were used to do. The memory of man passeth away, as the remembrance of a guest that tarrieth but one day."

During my perigrinations about town, I have occasionally fallen in with a well-dressed, tall, thin, slim-figured young gentleman, who brought to my recollection some lines, entitled "The tall gentleman's apology," written some few years since by my much-esteemed friend, Henry Glassford Bell, Esq. As the lines themselves merit a niche in any publication, perhaps you will favor me by their insertion in yours, P. M.

Upbraid me not ;-I never swore eternal love to thee,
For thou art only five feet high, and I am six feet three ;
I wonder, dear, how you supposed that I could look so low,
There's many a one can tie a knot, who cannot fix a beau.
Besides, you must confess, my love, the bargain scarcely fair,
For never could we make a match, altho' we made a pair;
Marriage, I know, makes one of two; but here's the horrid bore,
My friends declare, if you are one, that I, at least am four.
'Tis true the moralists have said, that Love has got no eyes,
But why should all my sighs be heaved for one who has no size?
And on your wedding-day I'm sure, I'd leave you in the lurch,
For you never saw a steeple, dear, in the inside of a church.
'Tis usual for a wife to take her husband by the arm,
But pray excuse me should I hint a sort of fond alarm,
That when I offered you my arm, that happiness to beg
Your highest effort, dear, would be, to take me by the leg.
I do admit I wear a glass, because my sight's not good,
But were I always quizzing you, it might be counted rude;
And though I use a concave lens,-by all the gods! I hope
My wife will ne'er look up to me through a Herschel's telescope.
Then fare thee well, my gentle one! I ask no parting kiss,
I must not break my back to gain so exquisite a bliss;
Nor will I weep lest I should hurt so delicate a flower,-
The tears that fall from such a height would be a thunder-shower.
Farewell! and pray don't drown yourself, in a bason or a tub,
For that would be a sore disgrace, to all the Six-Feet Club;
But if you ever love again, love on a smaller plan,

For why extend to six feet three, a life that's but a span !

FILIAL CORRESPONDENCE,

No. I.

Van Diemen's Land, June 7, 1832.

My beloved Mother,

I proceed to redeem my promise of communicating in a series of letters the most interesting particulars of my passage, and if they may contribute

to beguile your venerable age of one solitary hour, my trouble in detailing them will prove to your far distant Henry, a source of inexpressible delight. It would be ridiculous to attempt describing the feelings with which I left you, and which oppressed me on my joining the vessel; no language can reveal them; and no one but a wanderer from his kindred and his country can conceive them! Trusting therefore, that you will believe they were not unworthy of the occasion, I shall at once begin my narrative.

J-

On Saturday, the 15th of January, I breakfasted and dined with Mr. and his family, after which, he took a tender farewell, and we proceeded to the steam boat, accompanied by my dear old friend his brother George, and that amiable man Doctor H- -, for whom we had called in the city; we all then started for Gravesend, which, after a pleasing passage, we reached about night-fall, and where we enjoyed a social evening, in company with my old fellow traveller Captain R- - On the following day, Henry T-and the Doctor accompanied us on board, and after quaffing a bumper of tolerable sherry to our safe arrival and the success of all our honorable undertakings, they returned, God bless them, each with "a brimfull eye" by the steam boat to London. On Monday we proceeded a short way down the river, when from some cause unknown to us "let go the anchor" was the pilot's cry, and we remained stationary until Tuesday, when we again proceeded a trifling distance amidst sleet and squalls, (not very acceptable, you may be sure,) and again anchored. Thus dropping down the majestic Thames by slow degrees through the day, and bringing up at night, we continued until Sunday afternoon, when we were abreast of Dover Castle, completely becalmed, (not a very enviable state so close to the Goodwin Sands, believe me). But towards evening a friendly breeze sprang up, which, in the course of two days and a night, wafted us completely out of sight of ever dear, once happy, and still, in many respects, glorious old England. With a fresh and favorable breeze we crossed the Bay of Biscay, and soon afterwards encountered a heavy squall, during which, we had the misfortune to lose our bowsprit. We soon afterwards made the fertile Island of Madeira, off which, we lay becalmed, much against our inclination, during the period of ten days. Continuing our course to the Canary Islands, which we passed with auspicious breezes and fine weather, we proceeded thence to Saint Jago's, which we reached in the extraordinary brief time of only four days! on Saturday the 19th of February, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and where we anchored in order that a leak might be stopped in our bow. Some boats immediately put off and soon were alongside with a welcome and very cheap supply of delicious oranges; they furnished, also, an abundance of remarkably fine large lemons, unshelled tamarinds, plantains, cocca nuts, bananas, pumpkins, fresh eggs, goat cheese, and maize or India corn bread. I need not inform you that the crews were, with but few exceptions, slaves, who had been taken from the coast of Africa, but truth obliges me to state that, from the gaiety of their manner, and the plumpness of their persons, their condition did not seem in any way to be so wretched as I previously had supposed it was. "Still," as Sterne says, "still slavery, thou art a bitter draught, and though thousands in all ages have been made to drink of thee, yet art thou not the less bitter on that account!" On Sunday I landed with Mr. J Captain K, and his lady, Captain Rand Mr. George T- (some of my fellow passengers), and paid a complimentary visit to the American Consul, he being locum tenens, or deputy for the British Envoy, then on leave of absence in London. Jonathan proved to be a shrewd fellow, but by no means burthened with gallantry, as he knew Mrs. K(a very delicate and amiable lady) must be, from the intense heat and fatigue, in pressing need of some refreshment, yet omitted to hand her from his sideboarda glass of wine,

oreven water. Oh! Jonathan, you know very little of good breeding I guess. -You surely never could have heard of Chesterfield.-You displayed the height of impropriety I calculate! On leaving this inhospitable fellow, we walked round the town of Port a Praio-a very filthy ill-built placeand the Portuguese inhabitants of which, appeared to be in far worse health and spirits than were their captives. But there is an intermediate race possessing some considerable claims to attention; this class, the juvenile members of it in particular, present features of much comeliness, and are apparently gifted with African hardihood in combination with the superior intelligence of that one of their parents, whose birth-place had been more congenial to the mind's expansion. After sufficiently tiring ourselves in a walk not exactly over a shaven grass plat or a level pavé, saluted at every turn with spectators of disgusting nudity, clothing still more offensive, and unutterably foetid exhalations from masses unpaintably obnoxious, nature hinted that eating and drinking were not at all times superfluous operations, and that the present time was one upon which they might be very usefully performed, provided the materials could be obtained :-We therefore exclaimed, "where shall we dine?" and were directed to the best house in the town (opposite the Consul's and the guard-house,) where we were civilly received by a very fat middle-aged and extremely languid woman of color, the widow of a former Russian Consul. Although, upon being asked for wine, she caused some good Madeira and a plate of fruit to be placed before us, she either could not, or, which is less likely, would not prepare a dinner for us. We therefore did what any other people in the same situation must have done; we did without that which could not be obtained, and after satisfying our good humoured hostess with 2s. per bottle for the amber tinted vinha we had enjoyed in her best parlour, we all shook hands with her, and returning to the landing place by the mountain pass, up which we had labored in the morning, reached our brig at sunset, as hungry as the lions which spared Daniel. But we were not to be prevented by so trifling a consideration as that of an empty stomach from repeating our visit to the shore, which we at first sight had been much interested in beholding, which, being studded here and there with huge masses of lava, bore incontestible evidence to a grandly awful volcano, and, within which, as we knew it to be highly productive of tropical luxuries, so we hoped to realize those exalted pleasures which arise from a contemplation in one view of vintage loveliness and steep-clad horror, the terrific cataract-the repose of verdure in some sweetly romantic glade-the eagle on his precipice-the wild dove in the lemon tree, and in fine, all that excite terror or awaken awe, with all the blandishments of nature's benevolence. day-light therefore, on the following morn, we returned to the land, and, after refreshing ourselves in the market-place with some oranges and bananas, we ordered a dinner at English Mary's Inn," the house of a black woman, so called, and during the time our fricassee of ducks was being prepared, we walked out in different directions to gain as much various information as possible; and I shall proceed to pen the result of all our observations and inquiries without particularizing each or any individual's share of them. The object of each was that of all, viz., as before stated, to require information, and I flatter myself that you will approve of it, as that knowledge which is gained by personal research, must be viewed by you as certainly superior to what can be obtained through the less pure and more questionable medium of travellers who never left their home! Commencing therefore with a sea view of the Island, imagine a rugged precipitous and indurated line of fire-burnt colored rock, with here and there a cluster of dwarf palm trees vegetating in clifts, which the sea birds have manured-imagine a wild and appalling surge dashing

At

with incessant foam and impetuosity upon the massive fragments of subterranean expulsion before alluded to, as standing giant like, and scowling on the strand-imagine that at the elevation of about one hundred and fifty feet, you see an irregular range of low, but somewhat neat and cheerful looking white and variously light colored cottages, with here and there a goat rambling on the heights, as if exulting in its perilous exaltation, and including two or three vessels riding at anchor; in the fore scene you have a distant picture, not grossly inaccurate, of St. Jago's as we beheld it. But a celebrated modern poet has with truth declared that, "'tis distance lends enchantment to the view;" so indeed we found!-for the buildings, which were seen from our vessel, but appeared what I have described them, were afterwards, when we landed and went near them, found to be hovels of the very meanest degree, more resembling the out-buildings of a poor farmer in England, than the habitations of civilized and civilizing men in the 19th century. There, however, were a few, say five or six, recently erected structures, (including our fat widow's and English Mary's, together with the barracks and the guard-house,) which as compared with the many, were at least respectable, and indeed the widow's residence had windows mirabile dictu! I assure you. As respects society there, you must not suppose there can be much of a very superior character, for ignorance must degrade every mass in which bigotry is paramount; but I found from a conversation with the American churl before mentioned, that within the last few years, several proscripts from Lisbon had been banished to the Island for political offences, and that in general, they were gentlemen of high attainments, liberal opinions, and polished deportment. Life however, in such a place, must to an educated man, be, at best, but bearable, unless indeed the ties of patriotism endear to him as a native, so sultry, so cheerless, so unwholesome a locality. For to sum up the prominent object of the public square, or most tolerable range of habitations in the place, there you may see innumerable jackasses, groups of slaves, Portuguese housewives feeding their pet goats with Indian corn, swine with backbones nearly as sharp as the celebrated Doctor Walcott's no less celebrated razors, black soldiers strutting like baby-boys just breeched; a natural and somewhat romantic rampart on the cliff upon which, (with embrazures delapidated as if really the climate rendered industry impossible,) are eight or nine old honeycombed cannons, that in the event of being discharged, would assuredly be more fatal to the gunners than to the object at which they might be levelled-wretchedly, half-clothed, and sickly natives, negro children in a state of nature, and a gen rally disgusting contrast to almost every thing visible in the best part of the very worst country town in even Ireland! But if you are tired of the metropolis, you will be pleased with the country, to which I shall in my next communication introduce you: a country, romantic and beautiful, and which, like the placid sea and warin sunbeam, after a scowling cloud and a peril-crested storm, will be more than naturally charming through

the contrast.

I know my dear parent, how superfluous it would be for my pen to trace any elaborate expression of the regard and truth with which I subscribe myself Your ever grateful Son,