the innumerable benefits resulting from which are felt by all from the highest to the lowest. Nor, towards the completion of each undertaking, should the labours of the men regularly engaged by a river company in aid of the operations of the Bankers, be disregarded-the ease with which they can almost immediately put down a chain pump when the water has checked the labours of the tool, and erect the required stage to bring it into work, as well as the ease also with which the pile-driving apparatus, with its "tup" and " monkey," is fixed and brought into effective operation.

Thus, the inference may be drawn, that the gang of Bankers form almost a distinct race of beings. Peculiar in their habits, as well as in their dress; peculiar in their mode of living, as well as in their phraseology; exhibiting, on the one hand, a marvellous display of physical strength, and, on the other, a spirit and resolution which seem to bid defiance to an accumulated load of labour and of suffering, the Bankers, with whatever discrepancies they may be charged, or however much they may, by some, be held up to public contempt; have their immense labours marked, in these times at least, by essential usefulness. They are the pioneers

of the army improvement. They are the avant couriers in the march of utility. They are the heralds of the cavalcade of public benefit. Each plunge of the spade, each heavy lift of the arm, each wheel-barrow of earth or clay, opens the road for the progress of those benefits and advantages which arise from the speedy transit of goods of every description-minerals, metals, manufactures, manure, and a long et cetera, which contribute to the promotion of the comfort, and add to the refinement of civilized life. And if the Banker, from the somewhat itinerant character of his calling, and the somewhat uncertain nature of his employment, is deprived of many of the comforts, and conveniences, and enjoyments of domestic life; if to him the blessings of a hearth, which he could call his own, are total strangers; if he cannot have thrown over the period of his existence those charms of home, however homely, those attractions, however simple and unostentatious, which belong to others of his own species-if he may be considered sunken in the scale of moral excellence, if his heart is debarred from the enjoyment of many blessings, in which others participate who possess little higher claims than himself, he is fully entitled to the

feeling of respect, on the ground of public utility alone, as well as by his exemplification of the capabilities of physical power, and physical endurance, and physical victory over difficulties, which mere machinery would never overcome, in which the power of science alone would, in the absence of other means and appliances, be found to fail, and the mastery of which diffuses beneficial results through all the shades, forms, and degrees of civilized existence -advantages not rendered of lesser moment by the want of due appreciation, nor of inferior consequence, because they are put out of general estimation by those, who, glancing over the surface of society, disregard the under-current because it is unseen, and the swell of the tide-wave of society, because it works by means which are not wholly apparent to the eye, however much in accordance with the ways and dispensations of a superintending Power, or with the progress of civilization and the march of improvement.

THE WOODMAN'S WIDOW.

Pinched are her looks, as one who pines for bread,
Whose cares are growing, and whose hopes are fled.
Pale her parched lips, her heavy eyes sunk low,
And tears unnoticed by their channels flow.

CRABBÉ.

THERE are too many persons living in the world more apt to fix their attention upon the summit of the pyramid, on which the sun always shines, than to mark the wretchedness or the corruption that dwells or festers around its base. Misery is the antipodes of splendour in more respects than one. In the great drama of existence, feelings, the reverse in their character, as well as in the mode of their operation, find out different scenes for the enactment of

their respective parts. Splendour, crowned with blooming wreaths and decked with gems and gold, sweeps past in all its gorgeous array,

drawing after it the gaze of wonder, the shout of applause, and the rebellious turbulence of popular approbation. Misery, clothed in rags, or wrapt in the tattered garments of want and beggary, avoiding the public gaze, slinks into obscure nooks and corners, the low-roofed hut, weather-beaten and dilapidated, or the roofless hovel, tempest-scowled and rainflooded.

Let us then go forth. The storm, which lately shook the heart with fear and wonder, is past and gone. The mighty army of clouds, mass upon mass, is hurrying away in the far distance; and the dread artillery of heaven is only faintly heard. The sky above is without a cloud; and the air is calm and serene, as the evening is stealing onwards with noiseless footsteps. The more level beams of the sun seem to shine with increased splendour, as they light up the harmonious scene. The woods, arrayed in all their thousand tints-an ocean of foliage -have rocked themselves to rest; and branch and leaf are hung with innumerable gems, sparkling in the evening's golden beam. Let us linger along the immemorial foot-path that skirts the margin of the wood which climbs the higher ground, sweeps through the adjacent