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ward and most significant tone), "that the clergyman in question discovers of late a decided leaning to the principles of Puseyism."

which, in its character of suspicion, is as mischievous as certainty.

Or, if hints of this nature be conscientiously withheld, there are nods and shrugs, Peter Still, the sly dog, conceives himself expressive looks, and explanatory gestures; to be far from destitute of a defence, should and when the true guess is at last made, these charges of betrayal of trust be ever there comes, to crown every other consistcast in his teeth. His answer to the accu-ency, a positive refusal to afford the least sation of publishing secrets will doubtless be, that he never promised concealment ; and it is very true-he never did.

further clew!-a virtuous and fixed determination not to say whether the guess be right or wrong!-which is all that the successful discoverer requires.

No; when you desire him to understand that you speak with him in confidence, he It is amongst this class, the largest and makes no comment; he utters no assurance most frequently encountered, that dangers of secrecy; but he just throws out his hand are most thickly sown. Promises of se loosely, and with the back of it taps your crecy, though well-intentioned and firm, elbow, or, perhaps, with a superior smile, here travel over pitfalls, and the most faithgives you one or two light pats between ful are swallowed up when entirely confithe shoulders. The effect is electrical; dent in their own integrity. People who the action has the air of an oath registered are selfish in every thing besides, are unselfin heaven, and you feel what a comforting ish in secrets, and cannot bear to keep thin it is to deal with a man who never speaks but when words are wanted.

There is an old saying, undeniably true, that if three people are to keep a secret, two of them should never know it. One of these two should be Peter Still, that respectable moralist, who holds curiosity in contempt and keeps such a guard upon his tongue. The other must belong to the class represented by our loquacious acquaintance-a class that might take warning by the hero of Wordsworth's ballad, "Harry Blake," whose teeth are chattering to this hour

Chatter, chatter, chatter still.

them to themselves. They are seized with a desire to please persons whom they do not like and have no faith in, and to commit a grievous offence against others whom they do like and who have faith in them.

If they do not at once yield up the whole treasure they were to guard, they divest themselves piecemeal of the care of it. To keep it sacredly and entire, is to sink under an overwhelming sensation, a crushing consciousness. No matter how trivial the thing is, it becomes weighty if commit. ted exclusively to their keeping; and the very same fact which mentioned openly and carelessly would be utterly insignifi cant in their estimation, swells in its charBut the danger of being betrayed-betray-acter of a secret, into "a burden more ed perhaps in some tender point of confi- than they can bear." dence, and that without the smallest atom of malignity, or even unkindness-does not exist only in these two directions. There are myriads of good, trustworthy people, who never in all their lives revealed in so many words a secret confided to themnor indeed ever employed words at all in telling it and yet it is as good as told. This is the middle compound class of betrayers, the great bulk of society; who, although they would all die rather than openly disclose what they have faithfully promised to conceal, will nevertheless frankly tell you that there is a secret, and that they happen to know it.

Then perhaps, on another occasion, when a little off their guard, they will hazard an allusion to a place, or a person, or a dateor to some circumstance on which the speculative listener is able to establish a tolerably fair guess at the concealed fact, or at the very least to build up a theory

Every little secret is thus of some consequence; while the really important one acquires, under this state of feeling, such an insupportable weight and magnitude as not to admit of being safely kept by less than twenty persons at the least.

Where so very few can keep a secret quite close, however honorably engaged to do so, and where the tendency to whisper in half words, even when the interests of confiding friends are concerned, so fatally prevails, it is strange that the trumpeters of their own merits never hit upon the expediency of conveying their self-praises in the wide and sure vehicle of a secret.

Trust a bit of scandal to a whisper, and how fast and far it flies-because it is whispered. Might not the good deeds, for which so very few can obtain the desired credit, become equally celebrated-might not the fame of them be so wide-spread, if instead of making no secret of them, we in

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trusted them to the ever-circulating medi- [the very act a verbal confession of its own um of secrecy! unutterable falsehood. The secret so bePeople fall into the capital mistake of trayed should be published as a lie. publishing to all the world their private. Let it moreover be some consolation to virtues, their benevolence, disinterested- think that there are more people incapable ness, and temperance; but what if they of a breach of confidence, than those were to keep the reputation of these noble who, like the prince of praters, Charles qualities in the background, and just per- Glib, never had a secret intrusted to mit a friend to whisper the existence of them in their lives. One of them I met them as a great secret, respecting which this morning-it was a friend to whom, of every lip was to be henceforth sealed! all others, every man would feel safe in Universal circulation must ensue. confiding his private griefs, the dearest secrets of his soul.

Let it be once stated, in strict confidence, that you stripped off your great-coat on a winter night, and wrapped it round a shivering, homeless wanderer, and the town will soon ring with your deeds of philanthropy-but the little incident must always be related as a profound secret, or its progress towards the popular ear will be slow. Such is the natural tendency of a secret to get into general circulation, and to secure the privilege of continual disclosure, that it will even carry the heavy virtues with it, and obtain popularity for desert. The gallery of the moral graces is a whispering gallery.

"After the stab I have just received," cried I, encountering my friend, "in a base betrayal of confidence, how pleasant to fix my trusting eyes once more upon such a face as yours-the face which is the mirror of your mind, but without revealing any one thing that requires to be concealed in its close and friendly recesses. It is now fifteen years since I intrusted to your sympathizing bosom that dreadful and most secret story of my quarrel in Malta, and of my sudden flight-of the monstrous but reiterated charge of murder that dogged my steps, through so many cities of Europe, and cast upon my onward path a shadow-"

"Eh! what!

The title of the old comedy written by a woman makes it a wonder that a woman should keep a secret; the real wonder is, that man should ever have had the desperate "Yes," said I, in continuation, with a assurance to assume a superiority, to claim fervent, a most exalted sense of the steady a more consistent fidelity, in such engage- affection which had kept my youthful sements. The sexes are doubtless well-cret unwhispered, undreamed of by the matched, and the ready tongue finds a ready ear.

How many of those who stand, and will ever stand most firmly and strongly by our side in the hard battle of life, are weak in this delicate respect! How much of the divine love that redeems our clay from utter grossness, the hallowed affection that knits together the threads of two lives in one, is sullied and debased by this mortal frailty-the propensity to whisper when the heart prompts silence-to breathe, by the mere force of habit, into an indifferent or a curious ear, some inklings of the secret which the hushed soul should have held sacred and incommunicable for ever.

most curious, the most insidious scrutineer —with an idolatrous admiration of the constancy and the delicacy of the fine mind and the warm heart on which I had so wisely relied "yes," I exclaimed, "fifteen or sixteen years have elapsed since I committed to your holy keeping the ghastly secret, and not even in your sleep have you allowed a single syllable of the awful nar. rative to escape you! Who, after this, shall so far belie his fellow, as to say that a secret is never so safe as in one's own bosom."

"What you say, my dear fellow," returned this faithful possessor of my confidence, "is quite right: but I don't exactly know what you are talking about; for upon my soul, to tell you the truth, I had entirely forgotten the whole affair, having never bestowed a thought upon it from that day to this!"

Let us, however, do justice to the just, and wish they were not the minority in the matter of keeping secrets. Let us even spare the weakness that errs through accidental temptation, so long as it does not degenerate into the vice that wilfully betrays. Let us remember how the crime of ORDER OF THE BATH-Her Majesty has appointtreachery carries with it its own punish-ed his Royal Highness Prince Albert to be the First ment; and how the abject thing that de- and Principal Knight Grand Cross, and also Acting liberately reveals what was confided to Bath, in the room of his late Royal Highness the it in reliance upon its honor, makes in Duke of Sussex.-Britannia.

Great Master of the Most Honorable Order of the

THE LATE DISCOVERY.

From the Athenæum.

SHE stood where hills were high and green,

Where flowers were sweet and wild, Where ne'er before her steps had been,

The city's toiling child;

But even the glorious spring that shed
Its sunshine o'er her now,

Could ne'er restore the spring time fled
From that young heart and brow.

She saw the happy hamlet homes,

In valleys fair and free;

And heard, among the meadow blooms,
The voice of childhood's glee;
But from those early shaded eyes
The tears were falling fast,

As thus, amid her dying days,
The blighted spoke at last:

"Ah! had the earth such glorious things Beneath so blue a sky,

While all my cheerless, hopeless springs
In darkness glided by ?

Did all these lovely scenes expand,
These happy hearts exist,

And yet, amid the pleasant land,
How was my portion mist

For I have seen the palace hall
In distant splendor gleam,
And heard the midnight festival
Awake my weary dream;

And all that wealth from farthest shore
Or distant wave could bring,
Mine eyes have seen, but ne'er before
Beheld the blessed spring.

Though oft such visions long ago
My lonely dreams have cross'd,
Yet never knew my soul. till now,
The all that it had lost.

Oh, lovely vales! oh, glorious skies!
Oh, flowers of balmy breath!
How will ye gladden other eyes
When mine are sealed in death.

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THE CHINESE PRESENTS.-During the past week, these curious gifts from his Imperial Majesty have been unpacked at Buckingham Palace. The tent is of very large dimensions; the color, borders and ornaments beautiful. The bed is an extraordinary specimen of elaborate workmanship. The four posts are of gold, the entire surface being embellished with a continuous pattern, of remarkable richness. The hangings and furniture are of a oright green color, variously adorned at the corners and borders. A large carpet, the design of which corresponds with the draperies of the Sate bed, is also among the number of presents.

Court Jour.

MISCELLANY.

THE SLAVE TRADE.-Lord Brougham, in the British House of Lords, on Tuesday April 11th, rose pursuant to notice given on the previous day, to lay on the table a bill for the better prevention of the slave trade. He had enjoyed the aid, in framing the measure, of various noble and learned persons, and they had found, as, indeed, they had expected, the difficulties to be encountered very great. He had had the assistance of his noble, friend the President of the Board of Trade, now, unfortunately, not in his place from ill-health, together with that of his learned friend Dr. Lushington, and that of his gallant friend Captain Den. man, and also the invaluable assistance of Mr. Bell, the barrister, who had studied the slave trade law more, he believed, than any man who had not, like Dr. Lushington and himself, been occupied in framing it. He should shortly state an outline of his measure. There were three main objects in his view. The first was the prevention of that slave trade which had hitherto prevailed to a considerable extent, but about which there were legal doubts, and the highest authorities were divided. The question was whether a British subject residing abroad, not within the bounds of a British settlement, buying slaves in a foreign island or place, and carrying them in a boat to his plantation, was guilty of felony or not. The question was not setiled in Westminster Hall, he must say somewhat to his surprise, and, therefore, some enactment was wanted to put an end to all doubt upon the point.— It was necessary that the doubt should be set at rest by a declaratory act. It was quite clear that Parliament meant to prohibit this, that a man should be able to go to Cuba to buy slaves, and carry back the slaves to his plantation; that should be prohibited, and, as the present law was not held sufficient to accomplish that end, it was necessary to declare what the law was to be in future. The first object of the act was to declare that this system should not be tolerated, and to abolish it altogether. The next object was to legislate respecting persons holding foreign slave plantations; for as foreign slave plantations could not be cultivated without slaves, and as such an estate might come to him by inheritance, devise, marriage settlement, or gift, and unless he did some act he ought not to be considered as an owner of slaves, as it was intended to excuse all those who, without any act of their own had come into the possession of slaves. The next object of the bill was to prevent joint-stock companies established for carrying on projects abroad from buying and selling slaves. Many of the partners in those companies in this country, not knowing about the matter, knowing only that they were buying a certain quantity of scrip, had, in fact, been employing slaves. Another object was, if possible to strike at the traffic on the coast of Africa, and this was to be done in two ways: the first was by establishing a better mode of trial, and an easier trial, of slave trading practices by British subjects. The next object which he wished to effect by this measure was to increase the facilities for obtaining evidence, to be used in this country, or in any places abroad where legal proceedings with reference to the slave trade might be adopted. He proposed to adopt the practice which was introduced by the East India Judicature Act, which enabled a party prosecuting to obtain a mandamus from the Court of Queen's Bench, and so to put in motion the judicatures of the colonies, and to procure through them, under certain regulations, evidence which might be received by the legal tribunals in this country, and in other places. Another, and indeed the great object of this bill, was to endeavor to prevent practices in this country, which, if not amounting to actual

trading in slaves, at least tended to the encouragement and promotion of the traffic on the coast of Africa. In order to do this, he proposed to vest in her Majesty in Council the power of making certain orders for the purpose of placing persons engaged in the African trade under similar obligations, superintendence, and restrictions, to those which he had proposed to apply to joint stock companies engaged in mining, and to other slave trading companies. The bill contained other provisions, into which it was unnecessary for him to enter at present; for his only object now was to give a general outline of the measure, in order to facilitate its consideration by their lordships during the recess.He would move the first reading of the bill to-night, and the second reading would not, of course, take place until after the recess. He begged to move, that this bill be now read a first time."-United Service Gazette.

Much interest was yesterday (Sunday) excited throughout the city in consequence of the announcement that those ministers of the city churches who have adhered to the new secession would no longer preach in their own pulpits, and had provided themselves with separate places of worship. It was originally understood that they were to continue their ministrations till the first Sunday in June, when they would finally and formally demit their charges; but the steps taken by the General Assembly for declaring the churches vacant, and providing for their supply, rendered this course no longer practicable. Accordingly seven of the city churches were yesterday vacated by their former ministers, and others provided in their stead. St. George was occupied by Professor Gray; the Tron by Professor Hill; St. Enoch's by Dr. Graham, of Killearn; St. Paul's by the Rev. Mr. Beveridge of Inveresk; St. David's by Dr. Macnaughten of Arran; St. John's by the Rev. Mr. Fisher of Rosebank; and St. AnTHE SCOTCH CHURCH.-The General Assembly drew's by the Rev. Mr. Smith of Cathcart. The and the Free Assembly have both adjourned: the attendance in each of these churches was much former until May, 1844; the latter until October thinner than usual; and we are not aware that any next. After the passing of the resolutions on either public intimation was made in any of them in reside for legally completing the separation of the se-ference to the disruption that had taken place. The ceding body, the Assemblies were principally occu- seceding clergymen were variously distributed pied with routine business. The total number of throughout the city. Dr. Brown (St. John's) preachseceders is 430, of whom 399 have signed the pro- ed in the City-hall in the forenoon, and Dr. Buchantest. This is something less than a third of the nan (Tron) in the afternoon and evening. Dr. entire Presbyterian ministry. The Marquis of Henderson (St. Enoch's) officiated, forenoon and Breadalbane has joined the Free Assembly, and it is afternoon, in the New Corn-exchange, Hope-street. rumored intends to contribute£10,000 to their funds. Dr. Paterson. (St. Andrew's) occupied the Black On adjourning the General Assembly, on Mon- Bull Hall; Dr. Forbes (St. Paul's) the Methodist day last, the Moderator, in his short address, said :Chapel, Cannon street; Dr. Smyth (St. George's) 66 I congratulate you upon the measures which occupied Willis's Church, Renfield-street; and Mr. you have taken to sustain the admirable schemes of Lorimer (St. David's) preached in the Assemblyyour church, and to provide for the efficient supply rooms. Such of these temporary places of worship of those charges which have been vacated by your as required alteration were comfortably fitted up for seceding brethren; and I shall humbly pray with the occasion with pulpits and forms, and all of them you that the spirit of your Great Master, the God of crowded to overflowing with respectable audiences. peace and love, may guide and strengthen you." In the City-hall especially the crowd was immense. Upwards of 4 000 persons must have been present at each diet of worship, and hundreds withdrew unable to obtain admittance.-Britannia.

-

Dr. Chalmers, the Moderator of the seceding body, in closing the Assembly, spoke at great length. He adverted, among other things, to the position which they were to hold with reference to the Establishment, and spoke of its downfall as a probable THE CITY OF HAMBURGH has resolved to present result of their labors. That must not deter them to the Sovereigns, who assisted the inhabitants affrom going forward. If their principles were worth ter the conflagration of last year, letters of thanks, sacrificing their place in the Establishment for, they to be painted upon tablets of oak saved from the were worth the Establishment itself. They had no ancient city hall, and framed in bronze of the bells ill-will towards those who remained, and would of the churches that were destroyed. Each indihave no pleasure in seeing them lose their stipends; vidual who contributed to the relief is to be prebut, if the assertion of their principles caused them sented with a medal of the same material, and to leave their own livings, surely they would not those foreigners who on the spot assisted in checknow give up those principles, simply because it risk-ing the progress of the calamity are to be honored ed the loss of the livings of others. That would be with the freedom of the city.-Athenæum. to love their neighbors not as, but a great deal better than, themselves (Great laughter). The M. GAULTIER D'ARC.-On looking over the obitu. Rev. Doctor concluded his address with many ex-aries of the past week, our eye has been caught hortations to zeal, and a fervent recommendation to in the Paris Journal, by a name, having some prethem to abound in prayer. He then dissolved the tension to a record as of an oriental scholar, but Assembly in the name of Christ, and the proceed-principally remarkable as a great historic designaings were closed with prayer and praise about one o'clock on the morning of Tuesday last.

tion, which dies with the subject of this notice. M. Gaultier d'Arc was the last descendant from Pierre d'Arc, the brother of the great French heroine-had long been secretary, in Paris, to the School of Living Oriental Languages, and was re

The consequences of this remarkable movement yet remain to be developed. If, as is most improbable, both bodies should continue to exist, they can only do so in opposition to each other, and by a di-cently Consul-General in Egypt.-Ibid. vision in nearly every parish in Scotland. Dr. Chalmers, it will be seen, expects the dissolution of the Establishment, including much the larger portion of the Scottish clergy. The Establishment, on the contrary, looks for the gradual dispersion of the seceders, as the zeal and excitement created by their separation dies away. If numbers are to prevail, it would seem from the subjoined paragraph given by the Glasgow Herald, that the seceders will be the strongest party :

STATUE OF JOAN OF ARC.-The Statue of Joan of Arc, the fine work of the late Princess Marie of France, presented by her royal father to the Department of the Vosges, was inaugurated, on the 9th of the present month, in its new abode in the house at Domremy, where the heroine was born, amid an immense concourse of spectators collected from all points of the department.-Ibid.

SCIENCE AND ARTS.

solder from straining the surface; they are then soldered on by means of a hydro-oxygen blow-pipe. SILVER PLATING.-Plating on copper was first The article is next boiled in a solution of pearlash introduced in the year 1742, by Mr. T. Balsover, a or soda, and scoured with fine Calais sand; the member of the Corporation of Cutlers at Sheffield. mounts are polished by a lathe, as silver articles, It was not, however, until about forty years after- with rotten-stone and oil; then cleaned with whit wards that the ornamented parts of plated articles, ing, and finished with rouge. A scratch-brush of called mountings, were constructed of silver. This brass wire is used for deadening the parts required; great improvement caused the manufacture of plated and the plain surfaces are burnished with tools of wares to become one of the staple trades of Shef-blood-stone or steel-soap and water being used in field. The process of manufacturing plated articles this operation, which is performed by women.-Lit. may be described as follows:-an ingot of copper Gazette. being cast, and the surfaces carefully prepared by THE QUANTITY OF CARBONIC ACID GAS EXHALED filing so as to remove all blemishes, and a piece of IN RESPIRATION.-Messrs. Andral and Gavarret silver, also having one surface perfectly cleaned, draw the following conclusions from a series of exare tied together by means of iron wire. A mixture of borax in water is then passed round the edge with periments instituted by them, to discover the quantifurnace heated to a proper temperature, with a small haled in a given time, varies according to the age, a quill; the mass is then placed in a common air-y of carbonic acid gas exhaled from the lungs in man-1st. The quantity of carbonic acid gas, exaperture in the door for an inspection of this part of the process. As soon as the union of the two bodies sex, and constitution. 2d. In man, as well as in is effected, which is known by the loosing of the woman, the quantity is modified according to the metal when the fusion of the two metals has taken age, independently of the weight of the individuals place, the bar is removed from the furnace. The experimented on. 3d. At all the periods of life, bequality of the silver used in this process is what is tween the age of eight years and extreme old age, inen and women are distinguishd by the difference termed standard, containing about 18 dwts, of copper in the quantity of carbonic acid gas exhaled by their to the lb. troy. The ingot being thus prepared, the next operation is to form it into sheets, by passing lungs in a given time. All things being otherwise the bar several times through large cylindrical roll-equal, man always gives forth a much more considerable quantity than woman. This difference is ers, generally moved by steam-power; the lamination which the silver undergoes during the operation forty, at which periods man furnishes nearly twice especially marked between the ages of sixteen and of rolling shows the perfect unity of the two bodies. the quantity of carbonic acid gas from the lungs that From the sheet of metal the article required is a woman does. 4th. In man, the quantity of carmanufactured by hammering chiefly, but also by bonic acid gas is constantly increasing from the stamping when the shape is very irregular; the ar- eighth year to the thirtieth, the increase becoming ticle, if hollow, being filled with pitch, the receding suddenly very great at the period of puberty; from parts are forced inwards, so that the projections re-the thirtieth year the exhalation of carbonic acid gas main of the thickness of the sheel before being begins to decrease, the diminution becoming more wrought, while the indentations are somewhat re-marked as age advances, so that at the extreme point duced in thickness. The dies consist of blocks of of life the exhalation of this gas may not be greater steel, on the face of which the pattern of the orna than it was at the tenth year. 5th. In woman, the ment is accurately drawn: the dies are moderately exhalation of this gas increases according to the heated in an open fire, and then placed upon a same laws as in man during infancy; but at the leathern sandbag. The die-sinker then proceeds period of puberty, at the same time that menstruato cut out the ornaments with hammer and chisel;tion appears, this exhalation, contrary to that which when sunk to the proper depth, the surface of the sinking is dressed off, and prepared for the ornaments to be stamped in. The stamp consists of a vertical frame of iron, the uprights of which are formed with grooves, in which the hammer or drop slides. The foundation of this machine consists of a square stone, and on its upper surface is fixed an iron anvil, to which the uprights are firmly attached; the hammer is raised by a rope passing over a pulley fixed in the head-piece of the frame; the die is placed on the anvil immediately under the hammer, and is kept in its proper position by screws. Juting of oil and clay is placed round the edge of the sink of the die, and melted lead is then poured into the cavity; when cool, the hammer is allowed to fall upon the lead, to which it firmly adheres by means ACCIDENTS ON RAILWAYS.-"On accidents and of a plate of iron roughed as a rasp, and which traffic upon the railways in Great Britain. in 1842," is called the lick-up. The silver used for the pur- by Mr. C. R. Weld. This paper consisted of an pose of the mountings is also of the standard quali-analysis of the various returns made to the railwayty, and is rolled to the required thickness: several department, at the Board of Trade. The most pieces of the requisite size are then placed between agreeable feature is the remarkable diminution in pieces of copper of the same substance, and put upon the number of accidents of a public nature as com the face of the die; the hammer is then raised, and pared with the returns of 1841. During 1841 the allowed to fall gently upon them This operation accidents of this description amounted to 29, with is continued for some time, gradually increasing 24 deaths, and 71 cases of injury; but during 1842 the fall of the hammer, and diminishing the num-the number of accidents of this description has been ber of pieces struck, until they are forced to the bottom of the die; it is necessary occasionally to anneal the mountings. The mounts, being struck as described, are now filled with solder consisting of tin and lead; and afterwards secured by wires to the article to be ornamented, the body being covered with a mixture of glue and whiting to prevent the

A

happens in man, is suddenly arrested in its increase, and remains stationary (nearly as the amount which function is duly performed; when it ceases, the exit exhaled was in infancy) as long as the menstrual halation of the gas from the lungs is increased in a remarkable manner, after which it decreases, as in man, in proportion as the woman advances towards halation of the gas for the time equals the quantity extreme old age. 6th. During pregnancy, the exgiven forth by woman in which menstruation has ceased. And, 7th. In both sexes, and at all ages, constitution is strong, and the muscular system well the quantity of the gas exhaled is greater when the developed.-Medical Times.

only 10, and the number of deaths of passengers while travelling by a train, and observing a proper degree of caution, was only 5, the number of cases of injury being only 14. These do not include the accidents that have happened to the servants of the company. A new clause in the act of parliament compels the railway-companies to give returns of all

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