respective homes;-and their thriving condition shows the benefit of

their excursion.

In this month the annual arrival of the Herrings offers a most bountiful supply of food to the inhabitants of the eastern and western coasts of the island. Their arrival is an occasion of rejoicing;—and there is an old Scotch air, "Caller Herring," expressive of the joy and gratitude of the natives for this abundance of wholesome food. The manner in which these wonderful shoals arrive on our coasts is thus described in Aikin's "Natural History of the Year :"

"The great winter rendezvous of the herrings is within the arctic circle, where they continue many months to recruit themselves, after spawning in those unfathomed depths that swarm with insects upon which they feed. This innumerable army begins to put itself in motion in the Spring, in order to deposit its spawn in the warmer latitudes. Its forerunners appear off the Shetland Islands in April and May, but the grand shoal does not appear till June: it is attended by gannets and other sea-birds, in prodigious multitudes, and vast numbers of dog-fish and porpoises, all of which are supported without sensibly diminishing a host in which millions more or less are of no account. The breadth and depth of the main body is such as to alter the appearance of the very ocean; it is divided into distinct columns of five or six miles in length, and three or four in breadth, driving the water before them with a very perceptible rippling; sometimes they sink for the space of ten or fifteen minutes, then rise again to the surface, and in bright weather exhibit a resplendency of colours like a field of gems.

The first check that this army experiences in its march southwards is from the Shetland Isles, which divide it into two parts; the eastern wing passes on towards Yarmouth, the great and ancient mart for herrings, filling every bay and creek with its numbers: it then advances through the British Channel, and disappears. The western wing, after offering itself to the great fishing stations in the Hebrides, proceeds towards the north of Ireland, where it is obliged to make a second division: the one takes to the western side, and is scarcely perceived, being soon lost in the immensity of the Atlantic; but the other, passing into the Irish sea, feeds and rejoices the inhabitants of most of the coasts that border on it."

The migration of swallows continues during this month, and is. almost completed towards its close. The wonderful instinct which disposes these birds to congregate, and to remove to warmer latitudes, has been more the subject of admiration and wonder than of accurate and convincing inquiry. There are several opinions upon the manner in which this species passes the winter ;-some affirming that they are torpid either in the beds or on the banks of rivers ;-but the most reasonable conclusion, supported by observation, is, that they cross the seas to Africa.

The autumnal equinox, that is the period when the days and nights are equal all over the earth-happens on the 22d of this month. Heavy storms of wind and rain generally attend both the autumnal and the vernal equinox. 1

EDITOR-K.

THE STURDY ROCK.

THE sturdy Rock, for all his strength,
By raging seas is rent in twain;
The marble stone is pierc'd, at length,
With little drops of drizzling rain;
The ox doth yield unto the yoke,
The steel obeyeth the hammer stroke.

The stately stag, that seems so stout,
By yelping hounds at bay is set;
The swiftest bird that flies about,

At length is caught in fowler's net :
The greatest fish, in deepest brook,
Is soon deceived by subtle hook.
Yea, man himself, unto whose will
All things are bounden to obey,
For all his wit and worthy skill,

Doth fade at length, and fall away.
There is nothing but time doth waste;
The heav'ns, the earth, consume at last.

But Virtue sits triumphing still

Upon the throne of glorious fame;
Though spiteful death man's body kill,
Yet hurts he not his virtuous name.
By life or death whate'er betides,
The state of virtue never slides.

1

WOMAN!

BY THE REV. G. CRABBE.

["To a Woman I never addressed myself in the language of decency and friendship, without receiving a decent and friendly answer. If I was hungry or thirsty, wet or sick, they did not hesitate, like Men, to perform a generous action: in so free and kind a manner did they contribute to my relief, that if I was dry, I drank the sweetest draught; and if hungry, I ate the coarsest morsel with a double relish."-Mr. Ledyard, as quoted by M. Parke, in his Travels into Africk.]

VOL. I.

PLACE the white man on Africk's coast,
Whose swarthy sons in blood delight;
Who of their scorn to Europe boast,
And paint their very demons white.
There while the sterner sex disdains
To soothe the woes they cannot feel,
Woman will strive to heal his pains,
And weep for those she cannot heal:
Her's is warm pity's sacred glow;

From all her stores she bears a part,
And bids the spring of hope re-flow,
That languish'd in the fainting heart.

3 R

"What though so pale his haggard face,
So sunk and sad his looks," she cries;
"And far unlike our nobler race,

With crisped locks and rolling eyes;
Yet misery marks him of our kind,
We see him lost, alone, afraid;
And pangs of body, griefs in mind,
Pronounce
113 nce him man and ask our aid,

"Perhaps in some far-distant shore,
There are who in these forms delight;
Whose milky features please them more,
Than ours of jet thus burnish'd bright ;
Of such may be his weeping wife,

い

Such children for their sire may call;
And if we spare his ebbing life,

Our kindness may preserve them all."

Thus her compassion Woman shows,
Beneath the line her acts are these;
Nor the wide waste of Lapland-snows
Can her warm flow of pity freeze :-
"From some sad land the Stranger comes,
Where joys, like ours, are never found;
Let's soothe him in our happy homes,

Where freedom sits, with plenty crown'd.

epino? of it 'Tis good the fainting soul to cheer,
To see the famish'd stranger fed;
To milk for him the mother-deer,
To smooth for him the furry bed.
The Powers above, our Lapland bless,
With good no other people know;

395 13 til T' enlarge the joys that we possess,

By feeling those that we bestow!"

Bol 1606 Man may the sterner virtues know,
Determin'd justice, truth severe:
But female hearts with pity glow,
And Woman holds affliction dear;
For guiltless woes her sorrows flow,

And suffering vice compels her tear;
"Tis her's to soothe the ills below,

And bid life's fairer views appear:
To Woman's gentle kind we owe,
What comforts and delights us here;
They its gay hopes on youth bestow,

And care they soothe and age they cheer.

THE proceedings against the Queen were suspended on the 9th of September, on which day the House of Lords adjourned to Tuesday, the 3d of October, to allow the Counsel for her Majesty sufficient time to collect the witnesses for the defence.

It is greatly to be deplored that the decisions of individuals, upon this serious question, have not in the same manner been suspended. In a country where the purest spirit of justice displays itself in every judicial inquiry, and where the people have an universal confidence in the tribunals with whom the Constitution has vested the right to decide upon the innocence or the guilt of every accused person-it might have been expected that a Trial conducted with so much manifest impartiality-with such patience and discriminating investigation, as that of the Queen, would call upon every private person to confide most unreservedly in the final award. But, in the present case, the arts which have been used to stir up a temper of suspicion and discontent are beyond all previous example;-and the success of such endeavours has been unhappily correspondent with their activity. The cause is obvious. The Queen has unfortunately surrounded herself with advisers, who have for some time past been the leaders in every attempt to overturn the Constitution, and to establish some ideal system of government,-perhaps a Republic,-upon the ruins of our just, safe, and intelligible laws. Those who are desirous of change naturally join what is called the party of the Queen. It is the policy of this party, a policy which is manifested in the addresses and the answers which her Majesty receives and gives, to revile the Sovereign by every attack which malignity can suggest, and falsehood can render current;-to assail the established clergy as the slaves of ambition, or of a superstitious ignorance ;-to attack the House of Lords as the willing instruments of power;-and to proclaim the Representatives of the people as the creatures of selfishness, and the upholders of corruption. This is the clear and undoubted language of Revolution ;and it has become unquestionable that those who use this language have thrust forward the Queen as the mask of their designs ;-and that when their projects were ripe they would leave her to those miseries which they have prepared for all the Royal, and all the Noble, and all the Dignified, and all the Wealthy of the land.

Extensive and powerful (for the energy of wickedness invariably begets power) as is this revolutionary faction ;-there can be no doubt

that, in point of influence and numbers, they comprise but a small portion of the people. It would therefore become a matter of surprise that so many persons have joined their ranks, upon this question, who, upon ordinary occasions, would loath their principles and tremble at their designs. There is imprudence and blindness in such conduct. It is that imprudence, which, in a fever of passion and prejudice, rushes out of its own safe and long-tried path, to enter upon a career in which it recognizes no land-marks, and discovers no termination. The cause of the Queen, in the manner in which it has been treated by half the newspapers of the country, is calculated to arouse, in those who will not look beyond the surface, many of the generous feelings of human nature;—her sex, her dignity, her early history, all are so many stimulants to enthusiasm. When it is proclaimed aloud that the witnesses against her Majesty are perjured, and that the whole proceeding is the result of a conspiracy, those who will not think and judge for themselves must almost of necessity be seduced into the snare, The whole kingdom becomes then in a ferment. Men who have property to lose forget what they endanger in joining the cry of those whose first object is the destruction of all property;-those who have reputation to support forget what is due to the calmness, the prudence, and the justice of the English character, in an enthusiasm which allows no leisure for reflection;-those who have families to bring up forget the license they offer to female impropriety, in offering adulation to a lady who is accused of the most debasing criminalities, upon the oaths of twenty-six witnesses. There must come a day when England will be ashamed of its present headstrong and ignorant zeal. May the day be long averted, when the effects of this zeal will be something more deplorable even than national shame! May the bulwarks of our Constitution stand against this flood of violence and licentiousness.

Before our next publication, we pray that this painful investigation may be concluded;-and that the people may be allowed to form an opinion without incurring the guilt of their present disposition to decide with prejudice and partiality. Let every one hope that the Queen may be found innocent :-but let no one proclaim that her innocence is already established. He who does this forgets that there is an English government to be upheld, and English morals to be preserved.

EDITOR-K.