and was the runaway wife happier than she who once suffered unmerited illusage at home? Time will show. "At Brighton, my wheels rattled along the cliff's as briskly and as loudly as the noblest equipage there; but no female turned a glance of recognition towards my windows, and the eyes of former friends were studiously averted. I bore my lady through the streets, and I waited for her now and then at the door of the theatre; but at gates of respectability, at balls, and at assemblies, I, alas! was never called,' and never 'stopped the way.' Like a disabled soldier, I ceased to bear arms, and I was crest-fallen! "This could not last: my mistress could little brook contempt, especially when she felt it to be deserved; her cheek lost its bloom, her eye its lustre; and when her beauty became less brilliant, she no longer possessed the only attraction which had made the captain her lover He grew weary of her, soon took occasion to quarrel with her, and she was left without friends, without income, and without character. I was at length torn from her: it nearly broke my springs to part with her; but I was despatched to the bazaar in London, and saw no more of my lady. (To be continued.) FASHIONABLE NOVELS. IT is well that hard words break no bones, else two or three gentlemen of literary notoriety would be in a sorry plight after reading the following passage in a recent Magazine. We stand by, and like the fellow in the play, bite our thumb: "Surely, surely, all men, women, and children, not cursed with the fatuity that would become a vice-president of the Phrenological Society, must by this time be about heartsick of what are called Novels of Fashionable Life. Only two men of any pretensions to superio rity of talent have had part in the uproarious manufacture of this ware, that has been dinned in our ears by trumpet after trumpet, during the last six or seven years. Mr. Theodore Hook began the business-a man of such strong native sense and thorough knowledge of the world as it is, that we cannot doubt the coxcombry which has drawn so much derision on his sayings and doings was all, to use a phrase which he himself has brought into fashion, humbug. He could not cast his keen eyes over any considerable circle of society in this country, without perceiving the melan choly fact, that the British nation labours under a universal mania for gentility-all the world hurrying and bustling in the same idle chase-good honest squires and baronets, with pedigrees of a thousand years, and estates of ten thousand acres-ay, and even noble lords-yea, the noblest of the noble themselves (or at least their ladies), rendered fidgety and uncomfortable by the circumstance of their not somehow or other belonging to one particular little circle in London. Comely roundpaunched parsons and squireens, again, all over the land, eating the bread of bitterness, and drinking the waters of sorrow, because they are, or think they are, tipt the cold shoulder by these same honest squires and baronets, &c. &c. &c. who, excluded from Almack's, in their own fair turn and rural sphere enact nevertheless, with much success, the part of exclusives-and so downwards down to the very verge of dirty linen. The obvious facility of practising lucratively on this prevailing folly—of raising 7007., 10007, or 15007. per series, merely by cramming the mouths of the asinine with mock-majestic details of fine life-this found favour with an indolent no less than sagacious humorist; and the fatal example was set. Hence the vile and most vulgar pawings of such miserables as, Messrs. Vivian Grey and "The Roué "-creatures who betray in every page, which they stuff full of Marquess and My Lady, that their own manners are as gross as they make it their boast to show their morals. Hence, some two or three pegs higher, and not more, are such very very fine scoundrels as the Pelhams, &c.; shallow, waterybrained, ill-taught, effeminate dandies animals destitute apparently of one touch of real manhood, or of real passion-cold, systematic, deliberate debauchees, withal-seducers, God wot! and duellists, and, above all, philosophers! How could any human being be gulled by such flimsy devices as these? "These gentry form a sort of cross between the Theodorian breed of novel and the Ward-ish-the extravagantly overrated-the heavy, imbecile, pointless, but still well-written, sensible, and, we may even add, not disagreeable, Tremaine and De Vere. The second of these books was a mere rifacimento of the first; and, fortunately for what remained of his reputation, Mr. Robert Ward has made no third attempt. He has much to answer for; e. g. if we were called upon to point out the most disgusting abomination to be found in the whole range of contemporary litera ture, we have no hesitation in saying we should feel it our duty to lay our finger on the Bolingbroke-Balaam of that last and worst of an insufferable charlatan's productions-Devereux. BRUSSELS IN 1829. For the education of youth of both sexes, Brussels is one of the best stations on the continent, and is a good temporary residence for Englishmen whose means are limited. The country is plentiful, and consequently every article of living moderate. It is near England, the government is mild, and there is no restraint in importing English books, though their own press is any thing but free. The population of Brussels is rated at nearly 100,000, of which above 20,000 are paupers, supported by the government and voluntary contributions. The population is rapidly increasing. The number of foreigners in the winter of 1828 was between seven and eight thousand, of which half the number were English. Many families settle for a season, and take their flight south, or return home in June; but the greatest number are stationary for the education of their children. An English clergyman, formerly a teacher at Harrow, has an establishment for boys, well conducted, and the expense does not exceed fifty guineas a year. There are several seminaries for girls, also superintended by Englishwomen, with French teachers. Masters in every department are excellent, so that few places afford better schools for education. The air in the upper part of the city is salubrious, and the climate, perhaps, better on the whole than England; but the winters are sharper, and the summers hotter; fogs are less frequent, and the spring generally sets in a fortnight earlier than in any part of Great Britain. Our countrymen will be disappointed who settle in Brussels as a place of amusement, for no capital can be more dull; and the natives are not ready of access, which is probably as much the fault of their visiters as themselves. As a station for economy, it can be highly recommended, provided no trust is put in servants, and every thing is paid for with ready money. The writer of this article resided in Brussels for a dozen years, and he knows this from experience. If an establishment, large or small, is well regulated, a saving of fifty per cent. may be made, certainly, in housekeeping, compared with Lon don. House-rent is dearer in proportion with other articles of living, and the taxes are daily augmenting. The horse-tax is more than double that of England; and the king of the Netherlands can boast that he is the only sovereign in Europe who has a tax on female labour. William Pitt attempted a similar measure, but was mobbed by the housemaids, and abandoned it. --New Monthly Magazine. The Gatherer. A snapper up of unconsidered trifles, SHAKSPEARE. CURIOUS DISCOVERY OF A ROBBERY. LYSONS in his "Environs of London," says, "In a room adjoining to the south-side of the saloon, in the manorhouse, at Charlton, in Kent, is a chimney-piece, with a slab of black marble so finely polished, that Lord Downe is said to have seen in it a robbery committed on Blackheath; the tradition adds, that he sent out his servants, who apprehended the thieves." Dr. Plot makes the story more marvellous, by laying the scene of the robbery at Shooter's Hill; he also says, "Thus in a chimney-piece at Beauvoir Castle, might be seen the city and cathedral of Lincoln, and in another at Wilton, the city and cathedral of Sarum." Quarter ditto, 2 guinea piece, 5 guinea ditto.... Dble. Sovereign ..... 1684 Will. and Mary 1688 William..... 1694 Anne.. George I.. George II. .... 1702 1725 1726 George III.... 1760 Intended as an "accompaniment" to a celebrated piece of Music, by Craven. OH! ladies fair, tho' smooth the air, Sovereign, half George IV.... 1820 I send you now, I pray take care Lest "THE LIGHT BARK" be, after all, Foredoom'd to perish in a squall! PRINTER'S DEVIL. THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS. AFTER the death of the Duke de Berry, a law was presented to restrain the liberty of the press, which made every one hasten to profit by it, before the caught in the fact of picking a pocket law was passed. A pickpocket being in a crowd, or, as the French call it, a presse, he was taken before the commissary of police, who asked him if poverty had driven him to it, he replied, "I only wised to profit by the liberty of the press." DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RUMP-STEAKS AND BEEF-STEAKS. Two Frenchmen, who had been in London, comparing notes, one of them was loud in praise of English bif takes, (beef-steaks,) "Yes," said the other, "they are very good, but rum takes are much better."-" What are rum takes ?"-" Why, my friend, they are always bif takes, but they call them rum takes, because they put de rum in de sauce." Printed and Published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near Somerset House,) London; sold by ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, Leipsic; and by all Newsmen and Booksellers. CASTLES, Cathedrals, and churches, palaces, and parks, and architectural subjects generally, have occupied so many frontispiece pages of our recent numbers, that we have been induced to select the annexed cuts as a pleasant relief to this artificial monotony. They are Curiosities of Nature; and, in truth, more interesting than the proudest work of men's hands. Their economy is much more surprising than the most sumptuous production of art; and the intricacy and subtlety of its processes throw into the shade all the contrivances of social man: a few inquiries into their structure and habits will therefore prove entertaining to all classes of readers. 1. THE PRAYING MANTIS. THE Mantis is a species of cricket, and belongs to the Hemiptera, or second order of insects. Blumenbach * enu merates four varieties:-1. the Gigantic, from Amboyna, a span long, yet scarce as thick as a goose-quill, and eaten by the Indians. 2. Gonglyodes, from Guinea. 3. the Religious Mantis, or Praying Cricket. 4. Another at the Cape, and considered sacred by the Hottentots. The cut represents the third of these varieties. It' mostly goes on four legs, holding up two shorter ones. The hind legs are very long; the middle ones shorter. It is sometimes called the Dried and Walking Leaf, from the resemblance of its wing covering, in form and colour to a dry willow leaf; it is found in China and South America, and in the latter country many of the Indians believe that Mantes grow on trees like leaves, and that having arrived at maturity, they loosen themselves, and crawl or fly away. Mr. T. Carpenter + has recently dissected the head of this species, in which he found large and sharp cutting teeth; also strong grinding ones, similar to those in the heads of locusts: the balls at the ends fit into sockets in the jaw. The whole length of the insect is nearly three inches; it is of slender shape, and in its sitting posture is observed to hold up the two fore-legs slightly bent, as if in an attitude of prayer, whence its name; for this reason vulgar su perstition has held it as a sacred insect; and a popular notion has often prevailed, that a child, or a traveller having lost its way, would be safely directed, by observing the quarter to which the ani mal pointed, when taken into the hand. Manual, translated by Gore. Gill's Technological Repository, vol. iv. p. 208. Its real disposition is, however, very far from peaceable: it preys with great rapacity on smaller insects, for which it lies in wait, in the first mentioned posture, till it siezes them with a sudden spring, and devours them. It is, in fact, of a very ferocious nature; and when kept with another of its own species, in a state of captivity, will attack its fellow with the utmost violence, and persevere till it has killed its antagonist. Roësal, a naturalist, who kept some of these insects, observes, that in their mutual conflicts, their manoeuvres very much resemble those of hussars fighting with sabres; and sometimes the one cleaves the other through, or severs the head from its body with a single stroke. During these engagements the wings are generally expanded, and when the battle is over, the conqueror devours his vanquished foe. disposition in the Mantis, is converted Among the Chinese, this quarrelsome to an entertainment, resembling that of fighting-cocks and quails: and it is to this insect that we suppose the following passage in Mr. Barrow's Account of China, alludes:-" They have even extended their inquiries after fighting animals into the insect tribes, and have attack each other with such ferocity, discovered a species of locusts that will as seldom to quit their hold without bringing away at the same time a limb of their antagonist. These little creatures are fed and kept apart in bamboo cages; and the custom of making them devour each other is so common, that boy is to be seen without his cage of during the summer months, scarcely a locusts." of the continent, look upon the religious The country people in many parts Mantis as a divine insect, and would not on any account injure it. Dr. Smith, account of this Mantis, that seemed to however, informs us, that he received an tleman caught a male and female, and savour little indeed of divinity. A genput them together in a glass vessel. The female, which in this, as in most other insects, is the largest, after a while, devoured, first the head and upper parts of her companion, and afterwards the remainder of the body. Roesel, wishthese creatures to the winged state, ing to observe the gradual progress of placed the bag containing the eggs in a farge enclosed glass. From the time they were hatched they were very saglass, but they refused them, in order vage. He put various plants into the Travels in China. |