Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

tent Being, who gave us strength and wisdom in the hour of danger, to direct our great council to that happy mean, which may afford us respect and security abroad, and peace, liberty and prosperity at home.

Each species of composition, should have in the delivery of it, an exemplification of its characteristics.

The Colloquial should be pronounced in the most easy, natural and familiar manner possible.

THE WEST INDIAN.—By R. CUMBERLAND.

Stock. Mr. Belcour, I am rejoiced to see you; you are welcome to England!

Bel. I thank you heartily, good Mr. Stockwell; you and I have long conversed at a distance; now we are met: and the pleasure this meeting gives me, amply compensates for the perils I have run through in accomplishing it.

Stock. What perils, Mr. Belcour? I could not have thought you would have made a bad passage at this time o’year.

Bel. Nor did we: courier like, we came posting to your shores, upon the pinions of the swiftest gales that ever blew; 'tis upon English ground all my difficulties have arisen; 'tis the passage from the river side I complain of.

Stock. Ay, indeed! What obstructions can you have met between this and the river side?

Bel. Innumerable! Your town is as full of defiles as the island of Corsica; and, I believe, they are as obstinately defended; so much hurry, bustle, and confusion, on your quays: so many sugar casks, porter buts, and common council men in your streets, that unless a man marched with artillery in his front, 'tis more than the labour of Hercules can effect, to make any tolerable way through your town.

Stock. I am sorry you have been so incommoded.

Bel. Why, 'faith 'twas all my own fault; accustomed to a land of slaves, and out of patience with the whole tribe of custom-house extortioners, boat-men, tide-waiters, and water-bailiffs, that beset me on all sides, worse than a swarm of moschetoes, I proceeded a little too roughly to brush them away with my rattan; the sturdy rogues took this in dudgeon, and beginning to rebel, the mob chose different sides, and a furious scuf

fle ensued; in the course of which, my person and apparel suffered so much, that I was compelled to step into the first tavern to refit, before I could make my approaches in any decent trim.

Stock. All without is as I wish; dear nature, add the rest, I am happy. (aside) Well, Mr. Belcour, 'tis a rough sample you have had of my countrymen's spirit; but I trust, you'll not think the worse of them for it.

Bel. Not at all, not at all; I like them the better. Was I only a visiter, I might, perhaps, wish them a little more tractable; but as a fellow subject, and a sharer in their freedom, I applaud their spirit, though I feel the effects of it in every bone of my skin.

Stock. That's well; I like that well. How gladly I could fall upon his neck, and own myself his father.

(aside. Bel. Well, Mr. Stockwell, for the first time in my life, here am I in England; at the fountain head of pleasure, in the land of beauty, of arts, and elegancies. My happy stars have given me a good estate, and the conspiring winds have blown me hither to spend it.

Stock. To use it, not to waste it, I should hope; to treat it, Mr. Belcour, not as a vassal, over whom you have a wanton and a despotic power; but as a subject, which you are bound to govern with a temperate and restrained authority.

Bel. True, sir, most truly said; mine's a commission, not a right; I am the offspring of distress, and every child of sorrow is my brother; while I have hands to hold, therefore, I will hold them open to mankind; but, sir, my passions are my masters; they take me where they will; and oftentimes they leave to reason and to virtue nothing but my wishes and my sighs.

Stock. Come, come, the man who can accuse, corrects himself.

Bel. Ah! that's an office I am weary of: I wish a friend would take it up; I would to Heaven you had leisure for the employ; but, did you drive a trade to the four corners of the world, you would not find the task so toilsome as to keep me free from faults.

Stock. Well, I am not discouraged; this candour tells me I should not have the fault of self conceit to combat; that, at least, is not amongst the number.

Bel. No; If I knew that man on earth who thought more humbly of me than I do of myself, I would take up his opinion, and forego my own.

THE GOOD AUNT.-By Miss EDGEWORTH. "But you have quite forgot the lottery," said Howard, smiling, and much touched by his little friend's simplicity and enthusiasm.

66

66

"O, the lottery! ay," said Oliver, you were telling me something about yourself, do go on."

"I once thought as you do now, that it would be a charming thing to put into a lottery."

"Well, and did

"No,"

you

[blocks in formation]

win ?"

"I did not put into the lottery, for I was convinced that it was a foolish way of spending money."

"If you think it's foolish or wrong," said Oliver, “I'll have nothing to do with this lottery."

"I don't want to govern you by my opinion," said Howard; "but if you have patience to attend to all the reasons that convinced me, you will be able to judge, and form an opinion for yourself. You know I must leave school some time or other, and then

[ocr errors]

"Well, don't talk of that, but tell me all the reasons, quick." "I can't tell them so very quickly," said Howard, laughing; "when we go home this evening I'll ask my aunt to look for the passage in Smith's Wealth of Nations, which she showed me." O," interrupted Oliver, with a sigh, "Smith's Wealth of what? That's a book, I'm sure, I shall never be able to understand; is it not that great large book, that Mr. Russell reads ?" "Yes."

66

[ocr errors]

"But I shall never understand it."

"Because it's a large book?"

"No," said Oliver, smiling, "but because I suppose it's very difficult to understand."

Not what I have read of it: but I have only read passages here and there. That passage about lotteries, I think you would understand, because it is so plainly written."

"I'll read it then," said Oliver," and try; and in the mean time I'll go and tell Holloway, that I had rather not put into the lottery, till I know whether it's right or not."

Holloway flew into a violent passion with little Oliver, when he went to return his lottery ticket. He abused and ridiculed Howard for his interference, and succeeded so well in raising a popular cry, that the moment Howard appeared on the play-.

ground, a general hiss, succeeded by a deep groan, was heard. Howard recollected the Oracle's answer to Cicero, and was not dismayed by the voice of the multitude. Holloway threw down half a guinea, to pay Oliver, and muttered to himself, "I'll make you remember this, Mr. Oliver.

"I'll give this half-guinea to the mulatto woman, and that's much better than putting it into a lottery, Charles !" said the little boy and as soon as the business of the day was done, Oliver, Howard, and Mr. Russell, took their usual evening's walk towards the gardner's house,

66

Ay,, come in!" cried old Paul, "come in! God bless you all! I don't know which is the best of you. I've been looking out of my door this quarter of an hour for ye," said he, as soon as he saw them," and I don't know when I've been idle a quarter of an hour afore. But I've put on my best coat, though it's not Sunday, and wife has treated her to a dish of tea, and she's up and dressed ; the mulatto woman, I mean, and quite hearty again. Walk in, walk in; it will do your hearts good to see her; she's so grateful too, though she can't speak good English, which is her only fault, poor soul; but we can't be born what we like, or she would have been as good an Englishman as the best of us. Walk in, walk in !-And the chimney does not smoke, master, no more than I do; and the window opens too and the paper's up, and looks beautiful. God bless ye, God bless ye; walk in." Old Paul, whilst he spoke, had stopped the way into the room; but at length he recollected, that they could not walk in whilst he stood in the door-way, and he let them pass.

[ocr errors]

The little room was no longer the smoky, dismal, miserable place, which it was formerly. It was neatly papered; it was swept clean; there was a cheerful fire, which burned quite clearly; the mulatto woman was cleanly dressed, and, rising from her work, she clasped her hands together, with an emotion of joyful gratitude, which said more than any words could have expressed.

This room was not papered, nor was the chimney cured of smoaking, nor was the woman clad in new clothes, by magic. It was all done by human means; by the industry and abilities of a benevolent boy.

The translation of the little French book, which Howard had completed, procured him the means of doing good. The bookseller to whom he offered it, was both an honest man, and a good judge of literary productions. Mr. Russell's name also operated in his pupil's favour, and Howard received ten guineas for his translation.

[ocr errors]

Oliver was impatient for an opportunity to give his half guinea, which he had held in his hand till it was quite warm. "Let me look at that pretty thimble of yours," said he, going up to the mulatto woman, who had now taken up her work again; and, as he playfully pulled off the thimble, he slipped his half-guinea into her hand; then he stopped her thanks, by running on to a hundred questions about her thimble. "What

a strange thimble! How came you by such a thimble? Was it given to you? Did you buy it? What's the use of this screw round the inside of the rim of it? Do look at it, Charles !”

The thimble was indeed remarkable; and it seemed extraordinary, that such a one should belong to a poor woman, who had lately been in great distress.

"It is gold," said Mr. Russell, examining it, "and very old gold."

The mulatto woman sighed; and as she put the thimble upon her finger again, said, that she did not know whether it was gold or not; but she had a great value for it; that she had had it a great many years; that it had been given to her by the best friend she ever had.

"Tell me about that best friend," said Oliver; "I like to hear about best friends."

"She was a very good friend indeed; though she was but young, scarcely bigger than yourself, at the time she gave me this thimble: she was my young mistress; I came all the way from Jamaica, on purpose to find her out, and in hopes to live with her in my elder days."

"Jamaica " cried Howard-"Jamaica !" cried Oliver, in the same breath; "What was her name?"

"Frances Howard, "said the woman. "My aunt," exclaimed Howard.

"I'll run and tell her; I'll run and bring her here, this instant!" said Oliver. But Mr. Russell caught hold of him and detained him, whilst they farther questioned the woman. Her answers were perfectly consistent and satisfactory. She said, that her mistress's estate, in Jamaica, had been sold, just before she left the island: that some of the old slaves had been set at liberty, by orders which came, she understood, in her mistress's last letter; and that, amongst the rest, she had been freed: that she had heard say, that her good mistress had desired the agent to give her also some little provision ground upon the plantation, but that this had never been done: and that she had sold all the clothes and little things she possessed, to raise money to pay for her passage to England, hoping to find her mistress in London. She added, that the agent had, given her a

« PředchozíPokračovat »