17th of that reign, says Lord Orford, at the marriage (which these trials might be passed unhurt; particuof Prince Arthur, the brave young Vaux appeared | larly with regard to the ordeal of boiling water we are in a gown of purple velvet, adorned with pieces of gold so thick and massive, that exclusive of the silk and furs it was valued at a thousand pounds." In those days it not only required great bodily strength to support the weight of their cumbersome armour, but their very luxury of apparel for the drawing room would be oppressive to modern limbs. In the following reign their dress was perhaps more generally sumptuous. Shirts were embroidered with gold. Gloves were lined with white velvet, and splendidly worked with embroidery and gold buttons, and were perfumed. In the time of Queen Mary the people were so partial to square toes that they were obliged to issue a proclamation that no person should wear shoes above six inches square at the toes. Was this custom one jot more absurd than the hoops of the last century, or the enormous bonnets of the present? The wearing of great breeches in the reign of Queen Elizabeth was carried to a most ridiculous excess. They used to stuff them out with wadding till they resembled woolsacks; and it is said that scaffolds were erected in places of public resort on purpose for these beaus. told, they used to rub their arm a long time with the spirit of vitriol and alum, together with the juice of an onion. We cannot vouch for the truth of this recipe. The trial by Bread was thus conducted. A piece of bread, or of cheese, was consecrated (how shockingly degrading was such superstition!) with a prayer, desiring the Almighty that it might cause convulsions and paleness, and find no passage, if the man was guilty; but might turn to health and nourishment if he was innocent. This piece of bread, called the corsned, or morsel of cursing, was then given to the suspected person. Our historians assure us, that Godwin, Earl of Kent, in the reign of Edward the Confessor, abjuring the death of the king's brother, appealed to his corsned, which stuck in his throat, and killed him. Though this custom has been long abolished, we are too often reminded of it by the very unwarrantable language of inconsiderate people, in such phrases as May this morsel be my last!"May this piece of bread choke me!" The superstitious people who practised this mode of trial, were very particular in the making of this bread and cheese. The bread was to be of unleavened barley; and the cheese made of ewe's milk in the month of May; no other of the twelvemonths having any power to detect TRIALS OF GUILT IN SUPERSTITIOUS AGES. a criminal. Another most extraordinary trial, was It is melancholy to reflect on the strange trials to that of "the bleeding of a corpse." If a person was which, in remoter ages, those suspected of guilt were murdered, it was said, that at the touch, or at the put. The Ordeal consisted of various kinds : walk-approach of the murderer, the blood would gush out ing blindfold amidst red-hot ploughshares, placed at of the body at various parts. This was once allowed unequal distances; passing through two fires; hold- in England, and is still looked on, in some uncivilized ing in the hand a red-hot bar; plunging the hand parts, as a detection of the criminal. We trust such into boiling water; challenging the accuser to single remains of credulity and superstition are rapidly passcombat; the swallowing a morsel of consecrated ing away, never to return. bread; the sinking or swimming in a river in the case of witchcraft, and various others : 66 One cannot (says the learned and excellent Blackstone) but be astonished and surprised at the folly and impiety of pronouncing a man guilty unless he was cleared by a miracle: and of expecting that all the powers of nature should be suspended by an immediate interposition of providence to save the innocent whenever it was presumptuously required. And yet in England, so late as King John's time, we find grants to the bishops and clergy to use the " trial by iron, fire, and water." But though they used to preside at these trials, which were performed only in churches, or in other consecrated ground; yet the Canon Law very early declared against trial by ordeal, as the fabric of Satan and it was abolished in England by Act of Parliament, or rather by an order of the King in Council, in the reign of Henry the Third. Fire ordeal was performed either by taking up in the hand unhurt, a piece of red-hot iron, of one, two, or three pounds weight; or else by walking blindfold and barefoot over nine red-hot ploughshares, laid lengthwise, at unequal distances; and if the party escaped unhurt, he was adjudged innocent; but if it happened otherwise, as without collusion it usually did, he was then condemned guilty. Queen Emma, the mother of Edward the Confessor, when suspected, .s mentioned to have cleared her character by this latter method. : Water Ordeal was performed either by plunging the bare arm up to the elbow in boiling water, and escaping unhurt; or by casting the person suspected into a river or pond; and if he floated therein, without any action of swimming, it was deemed an evidence of his guilt; but if he sunk, he was acquitted. It is said that secrets were known in those times, by These trials of ordeal were mostly of Saxon origin: the trial by battel, or single combat, was derived from the Normans. Of that we will add a few words in a future number. MORNING TWILIGHT. BY MARY MARIA COLLING. A SERVANT GIRL. THROUGH the vales the breezes sigh; Glory, beaming from on high, THE fountain of content must spring up in the mind; and he who has so little knowledge of human nature, as to seek happiness by changing any thing but his own disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts, and multiply the griefs which he purposes to remove. -JOHNSON. WHEN once infidelity can persuade men that they shall die like beasts, they will soon be brought to live like beasts also.-SOUTH. ANECDOTES OF ANIMALS. We know a doe, still alive, that was brought up from a little fawn with a dairy of cows; with them it goes a-field, and with them it returns to the yard. The dogs of the house take no notice of this deer, being used to her; but if strange dogs come by, a chase ensues, while the master smiles to see his favourite securely leading her pursuers over hedge, or gate, or stile, till she returns to the cows, who, with fierce lowings and menacing horns, drive the assailants quite out of the pasture. Even great disparity of kind and size does not always prevent social advances and mutual fellowship. For a very intelligent and observant person had assured me, that in the former part of his life, keeping but one horse, he happened also on a time to have but one solitary hen. These two incongruous animals spent much of their time together in a lonely orchard, where they saw no creature but each other. By degrees an apparent regard began to take place between these two sequestered individuals. The fowl would approach the quadruped with notes of complacency, rubbing herself gently against his legs, while the horse would look down with satisfaction, and move with the greatest caution and circumspection, lest he should trample on his diminutive companion. THE EVENING PROCEEDINGS OF ROOKS, &c. THE evening proceedings and manoeuvres of the rooks are curious and amusing in the autumn. Just before dusk they return in long strings from the foraging of the day, and rendezvous by thousands over Selborne-down, where they wheel round in the air, and sport and dive in a playful manner, all the while exerting their voices and making a loud cawing, which, being blended and softened by the distance that we at the village are below them, makes a confused noise or chiding, or rather a pleasing murmur, very engaging to the imagination, and not unlike the cry of a pack of hounds in hollow echoing woods, or the rushing of wind in tall trees, or the trembling of the tide on a pebbly shore. When this ceremony is over, with the last gleam of day they retire for the night to the deep beechen woods of Tisted and Ropley. We remember a little girl, who, as she was going to bed, used to remark on such an occurrence, in the true spirit of physico-theology, that the rooks were saying their prayers; and yet this child was much too young to be aware that the Scriptures have said of the Deity, that "he feedeth the ravens who call upon him."WHITE'S Nat. Hist. of Selborne. MUNGO PARK IN THE DESERT. MUNGO PARK, during his travels in the interior of Africa, was stripped and plundered by banditti, on leaving a village called Kooma. When the robbers had left him, almost naked and destitute, he tells us, "I sat for some time looking around me with amazement and terror. Whichever way I turned, nothing appeared but danger and difficulty. I saw myself in the midst of a vast wilderness, in the depth of the rainy season, naked and alone; surrounded by savage animals, and men still more savage. I was five hundred miles from the nearest European settlement. All these circumstances crowded at once upon my recollection; and I confess that my spirits began to fail me. I considered my fate as certain, and that I had no alternative, but to lie down and perish. The influence of religion, however, aided and supported me. I reflected that no human prudence or foresight could possibly have averted my present sufferings. I was indeed a stranger in a strange land, yet I was still under the protecting eye of that Providence, who has condescended to call himself the stranger's friend. At this moment, painful as my reflexions were, the extraordinary beauty of a small moss, in flower, irre sistibly caught my eye. I mention this to shew from what trifling circumstances the mind will sometimes derive consolation; for though the whole plant was not larger than the top of one of my fingers, I could not contemplate the delicate conformation of the roots, leaves, &c., without admiration. Can that Being (thought I) who planted, watered, and brought to perfection, in this obscure part of the world, a thing which appears of so small importance, look with unconcern upon the situation and sufferings of creatures formed after his own image? Surely not! Reflexions like these could not allow me to despair: I started up, and disregarding both hunger and fatigue, travelled forwards, assured that relief was at hand; and I was not disappointed-in a short time I came to a small village." THE LORD'S DAY. Hail to the day, which He, who made the heaven, Arose! That day his Church hath still confest, The Lord's own day! to man's Creator owed, The rest remaining for the lov'd of God! D. C. An hour of solitude passed in sincere and earnest prayer, or the conflict with, and conquest over, a single passion or "subtle bosom sin," will teach us more of thought, will more effectually awaken the faculty, and form the habit, of reflection, than a year's study in the schools without them. A reflecting mind is not a flower that grows wild, or comes up of its own accord. The dif ficulty is indeed greater than many, who mistake quick recollection for thought, are disposed to admit ; but how much less than it would be, had we not been born and bred in a Christian and Protestant land, very few of us are sufficiently aware. Truly may we, and thankfully ought we to, exclaim with the psalmist: "The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding even to the simple."-COLERIDGE's Aids to Reflection. UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION, APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. THOUGH the great geographical question, the existence | in which he and others have embodied the results of their labours, are among the most delightful and valuable contributions which in our times have been made to the literature of England. of a north-west passage to India, has hitherto baffled every attempt at its discovery, yet the enterprises to which it has given birth have not been undertaken in vain. The recent expeditions, undertaken by order of Among these, none is entitled to a higher place the government of this country, have been attended than Captain Franklin's Narrative of his land journey with very important benefits. They have thrown to the shores of the Polar Sea. This expedition took great light on the geography of the Northern regions; place at the same time with the first voyage of Captain and no great enlargement of the bounds of science Parry; and it was fitted out by government in order has ever taken place without being productive of that it might co-operate with that navigator in exsubstantial advantages to mankind. Our whale fish-ploring the northern coast of America. Captain eries have already profited by our extended knowledge Franklin, accompanied by Dr. Richardson, and Messrs. of the Arctic seas;-Captain Parry's plans for Back and Hood, two officers of the navy, left Engsecuring the health and comforts of his ship's com- land in 1819; and, after arriving at York Factory, panies will afford the most valuable lessons to every a station on the eastern side of Hudson's Bay, set succeeding commander who shall be engaged in ex- out on a land journey through the deserts and frozen ploring remote parts of the globe; and the volumes lakes of the northern continent, which they crossed VOL. I. 8 in a westerly direction till they reached the mouth of the Copper Mine river, on the western coast. They then embarked in two canoes, and made their way eastward, along the northern shores of the continent for nearly 600 miles, till they found it impossible to proceed further; and, their canoes being destroyed, they returned by land to the Copper Mine river, from whence they made their way home after an absence of three years. Captain Parry, meanwhile, having entered Baffin's Bay, sailed westward along the northern coast till his progress was stopped at Melville Island, a point at no great distance from that which Franklin reached from the opposite direction. But, though Parry afterwards made attempts, the barrier between these two points remains impassable. The last attempt is that of Captain Ross, whose long absence gives rise to the most serious apprehensions for his safety. Captain Franklin's work is not surpassed (if indeed, it is equalled) by any book of voyages or travels whatever. The hardships and dangers which he and his companions underwent excite the deepest interest; while the energy with which they surmounted every obstacle, and the undaunted courage with which they braved every danger, raise the warmest admiration. A great lesson of virtue is also contained in the patience, and pious resignation, with which they bore the most frightful calamities. The habitual influence of religion, and its effects on the mind, are exhibited with a beautiful simplicity. We cannot resist the pleasure of transcribing the following passage, from Dr. Richardson's narrative, in which he describes the feelings of his small party, in the most dreadful circumstances that can be conceived :— "Through the extreme kindness and forethought of a lady, the party, previous to leaving London, had been furnished with a small collection of religious books, of which we still retained two or three of the most portable; and they proved of incalculable benefit to us. We read portions of them to each other as we lay in bed, in addition to the morning and evening service, and found that they inspired us on each perusal with so strong a sense of the omnipresence of a beneficent God, that our situation, even in these wilds, appeared no longer destitute; and we conversed, not only with calmness, but with cheerfulness, detailing with unrestrained confidence the past events of our lives, and dwelling with hope on our future prospects." During the whole of their perils, they were animated by the same spirit; and their example strikingly illustrates the observation, that the most heroic courage is that which is founded on true piety. The Arctic regions abound in grand and sublime scenery. Few objects in nature can be more magnificent than the Falls of Wilberforce, in the Hood River; of which we subjoin a copy of the engraving from CAPTAIN BACK's spirited drawing. They are thus described by Captain Franklin. "We pursued our voyage up the river, but the shoals and rapids in this part were so frequent, that we walked along the banks the whole day, and the crews laboured hard in carrying the canoes thus lightened over the shoals or dragging them up the rapids, yet our journey in a direct line was only about seven miles. In the evening we encamped at the lower end of a narrow chasm or rent in the rocks, through which the river flows for upwards of a mile. The walls of this chasm are upwards of two hundred feet high, quite perpendicular, and in some places only a few yards apart. The river throws itself into it over a rock, forming two magnificent and picturesque falls close to each other. The upper fall is about sixty feet high, and the lower one at least one hundred, but perhaps considerably more, for the narrowness of the chasm into which it fell prevented us from seeing its bottom, and we could merely discern the top of the spray far beneath our feet. The lower fall is divided into two, by an insulated column of rock which rises about forty feet above it. The whole descent of the river at this place probably exceeds two hundred and fifty feet. The rock is very fine sandstone. It has a smooth surface and a light red colour. I have named these magnificent cascades Wilberforce Falls,' as a tribute of my respect to that distinguished philanthropist and christian. Messrs. Back and Hood took beautiful sketches of this majestic scene, which are combined in the annexed plate." ON THE DUTIES AND ADVANTAGES OF SOCIETY. No. III.-ABUSES OF BENEFIT SOCIETIES. BENEFIT Societies confer power upon their members, and as any abuse of power is an evil, the society may prove to the members an injury instead of an advantage. Let us see how this evil may arise; because that will be the most certain way of arriving at the means of prevention. A Benefit Society being a mutual association for raising money to be applied to certain purposes, which purposes are commonly very praise-worthy, there are only the following ways in which it can, generally speaking, be injurious to the members. First, the Society may hold its meetings in an improper place. Secondly, it may admit improper members; or may be in the hands, or under the control, of improper managers. Thirdly, the funds may be insecure, improperly applied, or not sufficient for the purposes set forth to induce members to join the Society Fourthly, the meetings of the Society may be converted to other and mischievous purposes. I. As to the place of meeting. Attendance there should consume as little time as possible; it should hold out no encouragement to spend money; and should have no enticements to dissipation. At the same time, it should admit of that freedom of meeting, and free and friendly intercourse, promote sociality and improvement, and dispose men to help each other as well with deeds as with counsel. It is quite clear that an alehouse is about the worst place at which such a society can hold its meetings, although, in cities and great towns, it is usual to meet at such houses. Even if there were nothing suspicious in the connexion with the landlord, there are objections enough to the place itself. To the young, who are not encumbered with families, the ale-house is a place of peculiar danger, and there should be no motive to justify their going there. Their experience is less, their passions warmer, and they have not the same home feelings to draw them away as married men have. But young men are the best members of Benefit Societies, and therefore care should be taken that bad habits are not given them in return for their contributions. But the society is often a scheme of the landlord's, got up, not for the sake of the 'Benefit,' but of the custom which the meetings bring to the house; and in these cases, whatever it may be in name, it is in reality a nuisance. In towns there may be some difficulty in avoiding the evil of the public-house meetings, from the want of other places; but the hiring of an apartment in a private house, though seemingly more costly, would be cheaper in reality. At such a place, refreshments could be had as easily as at a public-house, and for less money, while there would be no temptation to sit beyond that rational enjoyment of each other's society which is praiseworthy rather than blameable. Dissipation is a very degrading and destructive vice; but cold-hearted selfishness is not the contrary virtue; it is the opposite vice. and trades, in a well regulated society, should be like the colours into which the rain-drop separates the beams of the sun, when the bow of heaven is set in the cloud.' The middle of the tints should be clear and bright, but they should so blend with each other, that no observation can say where the one begins and the other ends; and the whole should be so tempered as to form, by their union, that pure white light which is the true glory of nature. It is the perfect union of all those variously tinted rays which produces that light by means of which we are enabled to see natural objects in their true colours; and it is even so with the varied classes of which a nation is composed. Every man must feel for himself, and for the class to which he belongs; and, within due limits, nothing can be more proper and praiseworthy; but it is not merely by his love of himself, nor even by his attachment to his class or his craft, that the value of a man must be tried. The real standard of social man is his feeling toward the whole of the society in which he lives, and to which he is indebted for civilization-for the means of supporting himself. The very object of a Benefit Society is to ensure the independence of the members; but they must not mistake the kind of independence. It is not inde II. As to improper members and managers. There are two kinds of the former-those who enter the society merely for the personal benefit that they expect to derive from it, and those who are unruly in their conduct. In as far as the age and bodily state of the parties are concerned, the rules of the society may, to a considerable extent, meet the case; but it is not so easy to make regulations with respect to character. Age is no objection; for the payment and the allowance may be equally settled for any age; though it should always be borne in mind that the younger the member enters, the better, both for the society and for himself. The proper feeling at the time of entry, is that the member is doing so for the benefit of others; and the feeling to be kept up while he is in health is, that he is a steward for the needy and the diseased; and that if he comes upon the fund through idleness or misconduct, he falls into the lowest of all conditions-that of a beggar of beg-pendence of the rest of society which is the object, but gars,' If that be made the general feeling of the so- it is independence of the accidents and changes of ciety, there is little danger of greedy and lazy mem- life; and the very fact that a man is more secure bers; and calm neglect is by far the best means of against these by being a member of the Benefit Socicuring the turbulent. ety, should teach him that he has a more general security in being a member of a civilized country, for it is that which enables him to be a member of the other. Great care should therefore be taken, that the Benefit Society does not, in any way, degenerate into a combination; and though by means of it workmen may mutually benefit each other, they must be careful that they do not make it a means of separation between themselves and their employers. The connexion between workman and employer is far more important than any that can exist between one workman and another, because the bread of the workman depends upon it; and therefore, when workmen make use of any association as a means of combining against their employers, they turn it from its natural and useful purpose, and make it an engine against their own best interests. Improper managers are more dangerous, as they have more power. It is generally unwise to have a lawyer as secretary: it is never necessary; and as the society cannot, without paying more than it can afford, have a lawyer of character, it is better not to have one at all; for after the rules of the society have been approved by the proper officer, there is no law wanted. There are some lawyers who promote such societies for the sake of their fees as secretaries; and others, who do the common duty gratis, but contrive to pay themselves, by encouraging law-suits about trifles. These should be avoided. It is a good rule never to employ a man in the profession by which he lives, without paying him for his services. Managers who are fond of spouting in public are generally bad managers. Where there is a great deal of speech, there is usually as great a lack, both of reflection and of action. Such parties convert the society into an engine of their own false glory, and scheme for dinners and other assemblings, at which that glory may be shown off. III. The misapplication of the funds by the managers may be guarded against by the vigilance of the society and the enactments of the law. The sufficiency of the funds, unless in very ordinary cases, may be calculated from the common probabilities of life and health, and from what may arise out of the business of the members. IV. The society may be turned to improper purposes. Every purpose, however praiseworthy it may be in itself, is improper, if it be different from those expressly stated in the rules; because, if necessary and consistent, it should be brought in by the lawful means. But there are supposable cases, where the funds may be applied to purposes absolutely bad-and yet the letter of the law not be absolutely broken. Tendencies of that kind may arise upon different occasions, those which more immediately strike us, are, the party feeling among a society, who are all, or nearly all, of the same rank and business; and floating opinions during times of public excitement. To guard against the first of these, it should be borne in mind that the different ranks, professions, To make the funds, or even the meetings of a Benefit Society serve for purposes of general excitement, is still more unwise; as that is making it a combination against society generally-a direct warfare upon that to which they owe everything they possess. Such are some of the abuses to which Benefit Societies may be subject; they may be avoided by good sense and honesty of intention, and by the judicious countenance and help of those members who do not personally need the assistance of the funds. We shall, on a future occasion, consider how these may promote the benevolent object of the Societies under consideration, so as to make them blessings to the necessitous, and bonds of union to society generally. EPHEMERA, OR DAY-FLIES. "The waters brought forth abundantly."-GENESIS. It is in the small things of nature that we most strikingly see the wonderful power of nature's God, and how superior in kind his works are, to the most ingenious works of man. We estimate by weight and measure; and hence we associate strength with size, and perfection with time spent in labour. We can produce nothing but by the change of something that exists; and we can obtain no motion, but by the ap8-2 |