what was proposed to be done, and I left them in the belief that the plan met their entire approval." From the latter, Mr Baird goes on to say he was met by several objections; and for a short time, he adds, "I doubted if a commencement would be made at all. I was not, however, kept long in suspense. One family at length announced their intention of leaving their children-two little girls of nine and ten years of age. They proposed taking their departure on the following day, and begged to know with whom their children should be left. I assured them their children 'should be taken care of, but requested them to delay their departure only another day, to give me time to make arrangements. Up to this time I had failed in inducing a single individual to receive a gipsy child as a boarder on almost any terms. I now made one last attempt, which proved as unsuccessful as the former. The morning came when the gipsy family should depart; the mother soon arrived, with her inquiry where the children were to be left. I said, 'Leave them with me,' and with me they were left. A comfortable apartment and bed were provided them; and from the manse they went daily to school. Here they remained a week or ten days. In little more than half of that time, however, I received one application after another from some of those who had formerly refused to receive them, offering them accommodation; and from that time, for several years after, I had no difficulty in getting all the children that were left at home comfortably accommodated. And as for the gipsy parents, they soon went from one extreme to another, and would have left all their children but their infants; but we refused to take any below six years of age.

"Occasionally since then, we have had the same difficulty to contend with. The parents would leave their children only with certain individuals, who could not perhaps receive them; and all along, it has been a difficult matter to get proper persons to take charge of them. Now, they are frequently left in their parents' houses, under the care of an older sister or other relative, such as a grandmother. We allow no money, but a certain proportion of meal for each child; the school fees are paid, and clothing occasionally is provided, chiefly for the girls. For some years past we have had from thirty to forty, sometimes upwards of forty, children at school; and the teacher reports favourably of their conduct and progress."

We have here the most conclusive evidence of the improvability of the gipsies: their better faculties only require to be developed, and those of an evil tendency suppressed in youth, in order that they may assume their proper place among the ordinary popula tion of the country. It is to be trusted that the meritorious effort at reclamation will not be suffered to languish for lack of means, and that its example will lead to similar attempts for civilising and bettering the condition of the gipsies in England and other countries.

LEXANDER SELKIRK, the undoubted original of Defoe's celebrated character, Robinson Crusoe, was born in the year 1676, in the village of Largo, on the southern coast of the county of Fife in Scotland. The name of Selkirk (or Selcraig, which was the old mode of spelling it, and which the subject of our narrative did not exchange for Selkirk till after leaving his native place to go to sea), is not an uncommon one in the village, the population of which now considerably exceeds two thousand. John Selkirk, the father of Alexander, was a thriving shoemaker, who lived in a house of his own, which has since been pulled down, at the west end of the town. He appears to have been a man of strict temper, respected for his steady and religious character, and, like the majority of Scottish parents at that time, a severe disciplinarian in his family. The name of his wife, the mother of our hero, was Euphan Mackie, also, it would seem, a native of Largo, and reported by tradition to have been the very contrast of her husband in her parental conduct-as yielding and indulgent as he was rigorous. In the case of Alexander, however, there was a special reason why Mrs Selkirk should prove a kind and pliant mother. Not only was she considerably advanced in years at the time of his birth, but, by a chance not very common, he was her seventh son, born without an intermediate daughter, and therefore destined, according to an old Scottish superstition, to come to great fortune, and make a figure in the world. Mrs Selkirk, good easy woman, firmly believed this, and made no doubt that her son Sandie was to be the great

man of the family. He was therefore her pet; and the greater part of her maternal care, in respect to his education, consisted in confidential discourses with him by the fireside when the rest of the family were absent, and in occasional consultations how they should screen some little misdemeanour from the eyes of his father.

Young Selkirk was a clever enough boy, and quickly learned all that was taught at the school of his native town.. Besides reading, writing, and arithmetic, he is said to have made considerable progress in navigation—a branch of knowledge likely to be of some repute in Largo, not only on account of its being a sea-coast town, with a considerable fishing population, but also in consequence of its having been the birthplace and property of Sir Andrew Wood, a distinguished Scottish admiral of the preceding century, whose nautical fame and habits must have produced considerable impression on it. At all events, whether owing to the ideas he received at school, or to the effect on his mind of the perpetual spectacle of the sails in Largo Bay, and of his constant association with the Largo fishermen, Selkirk early determined to follow a seafaring life. Either out of a disposition to let the boy have his own will, or as thinking the life of a sailor the likeliest way to the attainment of the great fortunes which she anticipated for her son, his mother favoured his intention; his father, however, opposed it strenuously, and was anxious, now that his other sons were all settled in life, that his youngest should remain at home, and assist him in his own trade. This, and young Selkirk's wayward and obstinate conduct, seem to have kept him and his father perpetually at war; and a descendant of the family used to show a walking-stick which the old man is said to have applied to the back of his refractory son, with the affirmation, "A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool's back." Notwithstanding the boy's restless character, respect for his father's wishes kept him at home for a considerable time: a father's malediction being too awful a thing for even a seventh son to brave with impunity.

The first thirteen years of Selkirk's life coincide with the hottest period of the religious persecutions in Scotland. He would be about three years of age at the time of the assassination of Archbishop Sharp, which took place at not a very great distance from Largo; and the chief subject of interest, during his boyhood, in Fife, as in the other counties of Scotland, was the position of the church, then filled by Episcopalian and indulged clergy, greatly to the disgust of the people. What part old Selkirk and his family may have taken during the time when it was dangerous to show attachment to Presbytery-whether they professed themselves Covenanters, or whether, as is more probable, they yielded a reluctant attendance at the parish church-cannot be ascertained; but the following entry in the parish records of Largo,

referring to the year 1689, immediately after the Revolution had sealed the restoration of Presbytery in Scotland, will show that if they did attend the parish church, it was not out of lukewarmness to the popular cause, or affection for the established clergyman:- "Sabbath, 1689. Which day, the minister being obstructed in his duty, and kept out of the church by a great mob armed with staves and bludgeons, headed by John Selkirk, divided what money there was amongst the poor, and retired from his charge." John Selkirk, who thus signalised himself by heading the mob for the expulsion of the conforming clergyman, was the eldest brother of our hero, who, however, is reported himself to have testified his enthusiasm by flourishing a stick with the other boys. This outburst of Presbyterian zeal freed Largo from the unpopular clergyman, and in a short time in it, as well as in the other parishes of Scotland, the Presbyterian rule was re-established.

SELKIRK GOES TO SEA-RETURNS TO LARGO-INCURS KIRK CENSURE FOR QUARRELSOME CONduct.

One of the first youths in Largo to experience the stricter discipline of Presbytery, whose restoration he had celebrated, was Alexander Selkirk. His high spirits, and want of respect for any control, led him, it would appear, to be guilty of frequent misbehaviour during divine service; for under date the 25th of August 1695 is the following entry in the parish records :"Alexander Selcraig, son of John Seleraig, elder, cited to appear before the session for indecent conduct in church." This seems to have been more than our hero, now in his nineteenth year, could submit to. The elder's son to appear before the session, and be rebuked for laughing in church! Within twenty-four hours after this terrible citation the young shoemaker was gone; he had left Largo and the land of kirk-sessions behind him, and was miles away at sea. When the kirk-session met, they were obliged to be content with inserting the following paragraph in the record:-" August 27th.-Alexander Selcraig called out; did not appear, having gone to sea." Resolved, however, that he should not escape the rebuke which he had merited, they add, Continued until his return."

The return which the kirk-session thus looked forward to did not take place for six years, during which we have no account of Selkirk's adventures, although the probability is, that he served with the bucaneers, who then scoured the South Seas. To have persisted in calling the young sailor to account for a fault committed six years before, would have been too great severity. The kirk-session, accordingly, do not seem to have made any allusion to the circumstance which had driven him to sea; but it was not long before a still more disgraceful piece of misconduct than the former brought him under their censure. The young sailor, coming home, no doubt, with his character rendered still

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more reckless and boisterous than before by the wild life to which he had been accustomed at sea, was hardly a fit inmate for a sedate and orderly household, and quarrels and disturbances became frequent in the honest shoemaker's cottage. One of these domestic uproars brought the whole family before the session: the peace and good order of families being one of the things which were then taken cognisance of by the ecclesiastical authorities in every parish. The circumstances are thus detailed in the session records :-" November 1701.-The same day, John Guthrie delated John Selcraig, elder, and his wife Euphan Mackie, and (his son) Alexander Selcraig, for disagreement together; and also, John Selcraig (Alexander's eldest brother), and his wife Margaret Bell. All of them are ordered to be cited against next session, which is to be on the 25th instant."

Agreeably to this citation the parties appeared-the father, the mother, the eldest son and his wife, and our hero. On this occasion John Selcraig, the elder, " being examined what was the cause of the tumult that was in his house, said he knew not; unless that Andrew Selcraig (another of the old man's sons who lived in the house, and who was but half-witted) having brought in a can full of salt water, of which his brother Alexander did take a drink through mistake, and he (Andrew) laughing at him for it, his brother Alexander came and beat him, upon which he ran out of the house, and called his brother John (John and his wife, Margaret Bell, would appear to have lived in a neighbouring house; and Andrew had run into it to call his brother). Being again questioned what made him (Selkirk the father) sit upon the floor with his back at the door, he said it was to keep down his son Alexander, who was seeking to go up to get down his pistol. And being inquired what he was going to do with it, said he could not tell." Such was the tenor of the old man's evidence. On the same day the culprit Alexander was called; but he had contrived to go to Cupar, to be out of the way. Directing a second citation to be issued against him for next session, the court proceeded to examine the other witnesses. The younger John Selkirk gave his evidence as follows:-" On the 7th of November last, he being called by his brother Andrew, came to his father's house; and when he entered it, his mother went out; and he, seeing his father sitting upon the floor, with his brother at the door, was much troubled, and offered to help him up; at which time he did see his brother Alexander in the other end of the house casting off his coat, and coming towards him; whereupon his father did get up, and did get betwixt them (Alexander and John), but he did not know what he did besides, his (John's) head" being borne down by his brother Alexander; but afterwards, being liberated by his wife, he made his escape." Margaret Bell, John's wife, who thus courageously rescued her husband from the clutches of Alexander, was next examined. She declared that her husband being called out by