quisite, "how distressing! I have not been so hurt since poor Angelica (his bay mare) broke down. Poor Charles has been too flighty. "His wings will be clipped for the future!" observed young Caustic, He has been very imprudent," said young Candour.

I enquired of whom they were speaking. "Don't you know Charles Gally?" said the Exquisite, endeavouring to turn in his collar; "Not know Charles Gally?" he repeated, with an expression of pity, "He is the best fellow breathing; only lives to laugh and make others laugh; drinks his two bottles with any man, and rides the finest mare I ever saw---next to my Angelica. Not know Charles Gally? why every body knows him! he is so amusing! ha! ha! --and tells such admirable stories! ha ! ha !---often have they kept me awake (a yawn) when nothing else could." "Poor fellow," said his Lordship, "I understand he's done for ten thousand!" "I never believe more than half what the world says," observed Candour. "He that has not a farthing," said Caustic, cares little whether he owes ten thousand or five." "Thank Heaven!" said Candour, "that never will be the case with Charles: he has a fine estate in Leicestershire." "Mortgaged for half its value," said his Lordship. "A large personal property!" "All gone in annuity bills," said the Exquisite. "A rich uncle upwards of fourscore!" "He'll cut him off with a shilling," said Caustic.

66

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"Let us hope he may reform," sighed the Hypocrite; and sell the pack, "added the Nobleman ;---" and marry," continued the Dandy, "Pshaw," cried the Satirist, "he will never get rid of his habits, his hounds, or his horns." "But he has an excellent heart," said Candour. "Excellent," lisped the Fop, effeminately. "Excellent," exclaimed the Wit, ironically. We took this opportunity to ask by what means so excellent a heart and so bright a genius had contrived to plunge himself into these disasters. "He was my friend," replied his Lordship, "and a man of large property; but he was mad---quite mad. I remember his leaping a lame pony over a stone wall, simply because Sir Marmaduke betted him a dozen that he broke his neck in the attempt; and sending a bullet through a poor pedlar's pack because Bob Darrell said the piece would'nt car

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ry so far. Upon another occasion," began the Exquisite in his turn, "be

by

jumped into a horse-pond after dinner in order to prove it was not six feet deep, and overturned a bottle of Eau de Cologne in Lady Emilia's face, to convince me that she was not painted. Poor fellow! the first experiment cost him a dress, and the second an heiress." σε τ have heard," resumed the Nobleman, "that he lost his election for lampooning the Mayor; and was dismissed from his place in the Treasury for challenging Lord C---." "The last accounts I heard of him," said Caustic, "told me, that Lady Tarrell had forbid him her house for driving a sucking-pig into her drawing-room; and that young Hawthorn had run him through for boasting of favours from his sister!" 66 These gentlemen are really too severe, ," remarked young Candour to us : "Not a jot" we said to ourselves.

66

"This will be a terrible blow for his sister," said a young man who had been listening in silence. A fine girl ;--a very fine girl," said the Exquisite: "and a fine fortune," said the Nobleman. "The mines of Peru are nothing to her;" "Nothing at all," observed the sneerer: "she has no property there. But I would not have you caught, Harry; her income was good, but is dipped, horridly dipped. Guineas melt very fast when the cards are put by them." "I was not aware Maria was a gambler,' said the young man, much alarmed; "Her brother is, Sir," replied his informant. The querist looked sorry, but yet relieved. We could see that he was not quite disinterested in his inquiries. However," resumed the young Cynie, "his profusion has at least obtained him many noble and wealthy friends." He glanced at his hearers; and went on, no one that knew him will hear of his distresses without being forward to relieve them. He will find interest for his money in the hearts of his friends." Nobility took snuff; Foppery played with his watch chain; Hypocrisy looked grave. There was a long silence. We ventured to regret the misuse of natural talents, which, if properly directed, might have rendered their possessor useful to the interests of society, and celebrated in the records of his country. Every one stared, as if we were talking Hebrew. "Very true,' said his Lordship, he enjoys great talents. No man is a nicer judge of horse-flesh. He beats me at billiards, and Harry at picquet; he's a dead shot at a button, and can drive his curricle

wheels over a brace of sovereigns.' "Radicalism," said Caustic, looking round for a laugh. "He is a great amateur of pictures," observed the Exquisite, "and is allowed to be quite a connoiseur in beauty; but there (simpering) every one must claim the privilege of judging for themselves. "Upon my word," said Candour, "you allow poor Charles too little. I have no doubt he has great courage,---though to be sure, there was a whisper that young Hawthorn found him rather shy; and I am convinced he is very generous, though I must confess that I have it from good authority, that his younger brother was refused the loan of a hundred, when Charles had pigeoned that fool of a nabob but the evening before. I would stake my existence that he is a man of unshaken honour, though, when he eased Lieutenant Hardy of his pay, there certainly was an awkward story about the transaction, which was never properly cleared up; I hope that when matters are properly investigated, he will be liberated from all his embarassments; though I am sorry to be compelled to believe that he has been spending double the amount of his income annually. But I trust that all will be adjusted. I have no doubt upon the subject.' "Nor I," said Caustic. "We shall miss him prodigiously at the Club," said the Dandy with a slight shake of the head. "What a bore!" replied the Nobleman with a long yawn.

We

could hardly venture to express compassion for a character so despicable. Our auditors, however, entertained very different opinions of right and wrong! "Poor fellow! he was much to be pitied: had done some very foolish things---to say the truth was a sad scoundrel---but then he was always so mad." And having come unanimously to this decision the conclave dispersed. Charles gave an additional proof of his madness within a week after this discussion by swallowing laudanum. The verdict of the Coroner's Inquest confirmed the judgment of his four friends. For our own parts we must pause before we give in to so dangerous a doctrine. Here is a man who has outraged the laws of honour, the ties of relationship, and the duties of religion; he appears before us in the triple character of a libertine, a swindler, and a suicide.

Yet his follies, his vices, his crimes, are all palliated or even applauded by this specious facon de parler---" He was mad---quite mad !?? F. G.

NAVAL ANOMALIES.

Why are vessels of the feminine gen der? We read of the King George having lost her bowsprit; the Queen Charlotte sprung a leak; the John Adams stove in her bulwarks; the Lady Adams shifted her ballast; the Jupiter foundered in the Gulf of Mexico; and the Emperor on her beam ends. The geographical, astronomical, and political blunders are still more gross. The United States has put into Holmes' Hole; the North America bound round Cape Horn; the Chesapeake cleared out for London; the Massachusetts blown off, the coast; the Mediterranean high and dry on Cape Cod; the Atlantic condemned as unseaworthy; the Vesuvius capsized in the North sea; the Free Ocean plundered by pirates; the Equator in lat. 69. N.; the Globe burnt at sea; the Zenith seized for a breach of the revenue laws; the Zodiac in quarantine; the Constellation under jury masts; The North Star shipped a sea on the line; the Congress hauled into dry dock; and the Constitution undergoing repairs. A few general cases and we have done. We find the Eagle sailing for the coast of Guinea; the Eolus waiting for a wind; the Dolphin taking whales off Brazil; the Leopard run down by the Flying Fish; the Phoenix sunk in ten fathoms water; the Cornucopia short of provisions; the Invincible taken by a Dutch galliot; the Salus with the small-pox on board; the Adamant rotting at the wharf; the Golden Age sold for the benefit of the underwriters; the Howard with a cargo of slaves; and the Palinurus in want of a pilot; not forgetting the Who would a-thought it running foul of Catch me if you can?

FRENCH ADDRESS.

A French gentleman once travelling in his cabriolet from Paris to Calais, was accosted by a man who was walking along the road, and who begged the favor of him to put his great coat, which he found very heavy, into his carriage. "With all my heart," said the gentleman, "but if we should not be travelling to the same place, how will you get your coat?"-"Monsieur," answered the man, with great naiveté, "Je serai dedans"-(I shall be in it.)

The word Parliament is properly a French or Norman word, signifying to speak the mind, and was originally spelt parle a ment.

IN our last number we inserted very copions extracts from Captain Parry's most interesting and valuable Journal of his second Expedition to the Polar Regions; our readers will remember we then alluded to an Appendix annexed to the work, from which we have selected the following relation of the curious and workman-like manner in which the various Esquimaux tribes set about building their winter residences:

In their winter habitations, the only materials used by the Esquimaux

are snow and ice; the latter being made use of for the windows alone. The work is commenced by cutting from a drift of hard and compact snow a number of oblong slabs, six or seven inches thick, and about two feet in length, and laying them edgeways on a level spot, also covered with snow, in a circular form, and of a diameter from eight to fifteen feet proportioned to the number of occupants the hut is to contain. Upon this, as a foundation, is laid a second tier of the same kind, but the pieces inclining a little inwards, and made to fit closely to the lower slabs, and to each other, by running a knife adroitly along the under part and sides. The top of this tier is now prepared for the reception of a third, by squaring it off smoothly with a knife, all of which is dexterously performed by one man standing within the circle, and receiving the blocks of snow from those employed in cutting them without. When the wallhas attained a height of four or five feet, it leans so much inward as to appear as if about to tumble every moment, but

the workmen still fearlessly lay their blocks of snow upon it, until it is too high any longer to furnish the materials to the builder in this manner; of this he gives notice, by cutting a hole close to the ground, in that part where the door is intended to be, which is near the south side, and through this the snow is passed. This they continue till they have brought the sides nearly to meet in a perfect and well constructed dome, sometimes nine or ten feet high in the centre; and this they take considerable care in finishing, by fitting the last block or keystone, very nicely in the centre, dropping it into its place from the outside, though it is still done by the man within. The people outside are in the mean time occupied in throwing up snow with the pooalleray, or snow shovel, and in stuffing in little wedges of snow where holes have been accidentally left.

The builder next proceeds to let himself out, by enlarging the proposed doorway into the form of a gothic arch, three feet high and two feet and a half wide at the bottom, communicating with which they construct two passages. The roofs of these passages are sometimes arched, but more generally made flat, by slabs laid on horizontally. In first digging the snow for building the hut, they take it principally from the part where the passages are to be made which purposely brings the floor of the latter considerably lower than that of the hut, but in no part do they dig till the bare ground appears.

The work just described completes the walls of the hut, if a single apart

ment only be required; but if on account of the relationship, or from any other cause, several families are to reside under one roof, the passages are made common to all, and the first apart ment (in that case made smaller) forms a kind of anti-chamber, from which you go through an arched door-way, five feet high, into the inhabited apartments. When there are three of these, which is generally the case, the whole building with its adjacent passages, forms a tolerably regular cross. For the admission of light into the huts, a round hole is cut on one side of the roof of each apartment, and a circular plate of ice three or four inches thick, and two feet in diameter let into it. The light is soft and pleasant, like that transmitted through ground glass and is quite sufficient for every purpose.

When, after some time, these edifices become surrounded by drift, it is only by the windows as I have before remarked that they could be recognized as human habitations. It may, perhaps, then be imagined how singular is their external appearance at night, when they discover themselves only by a circular disk of fight transmitted through the window from the lamps within.

The next thing to be done, is to raise a bank of some two and a half feet high, all round the interior of each apartment except on the side next the door. This bank, which is neatly squared off, forms their beds and fire place; the former occupying the side, and the latter, the end opposite the door. The passage left open up to to the fire place, is between three and four feet wide. The beds are arranged by first covering the snow with a quantity of small stones, over which are laid their paddles and some blades of whalebone.

་་་་་་་་་ MODES OF COURTSHIP, AND

MARRIAGE CEREMONIALS OF
THE CRIM TARTARS, DE-
SCRIBED BY MRS. HOLDER-
NESS.

WHEN a Tartar desires to marry, and has fixed upon the family from which he intends to choose his wife, (in which determination he must for the most part be influenced by interest, although the reputed beauty or good qualites of his bride may perhaps have been described to him by her attendants), his first step is to obtain the consent of the father. This being accomplished, presents are sent, according to the circums

stances of the suitor, who now visits in the family on a footing of increased familiarity. None of the female part of it, however, are on any occasion visible to him, unless he can by stealth obtain a glance of his fair one, who possesses the superior advantage of seeing him, whenever he comes to the house, through the lattice-work which incloses the apartments of the women.

At the period fixed for the wedding, a Tartar Murza sends to all the neighbouring villages to come and partake of his festivity and good cheer. Two, three, or more villages in a day are thus feasted, and this lasts a week, ten days, or a fortnight, according to the wealth of the bridegroom. Each guest takes with him some present, which is as handsome as his means will allow a horse, a sheep, a lamb, various articles of dress, nay, even money, are presented on this occasion.

Much ceremony takes place in preparing the intended bride on the evening before the wedding, of which I have been a witness. The poor girl either was, or appeared to be, a very unwilling victim. She was lying on cushions when I first entered, covered so as not to be seen, and surrounded by the girls who were her particular friends, the rest of the women attending less closely. The girls, at intervals, loudly lamented the loss of their companion, and she joined in the voice of woe! At length the women told her that it was time to com-: mence the preparations. In an instant the girls all seized her, and uttering loud cries, attempted to withold her from the women, who, struggling against them, endeavoured to force her away. This scene lasted till the bride was near suffering seriously from their folly, for she fainted from continued exertion, and the heat of the crowd; but this may be said to have ended the contest, for they were

obliged to give room and air for her to revive, and some little time after she had recovered, the women took formal possession of their new associate. They then began to dye her fingers, her toe nails, and afterwards her hair, which being tied up, she at last was left to repose. During the whole time I was there, she would not shew her face; and in general I have observed, that if one tells a Tartar girl that it is said she is about to be married, she runs immediately. out of the room, and will never speak to a stranger on that subject.

The share which the priest has in the ceremony, is, I believe very slight: her attends at the house of the bride's father,

and asks at her window, whether she consents to the marriage. If she answers in the affirmative, he says some short ejaculatory prayer, blesses the couple in the name of the prophet, and retires. For this he receives a present of considerable value a horse, or a sheep, or money.

The principal ceremony takes place on the day when the bride is brought home to her husband's house; and the chief visitors are then invited. Eating, drinking, and dancing to the music of a drum and bagpipes, form the greatest part of the entertainment, till the cavalcade sets out to meet the bride. She is always met at the frontiers of the estate on which the bridegroom resides, all the guests attending, and conducting the lady to her future dwelling.

The party, when on the road, forms a gay and lively concourse, in which he, who in England would be called the happy man, is the only person who has not the appearance of being cheerful. Apparelled in his worst suit of clothes, with unshaven face, and perhaps badly mounted, he rides where he is least conspicuous, while a friend has the charge of leading another horse for him, which is always richly caparisoned. When the party attending the bride is arrived at the place of meeting, the mother, or some duenna who has the superintendance of the business, first makes a present of value to the person who leads the horse, which, if it be a shawl, as is generally the case, is tied round the neck of the animal. Afterwards, many small handkerchiefs coarsely embroidered, and little pieces of linen, or of coarse printed cotton, are distributed, for which the guests contend in horse-races. This occupies much time, and during the whole of it, the carriage which contains the bride waits at the distance of nearly half a mile, It is never brought nearer, to the party, but the lady's father, or one of her brothers, attends it, in order to see the charge safely executed of delivering her unseen into the house of her husband. The better to effect this, the carriage is hung round with curtains inside, and if the party arrive somewhat early at the village, the vehicle is detained at the entrance of it till near the close of day, and till it is supposed that all are occupied in eating,

When she reaches the door of her new prison, sherbet is brought her to drink, and some kind of sweetmeat is given with it. She is next presented with a lamb, which is actually put into the carriage with her, and afterwards trans

At

ferred to one of her attendants length, after much bustle and prepara tion, the court being previously cleared of all spectators, large coarse banketing is fixed up, so as to prevent all possibility of her being seen, and then, wrapped in a sheet, she is carried by her brother, into the house. Here fresh forms and ceremonies await her. Being received into one of the most private rooms, a curtain is fixed up, so as to entirely cover one corner of it. Behind this the poor girl is placed, who, after the annoy ance and fatigue she has undergone, is glad to rest as much as she is able in this nook of her cage. Decorated now in all her gayest attire, and glittering with gold and brocade, she is still not permitted to be seen, except by her mother and female, friends, who busy themselves in arranging her clothes in proper order, and in adorning the room with a profusion of gay dresses, embroidered handkerchiefs and towels, rich coverlids, and cushions of cotton or Turkish silk. All these are distributed around the room; even the shifts, being new for the occasion, are hung up with the rest, along the walls of the apartment, forming an extraordinary sort of tapestry.

は

While this arrangement is taking place, the bridegroom, having parted with most of his guests, begins to prepare for a visit to his bride. Being now washed, shaven, and gaily drest, he is allowed about midnight to see his wife for an hour, at the expiration of which, he is summoned to retire. Throughout the whole of the next day, she is destined to bé fixed in a corner of the room, and to remain standing during the visits of as many strangers as curiosity may bring to see her. The men employ themselves in horse racing; and three or four arti cles of some value are given to the winners. The bridegroom makes a point of paying an early visit to those whom he considers his friends, taking with him. some little present of his wife's embroidery.

It is by no means rare for a Tartar peasant to expend from one thousand to two thousand rubles at his wedding, though there are many who are com pelled by poverty to more frugality.

A SINGULAR TALE.

We are about to indulge our readers with a very true relation of an affair which happened some years since in one of the French provinces,