What a singular taste the Americans have in baptismal names! How quaint, fanciful, original, poetic! Preserved Fish is a gentleman who deserves to be immortalized for his name alone. Patience and other virtues have their merit, but are getting out of date, the fanciful and poetic being gaining ground-such as Pleasant May, Esq., Pleasant May, junior, Esq., Violet Primrose, Esq., and his daughter Violetta. May is a favourite Christian name for ladies, but no other month, as far as I could learn, had ever arrived at such a distinction. It seems strange that the names of the New Testament, which are the most common in their fatherland, are comparatively rare with them, the names from the Old Testament obtaining a decided preference; and while Matthew, Mark, and Luke are rarely heard of, we meet thousands of Abners, Hirams, Josiahs, Jothams, Joels, and Jonathans. The Americans equal their English progenitors in their fondness for public dinners, and far out-do them in the number of their toasts. Among the great quantity of trash for filling up their prodigious number of journals, toasts form no inconsiderable portion, occupying whole columns, which are copied, with the author's names, from one extremity of the Union to the other. The president and vice-president of dinners have a certain number of toasts to give, after which, almost every individual volunteers at least one, and as the whole of them would be too many to print, the managers make a selection, which often gives offence; for every man, however obscure, has a passion for seeing his name in print. These evanescent effusions consist of a toast buttered with a suitable sentiment; and though every one aims at originality, or at least giving a new turn to an old toast, yet they are in fact the same things re-hashed daily, and are generally insipid enough. As to drinking a glass of wine to each, that is out of the question, one glass must sometimes serve for half a dozen; though of course any individual may get drunk as soon as he pleases. Speeches must be few and short; equality will not tolerate long ones, except from a very great orator-and greater favourite. The hip, hip, hip, hurrahs! keep rapidly going, the interstices filled in by music and the reports of salient corks; and the whole business is over in less time than would suffice Lord Brougham or Sir Robert for a speech. One of those nomen multitudinis, called Colonel, whom I met with at an hotel in my travels, amused us exceedingly by the following anecdote of himself, which, I regret to say, wants both the dialect and the delivery. "I had been a tremendous curser, but I determined to reform, (because I got frightened by a dream,) and to join a Methodist Church. Well, I went to the elders of the congregation to tell them that I wished to join them; but it was necessary that I should give them my reasons for the sudden conversion and reformation wrought upon me; so I told them my awful dream. Says I, I thought that I was mounting up a ladder, as it were Jacob's ladder, going to Heaven; but at last I got to the top, and found I was still about six feet short of Heaven, Well, I was greatly puzzled, and did not know what to do to get in: so, at last, I hallooed out, and the angel Gabriel came, and looked out of a window. "Good morrow, Colonel," says he. "Good morrow, Squire,' says I. to your Squire,' says I. Maybe you can tell me how I can get "I am sure I can't tell,' says he, 'unless you give a big jump and catch by the window-sill.' "With that I made a spring, and, by Hell, I got the God-d- -st fall.' "When I had got so far, the preacher told me I was not just right yet, and that I warn't fit for them by a dd sight."" I also heard another anecdote - -a clerical blunder- ascribed to an individual who was named; it is, at least, perfectly harmless, if not worth preserving A Methodist preacher, after service, gave the following notice: "Should brother Tomkins arrive in time, there will be preaching here, God willing, to-morrow morning at eleven o'clock-but, at six o'clock in the evening, there will be preaching any-how." Another volunteer preacher of the same sect, remarkable for a Stentorian voice, and the loudness of his denunciations against sinners, one evening said to his congregation, after stunning them with his thundering eloquence;" People say that I bawl: let them; God has given me lungs to bawl, and I will bawl.' The Americans are more distinguished by loud speaking, both in the pulpit and at the bar, than by any other quality, from British lawyers and divines. They generally commence moderately enough; but in the heat of the argument, modulation is lost sight of. As the fervour increases, so does the voice, the more brilliant the lightning, the louder the thunder. It is unnecessary to enter a court of law or a church to discover this; you have only to pass through any of the neighbouring streets during divine service, or the sitting of the Courts. It is a pity they do not attend to Hamlet's advice to the players, with which the lawyers at least are well acquainted; for of all writers, living or dead, Shakspeare is there the most read, and the most admired. And they justly, and to their credit, claim as strong an interest in his fame as they allow to English born; for are they not English by descent? In attending the courts of law in various parts of the United States, I have been particularly struck by the inferiority of the judges to the prominent lawyers. I have closely attended to a trial, at which the young man who was judge seemed to be the most insignificant person employed. When it became necessary to charge the jury, he did not appear inclined to say a word: however he did rouse himself to the use of speech; and with diffidence-a rare quality in the land, and a strange place to meet it--he told them that "if they believed such an evidence, they would find for the plaintiff, if not, for the defendant;" but did not give the least hint which could tend to throw light on the subject ;-no recapitulation or commentary on the evidence; no profound remarks or deductions, which might serve as a beacon to the wandering judgment;-in short, any person in court could have charged the jury as well. This judicial inferiority is easily accounted for; he was appointed, as a political partisan of Jackson, to an office which was beneath the acceptance of any eminent lawyer. Oratory and declamation are very much in request in the United States; and to match their set orations in Europe we must go back to the age of Lewis the Fourteenth. Such long and laboured displays as took place on the celebration of the funeral obsequies of Lafayette, throughout the American republic, would hardly find hearers in England, whoever might be the illustrious dead. The appointment of judge being temporary, many of the practising lawyers have been judges, to some of whom the office would still be an object; but ex judges are found in almost every station of life. In the south, and I believe in the west, the duties of attorney and counsel are performed by the same man; and no labour or zeal are withheld in the cause of their clients. Indolence or sloth form no part of the American character; there, every man who is not an office-holder at least expects to work for his hire; and no sympathy is felt for those who put forth half their energies, and expend the other half in complaints. Magistrates are elected annually by the citizens and householders: they are entitled to the dignity of esquire as in England, and are generally called squire ; no salary is attached to the office, which, however, is sought after solely for the sake of the fees, the amount of which, depending on the extent of popularity and number of friends, varies very much. Having alluded in this chapter to the passion for notoriety among the men, it cannot be supposed that ladies have escaped unobserved on that score, in a country where, above all others, they are distinguished as its votaries. They have not yet begun to allow their names to appear as managers of political, social, sporting, or trading associations; but have hitherto sought "the bubble reputation" as presidents, vice-presidents, and secre taries of religious and charitable societies; whilst the more youthful, who cannot attain to such distinction, appear to great advantage before the moral and marrying young men at the Sunday-schools; and the more lovely display themselves at the charity-fairs, where beauty is a "tower of strength. When their motives are pure, they are to be admired; though I still more admire that retiring delicacy which used to be considered the brightest gem of the female character; where the motives are mixed-that is, obtaining charity and husbands at the same time-I can excuse them too, but not the bad taste of the men in encouraging such displays; but when actuated solely by ambition for display, or a last desperate effort for matrimony, they are to be pitied, if not despised. They are such as liberal nature made them, in person; but in mind they are, like their male brethren, the fruits or victims of circumstances; and, in addition, the victims or the fruits of their arbiter, guide, and destiny,-man. They may well court notoriety, when legislatures establish female colleges, with degrees and diplomas; and having now added science and learning to charities and missionaries, I see no reason against their proceeding to become inspectors of hospitals. However, it is difficult to judge of new countries by the rules adapted to old ones; perhaps this college may tend to remove the evil complained of in their neighbouring state of Indiana, by sending their female teachers to reform or replace those who, it appears by the following report, are no credit to the male sex : "Indiana.-Lamentable and degrading Disclosures.-We have received a copy of a report addressed to the legislature of Indiana by the trustees of a State seminary, incorporated for the express purpose of qualifying teachers for common schools. From this report it appears there is a deplorable deficiency of teachers in the State. The investigations, says the report, of the association formed for the promotion of common education in the State From their inquiries it have thrown additional light on this subject. appears that only about one quarter of the children of suitable age attended school in 1833-4. Only one in six can read; one in nine write; and one in a hundred study geography, and one in a hundred and forty-five grammar. The universal complaint was We can't get suitable teachers-some are intemperate; some profane; some notoriously debauched.' And yet the trustees say, 'We dare not dismiss them, for there are no others to be had.' THE WILD HONEYSUCKLE. Written on seeing one in Flower near the source of the River Don, BY THE AUTHOR OF 66 CORN-LAW RHYMES." WHAT dost thou here, sweet woodbine wild? From good by rigid Fate exiled, From Hope's blest visions torn; And, cursed in Nature's genial hour, Thou dwellest here, wild woodbine-flower! While verdure frowns; and from on high, Through valleys black and bare, (The realm of cold sterility, Where thou alone art fair,) Don, like a pilgrim scorn'd and grey, How like a tyrant in distress, What gloom of light and shade! This silence,-is it death? Is motion life? There rolls the cloud, If sound is life, in accents stern And ever here the plover wails The lean snake starts before my tread, And on grey Snealsden's summit lone, Hark! hark-Again?-His glance of ire Now hurtles wild the torrent's force, In swift rage, at my side; The bleak crag, lowering o'er his course, Time's eldest born! with naked breast, And marble shield, and flinty crest! And thou, at his eternal feet, To make the desert sport, Bloom'st all alone, wild woodbine sweet, Like modesty at court! Here! and alone !-sad doom, I ween, Nor may thy beauteous languor rest Its pale cheek on the Lily's breast. Who breathes thy sweets? Thou bloom'st in vain, Where none thy charms may see; For, save some wretch, like homeless Cain, What guest will visit thee? No leaf but thine is here to bless ; How lonely is thy loveliness! NINA DALGAROOKI. "Be wondrous wary of your first comportments. Get a good name, and be very tender of it afterwards; for 'tis like a Venice-glass, quickly cracked, never to be mended, though patched it may be. To this purpose, take along with you this fable:-It happened that Fire, Water, and Fame went to travel together (as you are going now): they consulted that, if they lost each other, how they might be retrieved, and meet again. Fire said, Wherever you see smoke, there you shall find me.' Water said, Where you see marsh and moorish low ground, there you shall find me. But Fame said, ' Take heed how you lose me; for if you do, you will run a great hazard never to meet me again: there's no retrieving of me."-Howell's Familiar Letters, 1634. THERE was not in all St. Petersburg a more admired beauty than the young Countess Nina Dalgarooki. Her mother, who had been an Italian, had bequeathed to her the dark hair and eyes of the south, to which were added her own northeru complexion, of the most dazzling fairness and brilliancy. In the gay saloons of her native city, where the ruder as well as the softer sex "Sometimes counsel take, and sometimes tea," her beauty was the theme of every tongue: all agreed that it was as faultless as it was rare; and Nina was far from aping the singularity of differing from so general an opinion. She had very early lost her mother; and had therefore been left to the unadulterated spoiling of a doating father, and almost equally fond brother. At the time this history commences she had just attained her seventeenth year. Courted, flattered, followed, and admired-her father and brother in high favour with the Emperor-there appeared nothing wanting to make her happy; but as well might we expect silken curtains, soft couches, and eiderdown pillows to ensure pleasant dreams, as to suppose that all "the appliances and means to boot" of happiness can make us so unless imagination lends one of her Claude glasses, and allows us to view our realities through its medium. No matter how bright the true sun may be, a winter sky, seen through the magic glass, is, to the cheated vision, "brighter, lovelier far." Nina sincerely loved her father; and the first sorrow in her little life had been the intelligence that, in another month, he was to set out to Siberia, on a secret mission. The struggle that arose in her mind was, whether she should accompany him, and "Waste her sweetness on the desert air;' or remain behind, pining for the society of a parent she almost idolized. He urged the latter course, as he should be but three months absent, and intended, on his return, taking her to Paris and London; but still the wish to go predominated. One evening, when her brother Ladislas had left her, after using every argument to induce her to abandon all thoughts of the Siberian journey, her eyes fell upon a large mirror. "Ah!" said she with a sigh, as the glass gave back her most beauteous form, "if one could but take care of one's beauty as one does one's jewels and costly robes, only wearing it on particular and worthy occasions, then, indeed, I should not |