As lamps high set

Upon some earthly eminence,-
And to the gazer brighter thence
Than the sphere-lights they flout,-
Dwindle in distance and die out,
While no star waneth yet;

So through the past far-reaching night,
Only the star-souls keep their light.

A gentle boy,

With moods of sadness and of mirth,
Quick tears and sudden joy,-
Grew up beside the peasant's hearth.
His father's toil he shares;
But half his mother's cares,
From his dark searching eyes,

Too swift to sympathize,

Hid in her heart she bears.

At early morn,

His father calls him to the field;

Through the stiff soil that clogs his feet,
Chill rain and harvest heat,

He plods all day; returns at eve, outworn,
To the rude fare a peasant's lot doth yield;-
To what else was he born?

The God made King

Of every living thing

(For his great heart in love could hold them all); The dumb eyes meeting his by hearth and stall,-Gifted to understand!

Knew it and sought his hand;

And the most timorous creature had not fled,
Could she his heart have read,

Which fain all feeble things had bless'd and sheltered.
To Nature's feast-

Who knew her noblest guest

And entertained him best

Kingly he came. Her chambers of the East
She drap'd with crimson and with gold,
And pour'd her pure joy-wines
For him the poet-soul'd.

For him her anthem roll'd,

From the storm-wind among the winter pines,
Down to the slenderest note

Of a love warble, from the linnet's throat.

The

But when begins

array for battle, and the trumpet blows, A King must leave the feast, and lead the fight.

And with its mortal foes,-

Grim gathering hosts of sorrow and of sins,-
Each human soul must close,

And Fame her trumpet blew

Before him; wrapp'd him in her purple state;
And made him mark for all the shafts of fate
That henceforth round him flew.

Though he may yield
Hard-press'd, and wounded fall
Forsaken on the field;

His regal vestments soil'd;

His crown of half its jewels spoil'd;
He is a king for all.

Had he but stood aloof!

Had he array'd himself in armour proof
Against temptation's darts!

So yearn the good;-so those the world calls wise,
With vain presumptuous hearts,
Triumphant moralize.

Of martyr-woe

A sacred shadow on his memory rests;
Tears have not ceased to flow;

Indignant grief yet stirs impetuous breasts,

To think,-above that noble soul brought low, That wise and soaring spirit fool'd, enslav'd,Thus, thus he had been sav'd!

It might not be !

That heart of harmony

Had been too rudely rent;

Its silver chords, which any hand could wound,

By no hand could be tun'd,

Save by the maker of the instrument,

Its every string who knew,

And from profaning touch his heavenly gift withdrew. Regretful love

His country fain would prove,

By grateful honours lavish'd on his grave;

Would fain redeem her blame

That he so little at her hands can claim,
Who unrewarded gave

To her his life-bought gift of song and fame.

The land he trod

Hath now become a place of pilgrimage;
Where dearer are the daisies of the sod
That could his song engage.

The hoary hawthorn, wreath'd

Above the bank on which his limbs he flung

While some sweet plaint he breath'd;
The streams he wander'd near;

The maidens whom he lov'd; the songs he sung;
All, all are dear.

The arch blue eyes,—

Arch but for love's disguise,

Of Scotland's daughters, soften at his strain;
Her hardy sons, sent forth across the main
To drive the ploughshare through earth's virgin soils,
Lighten with it their toils;

And sister lands have learned to love the tongue
In which such songs are sung.

For doth not Song

To the whole world belong?.

Is it not given wherever tears can fall,
Wherever hearts can melt, or blushes glow,
Or mirth and sadness mingle as they flow,
A heritage to all?"

INDEX.

N.B. The figures between [] refer to the History.

ACCIDENTS.-Terrible accident at the Poly-
technic Institution, 5; fall of a shop at
Liverpool, five lives lost, 7; fall of
houses in Kentish-town, 8; destruction
of the Crinan Canal, 12; steamboat
explosion at Cardiff, nine lives lost, 16;
explosion of the Hounslow powder-
mills, seven lives lost, 36; singular
death of a Bank official, 47.; dreadful
boiler explosion at Dundee, 33 persons
killed or injured, 49; at the Westmins-
ter Palace Hotel, seven persons killed,
61; singular accident by a fly-wheel,
68; fatal boat accident in the Bristol
Channel, 83; to a man-of-war's boat
in Belfast Harbour, thirteen persons
drowned, 92; explosion of a percus-
sion-cap factory at Birmingham, three
persons killed, 114; explosion of ano-
ther percussion-cap factory, 21 persons
killed, 145; four persons burnt to
death, 119; explosion of the Ballin-
collig powder-mills, five persons killed,
119; destruction of Walton Bridge,
123; fatal accident to an aeronaut,
124; explosion on board H.M.S.
Pioneer, 129; fatal boat accidents in
Ireland, 134; terrible explosion on
board the Great Eastern, 136; fatal
explosion of a steam-engine at Lewes,
142; explosion of a steam-tug in
Kingroad, 143; explosion and loss of
life at Ballisodare, Sligo, 168.

Railway Accidents. -On the North
Western Railway, near Lymington, 18;
terrible railway accidents in America-
on the Great Western Railway of Ca-
nada, at Chicago, on the Michigan
Southern, 28; at the Grove Lake Via-
duct, Cornwall Railway, 60; on the
Bangor and Carnarvon Railway, 68;
on the London and Blackwall Railway,
116; on the Great Northern Railway,
near Hitchin, 135; on the South Coast
Railway, 177; railway and steamboat
disasters in America, 201; return of
railway accidents in the year 1859,
202.

Colliery Accidents.-At the Agecroft
colliery, and at Wolverhampton, 6; at

Accidents-continued.

the Mair colliery, Neath, 26 lives lost,
43; at Star-green colliery, 20 persons
killed or wounded, 167.

Acrs, LIST OF, 22 VICT.-i. Public Gene-
ral Acts, 276; ii. Local and Personal
Acts, 277; iii. Private Act printed,
279; iv. Private Act not printed, 279.
ACTS, LIST OF, 22 & 23 VICT.-i. Public
General Acts, 280; ii. Local and Per-
sonal Acts, 282; iii. Private Acts
printed, 288; iv. Private Acts not
printed, 289.

Antiquities. Excavations at Uriconium,
or Wroxeter, 164.

[See Sales of Pictures, Coins, &c.]
Arctic Expedition.-Discovery of the fate
of Sir John Franklin's Expedition, by
Captain M'Clintock, 143.

Asia Minor.-Earthquake in, Erzeroum
destroyed, 77.

BANKRUPTS, Table of, in the year 1859,
310.
BIRTHS, 377.

BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS, Sum-
mary of, from 1850 to 1859, 310.
Burns, Robert, celebration of the centen-
ary anniversary of the birth of, 9.
Prize poem on the occasion by Miss
Isabella Craig, POETRY, 556.
CHINA. Mr. Bruce appointed minister
plenipotentiary; his instructions, [262];
arrives at Hong Kong; evasive delays
of the Chinese; English and French
ambassadors proceed to the Peiho river,
[263]; attempt to enter the river; action
with the forts, and disastrous defeat of
our force, [264]; Chinese account of the
action, [266]; the squadron returns to
Shanghai, [268].

Treaty between Her Majesty and the
Emperor of China, signed at Tien-tsin
June 26, 1858, 206.

Despatch of Admiral Hope, detailing
the action at the mouth of the Peiho,
267; Chinese official account of the
same, 273.
Colliery Accidents.-At the Agecroft col-

liery, and at Wolverhampton, 6; at
the Mair colliery, Neath, 26 lives lost,