O darling! as at Duty's call I twine

These fetters round thee, they are wet with tears!
For the sweet playmate of my early years

I cannot thus afflict, or thus resign
My equal liberty, and not repine:
For I would make thee, infant as thou art,
Queen of my hopes, my leisure and my heart,

But that Affection's venerable cause

Is link'd with Duty's unrelenting laws !

She blames me that I let thy sports offend
Old Time, and lay thy snare within his path,
To make him faulter, as it often hath:

But I love him not! He holds his breath,
And hurries on, and is in league with Death,
To make the path through which my footsteps bend,
Late rich in all that rural scenes attend,

A frightful desert; and I droop and die

Beneath the gaze of his dull, threatening eye!

MATILDA BEtham.

ON MY BROTHER'S LEAVING HOME WITHOUT MY · SEEING HIM.

THOU goest, and I am not near

To bid or to receive farewell!

But hopes, more tender than a tear,

More zealous than my lips could tell,

More fondly hovering than the dove,
Than the harp's tones more highly wrought
In the deep prayer of earnest love,
In the long dream of tender thought,-

These on thy parting steps attend,

These on thy future prospects dwell;
And are they not, my own dear friend,
More potent than the word farewell ?

MATILDA BETHAM.

SONNET.

BY A LADY ON VISITING THE GRAVE OF HER CHILD.

THREE times the nettle o'er thy narrow bed
Has tinged its stalk with verdure and decay;
And thrice the spiky grass its green array,
And thrice its pale upon thy turf has spread :-
The thistle thrice has crowned its kingly head,
And thrown as oft its withered crown away;
The slender ash has budded thrice with May,
And thrice its sallow locks with Autumn shed :-
All things around have changed with Time's career,
Save the one faithful solitary Yew,

That knows no change amid the changeful year.-
Fond, faithful mourner!-emblem sad and true
Of her whose eye has never dried its tear,-
Whose cheek has never changed its mournful hue.

SONNET.

WRITTEN ON THE DAY APPOINTED FOR THE NATIONAL THANKSGIVING, IN THE CLOSE OF 1812.

LONG hast thou suffered, Europe! and again
The Angel's missioned sword has left its sheath,
And, busied with the dreary work of death,
Gleams on yon distant desolated plain.

As, erst, when Egypt's first-born sons were slain,
Thy princes now resign their panting breath,
And tithes of all the people strew the heath,
And purple rivers journey to the main.

O Albion! unstained-unshaken Isle

Fair Freedom's sanctuary, and Ocean's lover,
Who lookest on secure, and weep'st the while
To see thy fallen foes the desert cover,
Go, in the light of Heaven's guardian smile,
And keep with grateful heart thy PASSOVER!

N. B. The three productions marked * are not original.

BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, DEATHS,

WITHIN THE YEAR 1812.

London, the Lady of Colonel W. F. Grant, M. P. a son. 20. The Lady of Colonel Balfour, Scots Greys, a son. 21. At Drumsheugh, the Right Honourable the Countess of Moray, a son. 22. At Dalhousie Castle, the Countess of Dalhousie, a son. 23. At London, the Viscountess Primrose, a daughter.-Mrs Alexander M'Conell, of Bangor, four sons. 24. At Edinburgh, the Lady of Dr Henton Spalding, a daughter.

burgh, the Lady of William Ferguson, Esq. of Kilrie, a son.-Lately, the wife of Mr Howson, of Unthank, near Penrith, two girls and a boy.-Lately, at Lisbon, the Lady of Major Lawrie, 79th regiment, a son.

JULY 6. At Livingstone House, the Lady of Alexander Munro, Esq. Livingstone, a daughter. 7. Mrs Craigie, of Dunbarnie, a daughter.-8. Lady Macdonald Lockhart, a daughter.-At LonMAY 3. At Foss, Mrs Menzies, of don, her Grace the Duchess of Bedford, Chesthall, a daughter.-At London, the a daughter.-14. At Kelly, the Lady of Viscountess Grimston, a son.—At Tor- the Hon. Lieutenant-Colonel Ramsay, a quay, the Viscountess Hamilton, a daugh- son.-15. At Edinburgh, the Lady of Mr ter. At Edinburgh, Mrs Campbell, of Swinton, of Broadmeadow, a son.-At Dalserf, a son. 6. At Kirby-hall, her Drumsheugh, Mrs Major Weir, a son.— Grace the Duchess of Leeds, a son.-At At London, the Lady of Sir George Edinburgh, the Lady of Colonel Birch Clerk, Bart. M. P. a son.-At Great Reynardson, two sons. At Cleveland. Marlow, the Lady of the Hon. Alexander the Right Honourable Lady Charlotte Hope, M. P. a son.-At Kilmardinny, Baillie, a daughter. 17. At Edinburgh, Mrs Kirkman Finlay, a son. 21. Mrs Mrs Carlyle Bell, a daughter. 18. At Dr Brewster, a son. 22. The Honourable Portobello, the Lady of Sir James Wemyss Mrs Ferguson, a son. 25. At George's Mackenzie, of Seatwell, Bart. a son, still Square, Edinburgh, the Lady of Captain born.-At Edinburgh, Mrs Captain Stew- Ogilvy, royal navy, a son.-Lately, art, Royal Perthshire militia, a son. 19. poor woman, at Settle, four children, The Lady of the Right Hon. Windham three boys and a girl.-At Dunvegan Quin, a son and heir.-At Richmond, Castle, the Lady of J. N. Macleod, of the Right Honourable Lady Harriet An- Macleod, Esq. a son and heir.-At Dalcram, a daughter.-At Uffington-house, yell Lodge, the Lady of John Dalyell, near Stamford, the Countess of Lindsey, Esq. of Lingo, a son. 28. Mrs J.O. Mack, a daughter. 21 At Grange, the Lady of Howe Street, Edinburgh, a daughter. of James John Cadell, Esq. a son. 22. At Kilmun House, Argyleshire, the Lady At Montrose, the Lady of Colonel Car- of Alexander Campbell, Esq. of Balonegie, Bengal artillery, a daughter.-At chyle, a son. Musselburgh, the Lady of LieutenantColonel Kerr, 2d Ceylon regiment, a daughter.-At Bath, Mrs M'Kinnon, widow of Major General M'Kinnon, who was unfortunately blown up on the beach of Ciudad Rodrigo, a son.-At Titnest Wood, Sunning Hill, the Lady of Sir Home Popham, a son, being the eleventh child.

JUNE 1. Mrs Wishart, York Place, Edinburgh, a son.-At Calcutta, the Lady of Alexander Fraser Tytler, Esq. register of Kishnagur, a daughter.-At the Island of Madeira, the Lady of Major-General the Honourable Robert Meade, a son.At Gibraltar, the Lady of LieutenantColonel Molle, 9th regiment, a son and heir. 16. At Abercrombie Place, Edin

AUG. 5. At Old Aberdeen, Mrs Colonel Forbes, a daughter.-6. At Hillsborough, the Marchioness of Downshire, a son and heir. 12. At Kincraig, Mrs M'Intosh, of Balnespick, a son. 14. At Durie, in Fifeshire, the Lady of Matthew Fortesque, Esq. a son. 18. At Stobo Castle, Lady Elizabeth Montgomery, a daughter. At Portobello, Lady Elibank, a son.-21. At Ballindalloch, the Lady of George Macpherson Grant, Esq. of Ballindalloch and Invereshie, M. P. a son. 27. At Edinburgh, the Lady of David Clephane, Esq. commissioner of excise, a son.

SEPT. 3. At Edinburgh, the Lady of Professor David Ritchie, a daughter.Lately, the Countess of Caledon, a son