left in the sufferer's body. When the execution | And so I went away with the determination of tellwas stopped, two thousand six hundred and nine-ing Platt that I would submit, and begging his teen strokes had cut the body to pieces. But in pardon. He, however, anticipated me, and sent Russia, the fact of striking a corpse is not cruel for me to the monitors' library directly after dinner, enough, and would not inspire a nation of slaves where he told me what he had said before in the with a sufficient amount of terror. A man must morning, and asked me if I had altered my derevive before he undergoes the remainder of his termination? I told him that I had, and that I would punishment. The unhappy wretch was taken to submit. He then gave me thirty-one cuts as hard the hospital, where, as is the custom in these cases, as ever he could, across the shoulder-blades, with he was placed in a bath of water saturated with a cane more than an inch in circumference, which salt, and then treated with the greatest care and he paid 1s. 6d. for, and with such force that he had solicitude, until a complete cure was effected, so to stop almost every cut to bend back the cane, it that he could bear the rest of the sentence. In all was so curled with the violence of the blow. I instances, and at all times, the penal laws of Rus- almost fainted during it; but I can not help being sia are stamped with atrocious barbarity. It was glad that I managed to get out of the room without seven months before he was cured and his health making the slightest movement to show him that I re-established; and, at the expiration of this period, felt his brutality." he was solemnly taken back to the place of execution, and forced once more to run the gauntlet, in order to receive his full amount of 6000 strokes. He died at the commencement of this second punishment."

Now that we are upon this matter of the knout, it is worth while to call to the recollection of our cousins over the water-we mean our English cousins who affect a humanity far in advance of their barbarian neighbors, that their schools are not yet wholly free from traces of brutality; and we hear, within the month, that a certain head-master, a pupil of the distinguished Dr. Arnold, and a stout maintenant of that eminent scholar's system of school-management, has winked at a bit of birch barbarity, which has a strong smack of Muscovy.

It appears from the newspaper accounts that a certain boy of the name of Stewart (an Earl's son, by the way), had a quarrel on the football ground with another of the name of Holmes. Platt, a moniter of the school, interfered, accusing young Stew art of having the wrong, and of telling a falsehood, which Stewart resented in a boyish way, by retorting falsity upon the monitor.

The rest of the story is best told in Stewart's own words, narrating the conduct of Platt:

Stewart was immediately taken off to the surgeon, who pronounced that in the whole course of his life he had never witnessed such a brutal and unmanly outrage. The boy was sent to the sick-room, where he remained until Sunday. His arm was swollen from the effects of the blows "four inches above its natural size."

All that Dr. Vaughan (the head-master of the school) could say with regard to this conduct of young Platt, was, that "he was sorry Stewart had got into a mess with the monitors, that he should advise him to take the whopping, that there was no cowardice in taking any thing from a legal power."

So it appears that Smike, and the old master of Dotheboys Hall, have their parallels still in England.

AND as we speak of masters and of schools, our thought reverts to the figure and the face of onenot a master indeed, but a teacher-who sat, when we saw him, in a professor's chair of the University of Edinburgh. He was a stout, tall, athletic man, with broad shoulders and chest, and prodigiously muscular limbs. His face was magnificent; his hair, which he wore long and flowing, fell round his massive features like a lion's mane, to which, indeed, it was often compared, being much of the same hue. His lips were always working, while his gray flashing eyes had a weird sort of look which was highly characteristic. In his dress he was sin. gularly slovenly, being, except on state occasions, attired in a threadbare suit of clothes, often rent, his shirts frequently buttonless, and his hat of the description anciently called shocking. His profes. sional style of costume was just as odd. His gown, as he stalked along the colleges, flew in tattered stripes behind him; and, altogether, with all his genius, he was personally one of the most strangely eccentric of the many eccentric characters existing in his day in the metropolis of the north.

"I thought no more about it then, but on Wednesday morning, after breakfast, he sent for me to his room, and told me that he had sent for me to whop me for my impertinence yesterday. Upon which I told him that I had not been impertinent, or, at any rate, if I had, the remarks I had made were in consequence of his speaking as he had done to me. He then told me that that had nothing whatever to do with it, and (I copy his remark verbatim) said-'I may say any thing I like on the football ground, and you have no right, whatever it is, to contradict me.' So I said, 'If you say what is not true, I shall certainly contradict you;' but he cut me short, and told me to stand out, and so I told him that I should do no such thing; upon which he said, 'I suppose you know that you must either take my whopping or you will be sent away from the school;' so I told him that I would not take it, and I left his room and called at Dr. Vaughan's, who, however, was engaged then, and I was told to call at a few minutes before one. In the mean while, Platt had been to Dr. Vaughan and had told him about it. When I saw Dr. Vaughan, he was excessively kind, and told me that he was exceed-Isle of Palms,' something in the style of Southey. ingly sorry that I should have got into a mess with any of the monitors, and that, as far as he heard, I was to blame in what I had said, and so he should advise me to take the whopping, as there was no cowardice in taking any thing from a legal power.

It is perhaps needless to say that we refer to the critic, poet, and professor-Christopher North. Every body has heard before now that the old man is dead. If he had lived until May he would have been sixty-nine.

Walter Scott, writing to Miss Baillie about him, many years ago, said:

"The author of the elegy upon poor Grahame is John Wilson, a young man of considerable poetical powers. He is now engaged upon a poem called the

He is an eccentric genius, and has fixed himself upon the banks of Windermere, but occasionally resides in Edinburgh, where he now is. Perhaps you have seen him; his father was a wealthy Paisley manufacturer-his mother a sister of Robert

Sym. He seems an excellent, warm-hearted, and | gone, announced as dead, and already eulogized as enthusiastic young man, something too much, an actor on another stage than ours; yet it is only perhaps, of the latter quality places him among the recently that he has really bid adieu to life, carrylist of originals." ing with him the name, if not of a very great poet, yet of a very good man.

Many years later when Wilson came to be a candidate for the Professorship, in which harness he died, Scott speaks of him thus:

"There needed no apology for mentioning anything in which I could be of service to Wilson; and, so far as good words and good wishes here can do, I think he will be successful; but the battle must be fought in Edinburgh. You are aware that the only point of exception to Wilson may be, that with the fire of genius, he has possessed some of its eccentricities; but did he ever approach to those of Henry Brougham, who is the god of Whiggish idolatry? If the high and rare qualities with which he is invested are to be thrown aside as useless, because they may be clouded by a few grains of dust, which he can blow aside at pleasure, it is less a punishment on Mr. Wilson than on the country. I have little doubt he would consider success in this weighty matter as a pledge for binding down his acute and powerful mind to more regular labor than circumstances have hitherto required of him; for, indeed, without doing so, the appointment could in no point of view answer his purpose. He must stretch to the oar for his own credit, as well as that of his friends; and if he does so, there can be no doubt that his efforts will be doubly blessed, in reference both to himself and to public utility. You must, of course, recommend to Wilson great temper in his canvass-for wrath will do no good. After all, he must leave off sack, purge, and live cleanly, as a gentleman ought to do; otherwise people will compare his present ambition to that of Sir Terry O'Fag, when he wished to become a judge. Our

pleasant follies are made the whips to scourge us,

as Lear says; for otherwise, what could possibly stand in the way of his nomination?"

It is to be feared that the doughty Christopher, who was one of the best "single-stick" men of his day, did not wholly "leave off sack" up to the end of the chapter; and there is many a pleasant passage of the Ambrosiane, which has a taste of the "mountain mist."

But the mourning corner of our budget is not filled with this great name only. Rubini, the pleasant singer, who years ago bewitched all hearts and ears with his warm tones, and his passionate expression, has slipped off in his Italian home-leaving no child to inherit his hoarded riches, and no pupil to revive the strains which have passed away with him forever.

He began life as a humble violinist, in a little church of the province Bergamo; where those who had the ordering of music declared him utterly incompetent even for so menial employ. But the repulse lighted a spark of daring and of decision in him, that forced him on, over the heads of his masters, and finally made him the most admired tenor of Europe.

As for France, and French Journalism, what can we record but the never-ending watchfulness of Eastern news; the never-ending sneers at Russian intolerance; the never-ceasing growth of English and French brotherhood? And for token of this last, every newspaper of the city has already pointed with an eloquent quill, at the reception of the Duke of Cambridge; when the Emperor rode beside him, and chatted familiarly with him, as one friend might do with any other, and pointed out to him the graces of his charming garden of the Tuilleries, and sauntered with him under the just-leaved trees of the Champs Elysées, and escorted him with a thousand out-riding guards in brilliant uniforms, to that old and famous field of war, where thirty thousand troops passed back and forth, to the roll of countless drums, and shouts of "God save the Queen!" mingled with "Long life to the Emperor!" It was, to be sure, a proud thing for the tall and sandy-haired Duke of Cambridge to represent in his person such a nation as that of Britain, in such a presence; and it was a still prouder thing for that Emperor, who, from his equivocal position in the London club-room, had wrought out for himself such a brilliant future, to bestow favors now upon the royalty of his old country of exile, and to welcome the foreign prince with the stir of an army.

Editor's Drawer.

judge of character by the looks. This is not so.

GREAT many people pretend that they can

The most amiable animal in the world in appearance is a tiger-the most soft, velvety of all substances is his paw. Experience alone has given us the true idea of their ferocity, and made us aware of the fangs and the claws. The lineaments of the greatest tyrants in the world have nothing cruel in their expression; heroes are equally destitute of physical traits of their superiority. Daniel Webster, probably more than any man that ever lived, had a bodily presence in accordance with the ideal formed from an intimate knowledge of his mental labors. When our volunteers rushed to the Rio Grande, after the celebrated battles of the 8th and 9th, in hero-hunting, they were invariably disappointed at finding "the distinguished" the least remarkable in person of "all the crowd." "The ferocious" in looks, without exception, held some subordinate position, where discretion and not valor was most in demand. Old Zach was mistaken for a farmer, Captain Walker for a doctor, and Ridgely and Duncan for mere boys-their beardless faces, small persons, and modest demeanor, making no other "first impression." Captain Walker was exceedingly diffident, wore citizen's clothes, and seldom appeared with arms. He rode over the bloody fields with us three days after the battles, but it was only by "hard pumping" that we could get any particulars. After working away in vain "for items" at this apparently dry source, we noticed Captain Walker

He was great upon the stage, but on the stage only he never won high esteem as a man; and though he carried plaudits with him from city to city, he left few friends behind him. Avaricious and ungenerous, he hoarded a vast fortune, which distant kin now seize upon and enjoy. The most truthful epitaph that can be written over him is-looking intently out upon the horizon; it was a flat that he was a great singer, and a small man!

Yet again-the church bells, as we write it, have scarce finished their tolling-we record the death of the old poet Montgomery; already, two years

country, and there could be seen a half dozen rancheros skirting along like spirits. Instantly his blue and generally dull eye brightened up, and he said: "There go some Mexicans, with passes

times were amusingly exhibited by one “Josiah,” who came up out of the rich lands of Westchester, who, desiring to appear at meeting in a true professional hat, had evidently searched the city

from General Taylor to go out cattle-hunting. They | pline and respectable tradition. But the evils of the are great scoundrels, and impose upon the old man,' and take advantage of their privilege to rob and kill our people; but," continued the Captain, with unusual animation, "I always shoot 'em down on sight; if they have got a pass' it's their misfor-through for a commendable "broad-brim," which he tune; if they haven't, why I have got them out of the way." Who would have anticipated such a speech from such looks?

and puzzled the superficial observers to decide whether our "goodly man" was really a Friend, or one of the "b'hoys." Alas, when the age is so corrupt that all New York will not furnish one unquestionably respectable, moral, and really solemn broad-brimmed hat! The Friends, we are sorry to see, have their excitements; and they are at this time under much travail on the subject of some of the younger female members learning to play the piano. It would altogether be a rare sight to see a pretty Quakeress at the piano. Certainly the music would be sobered down, and all the brilliant pas

obtained, but it was not of the true spirit; it lacked that ineffable grace and unction that gave it ortho. doxy. It was a rakish broad-brim: it had a "fast But we intended to tell another story. Many look"--a sort of "wide awake" expression-that "in the better days of the United gave to our Friend a mongrel appearance, and turnyears ago, States Senate," a fashionable steamer was dash-ed his plain clothing into questionable propriety, ing over the Sound, filled with passengers bound for Providence. In the course of the morning, a young man came to the captain, and stated that he had lost his watch, and desired the officer to institute "a search." The captain decided that it was impossible, among a crowd of five or six hundred persons of the highest respectability, to grant the request; but desired the young man to keep a sharp look-out for suspicious persons, point them out, and on the arrival of the boat at Providence it was agreed that they should be arrested. In the course of the day the young man stated that he was satisfied he had found the thief: he knew he was the dis-sages so subdued, that they would come up soft honest personage from his appearance, from his face; and was fortified in the supposition because the suspected person avoided the crowd, and was then by himself on the upper deck, pretending to read, by beginning at the end of a book and turning the leaves over toward the beginning; and this, said the young man, is of itself very suspicious. The captain instantly went upon the upper deck, and to the astonishment of the young man, stated that the person was no one else than Asher Robbins, one of the most distinguished Senators of Rhode Island, and one of the most learned men of the day, who was thus solitarily conning over the leaves of a Hebrew Bible. So much for judging people from appearances-from "their looks."

of piety-are being swept away.

whisperings, rather than full, sonorous cadences. But have the Friends any music? Has not the organ been depressed and dissipated? Who ever heard a Quaker sing? Even their little babies grow up without one chirrup in their little ears, except what comes from the birds, who sing just in proportion as they lack gay plumage-an example, by the way, for the Friends to consider upon. The Friends have directed a circular to be issued to all their congregations upon this enormity of music. Sweet sounds have invaded the sanctity of their private life; the time and tune of nature is being revived in the young Friends, and if the heresy continues, who knows but the "falling away" may not continue until the limbs of the rebellious, sympathizing with sound, move in accordance to "THE Friends" have had their "annual meeting" measure; that steps may grow into order, that slow in our midst, and have departed from among us. It pace may be rendered quick-that the Friends may is quite refreshing to see these sedate people once dance! Certainly these are perilous times, and the a year thronging our crowded streets, all quiet them-old land-marks of propriety-the outward symbols selves, although the world is in such confusion around them. The followers of Fox, however, throve best under the fiery ordeal of persecution; Mr. BELL, United States Senator from Tennesfor then they increased in numbers, and were filled see, is the only Southern Sensor who voted against with enthusiasm. The degrading influences of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise line. His modern innovations are making sad work with the bearing throughout the struggle was bold and fearFriends-that is, with their garments-for it is rare less, and it is difficult for Northern people to comnow to see a genuine, orthodox-looking Friend. prehend the amount of moral courage it was neces The straight coat, the short-waisted dress, the broad-sary to possess to sustain Mr. Bell in his position. brimmed hat, the "gun-boat" looking bonnet, have Mr. Bell grew up in Tennessee, and commenced such terrible twists in their composition, that they public life in that State; and although a warm perwould make the old fathers weep if they could wit-sonal friend, yet a political opponent of General ness them. We have seen several female Friends (what a shame that we can only call them such in an official sense), who have their lips and cheeks ornamented by nature with carnation tints, and whose eyes were full of azure, who seemed to rebel under the straight-laced discipline of colorless drab, and, borrowing a hint from the composition of their own lovely countenances, had stolen a gay tint or two, and mingled them as contrasts to the prevail-patiently all you say in the proper spirit; but ing purity of sameness that characterized their outward girlhood, just as we have seen the pale apple blossom threaded with almost spiritual lines of pink. These were pleasing evidences of the struggles of the fair daughters of Eve to be bewitching, that, thanks to the happiness of our eyes, had only been tempered, but not subdued by long years of disci

Jackson-a thing of itself that early displayed his firmness. It is related of him, that after some severe political struggle, in which he had dared to handle "Old Hickory' without gloves," he unexpectedly met the old soldier in the street, and was rather rudely reproved for his course. Bell listened calmly to a certain point, when he interrupted "Old Hickory" as follows: "General, I will hear

when you presume to pass the bounds due from one gentleman to another, I shall instantly resent your conduct." The old General looked at young Bell a moment in the eye, and breaking out into a laugh, changed the conversation.

ONE of the most characteristic anecdotes of Gen

night-but the next morning, in spite of Percy's | existence, by appearance, by impression on the hand or hospitality, they stuck to their principles, and con- body of any present, by scratches, knocks, or any other fined Percy to a single grab.' This decision of the agency, no evidence of any preternatural power was directors had great effect upon all the other appli-exhibited. cants; but Percy was not to be so easily satisfied." He hung around the bank, and finally got a promise, as he gin a treat,' that he might have the first chance after the barrel was newly filled up. Upon the stated time, Percy prepared himself. He took some tar and boiled it stiff, and rubbed it over his right arm up to his shoulder; and, wrapping himself in a cloak, he walked over to the bank for his 'grab.' The first dash he made, he ran his fist down to the bottom of the barrel-for you notice he was terribly in debt-he then whirled his arm around a few times, and took it out, and there was just thirty-seven thousand, five hundred, and fifty-five dollars sticking in tar! "Twas the last grab ever made on the Brandon. The institution couldn't stand such a draw. It shut down the next day, and thus ended the 'glory times of Mississippi."

HAs it ever occurred to the readers of the "Drawer" that the so-called " Spirit-Rappings," of which so much has been written and talked about of late, are, after all, no new thing? Nearly a hundred years ago, in London, in the famous "Cock Lane Ghost Imposture," the whole "phenomena" were enacted, and of which we have the following account in Mr. Sylvanus Urban's "Gentleman's Magazine" for February, 1762:

"We are under a necessity of giving an account of the method taken for the detection of the imposture in Cock-Lane, which, although in a great measure eluded by the cunning of the girl, who is the principal agent, and by the obstinacy of the father, who perhaps was the contriver of it; yet it had such an effect as to convince all present that the girl has some art of counterfeiting particular noises, and that there is nothing preternatural in the responses that are given to the querists on this

occasion.

"On the night of the 1st of February, many gentlemen, eminent for their rank and character, were, by the invitation of the Rev. Mr. Aldrich, of Clerkenwell, assembled at his house, for the examination of the noises supposed to be made by a departed spirit, for the detection of some enormous crime.

"About ten at night, the gentlemen met in the chamber, in which the girl, supposed to be disturbed by a spirit, had, with proper caution, been put to bed by several ladies. They sat rather more than an hour, and hearing nothing, went down stairs, when they interrogated the father of the girl, who denied, in the strongest terms, any knowledge or belief of fraud.

"The supposed spirit had before publicly promised, by an affirmative knock, that it would attend one of the gentlemen into the vault under the church of St. John, Clerkenwell, where the body is deposited, and give a token of her presence there by a knock upon her coffin it was therefore determined to make this trial of the existence or veracity of the supposed spirit.

"While they were inquiring and deliberating, they were summoned into the girl's chamber by some ladies, who were near her bed, and who had heard knocks and scratches. When the gentlemen entered, the girl declared that she felt the spirit like a mouse upon her back, and was required to hold her hands out of bed. From that time, though the spirit was very solemnly required to manifest its

"The spirit was then very seriously advertised that the person to whom the promise was made, of striking the coffin, was then about to visit the vault, and that the performance of the promise was then claimed. The company at one o'clock went into the church, and the gentleman, to whom the promise was made, went, with one more, into the vault. The spirit was solemnly required to perform its promise, but nothing more than silence ensued; the person supposed to be accused by the spirit then went down, with several others, but no effect was perceived. Upon their return, they examined the girl, but could draw no confession from her. Between two and three she desired, and was permitted, to go home with her father.

"It is therefore the opinion of the whole assembly that the child has some art of making or counterfeiting particular noises, and that there is no agency of any higher cause. This account was drawn up by a gentleman of veracity and learning, and therefore we have thought it sufficient; though the impostor has been since more clearly detected, even to demonstration."

Now all this is very curious, and is almost identical with the "spirit-rappings" of the present day. Then, as now, also, a belief in the spiritual character of the "knockings" was held by distinguished clergymen and eminent public functionaries of the government: one of the former class was catechised as follows by a correspondent of "The Gentleman's Magazine :"

"We have no reason to imagine that the decoy duck in Cock Lane, so addicted to angry scratchings so intent upon revengeful purposes, so silly (though at the same time cunning) in the management of her little cheats, so palpably mistaken in many instances, and so evasive and prevaricating in others— we have, I say, no room to suppose that this little dabbler in necromancy is a celestial visitant, deputed hither, on a very important occasion, by the King of Heaven.

"Suppose, next, that a departed soul is in a state of torment. Do you think that the d-1 (having got his prey within his clutches) is such a fool as to let it go again, and roam and ramble where it pleases? Will that rigid jail-keeper allow his prisoner to come back into this world upon the parole of honor, and that not only for a day or two, but for weeks, or months, or even for years, as we have frequently heard of in some cases? And pray, for what? In the present case it will, I suppose, be said to develop murder. But, good sir, be pleased to recollect that the devil was a murderer from the beginning. And would he (trow you) spoil his own trade? Does not this show you at once the absurdity of this pretense? And dare you to support it any longer?

"You have, I think, no refuge now left you but to recur to a middle state (whether purgatory or any other) hanging somewhere in the air, like Mohammed between heaven and hell. Well, do so, and welcome; you are still under the same restraint. The same arguments will have the same force against you even here also, and will hold you fast. On the other hand, if you suppose, with several learned men of the present age, that there is no such middle state, then it is evident at first sight that all pretenses of this kind are totally overturned. For who (upon this supposition) can return from a state