thine chain let down from heaven, binds Truth and Love indissolubly to the heart and to the life.

The feelings, and resulting actions of youth, are the truest index of character; and I trust I shall be pardoned in presenting as an illustration the following beautiful moral trait, worth all the sentimentalism of ages, and which commends itself equally to the Beauty and the Chivalry of a world.

It is related of Queen VICTORIA, that during the first few days of her accession to the throne,-then a girl between nineteen and twentysome sentences from a court-martial were presented for signature. One was death for desertion; a soldier was condemned to be shot, and his death warrant was presented to the Queen for her signature. She read it, paused, and looking up to the officer who had laid it before her, said, "Have you nothing to say in behalf of this man?" 'Nothing: he has deserted three times," said the officer. "THINK AGAIN! my lord," was her reply. And," said the gallant veteran, as he related the circumstance to his friends (for it was none other than the Duke of Wellington)," seeing her Majesty so earnest about it, I said, he is certainly a bad soldier, but there was somebody who spoke to his good character, and he may be a good man for aught I know to the contrary." thank you a thousand times!" exclaimed the youthful Queen, and hastily writing pardoned in large characters on the fatal page, she sent it across the table, her hand trembling with eagerness and beautiful emotion.

"Oh,

(21) Degrading sight!-abhorrent and abhorred !"

The censure is aimed solely at the presence of females at executions, where they are public, and not intended to question or oppose the justice and necessity, which demands that the convicted murderer should pay the extreme penalty of death. It is more than forty years since the writer was first present at the execution of a murderer, in this city; and about twelve years since he witnessed a similar exhibition in Cincinnati.

On both occasions many thousands of young women, as well as those of maturer age, were among the spectators.

(21) "As belted Jove leads up, in grand array,

The midnight march in Heaven."

The planet Jupiter, the largest planet belonging to our solar system, whose disk appears, through a telescope, to be crossed by bands, or belts, of varying colors.

NOTES TO CANTO II.

(1) "And e'en the Slavery which is thy curse,

The Muse may not in numbers harsh rehearse."

The "curse" of slavery is quite as well known, and its evils probably more intelligently appreciated in the South, than with us at the North. It is but justice towards the Southern people to say, that they are, generally, feelingly alive to the social evils which it has introduced and continues to perpetuate. But time and prudence, the mild spirit of religion, and the native chivalry of the Southern people will, we think, ultimately effect a happy and equable adjustment of their social elements, which shall elevate the Negro in the scale of humanity, and fit him, intellectually and morally, for the active pursuits and responsibilities of life. And this desirable amelioration of his condition would be more rapidly and securely effected, if the influences already in motion were permitted quietly and orderly to proceed, first modifying, then reforming, and eventually expunging the malady. The Southern people are undoubtedly fully competent to the task of eradicating slavery. It is their own proper work, and, left to them, as it should be, will doubtless be accomplished in the proper way, and at the proper time.

(2) "Till desperation drives to that mad crime

Which soils her vestal purity."

I have become so convinced from observation and reflection, that impoverished means, growing out of an ungenerous and inadequate compensation for labor, is one great cause of so many derelictions from virtue, as well here as in the old world, that I could heartily wish the injustice were controlled by some stringent legislative enactment. Too many will do right only from policy, or compulsion. The life of the Factory, with its minute bell, its watchful overseers, its half-hour dinner lunch, and its twelve hours daily labor, is often more onerous than the condition of the slave; and this remark is applicable to many other branches of employment in which working girls are engaged, as well in cities as in villages. Besides, numerous avocations, peculiarly suited to the sex, are usurped by young men and boys, to the shame be it spoken of the one, and the almost certain feminizing of the other.

No indelicacy is here attributed, nor any satire intended. I had no way of introducing the pair on shipboard,-where it could alone take place, but through the kindly interposition of the elements. The course of the acquaintance and courtship had thus, of necessity, to conform to the eccentricity of the introduction.

(4) "Fortune, thou golden goddess, painted blind.'

This stanza, which might be regarded as somewhat equivocal, may, perhaps, require a brief explanation. I would not, by any means, be thought to affirm that riches are necessary to the happiness of married life; only, that as an accessory, they may prove a fortunate acquisition. There is the most ample and incontrovertible evidence, not only from

history and biography, but in unnumbered living illustrations, shining gloriously forth in every clime, that there are to be found numberless young women, portionless in the language of the world, but rich in graceful virtues and warm affections, who are personally in themselves endowed, a fortune-and one not subject to the vicissitudes of money and estate-to any man who knows how to esteem and cherish the blessing.

(5) "She wanders with her babes, content to go

Where'er his fortune lead, through toil and strife.”

I have the mingled happiness and regret of knowing an estimable young woman, in humble life, who might have sat for this picture. The mother of two lovely little girls, just stepping into childhood, and the wife of a man utterly unworthy of the treasure,-who has rewarded her virgin love with unkindness, her fidelity with reproach; made her acquainted with want, and penury, and sorrow, and crushed all her young hopes under the incubus of a heartless intemperance,-she yet clings to him as the father of her children, smiles upon him in his periods of sober sanity, and meekly bending where she cannot control, refuses to give him up, whom the world has already abandoned. Incomparable woman! shut up by penury and suffering from admiration, as the jewel lies hid in the gloomy depths of the mine, but whose price is far above that of rubies.

(6) "Splice the main brace."

It was formerly a very general custom on board vessels at sea, and which is still observed to a considerable extent, particularly in ships of war, to pipe an extra allowance of "grog" when the men had been subjected to unusual toil and privation, as in stormy weather, and severe, protracted gales. This is called, among seamen, splicing the main brace.