June.]

'Tis six-and-forty years at least,
And you are now fourscore!"

"So much the worse;" the clown rejoined:
To spare the aged would be kind:
Beside, you promised me Three Warnings,
Which I have looked for nights and mornings."
"I know," cries Death, "that at the best,
I seldom am a welcome guest;

But don't be captious, friend, at least:
I little thought you'd still be able

To stump about your farm and stable;
Your years have run to a great length:
I wish you joy, though, of your strength!"-
"Hold," says the farmer, "not so fast!
I have been lame these four years past."
"And no great wonder," Death replies ;
"However, you still keep your eyes;
And sure, to see one's loves and friends
For legs and arms must make amends."

"Perhaps," says Dodson," so it might,
But latterly I've lost my sight!"

"This is a shocking tale, 't is true;
But still there's comfort left for you:
Each strives your sadness to amuse;
I warrant you hear all the news."

"There's none," cries he, "and if there were,
I'm grown so deaf, I could not hear."

"Nay then," the spectre stern rejoined,

"These are unconscionable yearnings;
If you are lame, and deaf, and blind,

You've had your three sufficient warnings;
So come along! no more we'll part."
He said, and touched him with his dart:
And now old Dodson, turning pale,
Yields to his fate!-So ends my tale.

Tt.

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Monthly Retrospect of Public Affairs. A Pans &

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period she annum from the Government of this country to

THE universal attention of the British community 'has been end of grossed by an event of the utmost importance ;-the arrival of the Queen in this country, and the proceedings which have taken place in b consequence of that step. Our readers are probably all aware that the Queen has resided in foreign countries several years, receiving ands allowance of £35,000) During that E been almost completely separated from English society;-and it is charged against her, and the charge has been repeated throughout all Europe, that this high Personage has hout been guilty of the most culpable indiscretions. Upon the notoriety of us these accusations, and upon specific information from eye-witnesses, the 9 advisers of the Crown thought it right, on the accession of his present Majesty, not to introduce the Queen's name into the solemn service of the Church, though she was prayed for generally, as one of the Royal ? Family. At the same time they were desirous that the question of the Queen's guilt or innocence should not be judicially investigated in this country; doubtless with a view to the prevention of those painful" disclosures, and to the suppression of those factious discontents, which such an investigation might be expected to produce. They therefore attempted to negotiate with the Queen to remain abroad;-upon conditions which would have secured her a proper provision according to her rank, but the acceptance of which might have implied the admission of conduct not of the strictest purity."

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“GEORGE, R.

The Queen, we cannot say how prudently, has rejected these propositions; and arrived suddenly and unexpectedly at Dover, on the 5th of June. She was generally received with an enthusiastic fervour. How much of this is to be ascribed to the generosity of the English charac ter, and how much to the violence of faction, is not for us to determineye te je dot

On the night of the Queen's arrival in London, Tuesday, the 6th, the following Royal Message was down to both Houses of brough Parliament by his Majesty's Ministers :

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The King thinks it necessary, in consequence of the arrival of the Queen, to communicate to the House of Lords certain Papers respecting the conduct of her Majesty since her departure from this kingdom, which he recommends to the immediate and serious attention of the House.

The King has felt the most anxious desire to avert the necessity of disclosures and discussions which must be as painful to his people, as

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Monthly Retrospect of Public Affairs.

309

they can be to himself; but the step now taken by the Queen leaves him no alternative.

"The King has the fullest confidence that, in consequence of this communication, the House of Lords will adopt that course of proceeding which the justice of the case, and the honour and dignity of his Majesty's Crown, may require." * 10 es0YİH [idmneA

In consequence of this Message it was intimated that the course to be proposed would be the appointment of a Secret Committee, in both Houses, to examine the papers which accompanied this Message; and to decide whether there was sufficient ground for any public proceeds ings. This proposition appears to us to have originated in an anxious desire that the country should be spared the disclosure of offensive evidence, if such evidence should be thought insufficient to become... the basis of any further proceeding. The Queen's advisers judged t otherwise, and a Message courting and demanding further inquiry,lls was delivered to the House of Commons on Wednesday the 7th, b Mr. Brougham, the Queen's Attorney-General.ssisoa dailgat

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A Committee composed both of Members of the Administration ad and of the Opposition was formed in the House of Lords; and its appeared probable that the Inquiry would at once proceed; but it in consequence of a communication made by the Queen to the Earls of Liverpool, it was thought that these unhappy differences might still be adjusted without a public proceeding; and accordingly thes two Houses were several times adjourned upon this question,tes i allow a negotiation to go on between the Duke of Wellington and Lord Castlereagh on the part of Government, and Mr. Brougham and o Mr. Denman on the part of the Queen. The terms were substantiallyaib the same as those offered before the Queen's landing though several minor points of etiquette were conceded. But the negotiation was broken off, by the Queen insisting that her name should be restored h to the Liturgy, and by the King's advisers resisting this demand.ar rost

151

In this state some of the most virtuous, enlightened, and eminento Members of the House of Commons interposed to prevent the evily of a public inquiry, and the following Resolution, proposed by M.01 Wilberforce, was carried by a great majorityszono wow and l 787da d as and of hadiroze od ot ai eidt to donor "Resolved, That this House has learned, with anfeigned and deep re-19t gret, that the late endeavours to frame an arrangement which might averti the necessity of a public inquiry into the information laid before the two Houses of Parliament, have not led to that amicable adjustment of the existing differences in the Royal Family which was so anxiously desired Par Bui A Homest by Parliament and the nation.

"That this House, fully sensible of the objections which the Queen might justly feel to taking upon herself the relinquishment of any points in which she might have conceived her own dignity and honour to be involved, yet feeling the inestimable importance of an amicable and final adjustment of the present unhappy differences, cannot forbear declaring it its opinion, that when such large advances have been made towards that object, her Majesty, by yielding to the earnest solicitude of the House of Commons, and forbearing to press further the adoption of those proposi

tions on which any material difference yet remains, would by no means be understood to indicate any wish to shrink from inquiry, but would only be deemed to afford a renewed proof of the desire which her Majesty has been graciously pleased to express to submit her own wishes to the authority of Parliament; therefore entitling herself to the grateful acknowledgments of the House of Commons, and sparing this House the painful necessity of those public discussions which, whatever might be their ultimate result, could not but be distressing to her Majesty's feelings-disappointing to the hopes of Parliament derogatory from the dignity of the Crown, and injurious to the best interests of the empire."

The Address was presented to the Queen on Saturday. She returned an answer which destroyed all hopes of amicable adjustment. It is as follows:

"

"I am bound to receive with gratitude any attempt on the part of the House of Commons to interpose its high mediation for the purpose of healing those unhappy differences in the Royal Family, which no person has so much reason to deplore as myself. And with perfect truth I cau declare, that an entire reconcilement of those differences, effected by the authority of Parliament, on principles consistent with the honour and dignity of all the parties, is still the object dearest to my heart.

"I cannot refrain from expressing my deep sense of the affectionate language of these Resolutions; it shows the House of Commons to be the faithful Representatives of that generous people to whom I owe a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid.

"I am sensible too, that I expose myself to the risk of displeasing those who may soon be the judges of my conduct, but I trust to their candour and their sense of honour, confident that they will enter into the feelings which alone influence my determination.

"It would ill become me to question the power of Parliament, or the mode in which it may at any time be exercised; but however strongly I may feel the necessity of submitting to its authority, the question whether I will make myself a party to any measure proposed, must be decided by my own feelings and conscience, and by them alone. As a subject of the State, I shall bow with deference-if possible, without a murmur-to every act of the Sovereign authority; but as an accused and injured Queen, I owe it to the King, to myself, and to all my fellow-subjects, not to consent to the sacrifice of any essential privilege, or withdraw my appeal to those principles of public justice which are alike the safeguard of the highest and the humblest individual."

In this position this most painful subject rests. There is very little. doubt that the Inquiry will be prosecuted. We can express no opinion as to the probable issue; but we have no hesitation in saying, that the Inquiry must and ought to go forward. In the mean time it is the duty of every good subject to keep his understanding unprejudiced ;to hearken to no idle tales of undeniable innocence on one side, or of malignant persecution on the other. Let us put our confidence where it ought to be placed-in the wisdom and justice of Parliament.

EDITOR-K.

God hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest, by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. 2 TIM. i. 9, 10.

HAVING now completed our short examination of the several books of the Holy Scriptures, we shall do well to look back upon the whole together, and consider the Bible again as one book,-the sacred depositary of our faith. It is called the Bible, which, in the Greek language, signifies "the Book ;" as a mark of respect, it being the Book of Books, the book superior to all others, for it contains the words of eternal life.

What once appeared to some of us a confused work, difficult to understand, we now perceive to be perfectly in order. We look upon the Holy Bible with due reverence, not only as the Word of God, but as conveying to us, in the manner most suitable to Eternal Wisdom, the divine knowledge he was pleased to confer on his weak and sinful

creatures.

You now perceive that the Almighty revealed this knowledge by degrees. The first step was to bring men back to know him as the one true and only God; to show them the folly and wickedness of worshipping senseless images, the work of their own hands, instead of the Lord of Heaven. The next was to keep in their minds the great promise of a Redeemer, who was to come down from Heaven to teach them their duty, and to lay down his life to obtain pardon for the sins of the whole world.

Accordingly, the Old Testament gives us the history of the first

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