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in with the delicacy of address in the third person makes a simple address like potent flattery.

But this Gennarino-that is dear little Gennaro-his parents are going to make a priest of him. This childish voice will

generation the mysteries of purgatory and penance! At present he is like other Italian children of ten years old and more— he screams when he is crossed, like a child of ten months, and screams on, though it may take him hours to gain his point, till he has worked himself up to alarming frenzy. We were quite frightened about him at first. The Italians think it cruelty to control their children by any severity. A well-governed little friend of ours at Naples is usually spoken to by his Italian acquaintances, with whom he is a great favourite, as povero Fre derigo.

were filling the air with their chirrup. When he had captured one he brought it, with its accusation, that of spoiling the grapes-a false one, as we believe-and we captured him and made him bring us his book and read to us. We were surprised at the precision with which the little contadino arti-intone mass before altars, and teach a new culated his words, bringing out every vowel and consonant: here was a hint of the training which preserves to the Italian language that refinement which lends grace to the very lips that utter it. A similar training is needed to save our English from its vowels being all converted into short u, and to redeem it from the bad effect of certain unfortunate sounds, the perpetual sh for instance, at which Italians laugh. I had not noticed this so much till I heard the two languages together from the platform. Indeed, I seemed never to have heard my own language, any more than one sees a clear pane of glass. English certainly needs to be very neatly uttered. Madame de Stael says that Italian, when heard, has a subtle meaning which the bare words would not convey. One cannot hear it fervidly spoken without agreeing with her. Fratelli miei means simply, my brethren; but as it falls upon the ear from the pulpit it is a strain of eloquence. The musical sound of the pronouns falling

Hark! There is a stir and a whisper among the leaves. They come, they come, the breezes! Forth we go, and the white sails under the lee of Procida look all alive, as if they were waiting the behests of the knights of St. John of Jerusalem, and the bright waters are sparkling with pleasure to bear them on some chivalrous errand to the Holy Land.

THE WARLOCK'S DEATH-BED.

BY THE LATE WILLIAM MAIN, WITH INTRODUCTION BY ALEXANDER M'LACHLAN.

THE

sang

and shouted

There

physical features of Scotland, its | ly, were you really ever in company with the dreary moors and morasses, its solitary fairies ?" "That I was," said he, "and no tarns, wild mountains, and hoarse-roaring farther gane than the last time I came ower waterfalls, tended to imbue the minds of an the Mearns Moor by munelicht. I cam' by illiterate but highly imaginative people with accident on a whole flock o' them. gloomy thoughts; and no wonder they peo- they were ! a' sittin' roun' a spring amang the pled the waste with unearthly beings, and fox-bells, drinkin' ard singin' like mavises. believed that they heard the voice of the de- I cam' on them a' at ance; I took them fairly mon, or Water Kelpie, rising above the roar by surprise; but they ne'er loot on, but preof the torrent, and saw weird women, witches | tended that they were expectin' me; and, and warlocks, at their midnight revels on losh man! how the wee chiels in their green the blasted heath. The Mythology of Scot-coats crackit their thoums, and danced roun' about me, and land has also, nearly in our own day, given birth to a literature of weird beauty. for it, a great part of Sir Walter Scott's poetry and prose could not have been written. From it James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, drew the greater part of his inspiration, as his Mountain Bard and Queen's Wake abundantly testify. His Bonny Kilmeny alone is sufficient to make the Scotch dialect classical; as a picture of female purity and loveliness it is unsurpassed. It is also to that Mythology that we are indebted for Burns' wondrous tale of Tam O'Shanter; and we might also include Shakspeare's tragedy of Macbeth.

Save

Down almost to our own day every green knoll, every conical hill, and almost every strath and glen in Scotland, were peopled with fairies that at the "hour o' gloaming grey" came forth in the wake of their queen, mounted on cream-coloured horses that glittered with dewdrops, and all kept pace to the music of silver bells which dangled from their manes. We once said to a Scotch peasant who firmly believed in fairies, and who always kept a sharp lookout for them in suspicious places-"Now, Duncan, tell us tru

Hurrah! hurrah!

Come awa'

Laddy braw,

Join us a'

Ha, ha!

Dunkie man!"

But steam, wheels and electricity, have fairly frightened witches, warlocks, brownies, and fairies, from the land of the hill and the heather; in fact they have passed out of the actual prose world into the poetic region, and are now invested with a romantic interest which they were far from having in what some sentimental people call "the good old days," when their power for evil was believed in by high and low, and they were feared and dreaded accordingly. To show the power which the belief in witchcraft exercised over the minds of the Scottish peasantry, and the power which they ascribed to witches at no very remote period, we quote the following lines from Allan Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd, where Bauldy goes to consult old Mause, the supposed witch :

"Mause.-What fouk say of me, Bauldy, let me hear,

Keep naething up, ye naething hae to fear.

Bauldy.-Weel, since ye bid me, I shall tell ye a' waited upon by the Evil One or some of his That ilk ane talks about ye, but a flaw

When last the wind made Claud a roofless barn;
When last the burn bore down my mither's yarn ;
When Tibby kirn'd and there nae butter came,
And Brawney, elf-shot, never mair cam hame ;
When Betty Freetock's chuffy cheeked wean
To a fairy turned and cou'dna staun its lane;
When Watty wander'd a' nicht thro' the shaw,
And tint himsel' amaist amang the snaw;

When Mungo's mare stood still and swat wi' fricht,
When he brought east the howdy under nicht;
When Bawsy shot to dead upon the green,
And Sara tint a snood was nae mair seen;
You Suckey, gat the wyte o' a' fell out,
And ilka ane here dreads you round about.
And sae they may that mean to do ye skaith,
For me to wrang ye, I'll be very laith :
But when I neist mak' grots, I'll strive to please
You wi' a sirlot o' them mixed wi' pease."

We are only divided by some century and a half from the time when Maggie Langwho was said to be the last witch in Scotland -was burnt on the Gallow-green of Paisley, when the Presbytery and Magistrates of the "guid town" offered up thanks to Almighty God for delivering them "frae the last o' the infernal gang" who had plagued them and their fathers for generations.

The warlock and the witch were man and wife, and were not of superhuman origin; they were merely human beings who, through poverty, spite, pride, or ambition, sold them. selves to the Evil One in exchange for the power of rendering themselves invisible at pleasure to mortal eyes, and of assuming any shape, and transporting themselves to any place. They were anything but amiable beings, and had a savage pleasure in looking upon human misery. The warlock was not so often brought to the stake for his crimes as the witch, for he was very reserved; she might have more cunning, but he had the better art of holding his tongue, and keeping his own secrets, a virtue in which, like so many of the daughters of Eve, she was sadly deficient. Hence history shows that there were far more witches brought to the stake than warlocks. In short, the warlock very often died in his bed, but was invariably

emissaries, who never failed to come at the last hour to claim the fulfilment of the bargain and bear him away to perdition. "As terrible as a warlock's death-bed" was a proverb in Scotland.

The following beautiful poem was written by the late William Main, of Glasgow; we had it from the author's lips nearly forty years ago. Mr. Main never published any of his writings, they were merely orally communicated to his friends and companions. He passed away while yet a young man, and all his writings died with him except a few fragments which may still linger in the recollection of some of his old friends, if any such survive. He is therefore wholly unknown to fame; and it would be a pity if such a poem as the following were lost or forgotten. We, therefore, to save it from oblivion, transcribe :

THE WARLOCK'S DEATH-BED.

Wha's that a glowrin' ayont my heid,

Wi' thae fiery wulcat een ?

Wha asks in a voice that mak's me fley'd
If my lang dead sark be clean?

There's a haun' on my breast like a lump o' lead,
But it's no' the haun' o' a frien.'

It's a bonny nicht, and the three-quarter mune Is sailing alang the sky;

My kimmers are a' in the lift aboon

And swee on the licht clouds by; They should hae been here wi' a waefu' croon, And seen the aul Warlock die.

Wha's that wi' an eerie soun' at the door? It's the win' soughing mournfu' and licht— It used to come wi' a joyfu' roar

When it wanted me out at nicht, To gang awa doun to the wreck heaped shore; And laugh at some drowning wicht.

It will often come to the Warlock's grave,
And o'er the heidstanes spring,
And through the blae nettles wi' anger rave

When it canna death's house ower-ding : But sometime or ither the wa's maun wave, And then I'll awa on its wing.

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BRITISH

EARLY PHASES OF BRITISH RULE IN CANADA.

BY FENNINGS TAYLOR.

RITISH rule in Canada seems to have worn three aspects. The first and second phases are somewhat germane to one another, and will be treated of in this article.

From the conquest of Canada to the year 1835, the King's representatives were usually officers more or less distinguished, who united in their persons the civil government with the command of the troops. Such was the period of MILITARY RULE.

From 1835 to 1847 the representatives of the Sovereign were usually civilians, whose selection, it must be presumed, was made on considerations of personal fitness. For the most part the minds of the Governors thus

chosen were somewhat hazy on certain questions that vexed the Colonies, and they were especially so on the Upper Canada problem of the relative responsibilities of the Governor to the Crown on one hand, and to the local legislature on the other. Having no instructions to guide them, they not unnaturally evaded what seemed to be a novel, a tangled, and a forbidding subject. Being Governors, they desired to govern, and they were willing to do so in what they considered a benevolent and fatherly way. Moreover, in some instances they made very fair efforts to do so, though it must be admitted that public opinion was divided, not only as to the measure of their success, but a

to the expediency of their succeeding .Such, then, was the period of PERSONal Govern

MENT.

From 1847 to the present time the constitutional question, which had theretofore been more warmly discussed than wisely interpreted, has, we believe, been permanently set at rest.

The early Governors of Upper and Lower Canada were chosen from a class which had served well, and whose rules of service were generally read with military exactness. They were soldiers rather than administrators, the jealous guardians of the prerogative, and the unquestioning defenders, of the rights of the Crown. It was their first duty to take care of the Royal properties, and their second to conciliate the people who dwelt upon them. They had not been required to trouble themselves about constitutional questions, nor had they studied very deeply the science of popular government. Their instructions had laid no such duties upon them, and, as they did not belong to a speculative and philosophic class, they took no pains to get an enlargement of those instructions. If they found themselves troubled with the projects of colonial reformers, or inconveniently pressed by the representatives of the people, they felt at liberty in the first instance to interpose their nominated councils, whether Legislative or Executive, as "buffers" to resist the disagreeable pressure. Such interventions were generally sufficient. If, however, they fell short of their purpose, then, it was very well known that, as the commanders of the forces, the Governors had soldiers under them, and it was generally believed that in any season of emergency they would be able and ready to handle them with effect. Such, then, was the phase of MILITARY RULE.

In the meanwhile the Provinces increased in wealth, intelligence and population. New interests arose which included the consideration of new questions, and the discharge of

new duties. new duties. The season of colonial pupilage was passing away, and Canada was gradually acquiring an introduction to a higher and more influential position in the commonwealth of British Provinces. Apart from the fact that the Whigs had succeeded to power in England, it so chanced that the period was coeval with, and indeed was preceded by, several very important passages in the experience of the mother country. The value of agitation as a "fine art," and as a condition of success, received a great deal of attention. The tactics, for example, which helped to secure the passage of the Reform Bill, included some features of novelty which caused them to be studied by British subjects elsewhere than in the British Islands. Impulsive persons could not fail to observe that the license of speech had suddenly become enlarged, and that men seemed at liberty to express their discontent in the emphatic phrases of sedition. Words, which in earlier times would have sent him who uttered them to the block, were used without even making their author acquainted with the Tower. The policy of menace received the support of noble names, and "leagues" and "unions," avowedly formed to overawe authority, found apologists and defenders within the walls of Parliament. We all know the result. Obscure men, who probably fancied they were patriots, when they were actually rioters, were fatally undeceived on the scaffolds of Bristol, Nottingham and Derby. Political students should have learned from such examples to distinguish between moral and physical forces. But, alas! as we shall see presently, this lesson was forgotten or disregarded. All that seemed to be remembered was the process by which wrongs were got rid of and rights secured.

The two Provinces of Canada were at that time rich in the possession of real or imaginary grievances, which the politicians, of one party at least, were at once anxious to expose and to destroy. To this end every

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