the meanness of revenge. He believed firmly in the truth of religion, and entertained an high sense of its importance. But his tolerant spirit, and his indifference to the forms of church government, made him very obnoxious to the great body of the clergy. He appeared born for the purpose of opposing tyranny, persecu tion, and oppression, and for the space of thirty years it is not too much to affirm, that he sus tained the greatest and most truly glorious character of any prince whose name is recorded in history. In his days, and by his means, the first firm and solid foundations were laid of all that is most valuable in civil society. Every vindication of the natural and unalienable rights of mankind was, till he ascended the throne of Great Britain, penal and criminal. To him we owe the assertion and final establishment of our constitutional privileges. To him the intellectual world is indebted for the full freedom of discussion, and the unrestrained avowal of their sentiments upon subjects of the highest magnitude and importance. To sum up all, his character was distinguished by virtues rarely found amongst princes- moderation, integrity, simplicity, beneficence, magnanimity. Tume, which has cast a veil over his imperfections, has added lustre to his many great and admirable qualities. His political views were, in the highest degree, laudable and upright. He had trae ideas of the nature and ends of government, and the beneficial effects of his noble and heroic exertions will probably descend to the latest generations, rendering his name justly dear to the friends of civil and religious liberty, and his memory ever glorious and immortal!"-Belsham. THE HIGHLANDERS ARE a very singular class of people; bold, intrepid, and generous, even to a proverb ; they are always mentioned with particular regard in every History of Scotland. "CONSIDERING the inhabitants of the Lowlands in the light of invaders and usurpers, they thought themselves entitled to make reprisals at all convenient opportunities. What their enemies call violence and rapine, they termed right and justice, and in the frequent practice of depredations they became bold, artful, and enterprising. An injury done to one of the clan was held from the common relation of blood to be an injury to all. Hence the Highlanders were in the habitual practice of war, and hence arose, in various instances, between clan and clan, mortal and deadly feuds, descending from generation to gene. ration. They usually went completely armed with a broad sword, a dirk, or dagger, a tar get, musquet, and pistols. Their dress consisted of a jacket, and loose lower garment, with a roll of light woollen called a plaid, wrapt round them so as to leave the right arm at full liberty. Thus equipped and accoutred, they would march forty or fifty miles in a day, sometimes even without food, or halting, over mountains, along rocks, through morasses, and they would sleep on beds formed by tying bunches of heath hastily and carelessly toge. ther. Their advance to battle was rapid, and after discharging their musquets and pistols, they rushed into the ranks of the enemy with their broad swords, and in close fight, when unable to use their ordinary weapon, they suddenly stabbed with the dirk. "Their religion, which they called Christianity, was strongly tinctured with the ancient and barbarous superstitions of the country. They were universal believers in ghosts and preter-natural appearances. They marked with eager attention the variable forms of their cloudy and changeful sky, from the different aspect of which they foretold future and contingent events: and absorbed in fantastical imaginations, they perceived in a sort of ecstatic vision, things and persons separated from them by a vast interval of space! Each tribe had its particular dogmas and modes of faith, which the surrounding clans regarded with indifference, or at most with a cold dislike, far removed from the rancour of religious hatred; and persecution for religion has been, happily, a species of folly and wickedness unknown and unheard of amongst them."--Belsham. THE EXCELLENT WOMAN Is a character entitled to universal esteem and admiration; the picture is thus drawn by an able hand. "LET fancy now present a Woman with a tolerable understanding, for 1 do not wish to leave the line of mediocrity, whose constitution, strengthened by exercise, has allowed lfer body to acquire its full vigour; her mind, at the same time, gradually expanding itself to comprehend the moral duties of life, and in what human virtue and dignity consist. "Formed thus by the discharge of the rela tive duties of her station, she marries from af fection, without losing sight of prudence, and looking beyond matrimonial felicity, she se cures her husband's respect before it is neces sary to exert mean arts to please him and feed a dying flame, which nature doomed to expire when the object became familiar, when friend ship and forbearance take place of a more ardent affection This is the natural death of F love, and domestic peace is not destroyed by struggles to prevent extinction. I also suppose the husband to be virtuous; or she is still more in want of independent principles. "Fate, however, breaks this tie.---She is left a widow, perhaps, with a sufficient provision; but she is not desolate! The pang of nature is felt; but after time has softened sorrow into melancholy resignation, her heart turns to her children with redoubled fondness, and anxious to provide for them, affection gives a sacred heroic cast to her maternal duties. She thinks that not only the eye sees her virtuous efforts from whom all her comfort now must flow, and whose approbation is life; but her imagi nation, a little abstracted and exalted by grief, dwells on the fond hope that the eyes which her trembling hand closed, may still see how she subdues every wayward passion to fulfil the double duty of being the father as well as the mother of her children. Raised to heroism by misfortunes, she represses the first faint dawning of a natural inclination, before it ripens into love, and in the bloom of life forgets her sex-forgets the pleasure of an awakening pas sion, which might again have been inspired and returned. She no longer thinks of pleasing, and conscious dignity prevents her from priding herself on account of the praise which her conduct demands. Her children have her love, and her brightest hopes are beyond the grave, where her imagination often strays. "I think I see her surrounded by her children, reaping the reward of her care. The intelligent eye meets hers, whilst health and innocence smile on their chubby cheeks, and as they grow up, the cares of life are lessened by their grateful attention. She lives to see the virtues which she endeavoured to plant on principles, fixed into habits, to see her children attain a strength of character sufficient to enable them to endure adversity without forgetting their mother's example. "The task of life thus fulfilled, she calmly waits for the sleep of death, and rising from the grave, may say--Behold, thou gavest me a ta lent, and here are five talents "Woolstoncraft. CHRISTMAS CANDLES ARE thus accounted for in a manner gratifying to the curiosity; it was first a Saxon custom--then adopted by the professors of Christianity "OUR forefathers, when the devotions of Christmas eve were over, and night was come on, were wont to light up candles of an enor mous size, which were called Christmas candles, and to lay a log of wood upon the fire, which they termed a yule clog, or Christmas block. These were to illuminate the house, and turn the night into day; which custom, in some measure, is still kept up in the northern parts. Ithath, in all probability, been derived from the Saxons. For Bede tells us, that this very night was observed in this land before by the Heathen Saxons. They began, says he, |