with cold and hunger, he has for-with a voice elevated to a tremulous faken, and has driven me to die by fcream. felf-murder."

her convulfive starts, even more than her declaration, convinced him.

"She now rofe from the earth in hafte, and, ftealing quick on one fide, poftponed farther gratitude to Henry, for the performance of the moft endearing office of a mother. -The child greedily received from her bofom the food till then untafted -and on this, feeling more exquifitely the tender, the proud prerogative of a maternal parent, the uttered with fighs of tranfport,

1

and many witnesses had appeared against her, before the ventured to lift her eyes up to her awful judge. She then gave one fearful glance, and difcovered William, unpitying, but beloved William, in every feature! It was a face fhe had been used to look on with delight; and a kind of abfent fmile of gladnefs now beamed on her poor wan vifage.

"When every witness on the part of the profecutor had been examined, the judge addreffed himself to her"What defence have you to make?"

"It was William spoke to Hannah!-The found was fweet-the

Now I am as rich, as happy as your father-as bleft as his bride!for I experience the joy of a confcience relieved from a deadly weight and I have fomething to love-voice was mild, was foft, compaffion fomething on which to pour that ate, encouraging!-It almoft charm. fund of affection which he rejects." ed her to a love of life!-not fuch a voice as when William laft addrefed

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"She could have hung upon the

The incident of the trial and con-her; when he left her undone and demnation of Hannah, by that fame pregnant, vowing never to see or William, become a judge, by whom fpeak to her more." he had first been feduced and abandoned, but whom ber heart yet ten-prefent words for ever! She did derly loved, is likewife given in ftrong and animated colouring.

not call to mind that this gentleness was the effect of practice, the art of his occupation; which at times is but a copy, by the unfeeling, from his benevolent brothers of the bench.

was not defigned for the culprit's confolation, but for the approbation of the auditors..

"There were no fpectators, Hannah,' by your fide when laft he parted from you- if there had, the awful William had been awed to marks of pity.

When, in the morning, the was - brought to the bar, and her guilty hand held up before the righteous judgment-feat of William; imagina-In the prefent' judge, tenderness tion could not form two figures, or two fituations more incompatible with the existence of former famiharity, than the judge and the culprit-and yet, thefe very perfons had paffed together the moft blissful moments that either ever tafted!Thofe hours of tender dalliance were now prefent to her mind His Stunned with the enchantment thoughts were more nobly employed of that well-known tongue directed in his high office-nor could the to her, the stood like one juft petribaggard face, hofiow eye, defpond- tied-all vital power was fufpended. ing countenance, and meagre perfon Again he put the question, and of the poor prifoner, once call to his with thefe additional fentences, tenmemory, though her name was ut-derly and emphatically delivered tered among a lift of others that the" Recollect yourfelf-Have you no had afumed, his former youthful witneffes-No proof in your be lovely Hannah! half?"

She heard herself arraigned with: rembling limbs and downcaft looks

He then mildly, but forcibly, added "What have you to fay ?" "Here a flood of tears burit from her eyes, which the fixed carneftly upon him, as if pleading for mercy, while the faintly articulated,-"Nothing, my lord.".

"After a fhort paufe, he asked her, in the fame forcible, but benevolent tone-"Have you no one to fpeak for your character ?"

"The prifoner anfwered, "No." "A fecond gufh of tears followed this reply, for the called to mind by whom her character had first been blafted.

"He fummed up the evidenceand every time he was compelled to prefs hard upon the proofs against ber, the fhrunk, and feemed to ftagger with the deadly blow-writhed under the weight of his minute juftice, more than from the profpect

of a fhameful death.

honours and riches on the more amiable characters of the piece, as is perhaps too frequently the fequel of fuch hiftories, as if happinefs were infeparably allied to wealth. Humbler, but more folid enjoyments, good fenfe, and content, recompenfe Henry and Rebecca, in the evening of life, for all the cross accidents they have encountered; and the reflections fuggefted by the incidents they have witneffed, furnish the moral of the tale, which I fhall here prefent your readers, as contained in the laft chapter, and with that conclude.

"By forming an humble scheme for their remaining life, a fcheme depending upon their own exertions alone; on no light promifes of pretended friends, and on no fanguine hopes of certain fuccefs; but with prudent apprehenfion, with fortitude againft difappointment, Henry, his fon, and Rebecca, (now his daughter) found themfelves, at the end of one year, in the enjoyment of every comfort which fuch diftinguished minds knew how to taste.

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"The jury confulted but a few minutes; the verdict was, "Guilty." "She heard it with compofure. "But when William placed the fatal velvet on his head, and rofe to pronounce her fentence-fhe started Exempt both from patronage with a kind of convulfive motion- and from controul-healthy, alive to retreated a step or two back, and every fruition with which nature lifting up her hands, with a fcream bleffes the world-dead to all out of exclaimed," Oh! not from you!" their power to attain, the works of "The piercing briek which ac-art-fufceptible of thofe paffions companied thefe words, prevented which endear human creatures one their being heard by part of the to another, infenfible to those which audience; and those who heard feparate man from man-they found them thought little of their meaning. themfelves the thankful inhabitants more than that they exprefled her of a fmall houfe or hut, placed on fear of dying.

"Serene and dignified, as if no fuch exclamation had been uttered, William delivered the fatal fpeech, ending with" Dead, dead, dead."

She fainted as he clofed the period, and was carried back to prifon in a fwoon; while he adjourned the court to go to dinner."

The conclufion of this fimple and inftructive tale does not lavishly heap

the borders of the fea.

"Each morning wakes the father and the fon to cheerful labour in fishing, or the tending of a garden, the produce of which they carry with their fifh to the next markettown. The evening fends them back to their home in joy; where Rebecca meets them at the door, affec tionately boafts of the warm meal that is ready, and heightens the charm of converfation with her tafte and judgment,

"It was after a fupper of roots from their little garden, poultry that Rebecca's hand had reared, and a jug brewed by young Henry, that the following difcourfe, took place: "My fon, (faid the elder Henry) where, under the fky, fhall three perfons be met together happy as we three are? It is the want of industry, or the want of reflection, which makes the poor diflatisfied. Labour gives a value to reft, which the idle can never tafte; and reflection gives to the mind content, which the unthinking never can know."

paffion: but now, that my judgment is matured, I pity the rich. I know that in this opulent kingdom, there are near as many perfons perishing through intemperance, as starving with hunger-there are as many miferable in the laffitude of having nothing to do, as there are bowed down to the earth with hard labour there are more perfons who draw upon themselves calamity by following their own will, than there are who experience it by obeying the will of another. Add to this, the rich fear dying fo much, they have no comfort in living."

"There the poor have another advantage (faid Rebecca): for they may defy not only death, but every lofs by fea or land, for they have nothing to lofe."

"I once (replied the younger Henry) confidered poverty a curfe but after my thoughts became enlarged, and I had affociated for years with the, rich, and now mix with the poor, my opinion has undergone a total change-for I bave "Befides, (added the elder Henfeen, and have enjoyed, more real ry) there is a certain joy, of the most pleasure at work with my fellow-gratifying kind that the human mind labourers, and in this cottage, than ever I beheld, or experienced, during my abode at my uncle's; during all my intercourfe with the fashionable, and the powerful of this world."

The worst is, (faid Rebecca) the poor have not always enough.'

is capable of tafting, peculiar to the poor; and of which the rich can but feldom experience the delight."

"What can that be?" cried Rebecca.

"A kind word, a benevolent "fmile, one token of esteem, from the person whom we confider as our fuperior."

Who has enough (afked her hulband.)-Had my uncle? Nohe hoped for more-and in all his writings facrificed his duty to his avarice. Had his fon enough, when he yielded up his honour, his do-. meftic peace, to gratify his ambition? Had lady Bendham enough, when the ftaked all the had, in the hope of becoming richer? Were we, my Rebecca, of difcontented minds, we have now too little. But confcious, from obfervation and experience, that the rich are not fo happy as ourselves, we rejoice in

"To which Rebecca replied, "And the rarity of obtaining fuch a token is what encreases the honour."

"Certainly (returned young Henry) and yet thofe in poverty, ungrateful as they are, murmur against that government from which they receive the bleffing; and, unlearned as they are, would attempt to alter it.We leave to the phy fician the care of reftoring our health, we employ the foldier in fighting our battles, and the lawyer in the defence of our fortunes, without prefuming to interrupt them in their vocations-then, why not leave, and without moleftation, thofe to govern a kingdom who have ftudied the fcience of politics? For though a physician may not always be skil

ful,

DERWENT PRIORY; perhaps, have heard fome particulars