Comrade taking the prickles of the Tamarind Stubs, which are tempered in the Fire, and far worse than English Thornbushes, out of his back ;—you may imagine that 'twas no milk-and-water Regiment that the slaves in the West Indies had to undergo at the hands of their Hard masters and mistresses. Also, I have known slaves taken to the Sick-House, or Hospital, so dreadfully mangled with unmerciful correction as for their wounds to be one mass of putrefaction, and they shortly do give up the Ghost; while, at other times, I have seen unfortunate creatures that had been so lacerated, both back and front, as to be obliged to crawl about on All Fours. Likewise have I seen Negro men, Negro women, yea, and Negro children, with iron collars and prongs about their necks; with logs riveted to their legs, with their Ears torn off, their Nostrils slit, their Cheeks branded, and otherwise most frightfully Mutilated. Item, I have known at the dinner-table of a Planter of wealth and repute, the Jumper, or Public Flogger, to come in and ask if Master and Missee had any commands for him; and, by the order of the Lady of the House, take out two Decent Women that had been waiting at Table, and give them fifty lashes apiece on the public parade, every stroke drawing Blood and bringing Flesh with it, and they, when all was over, embracing and thanking him for their Punishment, as was the custom of the Colony.* Item, within my own knowledge have I been made familiar with many acts of the Deepest Barbarity. Mistresses, for Jealousy or Caprice, pouring boiling-water or hot melted Sealing-Wax on their slave girls' flesh after they had suffered the worst Tortures of the whip; and white Ladies of Education rubbing Cayenne-pepper into the eyes of Negroes who had offended them, or singeing the tenderest parts of their limbs with sticks of fire. And of one horrid instance have I heard of Malignant and Hellish revenge in Two Ladies who were Sisters (and bred at a Fine Boarding-School in England), who, having a spite against a yellow woman that attended on them, did tie her hands and feet, and so beat her nearly to death with the heels of their slippers; and not satisfied with that, or with laving her gashed body with Vinegar and Chillies, did send for a Negro man, and bid him, under threats of punishment, strike out two of the Victim's teeth with a punch, which, to the shame of Human Womanhood, was done.

But enough of these Horrors:-not the worst that I have seen, though, in the course of my Adventures; only I will not further sicken you with the Recital of the Sufferings inflicted on the Wretched Creatures by Ladies and Gentlemen, who had had the first breeding, and went to Church every Sunday. I have merely set down these dreadful things to work out the theory of my Belief, that the World is growing Milder and more Merciful every day; and that the Barbarities which were once openly

That which I have made Captain Dangerous relate in fiction will be found narrated, act for act, and nearly word for word, in the very unromantic evidence given before the first parliamentary committee on slavery and the slave-trade moved for by Mr. Clarkson.-ED.

practised in the broad sunshine, and without e'er a one lifting finger or wagging tongue against them, are becoming rarer and rarer, and will soon be Impossible of Commission. The unspeakable Miseries of the Middle Passage (of which I have been an eye-witness) exist no more; really Humane and Charitable Gentlemen, not such False Rogues and Kidnappers as your Hopwoods, are bestirring themselves in Parliament and elsewhere to better the Dolorous Condition of the Negro; and although it may be a Decree of Providence that the children of Ham are to continue always slaves and servants to their white brethren, I see every day that men's hearts are being more and more benevolently turned towards them, and that laws, ere long, will be made to forbid their being treated worse than the beasts that perish.

Then and Now.

TEN years ago, when I was young,

When suns did shine, and leaves were green,

When, in the Row, the swells among,

The bent form of The Duke was seen,When I liked claret more than port, Dancing than dining,-ere, in short,

My manly beard was grown,—
Beyond Hyde Park I loved a place,
Now vanished, leaving ne'er a trace,
But then as "Brompton" known.

Next to the church stood Pollard's school,
An old, old house in ivy clad;
Beyond it led, umbrageous, cool,

A lane to drive a painter mad,-
A winding lane, where gnarlèd trees,
Bent by the slightest summer-breeze,

Shook hands in highest boughs,—
Bordered by fields of brightest green;
There vulgar buttercups were seen,
And ruddled sheep and cows!

Where Pollard grafted hic, hæc, hoc,

Stands now, outstretching far and wide,
A tasteless, shapeless, great brick block,—
A giant haystack petrified!

Where sombre priests, who show no shirt,
Who mortify their flesh with dirt,

And bruise their-as they kneel-skin, Preach undeniable behests

To Irishmen in flannel vests,

And countesses in seal-skin!

Gaunt, stuccoed houses, glowing white,

And many a turfed and railinged square;

Prim villas, smirking into sight,

All Argus-eyed with plate-glass stare.
A cab-rank lends its fetid mirth ;
Of public-houses there's no dearth;
And at the passers-by

Do ruddled girls-not ruddled sheep-
From out Brougham-windows slily peep,
With aught but sheepish eye.

No cows, save those which High-Art deigns To keep on canvas for inspection;

Of mutton nothing now remains,

Save Mr. Sheepshanks's collection.

And over all, stupendous, vast,
Two giant domes their shadows cast,
In friendly coalition;

Where, lined inside with Crace's gilt,
The Court-ly-fostered Fowke has built
Our novel Exhibition.

That word recalls to me, alas!

The memories of a bygone time:
A Palace made of shining glass,
Wherein I wandered in my prime;
The crystal fount by Osler sent,
The clock contributed by Dent,

The jewels brought from Spain,
The Koh-i-noor from India won,
And-saddest thought of ail!—the fun
That ne'er can come again.

'Neath Paxton's roof I stroll once more,

Without a thought, without a care;

Gay Albert* laughs at fool and bore;
Wild Angust tosses back his hair;
Arthur, half playful, half intense,
Gilds with a jest his common sense,
And mingles grave with gay;
Frank's phrases sparkle o'er with quips;
And round Bob's saturnine set lips

Smiles bright, though fleeting, play.

And standing on Life's threshold, I
Begin to nourish hopes of fame;
And by my pen resolved to try

To win my spurs and build my name.
Now of the band I stand alone,-

All, all the merry ones are gone
To dwell among the dead!

Nor now to fame do I aspire,
Too glad to ply my pen for hire,
And earn my daily bread.

In Paxton's halls as free as air
I flirted, bidding Care defiance;
Round Fowke's repulsive walls I glare,

And to my children talk of Science.
Then, young and eager for the race,
Now, broken to an ambling pace,

What wonder, in my dream,

That Past days 'gainst the Present strike,—
That Paxton's halls more fairy-like,
And Fowke's more hideous seem?

EDMUND YATES.

*Albert Smith, obiit May 24, 1860. Arthur Smith, obiit Oct. 1, 1861. Robert Brough, obiit June 1860.

Angus Reach, obiit Dec. 25, 1856. ? Francis Talfourd, obiit March 1862.