The Illustrated Usk Observer and Raglan Herald

Buried Alive.—On Wednesday a, man was buried alive in the Greas Low Level Sewer which is now being construct*, d in the Old Ford-road, Bow. Tie labourers had commenced pile-driving, when a quantity of soil fell in and br.ried one of the unfortunate men. whose body was rot recovered until life was extinct.

HINTS UPON GARDENING. I AURICULAS. —If infested with green fly, shake a little dry fine sand amongst them, and then blow it out with force, when the insects will ba blown out with it. Caterpillars must be sought for dili- gently, and picked out by hand, or they will soon make general havoc. Keep the soil clean, free from dead leaves and weeds, and stir the surface gently. Shade from bright sunshine, and protect from heavy rain. BEDDEES to have every necessary attention to keep them in proper order. If seeds are allowed to ripen, the plants will begin to decline in bloom, so remove them promptly, and serve a twofold purpose thereby. Take cuttingB of geraniums in plenty, and to save further trouble, put them in pots or boxes as they are to remain for the winter. Use plenty of drainage and a poor sandy compost now, in order to check growth and harden the wood. CABBAGE to be planted out for spring supply on ground well manured. Collards planted close will now be getting crowded, so draw for use as soon as possible every other one, and ply the hoe between them. CARNATIONS. —Layers to be potted or transplanted, as soon as rooted, in sandy soil; avoid rich soil or stimulating manures, as they must not be encouraged to make much growth, or they will get a gross habit, which will be very detrimental during winter, for then it is necessary that they should rest. Place the pots in a close frame for a few days till fresh roots are made. CAULIFLOWER to be pricked out into frames for the winter, and to be kept as hardy as possible. ENDIVE to be planted out on warm well-manured borders, to stand the winter. GLADIOLI to have very little water now the bloom is declining when the soil in the pots is nearly dry lay the pots on their sides in the full sun, to promote their ripening. Those in beds will take care of them- selves till time to take them up. GREENHOUSE and CONSERVATORY must be cleaned thoroughly at once, and got ready to receive the plants which are standing out of doors, for as boisterous winds, heavy rains, and sudden changes are to be expected now, it would be well to stage the choicest and tenderest of them at once. Remove dead leaves, &c., from the plants, and see that the drainage is faultless. Give all the air possible, and only reduce the ventilation when there is an unfavourable change in the weather. HELIOTROPES to be kept in healthy growth for winter flowering. LETTUCE to be sown again for the last time. For management of the autumn and winter crop refer back. LILIUMS to be treated the same as recommended for gladioli. Give water till the leaves begin to fade, then lay them on their sides. MINT to be potted for spring forcing. There is in almost every family a demand for mint before it can be supplied, and the only way to make sure of it is to pet it, then it will be an easy matter to push it on as wanted. PEACHES AND NECTARINES must be looked to as soon as the last fruit is gathered; if any are infested with red spider, dust them liberally with powdered sulphur early in the morning befora the dew is off the leaves, or else syringe them well before the operation, so that the powder may adhere. PINEs. favourable weather, give air to young stock grown in dungpits, so as to avoid weakly growths, which are the certain productions of plants grown in a close, warm atmosphere; but keep a sufficient com- mand of beat by means of linings to allow a little air to be given at night and on cloudy days. Where the pits are heated by hot water tins can be done more readily. PINKS. —Plant out the old stock plants that have been grown in pots into borders, and keep the beds of young ones perfectly clean and free from weeds. PROPAGATE all sorts of bedding stuff that will be wanted for next year as fast as possible. As soon as cuttings are rooted, pot them off, or place in boxes as recommended above; keep them in a close pit or frame for a week or ten days, and then expose them to the weather for a short time before housing them for the winter. ROSES may be propagated now by inserting cuttings in a bed of light soil in a frame or pit. But a more certain way will be to prepare the cuttings and insert them in damp sand in a shady place, and keep them frequently sprinkled till they callous, and then pot them, and plunge them into a gentle bottom-heat. Sow mignonette for winter blooming. SPINACH must be thinned till the plants are about six inches apart; vacancies to be filled up by trans- planting, and if the ground is heavy or trodden during the operation, loosen it with care, so that the roots may have the benefit -of the air. VINEs. off laterals as it is too late for the plants to benefit by leaves formed now, and remove useless growths. VIOLETS for bloom during the winter and early spring should be taken up now with good-sized balls, and potted in forty-eight or thirty-two-sized pots in rotten turf, or a mixture of left-mould and road-sand, and then placed in a pit or frame near the glass.— Gardener's Magazine.

SPORTS AND PASTIMES. PARTRIDGE SHOOTING AND THE 1ST OF SEPTEM- BER. — Partridge shooting commenced throughout England on Friday, and from the reports which have been received from various parts of the country it appears that the supply of birds is extremely good, and that it will afford ample sport. It is illegal to shoot partridges before the 1st of September, but it is surprising to find what an extensive slaughter there must have been at a very early hour on that morning. As soon as the shop doors of the gentlemen licensed to sell game in the various parts of the metropolis were opened, a fine supply of partridges was exhibited for sale, leading to the inevitable conclusion that they must have been shot very near to London or very soon after the legal hours had set in. Any other view of the case would, of oourse, be extremely uncharitable. CURIOSITIES FROM THE MOORS. —The Earl of Cawdor last week shot a very curiously-coloured grouse, and has sent it to Mr. Macleay, bird-stuffer, to be preserved. It is of a uniform pale ash colour, nearly white, and when killed was plump and in fine healthy condition. Mr. Hanbury, Ord, has also sent Mr. Macleay a. strangely-marked grouse, the prevailing colour of which is a faded yellow, a few of the feathers being a light brown, the wings and tail ash coloured. Other two have been sent by D. H. Mackenzie, Esq., of a peculiarly mottled grey colour. CRICKET ON THE CONTINENT. grand cricket week at Homburg-les-Bains, near Frankforb, has been a great success As previously announced in the London journals, the "Administration "had invited Elevens from England and France to take part in a series of international matches. The invitation was readily accepted, and a capital week's play was the result. Franco and Germany first entered the lists, and after a well-contested game, France won by six wickets. Wednesday, August 16th, was the great day, eleven gentlemen of England being pitted against seventeen of the rest of Europe. Mr. A. Infelix having had the task of getting up tbe Englis h "team "entrusted to him, was fortunate in securing the services of a first-rate Eleven all round; and after throe days' brilliant cricket, England had the honour of winning both the pre- liminary and the return match. On the side of the Eleven,' Mr. Infelix's bowling, Mr. Round's wicket- keeping, and Mr. P. F. Law's fielding were deservedly and frequently applauded; while for the Seventeen, Mr. Greenfield's slows and Mr. Harper's long-stopping were first-rate. The lovely ground was thronged each day with a brilliant assemblage. The Duke and Duchess of Manchester, the Marchioness of Down- shire, Lord and Lady Clanricarde, Lord St. Lawrenee, &c. &c., were amongst the English visitora present at the game; and balls and other festivities in honour of the cricketers brought the grand week to a pleasant termination. THE season for taking salmon in England and Wales (except by angling) closed with the month of August, and the fence time commenced on the 1st of Sept. Salmon, however, may be sold for three days longer, anl anglers have two months' grace, angling for salmon (not for sale) being permitted up to November • The fish are already, many of them, out «f condi- tion, and it is the general conviction (except on the part of anglers themselves) that the extension of the angling season ought to be more limited, as no doubt it leads to the destruction of many fish that are almost reacy to spawn. The take of salmon in the season just closed in those two important salmon rivers, the Severn and the Wye, has been moderate. An umisual number of fish have been taken that were marked as if by the bite of some creatures, snp posed to be p-irpoiees.

Mackerel Fishing. A correspondent of the Field says :—The mackerel having now entered the harbours on the south coast of England and north of France in great abundance, some of your readers may perhaps be interested in knowing how best to turn these visits to account. From my intercourse with various seaports, it appears to me that Plymouth is rather in advance in this class of fishing. Morning and evening amateurs are scareely pleased with their sport if they take less than four or five dozen in the course of a couple of houra some, indeed, take as many as eight or ten dozen, which is not very surprising when it is considered that they pull them in three, four, and sometimes even a dozen at a time- one at a time is an exception to the rule. The mode adopted is by whiffing with a line of the following character. First. A hemp or flax line, tolerably fine but strong, twenty or thirty yards in length, to which is attached a 2 oz. boat-shaped sinker, if pulling slowly, or a 4 oz. one if sailing. Beyond the sinker a snood of about three yards of gimp (some use five, six, or even eight yards), and on the end of the gimp a gut collar, either of twisted or single strong salmon gut, of from one to two or four yards in length. A silver-spinner termi- nates the gut collar, and at every knot of the collar is looped on a white or red feathered hook, the number varying from three to a dozen or twenty, at the caprice of the fisherman. Armed with a couple of these lines, towing astern of the boat, the fisherman plies his oar, or gets some one else to do it for him, and prowls about in search of his prey. Presently the longed-for tug is felt, and this is succeeded by another and another, and in comes the line, and it is difficult to tell which glistens most, the finny victims, as they sheer about to the extent of their tether, or the eyes of the fisherman as he welcomes their approach, and lifts them one after the other into the boat. Much of the success depends on the make of the feathered hook. The usual practice of dressing the hook with a couple of strips pulled from a goose pinion, which stick out like a pair of slender wings, is very objectionable. These collapse like two thin straps- in the water, and imitate nothing in nature. If, however, the hooks be dressed with perfect breast-feathers, placed feoce to face, so as to include the hook between them, and project from a half to three-quarters of an inch beyond the end, these will maintain their shape and size, and look just like a. shoal of little fish cutting through the water. The silver-spinner at the end acts aB a lure, and half-a- dozen mackerel may be seen rushing at once after it, one more fortunate than the rest secures the glittering prize, and the others immediately make for the feathers. Possibly this plan may be familiar to many of your readers, but it may be new to others, who will find themselves well repaid by the adoption of it.

BAD COLLIERY ACCIDENT. Two Miners Killed. A fearful accident occurred last week at Messrs. Appleby's ironstone pits, Revishaw, near Chesterfield, by which two miners were instantaneously killed. There are sixteen pits at Revishaw, all worked by one engine, which sets in motion two winding drums. A number of men and boys were being lowered into one half of the pits, while a number of loaded'trial corves were being raised in the other half. In No. 2 pit William Booth and another miner were going down, when, whilst near the bottom, the cage stopped, then descended, and with a jerk threw Booth's companion out. Before the deceased Booth could follow, the cage whirled up the shaft again to the pulley, the rope broke, and Booth and the cage were hurled to the bottom of the shaft, a distance of 168 feet. When found Booth was quite dead and shockingly mutilated, and the cage was smashed to pieces. While this was going on, in the next pit a similar fearful scene was being enacted. Daniel Cook and two other miners were descending there, and felt tho same check. Cook's companions leaped out, but he had not time to follow, and was carried up to the pulley, where the cage struck and broke the rope. Cook seemed to hang for a moment doubled up at the pulley, and then fell headlong down the pit, dead, and awfully dis. figured and crushed. The cause of the accident was, that the weight on the second drum broke the cog- wheels by which it was connected with the first; and evidence was given at the inquest showing that it was not a good thing to drive sixteen shafts with one engine.

SOCIAL ASPECT OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. A special correspondent of Saunders's News Letter gives the following account of the progress of the people:— Unless the peasant mistakes you for a spy, a gauger, or a valuator going to raise the rent on him, his intelligence and practical knowledge are very valu- able in enabling you to go below the surface, and learn the true condition of the country. The first great apparent change is in the improved condition of the dwellings and dress of the people. In Wexford, Kil- kenny, Tipperary, and Waterford, one no longer sees the normal dung pit and pool of fetid water in close proximity to the house, the unfailing friend to typhus fever and dysentery; the roofs are new fairly thatched and the walls whitewashed; and not rarely may be observed some little attempt at ornament in the way of a hedge row, or flowers in the potato garden. But it is in the dress, espe- cially of the women, that the most marked progress has been made. Twenty years ago the wearing of shoes and stockings was the exception and not the rule, and on a fair or market-day, when the little pro- prieties of life were to be observed, these articles were carried until the owners reached the environs of the town, and were then put on, more for ornament than use. But at present the neatly-shaped boot is to be found inside the house, while a more clumsy shoe is available for the rough work in the fields; and on Sundays the road glitters with the variety of bright colours suspended on the crinolines, which fashion has imported into the moat primitive districts. It may, however, be asked, has this external improve- ment been gained by running into debt, or, if not, from whence can the money be obtained ? The solu- tion is an easy one; the price of butter, of poultry, of eggs, &c., has increased enormously, and the demand is still more than equivalent to the supply, and ship- pers who send to England have their various agents going about and opening depots, where purchases are promptly made; so that eggs, which used to be sold for three or four a penny in any village, will j realise in summer from 7d. to lOd. a dozen, and in winter go up as high as even Is.; and chickens that were a drug at 6d. are readily taken at Is. and more: The daughters of the small farmers are allowed to rear fowl for themselves; and one woman, whose flocks of turkeys in a wild part of the county Water- ford constituted quite a picture, stated that she paid the rent of the ground she held—namely, Z33 a year, by this one source of revenue. It is in the matter of food and creature comforts that no equal progress has been made; and from my observation I should be led to the conclusion that those of the Irish who are a little elevated over the hand-to-mouth condi- tion of the mere labourer, display a wonderful amount of prudence, forbearance, and cheerfulness of mind, under what would try the temper and incite the improvidence of the same class of people at the other side of the Channel. They are grateful for the returning supply of wholesome and cheap food. given through the agency of the potato, and buttermilk is an indulgence, while the use of fresh milk would be a luxury only to be occasionally gratified. Barely, even on a Sunday, does bacon accompany the pot of cabbage, and pigs, butter, fowl, and even eggs, are reserved for sale, not for personal enjoyment. No doubt 'starvation' wiU, and must demoralise, but the peasantry here, who certainly enjoy but a restricted and little-varying dietary, are not debilitated, and even the most prejudiced must admit that the virtue of the women is a fine feature in their character. With respect to the diminished numbers of the people, from the effects of the famine years and subse- quent emigration, the result of inquiry from various quarters leads to the conclusion that while the soil if worked adequately would sustain more than were ever on its surface, yet that, in the present state of agriculture there are hands enough to do the required work, and that without the employer being obliged to ^ay more than a deoent rate of wages. There were periods when a man, willing to work for 3d. a day and his diet, could not even be secure of that; and surely the average of 6s. or 7s. a week for one who, most likely, has others dependent on him. is not in excess of what the most cold-blooded of political economists would sanction, when balancing his favourite rows of figures aghinst the shrinking and sensitive objects of humanity placed in the opposite scale. Many ef the farmers are now beginning to buy or hire reaping machines, and in the very busiest period of the harvest 2s. or 2s. 6d. for men, with their diet, and Is. 4d. to Is. 8d. for binders, constituted no very ex- cessive tariff."

FACTS AND FACETIAE, A minister, having occasion to refer to the battle of Armageddon, said, Armageddon, my friends, is a Hebrew word. I could explain it to you, but if I did explain Armageddon to you, ye would not be any the wiser." A-doring.—A husband complained of his wife be- fore a magistrate for assault and battery, and it appeared in evidence that he had pushed the door against her, and she in turn had pushed it against him; whereupon the counsel for the defendant said that he could see no impropriety in a husband and wife a-doring each other. Needn't Feel so Grand.-At Lynn, the other day, a Sunday-school teacher asked a little girl who the first man was. She answered she didn't know. The question was then put to an Irish child, who answered, Adam, sir," with apparent satisfaction. La!" said the scholar, "you needn't feel so grand about it—he wasn't an Irishman." Quid Rides ?-As our friend Bloater—a model of every manly virtue-was sitting in the stalls of the Prince of Wales' Theatre the other evening, a nautical playgoer in the gallery dropped a used-up "quid" on to his elegant summer pants." Bloater, however, merely smiled as he threw away the unsavoury morsel, and, looking up to the gallery, he convulsed the house with laughter by shouting out to the donor of the quid Pro quo ? Porcupine. A Curious Sculptor.-At a soiree the other evening one gentleman pointed out a dandified looking individual to his friend as a sculptor. What! said his friend, such a looking chap as that a sculptor! Surely you must be mistaken." He may not be the kind of one you may mean," said the informant, but I know that he chizzled a tailor out of a suit of clothes last week." Matrimony.—When bent on matrimony, look more than skin-deep for beauty, dive further than the pocket for worth, and search for temper beyond good humour of the moment, remembeiing it is not always the most agreeable partner at a ball who forms the most amiable partner for life. Virtue, like some flowers, blooms often fairest in the shade. The Cold, Cold Stream.- Let drinkers quaff the ruby, Extol the" blushing vine," And sing the praise of Bacchus, These are no joys of mine. No, not your milder liquids, Let spinsters have their tea, But give me of the cold, cold stream, The cold, cold stream for me. I hate your fiery liquids, Let drunkards have their gin, And drink the scorching liquor, Sink deeper in their sin. But give me of the cold, cold stream, With a drop of summut in. National Peculiarities.-A bet was once made in Xjcm<Jan, that by a single question proposed to an Englishman, a SuukWi., and an Irishman, a characteristic reply would be elicited from each of them. Three representative labourers were accord- ingly called in, and separately asked What will you take to run round Russell-square stripped to the shirt ?" While the Englishman unhesitatingly answered, A pint of porter," the humorous response of the Irishman was, A mighty great cold! Th e man of the North, however, instead of condescending upon any definite consideration," cautiously replied, with an eye to a good bargain, "What will your honour gie me P We should never remember the benefits we have conferred, nor forget the favours received. It is wiser to prevent a quarrel beforehand than to revenge it afterwards. Many a man keeps on drinking till he hasn't a coat to either his back or his stomach. Provision is the foundation of hospitality, and thrift the fuel of magnificence. A bath that everybody gets into once a week.- The Sab-bath. The Genius of the Age.-A fast youth was taken from college by his father to a solicitor to be an articled clerk. The agreement was made, and the notary remarked, For the first six months from to. day you will not receive any salary; after that .£80 a year." Very well, sir," said the youth, I shall re- turn at the end of six months." The London Conundrum and Panning Company (Limited) has eclipsed its former efforts in the follow- ing specimen: "Why were the Cambridge crew, when pulling forty-two strokes per minute, like a well-known Yarmouth nah ? Because they had a hard roe." A Bachelor's Idea of a Wife.- "What, Tom, you feel lonely ? well, get a young wife To share all your pleasures and sweeten your life." No, no! Jack, I need no such solace as theirs, They share all the pleasures-but treble the cares." Capsized.-Bonnets worn at theatres, when they intercept the view of the stage, give much offence to those that are prevented by them from seeing, and who often declare such bonnets should be cap-sized. Recently the wife of one of the city fathers of New Bedford presented her husband with three chil- dren at a birth. The delighted father took his little daughter, four years of age, to see her new relations. She looked at the diminutive beings a few moments, when, turning to her father, she inquired, Pa, which one are you going to keep ? Nice Distinction.-Two fair dames, not very happily mated, were comparing the merits of their lords and masters. My husband," exclaimed the one, as a climax, "is a perfect brute!" "Mine is much worse," said the other, he is a beast!" No Comfort.—At a late fire, the wife of the householder was rescued with some difficulty, whilst all his goods and chattels were consumed. A friend congratulating him on her escape, he confessed, with a sigh, that in comparison with what had gone her loss might have been a light affliction. A Lady's Age.—"What is your age, madame? said a huissier of the Palais the other day to a wit- ness. Between twenty-six and forty, monsieur." How is that, madame ? Do you not know better than that ?" was the rather angry retort of the huissier. "Well, monsieur, I count my money and my jewels, because that is property I might lose, but I'm sure no one will take my years and add them to theirs. Therefore, I take no heed of my age." The lady's wit permitted her age to pass unknown. Queries."—What tree is that which is not af- fected by the season, and brings forth neither blossom nor fruit P The boot-tree.—What is the difference be- tween a general and a commissary-general ? The one bleeds his country, whilst the other bleeds for his country. A Succession of Storms.-A gentleman talking to another on the subject of marriage made the following observation" I first saw my wife in a storm; took her to a ball in a storm; courted her in a storm; was betrothed to her in a storm; married her in a storm; lived with her in a storm all her life but, thank Heaven, I buried her in pleasant weather." A Feeling Witness.—A lawyer, upon a circuit in Ireland, who was pleading the cause of an infant plaintiff, took the child up in his arms and presented it to the jury suffused with tears. This had a great effect, until the opposite lawyer asked the child— What made you cry P" He pinched me!" an- swered the little innocent. The whole orowd was oon. vulsed with laughter. Improvement of the Revenue.—An intoler- able and exceedingly poor scribbler (who was often not even penny wise) used to account fer his neglecting to put the Queen's head on the envelope as arising from a wish to increase the Post-office revenue. My letters," said he, are worth more, and pay twopence instead of a penny." At the Glass-blowers' entertainment, a few even- ings ago, Mr. W. B. Cogswell took the prize for the beat conundrum on the steam-engine: Why is a steam-engine a. most inconsistent piece of machinery ? Answer. Because it will not work until supplied with steam, and then will not work till it is allowed to escape." After the above was read to the audience, a disappointed candidate for the prize gave the following: What is the difference between the glass steam- engine and the prize conundrum P Answer. The one you can see through, and the other you can't." The prize for the best-looking young man in the hall was not disposed of, as it was impossible to get a. com- mittee of ladies to decide the point. Comical Epitaphs.— This little hero who lies here, Was conquered by the diarrhcea." Here lies Robert Cairns, „ With two wives and fourteen bairns I am coming, sweet Willie, And so is your ma, For to meet you in glory Along with yonr -os. Come meet us a flying, And light on each breast, Then we'll sing hallelujah At home with the blest."

THE MURDERER'S DREAM. He seemed to see both ends of the bell at once—the bell hanging silently by his bed, and the bell-handle hanging silently by that other bed, where it seemed to him the shrouded form still lay. And in his dream a, cold, strange fear crept over him: suppose the old man should want him once more — suppose the bell should ring ? He dreamed that he rose up and got himself a light, and determined to go down to Anthony's room, but that he could not find the door; wherever he stepped the floor seemed to have great openings-deep, yawning gaps-down which he dared not look. Then he thought he let his candle fall, and as he went down on his knees to search for it the bell rang. The strength seemed to pass from his limbs as he listened, and his hands, as they groped for his candle, touched all sorts of strange things that came up from the gaps in the floor. Now they seemed to be feeling along the cold empty shelves of the safe, again, where other cold clammy hands seized and shook them, and mocking laughter mingled with the ringing of the bell. Now and then he nearly got hold of his candle, but waves, that seemed half of black water and half of fire, rose up under it and bore it away. Scenes that he had passed through seemed to be going on still down those gaps in the floor, that opened upon him so sud- denly that several times he nearly fell into them. In one he saw Anthony kneeling at his uncle's bed; in another, Esau, waving the old smock frock. Then he saw himself in his uncle's room with the officers, and seemed to be watching his own face with breathless, sickening interest. Even while the bell rang, and his hair streamed with perspiration, he watched the picture. Rocking on the waves, he saw the officers walk from the alderman's room satisfied, and wait at' the door for him. Then he saw himself trying to follow them, and he writhed with anguish to see his, foot had become glued to the floor by some blood that he had trodden in. He saw the men outside the door, waiting and wondering; he heard Anthony calling him; then the lawyer, and the pompous doctor, and Sleuth, looking down in the gap, shrieked to his shadow to try and move; but in vain it wrenched and writhed -the foot was glued immovably. All the house- hold came pouring in at the door; the # shrouded figure on the bed sat up, and pointed him out to them; then the whole picture fell into tho waves, and Sleuth dreamt he was still in the dark? groping about for his candle, with the bell ringing over his head. It rang more loudly than ever, the darkness grew blanker, and all the floor seemed breaking away, and letting the room fill with, ntrango, hideous things. Sleuth dreamed that he went back to the bed and leaped upon it, and flung himself down to stop his ears with the pillows. The pillows! Where were they ? Gone, and there was a gap-not such a gap as Sleuth had made in the alderman's pillows-but deep, interminable; and down it, with headlong haste, Sleuth fell, and fell. He caught at strange things that he passed in the darkness; at birds, but they tore his hands with their beaks; at trees, but their branches broke like tinder; at slimy walls, whose touch only seemed to increase his fearful speed. Sometimes faces he knew passed him going up as he went down. Phillis passed, wan and shadowy-looking, all her youth and fresh beauty gone, but rising slowly, with clasped hands and eyes gazing straight upward. She looked at Sleuth as she passed him, and let fall a tear on his face. It seemed to drop upon him like a stone, and drive him down faster—■ faster. Then the alderman's daughter passed him, not as he had heard of her—a wretched, remorseful woman, but as the alderman had loved to talk of her, a little golden-haired child. But now she seemed to Sleuth to have bright wings, which, together with her hair, made a light that scorched his eyes. She was not looking up, like Phillis, but down, and' flying slowly, and singing and beckoning with her arms to something beneath her. This something Sleuth soon passed. It was Silas Maude, with his white head thrown back, and his arms outstretched, struggling upwards towards his little daughter. Sleuth would fain have looked back to see if he reached her; but drops of blood from his uncle's wound dropped on him with such a fear- ful weight, that he was borne down, faster—faster. The lower he fell the more horrible became the things he met. At last he thought he saw, at the bottom of all, a black sea, on which one hideous white bird swam by itself. Long before he came to the bottom he saw this bird spread its wings and fly up towards him. As it came nearer it grew larger and flatter, till at last it looked more like a coat than a, bird; but he only -usthad time to see this when it seized upon him, and wrapt itself round his head and face tighter and tighter, till his breath stopped. His hands tore at it madly, but in vain: it tightened round him like living sinews; it dragged him down and down, till he heard the black waves roar, and leap up to catch him, and then Sleuth woke. The sun was shining in at the two round windows. The sunshine streamed upon the bed where Sleuth sat whiter than the linen sheets that, in his dream, he had rent from top to bottom, trembling so that the old fringes ef the bed shook, and the sweat poured from his fade and hair. He flung himself from the bed, dragged himself to one of the windows, and tried to kneel and put up his hands in prayer but the sunshine and fresh breeze were too much for him-he fainted away. — "Bound to the Wheel in Cassell's Illustrated Family Paper. —

The City authorities are taking active steps in regard to the cattle plague. On Thursday inspectors of cattle were appointed, and one of them-Mr. Tegg -proceeding at once to his duties at the Cattle- market, condemned over forty cows in a diseased state, which had been sent to the market for sale. Ballads.-Ballads and songs are often confounded together as synonymous terms; they certainly have much in common, and it is difficult at times to draw the line between them. A ballad, however, may be briefly de- fined as a species of poetry of which narrative is the essential element; a song may be called an epitome or condensation of the ballad, of which sentiment is the element. Diffuseness or detail is not forbidden in the ballad; it is entirely destructive of the spirit of the song, which must be short and pithy. Ballads have always exercised an important influence on the people, their habits, and modes of thinking; so much so that the sentence of Fletcher and Saltoun is often quoted, as indicative of this-" Give me the making of a nation's ballads, and I care not who makes its laws." This, doubtless, like all pithy sayings, although con- taining much that is exaggerated, contains much also that is perfectly true; for it is to be remembered that ballads were in the olden time what our newspapers are to us and, repeatedly recited by themilstrele who rambled over the country, and by the people one to another, they were not only communicated from dis- trict to district with amazing rapidity, but they were embalmed, as it were, by constant repetition, in the memories of the people. They were, in faot, the only medium by which their opinions could be made known, the only vehicle by which they could convey a notion of their real or fancied wrongs, by which they could demand their rights, or hurl their contempt, and give out the lashings of their wit or satire. They were also the only means by which the news of some great battle, some cruel wrong done or redressed, or some pathetic love Btory was spread over the country. These ballads were, doubtless, very numerous; but it 1 p e71 that those only which were the favourites of the people would be treasured up in their memories hence we may predicate with safety that those which have been handed down to us are those which were most highly esteemed by our ancestors. Ballads have always ministered powerfully to the nationality of a people; nor less to a cultivation and appreciation amongst them of a love of true poetry. Indeed, it is hard to say how much our poets themselves have been indebted to the spirit of a ballad millstrelsy.-The Quiver.