scolding at her nurse) came too late to your assistance, and had only time to throw in a single virtue, INTREPIDITY, which answered the devil's purpose better than if it had been left out.

"You will, doubtless, wonder why of all people I have picked you out as the publisher of my opinions; the reason however is obvious; it is to bring good out of evil."

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At this line, I found the end of my nose turn itself with a sort of galvanic twitch, and discovered, by a broken glass before me, that I " grinned horribly a ghastly smile.”

"It is my design to soften the asperities of your nature, and to neutralize the acidities of your disposition, in short, to lay the devil."

At this I laid down the manuscript, and took a pinch of snuff.

"I know that I shall be blamed by many of my acquaintance for endeavouring to make them better and happier than they are; however, the promise of my li berty is paramount to every other consideration, and, after all, I have a regard for my fellow creatures, and am out of the power of any evil spirit to do me harm. May the SPIRIT OF TRUTH, which emanates from the supreme fountain of goodness, more or less, into the mind of man, which is ever the same, and though sometimes

annoyed and disturbed, convinces, survives, and overcomes, that constitutes the understanding of the wise man, is the common sense of the unlearned, and disowned only by the hardened fool, spread its pure intelligence into all bosoms, that every one may be filled with the full glory of reason, and feel and acknowledge its benign influence and almighty power.

"It is this SRIRIT OF TRUTH which maintains a country, that resides in the characters of the rulers and the governed, when they have good will towards each other; that makes them consistent in virtue and honesty; that branches out into the spirit of the laws, and constitutes the best and surest defence in danger,

THE INDEPENDENT SPIRIT OF A NATION.

"The mighty Leviathan, and Belphegor, demons of the first order, are now at work; they animate the breast of an ambitious man to acts of outrage, but let the SPIRIT OF TRUTH oppose them, and they dis

appear.

"It is then with good spirits that Englishmen must meet the foe; the brave unequalled SPIRIT of her tars will do wonders, and the SPIRIT of the soldiery move whole columns of associated hearts in the defence of their country, for PARTY SPIRIT is laid, and the spirit of unanimity must conquer.

"One thing is, however, of most weighty consideration to Englishmen at the present moment, and that

is, that ALL the talent as well as the valour of the country should be engaged in her service; the discriminating eye of administration should search into every corner of the kingdom for merit unemployed. I see neglected numerous officers of the line, who have seen service, walking the streets at leisure, or ruminating at their country cottages, on the danger of the country. It is not numbers alone that can succeed against a daring foe, it must, to apply a term used in law, be number and value. It is not an association of brave minds and bodies in the cause, talents must instruct, and experience direct the movements of an army, the veteran must aid the volunteer, and good officers lead good men to victory.

"Whether a country be at peace or at war, it is a carmen necessarium for politicians to engage and employ the merit best suited to the particular situation of things. In peace, acute financiers; in war, the strength of naval and military talent; in tumult, men of high civil authority and great good private character, aided by the militia, should be called forth to curb licentiousness, and to dismay the enterprize of the insurgents. In all cases the strength of talent is most invulnerable; the strength of valour is rashness without it, and often of no avail.

"Wherever I direct my eye upon the movement and measures of the men engaged in the great administration of affairs, I discover the best intentions; from whence then can proceed the neglect so appa

rent, and so inimical to the interests of the country? Is it from the difficulty occasioned by the punctilios of service, which frequently, when rank is bestowed, puts the meritorious officer who arrives to it, as it is. called, upon the shelf; and the same man whose services would have been esteemed as a major-general is lost to the country, only because he has arrived to the rank of a lieutenant-general, and cannot be engaged in the brilliant career of military glory, because he cannot, with propriety, have any other than a chief command. Surely this is a bad organization, and some way might be found to distribute all the merit of the line among the forces of the kingdom that might not be derogatory to military ettiquette, if that paltry non-efficient word must govern in the field of battle, as in a dancing-master's ball-room.

"In addition to the above reasoning may be urged, the accession of discipline and professional courage that would disseminate through the volunteer ranks; they would admire and become intimate with that regular and mechanical courage, (if I may so call it) which goes as regularly and composedly to fight, as a workman to his daily labour, and which is the effect of military education and of habit.

"The French know the courage of the British, and they know that all they have to trust to against so brave a nation, is the ingenuity of talent, the successfulness of intrigue, and the discipline of soldiers accustomed to the field. Eustace de St. Pierre, in the

English Dramatist, (Colman junior's play of the Surrender of Calais,) defines the sentiment of the French on this subject:

"I like these English, they are a noble and a down-right foe, who when we spin our subtle webs of state, come to our doors and pull the work to pieces."

"Let then the talent of the country be recruited. from all points where it is hid in obscurity, that it may brighten with its clear enlivening flame the mind of valour.

"The Man in the Moon joins most fervently in the prayer, that England may repulse the rash invader; and that, notwithstanding the arrogant boasts and threats of the enemy, hopes that he shall, according to good old custom, again regale his olfactory nerves, at the approaching Christmas, with the usual fragrant exhalations of roast beef and plumb pudding ascending from the tables of the undisturbed and cheerful families, who love not ambition, and respect not conquerors, that he may be able to say, not only "I see you," according to his motto, but "I see you, and am glad to see you so happy."

Z.