him, and they both burned together, standing on a field of fire, while the red streams devoured the snow, and blazed, but without smoke, over all the land.

Then a gigantic Death, all whose bones seemed icicles, glided with swift strides over the field, and his cold breath put out the flames and chilled them through, and they shrunk and fell together; and the Death took the bowl that had held the fiery wine, and filled it with the snow that still lay in a patch around the white fountain, and poured it over them once and again, and yet again. She knew that

it was the silence of the grave which he was pouring over them, till they were buried under a hill of silent snow. But it fell softly and pleasantly upon them, and calmed their burning, and so they slumbered in their grave, locked in each other's arms; and she felt that their baby slept between them; yet its spirit sang, she thought, at the same time out of a tuft of cowslips on the bank.

While she dreamed thus, a gentle smile came over her face, and her mother knew that her pains had for a moment ceased.

Hastings was an inveterate walker; and in the course of one of his rambles he found himself, after many hours' exertion, wet and tired, close to Burntwood farm. He went in, and was, of course, hospitably received by Farmer Wilson and his wife, as well as by James and Ann. They were going to dinner, and invited him to join them, but proposed that he should first change his clothes, which were thoroughly soaked, James offering to lend him a suit of his own. Hastings gladly consented, and soon appeared in the young farmer's Sunday garb. He had been so used to wear the costume of different countries and characters, that nothing looked awkward on him. James could not help fancying that the visiter appeared to much more advantage in the clothes than their true owner. Ann did not join in this opinion, but she was much amused at the spectacle of another person than James in her cousin's habiliments, and was constantly hanging down her head to conceal a broad smile, although she acknowledged to herself that Hastings looked well and at ease in his new dress. The wet clothes were hung up by the fire; and the whole party sat down to dinner, while one or other of the women went frequently to the neighbouring room of Elizabeth to see how she was. Hastings was delighted with his adventure, and ate like a true farmer, and talked so as to draw out all the information he could from both the Wilsons, often, also, introducing a word for the women. He picked up many facts as to the peasantry, and the modes

of feeling and thinking of the country people. He also told some anecdotes from his travels, which interested his new friends, and made Ann open her eyes wide, and look at him as if some preternatural being had suddenly appeared in the well-known clothes. He spoke of African huntings, Hindoo murders, the witchcraft of American Indians, and the roving robbers of Arabia and Persia; of volcanoes, erocodiles, and gold-mines.

The mention of juggling and magic led him to speak of many strange things that he had known of in different countries, some of them easily to be explained, others apparently unintelligible, but not the less certain. He said, for instance, that once when residing in one of the West Indian islands, he had bought, and taken rather as a favourite than a servant, a handsome boy, coloured, or of the mixed race, and eleven or twelve years old. He was remarkable for the liveliest and most joyous spirits, as well as for readiness and clearness of head. But after some weeks, without any seeming cause, the boy became melancholy and dull, and was evidently losing his health. His master questioned him as to the reason of this change, but he would give none, and appeared terrified at the thought of confessing. After much persuasion, however, he burst into tears, fell on his knees, and said he would tell all. For many nights, he said, he had always had the same bad dreams, urging him to rob his master, and leave the money in a certain de

In

cayed tamarind tree near the house. This advice, he said, was given him in his sleep by different figures, now by a beautiful white woman, now by a great negro chief, dressed in green and crimson clothes, with a golden sword beside him; sometimes by cloudy gigantic figures of men and women playing on drums, and kindling great fires, in which they threatened to burn him; sometimes by a white preacher, with long grey hair, and a book in his hard, out of which a prodigious bamboo grew up into the sky, with a star in the top of it; and sometimes by a number of little rose-coloured children, who played round him, and all sang the same thing in his ear. His master comforted him, told him the bad dreams would go away, and gave him money, which he desired him to leave in the hollow tree. A person was then sent to watch, who found that the money was taken away by an old negro woman, who sometimes came about the house from a neighbouring estate to sell vegetables and poultry. The difficulty was to conceive how the dreams could have arisen in the boy's mind. order to discover this, his master, without informing him, bored a hole in the partition of his bedroom, and remained with his eye directed through it. The houses in those countries are often not fastened, nor even the doors laid to. It was, therefore, not very surprising that early in the night, a faint sound was heard in the boy's room, and an old woman was seen to enter, bent nearly double, and looking like some strange grizzled baboon rather than a human being. She crept to the bedside, and, after seating herself, and making various signs, she began to mutter in a low voice close to the boy's ear. These were some of the words which the Englishman caught :-"Now, white woman come you very booful much-tell you take massa's money-put in um tree-now she gib you um kiss very sweet much." And so the old hag went on suggesting image after image, while it was evident, from the boy's writhing and gasping, that the words took in his mind the appearance of corresponding things, but did not wake him from his painful sleep. The woman was seized while creeping away, and put in the stocks, where she was shown to the

boy the next day, and means were taken to frighten her from ever again approaching the house. The boy soon recovered his cheerfulness, but would, probably, in the opinion of an intelligent physician, be liable all his life to similar influences from those about him.

After this, Hastings was led to speak of occurrences no less strange which he had experienced in other countries.— "Once," he said, "I made a sudden journey from one part of Persia to another, in company with several natives, whom I resembled in my dress, beard, and general appearance. On the last day of my expedition I rode for fourteen hours without stopping, and reached in the evening the city of my destination. As we passed through the gate, I saw among the crowd who were looking at our cavalcade an old man, who seemed to watch me with great intentness. We were stopped for a few moments in one of the streets, and, on my looking round, he was again close to me. After we had settled ourselves for the night in our khan, a large building designed for travellers, while my servant was attending to my horse, and I was about to eat my supper, the same old man approached me, and asked if I would come with him and share a better meal than the one before me. I looked at him now more attentively, and, having before seen, from his dress, that he was one of the Armenians, who are natives of the East, but not Mahometans, it now also appeared to me that he was of an honest and benevolent countenance. He looked respectable, but not wealthy. I felt that I had my pistols about me, loosened my We passed sword, and followed him. through several streets, and entered at last a small door in a high and solid wall; this led us into a court, and thence we passed into a garden, at the further side of which a building stood; into this we passed, and Ï found myself in a scene of wonder. The light of many perfumed lamps showed that the walls were covered with blue and red silk embroidered in gold. There were several large ebony and japan cabinets, filled with golden plate, and with pyramids of cut and rough jewels. The carpet was of brocade, and the cushions that lay upon it of purple silk, worked with flowers in seed-pearl. The old man made me sit

down, and left me for a few minutes; after which he returned superbly dressed, and placed himself beside me. He spoke very little, and seemed of a grave, if not melancholy humour. But he had hardly given me time to wonder at his proceedings, when a train of slaves came in, beautifully clothed, and bearing water in silver bowls to wash the hands; and then a multitude of dishes of the most delicate and costly meats. We sat almost in silence; wine cool as snow was brought to me, and again the ewers for washing. When we were left alone, the old man sighed, and said, Stranger, great as may be your wonder, it cannot exceed my confusion. But it is useless to delay speaking what must be told. I am a merchant, ac counted the richest of this city, and, some have said, of Persia. But my wealth avails little for happiness. I have an only child, a daughter, than whom I believe there are few more beautiful. But all my joy in her is blighted by the misfortune of the evil eye which has fallen upon her.

Her

health has long been wasting away. I have consulted many physicians, mollahs, and dervishes, but none have been of use to her. One, reputed the sagest of the holy men in all the province, told me, three months ago, that on this day a stranger, a Frank, would enter at sunset the eastern gate; that him I must wait for and entreat, and if he would consent to become the husband of my daughter, the spell would be defeated, and she would live; but that if he refused, within one hour of his denial she would surely die. You see the contents of this room, which are but a small part of my riches; all will at my death be hers, and more than you now see I would at once bestow on her as a portion. But, although it is not a Persian usage, I know the marriage

customs of the Franks, and will show you the damsel herself before you decide.' He then drew off a curtain from a door, and the maiden, who had been sitting within, rose up timidly, let the covering fall from off her head, and, with a low bending of the body, and hands crossed, stood trembling before me. She was beautiful, even to European eyes, but I saw that she was dying. I stooped to kiss the hem of her garment, drew the curtain before her, and led the old man away. Having made him sit beside me, I told him, with many thanks, that I could not accept his bounteous offer. He looked at me with fixed eyes for a full minute, then his countenance assumed an expression of deadly fury, and, exclaiming,

Slave, you shall repent this insolence,' he thrice violently clapped his hands. Immediately six or seven armed men entered, to whom he called to seize me. I had time to draw my sword; and, enraged at his violence, while they rushed upon me I made a blow at him; but his daughter, who had rushed in for the purpose, I fear, of saving me, threw herself between us, and received the blade of the scymitar on her neck. She shrieked, fell, and must, doubtless, have died upon the spot; but I could not stay to learn her fate, for several swords were lifted against me. In the confusion I fired a pistol among my assailants, dashed a lamp against some muslin hangings near me, which set them in a blaze, sprang into the closet where the girl had been, and forced my way through the women's apartments into the street. I left the town the next morning, and never returned to it; nor can I, to this hour, explain by what means the dervish had predicted my arrival, and its disastrous consequences."

To such tales as these, while they sat round the fire after dinner, and the drenching rain still fell, the Wilsons lent an admiring attention. The father told, in return, some English wonders of ghosts and omens, without, apparently, giving them much credit; and he afterwards said, "No doubt there is plenty of fortune-telling, and all such nonsense, going on in the neighbour

hood, as there is a gang of gipsies encamped at no great distance." This awakened the curiosity of Hastings; for he had seen bodies of that dispersed race in almost every country between India and England, and could speak something of their peculiar language. He enquired particularly where they were to be found; and, as soon as the rain abated, he sent a message

to Beechurst to say he should probably be absent for some hours, and then set out in search of the tents of the wanderers.

--

He left the little family full of interest in so wonderful a man. Poor Ann, in whom every emotion bubbled at once to the surface, spoke twice or thrice to James, as if she had felt more admiration for Hastings than he was pleased with his annoyance was much increased by anger at himself for having any such feeling from so absurd a cause. The family, however, all parted for the night, apparently good friends. But James, when alone, instead of going to bed, sat and thought over his visit to London, and mourned his own ignorance and perplexity as to every thing beyond the small circle of his daily life. In addition to this discontent, he could not free himself from the image of Hastings, dressed in his clothes, and talking of so many wondrous things that he had never before heard of, with a composure and liveliness to him so perfectly astonishing. How large and various, he thought, is the world, and what a brutish stupidity is it that leaves me so ignorant. What have I to describe to Ann, that she does not already know as well as I? Impatient and unhappy, he began to undress himself. But when the clock struck twelve, the whole of his story as Arthur Edmonstone and Sir Charles Harcourt blazed out upon him, and

he felt for and found the Onyx Ring tied to a ribbon round his neck. He cut the string and put the ring upon his finger. The lawyer, the baronet, and the farmer, were three distinct figures that now came before him as his own, though he knew that the original form of his being was that of Arthur. Each of these he had tried, and with each of them been dissatisfied. Neither of the changes which he had experienced had supplied that which was wanting in his original existence, and each had distressed him by its own hinderances and pains. It seemed that nothing would really supply his cravings but the unbroken freshness and vigour of temperament, the keen and cheerful courage, of a man like Hastings, finding pleasure wherever there is room for adventure, and striking out adventure where others would discover only a dull routine. The figure, too, of the man dressed in the farmer's clothes, yet in experience and versatility so much his superior, and awakening so strongly the alternate laughter and amazement of poor Ann, haunted him invincibly, and, raising the ring to his mouth, he pronounced the name of Hastings. The true James was restored to his native position, unconscious of an interruption in his life; and the possessor of the ring found himself, in the character of Hastings, a visitor of the gipsy camp.

ALL the sovereign states of Europe have in succession been founders of colonies; yet it is remarkable that all have successively failed, with but one exception. And in that exception we may justly pride ourselves, for that one is England. Without entering into those higher considerations which seem to connect this striking peculiarity with national virtue, it may be fairly observed that, of all European countries, England is the one whose intercourse is capable of conferring the largest share of moral and physical advantages upon those, her remote and struggling offspring. For in stance, what gifts could any of the other great European kingdoms, within the last three hundred years (the rise of the colonial system), have given to a colony? They might all, undoubtedly, have given them arts and arms, some knowledge of the general means of conquering the surrounding tribes, and considerable facilities of maintaining themselves by the cultivation of the commercial and agricultural capacities of the soil. But on the pre-eminent subjects of social advancement, of laws, morals, and religion, what could they have given to them more than they themselves possessed? And what was the condition of France, Spain, Portugal, or Italy, in those supreme organs of human happiness, knowledge, and virtue, during the whole period? With what purpose that Supreme will which it would be almost as presumptuous to examine as to question, had been pleased to put so large a portion of the human race as that contained in Spanish America and the Brazils, under the control of two thrones distinguished for bigotry, ignorance, and disregard of the liberties of man, is not an enquiry for these pages. But those vast allotments of power do not invalidate our former assertion, that the colonies of Europe had all failed, with the exception of our own. These were not colonies, but conquests; not the settlement of the nations of Europe forming new communities in new

lands, but the establishment of garrisons and governments in vast regions won by the sword and held by the sword. Of course, fragments of those garrisons gradually fixed themselves in the country; the viceroys and their court attracted followers from Europe; merchants settled on the scene of their trade. But there was nothing that constitutes the essence of colonisation; there was no transfer of any large body of the people at once into the occupied territory; no small community exclusively formed on the principles of the original land; no attempt to model an image of the parent state; no preparation in the native country to carry with them the framework of new society, ready to put together on their arrival, and raised into as complete as possible a resemblance of the structure of society at home The Spaniard in America, the Frenchman in the Antilles, the Portuguese on the banks of the Amazon, the Italian on the shores of the Euxine, were scarcely more than strangers and sojourners to the last. The Frenchman was, perhaps, more a denizen than the rest, from the narrowness of his locality in the islands. But the true failure consisted in the general inability to stamp their character on any large portion of the land, to extend their original institutions through the rising generation of the natives, or to retain firm possession of the country. Even in Canada, though there the French, undoubtedly, made their most systematic and continued experiment in colonisation, they never succeeded further than to form a small and shivering community, wholly unable to people the territory within its limits, wholly unable to supply itself without constant aid from the mother country, and wholly unable to resist the first impulse of an invading force. This was not colonisation, but adventure; not emigration, but exile; not the planting of a goodly tree in the desert, but the fixture of a naked post in the ground to claim the rights of discovery. The meagre and withering