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numerous, must have remarked, that bad epitaphs are extremely common, whilst it is somewhat rare to meet with a good one. There are certain uncouth rhymes, the absurdity of which must render them ridiculous to every thinking person, yet to be found with trifling variations, in every churchyard; and, as I have frequently observed, occurring several times in the same. Some persons have made collections of these rustic efforts of the muse; and such of them as possess originality, however quaint, occasionally occupy a place in periodical literature. I am always disposed to be serious in a grave-yard; without, therefore, intro ducing any thing calculated to create mistimed mirth, allow me to present such specimens of the Epitaphs in Abbeyholm churchyard as to me appeared most worthy of notice :

"How short the life of those interr'd below.

How small the space between each fatal blow!
Think, mortal reader, why the Power Divine,
That cut their early thread, yet lengthens thine."

These lines, inscribed over the sleeping dust of several little children, are peculiarly appropriate; and containing, as they do, a salutary lesson for the living, may be found profitable.

"How strangely fond of life poor mortals be!
Who that should see this stone would change with me?
Yet, gentle reader, tell me which is best,
The tiresome journey or the traveller's rest?"
This argument goes upon the supposi-
tion, that the deceased has found rest at
death. Rest is certainly to be preferred to
travel; but the extreme unwillingness to die,
manifested by the greater part of our spe-
cies, argues, either a doubt of their future
condition being better than the present, or
a dread of the medium through which it is
to be obtained.

"You mortals, who this way do pass,
Behold this stone, your looking-glass;
Where, underneath, interr'd doth lie
The body of true honesty!

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This is written in bad taste: a rough stone is but an indifferent mirror; and honesty cannot be said with propriety to have a corporeal substance, much less to be dead and laid in the grave. Does the deceased, who seems to be the speaker, mean that we are to study his character till we imbibe his virtues, and that the carcass beneath was the mortal tabernacle of an honest soul? As a counterpart to the above epitaph, I shall take the liberty of introducing one which I recollect to have met with in Woodhorn churchyard :

"This humble monument will show,
Here lies an honest man :

Ye kings, whose heads now lie as low,
Rise higher if ye can!

The characters of the deceased being utterly unknown to me, and their epitaphs, though spoken in their own persons, possi

bly written by other parties, it would be presumptuous to judge of their attainments: but it is undeniable, that this boasted honesty (by which many mean no more than a disposition to pay their just debts) is not unfrequently an ingredient in a character which, as a whole, is far from good. Pope's too-often-quoted line, "An honest man," &c., has been made the triumph, and formed the motto, of many a licentious character; who, founding his hopes of a happy immortality in a conceit of integrity to his fellow-men, has nevertheless indulged in every other species of vice, and yet boasted himself " the noblest work of God.”

Besides those whose ashes may be supposed to be still recumbent, in part at least, at the foot of their tombstones, I observed monuments to the memory of some whose remains at death had become the prey of the fishes in the sea, or the jackalls in the desert, those whose bones may even now be blanching some foreign shore,-whose dust has been scattered by the winds of heaven! These have a peculiar interest in my feelings; and I read with more than usual emotion, beneath the names of George Chambers, and Jane, his wife, that of "Tom, their son, Captain of the Boyne, who died at Goree, aged 32," and of "John Harrison, who was cast away on the Bahama bank, near the Isle of Man." Poor Tom! was this his real name, or was it that by which his fond mother loved to call her gallant boy? How feelingly may he be supposed to have lamented the loss of those comforts which at home he possessed; when, landed on a distant coast, his constitution shrunk beneath the unfriendly climate; or, all robust as he was, he fell in the sanguinary conflict ! And, not less unfortunate Harrison ! small comfort would it afford thee, when thy vessel struck, to think that it was upon thy native coast. I was reminded of Cowper's "Castaway," but must not quote those beautiful stanzas, which might here have such a melancholy adaptation.

What means this inscription? "H. R.I,P. John Fenix, the industrious and worthy Cow, per of Sandenbrook," The capital letters, one may venture to suppose, are the initials of a sentence which has the same in Latin and in English: "Here tests in peace John Fenix," &c. Is my manuscript wrong in this particular, or is it indeed Cowper? Possibly, amongst such rustic inscriptions as present themselves to a traveller here, where the village of Seaville is spelt in all the varieties of-Seavil, Sevil, and Sivel, the industrious cooper of Sandenbrook may have had the name of his craft changed, in the "shapeless sculpture," to the name of

our worthy domestic poet. Well, to be industrious is, in a mechanic, a praiseworthy characteristic; and, as it generally implies sobriety, as applied to a cooper, is no small commendation.

How was it that I felt so attracted to that plain but decent stone on the left hand of the pathway, at the east end of the church? It presents no gaudy sculpture,-no weeping or trumpeting angels,-no cross or bible, no scythe or hour-glass,-death's head or crossed bones,-not even a rhyming epitaph, which few of its neighbours want. I should have missed this stone as soon as many others, having neither venerable age nor modern embellishment to attract attention; but, in the course of an industrious examination of the whole, I came in turn to it. There is nothing extraordinary in the inscription: "Sacred to the memory of I.T.;" and, further on," Elizabeth, daughter of W. and E. T., of Southerfield; died Sept. 16th, 18-, aged 16." Here I found myself unexpectedly standing on the tomb of a family to whom I had become warmly attached. I knew not Elizabeth, whose brief course had come to a peaceful termination previously to my acquaintance with her family; but I had spent the preceding evening in her father's house,-had parted that morning with her blooming sister, and now felt as if related to the dead. Hexham, Oct. 4, 1831.

J. RIDLEY.

CHOLERA MORBUS.-NO. II.

AWFUL reality! This disease, like an eagle from the ocean, alighted on the north. eastern shore of Britain on the first days of November; and its first carnage was in Sunderland, upon the river Wear, the second coal-port in this island; and from that period to the 18th instant, two hundred and two human beings have been hurried out of time in that town. Progressing a few miles south, it carried off five persons in the small coa-port of Seaham. Extending about eight miles north of Sunderland, it entered the mouth of the Tyne, the greatest coal-port in Britain, perhaps in the world. Upon this river, at Shields and Tynemouth, twenty-eight souls have been launched into eternity; at Newcastle two hundred and thirty-nine, and at Gateshead one hundred and thirty-three. At Houghtonle-Spring, a village midway between Sunderland and Durham, forty-four have been levelled with the dust. Yet extending, Walker, Newburn and Wallsend, colliery villages in the vicinity of the Tyne, and the city of Durham upon the Wear, are visited; 2D. SERIES, NO. 14.-VOL. II.

altogether forming a large portion of the great northern coal-field: no part of which, appears to have been spared. From this coal-field, the cholera has passed into Scotland, and at Haddington and Tranent, only a few miles from Edinburgh, twenty persons have fallen victims to its malignancy: making a total, in less than three months, of six hundred and seventy-one deaths; out of two thousand persons attacked.

The greatest number of deaths have occurred at Newcastle, which is much the largest town; and from Newcastle, a north wind with a heavy fog carried the disease across the Tyne, (which, pent up by two hills, viz. Gateshead and Newcastle, is there very narrow) to Gateshead; where, during the first forty-eight hours, upwards of fifty persons passed away beneath its appalling devastations, and their lifeless bodies were interred in a long trench, dug for the purpose in the burial-ground, amidst feelings of awe indescribable.

How many hapless victims to this ruthless pestilence have been silently hurried away from the district over which it has passed, and is now passing, can only be known to God; but enough is recorded to alarm, and place upon their guard, not only the northern provinces, but this whole island.

Thus this awful malady, the scourge of the age in which we live, and the messenger of warning on the eve of, "a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time," after desolating, from its commencement, about the year 1816, upon the banks of the river Hooghly, near Calcutta, the east and south of Asia, has, by a northerly route through Europe, begun its ravages the west; yea,

as we perceive by the preceding sketch, spread to, and is spreading, its awful deaths in Great Britain. It becomes us, then, to use every means of prevention which human ingenuity can suggest, and to repeat, hint at, or improve those means from time to time, incessantly calling upon our fellowmen at all times to cease from every propensity calculated to induce an attack upon themselves individually, and, through their instrumentality, whelm these deaths upon all around them. What, therefore, of caution or warning it is ours to give, we give in the presence of Him who beholds the hearts of men, and entreat from Him a blessing upon the feeble voice which is thus raised to stay the plague amongst us.

Upon the human frame, the cholera frequently commences its attack in the lower region of the spine, about the loins; producing strong excitements on the nerves, 158.-VOL. XIV.

which quickly induce cramps and spasms, with excruciating and debilitating pains, and a total prostration of strength. These, with astonishing rapidity, reduce the patient to the semblance of a corpse; and, alas! in a few hours to a corpse indeed.

Having ascertained the point of attack, it becomes us to resort to any mode of defence which lies open to us, in the fear of the Lord. Flannel belts round the loins, we have already recommended; yet, under all the circumstances of the case, we plead no excuse for reiterating this recommendation; yea, even with greater energy than heretofore. During the chilling month of February, and the piercing winds of March, these flannel belts would defend this vulnerable portion of the human frame from debilitating disease, and do much, by preserving the tone of the lower region of the spine, towards averting the impending calamity. To these, therefore, as preventives easy of access, and so cheap that even the most indigent may crave them of their richer neighbours with every chance of success, or purchase for themselves by the charity of others; while the labourer and artisan cannot be at a loss for the small pittance needful to furnish himself and family therewith to these, I say, the whole community ought immediately to resort. One such belt for each individual, would suffice for the whole spring season; and should one life, in the hands of divine Providence, be preserved thereby, this one life would furnish an equivalent for all the expense and pains: but many may be saved.

One description of persons named in a previous article, (p. 15,) as being eminently liable to the attacks of cholera, is the drunkard; and never was a position more awfully verified than this: for, during Christmasday and the succeeding week, never were greater numbers of inebriated persons seen at that season than the streets of Gateshead exhibited, when and where the most awful mortality occurred which Great Britain has witnessed since the cholera landed in our island, for suddenness and extent.

The prevalence of dram-drinking is an evil far greater than the cholera itself millions owe diseases and death to this baneful practice annually; for such is the propensity of mankind to strong drink, in every nation where it can be obtained, that in every language we find an expressive word for a drunkard, and in every community the character of the drunkard is known; and the increasing multitudes who in this age immolate themselves on this bestial shrine, induce universal horror. The dramshop and the beer-shop are the places of

resort, and the doors thereto are the points upon the pavement, where assembled groups of wretched beings, male and female, lounge, and by speech and gesture annoy and frequently insult sober passengers, especially females, who are compelled to approach and pass them. I say, compelled; for the dram-shops and the beer-shops are so numerous, and in such positions, in order to entrap customers, that it is impossible to move in populous districts without coming in contact with these nuisances at all points —In the metropolis, from ordinary houses, the dram-shops have recently become splendid edifices. Columns, porticos. and other architectural embellishments frequently decorate the exterior, while, within, engines, which afford every facility to the quick conveyance of ardent spirits and strong drink, meet that gust of appetite, (which extreme depravity has nurtured to excess) with, alas, too ample supplies: and the orgies of beings, debased far below the characters of mankind, afford a contrast to the grandeur of the edifice, which cannot be contemplated but with horror.

With this awfully increasing evil, how shall we deal? There are penalties awarded to the drunken by the laws of the land, these ought to be inflicted; fines are also enacted against the persons who pander to drunkenness, and they ought to be levied. The sober should express his disapprobation of the practice in marked terms, and every religious community might offer up its prayers, in express petitions for the conversion of the dram-drinker from the error of his ways. Hardened and audacious impunity in crime is the highway to judg ment; and the united prayers of faithful Christians are the only barriers to the progression of judgment from a Holy God to perversely sinful men; let not these be wanting in this awful exigency, that the plague may be stayed.

King Square, January 20, 1832.
W. COLDWELL.

EUROPE, IN THE WINTER OF 1831-32. IN or about that eventful year, 1816, which has been already, and will be hereafter, referred unto, because we account that year the beginning of the last time, or the shortened time of trouble; about the year 1816, that awful scourge of the human race, the Cholera Morbus, began its ravages upon the banks of the river Hooghly, near Calcutta, in the south-east, and, progressing north and west, has, during sixteen years, hurried into eternity fifty millions of the children of Adam; and, unabated in its

malignancy, it yet ravages, and yet spreads amidst the most populous districts: yea, even our own land has not escaped.

A spirit has also gone forth, which has dissevered society, as completely as this pestilence has severed the families of the earth. Incendiary fires ravage the agricultural districts; persecuting annoyances disturb, even to distraction, the manufacturing population; the political world is rent into factions, infuriated even to slaughters and burnings; the bonds of social order are dissolved, and the eye of man has become evil towards his fellow; he inveigles him into a secret place, stupifies him with drugs, falls upon him, and, in the most cool and deliberate manner, suffocates him; and, bearing away his body, sells it to the anatomical demonstrator; who thus becomes the receiver, in a case of the most horrid felony which can outrage the laws and afflict a nation.

Religion is not less assailed than social order for irreligion and infidelity, hand in hand, brandish their weapons in open day: assembling in troops, to teach, to harden, and to infuriate each his fellow against the God of heaven and earth, His sacred Word, and all His followers; and, while the seats of judgment and the thrones of kings reel to and fro like a drunken man, the mitre trembles over the brow of the exalted prelate, portending death. Thus, evidently, are the seeds sown, and the blade has sprung up, of that awful harvest so frequently predicted throughout the sacred volume, to take place in the latter days; and thus is the seal of verity stamped upon the oracles of God; and scenes of divine providence will follow in their train, developing the modes by which the Omnipotent renders all these subservient to His gracious purposes, and, out of these depths of evil, exalts a dominion of order and peace, universal and perpetual. May this kingdom come!

To the horrors which surround the church of Jesus Christ, may be added the divisions raving within it, and the domination which is attempted to be set up over several of its departments. The ambition of teachers within, and the tyranny of despotic agitators without, alike afflict the church; and the general moaning of its most pious members is over the lack of primitive simplicity, divine fervour, holy faith, and ardent devotion. If ever there was a period when men in general were called upon to erect the banners of truth, to lift up holy hands with out wrath and doubting, to rally round the standard of the cross, and fight manfully the battles of the Lord, assuredly this is

the moment. To cast out of the church that which offendeth and defileth, and take captive, from the ranks of the enemy, those who have fought against the truth, but by the sword of the Spirit are subdued, and wrestle with these in mighty prayer, until the great Captain of our salvation knocks off their fetters, and, by the power of the Holy Spirit within them, proclaims their freedom, is the duty of every christian minister. O for such a spirit in all the churches, for such hallowed and hallowing efforts, to induce a revival of vital godliness in this eventful day!

If, at home, evil awfully perturbs the state, and the nation looks in vain for the social compact, amidst political distractions, France, shaken to her foundations, labours and groans beneath factious tumults, which, like the gusts of a protracted tempest, lull but for a moment, and rave anew. In Lyons, a rebellion, half commercial and half political, arose and reigned so rampant, that no less a force than fifty thousand men, headed by the commander-in-chief and the monarch's son, were sufficient to put it down. Similar to the tumultuous burning of the second city in England, Bristol, the popular fury, awful in its outrages, prowled and ravaged like the desert savage. In Grenoble, and even in Paris itself, subsequent tumults have rolled, and yet roll, as the fury of the factious find a moment favourable to the ebullitions of feelings, which are rather kept down by force than reduced to order.

Spain has, for the moment, executed vengeance on her foes. Torrijos, with his troop, has been captured and shot: yet, within, are fears; and, without, the lions roar, longing for the prey.

Portugal is aroused, and musters for defence all her bands; while a lowering tempest from Belleisle threatens to devastate her shores, and whelm her monarch in ruin. The warriors stand at bay for the moment, each apparently ready for combat.

Upon the borders of Switzerland, execution has been made upon political agitators, while agitations yet distract that region. In Piedmont, insurrections have arisen, and been put down, in all human probability, to arise again, and rage anew.

In the Italian peninsula, misrule reigns around; and its thousand tongues thunder, even to the Vatican. Alarm pervades that region; and the Austrian arm, too potent for the factious, alone arrests a catastrophe awful in the extreme.

Civil war, with all its horrors, menaces Greece anew: the assassination of the president, and the calling of the national as

sembly, have roused to action latent spirits, whose energies once called out, while they menace, every institution of the state, deal outrage and distraction to social order. From such spirits, O thou God of peace, save that fine country, and bless it through out with unity and devotion !

Constantinople has been visited, and awful visitations apparently await her state. Destructive fires, and devastating hail storms, succeeded the Russian invasion; and, in addition to the loss of Greece, and much of the lesser Asia, Egypt and Syria menace her sway. The pacha of Egypt, it appears, is in open rebellion, and, by sea and land, is hying forward to Acre and Damascus, intent on adding these provinces of the grand signior to Egypt. Vizier Selim Pacha, late governor of Damascus, has been assassinated; and an imperial firman has been sent from Constantinople to the judges, notables, officers, &c. of each of the islands of Chios, Rhodes, Mytelene, Stancho, and Cyprus; to those of the cities of Smyrna, Bodroun, and Adalia, on the coast of Asia; of the pachalics of Aleppo, Seide, Damascus, Acre, and Tripoli, in Syria, and Alexandria, in Egypt; of the sandiaks of Jerusalem, Naplous, Adaria, Tareus, and the dependent districts, stating as follows: In our character of head and protector of the Mussulman religion, and, according to the Koran, every one is bound fully and implicitly to obey our commands. All you, intendants, judges, &c. who now know our supreme will, with respect to what is passing, or may pass in the cities of Damascus and Alexandria, we send you this present firman, that you may execute our commands without delay, and not take on yourselves to act in any other manner; but cause Ali Pacha of Egypt immediately to withdraw his troops, and make them return to Alexandria; and cause Abdallah Pacha of St. Jean d'Acre not to meddle with things which concern only the government of Alexandria." Thus, "tidings out of the east, and out of the north, trouble him; therefore, he goes forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many,' Dan. xi. Will the prophesied catastrophe follow?

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The northern powers, since the subjuga tion of Poland, have peace; and, except a tumult in Hanau, Germany and Austria know quiet.

The positions of Holland and Belgium are warlike; but, unless Russia blows up the dying embers of discord, peace must

ensue.

Every where expectations are alive to some approaching event; and not a few

look for a great improvement in the religious world-Jew and Gentile. "I am no longer to be regarded merely as a Jew," exclaimed a Hebrew the other day; "I am a citizen of France." In that nation, the day has dawned upon the seed of Abraham, and it is dawning elsewhere; they have become, in the eyes of multitudes, objects of zealous attention, and we will devote the remainder of this article to these, the ancient people of God. Jesus Christ, in the days of His flesh, pronounced prophecies respecting Israel, saying, "There shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled," Luke xxi. 23, 24. The apostle Paul also said, "For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, (lest ye should be wise in your own conceits,) that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, (Isa. lix.) There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob," Rom. xi. And Daniel declares, "And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book," Dan. xii.

The time of trouble, we have already noted, is the short or half time, consisting of one hundred and eighty years; commencing in the year eighteen hundred and sixteen; or, rather, in eighteen hundred and twenty, and ending in the year of our Lord two thousand. We have also stated, that the woman, (Rev. xii.) or christian church, came out of the wilderness prior to the commencement of this time of trouble, when the secular arm of the pope was broken by the extinction of, what was called, the Holy Roman Empire, and that no potentate now exists, throughout all Christendom, who dares publicly to burn the saints of the Most High.

Having thus far treated of the Christian Gentile church, it behoves us to treat, in its turn, of the church of Israel, or the holy people, (Dan. xii. 7.) or all Israel that shall be saved by the Deliverer, Rom. xi. 26. "when the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled," Luke xxi. 24. The times of the Gentiles were fulfilled in the year eighteen hundred and twenty, as above stated; and, therefore, in this short time, from the year eighteen hundred and twenty, to the year

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