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ARTICLE CX.

The Grim Tyrant; the Peaceful Messenger.

BY AMICA.

In that silent room whose atmosphere anticipated the damp, cold moisture of the tomb, lay a man pinioned by disease and clasped in the embrace of a power which was soon to stiffen his emaciated limbs and blanch his pallid face. As I approached the couch, he extended his hand and with a nervous grasp and flashing eye, begged me to tell him if he must die. "Oh! can it be," said he, "that I must be straightened and laid by as senseless clay! Must I close my eyes forever to this golden sun, whose rays are broad-cast in such rich profusion? Must I leave my family, my home, my country? Shal! I see this green earth no more, neither these mounts nor the plumed songsters of the grove? Oh! it must not, cannot be. Let me live, if it be only to breathe this air. I would not enter the dread, uncertain future. Stay, oh, stay the conqueror in his march and ward off the blow; I see his tempered steel; tis ready to smite me down. Dread monarch, away; by all that is merciful leave me a little longer; another season I may be ready; but now I tremble with affright; the mandate must be revoked. God of heaven, hear me; save me from this hour."

He wrung his hands in despair, and with the maniac's strength sat up

in bed.

"There, I am better now; you see I can sustain myself; I shall live." He wiped the dropping perspiration from his brow, and strove to enjoy his fancied security. Another spasm renewed his fears, and he exclaimed the enemy is upon me; hand me my spear that I may pierce him e'er he overthrow me. Back to thy tent mighty captain, or by thy destruction I'll shew thee the force of these mortal muscles."

I took his hand and strove to soothe his agonized spirit; but the phantoms of his imagination out-weighed my words. "There he is," said he, "the tyrant is upon me; I must go; farewell all that is beautiful and good. I go, whither I know not; I sink into forgetfulness, into nothingness; I can resist no longer; I must - die.

The arm fell; the head sank back; Death conquered.

A hallowed calm had stolen upon those gathered friends. A gentle breeze fresh from nature's fields fanned the dying spark which glimmered in the wasted frame of the sick mother. Not a sob was heard; for all were nerved by the holy trust of the believer. Beautiful was death to her who patiently waited its triumph.

"Bring my babeз," said she, "that I may once more behold their infant faces."

"Blessed children, the fond being who has cradled you, is called upon to give up her treasures and commit them to other hands. The first struggle was bard, but that is o'er; I now joyfully obey my Father's voice. He hath bid me meet him in his own wise appointment. I resign you to those, whom I know will watch over and bless you. And

342

Miscellaneous Sentiments.

[March you my friends who have been my joy on earth, I bid you all adieu. The vistas of heaven are opening; I feel already the life and joy of the spiritual world. I meet the power which severs me from you all, as I would a dear friend; as I would welcome one who bears me glad tidings. I leave earth and its temptations, but I feel no stranger to the new home which awaits me. The Heavenly One is there. He will receive His erring, but penitent child; He will point the way to greater heights, and nobler ends than earth affords; He will make me an instrument of good. I may be permitted to watch over you and commune with you. All good spirits will aid you. Mourn not for me, because early beckoned back to the celestial kingdom. God's time is ever the best; I feel it, and seem rocked in the arms of Divinity; kind friends the light is waning; lay me down; I am fast spending, but, oh! the peace I enjoy; death is no dread to one, who has often meditated thereon; how gently it approaches; I can say no more. Farewell, farewell."

Her words floated in the air; respiration became shorter, and the spirit winged its flight without a struggle or a groan; softly as the lute's faintest vibration-she was dead.

Let that death-bed abide in our memories and inspire us so to live that such an end may be ours; so that having entered here upon holy delights, we may be prepared for the rest of heaven.

Miscellaneous Sentiments.

As the vine, which has long twined its graceful foliage about the oak, and been lifted by it Into sunshine, will, when the hardy plant is rifted by the thunderbolt, cling round it with its tindrils, and bind up its shattered boughs, so is it beautifully ordained by Providence that woman, who is the mere dependent and ornament of man in his happier hours, should be his solaee when smitten with sudden calamity, winding herself into the rugged recesses of his nature, tenderly supporting the drooping head, and binding up the broken heart.—Washington Irving.

Make a point ever so clear, it is great odds that a man whose habits and the bent of whose mind lie in a contrary way, shall be able to comprehend it. So weak a thing is reason in competition with inclination.

How sweet a thing is love of home! It is not acquired-it is a feeling that has its origin elsewhere. It is born with us, brought from another world to carry us on with joy in this. It attaches to the humblest heart that ever throbbed.

A well known political economist says-" we pay best, first, those who destroy us-generals; second, those who cheat us-politicians and quacks; third, those who amuse us-singers, musicians and actors, and least of all, those who instruct us-authors and schoolmasters."

There is a beautiful moral to the following paragraph which suggests itself to every one who reads it:

The process of hanging a cable across the gorge where the "International Bridge" is to be suspended, was, as we learn from the Lockport Courier, accomplished in the follewing manner: A twine was first sent across the chasm attached to a kite. This done, the process of drawing over cords of increased strength and size was an easy task.

Col. Isaac Hayne.

AFTER the city of Charleston had fallen into the hands of Lord Cornwallis, his lordship issued a proclamation, requiring of the inhabitants of the colony, that they should no longer take part in the contest, but continue peaceably at their homes, and they should be most sacredly protected in property and person. This was accompanied with an instrument of neutrality, which soon obtained the signatures of many thousands of the citizens of South Carolina, among whom was Colonel Hayne, who now conceived that he was entitled to peace and security for his family and fortune. But it was not long before Cornwallis put a new construction on the instrument of neutrality denominating it a bond of allegiance to the King, and called upon all who signed it to take up arms against the Rebels!! threatening to treat as deserters those who refused! This fraudulent proceeding in Lord Cornwallis roused the indignation of every honorable and honest man. pelled in violation of the most solemn compact, to take up arms, resolvCol. Hayne now comed that the invaders of his native country should be the objects of his vengeance. He withdrew from the British, and was invested with a command in the continental service; but it was soon his hard fortune to be captured by the enemy and carried to Charleston. Lord Rawdon, the commandant, immediately ordered him to be loaded with irons, and after a sort of mock trial, he was sentenced to be hung! This sentence seized all classes of people with horror and dismay. A petition headed by the British Governor Bull, and signed by a number of Royalists, was presented in his behalf, but was totally disregarded. The ladies of Charleston, both whigs and tories, now united in a petition to Lord Rawdon, couched in the most eloquent and moving language, praying that the valuable life of Col. Hayne, mignt be spared; but this was also treated with neglect. It was next proposed that Col. Hayne's children (the mother had recently expired with the small pox,) should in their mourning habiliments, be presented to plead for the life of their only surviving parent. Being introduced into his presence, they fell on their kness, with clapsed hands and weeping eyes, they lisped their father's name and plead most earnestly for his life. [Reader! what is your anticipation-do you imagine that Lord Rawdon, pitying their motherless condition tenderly embraced the afflicted children and restored them to the fond embrace of their father? No! the unfeeling man was still inexorable-he suffered even those little ones to plead in vain!] His son, a youth of thirteen, was permitted to stay with his father in prison, who beholding his own parent loaded with irons and condemned to die, was overwhelmed with grief and sorrow.

་.

Why," said he, "my son, will you thus break your father's heart with unavailing sorrow? Have I not often told you that we came into this world but to prepare for a better? For that better life, my dear boy, your father is prepared. Instead then of weeping, rejoice with me, my son, that my troubles are so near an end. To-morrow I set out for immortality. You will accompany me to the place of execution, and when I am dead, take, and bury me by the side of your mother." The youth here fell on his father's neck, and exclaimed, "Oh, my father, I will die with you!"

344

Poetry.

[March

Col. Hayne would have returned the strong embraces of his son; but alas! his hands were confined with irons.

"Live," said he, "my son, live to honor God by a good life, live to serve your country; and live to take care of your little brother and sisters!" The next morning, Col. Hayne was conducted to the place of execution. His son accompanied him. Soon as they came in sight of the gallows, the father strengthened himself, and said—

"Now, my son, show yourself a man. That tree is the boundary of my life, and all my life's sorrows. Beyond that the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest. Don't lay too much to heart our separation from you; it will be but short. It was but lately your mother died. To-day I die, and you, my son, though but young, must shortly follow us. 93

"Yes, my father," replied the broken-hearted youth, I shall shortly follow you; for indeed I feel that I cannot live long."

On seeing, therefore, his father in the hands of the executioner, and theu struggling in the halter, he stood like one transfixed and motionless with horror. Till then he had wept incessantly, but as soon as he saw that sight, the fountain of his tears was staunched, and he never wept more. He died insane, and in his last moments often called on the name of his father in terms that brought tears from the hardest heart.

(ORIGINAL)

Christian Benevolence.

WHO is my brother? 'Tis not merely he,

Who hung upon the same loved mother's breast,

But every one, whoever he may be,

On whom the image of a man's imprest.
True Christian sympathy was ne'er designed

To be shut up within a narrow bound,

But sweeps abroad, and in its search to find
Objects of mercy, goes the whole world round.
'Tis like the sun, rejoicing east and west,

Or beautiful rainbow, bright from south to north:

It has an angel's pinion, mounting forth

O'er rocks and hills, and seas, to make men blest;
No matter what their color, name, or place,
It blesses all alike, the universal race.

(ORIGINAL.)

He Loveth whom He Chasteneth.

THIS is a cup of sorrow. Like the deer

Struck by the archers on the mountain's side,
And followed far by hunting hound and spear,
Thus am I close pursued. Both deep and wide
The waters of affliction o'er me sweep.

But there's a meaning in it. God doth know,
If we would sniile, that we must also weep,
And joys at last from stricken bosoms flow.
He would not have me linked unto the world;
He's jealous, when he sees me go astray;
For this the arrow from his arm is hurled;

B

Yes, grief shall teach me, there's a better way.
Oh, let me not repine, bnt kiss the rod,

Which smites my faults and calls me back to God.

A. B

Criminal Punishment.

RFMARKS OF MR. FINE, OF ST. LAWRENCE,

On the 6th of February, 1849, in the Senate of New York, on the bill introduced by him, to lessen the severity of Criminal Punishment.

THE first section, substitutes imprisonment for life, instead of death, in all cases but premeditated murder and arson of the first degree, where death ensues.

The second section, allows the Courts to send criminals to the State Prisons, for one year.

The third section, enlarges the discretion of the Court, to enable it to adapt the punishment to the age and comparative guilt of the offender. The fourth, changes the highest punishment of burglary and forgery in the first degree, and arson in the second degree, from imprisonment for life, to imprisonment for ten years. The greater part of those who are sentenced for life, are pardoned before the end of ten years.

The fifth section, raises the standard of Petit Larceny from twentyfive to fifty dollars.

This was recommended several years ago, by De Witt Clinton, when Governor; but in this, as in many other things, he was before the age in which he lived.

It is again recommended by our present humane Governor.

The exchangeable value of money has much lessened, since twentyfive dollars was made the division line between grand and petit larceny. It is certain that fifty dollars will not command more food or labor, than twenty-five dollars, a half century ago.

The sixth section, gives discretion to the Court to punish the second offence of petit larceny, by fice and imprisonment in the County jail, or by imprisonment in the State Prison for not more than two years.

As the law is now, the Court is obliged to imprison in the State prison for not less than two years, although the property stolen at each time, may not be worth fifty cents.

The following crimes are punishable with death:

1. Levying war against the State and in the State.

2.

A combination of two or more to usurp by force, the government of the State, and evinced by a forcible attempi.

3. Adhering to the enemies of the State in time of war, and giving

them aid and comfort.

4. The killing of a person, from a premeditated design to effect his death, or that of another person.

5. The killing of a person by an act dangerous in itself and evincing a depraved mind, although without any premeditation to kill.

6. The killing of a person by another, while in the commission of a felony, without design to kill.

7. The fighting of a duel in another State, and wounding a person, of which wound he dies in this State.

8. The setting fire to, or burning a house in the night time, in which there was at the time a human being.

N. S. VOL. I. NO. VIII. - -0. S VOL. III. NO. XLIII.

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