bitterness upon the luckless Obadiah, one single invocation of poverty might have contained the essence of his disjointed and overwhelming malediction. For, there is no term which is so generally associated with the lowest degradation, as that of dependence; there is no misfortune less susceptible of sympathy than that of firm-rooted, irremediable poverty. It is a just observation of some author, that the man who is poor, whatever may be his talents, will seldom rise superior to his situation but by his own exertions; and although his eye may lighten with the ray of genius and his cheek glow with sensibility, yet will he be marked as the subject for contempt and scorn. The wretch convicted of murdering his brother man, the midnight assassin who requited the kindness of hospitality by the stroke of death, has been in his last hour of disgraceful atonement, consoled by the soothing tone, the sympa. thetic tear of sorrow; and the destroyer of female innocence, he whose cold-blooded sensuality involved respectability in disgrace and ruin, was still greeted with distinction if not with applause. In short, any fault or crime has some redeeming quality, save an empty purse: poverty is the sine qua non, the ne plus ultra of misfortune.

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Such were the reflections with which my old friend and class-mate, Edward the Templar, amused himself in his couch upon the first of January, 18These cogitations were not the result of any sudden heat or burst of passion; for, his grate was empty and the thermometer down to Zero. He arose and dressed himself, and to change the current of

his ideas, opened the door of his office to view the prospects, but a shower of snow dissipated all such notions, and drove him back into the room. He sat for some time ruminating upon his desolate situation, and involuntarily drew a contrast between his present sensations and those which had inspired him upon his outset for wealth and honour. "Here 1 am," he exclaimed at length, "completely at a nonplus: two years ago was I rendered a licentiate of the legal colleges; and in all the ardour of youthful hope, I then launched my vessel forth before the world, in full tilt for fortune. And where am I? Wrecked by Blackstone! not a stiver in pocket, head and ears in debt, and something less than four suits on docket."

By way of diverting his mind, he looked into Chitty; but, the first thing which struck his eye, was, "that a plea of nil debet to a sealed instrument was fatal on demurrer." This axiom of law was what he sufficiently well knew before he read it, and one, indeed, of which the most ignorant pettifogger is thoroughly apprized. But to Ned, the associations connected with it, were any but consoling. Divers notes of hand, sealed and signed with the most appalling correctness, flitted across his mind: his arm felt the gripe of Hutt, the Constable, or Hookem, the sheriff, and his eye was contracted with the disagreeable teste upon the writ. Pleas, judgment, injunctions, fieri facias and capias ad satisfac. with the insolvent oath, followed in a regular gradation of thought, each succession, like Macbeth's visionary Kings, the most distressing. The

breakfast bell dissipated his meditations, but its sounds, although cheering, left a slight twinge upon his feelings; for, the landlord with true publican politeness and ease, had on yesterday hinted that the right hand side of his ledger was empty, and that the left was rapidly accumulating with a black list of items. However, an empty stomach is not to be appeased by perplexing calculations upon the prospect of paying for its satisfaction; and though the purse remain as empty as a dried pea shell, yet the vacuum occasioned by eight hours abstinence, must be met by something more solid than patience. So, putting on a bold face, Ned advanced to the breakfast table, called lustily to the waiter, grumbled with a fifty thousand dollar air about his coffee, cracked a joke upon mine host, and with a segar in his mouth walked to his office with the air of a nabob.

Here, my uncle and the sea captain burst out into a roar of laughter. "I'll bet," said my uncle after he had ceased, "that was a smart fellow, poor as he was. I recollect when myself and a good many other officers, all Virginians, were upon parole as prisoners in Philadelphia in the glorious old revolution, there was just such a fellow among us. He would bluster among the tory landlords with the same air, although the joint stock of about twenty of us including him, was half a joe and a pistreen." "But let us hear," said the captain, "what became of the young lawyer; although I never liked the profession much since I was once cross-examined by an impudent scoundrel of the fraternity in a court of justice; yet I feel an interest in the history of this young fellow you are describing."

I

I had just called in to see him, I continued, and upon his entrance, he accosted me with a cordial salutation, “Well Frank, how are you? I am glad to see you, my dear fellow. I have been most prodigiously tormented this morning with the blue devils, but my landlord's fare assisted in dispelling them. I was considering upon the rugged life we have of it in this world, Frank. Here have I been struggling like a negro for the last two years in a profession generally looked up to by the common mass, as a mine of wealth, and bere am I still in a most disheartening state of poverty. Were I poor without any of its disagreeable concomitant circumstances, or were I convinced that my state of dependence was occasioned by my own neglect or imprudence, I might perhaps be better reconciled to my situation.” found my friend was rapidly driving into that strain of sentiment, the climax of which was generally a denunciation on the illiberality of his fellow men. 1 therefore changed the subject, by enquiring of him his success with a young lady, of whom I knew he was fond. "Dished," replied my friend. "Indeed." "Aye, and in favour of a fellow whose ideas never expanded above any thing higher than six and a fourth cents profit upon a cwt. of bacon. I have really loved the girl, Frank, and many an airy palace of pleasure have I built while reflecting upon her, and oft had a sneaking notion of imparting to those visionary ideas of happiness something of reality. I once thought my prospects of gaining her, tolerably certain, for she received an acrostic which 1 had written upon her, with all due pleasure and suavity,

and reciprocated the compliment by a valentine, in which doves and hearts, quaint rhymes and ingenious devices conveyed the idea of lasting love and inseparable constancy. But by way of digression, I will advise you, Frank, if ever you court a lady, not to celebrate her beauty or accomplishments in any language save that of plain word of mouth. For, I have taken notice that one of your acrosticmaking, poetising kind of lovers always contrives, in his Utopian schemes of courtship, to shuffle himself out of favour; while a succession of good luck in these matters, is universally attendant upon those plain, strait forward, thick skulled characters, from whose brain sense or sentiment will rebound like

gum elastic from a brick bat. That was not exactly, however, the case with myself, Frank; but the fact is, I was poor, and my adversary independent."

"But how comes on the law," I enquired of him. "Why Frank, it is but dull enough; however, yesterday I had a visit from Gripus: you recollect him, the fellow that used to lend out twelve and a half cents at compound interest, when at school with you and myself. His visit was of that nature which attorneys, more especially poor ones like myself, are glad to receive: for he entrusted me with a couple of suits which I was at once to commence. I made the necessary memoranda. Gripus cordescended to hold a familiar confab with me for a few moments, and then departed with truly a patronising air; yes, Frank, with the air of one who had been conferring upon a subject of charity, an act of benevolence. Now, from any other person, I could have received this business with thanks; but, if there is