In the Standard of Thursday there is a letter . descriptive

of the King of Spain's marriage. The ceremony is said to have taken place at Madrid on the Pth of December. The pageant was of the most dazzling kind.

NEW Cumanscv.—The following plan has been submitted by a Gloucester- shire l-iquire to the Morning Herald, because its columns contain "more perti- nent remarks and good common sense, on the subject of the currency, than any other daily paper. Government to issue 5,000,0001. Exchequer Bills to be pay- able in silver, at all the public places, such as the Excise, Customs, Post-offices, km, to bear no interest, arid, of course, to be a legal tender ; the country bankers would be obliged to take them. The same thing might be done in two-pound, three-pound, and four-pound notes, to a certain extent, which would take it wholly out of the hands of the banks all under five-pounds. At all events, small • Motes we must have." The Squire adds, that " Mr. Peel must eat his words in this (the Minting HeraM, we suppose) as well as the Catholic question." By all means, let him eat his words where he pleases—but why must he eat the

• Catholic question also?

POOR LAW,, —The Dundee Advertiser complains, that while strangers may gain parish relief in Scotland by a three years' residence in any part of it, no Scotsman can by any length of residence in England gain a claim to similar sup- port. The case of a man named Bennet has given occasion to the remark. This person was horn in Scotland—travelled through the country with a mendicant— settled in England in early infancy, retaining no other recollection of Scotland, than that in the course of his wanderings he spent three nights at Dundee. He has lived at Darlington for seven years, and married an Englishwoman. Of late, the parish officers have looked at him with a suspicious eye ; and a few weeks ago they fairly pounced upon him, and sent him to Dundee, which he had left some five-ametwenty years before. The prudent Kirk Session lost no time in bundling him back again to Darlington ; and if this generous rivalry continue, more than would suffice to make poor James Bennet independent of parish as- sistance, will be spent in paying his travelling charges.

Tn Cnunen AND THE SMALL Pox.—Law and philosophy have threatened and reasoned against the small pox without effect ; at length, theology has taken it

• up, At a village in Norfolk, the clergyman has refused to read prayers over any one that dies of the smallpox until he le fairly under ground. One Charles Pigs died lately in this parish, on a Wednesday ; he was buried on Thursday ; and on Friday the service was read. One of our contemporaries complains of this as very

shocking. He seems to think that the prayers will not do any good after burial. We hope, however, the practice will be persisted in. it is superstition that combats vaccination, and we think it fair to use the same weapon against the hor- rible disorder, which vaccination, when properly performed, so effectually pre- vents.

" A DROP OF THE CREATURE WILL MAKE YOU CTAD."—The gin-sellers are in great alarm at the many complaints against drunkenness that have gone abroad from Bow Street and the itiansionhouse. One of them addresses the following moving appeal to Sir Richard Birnie and Sir Peter Laurie. " At this season of the year, when the suffering poor, whose miserable pittance, whether obtained by their own labour or from the charity of the well-disposed, is insufficient to enable them to meet the increased expense of firing, and father, mother, and shivering

children sit starving in a room presenting no means of warmth save a little straw, would you deprive them of the relief, how-ever temporary, which both the agonies of the mind and the sufferings of the body derive from the much-abused glass of spirits? Depend upon it that the far greater number of gin-drinkers are induced to resort to it from this cause. They are too poor to purchase the materials for a fire : there is one mode of assistance open to them, which is the only one not be- yond their reach, and they avail themselves of this. And would it not be cruelty indeed to deprive them of this last comfort "—We fear these pleas will be urged in vain. Both the learned knights are Caledonians, and drink nothing but whisky.

KNOCK AND Rnio.—A curious distinction, according to the Irish papers, has been introduced between barristers and solicitors : the former are allowed to use the knocker, the latter are limited to the bell, when they visit a judge in chambers. The patriots are very justly indignant at this attempt to degrade the honourable corporation of attornies. The degree of honour to be accorded to the hammer and the wire is not absolutely settled. In Scotland, knockers are vulgar, and bells genteel ; the same rule obtains in France, the region of bienseance. In England and Ireland, the hell is for the maid and the knocker for the mistress. The reason in either case is not very obvious. Perhaps the honour given to the knocker in England is because of its antiquity ; but why should the Scotch, who are as fond of old customs as their neighbours, not follow their example in this respect? ADMIRABLE AcinEvEmenwr.—Frederick Green, governor of the poor-house at Brewood, in this county, last week made a wager of ten pounds that he would kill, scald, and vell and completely dress, open, &c. eight pigs in four hours, without any other assistance whatsoever during the process, than that of having the hot water conveyed to the scalding-tub as. he wanted it. He performed his task in the extraordinarily short time of three hours and fifty-six minutes, to the admiration of all present. One of the above pies weighed 300Ibs. and none were of less weight than 2401bs. They were all killed in a butcher's slaughterhouse, and Green had the advantage of the wind and windlass, to get the pigs out of the scalding-tub.—Stafardshire Advertiser.

CHEAP BEEF.—The cry of the high price of provisions raised against the ven- ders by the press, has had the good effect of bringing it down. In Canterbury, on Saturday, good beef was sold by Mr. Horsley at 31(1. per pound ; and we know of one grazier who offered lamb at 5d. per pound to the butchers, who refused to negotiate. Last year lambs, at this period of the season, sold for 30s.—Kent and Essex Mercury.

LACONISM.—A bloody feud broke out in Ireland in 1490 between an O'Niel and an O'Donnel. It originated in the insolence of the reply of the latter to the demand of O'Niel for the payment of kis quit rents. The correspondence is curious, and shows that the Spartan epistolary style was not limited to the Peloponesus. " Pay me my rent," said O'Neil, "or if you don't—" "I OVVe you no rent," answered 0' Donnel, "and if I ditl----" FEMININE SANG FROID.-111 an engagement at Stradbally Bridge, between Queen Elizabeth's troops and the Rebels, as all the Irish without the pale used to be called, Sir Alexander Corby, the Queen's General, was slain, and his men giving way, in a few minutes after, his son Francis met the same fate. The wives of Sir Alexander and his son were witnesses of the battle from a window of his mansion in the immediate neighbourhood. It might have been supposed that their two- fold loss would have overwhelmed the ladies ; but at that period they managed these things with business-like propriety. " Take heed, I pray you, mother-in- law," said the widow of Francis, when she saw her husband fall, that Sir Alex- ander was killed the first, and that! am entitled to my tierce as widow of his heir.'

PRIEST versus PARSON.—A poor woman, who was lodged at a Roma.nCatholic" in the neighbourhood of Belfast, was on the eve of dissolution, and the priest was sent for. The wornan.was a cripple and a Protestant. No sooner did the rumour go abroad that the priest was in the house, than two of the churchwardens hurried thither, and had the dying woman removed. The priest followed her to her new residence, but was dismissed try the patient, who told him she would not accept his services. The News Letter exclaims against the Catholics for such an attempt to force the woman to accept the sacrament from a priest. But what is to be said of time churchwardens, who carry a dying woman from house to house, to prevent her from suffering what at the last the simple expression of her wishes was suffi- cient to defend her against?

GIRLS' DRESSES.-1 cannot approve of time modern practice of dressing little girls in exact accordance with the prevailing fashion, with scrupulous imitation of their elders. When I look at a child, I do not wish to feel doubtful whether it is not an unfortunate dwarf who is standing before me attired in a costume suited to its age. Extreme simplicity of attire, and a dress sacred to themselves only, are most fitted to these "fresh female buds ;" and it vexes me to see them disguised in the fashions of La Belle .Assernblee, or practising the graces and courtesies of nmaturer life. Will there not be years enough from thirteen to seventy for orna- menting or disfiguring the person at the fiat of French milliners, for checking laughter and forcing smiles, for reducing all varieties of intellect, all gradations of feeling to one uniform tint?—New Monthly Magazine.

CANADIAN Acuns.—For two or three hours before they (the shaking fits) arrive, we feel so cold that nothing will warm us; the greatest heat that can be applied is perfectly unfelt; the skin gets dry, and then the shaking begins. Our very bones ache, teeth chatter, and the ribs are sore, continuing thus in great agony for about an hour and a half; we then commonly have a vomit, the trem- bling ends, and a profuse sweat ensues, which lasts for two hours longer [three hours and a halfil This over, we find the malady has run one of its rounds, and start out of the bed in a feeble state, sometimes unable to stand, and entirely de- pendant on our friends (if we have any) to lift us en to some seat or other.— Mactaggart.

A Mosr REMARKABLE CHAnACTER.—A woman died near Dumfries the other day, who was supposed to be a hundred years old. The Dumfries Courier calls her a most remarkable character, and gives the following very remarkable proofs of it. "Her faculties remained entire to the last. In August last she appeared on the harvest rig,' discoursed with the reapers with the greatest cheerfulness, and even cute few sheaves for amusement. Where the letter-press was large, or of the usual size, she read with great ease and fluency. Along with peace and serenity of mind, she possessed great cheerfulness of temper. In many respects she was the being of impulse rather than of reflection. Two of her most prominent peculiarities were, an utter aversion to doctor's drugs,' and an im- movable attachment to such persous of rank as she had known and received kind- nessrsfront in her early days." These were not all the remarkable things, about this wonderful centenarian : she once put an end to a fray between a laird and a miller! she remembered the blind lady of Balmaghie, and the building of the old bridge of Dee,—a bridge which became so famous because so frail several years ago, that it was svperseded ! She even knew the spot from which the stones to atildit were taken. What a pity that so remarkable a character shonld ever die I A Rens SWAN AND NOT BLAcx.—A beautiful specitnen of the wild or whist- ling ass'an was sleat off the harbour a shorohau cm Tuesday afternoon. It mea- sured in length four feet ten inches; in breadth the wings extended seven feet ; it weighed utterly eighteen pounds. This bird differs from the tame swan, not only in the external appearance, but also in the peculiar arrangement of its tra- chea, which enters the keel of the breast-bone, and returns, after doublieg itself in a cavity about three inches deep. These birds never visit this country het in severe winters.—/tioriiing Herald. Scietamie MissioN.—The French Cmincil of Admiralty has just appointed a cemmissiou to go to Epeland to examiue the manner in which meat is salted for nip navy, which enables it to be kept for so long a period. One of the members of tbe commission is to preceed as far as Cork.—Galignani's Messenger.

The Emelt are following our example in the erection pf the suspension bridges of iron. One of great dimensions was lately erected on the Rhone over which, from it, rapid current and large volume of water, it is very difficult to throw a bridge of stone. Another of less extent was some time ago erected over the Seine at Paris, near La Greve ; and so lately as Sunday last there was opened a new stt§pensioo bridge of iron over the Seine, in the 1'851144)41e quarter of the Champs Elys0s. The length of this bridge is about 360 feet.

M. do C. so of a gentleman formerly a Counsellor of the Parleinent, upon coming of age, inherited a fortune of 350,000f. proceeding from the jointure of his mother, who was dead. Within thirteen days after this property fell into his hands, he squandered away 133,000f. In this short space of time he changed his horses and carriages cwenty times, bought sixty sixty waistcoats, sixty pair of pautaltmes,&e. At the instance of his family, a mseil Judiciaire was ap- poioted to mke the 'remainder of the property in trust, and prevent him disposing of it At his will; but at twenty-live years nee the property was restored to him by the (*Won of a superior tribunaL—Gdignani'sMeSSeflyCr.

RUSSIAD1 Potice.—The French Minister, during the reign of Alexander, was robbed of a snuff box of very considerable value ; and, like a prudent man, he mentioned the circumstance to the Emperor, hinting his fears that he should not easily recover it. it is well known that he publicly spoke of the lax state of the Ressler, police, comparing it with the French. The Emperor spoke to the chief of the police; and a few weeks after the robbery,la nobleman, holding a high sittm- lion in the police, cslied on the Ambassador, and remarked bow erroneous his Excellency was in his opinion, saying, "Here is your snuffbox." "i am very glad to see it again," said his Excellency, "and I shall trouble you to return it to. me?' "No," said the police-officer, "we have a number of forms to go through before this can he returned ;" ip short, sea a number that the Ambassador never got it back again—From Anecdotes of Russia, in the New Monthly Magazine, ALLIANpE BETWEEN Pintosoeny AND OHRISTIANITY.—There is no war between Christianity and philosophy. Pure and undefiled Christianity is sound philoso- phy. If there ever has been war, it has been against the temporal abuses which pratences of religion were brought forward to protect. This was at the bottom of the outcry reade against philosophy during the French Revolution. The real struggle was against arbitrary power sheltering itself folder the influence of reli- gious establishments. Religion was assailed because it was made an engine in the hands of the common enemy; the animosity was against the enemy, not against the abstract instrument that was in his hands. Those times are past. Itis all too late now, to get up a religious opposition to the exercise of reason on any sub- et connected with the welfare of mankind.— Westnzinster Review, No. XXIII. J • „ ,PDOETING IN SWITZERLAND.—A Sh011 time ago a hunter, who was out sporting on the banks of the lake of Wallenstad, in Switzerlaud, discovered the nest of one of those destructive birds, the " lammergeyer," n species of vulture ; he shot the male, and made his way along a narrow projection of the rock with the view of taking the young birds. He had raised his arm and put his hand into the nest, when the female hovering over his head unperceived by him, pounced down upon him, fixed her talons in his arm, and her beak in his side. The sportsman, whom the slightest movement must have precipitated to the bottom oh' the rock, with that coolness and self-possession so peculiar to the mountain huntsmen of that country, notwithstandiug the pain he experienced, remained unmoved. Having his fowling-piece in his left hand, he placed it against the face of the rock, pointed to the breast of the bird, and with his toe, as they always go barefooted, the better to enable them to hold and climb the rocks, he touched the trigger, and the piece went off and killed his enemy on the nest. Had the bird been anywhere else, it must have dragged him down along with it. He procured assistance from the auherge, or inn, hard by, and brought the two birds as trophies of his valour away with him. Some of these birds have been known to measure seventeen feet from tip to tip of the wings, amid are only equalled in size by the condor of South Ame- rica.—journal de elsere.

HUMANIZING EFFECTS OF Top Cosppt.—Even over the wild people, inhabiting a country as savage as themselves, the Sun of Righteousness arose with healing under his wings. pqod men, on whom the name of saint (while not end in a superstitious sense) was jostly bestowed, to whore life and the pleasures of the world were as nothing, so they could call souls to Christianity, undertook, and succeeded in, the perilous task of enlightening these savages. Religion, although it did not at first change the manners of the nations, waxed old in barbarism, failed not to introduce those institutions on which rest the dignity and happiness of social life. The law of marriage was established among them, and all the bru- talizing evils el polygamy gave place to the consequences of a union which tends most directly to separate the human front the brute species. The abolition of ido- latrous ceremonies took away many brutalizing practices ; and the Gospel, like the grain of mustard-seed, grew and flourished in noiseless increase, insinuating into men's hearts the blessings inseparable from its influence.—Sir W. Scott's History of Scotland.

TITHES AND CUEBENCY.—We have heard of many direful effects of Mr. Peel's Currency Bill, but we clever imagined that it affected tithes. The Sussei Ad- vertiser instructs us that it has altered the value of produce as well as the value of money. "It is undeniable that money has increased in value 50/. per cent., as was admitted by the late lamented Lord Liverpool, and consequently our tithes have been increased in a similar proportion. The Church cannot have wished this—nor is it their fault, for it arose entirely out of the circumstances of a return from a paper to a metallic Currency."

A DEAD MAN.—There is now in the Maison dc Sont4 at Rouen, a patient who is fully impressed with the belief that be was killed at the battle of Austerlitz,

at which he was, in fact, present, and received a wOund. If his health is inquired

after, he answers—"You are asking after M. Lambert, but M. Lambert is no snore, he was killed by a cannon-1ml I know this which you see bears some

resemblance to him, but it is by no means a good likeness, I wish you would

construct a better." He falls occasionally into a state of insensibility, which sometimes lasts for several days, during which the application of blisters,. pinches, slid even prieking. hits* with a pin, appears to give him no kind 91 nagasuicss,