THINGS AND THOUGHTS,
FOUND DERE AND THERE.
li!:ient. The poet and a brother exciseman one day suddenly entered a widow WilDlaIi'S Shop In Dunscore, and made a seizure of smuggled tobacco. " Jenny," 'mid the poet, " I expected this would be the upshot. Here, Lewars, take
ase, and thou', no urea, and thous sue a' out—listen." As he handed out the
ia!! he went on wito his humorous enumeration, but lioppiuk every other ., f
A tountont gild..."
ii,th to meet Linn ; be seemed not to observe her, but continued his walk. " On :Magazine, January I$34. tut-," sail slat, " I stept aside with the bairns among the broom ; and past How TO WRITE HISTORY ONO An VrIITIS F. er).—All authors have one s- i.e came, his brow flushed and his,eyes shining ; he was reciting these lines— common prayer, that all the world n ill read that which they write and publish. t Teat antee retire phi-11. 0' gittiti Wile hair, wi' the short sark !" He recollected himself, turned his horse's head, and spurred STATE OF THE BRITISH NAVY.—The Navy has been meddled with, and a and switched with all his might towards the brig of Doon, well knowing that— minute and mechanical parsimony has pervaded its Administration ; but are its " A canning stream they th rasa elms." spirit and efficiency raised beyond their former gunge, which was above proof? When be reached the middle of the arch, one of the hags sprang to seize Have its interior economy, its discipline, its seamanship, its unanimity, been him ; but nothires was on her side of the stream saving the-horse's tail, which cultivated and methodized, and its appointments and distinctions been just and gave way to her grasp as if touched by lightning. In a Galloway version of judicious? Has its system of evolutions been digested and combined for a day toe tramtion, it is recorded that the witch, seizing the horse by the tail, of need ; or uniformity been introduced into the practice of ships?' Have the stopped it in full career in this centre of the bridge ; upon which the farmer sciences of navigation, of gunnery, of naval architecture, and the application of struck a back-handed blow with his sword, that set him free, and enabled steam been practically promoted and perfected to the extent required ? dial the him to pass the stream without further molestation. On reaching his own house, obnoxious system of impressment been revised and rendered efficient ? Are our he found, to his horror, a woman's hand hanging in his horse's tail; and next wooden walls promptly and ably manned, while our sea-ports teens with unem- morning was informed, that the handsome wife of one of his• neighbours was ployed seafaring men, and the naval force afloat is so limited? Are our ships ha dangerously ill, and not expected to live. He went to see her—she turned ordinary sound, and capable of being readily put in sea-going trim? Are we away her face from him, and obstinately refused to say what ailed her ; upon prepared with steamers of war and their suitable armaments? Are our dock- Which he forcibly bared her wounded arm, and, displaying the bloody hand, yards and arsenals providently and adequately stored to supply a sudden demand? ac•msed her of witchcraft and dealings with the Devil. Thereupon she made et or have we rather ministered to the wants of the enemy to our own prejudice confession, and was condemned and burnt. The Galloway legend was too and shame? In fine, ate our tars stanch, steady, and.jovial, as of yore: and is tragic for the aim of the poet ; it would have jarred with the wild humour of the Britannia laid in a condition to rule the waves?— United Service' Awed, wire in the Kirk, and prevented him from displaying his wondrous powers of January 1834. milting the laughable with the serious, and the witty with the awful.— Cult- ninghant's _Lift of Burns.
home.— O'Brien's Round Towers. antiquatian, of the characters and costumes introduced ; and his criticisms on Be [NS AS AN Excr315IA S.—Against the regular smuggler his looks weresfern the Italian poets were agreeable and in the purest taste. We forget whether it was in Knight'. Quarterly that he pulelished hie translation of the ode of Fill - and his hand was heavy, while to the poor country dealer he was mild and eaja; but wherever it appeared it was a brilliant composition. In the Edinburgh Review, of the papers attributed to him,—and his style in en peculiar, that there cannot be any mistake in the matter,—those which we recollect best, and which, mite Of the number el we think, attracted most attention, were those on Milton, Johnson, and Wal- ier of rolls as 1 count them. Now, Jock, did ye ever hear an pole. • • • In Parliament, though the Whigs cu eel him up, it appears to us auld wife numbering her threads before ebeek-reds were invented ? Thous that he was a decided failure. His enunciation combines in itself ahnost all the
defects that ruin an orator ; and the matter of Lis speeches was neither practical
nor poetical. He never ventured on meeting the whole of any subject. You 1-1 into Janet's hip. Lewars took the desired no with much gravity, and might read column after column of his must elaborate orations without being .71W a... if he saw not the merciful conduct of his cote able to extract from them a sentence which conveyed a general principle; and "Of :add ni,k-nackots, whose miseries, if there were any, he never could have witnessed, and for whom,
Itn,:ty airn cap: and jinOin' jarlwts, therefore, his sympathies mast cave been of the weakest kind, statuhug forward
wad halm the Lutlii,ns three in takes to gloss over with sickening sophistry his advocaey of the body -and-soul-killing Now Tam! ts Tam! had Hew Is, n litwans, It is, therefore, nut at all extraordinary if I pray that all the people of Englaud, A• illanip and strapp:u.: in their 11 t'lls, at least, will read this history of mine k 1....obbrit's Ilistory qt. Grorue theFourth); 'flu, it asides, in :WA II' cre,hie tl.nnwn, but, extraordinary or not extraordinary, I do most eareestly so pray ; and espe- nm slue white seventesa hawl,r linen! chilly that they will read the Twelfth Nueffier of it, which is just published, and ThIr 1,1,VLS 0. Mine, row Oilly pair, n which I have brought before the young men of the present day, the transae- I wa.I irx gi',.n them affray hurdles, tions relative to the shipping, of the museums at Paris iti ItA 5, and relative to For tie Idit.; o' rho lAnntie blittlieS !' the sacrificing of the life of Alarshal Nev, and the part which Wellingtou therein
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