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,a March 17, 1840. - THE NORTHERN STAR. ...
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RE TRIBUTION
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* Wliile famished nations died along the...
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THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FEAN COIS-RENE, VIS...
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He staked his renown against a pension a...
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¦ ^ HOME COLONIES IN THE NETHERLANDS. (A...
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Vavutie#.
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A Kepubmcan's Phater.—" Strasgo that men...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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,A March 17, 1840. - The Northern Star. ...
, a March 17 , 1840 . - THE NORTHERN STAR . . _^__ 3
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( Villi the accounts , in the daily papers , of a late " disastrous trinmpli" (!) in the Punjaub , and the critical position of the victors . )
( From Campbell ' s " Pleasures of Hope" ) "When Europe sought your subject realms to gain , And stretched her riant-sceptre o ' er the main , Taught her proud barks the winding way to shape , And braved the stormy spirit ofthe Cape ; Children of Brama ; then was mercy nigh , To wash the stain of blood ' s eternal dye ? Did Peace descend to triumph and to save , "Whenfreehorn (?) Britons crossM the Indian ware ? Ah , no!—to more than Rome ' s ambition true , The nurse of Freedom gave it not to you ! She the hold route of Euro ]> e ' syuiltleyan , And in the march of nations led the van .
Bich in the gems of India ' s gaudy zone , And p lunder pil'd from kingdoms not their own-Degenerate trade ! thy mmions could despise The heart-born anguish of a thousand cries ; Could lock , with impious hands , the teeming store , TPhile famished nations died along the shore ;* Could mock the groans of fellow-men and bear The curse of kingdoms peopled with despair ; Could stamp disgrace on man s polluted name , And barter , with their gold , eternal shame ? But hark ! as bow'd to earth the Braniin kneels , From heavenly climes prop itious thunder peals ! Of India ' s fate her guardian spirits tell , Prophetic murmurs breathing on the spell , And solemn sounds that awe the listening mind , Boll on the azure paths of every wind . " Foes of mankind ( her guardian spirits say ) ,
Bevolving ages bring the bitter day , When Heaven ' s unerring arm shall fall on yon , And blood for blood these Indian plains bedew ; Sine times have Bramn ' s wheels of lightning hurl'd His awful presence o ' er the alarmed world ; f Jane times hath Guilt , through all his giant frame , Convulsive trembled as the Mighty came ; ICine times hath suffering Mercy spar'd in vain—But Heaven shall burst ner starry gates again ! He comes I dread Brama shakes the sunless sky - With murm'ring wrath , and thunders from on high Heaven ' s fiery horse , beneath his warrior form , Paws the light clouds , and gallons on the storm ! "Wide waves his flickering sword ; his bright arms glow Jjke summer suns , and lig ht the world below ! Earth , and her trembling isles in Ocean ' s bed , Are shook : and 2 fature rocks beneath Ms tread !
To pour redress on India's injured realm , The oppressor to dethrone , the proud to whelm ; To chase destruction from her plundered shore tTith arts and arms that triumphed once before . The tenth Avatar comes ! at Heaven ' s command , Shall Seriswatter wave her hallo wed wand ! And Camdes bright and Ganesa sublime , Shall bless with joy their own propitious clime I Come Hcavcnlv Power ! primeval peace restore I love I Mercy ! * Wisdom 3—rule for evermore 1 Campbell
Re Tribution
RE TRIBUTION
* Wliile Famished Nations Died Along The...
* Wliile famished nations died along the shore . The following account of British conduct , and its eonsequencesln Bengal , will afford a sufficient idea ofthe & ct alluded to in this passage . After describing the monopoly of salt , bitel nut , and tobacco , the historian proceeds thus : — "Money in this current came onlv in drops ; it could not quench the thirst of those who waited in India to receive it . An expedient , such as it was , remained to quicken its pace . The natives could live with little salt , but could not want food . Some of the agents saw themselves well situated for collecting the rice into stores—they did so . They knew the Gentoos would rather die than violate the princip les of their religion by eating flesh . The alternative would ,
therefore , be giving what they had , or dying . The inhabitants sunk ; they that cultivated the land , and saw the harvest at the disposal of others planted in doubt—scarcity ensued . Then the monopoly was easier managed—sickness ensued . In several districts the languid living left ihe bodies of iheir numerous dead uhburied . — Short History of llie English Transactions in tiie East Indies , page 145 . Sine times have Drama ' s wheels , & c . Among the sublime fictions of the Hindoo mythology , it is one article of belief , that the Deity , Brama , has descended nine times upon the world in various forms , and that he is vet to appear a tenth time , in the
% ure of a warrior , upon a white horse , to cut off afl incorrigible offenders . " Avatar" is the word used to express his descent . [ The Sikhs are not orthodox followers of Brama and his kindred deities , their relioion being more akin to that promulgated Lvhim of Mecca , Carlyle ' s " true prophet ; ' but the late events in the region of the five rivers , may , nevertheless , prove " the voice of one crying in the wilderness . And the sooner the real Simon Pure shows his bronze visage ( for black men ' s gods are of the colour of white men ' s devils , and vice versa ) the better for humanity . A Fraternal Democrat . ] Dumfries , March 6 th , 1849 .
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The Autobiography Of Fean Cois-Rene, Vis...
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FEAN COIS-RENE , VISCOUNT DE CHA TEAUBRIAND . Volume 1 . London Simms and M'Ixttre , Paternoster-row .
[ Second Nottce . } The charge of egotism is too generall y levelled at men who write their own memoirs . If an author takes himself for his subject , how can he avoid continuall y speaking of himself ? The critic who expects anything else is a fool . Certainly , there are two ways of speaking of one ' s self—a modest and a boastful way . "We can conceive a man Trriting his autobiography and not one tinge of egotism shading his . storv , but we admit that autobiographies of
that kind are not to he met with every day . Disinclined as we are to raise the cry of " egotist , " we must acknowledge that Chateaubriam ) seems to have had no ordinary conceit of himself , and he takes care to let his readers know it In describing his indifference to the great revolution of 1 " 89 , he says , "I attached no importance to the questions then discussed , except as viewed in their general relation to liberty , and the dignity of human nature . " This is a large exception , an exception which should have made him attach the
utmost importance to tbe questions then discussed . But he goes on : — " Personal politics wearied me . My true atmosphere was in loftier regions I ! " 0 ! the vanity of some men \ His true atmosphere was in regions loftier than those occupied by all the genius—well or ill-directed—of France—occupied by a EobesriEKKE and a MraABEAV ' ! J We could cull a hundred similar samples of ihe autohiograp hist ' s overweening vanit y from , these pages .
But we will do him justice . His egotism seems to have been unaccompanied by haughtiness , or any offensive outward exhibition ofthe worship of self . That worship was an inward adoration , which , probably , is now for the first time full y revealed . It will be seen in an extract we purpose quoting , that , when Ambassador in London , he was wearied and disgusted with the incense of jlunkeydom , and happiest when he could quit his carriage to walk with "KingMob , " or be relieved from the attendance of all his servants , even though left to open his own door himself 1 This exhibits bis personal demeanour in a most pleasing light , and contrasts , oddly enough , with Ms undoubted , self-proclaimed vanity .
Likemostmen who do themselves more than justice , Chateaubriaxd , in spite of his possession of a feeling heart , is not free from the charge of being occasionall y unjust to others . He says : — "In vain does Rousseau tell us that lie had two charming little eyes ; it is not the less certain—witness his portraits—that he had the air of a schoolmaster , or of a morose shoemaker . " We beg to say that our portrait of KOUSSEAU gives a flat denial to
Cha-TEXcnsiASiy ' s assertion . We , however , place small reliance on the evidence of portraits , which almost always either flatter or caricature the original . But even though the portraits of Rousseau universally confirmed Cbateaubeiaxd ' s not very nattering pen-and-ink picture ofthe great philosopher , our autobiographist should have borne in mind that portraits of Rousseau were taken only after he had become famous—after he had lost his
youth—and after persecution and nnhappiness bad made his physiognomy the outward portrait ofthe tempest-tost man within . When Housseau wrote his " Confessions , " and described himsebf as possessing "two charming httle eyes , " hewas describing himself not as " « % n appeared , but as lie was in his youth , 5 hen he captivated the heart of Madame de " absx ^ and Madame 2 s- —> and turned
The Autobiography Of Fean Cois-Rene, Vis...
the beads of nearly all the g irls of his acquaintance . In love matters to the full as bashful and sill y as Chateaubriand himself , Rousseau was nevertheless , carried by storm by his female admirers . Would that have happened had he had "the air of a schoolmaster , or of a morose shoemaker ? " Kousseau , though a long way off being faultless , was not vain , and in his extraordinary memoirs has said but little of his own personal appearance ; but we would wager a trifle that could we summon before us the shades of both himself and his critic , and compare both at the same youthful age , justice would bid us award the palm not to the Breton , but to the Genevese .
Chateaubbiaot ) , viewed as a politician must be pronounced contemptible . His glances at ^ Revolution show him in the li g ht of a prejudiced aristocrat , utterly incapable of tracing that tremendous effect to its causes . So far as be witnessed the Revolution he saw nothing but the phantasmagoric movements of a grim and gory mob . On the memoorable " 5 th of October" he could see nothing but "filthy fishwomenj' " pickpockets , " " prostitutes , " "bacchantes , " "rag-gatherers , " "butchers with their blood y aprons tied before them , "
and " swarth y ourang-outangs , " eurrounding the Royal Family on their way from Versailles to the Tuileries . Supposing no exaggeration in all this , these creatures were not manufactured b y the Revolution ; they had been made what the Revolution found themignorant , brutahsed , and desperate—by that venerable system of which Chateaubriand was so devoted an admirer . Governments , priesthoods , and aristocracies brutalise the masses , and drive them mad , and then pretend to be horror-struck at the work of their hands .
The pickpockets , prostitutes , & c , described with such disgust b y Chateaubriand , never offended him or his order , as long as they were content to live and die quietly under the rule of that system which doomed them to misery and crime . Not the people , but kings , priests , and profitmongers , are answerable for all the "horrors" of the French Revolution . The following chapter is worth reading , although we must warn the reader not to swallow all Chateaubriand ' s big words : exaggeration is a sin with which he is fairl y charge able .
MIRABEAU . ¦• A . sharer by the disorders and the vicissitudes of his life in the greatest events , and connected with the existence of culprits , ravishers , and adventurers , Mirabeau , the tribune of the aristocracy , and the deputy ofthe democracy , had in his nature something of Gracchus and Don Juan , of Catiline and Guzman D ' Alfrache , of Cardinal de Richelieu and Cardinal de Ketz , of the roue of the Regency and ofthe savage of the Eevolution . Besides this , he had something of the Mrabeaus , a Florentine family who had been exiled from their native country , and who retained some characteristics of those armed palaces and those grand factions celebrated by
Dante , a family naturalised in France , and in which the republican spirit ofthe middle ages of Italy , and the feudal sp irit of our own middle ages , were united in a succession of extraordinary men . The ugliness of Mirabeau , overlaid on the groundwork of the peculiar beauty of his race , produced a sort of powerful face like those of the " Last Judgment" of Michael Angelo , the compatriot ofthe Arrighetti . The seams furrowed by the small-pox in the features ofthe orator had rather the appearance of scars left by the flames . Nature seemed to have moulded his head for empire or for the gibbet , and formed his arms to strangle a nation or to cany off a woman . "When he shook his mane and glared
at the populace , he arrested their progress ; when he raised Ms paw and showed his claws , the people rushed on in fury . Amidst the frightful disorders of a sitting I have seen him at the tribune , sombre , ugly , and motionless ; he reminded one of the Chaos of Milton , impassible and without form , brooding in the centre of its own confusion . Mirabeau resembled his father and his uncle , who , like St . Simon , wrote immortal pages to the devil . He was sometimes furnished with discourses for the tribune . He took from them what his mind could amalgamate with its own nature . If he adopted
them entirely he pronounced them badly ; one could p erceive that they were not his own by words which he interspersed here and there , and which revealed their origin . He drew his energy from his vices . These vices have not their birth in a frigid temperament ; they are the offspring of deep , burning , stormy passion . A rudeness and brutality of manners , by annihilating all moral sense , introduces into society a species of barbarians . These barbarians of civilisation , Skilled in destruction like the Goths , have not , like them , the power of founding other structures . The latter were the huge children of a virgin nature—the former are the monstrous abortions of the same nature when depraved .
Twice I met Mirabeau at a banquet ; on the first occasion at the house of Voltaire ' s niece , the Marchioness de Vilette , and on the second occasion at the Palais Royal , along with some deputies of the opposition , to whom Chapelier had introduced me . Chapelier went to the scaffold in the same tumbril as my brother and M . de Malesherbes . Mirabeau spoke much , and above all , much about himself . This cub of a lion race—a lion himself with the head of a Chimera—this man , so positive in facts , was all romance , all poetry , all enthusiasm , in imagination and language . You could recognise in him the lover of Sophia , lofty in his sentiments , and capable of any sacrifice . "I found her , " said he , " that adorable woman—I learned to know what her soul was—that soul formed by the hands of nature in a moment of magnificence . "
Mirabeau enchanted me with tales of love , with long ings after retirement , with which he relieved anovaried our dry discussions . He interested me also in another point of view . Like me he had been severely treated by his father , who had retained , as mine had done , the inflexible traditions of absolute parental authority . The great guest launched out on foreign , but said almost nothing respecting domestic , politics . Nevertheless it was tho latter which occupied histhoughts . He allowed a few words to escape him of sovereign
contempt for those men who proclaimed themselves superior , by reason of the indifference which they affected for misfortunes and crimes . Mirabeau was born with a generous disposition , sensible to friendship , and ready to pardon offences . Notwithstanding his immorality , he never succeeded in stifling his conscience . He was corrupted only as regards himself . His upright and firm intellect never could view murder in the light of a lofty stretch of intellect . He had no admiration for slaughter-houses and receptacles of offal .
Nevertheless , Mirabeau did not want for pride ; he boasted outrageously . Although he had got himself appointed a woollen-draper for the purpose of being elected by tbe third estate , the order of the noblesse having had the honourable madness to reject him , he was proud of his birth : "A wild and untameahlclird , ivhosenest ivas perched between four turrets" is his father ' s expression . He never forgot that he had been presented at court , ridden in the king ' s carriages , and hunted with his Majesty . He required that he should be distinguished by the title , of count . He was particular as to his colours , and clad his retainers in livery when every one else left
it off , He spoke on all occasions , and on no occasion , about his relative , the Admiral de Coligny . The Momteor having called him "Riquefci , " "Do you know , " said he angrily to the journalist , "that with tout Bioueti you have puzzled Europe during three days . " He repeated often the following impudent pleasantry which is so well known : — "Li any other family my brother the Viscount would be the man of wit and the rake ; in my family he is the fool and the upright man . " Biographers represent the Viscount as intending by his speech to compare himself in humility with the other members of his family .
At bottom , M . Mirabeau was a monarchist , and he left on record the following noble saying : — " ] wished to cure the French of their superstition for monarchy , and to substitute in its place a proper worship . ' Li another letter , intended to be seen bv Louis XYL , he wrote thus , " I was unwilling to have laboured solely for a vast destruction . " Nevertheless that is what he did . Heaven , to punish us for our talents ill employed , afflicts us with remorse for our success .
Mirabeau moved public , opinion with two levers . On the one side he took as his fulcrum the masses , whose defender he had constituted himself whilst despising them . On the other , although a traitor to his order , he retained its sympathy by affinities of caste and ties of common interest . That could nev er happen with a plebeian who should make himself the champion of the privileged classes . He would lie abandoned b y his own party without gaining the aristocracy , which is in its nature ungrateful , and not to be won by any who is not born in its ranks . Moreover , aristocracy cannot make a nobleman on the spur ofthe moment , since nobility is the result of tune . ' .
Mirabeau has had many imitators . By freeing themselves from the ties of morality , people fancied that they were transforming themselves into Statesmen . These imitations produced only petty villains . He who flatters himself that he is corrupted and a robber , is only a debauchee and a scoundrel . He who thinks himself vicious ig only vile ; he who boasts that he is criminal is only i nfamous . Too soon for himself , too late for it , Mirabeau sold himself to the court , and the court bought him .
He Staked His Renown Against A Pension A...
He staked his renown against a pension and an embassy . Cromwell was on the pomt of bartering his future glory for a title and the order of the Garter . Notwithstanding bis pride , Mirabeau did not value himself highly enough . In the present day , when the abundance of money and of places has raised the price of consciences , there is not a common jackanapes whose acquisition does not cost hundreds of thousands offrancs , andthefirsthonours of the state . The grave freed Mirabeau from his promises , and placed him out of the reach of perils " which most probably he could not have overcome . His life would have shown his weakness as regards good . His death has left him in possession of his power for doing evil .
On leaving the dinner-table a discussion arose respecting the enemies of Mirabeau . I was placed next him , and had not uttered a single word . He looked me in the face with his eyes so expressive of pride , of vice , and of genius , and pressing his hand on my shoulder , he said to me , " They will never pardon me for my superiority ! " I still fancy I feel the impress of that hand , as if satan had touched mo with his fiery claw . When Mirabeau fixed his gaze on the young mute , had he a presentiment of my future fate ? Did he ever think he would one day appear before the tribunal of my recollections ? I was destined to become the historian of high personages . _ They have denied past before me without my having clung to then - mantle and been drawn by them down to posterity . Mirabeau has already undergone the
metamorphosis which takes p lace in those whose memory is to live after them . Carried from the Pantheon to the gutter , and back again from the gutter to the Pantheon , he is elevated by the lapse of time , which serves him at the present day as a pedestal . People no longer see the real Mirabeau , but the ideal Mirabeau ; Mirabeau , such as he was drawn by painters to express the symbol or the myth of the epoch which he represented . He thus becomes more false and more true than the reality . Of so many reputations , so many actors , so many events , so many vices , there remain but three men , each attached to one of the three great revolutionary epochs , —Mirabeau to the aristocracy , Robespierre to the democracy , Bonaparte to despotism . Monarchy has none 1 France has paid dearly for the three renowns which virtue cannot claim as her own .
We must correct Chateaubriand . Virtue does claim the renown of Robespierre as her own ; and thousands of his and her followers are ready to back her claim . In 1791 , Chateaubriand left France for the United States , influenced by the mad idea of discovering , by some sort of an overland expedition , the north-west passage . Arrived in the States , a letter of introduction , procured him admission to Washington , with whom he dined . He is amongst the Indians of the Northern States of the Union when this volume closes . The Prologue to Book II . ( devoted to an account of Chateaubriand ' s voyage to , and travels in , the United States ) written in London , April , 1822 , is , to our fancy , the most charming bit in the volume . Here it is : —
FOWEK AND OBSCURITY . . Thirty-one years after I had embarked a simple sub-lieutenant for America , I embarked for London with a passport couched in tbe following terms : •—"Permit , " said this p asport , "his Lordship the Viscount de Chateaubriand , peer of France , Ambassador ofthe king to his Britannic Majesty , < fec . < fce . to pass . " No description of my person . My greatness was to make my features known in all places . A steam-vessel , chartered for myself alone , carried me from Calais to Dover . On placing my foot upon the English soil , on the 5 th of April , 1822 , I was saluted by the cannon of the fort . An officer arrived , sent by the commandant to offer me a guard of honour . Having driven to the Shipwright Inn .
the proprietor and waiters received me with low bows and uncovered heads . The Lady Mayoress invites me to a soiree in the name of the fairest ladies of the town . M . Billing , an attache of my embassy , attended me . A dinner of enormous fish , and monstrous joints of beef , recruits his Lordship the Ambassador , who has no appetite and who was not at all fatigued . The populace , collected beneath my windows , make the air resound with huzzas . The ofiicer returns , and in spite of me , places sentinels at my door . The following morning , after having distributed a considerable amount of the money of the king my master , I set out en route for London , amidst the report of cannon , in a li g ht carriage drawn b y four handsome horses , driven at
tull trot by two elegant jockeys . My people iollowed in separate carriages , and couriers in my livery accompany the cortege . "We dash through Canterbury , attracting the gaze of John Bull , and stared at by all the equipages we met . At Blackheath , a moor formerly infested with robbers , I find a village altogether new . In a short time I perceive the immense canopy of smoke which hovers over the city of London . Plunging into the gulf of carbonised vapour , as into one of the jaws of Tartarus , and traversing the entire city , the streets of which I recognised , I drew up at the hotel of the embassy in Portland-place The charge d ' affaires , the Count George de Caraman , the secretaries of the embassy , the Viscount de Marceltus , the Baron E . Decazes , M . de
Bourqueney , and the attaches of the embassy , received me With dignified politeness . All the officers , porters , valets-do-chambre , and footmen of tho hotel are drawn up on the pathway . I am handed cards ofthe English Ministers , and the foreign ambassadors , who have already been informed of my approaching arrival . On the 17 th May , in the year of grace , 1793 , 1 disembarked on my way to the same town of London , an humble and obscure traveller , at Southampton , coming from Jersey . ~ So Lady Mayoress took notice of my appearance . The mayor of the town , William Smith , handed me , on the 18 th , a
road-map for London , to which was attached an extract from the Alien Bill . My description was as follows : — "Francois de Chateaubriand , a French officer in the emigrant army , five feet four inches in height , slender figure , brown hair and whiskers . " I modestly shared the cheapest vehicle with some sailors on leave . I stopped at the meanest taverns on the way ; I entered , poor , ailing , and unknown , an opulent and renowned city , in which Mr . Pitt reigned absolute . I took lodgings , at six shillings per month , in an attic , hired for me by a cousin from Brittany , at the extremity of a little street adjoining Tottenham-court-road ,
" Ah ! Monseigneur , how your life , To-day with luxuries so rue , Differs from those happy times !" At the present day another sort of obscurity overshadows me in London . My political station throws into the shade my literary renown . There is not a fool in the three kingdoms who does not prefer the ambassador of Louis XVIII . to the author of " The Genius of Christianity . " I shall see what turn affairs will take after my decease , or when I shall have ceased to replace Monsieur the Duke Decazos at the court of George IV . —a succession as bizarre as the rest of my life . When residing in London as French Minister , one of mv greatest delights was to leave my carriage at
the comer of a square , and to traverse on foot the little streets which I had formerly frequented ; the cheap and popular suburbs where misfortune takes refuge under the protection of similar suffering ; the obscure retreats which had been my haunts along with the companions of my distress , when I knew not if I should have sufficient bread for the morrow —I whose table is spread , at the present day , with three or four courses . At all those mean and narrow doors , which were formerly open to me , I met none but strange countenances . I no longer saw , wandering to and fro , numbers of my countrymen , easily recognised b y their gestures , their manner of walkmg , the cut and antiquity of their clothes . I no longer perceived those martyr-priests , wearing
the narrow collar , the large three-cornered hat , the long black riding-coat much worn , and who were saluted by the English in passing . "Wide streets , lined with palaces , had been laid out , bridges built , and walks planted . . Begent ' s-park occupies , in the neighbburhood of Portland-place , the site ofthe meadows which were formerly covered with groups of cattle . The cemetery , which could be seen from the dormer-windows of one of my attics , has disappeared within the boundary walls of a manufactory . "When I called at Lord Liverpool ' s I could with difficulty recognise tho empty space where the scaffold ' of Charles I . had stood . New buildings , hemming round the statue of Charles II . have advancedj carrying oblivion with them , over the site of these memorable events . How I regret , in the midst of my insipid pomp , that world of tribulation and of tears , those times when I shared my suffering with those of a colony
of unfortunates ! It is true , then , that everything changes—that misfortune itself perishes like prosperity ! What has become of my brothers in exile i Some are dead ; others have undergone , various vicissitudes . They have seen , like me , their relations and friends disappear from the scene lhey are less happy in then ; native country than hey were in a foreign land . H ad we not m that land our meetings together , our amusements , our fetes , and aboveTdl , our youth . Mothers of families and vounff 2 irls , who commenced life m adversity , broulht the weekly proceeds of their labour to riadden their hearts with some dance of then- native country . Attachments were formed in the conversions of the evening , after the day ' s work was done on the velvet meadows of Hampstcad and of Primrose-hill . At chapels , adorned with our hands S ^ ldruns we praved on the 21 st of January , oTtbe So'Ivy ofthe death of the Queen , and were mcfted t ote-s V the funeral oration pro-W ^ , L m ihvthe emigrant enratoat onr nativeviliST ^^^^^^ ^^^ Tbam
He Staked His Renown Against A Pension A...
sometimes to view the vessels , loaded with the rich es ol the world , entering the dock gomet , - to admu-e the country houses at Ricnm ( md-we so poor , we banished from our paternal abodes . All these things were real sources of happiness . When I returned here in 1822 , m place of being received by my friend , shivering with cold , who opens the door of our garret to me with a familiar ealutation , and who reposes on his pallet beside me covering himself with his thread-bare garments and having as his onl y lampthe moonlight , I passed , amidst the glare of torches , between two files of lackeys , whoso ranks were closed by five or six respectful secretaries . Overwhelmed on my way with a torrent of words— " Monseigneur "— " My Lwd " - ~ " Your Excellency' '— " Monsieur ttie Ambassador " - ^! reached a drawing-room carpeted with gold and silk . I
• • • ¦ " I beseech you , gentlemen , leave me . ' A truce to these ' My Lords . ' What do you wish me to do for you ? Go and amuse yourselves at the chancery as if I were not there . Do you imagine that you can make me look on this masquerade as serious ? Do you thmk that I am stupid enough to think my nature changed because I have changed my dress ?" We repeat our earnest recommendation of this volume , with thanks to the publisher for placing it within the reach of all classes .
¦ ^ Home Colonies In The Netherlands. (A...
¦ ^ HOME COLONIES IN THE NETHERLANDS . ( Abridged from the Commonwealth for March . ) •' In the application of machinery to mahufacturing processes this country took the lead ; our exertion ^ in this branch of national industry were both earlier in point of time , and mere successful in point of effect , than those of other nations . This enabled us for some time to undersell all rivals , and by degrees to attract to our own market the great body of purchasers who bad in former days been supp lied with wrought goods from other European countries . The foreign consumer would not continue to give a quarter of" corn for a piece of cotton cloth which we could give bim for half a quarter .
This extra demand to supply foreign markets obvia . ted , for a time , the necessary effect of machinery in throwing workmen out of employment : the additional demand for wrought commodities to be ex . ported absorbed the quantum of human labour which would otherwise have been displaced b y machinery . The men merely changed their employment ; instead of working with the band , they worked with machines ; from handicraftsmen they became mechanical craftsmen ; one million of men , by the aid of machines , did the work that had formerly occupied two millions ; and the goods wrought by the other million found their way into foreign markets . At that period , therefore , the effect of machinery , in abridging the employment of the working classes , was not felt in this country ; it was , however , very sensiblv felt in others . Tbe manufacturing classes
on the continent were reduced to great distress under the overwhelming influence of our rivalry ; but , although we prospered , and that greatly for a time , from the circumstances of our having taken the lead in abridging labour by mechanical contrivances , it was unreasonable to expect that this advantage should last for ever ; it was but natural that other nations , stimulated by our example , and burdened by a surplus population which our success had de . prived of employment , should endeavour to follow in our steps . They , in turn , introduced machinery ; gradually acquired skill in its application ; and now some of them stand in that respect upon pretty nearly'the same vantage ground as ourselves . Cotton goods , for example , are now fabricated as expeditiously , economically ! and with as little real outlay of labour , on the banks of the Seine as on those of the Kibble .
But the period has at length arrived , when other nations have learnt to produce commodities with which we used to supply them—the foreign demand for our manufactured productions is no longer , considering the increase of population on both sides , what it was , —it has necessarily relaxed , —and it now remains that we put our shoulders heartily to the wheel , and endeavour to extricate the labouring classes from the severe pressure of the difficulties
occasioned , as we conceive , principally , if not ex . clusively , by these national changes . In short , the operations of these causes which , in the long run , are nearly as irresistable as the laws of nature , has rendered it indispensable , both for the welfare of the state and the happiness of individuals , that the lahour of a considerable portion of the population of this country should be transferred to « ome branch of national industry other than manufacturing operations .
That , under any conceivable change , either in our policy or in that of other nations , the demand for manufacturing industry should revive to an extent which would permanently absorb the vast surplus of thatspecies of labour which now remains unoccupied in this country , is an expectation in which we dare not indulge . We feel , in short , a conviction , which no argument that readily presents itself to our minds can shake , that no measure can afford our labouring classes substantial relief which falls short of producing an entire change in the character of their industry—which does not transfer their labour from the manufactories in which they starve , to the soil of the country , on which we entertain no doubt ,
they mig ht be made to subsist in comfort at least , if not in affluence . This proposition may appear paradoxical , as we have already admitted that even our agricultural population is superabundant : it may sound somewhat strangely that we should propose pouring more water into a vessel which , upon our own showing , already overflows . With regard , however , to the idle hands which now press upon the resources of country parishes , jtmaybe observed that their want of employment arises from the faulty organisation of the district , and from tbe defective cultivation which the occupiers bestow upon the
soil . Every intelligent person conversant with the state of agriculture in this country , will acknowledge that scarcely one farm can be met with on which a vast addition of manual labour might not be employed , to the great benefit not only of the labourer , but also of the occupier . But , leaving for the present out of our consideration the number of unemployedhandi which abetter system of tillage undoubtedly would absotb , we venture to reiterate what we have already more than once stated , that we possess in our numerous waste and uncultivated districts a source of employment which cannot speedil y be exhausted .
The natural capability of our waste lands to yield a return for tbe labour which might be employed in cultivating them is vehemently denied by certain economists of the day ; and we are well aware that to the task of bandying words with them there would be no end . The arguments and reasonings of a pure economist of the modern school , like a hydra ' s head , grow the more abundantly the more frequently you crop them . But , as it happens , we are in a condition to appeal to facts which leave no doubt that a soil , inferior in natural productiveness to most of our wastes and commons , can be made to yield the cultivator a produce exceeding the amount consumed by bim while employed in tilling it .
The Payes-de-Waes is , at this time , the most thickly peopled district belonging to the generally veil cultivated kingdom ofthe Netherlands . Two buttered and fifty years ago it was nothing but a dismal tract of deep loose sand , scantily sprinkled with heath . About the middle of the sixteenth cen . tury , the Duke of Parma cut a canal through this desert , in order to facilitate his military operations against the Flemings . This canal attracted many of tbat industrious people to settle on Us banks ; they built huts and began to reclaim the moor in their
vicinity : their numbers daily increased , and cultivation gradually extended until the whole . surface was at length reclaimed and brought under the finest tillage . At tbe present moment , in this district , a field of two acres , or even one , suffices for the sup . port of a whole family . Even now the traveller finds that tbe wheels of bis carriage sink into' the sand ; but when he looks over the hedges , he sees the enclosure :, groaning undera weight of produce which has conferred upon the Payes-de-Waes no ordinary celebrity in the annals of successful agriculture .
Another striking instance of the effect of tillage upon the productive powers of land , which , in its original state , would have been pronounced by the philosopher hopeless and incurable , may be seen in the duchy of Cleves . There is a . very interesting colony of agriculturists settled on . the right hand of the road which leads from the little town of Goeh to the city of Cleves . In the commencement of the last century , the land occupied by this thriving establishment was a barren heath : about the year 1707 , one of the inspectors of the royal forests
caused some pines to be sowed in the neighbour , hood . . This wag the first attempt ofthe kind which had been made in that district ; and the plantation sprung up and prospered . Judging by the thriving appearance of these trees , a Dutch agriculturist was induced to believe that the land might be made to j ield corn ; he resolved upon trying what could be done , and reclaim ed one hundred and seventy acres of heath , which he divided into six farms , and let to so many tenants . The experiment was completely successful ; and , in the year 1740 , one hundred and
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forty-five persons were found subsisting , in much comfort , upon the produce of one hundred and seventy acres of land , which ten years previousl y , was nothing but a black moor . # * . » .. But the most interesting , as well as successful experiment set on foot in any age , or in any country , to enable the indigent . pauper to subsist independent !/ of charity by the cultivation of the soil , is that which has been recently made in the Netherlands , The inhabitants of tbe countries which now
compose the kingdom of the Netherlands have been for ages remarkable for tneir manufacturing industry For a considerable period they ' supplied tbe less skilful , or less industrious , inhabitants of other parts of Europe , witft a lame proportion of the wrought commodities which they cossumed . B y degrees th * English rivalled , and their out-stripped them . Borne down by our competition ^ the manufactureri of the Low Countries sustained a granual declen siob antil they were somewhat revived by the operation of Buonaparte ' s prohibitory dtarees . If these did not prove altogether successful Jh excluding : our wrought goods , it cannot he denied ' that they threw such impediments in the way of theis introduction
as secured to the manufacturers of the Netherlands a considerable advantage in the continental markets : but With the peace of 1815 this partial monopoly disappeared ; and ever since , the demand for manufacturing labour has been rapidly declining in the Netherlands . A large oropartion of the papulation has been thrown ou-t of employment , and forced to subsist upon alms . The misery suffered by these unemployed workmen , and the burden which their maintenance in a state of idleness imposed upon others , made a deep and general impression . Various plans for relieving them were unsuccessfully tried . Attempts were first ma « te to give them ecaploymeat in manufactotiea established
for that purpose , by the communes to which they belonged ; but , as might have been expected , these entirelyfailed ; ' the market of the Netherlands was already overstocked with wrought commodities ; and adding to this superabundant mass , was making bad worse . In a word , it was apparent that too large a proportion of the population bad devoted themselves to manufactures , and that relief could only be obtained by diverting their industry to other objects ; and it was proposed to transfer this sur . plus population from the districts in which their labour was no longer profitable , to agricultural colonies established on some of the wastes and heaths with which the . country abounds .
The plan of establishing agricultural colonies was warmly taken up by the public ; and , in 1818 , a voluntary association was formed at the Hague for the purpose of carrying it into effect . The first st- > p was of course to raise funds to commence their operations . This was speedily done by the donations of benevolent individuals , as well as by a small annual subscription ( about five shillings English money ) which each member contributed towards the resources placed at the disposal of the managing committee . As thirty thousand persons put down their names as subscribers the very first year , five thousand pounds were at once realised . Having thus laid a foundation , they determined to make
in the first instance , an experiment upon a small scale , and purchased a tract . ' of land called Westerbeck Sloot , situated near tbe " little town of Steenwyk , on the confines of the provinces of Drenthe , Friesland , and Overyssel . It contained between twelve and thirteen hundred acres of land , covered with heath and turf—except about one hundred and forty acres , which had already been in some measure reclaimed . The whole cost the association four thousand six hundred and sixty pounds . The money for this purpose was raised by loan at six per cent ., the association engaging to liquidate the principal by regular instalments , in the course of sixteen years .
The one hundred and forty acres in tillage were allowed to remain in the hands of tbe tenants bv whom they were a l ready occupied j and three hundred and fifty acres of the waste were marked out and enclosed for the foundation of the first colony . The King of the Netherlands' second son , who in . tirested himself warmly in the success of the undertaking , readily consented that the new establish , ment should bear his own name : hence it was called ''Frederick ' s-Oord . ' '
In order to facilitate the communication ot the colony with the neighbouring districts , and to reduce the expense of carriage , a little river , called the Aa , was rendered navigable ; a school-house , a warehouse , spinning-houses ,, and fifty-two dwellings , were then built . These works were begun in Sept . 1818 , and finished by the first day of the following November , when they were taken possession of by fifty-two indigent families , collected from different parts of the country ; and who , from that moment , ceased to be burdensome to the communities to
which they belonged—the association taking upon itself exclusively the responsibility of their subse . quent maintenance . It is needless to observe tbat these fifty two families possessed no funds of their own on which they could subsist till the ensuing harvest , which was the earliest period at which they could expect to reap the fruits of tbe labour which they had bestowed upon the land . This difficulty had , of course , been foreseen and provided against : the association found them in clothing and food , and employed them in reclaiming and preparing the land for tha first crop : for this labour , the colonists themselves , were paid ,
just as strangers would have been paid , in proportion to the quantity of work which they executed . It was calculated beforehand , that to settle one family , consisting of from six to eight persons , upon one of these seven acre allotments , would i \ quire , on the pa < tof the society , an outlay of 1700 guilders , or £ 143 13 s . But most ofthe houses which have beensubsequently built have cost the society considerably le ? s than the original est'matP . All the labour of building is performed by the colonists themselves at the fixed rate of wages ; and all the bricks are made of clay , and burnt with turf—both of these materials being found on the land . "
For an account of the working of this system , we must refer the reader to the full article in the Commonwealth . The following extracts set forth the result : — " 1 have visited , " Bays the Baron de Keverberg . in his interesting account of this colony , "a great number of these family establishments . In every place the females were seen cheerfully occupied either in cleaning their dwellings or in preparing the family meal : the children , neatly clothed , and full of health and spirits , rivalled one another in the alac ity with which they turned their spinning-wheels . The mothers boasted of their comfortable condition , and the productive industry of their children : indeed , it is not by any means an unusual circumstance that these should , from the age of seven to eight , earn
weekly ten , fifteen , or even twenty sols . The greater part of these earnings is carried to the account of each family ; but a small proportion is distributed among the children , to encourage them in their industry . I have scarcely observed a single dwelling whicbdidnot exhibit some trace of extra labour , gratutiously performed by the colonists themselves , solely for the purpose of embellishing- their modest habitations . Their little gardens , tastefil'Jy and carefully laid out , present models of well-regulated cultivation ; they » re nearly all ornamented with flowers , which gracefully surround the beds in which the nutritive vegetables are gro » n . These not only delight the eye ofthe spectator , hut leave a pleasing impression on the mind of the man who traces these embellishments back to the causes to which they owe their origin . "
Another traveller , who receetly visited these colonies , speaks thus of their condition in 1826 : — " The crops were luxuriant , the people healthful , and the houses comfortable . Several of the colonists had acquired considerable property . Many gardens were planted with currant-bushes , pear and apple trees , and tastefully ornamented with flowers . Ad . ditional live stock , belonging to the colonists themselves , was frequently pointed out ; and around not a few of the houses lay webs of linen bleaching , which had been wovert , on their own account , by persons who on ' y four years before were among the outcasts ef society . The families found at dinner had quite the appearance of wealthy peasants ; and from the Quantity and quality of the food before
them , they might have been con sidered as not interior to tbe smaller tenantry of this country . " We pass over a mass of interesting information , to ibake way for the answer of the writer of the article to the objections of those who oppose the very idea of trying the experiment of such , colonies in this C 0 " Wb . ere , the dampers will ask , is the land to be found on which our unemployed paupers may be made to : raise for themselves a supply of food by their own industr y ? We do not apprehend , that , . in this respect , much diffic ulty , could be experienced in a country which contains a trifle of between t-yenty and thirty millions of acres of waste land , setting aside some tenor twelve additional mil ions of meadow and dry pasture land , which , as far as ^ cnicerns the employment of our population , are little better ttaa
mere wastes . * It will , perhaps be said , that , upon our owit showing , a considerable outlay of capital will he required in the first instance ; it will be necessary to provide the mean s of maintaining the colonists whle tilling the ground during at least one year ^ and it may be urged . probably , as an additional 'objection , that this amount of capital must be withdrawn from tbe general capital ot the country j ml that the gain of one
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StfdwSS ^ ^ bya r quirale * nt hssi * J ^ trSrTJll ^ ^» er it may be expedient t ? v ? n whioh ff Crta , n Cflpit f l froM a bran , h of ' «« ' « sny , in Which it is now productive into another Up . partment-but whether it be e % de , a to render productive , both to the owners and thepublkfa certain amount of capital which is nowutteKS ed and yields no return to anybody . We speak of the enormous capital annually squandered upon the maintenance- of able-bodied paupers . AH that is repuired is , that those who now throw away thei * capital upon the unemployed labourer , should com . bine to lay it out in a manner which would enable the same man to raise food for himself b y the sweat of his own brow . "
Vavutie#.
Vavutie # .
A Kepubmcan's Phater.—" Strasgo That Men...
A Kepubmcan ' s Phater . — " Strasgo that men , from age to age , should consent to hold their lives at the breath ) of another , merel y that each in his turn may hare- the vowcr of noting the tyrant according to law J Oh God ! give me poverty ! shower upon me all tbe imaginary hardships of human life I I will receive them all with thankfulness . Turn me > a prcy to tho wild ' , beasts of tfie desert , so I l > e never again the victim of man dresa « d in the gore-dripping rob e * of authority .- Suffer me-at least to call- life , and tbe pursuits of life , my owa . ' Let me hold it at the-mercy of elements , of the- hunger of beasts , orthe revenge of barbarians , but not ofthe coldblooded prudence of monopolists and kings . " ^ Godwitfs Caleb Williams ..
A Ware . —A wife , full of trutJi > innocence , nnc £ love ,, is the prettiest flower a man can wear next hist heart * Friends . —If a man does- not make ? new acquaintances . is he advances through life ho will soon find himself left alone . A man- , should kaep his friendships in constant repair . —Johnson .. A Bachelor ' s Life . —Miss- Bremer tells us that the life of a rich old baehxsfcv . is a sjaSendid breakfast , a tolerably flat dinner , and a meat miserable supper . Poverty . —Poverty is the only load which is the ? heavier the more loved ones there are So assist in supporting it . —Richtcr . Treiii-Slackers !—In the east of Asia , where black teeth are admired , from China to KamtCkatka , the profession of a tootli-stainer is quite as extensively followed , and in no less repute than that of the European dentist , whose- place it occupies . The duties annexed arehowever , less
com-, prehensive , being almost restricted to the blacking ' process , which , in ; i thousand cases ,, must be found more convenient than our contrary requisition . Dental diseases are by no means of such frequent occurrence in those regions as among tlio nations of Europe ; and physicians have ascribed'the fact tO > the simpler diet of the people , and the thoughtless , indolent current in which their lives , flow on scarcely more chequered by change sr mental excitement than those of their sheep or cattle , which keep their teeth equally sound . The-blacking business is practised by both sexes , nod some of its chiefs enjoy considerable reputation and emolument from the permanence of their dye , and the jetty polish imparted by their art ; the secrets- of which are kept with Oriental tenacity , more especially from the barbarians , " as Europeans are politely termed , the profession being determined against sharing their profits with them .
Dickens versus Cowper . —Charles Dickens having declined , in somewhat disparaging terms , to subscribe for a monument to Cowper , lias been thus tomahawked by Gilfillnn : — " The ' Task' will outlive ' The Haunted Man . ' Dickens is but a 'Cricket on the Hearth . ' Cowper was an eagle of God ; ,-ind his memory shall be cherished , and his poems read , after the ' Pickwick Papers' are forgotten !" A Nation can . vot Rebkl . — " The onl y end ? for which governments are instituted , and obedience rendered to them , are the obtaining of justice and protection , and they who cannot provide for both g ive the people a right of taking such wavs as host please themselves in order to their own safety . The whole body of a nation cannot be tied to any other obedience than is consistent with the common good , according to their own judgment . The general revolt of a nation cannot be called rebellion . "—Algernon Sydneu .
A Puzzler . —If a ship is of the feminine gender , why are not fighting vessels called women-of-war instead of men-of-war ? Important to Geologists . —At Wallasey the sea . is encroaching on the people ; at Home tlic people arc encroaching on the soo . SON ' . N'ET TO PAMK . Fame , like a wayward g irl , will still be coy To those who woo her with too slavish knees , But makes surrender to some thoughtless boy , And doats the more upon a heart at case . She is a Gypsy—will not speak to those Who have not learnt to be content without her ; A Jilt , whose ear was never whispered close ,
Who thinks they scandal her who talk about her ; A very Gypsy is she , Nilus-born , Sister-in-law to jealous Poti phar ; Ye love-sick Bards ! repay her scorn for scorn ; Yc Artists love-lorn ! madmen that ye are ; Make your best bow to her and bid adieu , Then if she likes it , she will follow you . Keats . A Whig!— "We have , " the Nonconformist says , " a confident expectation that tho word ' Whig , ' as it passes down to posterity , will gradually supersede the use of that ill-sounding word ' humbug . ' In a few years , when one man wishes to denounce another as what Carlyle calls ; i wind-bag , a person of huge pretence and despicable performance , a notorious impostor , an arrant cheat , he will tluuidcr out , after exhausting all other and milder terms of vituperation , ' You are a Whig . ' - "
" EiEnxiiY . —A maker of gold pons advertises , that fifteen years' experience justifies him in inserting that his pens are everlasting ' From which ifc it would appear that fifteen years and eternity are synonymous terms . The Americans and their Newspapers . —There is no native American in the northern states , and few in tho southern , who cannot write and read . The result is shown in the smaller amount of crime . The astonishing activity of the press in America , baffles all conjecture of its progress , when the continent becomes better peopled . In England , in the provinces , the number of newspapers decrease ; six
or seven have fallen during the last year . In tho old country , we have , or had recently , 470 newspapers to 28 , 000 , 000 of population , twelve of which appeared daily . In America , having 20 , 000 , 000 of population , there were in 1 S 40 , no less than 13 S daily , 125 twice or thrice a week , and 1 , U 1 weekly newspapers , besides 227 periodical works . The circulation of a newspaper is free by post within thirty miles around the place of publication . Beyond that distance , one and a half cents arc charged on each as postage . Let it not be said that their papers are small : they are as large as ours in the larger towns , and some bf them vie with ths Times in the number
of advertisements . Mr . Mackay shows , too , tliafc an English is cheaper than an American paper , excepting the duty , of which there is none in the United States . The best papers cost 5 * d . English . Every house , even in tho most remote places , takes in a paper ; some take two . —Jerrold ' s Weekly News . Inisu Melodies dose into Irish ! — Moore ' s "Melodies" have been translated into Irish by Mr . Sullivan , of Cork , " in a manner , " says the Oalway Vindicator , " which docs that gentleman the very highest credit . " It is rather curious that this was not done Ions' < i £ 0 . . .. .
An Irish Verdict . —An Irishman was indicted at the assizes at Tr . ilec for felony . His innocence was proved , but , notwithstanding that , the jury found him guilty . The judifc was shocked , and said—* ' Gentlemen , the prisoner ' s innocence was clearly proved . " " Yes , " said tho foreman , " he is innocent ofthe crime now charged against him , but he stole my grey mare last Christmas . " The Wise Men of tub East . — " I thought the wise men came from the cast , " said a western man to a Yankee . " And the further you go west the more you'll think so—Iravther guess .
The Minister and his Max . — " Sam , " said a . late minister of Drumbladc one day to his man of all works , " you must bottle the cask of whisky thia forenoon ; but as tbe vapour from the whisky may be injurious , take a glass before you begin to prevent intoxication . Now , Samuel was an old soldier , and never was in better spirits than when bottling whisky ; and having received from his mastern special license to taste , went to work most heartily . Some hours after the minister visited the cellar tc
mspect progress , and ivas horrified to find Sam lyinghis full lengthen the floor , unconscious of aS around . " O Sam ! " said the minister , " you have not taken my advice , and you see the consequence —rise , Sam , and take a glass yet , it may restore you . Sam , nothing loth , took the glass from tho minister ' s hand , and having . emptied it , said , " Oh t sir , this is the thirteenth glass 1 ' veta ' en , bit I'm naa better . " " Board and lodging , a & et nothing to pay , ' as tli © man said when he lay oia the police streicher . What of is ?—It js
" part speech * kissing a conjunction . Why is the letter K the most sorrowful of letters ? Because it is always . ia-coNsolable . . The Supreme JWer . — "There remains still inherent power in the people—a supreme power , to remove or altes- tho legislature , when they find the legislators act contrary to the trust reposed in them , for when such trust is abused it is thereby forfeited , and devolves on those who gave Jit . — Locke . A Miguxv Mouth . —A man with an enormously large mouth called on a dentist to get a tooth drawn . After the dentist had prepared his instruments , and was about to commence oper ations , tho man of-mouth began to strain and stretch his mouth till he got it to a most frightful extent . " Stay , sir , " said the dentist , " don't trouble yourself to stretch vour mouth any . ^ uler lor l intend to stand on the outside of it to draw youi tooth . "
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Citation
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Northern Star (1837-1852), March 17, 1849, page 3, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/ns2_17031849/page/3/
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