thing needful") he continued to improve upon his habits of parsimony and accumulation, so as to deny himself the common comforts becoming necessary to his advancing years. But the hard gripe occasionally relaxed at the persuasive voice of Josiah's eloquence; and that hopeful youth, as he advanced in the ways of iniquity, made especial progress in its refined arts of specious hypocrisy, to which, alas! his early training had too favourably disposed him. It would be a tedious and distasteful task minutely to trace the progressive steps by which Josiah attained that degree of hardened profligacy, which marked his character by the time he had completed his nineteenth year the second of his clerkship in Messrs. countinghouse. The marvel is, that his seat on the high office stool had not been vacated long before the expiration of that period. The eyes of his employers had for some time been open to his disreputable and ruinous courses. Their keen observation was of course upon him in all matters that could in any way affect their own interests; and at length, on that account, as well as from more conscientious motives, which ought to have had earlier influence, they deemed it requisite to arouse the fears of the still-deluded parent, and to recommend his interference, to avert, if possible, the dangerous career of his infatuated son. Alas! it was a cruel caution, for it came too late. Too late, except to excite the father's fears to a sudden pitch of agony, which provoked him to bitter upbraidings, and violent denunciations, and thus contributed to sear the already corrupted heart of the insensate youth, and to accelerate his desperate plunge into irretrievable ruin.

It was well known at C-that Andrew Cleaves had (for a man in his station) amassed considerable wealth, and that his idolized and only son would inherit it undivided; and in that confidence, there were not wanting venturous and unprincipled persons, who not only gave him

credit in the way of trade, to an unwarrantable amount, but even advanced him loans from time to time, on the speculation of future re-payment, with usurious interest. By such means, added to the not inconsiderable gratifications he at different times obtained from his father, under various specious pretences, Josiah had been enabled to run a course of low and profligate extravagance, far exceeding anything which had entered into the suspicions of his employers, or the tardily aroused apprehensions of the distressed father. Among the threats of that abused parent, there was one which Josiah doubted not would be promptly executed—a public advertisement in C, that Andrew Cleaves held himself nowise answerable for any debts his son might think proper to contract-an exposure which would not only cut him off from all future supplies, but probably create such distrust of his hitherto undoubted heirship, as to bring forward all the claims standing against him, and irritate his father, beyond hope of accommodation.

But the idea of absconding from Chad long been familiar to Josiah, and he had for some time past been connected with a set of characters, whose daring exploits, and communication with the metropolis, had fired his ambition to emulate the former, and to transfer his genius to a theatre more worthy its enterprising capabilities. Yet, Josiah's heart was not quite hardened. It had not lost all pleasant remembrance of his days of boyish happiness-of the indulgences of his father's dwelling, and of the repressed, but ill-dissembled fondness of that doating parent, whose proud and severe nature had even accommodated itself to offices of womanly tenderness, for the feeble infant left motherless to his care.

There were still moments-even in the circle of his vile associates— even in the concerting their infamous schemes-or while the profane oath still volleyed from his tongue-and the roar of riotous mirth and licentious song resounded-there were

moments, even then, when recollection of better things flashed across his mind, like angels' wings athwart the pit of darkness, and he shuddered with transient horror at the appalling

contrast.

The faint gleam of such a mental vision still haunted him at the breaking up of a riotous meeting, during which he had finally arranged with his confederates the plan which was to remove him (probably for ever!) from C and its vicinity.

"But I will have one more look at the old place before I go," suddenly resolved Josiah, when he had parted from his companions. "At least I will have a last look at the outside of the walls-though I can't go inI can't face the old man, before I leave him he would not pass over what can't be undone and there's no going back now—but I will see the old place again."

It was late on the Sabbath evening when Josiah formed this sudden resolution, and so quickly was it carried into effect, that it wanted near an hour to midnight when he reached the low boundary of the cottage garden.

It was a calm delicious night of ripening Spring-so hushed and still, you might have heard the falling showers of overblown apple blossoms. Josiah lingered for a moment with his hand on the garden wicket; and while he thus tarried, was startled by a sudden but familiar sound from the adjacent close. It was the nichering salutation of his old friend Greybeard, who, having perceived, with fine instinct, the appoach of his young master and quondam playmate, came forward, as in days of yore, to the holly hedge, which divided his pasture from the garden, and poking his white nose through the old gap betwixt the hawthorn and the gate, greeted him with that familiar nicher.

"Ah, old boy! is it thou ?" said the youth, in a low hurried voice, as he stopt a moment to stroke the face of his faithful favourite. "Dost thou bid me welcome home, old fellow?

and a

Well-that's something!" short unnatural laugh finished the sentence, as he turned from the loving creature, and with quick, but noiseless steps, passed up the garden walk to the front of the quiet cottage.

Quiet as the grave it stood in the flood of moonlight—its lonely tenant had long since gone to rest; and no beam from hearth or taper streamed through the diamond panes of the small casements.

The Prodigal gazed for a moment on the white walls-on the honeysuckle already flowering round his own casement-then stept within the porch, and softly, and fearfully, as it were, raised his hand to the latchwhich, however, he lifted not-only softly laid his hand upon it, and so, with eyes rooted to the ground, stood motionless for a few minutes, till the upraised arm dropt heavily; and with something very like a sigh, he turned from the door of his father's dwelling, to retrace his steps towards C———.

Yet once again in his way down the garden path, he turned to look on the home he was forsaking. At that moment the evil spirit slept within him, and his better nature was stirring in his heart. The repose of night-its "beauty of holiness"the healing influence of the pure fresh air-the sight of that familiar scene-nay, the fond greeting of his dumb favourite the thought for what purpose he was there-and of the old man who slept within those silent walls, unconscious of the shock impending over him in the desertion of his only child-all these things crowded together with softening influence into the heart of that unhappy boy, as he turned a farewell look upon the quiet cottage-and just then a sound from within smote his ear faintly. At first, a faint, low sound, which deepened by degrees into a more audible murmur, and proceeded surely from his father's chamber. Josiah started-"Was the old man ill?" he questioned with himself"Ill and alone!" and without far

ther parley, he stept quickly but noiselessly to the low casement, and still cautiously avoiding the possibility of being seen from within, gazed earnestly between the vine-leaves through the closed lattice. The interior of the small chamber was quite visible in the pale moonshine-so distinctly visible that Josiah could even distinguish his father's large silver watch hanging at the bed's head in its nightly place-and on that bed two pillows were yet laid side by side, (it was the old man's eccentric humour) as in the days when his innocent child shared with him that now solitary couch. But neither pillow had been pressed that night-the bed was still unoccupied -and beside it knelt Andrew Cleaves, visibly in an agony of prayer-for his upraised hands were clasped above the now bald and furrowed brow. His head was flung far back in the fervour of supplication-and though the eyelids were closed, the lips yet quivered with those murmuring accents, which, in the deep stillness of midnight, had reached Josiah's ear and drawn him to the spot. It was a sight to strike daggers to the heart of the ungrateful child, who knew too well, who felt too assuredly, that for him, of fending as he was, that agonizing prayer was breathed-that his undutiful conduct and sinful courses had inflicted that bitterness of anguish depicted on the venerable features of his only parent. Self-convicted, self-condemned, the youthful culprit stood gazing as if spell-bound, and impulsively, instinctively, his hands also closed in the long-neglected clasp of prayer-and unconsciously his eyes glanced upward for a second, and perhaps the inarticulate aspiration which trembled on his lip, was, "God be merciful to me a sinner!" Yet such it hardly could have been-for that touching cry, proceeding from a deeply stricken heart would have reached the ear of Mercy, and, alas! those agitated feelings of remorse, which might "if Heaven had willed it,"

Have matured to penitence and peace, were but the faint stirrings of a better spirit doomed to be irrevocably quenched ere thoroughly awakened.

The tempter was at hand, and the infatuated victim wanted moral courage to extricate himself by a bold effort while there was yet time, from the snare prepared for his destruction. Just at that awful moment, that crisis of his fate, when the sense of guilt suddenly smote upon his heart, and his better angel whispered, "Turn-yet turn and live!"at that decisive moment a rustling in the holly hedge, accompanied by a low whistle, and a suppressed laugh, broke on his startled ear; and, as if a serpent had stung him, he sprang without one backward glance from the low casement and the cottage walls-and almost at a bound he cleared the garden path, and dashed through the little gate which swung back from his desperate hand with jarring violence.

Those awaited him without, from whom he could not brook the sneer of ridicule-with whom he had mocked at and abjured all good and holy things, and with whose desperate fortunes he had voluntarily enbarked his own; and well they knew the hold they had upon him, and having at that time especial motives to desire his faithful adherence, they had dodged his steps to the lane cottage, under a vague suspicion that if an interview should take place between the father and son, Nature might powerfully assert her rights, and yet detach the youth from their unholy coalition.

"The children of this world are, in their generation, wiser than the children of light." They guessed well, and too well succeeded in securing their victim-and before Josiah had half retraced the townward way with his profligate companions, his mind was again engrossed by their nefarious projects, and all that had so recently affected him-the whole familiar scene-the low white cottage-the little chamber, and the aged man who knelt beside that lone

ly bed in prayer for an offending child--all these things had faded like a vision from his unstable mind; and secretly humiliated at the recollection of his momentary weakness, the

miserable youth bade an eternal adieu to the paths of peace and innocence, and gave himself up to work evil unreservedly.

THIS

HIS work commences a new era in legal history. The History of Mr. Reeves and the Miscellanies of Barrington are mere dry and antiquarian records of the growth of law and English judicial establishments. The general" Histories of England" have been palpably deficient in that important and valuable department of historical illustration connected with the laws and jurisprudence of the country. Legal

histories have been generally undertaken to expound the value of ancient institutions; Mr. Parkes's History of the Court of Chancery is to illustrate the value of the principles of legislation and jurisprudence, by showing the ignorance of science in the founders of our early courts of equity and common law. A knowledge of technical and black letter law has been generally wanting in the popular historians of our country, and in the instance of Coke the excess of that occult and mystical learning smothered his senses and all taste for the science and principles of his profession. All the modern lawyers of great intellect and acquirement, have been either absorbed in the craft of the law as a trade, or in the more gainful trade of politics. Moreover, they were too much interested in the spoils of the profession to acknowledge or to expose its grievances and unnecessary cost to the nation. The Barons in Magna Charta bound down their kings not to sell, deny, or delay justice; but when the sale, denial, and delay of justice gave birth to places and fees

(which, distributed the among younger children of the nobility, compensated them for the endurance of injustice), then the people were left to shift for themselves, and the famous stipulation in the charter became an obsolete statute. The last science also which in England has reaped the benefit of logic and correct reasoning, is jurisprudence: the fact is singular; the cause involves a longer disquisition than we can now afford.

A second re-action in the interests of the Aristocracy has again taken place-they are caught in the web of their own sophistry: the state of the law has now entangled in hopeless intricacy, litigation, and plunder, all the large landed properties and fortunes of the country: the nobles and collective wisdom of the nation are therefore once more interested in its reformation. This is undoubtedly one of the many causes operating in England for the reform and improvement of the laws. The vast commercial interests of the kingdom, also, the natural subjects of litigation, have deluged the existing tribunals with actions and suits beyond what even the physical powers of the administrators of justice can duly try or determine. Lord Eldon was accustomed to bag the papers of the equity suitors till Paternoster-row would not have held the mass of written evidence scattered through the chambers of his law subjects, the equity draftsmen and solicitors; and which his lordship, because he bagged all the fees, logically thought he could therefore read and adjudicate: