Dame Bewley, who had formerly lived with several families who had successively occupied this estate; but who, worn down with age and infirmity, was unable to labour any longer. She was now living on the occasional charity of the mansion, and the small earnings of her husband. No sooner did the princess hear of this, than she visited Dame Bewley, whom she found endeavouring to read an old Bible, the small print of which to her enfeebled eyes was almost undistinguishable. The next day, the princess sent her a new Bible and a Prayer Book of the largest print; her shattered cottage was soon after rebuilt, and she no longer lived on the precarious bounty of the successive lords of Claremont.

MYSTERIOUS BENEFACTOR.

He

In the year 1720, celebrated for the bursting of the South Sea Bubble, a gentleman called late in the evening at the banking-house of Messrs. Hankey and Co. was in a coach, but refused to get out; and desired that one of the persons of the house would come to him; into whose hands, when he appeared, he put a parcel, very carefully sealed up, and desired that it might be taken care of till he should call again, which would be in the course of a few days. A few days passed away; a few weeks; a few months; but the stranger never returned. At the end of the second year, the partners agreed to open this mysterious parcel, when they found it to contain £70,000, with a letter stating that it had been obtained by the Scuth Sea speculation; and directing that it should be vested in the hands of three

trustees, whose names were mentioned, and the interest appointed to the relief of the poor. A direction which, it is needless to say, has been most faithfully obeyed.

EMPEROR ALEXANDER.

THE emperor in one of his journeys through Poland, being considerably in advance of his attendants, saw several persons assembled on the banks of the little river Willin, and approaching the spot, found that they had just dragged out of the water a peasant who appeared to be lifeless. He instantly alighted, had the man laid on the side of the bank, and immediately proceeded to strip him, and to rub his temples, wrists, &c. The emperor was thus employed when his suite joined him, whose exertions were immediately added to those of the emperor. Dr. Wylly, his Majesty's physician, attempted to bleed the patient, but in vain; after some hours fruitless attempts to recover him, the doctor declared that it was useless to proceed any farther. The emperor, much chagrined, and fatigued with the continued exertions, entreated Dr. Wylly to persevere, and to make a fresh attempt to bleed him. The doctor, though he had not the slightest hope of being successful, proceeded to obey the positive injunctions of his Imperial Majesty, who, with Prince Woulkousky and Count Lieven, (now ambassador at the British court,) made a last effort at rubbing, &c. At length, the emperor had the inexpressible satisfaction of seeing the blood make its appearance, while the poor peasant uttered a feeble groan. The emotions of his Imperial Majesty at this moment could not

be described; and in the plenitude of his joy, he exclaimed, "Good God! this is the brightest day of my life;" while tears involuntary stole down his cheek. Their exertions were now redoubled; the emperor tore his handkerchief, and bound the arm of the patient, nor did he leave him until he was quite recovered. He then had him conveyed to a place where proper care could be taken of him, ordered him a considerable present, and afterwards provided for him and his family.

BRITISH BENEVOLENCE.

WHEN the revolution of France made exiles of all the clergy of the country who did not perish on the scaffold, some thousands of them found refuge in England. A private subscription of £33,775 15s. 94d. was immediately made for them. When it was exhausted another was opened under the auspices of the king, which amounted to £41,304 12s. 6d. nor is it too much to say, that the beneficence of individuals, whose charities on this occasion were known only to God, raised for the sufferers a sum much exceeding the amount of the larger of the two subscriptions. When at length the wants of the sufferers exceeded the measure of private charity, government took them under its protection; and though engaged in a contest exceeding all former wars in expense, appropriated, with the approbation of the whole kingdom, a monthly allowance of about £8000 for their support: an instance of splendid munificence and systematic liberality, of which the annals of the world do not furnish another example.

THE SKELETON OF THE WRECK.

WHILE Sir Michael Seymour was in the command of the Amethyst frigate, and was cruizing in the Bay of Biscay, the wreck of a merchant ship drove past. Her deck was just above water; her lower mast alone standing. Not a soul could be seen on board; but there was a cubhouse on deck, which had the appearance of having been recently patched with old canvas and tárpauling, as if to afford shelter to some forlorn remnant of the crew. It blew at this time a strong gale; but Sir Michael, listening only to the dictates of humanity, ordered the ship to be put about, and sent off a boat with instructions to board the wreck, and ascertain whether there was any being still surviving, whom the help of his fellow man might save from the grasp of death. The boat rowed towards the drifting mass; and while struggling with the difficulty of getting through a high running sea close along side, the crew shouting all the time as loud as they could, an object resembling in appearance a bundle of clothes was observed to roll out of the cubhouse, against the lee shrouds of the mast. With the end of a boathook they managed to get hold of it, and hauled it into the boat, when it proved to be the trunk of a man, bent head and knees together, and so wasted away, as scarce to be felt within the ample clothes which had once fitted it in a state of life and strength. The boat's crew hastened back to the Amethyst with this miserable remnant of mortality; and so small was it in bulk, that a lad of fourteen years of age was able with his own hands to lift it into the ship. When placed on deck, it showed for the first time, to the astonishment of all, signs of re

maining life; it tried to move, and next moment muttered in a hollow sepulchral tone, "there is another man.' The instant these words were heard, Sir Michael ordered the boat to shove off again for the wreck. The sea hav

ing now become somewhat smoother, they succeeded this time in boarding the wreck; and on looking into the cubhouse, they found two other human bodies, wasted like the one they had saved to the very bones, but without the least spark of life remaining They were sitting in a shrunk up posture, a hand of one resting on a tin pot, in which there was about a gill of water; and a hand of the other reaching to the deck, as if to regain a bit of raw salt beef of the size of a walnut, which had dropped from its nerveless grasp. Unfortunate men! They had starved on their scanty store, till they had not strength remaining to lift the last morsel to their mouths!. The boat's crew having completed their melancholy survey, returned on board, where they found the attention of the ship's company engrossed by the efforts made to preserve the generous skeleton, who seemed to have had just life enough left to breathe the remembrance that there was still another man," his companion in suffering, to be saved. Captain S. committed him to the special charge of the surgeon, who spared no means which humanity or skill could suggest, to achieve the noble object of creating anew, as it were, a fellow creature, whom famine had stripped of every living energy. For three weeks he scarcely ever left his patient, giving him nourishment with his own hand every five or ten minutes; and at the end of three weeks more, the "skeleton of the wreck" was seen walking on the deck of the Amethyst; and to the surprise of all who recollected that he had been lifted