To Richard Martin, M. P.—I have for many years suffered !much when, by my vocation, I have been called on to assist in casting horses, and holding them down when fixed for spavins or ring bones, or other diseases of the limbs. Much as the wretched animal suffers while scoring with seven or eight red hot irons passed slowly and repeatedly over the same spot, during which time the farrier coolly refreshes himself with a drink of mild ale or a glass of gin; yet this pain is not to be compared with the inflammation that follows. I can with truth declare, that I have known horses when fixed, as we term it, all fours, not able to lie down or sleep for six weeks or two months.

But what is most material, I declare that I never knew any borse to be cured or relieved by this barbarous invention that inflicts such pain, and I believe, that it is only continued for the profit of those torturers, who charge a guinea a leg for each limb thus blemished. I thank you, good Sir, for hav ing procured a declaration, as I hear, from the Veterinary College, condemning this practice, and this one act is of more use than all your other labours to protect that valuable animal-the horse.

I am, your obedient servant to command,
AN OLD GROOM.

16, Manchester Buildings. To take Stains out of Clothes.-There are various receipts. given for taking stains out of woollen clothes; but few things are better than common soap. A stain on a good coat, waistcoat, or breeches, gives them an old and shabby appearance. Try, then, plain soap; it will generally succeed, unless the stain is made with something particularly bad. Wet the soap a little, and rub it on the stain: then take a wet brush, a little nail brush is the best, and work it well on the place into a good lather: then wash the soap away with the brush and clean water; and afterwards apply a common clothes, brush, in the direction of the nap: when the cloth is dry, the stain will generally have disappeared.

Caution to Carpenters. A very alarming and destructive fire, which lately occurred, gave rise to some very distressing suspicions; and some persons, probably innocent, were reported to have been guilty of voluntarily causing the fire. The general opinion now is, that the fire was caused by a spark from a candle, used by the carpenters, having fallen on some shavings which lay scattered on the floor. ha Hints to House-maids." Who would have thought it," said the bouse-maid, who hung some napkins to dry too near the fire,aw "who would have expected a coal to fly out of the fire, and burn my napkins? Why, I have done this for twenty years, and never had an accident before." But this was not so bad as when the large house in Leicestershire was burnt down by

linen being put too near the laundry fire. It may be a long time before an accident happens; but this is no reason for being careless. A College, at Cambridge, which had stood some hundreds of years, was almost wholly destroyed, a few years ago, by a gentleman's shirt being hung to air too near to the fire.

√.

Wash Leather.-A celebrated physician recommends, as the winter approaches, the use of wash leather as an underwaistcoat, especially to those who perspire freely, and are subject to rheumatic complaints. He has known persons, by the use of this material, entirely freed from their former rheumatic pains, and to have been more warm and comfortable, through the winter, than by any other additional clothing to which they usually had recourse.-London Paper.

A plain piece of wash leather worn upon the chest, the soft side towards the skin, is an excellent defence against cold, and very agreeable to the wearer; it is well worth the attention of those to whom flannel is disagreeable.-Same.

Water Spout.-A gentleman who sailed from New York in February last, for Buenos Ayres, gives the following description of a water-spout:- "On the 19th of March, lat. 4. N., while seated at dinner, we were aroused by the cry of Waterspout!' The Captain, mate, and sailors, were much terrified it was, indeed, a dreadful scene; we were lying motionless in a profound calm; not a breath of air circulated-the sails were all languid, and nothing was heard save the terrible roaring of this stupendous column of water, ascending to the dark heavy cloud directly over its base. It approached us with great rapidity, and threatened our vessel with immediate destruction. Fire-arms were discharged in the air, the sudden jar of which broke the column a little below its centre; one half tumbling down into the cavity from whence it was raised, the other part ascending to the clouds. It was supposed to be about one quarter of a mile distant, and fifty feet in diameter."-New York Commercial Advertiser.

TO CORRESPONDENTS,

We have received A Caernarvon Curate, M. N.; I. B. and A Letter without a Signature.

We are much obliged to Rochfordiensis for his letter. The communication to which he alludes was printed, we believe, exactly as we received it. We have not, however, the MS. by us to refer to.

T. in our next.

A. W.'s remarks are excellent,-but we are overwhelmed with letters on the same subject. We are not sure whether it will not be our wisest plan to let i• afone altogether.

THE

Cottager's Monthly Visitor.

FEBRUARY, 1824.

REMARKS

་་

On the 15th and 16th Chapters of the Book of

Genesis.

(Continued from p. 6.)

CHAP. XV. Verse 7. "To give thee this land to inherit it." We have here an instance of a manner of speaking not uncommon in Scripture, where that is promised to a person, which is fulfilled only to his seed*. Abraham had himself no inheritance in the land; se no, not so much as to set his foot on.' He sojourned in it as in a strange country." It was in his seed that he inherited it.

Verses 9, 10, and 17, show us the manner of confirming a covenant by sacrifice. The animal or animals were divided; the pieces placed opposite to each other; and the covenanting party passed between them. One of each of the different animals appointed for sacrifice was used on this occasion.

Verse 11. "When the fowls came down upon the carcases," Abram drove them away," lest they should devour or pollute them. It was a law respecting whatever was offered in sacrifice, that it must be perfect, to be accepted. (Lev. xxii. 21.)

Verse 13. Here the Lord, who knoweth the end from the beginning, foretels to Abram the cruel

* As in Gen. xlvi. 4.

No. 38.-VOL. IV.

D

† See Jer. xxxiv. 18;

bondage to which his seed, the children of Israel, should be subject in the land of Egypt, their wonderful deliverance by his great power and stretched out arm, and their departure, enriched with the spoils of Egypt. "They shall afflict them four hundred years. That is, the affliction should terminate at a period of time about four hundred years distant from the time when the Lord spake to Abram.

27

go

Verse 16. "In the fourth generation they shall come hither again." That is, the fourth generation from their going down into Egypt. And it appears from Num. xxvi, 57-60, where the genealogy of Aaron, the great grandfather of Levi, is given, that this was the number of generations between the ing down into, and the departure out of, Egypt. "For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.” This is only one of many instances, from which it appears, that when nations have attained a certain pitch of wickedness, the long-suffering of God endures with them no longer, but they are cut off from the earth. National calamities are God's judgments for national sins. "Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord: shall not my soul be ayenged on such a people as this?" Individuals may be punished in another world, but this not being possible in the case of nations, they are often visited for their transgressions in this."Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.' Verse 17. "A smoking furnace. An emblem of the cruel oppression of the Israelites in Egypt. "I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace," says God, by the prophet Jeremiah. A burning lamp," a token of the presence of God, passed between those pieces, thus confirming the covenant.

Verse 18. "In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram," the covenant which we have just been considering, to give to him, in his seed, the land of Canaan.

Verse 19-21. The land of Canaan was at this time inhabited by the ten nations mentioned in these verses; but when the Israelites took possession of it, other three of these nations had been destroyed, and their memorial perished with them, or they had become incorporated with the others, for only seven are then mentioned. Deut. vii. 1.

Chap. XVI. Verse 1, 2. In this chapter we have the first instance of the practice of polygamy, (or the having more than one wife at the same time,) by a servant of God. The practice appears to be a violation of the original institution of God respecting the married state, for "God at the beginning made them male and female;" that is, one woman to one man: but it was not expressly forbidden till the coming of Christ, by whom the will of God, in this particular, was fully made known. We find, however, that the practice generally produced unhappiness, jealousy, and discord.

Verse 3, Observe, it was now more than ten years since the first promise of an innumerable posterity had been given to Abram. He had dwelt ten years in Canaan, and he had lived some time in Haran with his father, after he left Ur of the Chaldees, pursuant to the calling of God.

Verse 5, 6. 66 Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them." "Giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered." How beautifully does the conduct of Abram, on this occasion, exhibit the tenderness and forbearance inculcated in these precepts. Instead of replying with sharpness or passion to the petulant and hasty reproach of Sarai, charging upon him the improper conduct of Hagar, in despising her mistress, he mildly answers her, in a manner which proves that Hagar's disrespect was neither encouraged nor sanctioned by him; "Behold thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee.