ample branches, offering repose and protection | these wretches, which we will not sully our pafrom the storms of persecution, to every nation ges by repeating. It was settled that the active and people under heaven. She shall be the bul- patriot, whose sagacity had so often thwarted wark of civil and religious freedom. Liberty the counsels of the refugee, should be despatched shall receive a new impulse from our success by the same death which removed his wife but a resurrection from the dead, and lighting her little more than a year before, and Wilson, Jutorch at our altars, shall kindle up a kindred das-like, received the price of innocent blood. fire among the slumbering and degraded people of our father land."

From that time, the name of Alfred Wade was coupled with all that was valiant and magnanimous; while he and his excellent preceptor, each in their different sphere, had but one object in view-the rescue of their country from tyranny and thraldom. Mr. Caldwell's children were placed under the protection of an aunt, in the interior of the country, where the horrors of war were known but from report, and where their mother had often been solicited to take refuge; but who, in the devotion of her soul to her husband, had refused the offer.

It was a dreary night on the 23d of November, 1781, that two persons were discovered in a temporary shed, erected for a sentry box, at Elizabethtown Point, two miles from the village. The one was a sulky, dogged-looking man, of short stature, who sat with his hat drawn over his eyes, as if to conceal their expression, near a rough table, on which burned a feeble light. The other, who stood beside him, carried in his dress and manner, an air of assumed smartness, while his face bore deep traces of hardened and determined villany. He was a dark hearted refugee, who thirsted for the patriots' blood, and who held in his hand a well filled purse, the fruits of treachery.

"Let your eye glance on this, my good fellow," said he, holding it near the face of the other, "pure British gold-freely given for a trifling

service."

"Aye, aye, the gold is well enough, but there's the price you'd make me pay for it."

"The price," rejoined the first speaker, with a laugh, the price of your soul you mean, I suppose, but hark ye, Wilson, a rascal like you should have got past all that."

"Rascal as I am, Holmes, remember that it was you and the like of you, that made me so, and now that you've got me in your power, you expect me to commit every deed that's black and evil, for your convenience."

"Yes, we have you in our power, sure enough," said Holmes, "and 'tis vain to think of resisting now, so remember, that if you take true aim your fortune's made, but, if not, you know the consequence."

"But how do you know he will certainly be down to-morrow?" said Wilson after a pause, during which he was eyed by Holmes, with all the passions of the infernal regions working in his face.

A horrible oath burst from the refugee as he answered, "How do I know? That's no business of yours-it is enough for you to do what I bid you. He will be down, I tell you, after that Miss Franklin, who comes from New York to-morrow with a flag of truce. I hate her next to him, and wish you could settle matters with both at the same time."

More conversation of this kind passed between

It was indeed true, as Holmes had by some means ascertained, that Miss Franklin, the beloved friend of Mr. Caldwell, was on the ensuing day to come over to Elizabethtown Point, and that Mr. Caldwell was there to meet and conduct her to the village. She was one of those females who, as Gordon in his History of the revolution, remarks, "Shewed amazing fortitude and the strongest attachment to the cause of their country-who even visited prison-ships, and other places of confinement, to solace their suffering countrymen."

One of those bright examples, of which Ameri-
ca at that time furnished many, who aroused by
the distressed situation of their country,
-" Put on

Courage and faith, and generous constancy,
Even as a breast-plate, and went serenely forth
Binding the warrior's wounds, and bearing fresh,
Cool draughts to feverish lips."

To our prisoners in New York she had been indeed an angel of mercy. Many a wounded soldier had died blessing the gentle hand that alleviated his sufferings, and even shrunk not from beside his miserable bed during the awful struggles of dissolving nature.

The day that the murderous act was to be perpetrated, is said to have been ushered in by sad and mournful omens. It was with ancestors of the writer that Mr. Caldwell spent the previous night, and the lady awoke her husband at daylight, with the account of a dark and fearful dream that had disturbed her repose. It was all indistinct, but there were troubled faces, and wailings of blood; and so deep was the impression made on her mind by it, that she arose from her bed and called up her household, who heard her dream related with all that superstitious awe which troubled times engender.* At breakfast it was repeated to Mr. Caldwell, who remarked, "It was singular that his dream should have been of such a different nature, for they were of angelfaces and celestial songs, which soothed his spirit into a frame it had not known during the last sad year."

At noon he left the village, on such a day as our November often produces. The storm of the preceding night had ceased-a dead and silent heaviness loaded the air, pressing upon the spirits with an unnatural weight, while masses of dark clouds obscured the sky and cast a melancholy shadow over the landscape. When Mr. Caldwell reached the Point, he found Miss Franklin already arrived, and after placing her in his carriage, returned for her trunk. The eye of the murderer was upon his victim; as Mr. Caldwell stooped to raise the trunk, Wilson exclaiming, as a veil for his meditated treachery, “you have contraband goods there”—levelled his

*The dream of the lady, and its effects upon her mind occurred exactly as related.

musket and fired. The ball was true; it entered | kind, and were often cited by the good people of his side near to the heart, and his blood gushed Elizabeth, as examples of providential care. forth, bathing the ground where he fell, and bear- Their descendants are among some of the most ing testimony against the traitor. The alarm respected families in New Jersey, and they will was given, and a small party of Americans being bear me witness that the leading facts in this near, Wilson was arrested without a struggle, simple narrative are literally true. appearing petrified with horror at the murderous Peace to thine ashes, thou martyr in a holy act he had committed. Life was not yet extinct, cause! Thy name shall be embalmed in our and Mr. Caldwell was raised from the ground, hearts, while the remembrance of thy wrongs carried in a litter to the village, and placed in and sufferings, shall teach us more highly to the house of one of his parishioners. A surgeon value the blessings we enjoy, and more gratefulwas sent for who, after inspecting his wound, pro-ly to bless the hand which bestows them. nounced it a mortal one; and it soon became evident that the shadows of the eternal world were fast gathering around the dying man:

"The angel of the Covenant

Had come, and faithful to his promise. stood Prepared to walk with him through death's dark vale." His work was done-he was about to throw off the load which others had yet to sustain. That high heart would soon cease to beat, and those eloquent lips be sealed in death.-He begged to be raised, and like the last notes of the dying bird so often told in song, his parting exhortation was more impressive than any preceding one.

We have said the day was gloomy, but at its close the clouds were suddenly dispersed, and a flood of glory from the setting sun, poured itself through the window, illuminating every object in the room and casting a halo around the expiring patriot.

I die, but God shall be with you," said he, 66 see you not this token of deliverance? Even so shall the Sun of Liberty burst forth from the clouds which obscure it, and my country shall rejoice in its beams. Farewell! carry my blessing and forgiveness to him who thirsted for my blood; and now I yield me into thy hands oh, thou Redeemer of sinners! my hope and my salvation!" His voice failed. Calm on the bosom of his God his soul had sunk to rest, and those who beheld that parting smile, that look of love and peace, learned that death was not that appalling thing it had before appeared.

Deep, deep was the wound made by his loss in the hearts of all who had known him. The house was crowded night and day by those who would gaze once more upon that face and form so venerated and beloved, and when the hour came to consign the body to its narrow house, it was not alone a family, but a town, a state, a country, mingling their lamentations and raising their united voices, crying, "Alas! alas! my father! the chariots of Israel, and the horsemen thereof."

He sleeps in the village church yard of Elizabeth, beside the wife of his youth. Sacred and holy spot! how often have I sat upon the dark and mossy stone which covers their grave, and wept their cruel fate-a fate so singular, that if it were not a well attested historical fact, one would scarcely believe it any thing more than a fiction of the imagination. The God who has said that "the seed of the righteous shall not be forsaken," remembered the orphans when he took their parents. After the war terminated Helen became the wife of the noble Alfred.The benevolent Lafayette adopted the eldest son and educated him with parental care, while the other children formed connexions of the happiest

Written for the Casket.

THE SAXON'S DIRGE. "The Saxons worshipped Woden, whom they believed to be the ancestor of their princes, and the god of war: they fancied if they obtained the favour of this divinity. by their valour, they should be admitted after death, into his hall; and should satiate themselves with wine from the skulls of their enemies."

From the spirit land, the spirit land,

A solemn voice I hear,
By its warning tone, the icy hand

Of death, I know is near.
My martial brethren soon will sigh.
Dim is the warrior's flashing eye,

Prepare him for the bier.

I sorrow not to leave the earth
By spring in pomp array'd,
The cottage with the parent hearth,
The glen, and wild-wood shade.
Where oft in childhood's glowing hours.
In search of butterflies and flowers,
With gleeful heart I stray'd.
Though dying in the morn of life,
I wear the laurel wreath,
For often in the field of strife,

I dared the stroke of death.
The foe will long remember me,
And glorious my reward will be,

When I resign my breath.
From the dark bosom of the grave,
Some spirit will me call,
To dwell forever with the brave,

In Woden's golden hall!
The goblet fashioned from the skull,
Of rosy nectar always full,

Will grace the festival.

The warrior's cye doth ever there
New scenes of bliss behold,
And warbling birds of plumage rare,

Their starry wings unfold.
The gentle zephyr ever brings
Rich music from the breathing strings
Of shining harps of gold.

When I am dead, my friends rejoice,

From childish tears refrain,
For soon from Woden's hall, a voice

Will rend death's icy chain.
And I shall live in endless bliss,
And never in a world like this
Be subject unto pain.

AVON BARD.

PERIODICAL LITERATURE.

From the Saturday Evening Post. Periodical Literature. Probably at no previous time has there been so many good periodicals projected and in existence, as at the present time; the whole country is filled with prospectuses, and the public is somewhat puzzled to decide which or what to take, where the field is so ample. For ourselves, we are glad to see this acces sion of co-laborers in the field. Periodical literature has assumed a new stamp within a few years; it has risen in character most surprisingly; that it has arrived at its ultimatum of excellence, we do not believe, though it may have now come to a point which will not be exceeded for some years.

Our cotemporary of the National Gazette, for whose opinions in the main we entertain respect, ventured the other day to lay his veto upon the plan proposed in Boston, of republishing Blackwood and the New Monthly Magazines, giving it as his dictum, that native productions should have the preference, and be exclusively patronized. Now this is all wrong, and the American people have too much good sense to adopt any such system. They already, we are told, import English periodicals to an amount exceeding $12,000, and the trade has of late increased. Why should not our own publishers, printers, and paper-makers, be benefitted when they can, as in the instance we shall presently mention, furnish the same matter at half the foreign price, and make a profit too.

163

journals. In them they acquire their popularity,
through them they attack the ministry, and by them
they defend it when they have got it into their
own hands. In no other part of the world, is the
combat between the government and journalism so
fairly engaged; for where else is the Press so com-
pletely the representative of the whole society?
"The power of journalism is acknowledged on all
hands to be enormous in France, but it is not proved
that it is less in England. Newspapers are everywhere
a necessary of life; multitudes of men cannot break-
fast without them; after breakfast, other multitudes of
men resort to the club and reading-rooms for their pe-
rusal, with an appetite not exceeded by that with
which the hard-working man seeks his dinner. Num-
bers of persons, both of fortune and supposed educa-
tion, converse solely by and from the newspapers; and
the fact of a barren journal, often assumes to individu-
als so situated, the shape of a serious misfortune. It
has even been said, that suicides have been committed
from a constant repetition of the announcement that
nothing new had occurred; in other words, that the
strument which administers to the supply of an appe-
newspapers of the day were barren. And yet the in-
tite so craving, is despised as an authority; the source
is hardly acknowledged, or with a sneer; the influence
is denied; and the very individual whose whole
thoughts have been moulded and directed by that
morning's newspaper, would utterly deny the source
of his inspiration. The majority of men are absolutely
led by the journals, yet the majority deny their authon.

"The present character of the French press, is ow. ing both to its history, and to the conditions under which the journals appear.

It is wrong to endeavor to forestall the market with our own periodicals, unless they are good as the foreign, and supply of themselves all our wants. Letty and are ashamed of their teachers. Why is this? the best, and those most adapted to our wants, have a chance at least of succeeding, and our own, if they are not as good and as cheap, sink into oblivion. Es tablish free trade in literature at least, that we may "Before the Revolution, Paris had but two daily have the advantages which always result from com- political journals, the Gazette de France and the Jourpetition in the manufacture of the domestic article.-nal de Paris. On the breaking out of that event, nuIf truth is elicited--if useful measures are urged-if merous sheets of all kinds were published, and though sound taste in literature is enforced-or if information often summarily dealt with, continued till Bonaparte of a valuable kind is imparted, let us have it all. Cheap- assumed the reins of government. Bonaparte had an ness is now the watchword, and one effect of compe- exaggerated idea of the importance of the Press, and tition has already been to reduce prices more than one he resolved upon subduing the power to his own purhalf. Every man in the country can now afford to poses. With this view he enslaved on one hand, while have his newspaper. He actually gets more by three he dignified it on the other; he seized the property of times for his money, than he did formerly, and further every newspaper, and in different ways disposed of the competition will result in his getting it twice as good; old proprietors and editors. M. Bellmare, for instance, but this is not to be brought about by any system of he sent as prefect of police to Antwerp, and poor M. exclusion. The dissemination of journals of all kinds, Suard, the well-known academician, to a lunatic asywill bring out the talent of the country, which, but for lum at Clarenton, with an annuity of thirty pounds them, would have lain dormant. We must not indulge per annum. Every newspaper received a new responfurther on this topic to-day. We have a word to say sible editor appointed by the government: and thus the on the project of Mr. Condy Raguet, which has just Press was wholly laid at the feet of the executive. On been put in effect by the republication of the West- the other hand Bonaparte declared the non-existence minster and Foreign Quarterly Reviews, two of the of a censorship in France, (for every paper had its own best quarterly journals of London. These works censor,) and he appointed a bureau de l'opinion pub would cost, to import, at least six dollars each. Mr. lique. The members of this bureau were upwards of Raguet reprints them both for five dollars, where they half a dozen of the most ingenious and popular wrigo to the same address, or separately for three dollars. ters in France. Their duty was to contribute to the Here is cheapness and excellence combined; they are various newspapers, such articles as would conciliate valuable to all who cannot procure books entire, and public opinion, that is to say, recommend the meato the literary will become indispensable. The West- sures and maxims of the government of the Emperor. minster, just printed, is uncommonly rich in valuable The Press was thus bound hand and foot, but then its articles; one on "Journalism," strikes us as particu- chains were gilded. It was in fact raised to be one of larly excellent. The writer in his arguments on the departments of state, and though its power was the grounds, that to be connected with a newspaper limited and its beneficence poisoned, its apparent conin England is discreditable, proceeds, sequence-its status among professions-was greatly raised; it in short became honorable according to the vulgar notions of honor, and though it was a slave, it was a titled slave, and not at all more slavish than the senate or council of five hundred, the bar or the church. The Press, thus, was increased in dignity by the im portance attached to it by a powerful and sagacious ruler, while it was excluded from the exercise of its natural prerogative. If the principle of the represen

"In France on the contrary, to be a journalist, is to be a person of note; to be an editor, is to be a person of accredited power; the title of a journalist, implies education, character, and perhaps disinterested enthusiasm; at any rate, in public opinion, a union of respectable qualities.

'In France,' says the writer on 'Journalism,' 'all political men, all the chiefs of parties, write in the

THE ROYAL CLARENCE VASE-KING JOAM OF PORTUGAL.

THE ROYAL CLARENCE VASE,

165

jailor was convicted and condemned; but he experienced the royal mercy in consequence of his ingenuity. A woman one day fell on her knees to obtain pardon for her condemned husband: 'Your husband is guilty,' replied Joam, and if I pardon him, he will only commit the more crimes; however, as you are in trouble, he may be enlarged!' Being once struck with the courage of a man in a bull fight, he demanded, 'Who are you?' 'I am a criminal, who have fled from justice: I killed a person who insulted me!' 'Corregidor,' said the king, 'purge this man of his crime; he shall be employed in my service!' One of his nobles had a sister who suffered herself to be dishonoured by a gallant; the brother slew the gallant, and fled to Arsilla. Joam no sooner knew the circumstance, than he wrote to the governor, whom he ordered to treat the fugitive well, as one who had shewn a proper sense of honour. These instances, however, were but exceptions to his general justice, which was characterised by undue severity. In other respects his whimsical disposition exhibited itself in a harmless or even amiable manner. He placed little value on the recommendations of his nobles; and a favour solicited through their medium was almost sure to be denied. But he was fond of honouring and rewardOf which the above engraving is a correct representation, is exhibited in the Queen's Ba- ing merit, especially when, as is generally the zaar, London, and is one of the most magnificent case, that merit was dumb. To a faithful and valient knight he one day observed: 'You have hands specimens of art ever exhibited. It was manufactured at the express desire of his late Majes- to serve me; have you no tongue to request a ty, George IV., to whom a model was submit- recompense?' Being at dinner he was once servted in 1828. Its manufacture occupied three ed among others by Don Pedro de Melo, a knight years and a half, and fifteen workmen were Africa. The soldier, who was better fitted for of great prowess, who had usefully served him in constantly employed on it during the whole time. It is of the purest Grecian form, magnificently handling the sword than a dish in the palace of ornamented with gold and the finest enamelled princes, let fall a large vessel of water, which tints, and is composed of most elaborately cut sprinkled some of the courtiers, and made othflint glass. The interior represents vine branches, king: Don Pedro has dropped a vessel of waers laugh. Why do you laugh?' inquired the beautifully arranged, and is best seen by day- ter, but he never dropped his lance!' Another light-the exterior, by gas-light. The room is brave soldier, Azambuja, who had erected the elegantly fitted up and is lighted by fifteen lamps. At pleasure, the whole Vase can be il-fortress in Guinea, and received a wound in the luminated, when the effect is dazzling and gor- foot which made him lame for life, being one day geous in the extreme, having the appearance of at court, unable to push through the crowd, gold enriched with jewels. The weight is eight tons; the height, including the pedestal, fourteen feet; the diameter of the basin, twelve feet; its capacity, equal to nine hundred gallons, or five thousand four hundred bottles of wine! It is composed of two thousand four hundred pieces, and so carefully fitted as to appear as a whole. When joined together, it is quite water-tight, and will contain, without injury, nine hundred gallons of molten lead! Its value is estimated at ten thousand guineas.

was ridiculed by some of the worthless audience. Joam perceived the affront, advanced towards the veteran, whom he seated by his side, and to whom he observed, 'Let them smile; they shall soon have reason to envy your honorable wound.' To a third officer, who, on arriving at court, could not obtain a hotel, he said, 'Be not uneasy that every lodging is occupied my palace shall suffice you.' He had borrowed money of a rich merchant at Tavira, to whom, at the expiration of the stipulated period, he returned it with legal interest. The merchant-a wonderful instance of disinterestedness in such

ANECDOTES OF KING JOAM OF PORTUGAL.-a capacity-refused to receive more than the "A criminal after 14 years' imprisonment was condemned to death,-probably because he had not money enough to purchase pardon from his judges, who had, however, accepted of some. The king pardoned the criminal, on account of the long confinement and the corruption of the judges, and threatened them with the same fate if the offence were repeated. A jailor persuaded another prisoner to counterfeit death, and thereby to escape the capital punishment: the

principal; Joam sent double interest, with the order to continue doubling it as often as the merchant should persist in the refusal. In one of his public edicts, with the view of recruiting his cavalry, he ordered all his subjects to be in readiness to furnish excellent war horses. The churchmen pleaded their immunities, and some of them went so far as to say that they were not his subjects, but those of the pope. To punish them in the way they deserved, Joam loudly as