There is a strain of music soft and low; How graceful is the feathery spray of the light and feathery BIRCH (betula alba), whose silvery stem glints so cheerfully among the darker trunks of her sylvan sisters. The tree is, like the beech, fit for making tablets its bark, tenaceous, though flexible, is easily split into lamina; and was, therefore, used by the Romans for writing upon. Pliny says that books of philosophy and religion, written upon birch bark, were discovered in full preservation in the tomb of Numa Pompilius, four hundred years after his death. Branches of the birch wreathed the fasces carried by the Roman lictors before their rulers. The sap of the birch tree, drawn by skilful incisions, boiled, sweetened, and fermented, makes a pleasant wine. Formerly it was accounted amongst the necessary accomplishments of a country parson's wife, that she should be able to "carve and make birch wine." When the Russians besieged Hamburg, in 1814, they destroyed all the birch-trees in the neighbourhood, by draining off the sap in a rough manner, to make a be feelings on the trunk of the birch. Let us, then, carve upon it an oldworld song of love : THE LOVER'S LAY. FROM THE SPANISH. ("Contentamientos de Amor, Que tan cansados llegays," &c.) Sweet joys, sweet hopes, the balm of Love, Long, long desir'd ye come at last Those guests, though pleasant, I condemn, To leave me deeper woe. "By that lake whose gloomy shore was informed of the invalid's case, and immediately caused a kind of yellow apple to grow on a willow; of these the sick man ate, and recovered. In memory of this circumstance, a certain kind of willow is said to bear a yellow fruit, called "St. Kevin's Apples," much esteemed for medicinal virtues, but not for good flavour. This willow we supposed to be the round-leaved willow, or salix caprea, whose catkins are ovate, and of a bright yellow. A still more curious story of a willow is told by Irish shannachies. A king * St. Kevin, born at the end of the fifth century, of a noble family in the country of the O'Tooles, founded a Monastery at Glendalough, about the middle of the sixth century. of Leinster, named Mayne, but popu larly called Lowra Longseach, had ears like a horse. To conceal his deformity from the knowledge of his subjects, he allowed himself to be shaved and shorn but once a-year, and then put the barber to death. Happening, however, at one time to employ the only child of a poor widow, he was prevailed on, by her tears and entreaties, to let her son live, but he bound the young man by a solemn oath never to reveal the king's secret to any human being. The poor barber was so much oppressed by the weight of the royal mystery, that he fell dangerously ill; and his mother brought a celebrated Druid to see him. The sage perceived that it was the burden of something undisclosed which affected him, and he advised the invalid to go to a place where cross-roads met, then turn to the nearest tree on his right hand, salute it, and whisper the secret to it. The barber did as he was desired; and the tree, which he made his confidant, happened to be a large willow, from whose shade he returned home restored to perfect health. It happened that Craftiny, the royal harper, broke his harp, and going in search of wood to make another, chanced upon the barber's willow, cut it down, made his instrument, and took it to play, as usual, at court. But strike the strings how he would, instead of the music he intended to produce, they distinctly uttered the words "King Lowra Longseach has the ears of a horse." The monarch, finding his secret thus miraculously made public, repented of the victims he had sacrificed to it, and no longer attempted to conceal his blemish. The resemblance of this legend to the classical fable of King Midas, with the ears of an ass, whose barber revealed the secret to tell-tale reeds, is striking. The latter is, we presume, the origin of the former. The osier-work of the Britons, taken prisoners by the Romans, was much admired at Rome, where they introduced, with their work, the word buscaud, a basket (in Irish, bascaeid). We read in Martial "Barbara depictis veni bascauda Britannis; The willow, from its drooping appearance, and the pensive rustling of its leaves, has been made the emblem 'Tis summer, and the birds are gay, Look forward upon yonder knoll to our right, that heap of prostrate ruins, sad relics of an ancient castle, now overgrown with grass and wild flowers, peeps picturesquely through the close bushes that grow around it. How surely wherever there is a ruin, baronial, ecclesiastic, or domestic, we find the strong-scented, dusky ELDER, with the large bunches of its white flowers, or its black shining berries. Perhaps it is on account of its predilection for ruins, which the peasants believe to be haunted at night, that this tree derives its reputation of being particularly connected with the elves and fairies. It is strongly narcotic, and to sleep under its shade is hurtful to some constitutions. This quality, acting upon excitable temperaments, sometimes occasions wild dreams, which the rustic sleeper has taken to be actual transactions with "the Good People." The name "Elder" seems to have some affinity with "Elle," a Scandinavian word, signifying a supernatural being of the elfin order. The Danish country folk believe that this tree is the abode of "Hyldemoer"-i.e., the elder mother and her attendant sprites, and that it is unlucky to cut it down, or to have any articles made of its wood without asking permission of "Hyldemoer.' There is a strange tradition that the tree on which Judas Iscariot hanged himself was an elder; hence it was accounted a great disgrace to be crowned with its leaves. The Latin name of the elder, sambucus is derived from the Greek sambuka, a musical instrument made of the hollow wood of the tree. There is a kindred word in Hebrew, sabcha, generally rendered sackbut, which seems to have been a kind of triangular lyre. The DWARF ELDER (sambucus ebulus) differs from the elder tree in being herbaceous, its stems dying down to the ground every year, and then shooting up anew; in having a creeping root, narrower leaves, and the flowers having a stronger scent, and a deeper purplish shade than those of the tree; it is also a month later in blossoming. Old English tradition says that it sprung up originally from the Danes when they were massacred in England, in 1002, during the reign of Ethelred; hence it is called in many places, Danewort. It has the same properties as the elder tree, and often grows in churchyards beside old dilapidated tombs. We will append to the ruin-loving elder a suitable strain, with which we will take our leave of the forest trees. THE RUIN. M. E. M. Relic of an age long since grown hoary, Stately tower! a wasted ruin now, Ah! how chang'd from all thy pristine glory, Tempest-shatter'd, lone and sad art thou. Yet upon the rent and darken'd masses, Life, and grace, and beauty meet the eye; Moss and ivy, blossoms wild, and grasses, And the wall-flower breathing sweets on high. Ah! how blest those boons of kind creation Springing up the mournful wrecks to hide; Giving e'en a charm to desolation, Fair meek things that reck not aught of pride. Lovely thus 'mid wrecks of human sorrow Springs each spirit-influence, bright and pure; Hope that looks beyond this world's to-morrow, Meekness, Patience cheerful to endure. Trustful Energy, and willing Duty, Aspirations that like incense riseThese to darkest griefs lend grace and beauty, And to fragrance turn the mourner's sighs. M. E. M. POSTSCRIPT OF A LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF THE DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE, OUR ALLIES, THE AUSTRIANS. WRITING, as I do, upwards of a thousand miles away, ere this reach you the question involved in Sir Bulwer Lytton's motion will have been answered, and the House of Commons have decided upon one of the grossest recorded cases of political dishonesty. We have indeed fallen upon days of defeat and disaster! The prestige that once animated us and nerved our courage through many an adverse struggle, seems at length to have abandoned us, and in the falseheartedness of our statesmen are we now to detect the signs of an approaching decline! There probably never was a war for which more valid reasons existed, which could be argued upon so many convincing grounds of necessity and good policy; and yet there probably never was one engaged in with such reluctance and lukewarmness-so little energy in the outset, so little zeal in the progress, while at the same time every high ground of principle, every great and inspiriting suggestion which had originated the struggle were one by one abandoned. Indeed the state of the public mind as to the cause of this great contest became confused and distracted their convictions trifled with, their hopes abased, till our people became, like our brave army, the gross victims of every discord and mismanagement, without guidance, without counsel, and without support. This was no war of a "succession;" it was not a dynastic struggle as to what branch of a royal house should inherit a throne and a sceptre; it was not even a contest in which two adverse opinions are the litigants, and a question of national prejudice was at issue; it was, and it is, essentially a war of Despotism versus Liberty-a struggle between the brute force of barbarism and the energy of civilised nations; and consequently on this ground it was, of all others, the most eminently popular war that ever England engaged in. Has our Ministry taken advantage of this fact? have they profited by the high ground thus in their possession? have they replied to the opponents of this struggle by displaying the extent of its proportions, the vastness of its interests? or have they narrowed the whole question to its very meanest and most insigni. cant bases marking, even by the terms of accommodation they are willing to accept of, how small are the objects at issue, how ignoble is the whole cause in dispute? The terrible sufferings of our gallant soldiers, the noble martyrdom of the bravest army we ever sent forth from England, have served to turn our attention away from the field of discord and misconduct nearer home; but now that we are more at leisure for the inquiry, let us see if the mistakes of Downing-street were not the equal of those at Balaclava, and the folly and incompetence of our statesmen more ruinous and destructive than the roadless camp and the chaotic harbour! From the very commencement the course was a wrong one. Our war with Russia was eminently the cause of a great principle — a principle dear to every nation which loves civilisation-to every people who cultivate liberty. Was this, then, the way in which we proclaimed our contest? were these the grounds on which we asserted we should take our stand? were these the arguments by which we sought to gain allies to our side? If so, how came it that our first appeal was to Austria? Is Austria the enemy of the principles asserted by the Czar? Is she, has she ever been, the foe of despotism? In which of her institutions do we see the germ of civil liberty? In what state of her vast dominions have we an evidence of her love of freedom? What guarantees for her enlightenment do we detect in her government of Hungary? How many arguments in favour of her rule does Lombardy offer? If we dread, as we say we dread, the incursion of the Cossack, is it to Austrian sympathy we should have betaken ourself for aid? Are the events of the year '48 so remote as to be forgotten? Have we no memory of the fact that it was VOL. XLVI.-NO. CCLXXII. 8 to Russia Austria herself appealed to suppress the rising spirit of Hungarian freedom, and to crush the cause of that very constitution on which we assume to found all that we prize in government? But our intercourse with Austria of late years was quite sufficient not alone to instruct us as to her policy, but to inform us of the measure of respect and esteem which she accorded to our country. The degree of deference she vouchsafed to our representative during the war in Lombardy, the value she placed upon the counsels of our Government, are matters of record, while there are others not recorded, but remembered, as significant and as meaning. Sir D. Ralph Abercromby, our then Minister at Turin, can bear witness as to the insulting demonstration he met with when he visited the head-quarters of Marshal Radetzki-an insult which never could have been perpetrated save by the connivance of those in command. But let us turn from these signs of the times, and simply return to the fact-was it from Austria we could hope for a sincere and faithful alliance? In the name of what principle did we, at one and the same time, invoke aid from Austria and from Piedmont ? What arguments that met acceptance at Turin were heard with satisfaction and pleasure at Vienna? Or was it that we urged right in one capital-expediency in the other; justice here-necessity there? Be it so; we did not dare to suggest to Count Buol that we felt the cause of liberty in peril that the great question of human progress was in the issue. We never whispered our dread of Cossack barbarism; we simply insinuated the possibility, that Russia in the provinces might prove an uncomfortable neighbour, and that the interrupted navigation of the Danube might interfere with Austrian commerce-that is, to Piedmont we preached the cause of mankind and liberty; to Austria we talked of trade and the security of a frontier. Diplomacy, doubtless, knows how to vindicate its own etymology; and Lord Westmoreland held very different language from Mr. Hudson. It is not for me to say what I think of such a policy; perhaps statecraft admits of recourses that ordinary dealings would repudiate, and men of honour reject. I am unskilled in the science of those "cases of conscience," which envoys and special ministers are called upon to resolve. This much, however, I know, that the policy was as weak as it was dishonest-as short-sighted as it was unworthy. On grounds of principle, we ought not ever to have appealed to Austria; on grounds of expediency, we need not have done so. For reasons that involve her very existence as an empire, she never could be with us in this struggle; for reasons as powerfully cogent, she never dare be against us. the ally of the West, she exposes herself, by an open and assailable frontier, to the attack of a most powerful enemy, beyond all reach of aid and all hope of succour. The war, too, from that moment, would change its venue, and the legions destined for the capture of Constantinople would be marching on Vienna. As little could she risk an alliance with Russia;-all Hungary in insurrectionthe whole of northern Italy in revolt, would demand every bayonet and every sabre she could summon to oppose them. As There is no need of any suggestion on our part to effect these movements they follow, as certain and inevitable consequences. Our mockery of an Austrian alliance has indeed retarded this complication, and weaned from us the sympathy of those who, in the outset of this contest, hoped that the cause of universal liberty was at issue. Nor was there any necessity why we should, as some have recommended, evoke the slumbering nationality of Poland, or call to our banners the disaffected of every land of Europe. No; our case stood not in need of such allies; and it has been entirely our own fault if we have not the aid of the whole liberal feeling of Europe. The whole of our negotiation with Austria has been, then, a gross blunder! By no imaginable course of events could we have derived any profit from such aid as she would afford us; and by the line she has adopted we have incurred every injury it was in her power to inflict nor are these light injuries. By the strategy of her military commanders, Russia has been left entirely free to reinforce her troops in the Crimea. By her occupation of the provinces, as a neutral power, Russia has been spared the necessity of employing a large garrison to hold them, or the moral loss consequent upon the evacuation; while, by the tone of her diplomacy, Austria has contrived to narrow down the |