dramatic rant! It is full of "sound and fury, ciphering, through the shadow, the inscription signifying nothing!" and device. All the words were LAIRD. It is often been a marvel to me how it comes to pass that so sma' a per centage o' the novels published in the model republic, are worth mair than the price o' the paper on which they are printed. LITTLE JANE. Two words, but it seemed to us full of the simple, unaffected eloquence of the stricken heart. Do they conjure up a little vision of a blueeyed, black-eyed treasure-somebody's treasurethat took hearts away with her when she went? And are there not an empty cradle and a vacant chair, and a tiny frock, and a pair of little shoes in the years to come, when the mother, with a laid away somewhere in a till or drawer? And smile in her eye, and a song on her lip, shall open that drawer or that till, and see the little garment MAJOR. Various reasons might be given to account for a state of things which is undeniable, but in my opinion the leading cause is to be found in the host of magazines and newspapers which prevail in Dollardom. LAIRD. I canna' say that I precisely compre-lying there, how will the eye grow dim and the hend you. MAJOR.-My meaning, I opine, is pretty obvious. The demands made upon the brains of literary men, by the aforesaid periodicals, leave them but little time to construct stores of ambitious dimensions. Besides novel writing is a far more uncertain trade than journalism. Except in the case of "big bugs," who have acquired a "marketable name," booksellers usually decline to give a specific sum in name of copy right, preferring to deal with authors on the sharing system. Thus it may chance that the poor fellow, who, for six months has been slaving and toiling at a romance, will find that a Lenten "O," denotes the utmost of his gains! In journalism, on the other hand, the writer's remuneration is not dependent upon any such contingency. He receives the price of his lucre-bration all the same whether the public relish or turn up their noses thereat. LAIRD.-I begin to understand. MAJOR.-The rule which I have been enunciating, holds good in the old country, as well as in the land which boasts of "the peculiar institution." Almost every thing in the shape of readable fiction which Great Britain has produced during the last dozen years, appeared first in serial form. In proof of this assertion I need only cite the names of Bulwer, Dickens, Lever, Thackeray, aud Warren, who have all adopted the principle of "short rations, and quick returns." DOCTOR.-A great amount of valuable mental material is now expended upon the newspapers of the United States. Look, for instance, at the New York Tribune. Hardly a week elapses which does not witness in the columns of that sheet, one or more articles worthy of preservation in a volume of "elegant extracts." Take the following as a sample LITTLE JANE. Tarrying a moment at the Jersey ferry, we saw & little slab of marble leaning up in a corner, and whiled away the time till the boat's return in de song be hushed, as she remembers the wearer that has triumphed over time, and through all the changeful years has remained a child still, and never grown old at all. the only bud detached from the parent stem was Over the words a rose tree was sculptured, and -what do you think? Falling earthwards? Oh, by no means-drifting heavenward in some gentle breath the sculptor could not catch. It seemed to us a beautiful expression of a beautiful thought. DOCTOR.-Has anything worthy of special note in the novel department recently issued from the London press? LAIRD. In my humble opinion, Merkland; or Self-Sacrifice, by the authoress of Passages in the Life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland, is ane o' the maist natural and life-like stories o' its class which has appeared since the days o' my auld freend and crony, John Galt. MAJOR-I have looked into the affair, and must admit that is passable. LAIRD.We are getting condescending, it would appear, in our auld age! Passable, indeed! it's mair than passable, by many a long degree and that ye wad doubtless admit, if it wasna for your rank Prelacy! I ken weel whaur the shoe pinches your corny tae! It's because Presbyterianism is lauded in Merkland that ye are sae costive o' your commendation! MAJOR. Far from it, my worthy ruling elder! You were never more off your eggs in all your life! With all my Prelacy-and I do not seek to deny the "soft impeachment"-I can cotton to genius whether it deals with a manse or a parsonage! Fully and frankly do I admit that Merkland abounds with clever pictures of Scottish still life, and that the dialogue (no small consi deration) is natural and characteristic; but LAIRD. I would hae sworn that there was a derogatory but at the bottom o' your meal pock! MAJOR. If you will permit me, I was going to observe that the plot is singularly clumsy and inartistic, and just what you would expect to meet on the boards of a minor theatre. Nothing would be more forced, I may almost say, impossible, than the manner in which "Mr. Patrick" contrives to escape, for so many years the consequences of the homicide which he had committed. Such coin might pass current with the shilling gallery patrons of Astley's, but amongst no other classes of her Majesty's snbjects. LAIRD.-Had Mr. Lumsden been ane o' your white-socked rectors, I'll be bound to say that your estimate o' the buik would hae been far mair favorable. MAJOR. To demonstrate the injustice of your hypotheses, I think that the character of that reverend gentleman is exceeding well drawn. He furnishes a favorable specimen of what is called the "evangelical" party in the Scottish establishment, and, in fact, he is one of the main redeeming features of a clever, but ill-digested story. DOCTOR. As our communing threatens to assume a polemical aspect, I beg leave to call a new aspect. destiny ever floated! Always when he deemed that he had surmounted the most rugged portion of "Hill Difficulty," the props upon which he depended gave way, and he was thrown back chafeing and writhing, but still determined to renew the struggle. LAIRD.-And what was the upshot ?" MAJOR.-Suicide! The sickness of hope deferred resolved itself into the cureless fever of settled despair, and the hand which had added so many glorious stones to the cairn of high art, and so often struck out against the winter tide of misfortune, broke the fretted "bowl" and loosed the care-worn "silver cord!" DOCTOR.- Like Hamlet, Haydon's moral imaginings were too strong for his physical resources. The acorn expanding burst the clay flower-pot which contained it! LAIRD.-Will ye favor us wi' an inkling o' the career o' this noble martyr to the arts? MAJOR.-Impossible, good Laird! You must read the volumes in order to form an estimate of the man, his aspersions, and disappointments. A mere abstract would give but as imperfect an idea of the epic-tragedy, as a few detached stones MAJOR.-Here is unquestionably the book of would do of the architecture of a stately palace! the season. LAIRD. That's a big word. MAJOR.-Yes; but a true one. The work to which I refer is Taylor's Life of Benjamin Robert Haydon, the greatest historical painter, in my humble opinion, England has produced during the last century. LAIRD.-Haydon!-Was that the lad that cuted "Christ's entry into Jerusalem ?" MAJOR.-The same. I LAIRD.-Man, but that was a grand thing! saw it in Glasgow mair than twenty years ago, and I hae never forgotten the surpassing dignity and, at the same time, life-like simplicity of the picture. LAIRD. At ony rate ye may gie us a few glimpses o' the man. MAJOR.-Here are the artist's reflections at the close of a year, when his sun, though frequently obscured, was not devoid of cloudless manifestations: "December 31st. The last day of the year exe-reflections do my journals contain! This year 1825. How many last days of years with sage has been one of mingled yarn-good and evil; but the good, as it generally does, preponderated. have to bless God for many great mercies in abuse of the press, a historical commission started deed. After being deprived of my bread by the up, gave me an opportunity again to burst forth, and saved us from ruin. I have finished it, and hope God will bless it with success. On it depends really my future subsistence, and my power to bring up my boys like gentlemen. I am now sitting in my parlour with Milton's Christian Doctrine before me, reading, and quietly awaiting the new year; in an hour it will be here. 1826! Shall I live to see 1856? Yes; by temperance, DOCTOR.-Has Taylor done justice to the theme? MAJOR. He has. Haydon left behind him a journal so copious and so continuous, as to form a regular autobiography, and with much good taste, the editor (for Mr. Taylor professes to be nothing more) has suffered the artist to tell, almost exclusively, his own tale. DOCTOR.-And a sad and dreary tale the story of that life must be! and piety, and keeping my mind tranquil, and pursuing my enchanting art. By God's blessing I shall; but not else. I think I may say I have conquered several evil feelings. I am more regu lar; not so rash or violent. I have subdued my hankering after polemical controversy; conduct myself more as if constantly in the eye of my MAJOR.-Most true! To my mind, the whole Maker. All this I attribute to the purity of feelrange of fiction presents nothing more tragic than ing generated by marriage. O God! for Thy the strange but bootless fight which this distin- infinite blessings throughout accept my deep gratitude. Pardon the many errors my dear Mary guished genius waged from first to last against and myself have been guilty of. We acknow the cross-sea of troubles in which the bark of his i ledge Thy goodness in humbleness and awe. Thou hast blessed us with another boy. Oh, give us life to protect him till he can protect himself; to educate him in Thy fear and love, and make him, with our other children, good, virtuous, and distinguished. Grant these things, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen, in awe." "I have tried the people, and was nobly supported. I have tried the ministers, and was coolly sympathized with. I have tried the Academy, and cruelly persecuted. But the people alone could do nothing. Time-time-time. "I do not despond, but I do not see how. I LAIRD.-Haydon must hae been a religious paths. I see no more the light that led astray. have lost my road, and am floundering in by man. MAJOR.-He was so, and, indeed, no one who had not been deeply impressed with the truth of divine revelation could have conceived or executed the works which he did. The scriptural subjects are full of pictorial devotion and artistic orthodoxy, if I may use such expressions. DOCTOR.-I Comprehend your meaning. There may be development of cant and mere sentimentalism upon canvas, as well as in the pulpit. MAJOR.-The chronicle gets mirker as we peruse it. There is something very affecting in the following entry:— "31st December. Another last day-so we go on and on. The sun rises and sets as he has ever done, while we rise and fall, die and become earth-are buried and forgotten. "For want of a vent, my mind feels like a steamboiler without a valve, boiling, struggling, and suppressing, or fear of injuring the interests of five children and a lovely wife. "Bitterly I have wanted and intensely I have enjoyed during this year. January and February Low and harassed. Hard work and harassed. Hard at work. April May June July Brighton and Petworth. Finished Alexander, and more harassed than ever. "Thus ends this year, and I am harassed to death for paltry debts. My Mary is well, and quite recovered: all the children are wonderfully better, and we have all passed a merry Christ mas. Last year I was not harassed in petty money matters, but sickness had seized the house. I have therefore to thank God sincerely for the mercy of my dear fmily's health, and hope He will grant me strength to conquer and bear up against my wants. O God, grant it! Grant me the means this ensuing year to diminish my debts. Grant me this time twelvemonth I may have deserved less pain of mind in that point, and may have it. O God, protect us, and grant us all that is best for our conduct here, and our salvation hereafter. Amen, "Alas! how unlike the endings of former years! No noble scheme animates and inspires It has sunk, and left me groping-hoping, but cheerless. "Still I pray I may not die till the Grand Style is felt and patronized. Amen, with all my soul." LAIRD. waes me! waes me! MAJOR-Like Bunyan, our painter "lighted upon a certain place where there was a den,"— in other words, got incarcerated in the King's Bench Prison. The prisoners got up a mock election, which Haydon thus describes: "In the midst of this dreadful scene of affliction, up sprung the masquerade election-a scene which, contrasted as it was with sorrow and prison walls, beggars all description. "Distracted as I was, I was perpetually drawn to the windows by the boisterous merriment of the unfortunate happy beneath me. Rabelais or Cervantes alone could do it justice with their pens. Never was such an exquisite burlesque. Baronets and bankers-authors and merchantsyoung fellows of fashion and elegance, insanity, idiotism, poverty, and bitter affliction, all for a moment forgetting their sorrows at the humour, the wit, the absurdity of what was before them. "I saw the whole from beginning to end. I was resolved to paint it, for I thought it the finest subject for humour and pathos on earth." LAIRD.-And did he paint the mad jinks o' the puir ne'er do weels? MAJOR.-He did, and I had the privilege of viewing it. LAIRD. Was it a funny thing? MAJOR.-Funny is not the proper word. It abounds with humour of the highest order-humour cognate to that of Hogarth; but, amidst all the grotesqueness you can perceive a thread of seriousness, such as would season the mirth of a man whose heart was sick and sore! DOCTOR.-Pray favour us with the closing scene. MAJOR.-Listen then. "17th. Dearest Mary, with a woman's passion wishes me at once to stop payment, and close the whole thing. I will finish my six, under the blessing of God; reduce my expences; and hope His mercy will not desert me, but bring me through in health and viguor, gratitude and grandeur of soul, to the end. In him alone I trust. Let my imagination keep Columbus before my mind forever. O God, bless my efforts with success, through every variety of fortune, and support my dear Mary and family. Amen. "In the morning, fearing that I should be involved, I took down books that I had not paid for to a young bookseller with a family, to re- MAJOR. Since July last I have been keeping turn them. As I drove along, I thought I might a species of gossipping log, wherein I register the get money on them. I felt disgusted at such a memorabilia of the Province. With permission thought, and stopped and told him I feared I was in danger; and as he might lose, I begged him to keep them for a few days. He was grateful, and in the evening came this £50. I know what I believe. "18th. O God, bless me through the evils of this day. Great anxiety. My landlord, Newton, called. I said, 'I see a quarter's rent in thy face, but none from me.' I appointed to-morrow night to see him, and lay before him every iota of my position. Goodhearted Newton! I said, Don't put in an execution.' 'Nothing of the of the sort,' he replied, half hurt. "I sent the Duke, Wordsworth, dear Fred, and Mary's heads to Miss Barrett to protect. I have the Duke's boots and hat, and Lord Grey's coat, and some more heads. "20th. O God, bless us all through the evils of this day. Amen. "21st. Slept horridly. Prayed in sorrow, and got up in agitation. "22d. God forgive me. Amen. Finis of B. R. Haydon. of this fair company, I shall give an inkling of its contents. LAIRD.-On wi' ye, like a house on fire! [Major reads.] A severe hail-storm passed over Three Rivers, or the 28th of June, accompanied with thunder and lightning. The stones were, many of them, larger than pigeons' eggs, and fell thick and fast for fifteen minutes. Much damage was done to fruit trees and vegetables. On Saturday, the 9th July, the fine steamer, the Queen of the West, was totally consumed by fire at Hamilton. The Hon. William Allan, one of the earliest settlers in Toronto, died on the 11th July, at the advanced age of 83. He came to Canada in 1796. Three men were carried over the Falls of Niagara on the 19th Sept. One of them, named Joseph Avery, was caught in a stump in the "Stretch me no longer on this rough world.' Rapids, in which position he remained during an -Lear. "End of Twenty-sixth Volume." entire day. Being at length entirely worn out, he finally shared the dreadful fate of his comLAIRD. Did the catastrophe ensue immedi-panions, iu spite of every attempt to save him. ately after that dreary entry in the log book o' life? MAJOR. To quote Mr. Taylor's words it "was made between half-past ten, and a quarter to eleven o'clock on the morning of Monday, the 22nd of June. Before eleven, the hand that wrote it was stiff and cold in self-inflicted death. DOCTOR.-Alas poor Haydon! MAJOR.-Have you seen this tragedian who has been creating a species of furore in Muddy Little York? After a shameful delay, the rebuilding of the Brock monument at Queenston has been commenced. In July a sharp frost occurred at Orangeville, causing injury to the crops. Captain Gaskin sold at Liverpool the threemasted schooner Cherokee, built by him at Kingston, for about £3000 sterling. The time for the payment of fees, and proof of performance of settlement duties upon locations of Crown lands, is further extended to the 1st of DOCTOR.-You allude, I presume, to Couldock? August, 1854. Horse stealing largely prevailed in Western DOCTOR.-I saw his Shylock, and was much Canada during the byegone summer. pleased therewith. In all parts of the Province, the heat during LAIRD.-Nae sma' commendation frae ane wha the months of July and August was excessive. is aye swearing by auld Kean! DOCTOR. He is far from being mentioned in the same day with that wonderful artist, but still is an actor of mark and promise. His portraiture of the carniverous Jew, though rough and unpolished, is strongly marked by originality-in fact it is his own. Couldock may yet reach excellence in his profession-even at present he is hardly surpassed in the higher range of melodrama, especially in such parts as "the advocate," in "Luke Fielding" in the Willow Copse. His Iago is also a very fine bit of acting. It is, however, time to get on with our other business. Suppose you give us your chit chat, Major. Several persons died, and the drying up of wells and small streams caused the greatest inconvenience to the holders of live stock. In some places farmers had to drive their cattle five and six miles to be watered. The Hon. Louis Hypolite Lafontaine was, in August, appointed Chief Justice for the Court of Queen's Bench for Lower Canada. A large quantity of Bibles were found hidden under a bridge on the township line between Albion and Caledon East. It is supposed that the carrier of them had been murdered. On the 25th of August, A. H. Meyers, Esq., M.P.P. of Trenton, was shot at and severely wounded by a man named Charles Marsh. The offender being subsequently tried and convicted, was sentenced to fourteen years' confinement in the Provincial Penitentiary. Meyers, it is alleged, had seduced the sister of Marsh, and consequently public sympathy was strongly expressed in his favor. The Table Rock at the Falls of Niagara fell on the 9th of September. In October a monster eagle of the Rocky Mountain variety was shot in Puslinch, by MajorGeneral Reeves. It measured ten feet from the tip of each wing. The Gore powder mill, in Halton, C.W., exploded in November. The shock was felt at places forty miles distant. At Kingston, C.W., a calamitous fire occurred on the 12th November. Wharves and store A bear, weighing two hundred pounds, was houses were consumed to the value of £30,000. shot in Chinguacousy in September. Those disgusting monsters, the Siamese twins, exhibited themselves, along with their children, through Canada during the past year. At the Provincial show, holden in Hamilton, Mr.Ranney of Dereham exhibited a cheese, weighing upwards of half a ton. It measured fifteen feet in circumference and twenty-three inches in diameter. What a stud of night mares it will stable! The Prince Edward Island fisheries have proved failures during the past season. Hugh Scobie, Esq., proprietor of the British Colonist, died at Toronto on the 4th of December, in the 42d year of his age. During the year 1853, the following railroads were opened-The St. Lawrence and Atlantic; the Northern, from Toronto to Barrie; the Great Western, from Hamilton to Niagara Falls on the east, and to London, on the west. On the 14th Both at Hamilton and Montreal the Provincial of September the first sod of the European and fairs passed off with signal èclat. Lord Elgin and family left Canada for England in August. His lordship, it is said, will not return to the Province. An insane convict, confined in the Provincial Penitentiary, subsisted for twenty-seven days on about a quart of water and half an ounce of salt per diem. When he resumed his usual sustenance, his strength was very little impaired. During the year 1852, the North American colonies cost the mother country as follows:Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward's Island, Total - £322,203 132,570 3,245 - £501,533 North American Railway was turned by Lady Head at St. John, New Brunswick, in presence of 25,000 spectators, Now, Doctor, while I take breath, you may give us your News from abroad. DOCTOR.-I will begin, as a matter of course, with Great Britain. [Doctor reads:] GREAT BRITAIN. In reply to Parliamentary interrogations the ministry announced that no orders had been given to interfere in Chinese affairs. It was also stated that the Burmese province of Pegu had been annexed to British India, by way of indemnification for expenses of the war. Lord John Russell has asserted the unqualified right, and determination of Great Britain to interfere in the future position of Cuba, stating that a revolution, followed up by seeking shelter under the flag of the United States, would be The St. John's Courier says that during the past two years a constant drain of the population of Newfoundland has been going on to the neigh-regarded in the light of annexation. bouring Provinces and the United States. The low price of produce, and the dislike which the people have taken to subsist upon fish, are stated as the causes of the movement. The debt of the city of Toronto is one million dollars. Both the civil and military investigations into the Gavazzi riot killing ended in nothing. The evidence was too conflicting to bring home the blame specifically to any party or parties. The success of the Dublin Industrial Exhibition has been most complete. Her Majesty visited it, and was received with the most profuse demonstrations of loyalty and attachment, Lord Clarenden shows in his address on the Russian manifesto, that the invasion of the principalities was an unwarrantable violation of Turkish territory, that the pretext of making it, in consequence of the advance of the fleets, was false, and that England only took up her position In October, the steamer Fairy Queen was lost by the side of Turkey as the defender of that in the Gulf. Out of 158 newspapers published in Canada, only 12 are French. power, on grounds of justice and public law. Intelligence has been received by dispatches from the Arctic expedition, announcing the |