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[long capable of being concealed. Some ofl ness, and spirit of reliance, since the world j terror reached its height; and that-Florence the offenders, who were sent to jail for cla- began, has always been arQverbial. There 1 appeared like a city delivered over to pillage, I ... i. i- ' - I i 8 a point to which you civilize mankind; 1 is which each man made his best of what mouring abbut the plague, died of it in con .. I finement, without awaiting for the formality | but beyond which education cannot go. | came, ljgxt hitrf j or rather like a vast ship of a trial. The physicians, who'hadatten ded the sick in the LINES Written in a Lady's Album, by John Malcolm Esq. As sweeps the bark before the breeze, While waters coldly close around, Till of her pathway through the seas The track no more id found;— Thus, passing down oblivion’s tide, The beauteous visioife of the mind city, began themselves to be attacked with illness, and hurried [through their visits at the fever hospitals, in [spite of their published certiiicates that [ nothing serious was the matter. At length, Brother Gasparo Marcelli, a monk of the [.Dominican Convert of Santa Croce, who You seem to jtame the wolf, while he sees J, you hold the whip over him: ibut—bfood will have its way—he flies at your throat at last, if you give him opportunity. Man’s instinct makes hito war on man! ’Tis trash! my strength mist be my neighbour’s weakness. The miller, when his granaries arc fall, laughs laud, and well he laugh: had been slightly indisposed on the night of he bays a lordship—out of the ruined liar- I the Feast of St. Michael, was found dead on his bed the next morning, and with ap- Fleet as that ocean Jj And leave no trace mt glide, ehind. Bat this pure page may still impart Some dream of feeling else untold,— The silent record of a heart, • Even when that heart is cold: Its lorn memorials here may bloom, Perchance to gentle bosoms dear, Like flowers that linger o’er the tomb, Bedew’d with beauty’s tear. I ask not for the meed of fame, Its wreaths above my rest to twine:— Enough for me to leave my name Within this hallow’d shrine; To think that o’er these lines thine eye May wander in some future year, And memory breathe a passing sigh For him who traced them here. Cohn sleeps the sea when storms are o’er, With bosom silent and serene, And but the plank upon the shore Reveals that wreek*ftave been. ** So some fraiWeaf, like this, may be Left floating o’er Tune's silent tide; The sole remaining trace of me, To tell that I had lived and died. vest What is that flood that wastes my neighbour’s fields butblessing, so it doubles, of no equi-1 in the common market, the produce of my own ? Go to! they who gain by the dead, when did they love the living! When agues thrive, do not sextons delve merrily 1 ~ tten on the miseries, l pearances which admitted vocation. The alarm quickly ran | through the monastery : the prior and seve ral monks were seized with sickness. The | deceased had been one of the most popular | confessors in Florence ; and three of his penitents who had never dreamed that fever ] no general blessing yet, did all men ever find " FROM THE MINERVA. When Hope’s fairy Angers are straying O’er the chords of the youthful heart, And fancy in prospect displaying i The bliss that new years may impart; When sweet feelings are ever upspringing, Aad the pulses all joyously beat, When each day e new treasure is bringing, Oh then, indeed, life is most sweet. When the torch of affection just lighted, Borns bright on the altar of truth, E'er the cold sekfeh world yet has idighted One innocent feeling of youth; When earth seems a garden unfading, When flowers cling around our glad feet, When no cloud onr bright heaven is' shading, Oh; then, indeed, life is most sweety! j T”'*' When the cold breath of sorrow is sweeping O’er the chords oLthg^gjithful het.t, And the youthful weeping, Secs the visidg^f fancy depart; When the bio of young feeling is dying, And the brgt throbs with passion’s fierce strife, When our,rM days are wasted in sighing, WhoJjgyean find sweetness in life! * "’^ c ^ankindness or coldness has faded, fie pure, undefiled light of love, 1 the mists of the cold world have snaded 'The dreams that around our hearts move f When earth seems a wide waste of sorrow, No longer with bright blessings rife, When we look but for clouds on each morrow, Who then can find sweetness in life ? LINES WORKED ON A HEARTH RUG. qw *»io haofr how yon advance, Nor tempt your own undoing; If you’re too forward, (fearfal chance,) A spark may prove your ruin, gggg '■ i aw mmm THE PLAGUE AT FLORENCE. ***** The weather, during the whole of the spring and summer preceding the visi tation, had been unusually close and sultiy. Foul and offensive exhalations had pro ceeded, in a remarkable degree, from all pools, and fens, and marshes, in the neigh bourhood of the city. The bed of the Arno, though afterwards replenished by sudden and heavy rains, had, at one period, sunk lower than the oldest citizens ever remem bered to have seen it. Insects, moreover, in all fields and gardens, bad appeared in numbers quite unprecedented, so as even contentment; in no cothmon infliction have there not always been seme who saw a good Battles and blood make soldiers generals Revolts & revolutions make peasants princes. Out of broken windows, as the adage tells us, do there not arise rich glaziers 1 And he who wants a fortune, may find one even in the plague. And accordingly, among the most curious results of the visitation, when it first began to show its strength in Florence, was the extra quantity ofactual rejoicing, as well as of mourning; the great increase of hilarity in the midst of tears ; and the decided im mediate gain in individuals, which arose but of the thinning in the numbers of the com munity. Husbands often wept for the death of their wives; wives, often, for the death of their husbands; both, constantly, for the deaths of their children; for these were, generally, losses, at least in some sort, of present sources of happiness; disturban ces of long habit, and existing arrange ments; and no benefit (to balance) accru ing to the survivor. But sons did not al ways mourn for their fathers—nephews for I their uncles—younger brothers, destined to exertion and’ poverty, for their elders, who had shut them.from title and estate ; those might enter palaces, were dead,—almosf between the next sunrise and sunset, in dif ferent directions of the city. Upon which, personal apprehension among the higher class superseding every considcrationof pub lic policy, these who had most actively chastised the terrors of other persons, could now make no secret of their own. The rich began openly to provide for their safety. The seditious, always active in moments of danger, thundered against the government for its deception. The executive power gave up its doubts, whether real or preten ded ; and it was openly confessed that the PLAGUE WAS IN FLORENCE. The panic which spread through the city on this admission, became, as might have been expected, an evil scarcely second tG the original calamity. Almost all parties had been vehement in desiring to have the declaration. It could do nothing but mis chief to any. When it came, by a strange seeming anomaly in the ordering of men’s minds, numbers began directly to question or discredit it. While among the^ ower classes, (who had been the most anxious to get it,) doubt or belief made little difference for few had any power to .Act upon at at all. Day and night 'soon as the proclama tion cariie out, the streets and squares of] who were the best disposed to do'all this, Florence were filled—the gates of all the pa laces surrounded with carriages and wagons, loading up household furniture, pictures, and treasure, and carrying it away in the country. Longtrainsof mules andhorses,& companies even of persons on foot, were seen moving, first at night, to avoid too open publicity, but very soon in broad day, and without dis guise, out of all the gates of thd city. But still, these fugitives were chiefly from among the landed proprietors, and the small capi talists who had ready money at command; [and the bulk of the population yet had ties, which, in spite of finger, confined them to the place. For the merchant was bank rupt if he gave up his trade. And the far- stj£n a tempest, under which she could not choose but founder, and, where each man, according to the usage of desperate mariners, resolved to live, at common cost, the short while longer that existence lasted. Domestics, left in charge of their masters’ houses, burst open the cellars and cabinets, and used the treasure as their own. The richest garments were seen worn by com mon beggars; the most costly wines intoxi cated the lowest of the po pulation. All safe people fled the city at every hazard, or shut themselves up, and refused to communicate even with each other, and a scarcity of food —in the very excess of valuables and money —began to aggravate the general distress. Those physicians who still lived, now made off, with one consent, to secure what they had gained.—The monks baiTed the gates of their convents: some would say no mass —and scarce any would confess the sick any longer. Some men lay dead or dying in their houses, and none would come to aid, or bury them. Others were found with marks of violence on their bodies, and their chambers rifled; and none could say, nor did any inquire who had done it. The hired nurses, it was reported, poisoned their pa tients—and one beldam confessed after wards to having caused the death of five women, by administering the , eau forte (aqua fortis) to them instead of common water. Brute strength and freedom from the plague, became the only sources of power; and the slave spat in the face of his master. Those feW who still dwelt within the city, or near it, watched armed, and shut their doors by day, for murders were done even in the, broad light. The cemeteries now’ became choked, and there was more room in the streets and market places. Houses got cheap, and graves were hard to come by. The great Fosse which had been hastily opened, and consecrated, at the back of the Spedale, St. Martino, ran ovet with bodies, from all ranks, ages, and con ditions, which, night after night, were cast promiscuously into it. And, to quote the words used by a writer of the time, in de scribing the state of Florence at the close of the malady—almost for fault of matter to feed upon—“Worth was useless;—strength gone-—glory sullied—title was buried— honours were forgotten—greatness humili ated—dignity scorned—and, of the good, and of the evil, equally perished the tne- gallopcd forth from the gate. It was the Landgrave Albert, of Thuringia, already a married man, and who had long trained his fcvourite steed to this perilous exercise. often could not do it; their wants, in spite of themselves, were relieved, and their de sire of pleasure administered to—they thought that they grieved for the fate of the dead—perhaps they did grieve; but, before the hell had ceased tolling, they would not have had him live again. For even the comparatively poor who died, had something to leave behind them, which was an object {mory!” to those as poor, or poorer, than themselves. Very soon the constant occurrence of such j. Reproof.—On a scanty and bold projec- falls of fortune, began to make men expect, j tion of the rock, stand the ruins of the Kien Change of Religion,.—It is with feelings which we can hardly describe that we are enabled, on the best possible evidence, to state that the reformation in Ireland is in the most rapid progress. On Sunday last, fifty-seven persons, twenty-five men and thirty-two women, recanted the errors of popery in the church of Cavan—making in ten weeks an aggregate of two hundred and fifty-two individuals who have thus em braced the Protestant Faith, in one parish alone, in the space of ten weeksi* In consequence os these numerous and almost miraculous conversions, Doctor Curtis, the t : *.ular Archbishop of Armagh, and other Popish Priests calling themselves also Bishops, repaired to Cavan on Wednes day, in order, if possible, to check so rapid a progress towards reformation. A letter was addressed tojthem immediately on their arrival, offering a public discussion upon the different doctrinal points at issue between the two churches—this offer was declined; and such waa-the triumph of Protestantism, that on the following evening four thousand persons attended the sermon preached by the Rev. Mr. Pope.—English Paper. Under the date of Brussels, Jan. 11, we find the following important paragraph. “ Dr. Andre, of this city, whose fortunate cures of three children bom deaf and dumb, we have already mentioned, has just ope rated with the same success on the son of M. Maurus, Baker, at Bruges, aged 14 years. We find id the, Gazette of West Flanders, the details of this operation, which took place on the 26th December, and for which the lad came to Brussels with his fa ther. The perforation of the left ear was affected in less than five minutes, and, at the same moment the boy k$ard the ticking of a watch and the barking of a little dog. The operation of the other ear took nearly half an hour, because the lad, too deeply af fected by this new sensation, could scarcely contain himself.—London Paper. and look for them. They could not help j recollecting the fact, that there was one par ticular life stood between them and happi ness. The possibility of a change wonld mer paused where he had to leave ungathered just present itself—the wish, perhaps not I crops behind him. The physician staid, for he hoped in some antidote; and, if he could [live, the sickness was his harvest The monks staid ; most because their convent was their only home; some because they | hoped its privacy would shut out danger. Public officers staid, to save the posts they I had ; or in the hope that their resolution would be the meaus of promoting them to better. The vast tribe that lived only by their daily labour, had no choice but to stay; for, to want the day’s meal was to starve, and they had no way to gain it but by stay ing where they were, and going on to exer cise their calling. So that, upon the whole, as soon as it became lawful to declare the extent of the mischief, vast hordes became veiy unwilling to confess it; and it was the yet. And, among the labouring classes too, the diminished number of hands at work in every calling, soon gave the remainder high rates of wages, which they spent in idleness. The mere passage of wealth into fresh ast, so separated on all sides from the body of the mountain, by precipitous hills, ex cept where a narrow ledge on the south con nects it with the hill, that the rising of a sin gle drawbridge must have rendered it utter ly inaccessible. Enough of the outer wall still remains to preserve the memory of the fair Conigunda, equally celebrated for her charms and her cruelty. She was the daughter and heiress of the lord of Reinast, hands, always unthrifty, created sn immense and the most blooming of Silesian beauties demand, out of the very general mourning Her wealth and charms attracted crowds of and distress, for articles of cost and luxury, knightly wooers to her father’s castle ; but All who had been rich, had not drank choice the maiden, like another Camilla, was en- wines or maintained brilliant equipages, tirely devoted to the boisterous exercise of AH who rose from poverty did so—often to [the chase, in which she excelled many ef the most prodigal dissipation of their means | her suitors; she would listen to no tale of —on the instant. Until even the very same love, and dreaded marriage as she did a calamity which, in a few months, made the city absolutely a desert in its outset actually have a new and increased impulse to its pleasurable and commercial movements! . , * »*/•_,— & „ , . j In the meantime, however, the shroud] m many places, combinea with the^nect of] p r0 g ress 0 f death itself, in the end, rather | maker applied his needle almost as rapidly i as the maker pf new robes, and, as the fury of the postftehce increased, all this jollity, which, at first, had some show of the mirth of madness about it, ran on till, like the mer-! the drought, entirely to destroy vegetation. And—a circumatance which still more at tracted notice—the rats, both in the houses of Florence, and in the (arms in the neigh bouring villages, multiplied with such rapid ity, to such an excess, that, all temporal re- than the desertions, numerous as they were, occasioned by the fear of it, which brought the great crowd of the city of Florence, first to little, and then to nothing. * For the evil in the future is no evil, and this it is that laughs theorists and legisla- prison.—At length, to free herself from all importunities, she made a solemn vow, never to give herhandbutto the knight who should ride round the castle on the outer wall. Now, this wall is not only too narrow to furnish a secure or pleasing promenade in any circumstances, but throughout nearly its whole course, runs along the very brink of hideous precipices, and in one place hangs over a frightful abyss, which, till this riment produced by wine in company, by j day bears the name of Hell. The number degrees, it broke into bloodshed and mis- bf the lady’s lovers rapidly diminished. The modies^ being ■; ] tors to scorn! the reckoning which shall rule. In the beginning of the ecourge, the I more prudent wisely considered, that the "" “ come hereafter ever is forgotten, against succession to an estate or title, had not car- prize was not worth the risk; the vain pro- \ thought necessary to have recourse to the aid of tlie. church, and formally to excommu nicate them. The success of this extraor dinary measure, or how far it operated at all docs not appear; but the fact of its being applied, is distinctly stated in all the chroni cles of the time. Notice was formally read rn open dhurch, against the rats ; that un less they withdrew from all houses, wheat- stacks, barns, or granaries, in Florence and the vicinity, within four days from the date of those presents, process of“ deprivation” would be issued against them. And a curi ous feature in thd superstition of the was, that the officer of the spiritual court, appointed to maintain the interest of all “non-appearing defendants,” interfered/or the rats, and actually obtained leave to “ en large the rule” for their keeping it, from fourdays to six, on the ground that the cats oPthe city, knowing of the order, would be upon the watch to intercept them. . \During a considerable time, however, from whatever cause the distemper in Flor- but a little measure of advantage offered in the present The vengeance of Heaven, is it sure 1 we trust that it is far off. The axe, and the gibbet ? “ Chance” may save us from them.; and, though that deliverance hangs on the one ace cast with two dies, every sinner believes that it will be his own! The thief plans a robbery—executes it— escapes with the booty—and the “ chance” that has saved him brings an hundred the gallows! ried with it—as of course—a notice that the inheritor was only tenant for an hour. But when the deaths had risen to more than a | I hundred a-day in the city; and when the | man who became heir to ap estate in one j twenty-four hours, left it to sdmebody elst or perhaps left it without a claimant—in the j next, this general state of insecurity; added to the extraordinary description of hands to posed themselves to the trial, in the hope that their presence wonld mollify Conigun- da’s heart, and procure a dispensation from the hard condition ; but the mountain beau ty was proof against all arts, and when the moment of danger came, the courage of the suitor generally gave way.—Histoiy has not recorded the precise number of those who actually made the attempt; it is only cer tain, that every one of them broke his neck into which property passed, seemed first to The projector trades against | repeal all sanity and principle; and soon led | (as he well deserved ;) and the lady lived ’■ * '«-- *• ^ « i.-.i—mi —j J 1 on in her wild and virgin independence. At probability—wins in the teeth of principle— ] to the wildest and most unheard of outrages. His very blindness—which* could not see "" ' the risk—passes for sagacity, and crowds nrp. hprrfrnrod who follow his oxamnlo ! This are beggared who follow his example! This “ chance” it is—this “ hope”—which makes ] of law to ratify it fools—and fools are villains—bf us all! Its The sqcQbssor to a splendid mansions—[length, a young and handsome knight ap seized possession—it might be, with a title j peared at the castle gate, and requested to •but certainly without waiting for the forms ] be admitted to the presence of its mistress that he might try his fortune. Conigunda . . * . . IUUUSUI1 s ence arose, it seems that the authorities of to dc , irc an impossibility, arid to account the slate had presence of mind enough 1 strenuously to maintain, that it was not the Great quantities of personal property* of] received him, and the hour was come ; his seeds ore rooted itt the strongest minds;] houses and movables especially, were some-[manly beauty, the courtesy of his behaviour and in the weak they flourish even to insani- times left in a few hours without any cer- and his noble spirit, made her repent, jbr ty. The liar elects to speakf'On “hope.” | tain claimants at ejll: and ruffians and out- j the first time, of the price which she had set The gamester arranges to4ive (in a castle) [casts—the police of the city being virtually I upon her hand. Having received, in pre- upon it. But Woman’s brain—there is its chosen seat of quicksand empire—where I almost extinct, fought and scrambled for I sence of the inmates of the castle, her pro the right of rifling such possessions in open | mise to become his bride, if he should re day.. turn in safety from the trial, hA^rode forth plagud.” The increasing deaths, which occurred in the meaner and closer quarters of the city; were declared to proceed from Typhus Carcervm, or putrid jail fever. Cieanlmess was recommended, and a cheap antiseptic process about all houses, and charitable distribution of wine and food by the richer citizens among the needy. Se paration of the infected people, from the sound by removing them to distant hospitals, was, in a few instances^accomplished by | [ iu ” a "“" atur “ s const i tute(] force ; and those who contramcted the of ficial statement, or expressed their own alarm too obtrusively, were thrown into pri son, here and there, as public agitators. But the truth, even by these expedients, was not Antonio Alalcspini, the servant of a goldsmith who had fled the city and died to the wall; accompanied by the tears and under the walls of Pisa, i produced a will, | wishes of the repentant beauty.^ In a short upon it, are as but one. Hope it is that makes her frail. Hope makes her false.. , I . Hope makes her the dupe of those who alleged to have been left by his master, be- time a shout from the menials announced care not for her, and the curse of those who ; queatbing to him the whole of his effects. ] that the adventuare had been achieved ; and do. She fires a palace, and “hopes” tlrat it On the very next day, this title passing un- j Conigunda, exulting that she was conquered will bum. Casts herself into the sea, and J **-— —*— «— —+*» Lia <i»> «ahpi inum- disputed, there were twenty claimants for j hastened ^into the court, which the tiium- “ hopes” that the waters will quit their bed I similar successions ! From inheriting after i pliant knight was just entering, to meet his to leave her upon lands*'Ulr confidence— those who had fled and died, it was but one ardent caresses. But the knight stood nrirl tliic nnirhone i^ tl»r» r»fico iirith nil r\C I1C -' step farther to presume the death, and a man’s > aInnmv and this perhaps is the case with all of us becomes invariably more unbounded in pro portion with the real desperateness of her condition. And the worst of all is—that, as , for nothing of all’this is there an^remedy ! And “Hope” worked strange wonders in tltfi earlier stages of tnPplague ; especially among those who had all to gain, and little to lose; a sort of persons whose - leafless- flight at once conveyed his effects torthose who stayed behind. And,within the expiration of eight-and-forty hours farther, (no interfer ence by the authorities taking place,)*'both lie and forgery began to be considered un necessary; and the rights of health and It was then thatMlbe general tumult apd aloof, gloomy and 'severe. “ I can claim you,” said he,'* 4 but I am coime^and I have risked my life, not to win ) our hand but to humble your pride, and punish your barbar ity’ 31 —and therpftpoi!' he read her a ‘harsh lecture on the cruelty and arrogance ttff her conduct towards her suitors. The spirit of strength became the only rights acknow- chivalry weeps at recording, that he finished lodged in the now community. •* l*- r his oration by giving the astonished beauty a box.onthe ear, sprung into his saddle* and . An action was recently brought in Jthe Supreme Court of the State of New-York against Doctcr Bancker, for unskilfulnes^ and negligence in vaccinating a child, it consequence of which the child died—da-W mages laid at $5000. It appeared that Dr. . B. had twice vaccinated the child, which afterwards became very sick, i and after lingering from April to September, died. Several physicians testified that the disease of which the child died was without doubt the smaU pox in its most dreadful form, but were of opinion from the circumstances, that it had been taken in the natural way r about tho time of vaccination. A verdici; was accordingly returned for the defendant. Philosophy of Law.—We hear of the phi losophy of history—the phiibsophy of natu ral history—the philosophy of language— and other branches of science which have their peculiar philosophy-—and we have now to give a sublime and beautiful speci men of the philosophy of law, as exhibited in recent decisions. A few weeks since, a gang of villians convicted of kidnapping a free white citizen* were sentenced for that crime, to from one month to two years im prisonment in the county jail—whereas, at the last session 'of the Court of Common Pleas, for Rensselaer county, held at Troy, one Abraham Deerstyne was indicted on two grounds : one for stealing a few pota toes and a few beets, in all nearly half a. bushel—the other for stealing .three sticks of wood, during the late severe weather, the severest almost ever known. Deerstyne was convicted of these enormous offences, and sentenced to the STATE PRISON for THREE YEARS ! It was proved that a he was a laboring man, with a family, and * very poor*—and when deteted with the three sticks of wood, offered to pay for them* not being able, from the snow on the ground and the unparalleled severity of the weather, to procure wood at that moment in any other way—it was on the 3d of January, one of the bitterest days of this bitter season. Now is not this a grand specimen of the philosophy of our law which rates the steal ing of half a bushel of vegetables, and three sticks of wood, as a crime of a deeper dye than (to use the language of Judge Throop, when he sentenced the kidnappers at Can andaigua) “ of robbing the State of a citi zen—a citizen of his liberty—and a wife and children of their natural guardian and. ft protector !” Glorious law! Divine philo sophy of law ! which makes three sticks of fire wood, and a handful of beetg and pota toes, of more value than the liberty and safety of a free citizen of the great. State of Ncw-York ! Verity, we are the most en lightened nation on the. globe ! Be have boasted of it or. the floor of Congresn—and hire may now boast of. it on the flour of the county j ail.qf Ontario,, And the-State* poson at Westchester J Let it be written in letters* of gold, on the pQrteftff of these criminal dor- mitorier—and let all people and all nations, come and admire our wisdpm, justice and: humanity, pren as the Queen of pr-heba went of old, to. behold the uyjfcjjpdadftrire the wisdom, of Solomon*! Serixnpity to be hoped; that the-Gorerno* will lose no time in - pardoning Deerstyne, if for no other reason b«M& rebuke the inhumanity an A - hlftetlessness of the whole procei ding. ■’*" * jdj., pEnHyr fV«/ionaLQbservefi^jfe ^ If > The-iffc* Ml is totems perplexed what to do, than the industrious itKjdpiBg what he* ought. Action keeps the mind in constant health, but idleness corrupts*mid rust * i* *■ ' -V* • : * ■ : . V 4 * J US'