temper; and was a mild promising boy. Another railway attender-an orphan 11 years of age-a notoriously wild boy, and one who was considered totally untameable by people who had interested themselves in his welfare, was also picked up. In a short time he took his place as dux in the Bible class, a position he continued almost constantly to occupy; besides being the most clever boy in the school, he is never absent a day, and his conduct in every respect is highly creditable. Thus we see that, by a little care and attention, natural talents can be turned aside from evil courses, and made to run in the proper channel -at once doing justice to the individual operated upon and to society. The cases we have given are cast into the shade by the story of a girl of 10 years and her brother of 7. Neither could read. In the absence of a mother's fond solicitude-for she was dead-their father made but small amends. To the wants of his poor children he paid no attention. The wretched creatures went begging from place to place, glad when they were enabled to enjoy the luxury of a shed or a stable in which to pass the night. That such a mode of culture should promote their better feelings could hardly be anticipated. Accordingly, we find that the girl was chiefly characterised as being "a famous boxer." Introduced to the Industrial School, a few months found the children good scholars diligent, regular, and peaceable the girl standing near the top of the Bible class, being most efficient at household needlework, and her moral conduct being very superior.

Abstaining from any lengthened details, we have brought forward a few facts illustrative of the necessity that exists for Industrial Schools-the good which they are calculated to confer--and the workings and efficiency of the system. Enough has been said, to show that they ought to be generally established throughout the country. Better is it to check an evil in the bud-before it has burst into actual existence-than to attempt to check it afterwards. No community is destitute of a jail for the punishment of criminals. Would it not be a better plan to erect a Ragged School-to bring together those children,

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who live by begging and pilfering-to turn aside their evil habits-to make them good and useful members of the commonwealth-and thus to put a stop to the perpetuation of a class, who swallow up our charities, fill our prisons, and threaten entirely to overwhelm the peace and prosperity of the empire? W. W.

GREAT MEN.

"WHAT a strange picture a university presents to the imagination. The lives of scholars in their cloistered stillness ;literary men of retired habits, and professors who study sixteen hours a day, and never see the world but on a Sunday. Nature has, no doubt, for some wise purpose, placed in their hearts this love of literary labour and seclusion. Otherwise, who would feed the undying lamp of thought? But for such men as these, a blast of wind through the chinks and crannies of this old world, or the flapping of a conqueror's banner, would blow it out for ever. The light of the soul is easily extinguished. And whenever I reflect upon these things I become aware of the great importance, in a nation's history, of the individual fame of scholars and literary men. I fear that it is far greater than the world is willing to acknowledge; or, perhaps I should say, than the world has thought of acknowledging. Blot out from England's history the names of Chaucer, Shakspeare, Spenser, and Milton only, and how much of her glory would you blot out with them! Take from Italy such names as Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Michael Angelo, and Raphael, and how much would still be wanting to the completeness of her glory. How would the history of Spain look if the leaves were torn out, on which are written the names of Cervantes, Lope de Vega, and Calderen? What would be the fame of Portugal, without her Camoens; of France, without her Racine, and Rabelais, and Voltaire; or Ge many, without her Martin Luther, her Goethe, and Schiller? Nay, what were the nations of old, without their philosophers, poets, and historians? Tell me, do not these men in all ages and in all places, emblazon with bright colours the armorial bearings of their country? Yes, and far more than this; for in all ages and all places they

give humanity assurance of its greatness; and say-call not this time or people wholly barbarous, for this much, even then and there, could the human mind achieve! But the boisterous world has hardly thought of acknowledging all this. Therein it has shown itself somewhat ungrateful. Else, whence the great reproach, the general scorn, the loud derision, with which, to take a familiar example, the monks of the middle ages are regarded? That they slept their lives away is most untrue. For in an age when books were few so few, so precious, that they were often chained to their oaken shelves with iron chains, like galley-slaves to their benches, these men, with their laborious hands, copied upon parchment all the lore and wisdom of the past, and transmitted it to us. Perhaps it is not too much to say, that, but for these monks, not one line of the classics would have reached our day. Surely, then, we can pardon something to those superstitious ages, perhaps even the mysticism of the scholastic philosophy, since, after all, we can find no harm in it, only the mistaking of the possible for the real, and the high aspirings of the human mind after a long-sought and unknown somewhat. I think the name of Martin Luther, the monk of Wittenberg, alone sufficient to redeem all monkhood from the reproach of laziness. If this will not, perhaps the vast folios of Thomas Aquinas will; or the countless manuscripts, still treasured in old libraries, whose yellow and wrinkled pages remind one of the hands that wrote them, and the faces that once bent over them."-Longfellow.

TRUTH.

Truth, truth in her severest as well as mildest forms, must be placed before the young. Do not, to attract them to duty, represent it as a smooth and flowery path. Do not tell them that they can become good, excellent, generous, holy, without effort and pain. Teach them that the sacrifice of self-will, private interest, and pleasure, to others' rights and happiness, to the dictates of conscience, to the will of God, is the very essence of piety and goodness.

But at the same time teach them, that there is a pure, calm joy, an inward peace, in surrendering every thing to duty, which can be found in no selfish success.-CHANNING.

THE LEVER OF LIFE.

CHAPTER IV.

WHAT a mighty centre of the world's wealth is London. It is the great heart of the social universe, and its ceaseless pulsations throb through every channel which has been opened by civilization, enterprize, and industry. In its docks, and upon its wharves-its crowded streets, and well-stored shops -its river craft, and railway terminiits many steeples, and multitude of chimneys-in its dirty solid splendour, and in the inharmonious roar of its restless energy, London is the most colossal representative of human power that the world has yet realized.

Among the most substantial and satisfactory evidences of the wealth and prosperity of London, may be regarded the outlying clusters of handsome and well-appointed mansions, villas, and cottage residences, which occupy and adorn the entire suburbs of the metropolis, and which are every year encroaching further and further upon the rural districts of Middlesex, Surrey, Kent, and Essex.

In these homes of the wealthy citi zens of London, may be found every combination of comfort and elegance; and it would, perhaps, have been difficult to select a better specimen of its class than Athol Lodge, the residence of the prosperous descendant of old Baillie Angus. The house was large and commodious, built in the villa style, and surrounded by spacious lawn and garden grounds, and no expense had been spared by Mr. Angus in carrying out the various plans which Helen's exquisite taste had suggested, in furnishing and advancing both the house and the grounds.

Mr. Angus had been early left a widower, and in Helen, his only daughter, he now centred all the affections of his heart. Inheriting much of her father's energy and shrewd intelligence, she had derived from her mother a sweetness and gentleness of disposition, that won its way to all hearts; and her character, strengthened by the respon sibilities which had been so early imposed upon, had matured ere yet she

was twenty years of age, into that of a cultivated noble-hearted woman. The test to which it had been exposed was of the most dangerous character; limitless indulgence, and unrestrained confidence, too often engendering self-will and pride; but in Helen's case the early counsels of a mother had left an undying impression, and she dwelt with inexpressible tenderness and affection upon those lessons, in which she had been taught, as a child, to reverence the Scriptures as the fountain of all wisdom; and He whom she had made the Guide of her youth, had shed upon her soul those softening and purifying influences which can alone preserve the human heart amid the seductive influences of worldly prosperity, and the injudicious flatteries to which youth and beauty are ever exposed.

Helen's affection for her father was unbounded. She had long been not merely the child of his love, but his companion and friend. She had been early removed from school to occupy the void both in his heart and home occasioned by the death of Mrs. Angus; and though little versed himself in the more elegant refinements of education which Helen pursued with enthusiastic ardour, he was admirably qualified to direct and guide her in those studies which comprehended the more solid and practical branches of knowledge. His successes in business were doubly valued as the means of enabling him to gratify every wish of his child, whether for her own improvement or the welfare of others; and though his own heart had been blunted and seared, as a member of the great human family, by the absorbing influence of his intense devotion to business, yet he never grudged the money he had earned, when bestowed by Helen on the various objects of her bounty and benevolence.

There are many men who, like Mr. Angus, will gladly see others relieve the suffering which society permits to accumulate in its midst, but who will not deviate from the daily routine of the counting-house or the counter, to arrest the causes of that misery which it would be so much easier to prevent than to cure.

The day on which Helen had paid

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her eventful visit to the Millicents, had been a busy one in her father's counting-house-a large contract having been concluded on advantageous terms with a foreign house, and these terms had been greatly in favour of Mr. Angus and his partner, from the fact that they had recently succeeded in reducing the charge for work upon nearly all the articles required, through the instramentality of the middle men and women who grind the poor operatives to the lowest possible scale of remuneration. Mr. Angus went home in high spirits that evening; but the idea did not once occur to him, that an arrangement which added so largely to his own gains, had driven to the very verge of despair, 500 poor creatures who, in garret, hovel, and cellar, were maintaining a hopeless struggle against starvation itself.

As he entered his own luxurious drawing-room, and kissed the blooming cheek of his daughter, his mind was undisturbed by any painful contrasts between the scene which conveyed so much delight and pride to his own mind, and the dismal mockeries of home, amid which were the pining hundreds who toiled in such bitter penury that he might be rich.

Not so, however, with Helen; the recollection of the scenes through which she had passed, and the suffering she had witnessed remained with painful distinctness, nor could she avoid a sense of shame and sorrow, as the figure of that pale careworn girl rose in her remembrance, to think that she was in her father's employ.

Helen had resolved freely to communicate to her father all that she had seen and heard; and when she had dismissed the tea-equipage, and drawn her ottoman to her father's side, she soon succeeded in enlisting his attention and interest-without, however, at first letting him know the name of her protege, or the fact that she was one of his own workpeople. She described the case as one that had been brought under her notice, and in which she was deeply interested. She spoke of the long and hopeless struggle of poor Millicent and his family with disease and want, the wretched condition of their

FROM LOO-FOO-YOU, ON BOARD THE CHI-| NESE JUNK, AT BLACKWALL, TO HIS KINSMAN, LANG-FANG, IN CHINA.

LETTER II.

I told

The more I see of this country, Oh Lang: Fang! the more I am astonished. thee in my first letter that these barbarians consider themselves the most enlightened people in the world, and imagine that their political wisdom cannot be surpassed. But vaunting assertions are no proofs of excellence, and I must tell thee there are many grievous defects in certain parts of this grand political machinery, especially in that which is termed the Representative System. For instance, there are fine flourishing towns as large as our own splendid city of Tching-ton, which are only permitted to have the same weight in the couneil of the Empire as the most paltry and ob

scure. The interests of two or three thousand persons receive the same grave consideration in the barbarian House of Talk, (to which I have formerly alluded) as those of fifty, or even a hundred thousand. The town which contains three thousand has two talkers in the House, and the town which contains 300,000 thousand has no more. This, Oh! Lang-Fang is neither wise nor just. But in this country there have been still greater political defects, and there is a party styling themselves Protectionists, who are madly endeavouring to revive them. Amongst this insane class of barbarians, are men so opulent, that they could purchase all the gold and pearls in Yan-nan. Although they have not the virtuous fortitude to abandon a single luxury, they have the unblushing effrontery to tax the hard earned bread of the labouring poor. The sun shines, the rain descends, the fields smile with plenty, the harvest is ripe, and Heaven says to man in a language understood by all-Come, eat and enjoy-but these barbarian Protectionists step forward and impudently tell us to close our mouths unless we open our pockets-thus setting a price on Providence.

Not

Many of the customs of these barbarians are wondrous strange, and even unaccountable, seeing that they profess to be so wise a people In China we are taught to believe that it is day when the sun rises, but thousands of these learned and intelligent barbarians reverse the order of nature; their day begins when the sun sets. withstanding they have several excellent astronomers amongst them-tolerably accurate almanacks-observatories, and te lescopes, they don't seem to know the difference between day and night. This erroneous system of living has not only increased the number of regular physicians,

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but given birth to a legion of dangerous empirics, whose advertised announcements of miraculous cures are to be found in every cottage of the empire. These medical barbarians have pills which perform prodigies, and wafers which supply the place of lungs, enabling you to breathe more pleasingly than if you inhaled the pure air of Fo-kien, and to sing more sweetly than the sweetest bird that perches on trees at Kan-tcheou. As for the barbaeducated, obliging, witty, and sensible, yet rian ladies though so very beautiful, wellare they the slaves of an exceedingly foolish custom. It is true, Oh! Lang-Fang, that the proud beauties of Pekin think it necessary to reduce the dimensions of their feet, but canst thou believe that they would suffer their waists to be so tightly encircled by fainting fits, and hysterics? the bones of a large fish, as to produce Yet I can as

sure thee that such is the case in this these Barbarians are likewise worshippers country. We are called idolaters; but of idols, notwithstanding their Bouzes are continually preaching against them. There is one idol perfectly adored by the highborn, and the rich, which is worshipped under the name of Fashion. They do not pricious monster; what pleases him to-day, hesitate to make any sacrifice to this cavexes him to-morrow; he is as variable as the winds, and the ceremonies of his worship are so expensive, that numbers of his votaries are obliged to effect a loan, before they can be admitted to his temple, or kneel before his shrine.

Amongst other silly practises, these bar barian ladies have adopted that ofheightening the colour of their cheeks, by the application of a red mixture, which, however, is but a sorry substitute for the bloom of Nature. In imitation of a neighbouring barbarian nation, they perform a variety of amazing tricks with their heels and toes; many of them are continually on the hop; others again are so addicted to external display, that they would look with disdain upon the finest silks of Yung-tchang. Vanity, Oh! Lang-fang, is as powerful amongst them, as it is with those untutored savages of whom you have read in the amusing travels of Hum-sing-li, who decorate their necks and arms with bits of glass, fish-bones, and brass buttons. Still it is but justice to add, that under these glittering gew-gaws, there often throb sensitive and liberal hearts, tremblingly alive to the common claims of humanity; firm in friendship; faithful in love; noble in principle; and capable, under peculiar circumstances, of the greatest of all earthly sacrifices, the sacrifice of self.