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PRO BONO PUBLICO.

he drinks is taxed-the paper he peruses is taxed-and even the light of heaven that streams through the window on its columns is taxed.

The national debt, was comparatively a recent creation, and almost entirely the result of wars. Our forefathers were a fighting people, but they had always the honesty to pay their own slaughter bills, and up to the time of Charles II. the country was unburdened with a national debt. Since that time, however, it had gone on increasing, till it had now reached so much that the bones and sinews of generations were already mortgaged for its payment. It would be regarded as very outrageous, indeed, were an old man to advocate the propriety of cutting his neighbour's throat, and mortgaging his great-great-grandchildren for the payment of the penalty; and yet something very similar was what the Government had been all along doing. "Our armed peace," as he called it--which swallowed up the respectable sum of L. 20,000,000 a-yeara sum which, had it been expended on agriculture, would have been of immense benefit to the country. In fact, the nations of Christendom, during a time of peace, had paid more for war than would have bought the whole of Great Britain-this great garden of the world.

But how were these things to be better managed? That was an object which could never be obtained, unless means were taken to get rid of those dissensions which had been engendered and fomented between the middle and working classes by a third party. Were that accomplished, they would soon make the House of Commons, in very deed, the people's House. In the House of Peers, there were only 47 members who had not relations in the army, the navy, and the church. They, therefore, had always a strong majority for war, and keeping up the church, with all her numberless abuses. The aristocracy married and got children like other people, and it behoved them to provide places for their growing sons, who were in due time amply provided with good berths and high salaries. But it was not in the House of Peers alone that the army and navy were represented; for out of the 658 members of the House of Commons, there are no fewer than 356 officers, or their immediate connections; 5 marquesses, who were the eldest sons of peers; 63 lords, the sons of peers and Irish lords; 103 brothers, sons, or immediate relatives of peers; 56 baronets, related to the aristocracy; 26 eldest sons and immediate relations of baronets; and 85 landed proprietors, married to sisters, daughters, etc., of peers. Thus, with the standing majority in the House of Lords of 200, and a standing majority in the People's House, they had in both Houses 709 persons banded together for official extravagance. That certainly was a stout majority arrayed in favour of their own interest, and against the people's rights. But a good time was coming. The people suffered severely, and had suffered long; but a better spirit was rising among them--a determination to obtain honest retrenchment and reform.-CHARLES GILPIN.

Liberty has now need of peace, because it is the progress of mind, and for the progress of mind there must be peace.-Thiers.

PRO BONO PUBLICO.

BY H. G. ADAMS.

27

PRO BONO PUBLICO! each hour a voice
Cries in the market-place-"Rejoice! rejoice!
For I have found a treasure beyond price,
That which will cure all ailments in a trice,
Subdue all ills to which the flesh is heir,
And raise you up to health e'en from the bier:
Come, freely buy, and be it understood,
My aim is only for the Public Good!"
PRO BONO PUBLICO! the cry is rife,
Heard o'er the tumult of our daily life;
Heard o'er the din of battles, and above
The ceaseless whirl where myriad shuttles move;
It runs through all the councils of the State,
Through every tavern, every street debate;
Whate'er men do or say, 'tis understood
Their aim is only for the Public Good!
PRO BONO PUBLICO! 'tis all the rage.
Like the deep chorus of the Grecian stage,
It cometh in whene'er the say is said,
Whene'er the deed is done-the hero dead-
And points the moral, and adorns the tale;
And naught we do or say can aught avail,
Unless we have it clearly understood
Our aim is only for the Public Good!

PRO BONO PUBLICO! And is it so?

Is the deep fount from whence our actions flow
So free from worldly taint-so purified
From aught that's unto selfishness allied,
That we may thus such large profession make,
And to ourselves such mighty credit take,
Striving to have it clearly understood
Our aim is only for the Public Good?

PRO BONO PUBLICO! Alas! alas!
If this be so, how cometh it to pass
That such a strife and struggle goeth on,
Wherein the weak are crushed and overrun?
That plenty here, there wretched want prevails?
That pleading wretchedness in vain assails
The ears of some, who'd have it understood
Their aim is only for the Public Good?

PRO BONO PUBLICO! to all and each [preach-
Of such as write, and speak, and work, and
With this great principle for aye in view-
Give as is meet the praise and honour due;
But unto those who raise the cuckoo cry,
And as a preface to the words-" Come buy!"
Let us declare-" It is not understood
Your aim is only for the Public Good!"

PRO BONO PUBLICO! no greater aim
The Christian Patriot's energies may claim;
No nobler watchword for the bands who press
Onwards to teach, to humanize, to bless:
Raise it aloft! it is the battle-cry

Of those who strive 'gainst wrong and misery;
Assist, support, and say-" "Tis understood
Your aim, indeed, is for the Public Good!"
Rochester.

The total number of brewers in the United Kingdom, in 1849, was 2,460. The number of victuallers, 88,465. The number of persons licensed to sell beer, "to be drunk on the premises," 34,606. The number of persons licensed to sell beer, "not to be drunk on the premises," 3,400.

THOUGHTS ON THE NEW YEAR.

ADDRESSED TO

BY H. J. DANIEL.

WHEN I look back upon the time that's gone, And feel again what I have borne,-I see The Present is no prophet, dearest one,

Of what the Future hath in store for me.
My love for thee was stronger e'en than death
In those dark years for ever roll'd away,
And now without thee what were life or breath?
My living idol thou from day to day.
A thousand knees may bow at beauty's shrine,
A thousand lips with song may hail its birth;

The soul alone can render love divine,
The one bright angel only seen on earth.
Another year! These words have little weight
With earth's mad millions as they struggle on,
Who vainly try to check or change their fate,
Till the dream vanishes, and life is gone.
The world is one vast change from great to small,
Though in mine eyes as beautiful thou art;
Time seems to spare thee 'mid the wreck of all,
And passes with a spell upon his dart.
How fair each pencill'd arch above those eyes
That shine on me like stars! they have a voice,
A silent voice, of unheard melodies,

Which ever makes the bounding heart rejoice. Thy open brow-the ivory throne of thought

Is yet unwrinkled by a single care; [brought, And to thy cheek the Past no change hath The rose, unfaded, blossoms freely there. Around those lips (and such might angels press) In witchery still those Hebè-dimples play; And in thy smile the light of loveliness

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Comes like the dawning of a summer day. Say, must I vainly love thee as before, And view thee as some bright and glorious To which my fate will never let me soar, But stand and gaze a worshipper afar? Or will the passion of my soul prevail?

What is thy answer? Oh! in kindness speak; At every doubt I tremble aud turn pale, And shun, distractedly, the thing I seek. This love for what is lovely bringeth grief, The jealous grief that maddens us to feel; For where the gem is precious, there the thief Is the most likely to break in and steal. Another year! thus ebbs the tide of time, Sweeping its thousands from the human strand; Declining age, and manhood in its prime, The bright of spirit, and the strong of hand. h, Love! Oh, Beauty! fair, yet fatal things! Fairer to Evé than Eden's blissful bowers; But the dread serpent that deceiv'd her, flings His baneful shadow o'er your happiest hours. Smiles are the treacherous heralds of a tear, And joy is sorrow's cradle-we awake From hope's delirious trance from year to year, And noble hearts may only beat to break. Now fare thee well, dear lady of my love! Live bless'd, and brightly: be the darkness Still let me feel there is a Power above, [mine; Oh, Adeline! to guide my steps and thine.

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The first has been paid for nearly 140 years, in addition to the hundreds of thousands received in other ways by the great Duke and his successors. The first Duke of Grafton was one of Charles II.'s illegitimate children, and this pension, besides one of L.7,191 12s., payable out of the Excise revenues, has been paid above 170 years. The original Duke of Schomberg was a Dutchman, who fought at the battle of Boyne, and now, 160 years after, we are paying the same sum to another Dutchman, one of his descendants! The payment of the above three pensions absorbs the postage of no less than 2,473,800 penny letters, without deducting any of the expense!

Scraps.

SCRAPS-GEMS OF GENIUS.

John Wesley used to say, "No man can ride to heaven in a coach and four." It is the mind that maketh good or ill,

That maketh rich or happy, rich or poore; For some, that hath abundance at his will, Hath not enough, but wants in greater store; And other that hath little, asks no more, But in that little is both rich and wise;

For wisdome is most riches: fooles therefore They are which fortunes do by vowes devize, Since each unto himself his life may fortunize. -Spenser.

The belly is the Charybdis of the soul.— Diogenes.

Bad books, like intoxicating drinks, are poisons.

God's word and man's nature say, "Thou shalt not kill."

Crime is madness; madness is disease.Shelley.

Whenever you doubt whether an intended action be good or bad, abstain from it.-Zoroaster.

They are slaves who fear to speak
For the fallen and the weak;
They are slaves who will not choose
Hatred, scoffing, and abuse,
Rather than in silence shrink

From the truth they needs must think;
They are slaves who dare not be
In the right with two or three.

"What, Jack, are you not going to see the hanging to-day?" "No; I never go to such places," was the reply. "Oh! what a fellow you are-you never enjoy a holiday," was the rejoinder.

A distinguished authoress says she always makes it a point not to eat anything that can look at her.

Man-like it is to fall into sin;
Fiend-like it is to dwell therein;
Christ-like it is for sin to grieve;
God-like it is sin to leave.

It matters not how long we live, but how. The distraints upon the Society of Friends in this country, for church-rates and other ecclesiastical demands, last year amounted to L.10,000.

What is called taking care of the church is taking care of the bishops.-Rev. Sidney Smith. Temperance puts wood on the fire, flour in the barrel, vigour in the body, intelligence in the brain, and spirit in the whole composition of man.

Joy, and Temperance, and Repose, Slam the door on the doctor's nose. "What," said a lady, "do you think of Platonic love?" "Madam," replied the gentleman, "it is like all other tonics-very exciting."

Conceive of slaughter and flesh-eating in Eden!-Dr. Alcott.

Money-the largest shareholder in the world. Bachelor-a target for fair hands to shoot at. Boy-the first volume of an interesting work. Jealousy-one of the sours arising from having a sweetheart, or a spark thrown by Suspicion into the magazine of Love.

Wild ducks fly 90 miles an hour, swallows fly faster, and the swift 200 miles an hour.

Gems of Genius.

29

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever. All that we see of the universe is a spot imperceptibly small in the ample bosom of nature.

The philosophy of a thousand years has not explored the chambers and magazines of the soul.

Some thoughts always find us young, and keep us so. Such a thought is the love of the universal and eternal beauty.

Our globe, seen by God, is a transparent law, not a mass of facts.

As long as I hear truth, I am bathed by a beautiful element, and am not conscious of any limits to my nature.

Love is the odour of heavenly flowers. Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never is, but always to be blest.

The Gothic cathedral is a blossoming in stone, subdued by the insatiable demand of harmony in man.

Love is our highest word, and the synonyme of God.

Beauty is the flowering of virtue.

The only money of God is God. The only reward of virtue is virtue. The only way to have a friend is to be one.

Picture and sculpture are the celebrations and festivities of form.

Life is a morsel of frankincense, burning in the hall of eternity.

Prayer is the soul's sincere desire,
Uttered or unexpressed-

The motion of a hidden fire

Which trembles in the breast.

The faculty of genius is the power of lighting its own fire.

We never can be deathless till we die. It is the dead win battles.

Know then this truth-enough for man to know

"Virtue alone is happiness below."

Gratitude is the music of the heart, when its chords are swept by the breeze of kindness. Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.

The real value of the Iliad, or the Transfiguration, is as signs of power-billows or ripples are they on the great stream of tendencytokens of the everlasting efforts to produce which, even in its worst estate, the soul exhibits.

Glory is like a circle in the water,
Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself,

Till, by broad spreading, it disperse to nought. What stronger breastplate than a heart untaintThrice is he armed who hath his quarrel just; [ed? And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel, Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted. Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste death but once.

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THE IMMORTALITY OF GENIUS.

BY WESTLAND MARSTON,

LET the body perish! Not with its decay
The life and office of true greatness ends;
Its inspiration dwells enshrin'd in act.
A statue's silence is the sculptor's voice;
A painter's immortality resides

In his own forms and objects. Attitude,
Expression, light, and shade, the tint so fine,
It half eludes the eye-for earth retain,
In death's despite, his soul! And he, around
Whose pathway lingered haunting harmonies,
Spirits of beauty tenanting a sound,-
Lives in his record of their ministry!
Poets and sages thus perpetuate
Their being in the words that, age by age,
Fulfil their lofty ends! Their speech sublime
Inspires the general heart; their beauty steals,
Brightening and purifying, through the air
Of common life; the patriot wakes the soul
Of apathetic nations with their breath

To freedom's energies; their language gives
Voice to love's mysteries; the evening hearth
Grows shrine-like, when is hymned their holy

chaunt

Of social concord; and their pathos speaks
With a friend's accent to the desolate!
The thought that they were men, makes other

men

Exult in manhood; and Eternity,

Preaching Hereafter to the world, attests
Her Gospel by their deeds! And thus the sons
Of Genius have prerogative to stand
Exempt from time's decree; immutable
In change! Though since they were inurned
States have sprung up, and died; barbaric lands
Acquired refinement, or realms civilised
Relapsed to old barbarity; albeit,
Since they trod earth, the far posterity
Of empires, then unknown, in darkness sleep;
Though marvels of their day have dimly waned
To vague tradition; luxury destroyed
The fresh simplicities of primal life,

And added wants to nature's; science ploughed
Earth's once calm brow in furrows, or proclaimed
New worlds in space;-still the perpetual Few
Survive in what theywrought, and sit enthroned,
Tutelar Spirits of Humanity!

HINTS AT EFFORTS FOR MORAL

REFORM.

We venture to suggest that the following are very desirable objects which men denominated Moral Reformers may aim to accomplish:

I. To abandon the usage of intoxicating liquors entirely, and to persuade others to abandon them-defending such practices on the simple principles that they are not necessary, since the greater proportion of the human race do not use them; that they are the chief fountain from which issue the evils of modern society; and that they are dangerous, if not deleterious.

II. To abandon all appeal to arms ourselves, and to aim at the creation of a public thought and opinion for the disarmament of nationsfor the holding up the soldier's trade as most

solemn and dreadful-and for the cultivation of kindly dispositions, actions, and words.

III. To determine never ourselves, if possible, to behold the public strangling of any human being; to express our belief in the dreadful outrage committed by all such punishments on natural religion, Christianity, humanity, and social order.

IV. To use, as far as is within the range of our power, sugars, coffees, and spices from free hands and soils; and to determine that our backs shall not, if we know it, be degraded by wearing cottons produced beneath the curse of heaven by the lash of the overseer on the fields of slavery.

V. Incessantly to hold before the people the true origin and source of their power, as derived not from governments at all, but resident in a strong will emancipated from intemperance of every kind, and intelligence enlightening the will.

VI. While deprecating the Political and Trades' Unions of the old or present time, show how combinations may exist amongst virtuous labourers for the purpose of wise accumulation of property, and wise expenditure of the accumulation.

VII. Three good and great auxiliaries to social and moral improvement might be aimed at. 1st, The establishment of a People's College in every town, or every large town, for the purpose of communicating systematic knowledge and graduated intelligence to the people. 2nd, A Young Man's Home in every town, for the purpose of providing good and respectable lodgings-a place of assembly and rational but real amusement at a lower rate, for apprentices and young men without an independent home. 3rd, Two Sabbaths, one for God and one for man, in the course of the week.

VIII. Disseminate a grand and rational idea of Freedom, not absence of and independence of LAW, but the ascertainment of the highest law-God's law--and the privilege of becoming happy by living in unison with it.

IX. Disseminate the freedom of personal convictions-the right of private judgement in all matters-the right of personal actions in all matters not interfering with the civil safety of others.

X. Disseminate the great idea of consistency -a body acting in unison with a soul-a life not divided against itself, and let this be regarded as indispensible for every reformer.

XI. And finally, hold and disseminate the great idea of life, and the world as a training in a school beneath the eye of that Great Teacher, God; and let this doctrine be at once a faith, a consolation, and a destiny.-From the Moral Reformer's Almanac.

Education is a mental railway, beginning at birth, and running into eternity. It is the true key to the wishes of the soul.

Elihu Burritt is now prosecuting his Peace Mission amid the scenes, friends, and associations of his native country. He evoked a hearty he not long since made the anvil ring with the and soul-moving reception in Worcester, where strokes of his hammer. He now makes Europe ring with the music of his fame.

THE MONTH.JANUARY.

ALMANAC OF NATURE-JANUARY, 1850.
Cloathed all in frieze,
Chattering his teeth for cold that did him chill;
Whilst on his hoary beard his breath did freeze.
-SPENSER.

SILENT, monotonous, and solemn is the great
hall of winter. Its walls are of grey snow,
propped up by the giant, bulky, naked forest-
trees, the knotted and iron elbows of which
stand out, black and strangely contorted, upon
the leaden roof of the sky. All around hang
strange pictures. Landscapes of ice and snow
stretching far away in wide sheets, and which,
when the sun peeps out, so dazzle and confuse
the sight by their strange white glare, that we
stand gazing in strange bewilderment; and
when we think how all life seems to have fled

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left, but which are now black and hard, and un-
palatable. Now and then the poor sheep pause
from their cold labour of burrowing, knee-deep,
amid the snow for food, and utter a plaintive
bleat.
sometimes for hours together in the fields make
The death-like silence which prevails
even the low, muffled rumbling of the waggon,
startling sound.
when it comes along through the deep snow, a
Of the few birds which haunt
the fields during this month, the little Kitty
These go hopping about almost as gaily as in
wren and the robin are the most interesting.
the brightest days of summer. A very barba-
rous custom formerly prevailed of hunting the
wren on St. Stephen's Day, and in many parts of
the slaughtered bird on an ivy bush, decked
Ireland it still continues. The children exhibit
with ribbons and various colours, and carry
them about singing-

The wren! the wren! the king of birds!
The best of all that live in the furze;
and collect money to bury the wren. Mr. Yarrell
mentions that it was the boast of an old man
who died at the age of a hundred, that he
hunted the wren for the last eighty years on
Christmas Day. There are very few plants in
flower at this season. The daisy, that "never
dies," bespangles the mossy knolls when the
snow melts away. There are still some berries
left upon the holly and mistletoe, and several of
the mosses and lichens are in great beauty. On
old walls and palings may usually be found the
yellow tremella, a shining, yellow, jelly-like
substance, quivering in the sun like a feeble
lamp. Insects are usually torpid in this month.
Caterpillars, grubs, and maggots are sometimes
found in the pupa state, buried in the ground,
or hidden in secluded places. Snails shut them-
selves up for the season by means of what is
called an operculum, a shell-like substance just
large enough to fill the opening of the shell.

from the earth, and how much work Spring will have to do to prepare for the Summer, hope almost dies within us, and we shrink from the chilling aspect in a mute despair. Yet even the scenery of winter is beautiful. If the season is mild as at present, it has not the magic charms which the silent fingers of that cunning worker, the frost, traces over every shrub and tree, wrapping every leaf and flower in a net-work of delicate embroidery, and putting together in one silent night all manner of wild landscapes, mountains, gorges, precipices, steep acclivities, with mighty overhanging pines ready to drop down into the gulf below, making frothy oceans upon the window-panes, and glittering stalactites upon the leafless branches of the trees. But even in the most intense frosts nature still continues at work. Under the vast winding sheet in which the earth is wrapped, the seeds silently swell and burst, and when the first glimpse of Spring sunshine appears, thousands of little green buds appear, struggling to get out into the air and sunlight, and looking askance from beneath their scaly coverings to see if Spring is at hand. Upon the frosted branches the few winter birds sit huddled together; little troops of fieldfares shivering, and shrinking close into their feathers for warmth, and looking with hungry eyes upon the few withered berries which the storms have The planet Venus is a morning star during the month. The planet Mars is in the constellation Taurus during the month, and is visible throughout the night. The planet Jupiter is in the constellation Virgo, and visible throughout the night. The planet Saturn is in the constellation Cetus, and is an evening star during the month.

T 1 The dis. of Sun fr. Earth this day is 93,408,000 mls.

W 2 The Moon in Leo. Lauristinas in flower.

3 Chimonanthus fragans fl. Moon near Jupiter.

4 Hamamelis fl. Moon in Virgo,

5 Garrya elliptica fl. Kitty Wren sings.

We subjoin an Almanac of Nature for this month, in which the occurrences of the season are enumerated in the order in which they will occur, and as near the exact day as possible; also the Birth-days of Distinguished Men.

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B. C. 106

F

Sir Jos. Banks. Natural History,

1743

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Su

6 Leaves of Tunbridge fern appear.

6 B. Franklin. Social Philosophy.

1706

M

7 Cricket (Acheta Domestica) chirps.

P. Wesseling. Philology.

1692

T 8 Yellow tremella on palings. Moon in Libra.

8

J. Ribera (Spagnoletto). Art.

1588

W 9

Th 10

F 11

S

12

Su 13

Screw moss (Tortula muralis) prod. seed. Moon
Alpha Arietis souths 6h. 39m. p.m. [in Scorpio.
Groundsel & dead-nettle fl. Flights of starlings.
Moon in Sagittarius. Gold-crested wren appears.
Helix virgato on blades of grass.

9

T. Brown, M.D. Metaphysics...

1778

10

G. Birkbeck. Mechanics' Institutes.

1776

11

12

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13 J. H. Eckhel. Numismatics..

1737

M 14

Scotch crocus fl.

14

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W 16

Moon in Aquarius. Leaves of Umbellifera ap.

16

Th 17

Pleiades south at 7h. 52m. p.m.

C. E. Thion de la Chaume. Medicine. 17 J. C. W. G. Mozart. Music.

1750

1756

F 18

Winter aconite fl.

18 Baron Montesquieu. Jurisprudence.

1689

S 19

Aldebaran souths 8h. 32m. p.m.

19 James Watt. Steam Engine.

1736

Su 20

M 21

Sun enters the sign Aquarius 8h. 20m. a.m.
Christmas rose fl. Poà trivialis fl.

20

J. J. Barthelemy. Clas. Antiq.

1716

21

L. P. Anquetil du Perron. History.

1723

T 22

Winter furze (Ulex nanus) fl.

22

Lord Bacon. Philosophy.

1561

W 23

Autumn lichens disappear.

23

Jos. Ames. Antiquities.

1689

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Capella s. 8h. 51m. p.m. Moon occults Aldeba-
Moon in Taurus near Mars. [ran 1h. 32m, a.m.
Rigel s. 8h. 44m. p.m. Moon in Gemini.

24

C. J. Fox. Politics.

1749

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Su 27

First snow-drop appears.

27 Duke of Sussex. Patron of Art.

1733

M 28

Length of Day 8h. 52m.

23 C. A. Helvetius. Metaphysics.

1715

T29

Beta Tauri s. 8h. 42m. p.m. Moon in Leo.

29 E. Swedenborg. Theology and Science..

1688

W 30

Moon near Jupiter.

30 W. S. Landor. Imaginary Conversations, &c.. 1775

Th 31

Mars sets 5h. 5m. a.m. N.W.

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