Original Poetry.

ELEGY

To the Memory of the late

THOMAS KIRBY,

Of Humberston, near Grimsby.

Beneath these elms which shade the house of death

(Where darkness spreads her terror color'd plume,

And blasts earth's trembling grandeur with a breath,)

With musing thoughtfulness Iwander through the gloom.

I pause-I sigh-and silence swells my heart,Imagination fluttering, struggles to get free;To ancient times on fancy's wings I dart,

Look 'yond the grave and future ages see. While sorrow's murmurs roll like yonder wave, And nature quivring, sinks appalled by fear, Respect to Kirby points to Kirby's grave,

And bids me pay the tribute of a tear.

I knew thee well, and well I marked thy worth, Thy generous soul, thy sympathy and love; Those buds which thou hast planted here on earth,

Shall bloom unwithering in the climes above.

But, ah! how lacerated nature bleeds,

And weeps the loss 'neath which she now must bend;

The loss of all those fond endearing deeds Which speak the husband, father, brother, friend!

Let splendid greatness rear her column high,
And idly decorate her sculptured head,-
Let faithless muses place her in the sky,
And flattery's tintings o'er her shadow shed.
To thee on memory's tablet deep eungraved
The loved eulogium of affection's praise,
Shall ever live, by flowing sorrow laved,

And in each breast a kindred feeling raise.
Thy widow writes thy virtues with her tears;-
Thy sons, and daughters bow around thy

shrine:

They trace thy acts, thy love, thy well spent years,

Revere each trifle,-that was ever thine. And friendship, too, in lively glow of truth,

Its genial glow casts o'er thy sacred shade, Its flitting beams play round on age and youth, And this last scene with solemn awe pervade. Respect, when leaning o'er thy tomb shall say Here lies a man who virtue's paths pursued ; And gratitude in honest sighs repay,

The varied blessings thou around hast strewed. If thou art hovering round with eyes of light, Behold my heart, and on ine once more smile! If spirits can enjoy an earthly sight, Approve my strain unmixed with sordid guile. T. S. D.

Leeds.

EPITAPH ON A YOUNG LADY.

Meek were her manners, mild were all her ways,
But yet how small the number of her days,
Cut like a flower in her youth's full bloom,
By early sorrows ripen'd for the tomb;
Like as the budding rose by kanker slain,
Drops from its stalk no more to rise again.
The tender parent, neighbour, friend, she prov'd,
And died lainented as she lived beloved.
Ye great, ye proud, ye learned, and
ye brave,
Her ye must follow to the silent grave.

"Ah, little did I think in time that's past,
By summer burnt, or numb'd by winter's blast,
Delving the ditch a livelihood to earn.
Or lumping corn out in a dusty barn;
With aching bones returning home at night,
And sitting down with weary hand to write;
Ah, little did I think, as then unknown,
Those artless rhymes I even blush'd to own
Would be one day applauded and approv'd,
By learning notic'd, and by genius lov'd.
God knows, my hopes were many, but my pain
Damp'd all the prospects which I hop'd to gain;
I hardly dar'd to hope.-Thou corner-chair!
In which I've oft slung back in deep despair,
Hadst thou expression, thou couldst easy tell
The pains and all that I have known too well:
'Twould be but sorrow's tale, yet still 'twould be
A tale of truth, and passing sweet to me.
How oft upon my hand I've laid my head,
And thought how poverty deform'd our shed:
Look'd on each parent's face I fain had cheer'd,
Where sorrow triumph'd, and pale want ap-
pear'd;

And sigh'd, and hop'd, and wish'd some day
would come,

When I might bring a blessing to their home,-
That toil and merit comforts had in store,
To bid the tear defile their cheeks no more.
Who that has feelings would not wish to be
A friend to parents, such as mine to me,
Who in distress broke their last crust in twain,
And though want pinch'd, the remnant broke

again,

And still, if craving of their scanty bread,
Gave their last mouthful that I might be fed?
Nor for their own wants tear-drops follow'd free,
Worse anguish stung-they had no more for me.
And now hope's sun is looking brighter out,
And spreading thin the clouds of fear and doubt,
That long in gloomy sad suspense to me
Hid the long-waited smiles I wish'd to see.
And now, my parents, helping you is sweet,-
The rudest havoc fortune could complete;
A piteous couple, little blest with friends,
Where pain and poverty have had their ends.
I'll be thy crutch, my father, lean on me;
Weakness knits stubborn while its bearing thee:
And hard shall fall the shock of fortune's frown,
To eke thy sorrows, ere it breaks me down.
My mother, too, thy kindness shall be met,
And ere I'm able will I pay the debt;
For what thou'st done, and what gone through

for me

My last-earnt sixpence will I break with thee:
And when my dwindled sum won't more divide,
Then take it all-to fate I'll leave the rest;
In helping thee I'll always feel a pride,

Nor think I'm happy till ye both are blest.

New Books.

TRAVELS IN PALESTINE.
By J. S. BUCKINGHAM,

Member of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta, &c.

We make the following extracts from the above travels, conscious that every thing relating to this once interesting country, will prove highly interesting to the readers of the sacred writings, inasmuch as they are calculated to illustrate and explain them.:-In reference to Jerusalem the author says

The appearance of this celebrated city, independently of the feelings and recollections which the approach to it cannot fail to awaken, was greatly inferior to my expectations, and had certainly nothing of grandeur or beauty, of stateliness or magnificence about it. It appeared like a walled town of the third or fourth class, having neither towers, nor domes, nor minarets within it, in sufficient numbers to give even a character to its impressions on the beholder; but shewing chiefly large flat-roofed buildings of the most unornamented kind, seated amid rugged hills, on a stoney and forbidding soil, with scarcely a picturesque object in the the whole compass of the surrounding view.'

Indeed it may be said, Jerusalem is no more. What exists on its site, serves only to preclude or to mislead topographical inquiries. Not a vestige remains of the city of David; not a monument of Jewish times is standing. The very course of the walls is changed, and the boundaries of the ancient city are become doubtful. The supposed mount Calvary' is said to have been levelled, and the brook of Kedron is for the most part dry. Even if the natural advantages of the situation were greater than they are, and the modern town had more architectural grandeur or picturesque beauty to aid its effect on the spectator, it would still be a melancholy, a revolting prospect.

The author sailed from Alexandria on christmas day 1815, in a vessel called a Shuktoor, and landed within the Laver of Soor, the ancient Tyre, at which place he had an opportunity of

observing a female divested of her outer robes; in reference to which, he says

Her garments then appeared to resemble those of the Jewish women in Turkey and Egypt: the face and bosom were exposed to view, and the waist was girt with a broad girdle fastened by massy silver clasps. This woman, who was a christian, wore also on her head a hollow silver horn, rearing itself upwards obliquely from her forehead, being four or five inches in diameter at the root, and pointed at its extreme; and her ears, her neck, and her arms were laden with rings, chains, and bracelets. The first peculiarity very forcibly reminded me of the expression of the Psalmist: "Lift not up thine horn on high, speak not with a stiff neck." "All the horns of the wicked will I cut off, but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted." Similar illustrations of which, Bruce had also found in Abyssinia, in the silver horns of warriors and distinguished men. The last (peculiarity) recalled to my memory the species of wealth which the chosen Israelites were commanded to borrow from the Egyptians, at the time of their departure from among them, and of the spoils taken in their wars with the Canaanites, whom they dispossessed, when it is stated, that many shekels of silver and gold were produced on melting down the bracelets, the earrings, and other ornaments of the women and children whom they had made captive. Most of the women that we saw, wore also silver bells, or other appendages of precious metal, suspended by silken cords to the hair of the head, and large high wooden pattens, which gave them altogether a very singular appearance.'

Sepphoury, termed by Josephus, the capital of Gallilee, is now a small village, and the inhabitants he describes as Mahommedans. It lay on his left in his way to Nazareth. When he arrived at Nazareth, he found it a decent village, containing about 200 neat houses, and a handsome mosque, which lays on the southern side of a steep hill, overhung with the rocky emiuence from which Mr. B. supposes they threatened to cast our Lord.

The valley in which it stands is round and concave, as Maundrell bas described it, and is itself the hollow of a high range of hills; but I could per

ceive no long and narrow valley opening to the east, as mentioned by Dr. Clarke; nor does it indeed exist; the whole valley being shut in by, steep and rugged bilis on all sides. The Quar terly Reviewers were led by this misrepresentation to accuse D' Anville of having erroneously given it a different termination, and placed the city to the south-west of the hills which separate Galilee from the plains of Esdraelon. The fact is, that no such long and narrow valley is apparent in any direction, and that Nassara stands in the hollow of a cluster of hills; the north-western of which separate it from the plain of Zabulon, and the south western, from the plain of Esdraelon; while on the north-east are the lands of Galilee, and on the south-west those of Samaria.'

The mountain of the Precipitation,' is nearly two miles from the synagogue which they still shew as the one in which our Lord taught, and is almost inaccessible from the steep and rocky nature of the road. It is a precipice about thirty feet in height, on the brink of which are set up two large flat stones, edge ways, on which are skewn several round marks like the deep imprint of fingers on wax,' which are insisted on as 'the marks of Christ's grasp when he clung to the stone.'

6

That the excavated dwelling which is shewn as the residence of Joseph and Mary, was really theirs, is, says Mr. Buckingham, 'quite as probable' as that it should have been the dwelling of any other family.

On the top of Mount Tabor, amid a mass of ruins, are shewn three grottoes, said to be remains of the three tabernacles 'proposed to be erected by St. Peter, at the moment of the Transfiguration.'

Mr. B. gives his tour to the holy places, and although they cannot be identified, he points out the supposed bridge over the brook Kedron," off of which the Jews are affirmed to have pushed Jesus in his way to the house of Caiaphas; the large stone below, on which are shewn the impression of his feet in falling; the old tank and the large reservoir which contend for the honour of being Bathsheba's pool; the identical window of the identical castle out of which King David was looking when he fell in love with the wife of Uriah,—the said castle being evidently of Saracen execution; the stone from

which our Lady' ascended to heaven; the rock on which Peter and the sons of Zebedee slept while their Master retired to pray; the paved way where Judas betrayed him with a kiss; the sepulchre of Lazarus; the spot on which Martha met our Lord in his way to Bethany; the grotto where the Apostles compiled the Creed, &c. &c.

"The possession of this spot, (the cave of the Nativity at Bethlehem,) once so mean and insignificant, is now disputed by contending sects of Christians with the same rage and animosity as that which marks their struggle for the Holy Sepulchre. During the last Christmas only, at the celebration of the feast of the Nativity, at which Mr. Bankes was present, a battle took place, in which several of the combatants were wounded, and others severely beaten; and on the preceding year, the privilege of saying mass at the altar on that particular day, had been fought for at the door of the sanctuary itself, with drawn swords.

..Pococke observed in his time, that the Christians at Jerusalem, Bethlehem, St. John's, and Nazareth, were worse than any other Christians. "I was informed," says he, "that the women of Bethlehem are very good, whereas those at Jerusalem are worse than the men, who are generally better there than at the other places. This may be occasioned by the great converse which the women have there with those of their own sex, who go thither as pilgrims; and I will not venture to say whether too great a familiarity with those places in which the sacred mysteries of our redemption were acted, may not be a cause to take off from the reverence and awe which they should have for them, and lessen the influence they ought to have on their conduct."'

Our limits will only allow us to give one more extract in reference to Jehoshaphat, which the author describes as lying eastward of Jerusalem.

'We now entered that part of the valley of Jehoshaphat, properly so considered by the Jews; it being a deep ravine between the foot of Mount Moriah on the west, where the temple of Solomon once stood, and on which the eastern front of the city walls now lead along, and the foot of the Mount of Olives on the east, commencing from that part of the same hill described before as the Mountain of Offence. In the

rainy season, this narrow bed is filled by a torrent which is still called the Brook of Kedron; but it was at the period of our visit perfectly dry. This confined space is nearly covered with the grave-stones of Jews, with inscriptions in Hebrew characters; as it is esteemed among them one of the greatest blessings, to end their days at Jerusalem, and to obtain a burial in the valley of Jehoshaphat. For this purpose, the more devout among them came from distant parts of the world, and it is certain that immense prices are paid by them for the privilege of depositing their bones in this venerated spot.'

SOUTH AMERICA.

The following is extracted from a letter which has just been received from Lima, dated September 10th, in order to afford our readers an idea of that country, with the customs of its inhabitants:

"Lima is what an Englishman would call a dirty colonial town; 6,000 inhabitants is the outside of its population: the whites are about 1,200 Europeans, and not as many born in that country: the rest are blacks and mulattoes. Of the mulattoes there are eight various shades. I never saw such a wretched herd as Lima incloses, more poverty than in any town of the size in the world. There are some few splendid houses, but the rest is disgustingly filthy, that you cannot go into them without being covered with dust and vermin. The streets, as in all American towns, run at right angle: a powerful stream of water runs through the town; the town is capable of great improvement. The climate must be bad, for the whole population look as if turned out of the hospital for a day's air: a half-born race-melancholy in their faces. On the whole coast of Peru, we made the same observation-the ague is very general with fever-their habits and manners of living increase the evil : nights very cold. I sleep under a heavy blanket and could bear another-a thick fog prevents the sun from coming out in winter; the heat, however, is not excessive during the summer: on the whole, not an oppressive climate, if the people had any idea of living in a

rational way. Very few people cook at home, they buy their greasy messes boiled in the street in pulpereas and in the squares: not six families in Lima that have wine on their tables; they drink brandy at all hours, and excuse themselves for not having any thing expensive by saying, that it gives the ague: the same person who denies himself a glass of wine, will lay twenty boubloons on a card in the evening.Their money goes in gambling, debauchery and dress; every woman high and low has her price; a lady takes no offence at her family being exposed; she tells you she is quite as good as her neighbour and needs be no better.

The miserable state of this people seems incredible-one must see to believe it. Scarcely a young lady can read or write, or use a needle; few houses that the Devil has not appeared in; and a devout lady is accompanied in her carriage by the Virgin Mary.Thus is ignorance imposed upon by knaves as for priest-craft, it reigns in all its glory; a third part of Lima is covered with churches, some of them very splendid.

Wheat is selling by retail at 16 dollars the fanego of 156 lbs.--American flour 24 dollars-duty on flour 6 dollarsIndustry and every thing else necessary to the prosperity of trade will be ruined: the consumption and demand for the Sierra or Cordillera country, is all to Lima-the town a mere nothing - people in Europe have the most erroneous ideas of Peru; every traveller and historian who has written or talked about it, ought to be made stand in the pillory for a liar.

ARICA, the second port of Peru, and the great outlet to Upper Peru, is a wretched village of hovels covered with mud-about 400 Mulattoes and Indians -placed on a sand-bank-the people all in the ague-not a boat or ship of any sort the harbour master came off on a bulsa (two bladders lashed together*) paddled by an Indian-we could not get a basket of fruit or vegetables for money-their cultivation was three leagues off, but they were too lazy to fetch any thing, though a seventy-four and a frigate lay-to 20 hours, offering them any price for their tropical fruits. 1LO-a few ranchos and little church; population all Indians; no water nearer

Inflated skins of Oxen.

that five leagues.-Goods are landed here for Arequipa, 55 leagues off over frightful road; and four days thence to Cusco-roads worse if possible.

NASCO-here not a trace of house or settlement nor vegetation-we afterwards heard there was a village at some distance behind a sand-hill.-CANETE— a village of Ranchos; population Indians and Mulattoes, near a brook.-PISCO-a large place, mud-houses; all blacks; here is a country with a deal of produce in wine and sugar, all in ruins, by the liberating army of Chili.

Multitudes of trading adventurers will soon appear here from Europethey will be miserably disappointedcharges and expences run away with every thing-house-rent and fire require a fortune-I hire a small room for twelve dollars a month, and sleep on the ground-borrowed a chair, and bought some crockery, No such thing as a tavern; never was. Letters of no use; no one asks me to his house-I go to bed at eight o'clock to kill time. Play twice a week; the most fashionable ladies stand up in the front boxes and light a segar by the chandelier-the house filled with smoke.

There are 82 titled families, mostly idiots, all reduced to poverty by the emancipation of their slaves. If the war be continued a year, Pera will be the most wretched country on the globe; indeed the Indians will regain their empire and exterminate all other colours. The number of blacks in the viceroyalty is estimated at 70,000-25,000 in Lima and the adjacent villages; the total population of Peru about 3 millions -3 fourths Indians.

About the town there are many fine gardens, with pretty country houses. Provisions of all sorts excellent, and in the greatest variety, fruits of all climates in the market place, the produce of the sea-shore, and the Cordillera beef and mutton excellent, the chief supplies come from Jauja and other valleys in the Cordillera. The sea-shore produce is confined to little valleys badly culti vated those about the town would disgrace the free negroes of Carolina. Most valuable land a league from the town, half abandoned and half cultiva. ted; every thing left to starved slaves; such famished objects 1 never beheld — no other hands to cultivate. When emancipation becomes general, they will not work, and famine must ensue.