I readily admit, that many blanks occur in the lottery of mining, and that enormous sums have been lavished in the speculation; but it is not less true that, in many cases, "the magnitude of the object bears a fair proportion to the magnitude of the stake."'-vol. 1. pp. 310–314.

What we are at present most surprised at is this, that the Secretary has returned to England, while more glorious prospects, according to his own argument, were held out to him in Potosi. We cannot count the millions which he says were extracted from the bosom of the mountain since the original discovery of its riches, though we apprehend there would be no great difficulty in summing up the treasures which have reached England from the same source, since the establishment of the " Potosi, La Paz, and Peruvian Association." Amid the mining propensities which must absorb universal attention in the neighbourhood of such metallic attractions, it is pleasant to observe that the cause of education is not altogether neglected.

'An assembly was held in the chapel of the college, formerly the rich and gaudy church of the convent. Here the ceremony was opened by a Latin speech, delivered by one of the intended students, chiefly in praise of Bolivar and Sucre, whom all the speakers that followed, also made the theme of their discourse in Spanish. The prefect charged the governors and masters who were to be entrusted with the education of the scholars, to bring them up in a very different manner from that in which he himself and all his contemporaries had been brought up under their late despots. He recommended them to take example from the English nation, whose principles of liberality and tolerance had obtained them the respect and admiration of the universe. The clergyman who had been selected as head-master of the establishment, followed in an equally liberal strain, and exulted in the honour of his appointment to preside over the first institution for the instruction of the youth of his country in which their education was free, and not, as hitherto, subject to the blighting influence of a despotic will. Other speakers made honourable mention of Locke, Socrates, Newton, Canning, Plato, Boyle, Washington, Alexander the Great, Homer, and Nebuchadnezzar. When all were tired of speaking, which was not before all were tired of listening, the company withdrew from the church to the refectory, where, if the tables were not laden as luxuriously as in the days of the fathers, there was at least a repast sufficient to afford a couple of hours of genuine hilarity. The event which the party had met to celebrate was one of present joy and future hope to every body; it was, in truth, a grand epoch in the annals of a nation, which by its own persevering struggles had just emancipated itself from a state of the most abject slavery; and as the surest preventive against its recurrence, this first establishment for the free education of youth was founded in general joy and jubilee, under the conviction of the truth of their motto, which was selected from the works of l'Abbé de Mably:-L'instruction publique est sans doute la meilleure base des mœurs.'—vol. i. pp. 334, 335.

Our Secretary was now going on very gaily, writing home to his directors, not letters but despatches, in the true East Indian style, and giving the most glowing accounts of the existing as well as the probably future state of operations at Potosi, when he unfortunately

learned that the Company's Agent at Buenos Ayres had refused to accept any more of their draughts, and that in England, not only a call for the several instalments would be hopeless, but that some of the directors, holding a large number of shares, were unable to pay their first quota. This intelligence threw our Secretary for a time into the spleen; nevertheless it did not prevent him from enjoying himself as well as he could, under the distressing circumstances in which he was placed.

6th. I availed myself this day of a general invitation to dinner, given with unfeigned cordiality by Donna Juliana Indalesias, the rich widow of a man who, before the Revolution, was one of the first among the many wealthy merchants then residing in Potosi.

'Donna Juliana never omits daily attendance at mass, nor absents herself from any procession or particular ceremony of her church, and would consider it a crime to conceal her veneration for the images and paintings of saints which hallow and adorn her apartments. She also highly respects, and distinguishes from all her other friends, those whose peculiar calling it is to instruct mankind in the sacred doctrines of religion, seldom sitting down to dinner unaccompanied by a priest or friar, who have free admission to her plentiful table. That, however, which may excite suprise, because so seldom in accordance with ostentatious acts of devotion, is the fact, that she possesses the kindest heart in the world, and dispenses charity with true benevolence. She is known by the appellation of "La buena Cristiana," and never was distinction more deservedly bestowed.

'Donna Juliana, Cura Costas, (the respectable head of the church at Potosi,) Padre Francisco, (a Dominican friar, whose portly corporation excited in my mind a malicious suspicion of his being more accustomed to feasting than fasting,) were the party with whom, at two o'clock, I sat down to dinner. Three Indian girls, the children of old domestics, clean and tidy; an Indian boy, as may be sometimes seen in another "land of potatoes," shirtless, shoeless, and stockingless; a very fine negress slave, and an elderly woman, evidently the confidential servant, were the attendants.

In all families in Peru, the domestic service is performed by Indians, whose fidelity to their masters has been the theme of many writers; and from the great number of years which some of them have lived in families with whom I am acquainted, I believe the accounts to be generally correct. The honesty of these domestics is seldom tempted to a breach by the many articles of plate which are frequently to be seen scattered about a house, and even in the court-yard, where they are carelessly thrown to be washed, or sometimes to be scrubbed with sand or ashes. Before the Revolution, articles of gold, such as coffee-spoons, maté-cups, bombillos, (tubes through which the maté, an infusion of a Paraguay herb resembling tea, is drawn into the mouth,) were to be seen strewed in a similar state of indifference. It must, however, be confessed, that little pilferings are not very unusual amongst this poor, patient, and laborious class of people.

For nearly an hour, immense silver dishes were carried in and carried out, with the various compositions of our repast. The first course con

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sisted, as is usual in the country, of cheese and fruit, such as melons, apples, figs, chyrimoyas, tunas, membrillos, &c. Then came two or three kinds of soup or porridge, with rice prepared in different ways. After these were removed, there was no regularity observed in the courses; for, whilst some of the attendants carried off the dishes that had been helped from, or if not yet touched by us, that had remained long enough upon the table to gratify our view, others were at hand instantly to replace them : there was no opportunity given to remark, that

"There was the place where the pasty was not."

Each dish contained sufficient for a party of twice our number; and from every one I observed Donna Juliana take a large plateful, sometimes two platefuls, and, saying something in Quichua, hand them to one of her Indians, who placed them in a distant corner of the room.

When the more substantial subjects of the feast were discussed, then followed custards, and compotes, and sweetmeats, from which small portions were also taken, to be husbanded, as I imagined, for tomorrow's fare. A dish of very good potatoes, accompanied with very bad butter, concluded the dinner. When the cloth was removed, all the attendants, without any word of command, ranged themselves in a rank in the middle of the room, and suddenly dropping on their knees, sung or said aloud a grace that lasted full four minutes, in which the deep-toned voices of Padre Costas and Friar Francisco, nothing mellowed by their hearty meal and ample goblet of Cinty wine from the estate of our hostess, chimed in like bass-viols, whilst Donna Juliana, pressing her cross and beads to her bosom, her eyes devoutly fixed upon a beautiful painting of the Virgin and Child, which hung opposite to her in a large massive silver frame, accompanied the others in all the fervency of thanksgiving. A deep "Amen!" with the sign of the cross, as a benediction upon the company, by Padre Costas, ended this appropriate ceremony, in the solemnity of which the most obdurate heretic could not have refrained from joining

The servants now took away the plates which had been placed upon the sideboard, whilst Donna Juliana, in Quichua, seemed to give particular directions about each of them. I was curious to learn their destination, and, being on a footing of the most friendly intimacy with Donna Juliana and her father-confessor, my inquiry was answered-" to be given to the poor." Every day in the year, at two o'clock, several poor persons attended at the house of La Buena Cristiana, and took their seats upon the staircase; some of them, aware no doubt of the lenient disposition of their benefactress, encroached even to the door of the dining-room, where a scene rather unusual to a European, certainly to an Englishman, and one of interesting curiosity too, was daily to be seen,-that of a tribe of beggars, assembled en societé, in a respectable mansion, eating with silver spoons, out of silver plates and dishes, without any watch over the property, or even a suspicion of its being likely to be missing. In mentioning this daily charitable distribution-happy contrast to "the crumbs from the rich man's table!"—I must not forget to remark, that the reserved portions of sweetmeats were for the children who accompanied their parents; a trifling observation, perhaps, but it has its weight in describing the character of the venerable Lady Bountiful of Potosi.'-vol. i. pp. 378-383.

A good deal has been said of late in Parliament concerning the

wandering disposition of our brethren of the sister-island, and of their zeal for inflicting their industry upon England in particular. We were delighted to find from Mr. Temple, that Paddies are to be met with in all quarters of the globe, for sure we are that more meritorious labourers do not exist, than the brawny, cheerful, devilmay-care lads of Erin. We cannot resist the pleasure of transcribing our author's account of a rencontre, a most unexpected one, which he had with two or three Irishers, as the old acts of Parliament were pleased to style the sons of Hibernia.

Whilst I was sitting with several Indians in a ring round a fire, occupied in roasting some excellent potatoes, which I had selected from a large heap that had been just brought home, four travellers upon postmules trotted into the court, where a conversation, in a tone and emphasis not unknown to my ear, but at the time and place quite unexpected, commenced between three of them, in these identical words, so loudly uttered, that had my organs of hearing been naturally dull, I must have distinctly comprehended them :--"Death an' ouns, Pat! here's lots o' praties!""Ah! den, are ye in arenest?"—" Divil a word o' lie in it!" "Saze some of them for supper, for I see very well that this cantancrous baste of a mule is going to give me as long a job to get the saddle off as she gave me to put it on:-look at that now! (here the mule kicked and squealed.) Oh! the divil may squeal you!"-"I'll take a hatful o' them any way, Pat."-" Do, Christy dear, and put them on the fire." "Mind! have a care of your shins, or that long-eared varmint will be mighty apt to blacken them for you.”— '-"Oh, then, sweet bad luck to her for a mule! for a mule she is, and nauthing else but a mule! See there agin!” said Pat, as he jumped aside to evade the heels of his ticklish animal. It may be unnecessary to say, that I availed myself of the first opportunity to gratify my impatience respecting the little history of these travellers, which was related to me by Christopher Donoughoe in the following man

ner:

"Owen Flaherty and Paddy Curry there, left Ireland mere boys in the year ninety-eight, and went off to North Ameriky, and I followed after them shortly, so I did."-" But why did you happen to leave your country in the year ninety-eight ?" said I." Why, then, indeed, to tell you the truth as to that, we didn't like the times, and didn't think the Government was using us by any manes well, you see; and, wishing to have our liberty any way, we thought it best to get shut o' them altogether, and so with that we sailed away from Cork to New York, where we soon got work; for, being the whole of us bred to the carpenter's business, you see, we made' money aisy enough, and so there we stopped, till four years ago, when we thought to better ourselves, and sailed in a ship to Bonusairis where we got as much work as we pleased, and more money than ever we expected, till at last, thinking we could do better up the country, we left Bonusairis about two months back, and stopped at Salta, where we had a great notion to fix ourselves to plaze one Doctor Redhead, who immadiately, indeed, got us more work than we could do, but learning that the Governor of Chookysacky was carrying on great building in that city, and that he would give any money for artisans such as the likes of us, we thought it a fine time to see the country, and so we took to the post and come

on, and here we are, wid the blessin' o' God; and isn't it a rayel pleasure now to meet any body to spake with in these parts, where there's no understanding one word people say? I larnt, indeed, something of the Spanish in Bonusairis, but the devil o' one bit its' of use to me here, good, bad, or indifferent, for this bates all the languages ever I come across, so it does."

"Pray," said I, "what's your opinion of the country, and the people?" "Why, indeed, then, as in regard to that, you see yourself that it's wild enough any way; and as for the roads in these parts, with their ups and their downs, and their twists and their turns, they're every hair as crooked as the river of Kilcock; but then, after all, there's no want of any thing abody might need to keep himself from starving, and if a man minds his business, and stays at home, and looks to himself, do you see, there's no fear but he may do well; and, indeed, I dar'n't complain of the people, for though they're lazy enough, they're quiet, kindly cratures, and I never saw any harm in none of them, barring their language, which, as I said before, nobody can make head nor tail of but their ownselves, I suppose; how sever, take it all in all, a-body might go a dale farther, and fare worse, so he might, and that's the truth, so it is, is'n't it now, Paddy?” "Well, then, indeed it is," replied Paddy Curry.

"As you passed through Potosi," said I," you must have heard that an English Mining Company was establishing there; why didn't you inquire if there was work for you?"-" Oh! I hard all about it, and indeed we intinded to stop there, but just as we arrived at the post, this gentleman here (pointing to a Frenchman, who spoke a little English and a little Spanish, travelling in a mercantile capacity) was going to mount his mule at the door, and seeing we were foreigners like himself, I suppose, he saluted us like, and so I took off my hat, and says I, A fine day, Sir,' says I; Good-morrow to you, Sir,' says he; Good-morrow kindly, Sir,' says I. Who have ye got there?' says Paddy Curry to me, says he; Faith! I don't know,' says I; but he's a Christian any way,' says I; and wi' that we got all into conversation-like, and I axed him to step

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in, and take a sup. 'Wid all my heart,' says he: Come along,' says Ï, and then it was he tould us he was going on to Chookysacky, and that he knew the road well, and that it was a mighty fine place, and so we thought it a good job to take on with his opportunity, so we did, for we said to ourselves, we might come back again to Potosi aisy enough, if Chookysacky didn't plase us, and that would be time enough to deliver the letters."

"What letters?" said I. "Oh! nauthing at all, indeed, only a couple of letters of ricommendation concarning myself in private;" and taking two letters out of his hat, my surprise may be imagined, when I add, that they proved to be directed to myself. "I am the very person," said I, "that these letters are for!" "Ah! then are you? well, think o' that now! what crosses there are in this life! who'd a thought of meeting you so promiscously in such a place as this, above all places in the world?" The letters were one from a merchant at Buenos Ayres, the other from Doctor Redhead, at Salta, recommending the travellers as good carpenters, and sober, industrious men: the latter gentleman mentioned, that Christopher Donoughoe had left with him for safe-keeping nearly a thousand dollars of his earnings.