’seemed to rack her frame almost beyond her power of endu-

‘ that it looked like a bird’smest.

one «botanist wetsuit,

AMERICAN NOTES FOR GENERAL CIRCULATIONV at CHARLES DICKENS, ssqoias.

st'rcn or was: Msssacnnsa'fl's Avatint roa nu: Bums—l went to see this place one very fine motor morn- ing; an Italian sky above, and the air so clear and bright on entry side, that even my eyes, which are none of the best, could follow the minutest lines and scraps of distinct drapery in the distance. Like most other public institutions in America, of the

‘ some class, it stands a mile or two without towu, in a cheer-

ful healthy spot; and is an airy, spacious, handsome edifice. It is built upon a height commanding the harbour. When I paused a moment at the door, and marked how fresh and free the whole scene was—what sparkling bubbles glanced upon the waves, and swelled up every moment to the sur- face, as though the world below, like that above, were radi- ant with the bright day, and gushing over in its fulness of light; when I gazed from sail to sail away upon a ship at sea, a tiny speck ofshining white, the only cloud upon the still, deep, distant blue—and, turning, saw a blind boy With his sightless face addressed that way, as though hetoo hadsome sense within him of the glorious distance, I felt a kind of sorrow that the place should be so very light, and a strange wish, that for his sake it were darker. It was but momen- tary, ofcourse, and a mere fancy, but I felt it keenly for all that.

The children were at their daily tasks in different rooms, except a few who were already dismissed, and were at play. Good order, cleanliness. and: comfort, pervaded every corner of the building. The various classes, who were ga- thered round their teachers, answered the questions put to them with readiness and intelligence, and in a spirit of cheerful contest for precedence, which ,pleused me very much. _

Those who were at play, were gleesome and nmsy .a other children. More spiritual and affectionate friendships appeared to exist among them than would be found among otheryoung persons suffering under no deprivation, but this .I expected and was prepared to find. It is a part of the great scheme ofllenven’s merciful consideration for the afliicted.

In a portion ofthe building, set apart for the purpose, are workshops for blind persons whose education is finished, and who have acquired a trade, but who cannot pursue it in ordinary manufactories because oftheir deprivation. Seve- ral people were at work here; making brushes, mattreSSes, and so forth; and the cheerfulness, and industry, and good order discernahle in every ether part ofthe building, extend- ed to this department also.

Tin: Bum) GIRL—l sat down in another room, before a

girl, blind, deaf, and dumb; destitute of' smell, and nearly so Oftaste—a fiiir young creature with every human faculty and hope, and power of goodness and affection, inclosed within her delicate frame, with but one outward sense—the sense of touch. There she was, before me; built up, as it Were,in a marble cell, imprevious to any ray oflight, or a particle ofsouud ; with her poor white hand peeping through a chiiik in the wall, beckoning to some good man for help, that an immortal soul might be awakened. 1. I have extracted a few disjointed fragments of her history, from ,an account written by that one man who made her what she is. It is a very beautiful and touching narrative ; and I wish lcould present it entire.

Her name is Laura Bridgman. She was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, on the 21st of December, 1829. She is de- scribed. as having been a very sprightly and pretty infant, with bright blue eyes. She was subject to severe fits, which

rsnce ; and life was held by the feehlcst tenure ; but when a year and a halfold, she seemed to rally, the dangerous symp- toms subsided ; and at twenty months old, she was perfectly well.

which I dare say she had been reading an account of her own presentation at some Foreign Court.

I have been thus particular in describing her because she will serve to exemplify the physician’s manner of acquiring and retaining the confidence of his patients.

‘This,’ he said aloud, taking me by the hand and adv?“- cing to the fantastic figure with great politeness—not raising her suspicion by the slightest look or ivliisper, or any kind ofaside, to me; ‘this lady is the hostess of this manston, SI_I'- It belongs to her. Nobody else has anything to. do With it. It is a large establishment, as you see. and requires a grefl‘ number of attendants. She lives,.you observe, in the very first style. She is kind enough to‘ receive my visits, and {0 permit my wife and thinin to resule .here; for which It IS hardly necessary to say we are mnchpidebted to her. Site is exceedingly courteous, you perceive’fou this hint, 5-!3 bowed condesceiidingly—‘and will permit me to have the pleasure of introducing you; a gentleman from England, ma’am: newly arrived from England, after a very tempes- tuons passage : Mr. Dickens—tlie'lady of the house."

We exchanged the most dignified salutations With 'pro- found gravity and respect, and so went on. The rest of thc madwomen seemed to understand the joke perfectly (not only in this case, but in all others, except their own,) and to be highly amused by it. The nature of their several kinds ofinsanity was made known to me in the same_way, and we left each other in high good humour. Not only ten thorough confidence established, by these means, lietwoeirpliyswiau and patient, in respect ofthe nature and extent of their hal- lucinations, but it is easy to understand that opportunities are atlbrded for seizing any moment of'reason to startle them by placing their own delusion before them in its most incon- gruous and ridiculous light.

stcmo AMONG THE I.Uu.t'rics.—Onre a week they have a ball, in which the Doctor and his family, with all the mir- ses and attendants, take an active part. Dances aiul marches are performed alternately, to the enlivening strains ofa pi- ano; and now or then some gentleman or lady (whose pro- ficiency has been previously ascertained) obliges the com- pany with a song; nor does it ever degenerate, at a tender

crisis, into a screech or howl; wherein, I must confess I should have thought the danger lay. At an early hour they all meet together for these festive purposes; at eight o’clock refreshments are served; and at nine they separate.

Immense politeness and good breeding are observed throughout. They all take their tone from the Doctor; and he moves a very Chesterfield among the company. Like other asseinblies,these entertainments afford a fi‘uittul topic of conversation among the ladies for some days; and the gentle- men are so anxious to shine on these occasions, that they have been sometimes found practising their stepsin private, to cut a more distinguished figure in the dance.

MADMEN A'I' TABLE AND AT \VoaK.——Every patient in this asylum sits down to dinner every day with a knife and, fork, and in the midst of them sits the gentleman whose manner ofdealing with his charges I have just described. At every meal, moral influence alone restrains the more vio-

efi'ect ofthat influence is reduced to an absolute certainty, and is found, even as a means of restraint, to say nothing of it as a means of'cure, a hundred times more efficacious than all the strait-Waistcoats, and fctters, and handcuffs, that ig- norance, prejudice and cruelty have manufactured since the creation ofthe world. "In the—labour department, every p2» tient is as freely trusted with the tools of his trade as if he were a sane man. In the garden, and on the farm, they work with spades, rakes, and hoes. For amusement, they g walk, run, fish. paint, read, and ride out to take the air in car- .

holds meetings, passes resolutions, never comes to fisty cuffs

It is very remarkable, that as we dream in words, and car. ry on imaginary conversations, in which we speak bothfor ourselves and for the shadows who appear to usin those visions of the night, so she, having no words, uses her finger alphabet in her sleep. And it has been ascertained that when her slumber is broken, and is much disturbed by dreams, she expresses her thoughts in an irregular and con- fused manner on her fingerszjust as we should murmur atid mutter them distinctly, in the like Circumstances.

I turned over the leaves of her Diary, and found it written in it fair, legible, square hand, and expressed in terms which wore quite inelligible, without any explanation. On my saying thatl should like to see her write again, the teacher who sat beside her, bade her, in their language, sign her name upon a slip ofpaper, twice or thrice. In doing so, I observed that she kept lierlelt hand always touching, and following up, her right hand, in which, of course, she held the pen. No line was indicated by any contrivancc, but she wrote strait and freely.

She had, until now, been quite unconscious of the pre- sence of visitors; but, having her hand placed in that of' the gentleman who accompanied me, she immediately express- ed his name upon her teacher‘s palm. Indeed, her sense of touch is quite so exquisite, that having been acquainted with a person once, she can recognize him or her after almost any interval. This gentle'uau had been in her con'ipany,l believe, but very seldom, and certainly had not seen her for many months. My hand she rejected at once, as she does that of any man who is a stranger to her. But she retained my wife’s with evident pleasure, kissed her, and examined her dress with a girl‘s curiosity and interest.

She was merry and cheerful, and showed much innocent playfulness in her intercourse with her teacher. Her de- light on recognizing a favourite playfullow and companion -—herselfa blind girl—who silently, and with an equal on- joyment of the coming surprize, took a seat beside her, was beautiful to witness. It elicited from her, at first, as other slight circumstances did twice or thrice during my visit, an uncouth noise which was rather painful to hear. But on her teacher touching her lips, she immediately desistcd, and embraced her laughingly and affectionately.

I had previously been into another chamber, where a number ofblind boys were swinging, and climbing, and en- gaged in various sports. They all clamored, as we entered, to the assistant-master, who accompanied us, ‘ Look at me, Mr. Hurt! Please, Mr. Hart, look at me !’ evincing, I thought, oven in this, an anxiety peculiar to their condition, that their little feats of agility should be seen. Among them was a small laughing fellow, who stood aloof, entertaining himself with a gymnastic exercise for bringing the arms and chest into play; which he enjoyed mightily; especially when, III throwing out his right arm, he brought it into contact with another boy. Like Laura Bridgman, this young child was dent; dumb and blind.

Ye who have eyes and see not, and have ears and hear not; ye who are the hypocrites ofsad countenances, and disfigure your faces that you may seem unto men to fast; learn healthy cheerfulness, and mild contentment, from the deaf, and dumb, and blind! Self-elected saints with gloomy brows, this sightless, earless, voiceless child may teach you lessons you will do wall to follow. Let that poor hand of her’s lie gently on your hearts; for there may be something in its healing touch akin to that ofthe Great Master whose precepts you misconstrue, whose lessons you pervert, whose charity and sympathy with all the world not one among you in his daily practice knows as much as many of the worst among those fallen sinners, to whom you are liberal in nothing but the preachment of perdition.

Asl rose to quit the room, a pretty little child ofone of the attendants came running in to greet its father. For the moment, a child with eyes, among the sightless crowd, im- pressed me‘slmost as painfully astho blind boy in the porch had done, two hours ago. Ah! how much brighter and more deeply blue—glowing and rich, though it had been

fore—was the scene without, contrasting with the dark- ness of so many youthfiil lives within!

A Quaint Man Woman—Leaning her head against the chimney, with a great assumption ofdignity and refinement ofinanuer, sat an elderly female, in as many scraps offinery as Madge Wildfire herself Her head, in particular, was so strewn with scraps ofgauze and cotton, and bits of paper, and had so many queer odds and ends stock all about it,

She was radiant with imaginaryjewels; wore ’a rich pair of undoubted gold spectacles, and gracefully dropped upon

or bowie-knives, as sane assemblies have been known to do elsewhere; and conducts all its proceedings with the great- est dccoruni. The irritability which would otherwise be expended on their own flesh, clothes, and furniture, is dissi-

healthy.

IRISIIMEN IN AMI:itiCA.——They are brothers, those men. Qne crossed the sea alonc,aud working very hard for one halfyear, and living harder, saved funds enough to bring the other out. That done,tliey worked together, 'side.by side, contentedly sharing hard labor and hard living timeline- ther term, and then their sisters came, and their" ‘another brother, and, lastly, their old mother. And what now? Why, the poor old crone is restless in a strange land, and yearns to lay her bones, she says, among her people in the old grave-yard at home : and so they go to pay her passage back: and God help her and them, and every simple heart, and all who turn to the Jerusalem oftheir younger days,and

NIGHT IN NEW Yeats—But how quiet the streets are! Are there no itinerant hands; no wind or stringed instru- ments? ‘No, not one. By day, are there no Punches, Fantoccinis, Dancing-dogs, Jugglers, Conjurors, Orches- trians, or even Barrel-organs? No, not one. Yet, I remem- ber one. One barrel-organ and a dancing-monkey—sportive by nature, but fast fading into a dull, lumpish monkey, of the Utilitarian school. Beyond that, nothing lively, no, not so much as a white mouse in a twirling cage.

A New NIE’I‘HOD or CAULKING‘VESSELS.—Qillte recently, the Lords Commissioners ofthe British Admiralty submitted an invention to a committee of master Shipwrights, at Wool- wicli, that promises to accomplish all that could be desired in respect to the security of life and cargo from. leakages, unless a sudden concussion, by striking on a rock, should ac- tunlly burst in n plank. A series ofexperiments were insti- tuted, to prove that no caulking was ever necessary. In stuffing the seams, the ordinary practice, the edges ofthe planks are glued together by a composition that is insoluble in water, and so prodigiously adhesive, that when once united, the planks will part anywhere sooner than where the two were joined together. Two pieces ofAfrican teak, an oily wood, diflicult to glue, when stuck together by the new article, applied in a boiling state, could not be separated on the artificial line ofiinion. They were tried with bolts and screws in a testing frame, and the povver ofan hydraulic engine to the extent ofnineteen tons exerted—but tliey were not sundered.—Tlie chain broke, yet on the closest inspec- tion, no relaxation of the seam could be detected. A large chain, one inch and a halfiu diameter, was applied, whizh also broke under a strain oftwenty-one tons. In a word, no discovery is yet made of the exact resisting power ofthis extraordinary kind of water proofglue. Four pieces of hard wood were next joined, which, in the'whole, weighed four hundred pounds. This was carried to the top of' the dock yard shears, and thrown down, seventy-six feet, on a hard granite wharf, without at all altering the condition of the seams. Very many other experiments, one large scale, were efl‘ectually made, which completely satisfied the com- mittee of the exceeding value ofthe discovery. This caulk- ing material is made ofIndia Rubber and shelldac, dissolved in naptha. It is neither an expensive article, nor difficult to prepare. IVhen small vessels are plunked on the stocks, the joints being well fitter], the edges are plentifully coated with the hotglue,nnd then pinned to the ribs in the usual manner. Small boats may be made as tight as though they were ex- cavated froma single log. Large vessels, when buildini', should have the planks glued as much as possible. Altai?- wnrd, when caulked in the common way, the boilinnr glue is put on plentifully, and thus binds it in forever, besitlies hold- ing the wood, where the edges touch, so snuvly, that they will resist the strongest hydrostatic pressure t: which they are ever exposed. ,

SPIRITUAL Pseas.—The new sect of Christians, the Ply- mouth Brethren, bave now two Peers of the realm among their teachers---Lords Congleton and Teynham.

THE EXTRAORDINARY ELOPEMENT.—I\II‘. Benjamin Hall the poor fellow who was lately induced to marry the youndr lady Miss Brooke, at Mirfield, under such extraordinary circ- cunistances, was, two weeks ago, wandering about the Isle ofMan in search of her. in a most destitute condition. The circumstances ofthis strange wedding, and the means adopt- ed to carry off Hall’s wife by force, will be still fresh in the memory of our readers. It is supposed that she has been

her lap as we approached, a very old greasy newspaper, in

carried off to America.----Lecdc mes.

we sincerely hope that such a state path in Ihese Pumuim They are cheerful, tranquil and none. Speaking of prisons, it occurs to us that it now ap«

- pears to be high tice ofi:nprisoning for debt were altogether done away with. Public opinion has, of late years, to it, and, for our part, we see no reason why the people of this Island should be longer deprived ofthe immunities aris- ing from a well-digested Bankrupt Law. iieigliouring Colonies of British North America have, we be-

necdless for

cases of iiiSolvency ; but we shall not no

traits which these gentlemen have take and heSitnte not to pronounce thei accurate likenesses ever executed

eye, and the most delicate shades of the co

since visited the Establishment, an

UNITED STATES.

THE MARY Roosas’ Mrs'rsax EXPLAINED.---Tlle terrible mystery which for more than a year has hung over the fate of Mary Rogers, whose body was found, as our readers Will well remember, in the North River, under circumstances such as convinced every one that she was the victim ofhel- lish lust and then of murder, is at last explained, to the sa- tisfiiction, we doubt not, ofall. It may be recollected that, associated with the tale of her disappearance, was the name oers. Loss, the woman who kept the refreshment house nearest the scene of her death. About a fortnight since, as we have already stated, this woman was accidentally wound- ed by the premature discharge of a gun in the lnindsrofber son : the wound proved fatal ; but, before she died, she sent for Justice Merritt, ofNew Jersey, and told him the follow- ing fiictszu-On the Sunday of Miss Rogers’s disappearance, she came to her house from the city, in company with a youngphysician, who undertook to procure for her a pre— mature delivery. Wliile iii the hands ofthe physician she died, and a consultation was then held as to the disposal of her body. Mrs. Loss, and sunk in the river, where it was found. Her clothes were first tied up in a bundle, and sunk in a pond on the land of Mr. J. G. King,'in that neighbourhood; but it was afterwards thought they were not safe there, and they were accordingly taken and scattered through the woods as they were found. The name of the physician is unknown to us, nor do we know whether it was divulged or not. The Motor has been made acquainted with these facts by Mr. Merritt, and we doubt not an immediate inquiry after the guilty wretch will be made. The son of Mrs. Loss, as an accessory after the fact, we suppose, will he~--if he has not already been---arrested. No doubt, we apprehend, can be entertained ofthe truth ofthis confession; It explains many things connected with the affair which before were wrap- ped in mystery-«especially the apathy ofthe mother of Miss Rogers upon the discovery ofher body. It will be remem- bered that she did not even go to identify it, and made no inquiries concerning the amine—New York Tribune.

_ cm colonial—inseam. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1842.

Although it is now nearly a fortnight since the arrival at Halifax ofthe first December Mail—and although our Har-

bour still continues partially open—we are again compelled to go to press without a particle of foreign news from any

quarter—the couriers having hitherto been unable to cross

the Strait, owing to the quantity ofloose ice or lolly floating in the Gulf, and extending to a considerable distance from the shores of this Island.

Last Tuesday’s Gazette contains a Proclamation of His

Excellency the Lieut. Governor, convening the Legislature

lent among them from cutting the throats ofthe rest ; but the "l. lhls 15mm] for the disPatCh 9/. busmf“ 0" TueSdi‘)’ the 24th January next. -

Ills Excellency the Lieutenant Governor in Council has been pleased to order that a public Thanksgiving be offered

up to Almighty God, to-morrow (Sunday), in all Churches and Chapels in this Island, “ for the late abundant Harvest in the Parent Kingdom, and for the gifts of his Providence in this Colony.”

It is with sincere p easure we announce that ,the‘re

riages provided for the purpose. They have among them. gore in the Common Jail ofthis town, at the present moment, selves a sewing society, to make clothes for the poor, whip], pnly five prisoners confined on criminal charges, and not one