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"The LAUNCH or A FIRST-RATE. ‘IBy Campbell.) Etienne hails thee with emotion," ' , i ' Miglitiost child of'iiiivnl art,

euven resounds thy welcome! Takes thee smiling to his heart.

Oceaa‘

Giant oaks of bold expansion, O'er seven hundred acres fell,

All to build thy noble mansion, Where our hearts ofoak shall dwell.

Midst those trees the wil, Ages long ere we were And our great-grundflflher Many a jovial huntingihom. Oaks that living did inherit Grandeur from our earth and sky, Still robust, the native spirit ln your’timbe'rs shall not die.

Shi to shine in martial story,

- 'IPbou shalt cleave the ocean’s path,

Freighted with ‘Britannia’a glory, And the thundcrs of her wrath.

Fool shallcrowd their sails and fly thee, Threatening havoc to their deck,

When afar they first descry thee, \r Like the coming wltirlwind’s speck.

Gallant bark! thy pomp and beauty, Storm or battle ne‘er shall blast,

Whilst our tars in pride and duty Nail their colours to the‘ toast.

..»1

SKETCHES OF THE IRISH PEASANTRY._ , Hitherto, also. little has been thought of tlte import- ance of the Irish language. as a key to the heart. of the

pealantry—that heart which occupies so large a part of

their nature, that it is made tlte seat of all their ailments, and was the’excnse given for their former habit ofdrun- kenttess. But England is at fast beginning to open her eyes to this great instrument for the improvement of Ire- land; and there is, we understand, iii the North of Ire- land. one excellent llohleln‘lli, Lord George lldl, who has recently learned to speak Irislt with this very View, and we ripcerely wish his example was followed generally. Let’it be remembered that a conrnon tongue is one great bond appointed by iiziture to draw men’s hearts together; that although sufficient English may be acquired by the peasantry for mere business, English is wholly inade- quate to expreSs the natural warmth and quickness of Irish feeling—that the Irish is identified with all their old and most gratifying associations-«that there is a wide difference between iistng a language so as to be under- ltood by others, and understanding it well ourselves—- and that instead of perpetuating a barbarous language, the use of Irish will tend to preserve from destruction many, most valuable records of interesting history, and finally. as it has proved iii the case of the Gaelic. will render the English prevalent, by encouraging a love of learning, The author of‘Sketches iii Ireland,‘ bwven In anecdote which we gladly transcribe: i “ A shower of rain drove us to seek shelter in the hut ofthe man who looks after the peasants (on Lord Ban- try’s domain.) He ivas alone; and with all the civility that never deserts an Irishman, he welcomed us iii God’s name, and produced stools which he took care to "tvipe with his great coat before be permitted us to sit on them. ‘ . , “Oainqitiring from him, by he was alone, and where were his family, he said they ‘were all gone to the Watch- Mass (it was the Saturday before Easter day.) ‘And what is the \Vatch-Mass’l’ He could not tell. ‘ And what day will to-morrow be 1’ He could not tell. ‘ Vthtl cannot you tell me why yesterday has been called Good Friday and to-morrow Easter Sunday 1’ ‘No !’ Turn- ing to my companion, I was moved to observe, with great emphasis, how deplorable it was to see men. otherwise so intelligent, so awfully ignorant concerning matters connected with religion. ‘ Not so fast with your judg- ment, my good sir,’ said my frietid; ‘ what if yourshoultl tore mistaken in this instance concerning the know- edge of this man: recollect that you are now speaking to him in a foreign tongue. Come, now, I understand enough of Iriin to try his mind iii his native dialect.’ Accordingly he did so: and it was quite surprising to see how the mad-$83 soon as the Irish was spoken, brigh- tened up in con," chance; and I could perceive frotn the gentile that play; on the face of my friend how be rejoic- in the reali’iation of his prognostic; and he began to ‘ ,_ nsl <‘1fogsne as follows:

1"" asked him what was GoodiFriday? It was on that 'day'the Lord of Mercy gave his life for sinners; a bun- dred thousand blessings to him for that. What is Watch- Saturday'l It was the day when watch was kept over the holy tomb that held the incorrnptiblc body of my sweet Saviour.’ Thus the mart gave in Irish, clear and feeling answers to questions concerning which, when ad-

- dressed in English, he appeared quite ignorant; and yet of common English words and phrases be had the use;

but, like most of his c trymen in the south, his mind

was roping in foreigifis when conversing in English;

and. eonly seemed to! Pk iii—Irish. The one was the language offlmmerce, the other of his lieurt."—Skctclics p. all.

The AFFGHANS are a confederacy of tribes who iii- habit the barren, cold and mountainous region between Persia and the British possessions in India, all speaking one language. professing one faith, atid acknowledging one Shah, or king. They first figured itt history iii the reign of Nadir Shahrwheu they invaded Persia en masse. They were defeated by the Asiatic Napoleon in one grand decisive battle, on the issue of which the fate ofthe two kingdoms was staked. It may be remarked, that Nadir was one ofthe best generals any nation or any age ever produced. and that his army was the best in the world, inhis time, whether as it regardsmatcrial, discipline or valor. Nadir subdued the Afl‘gbans, incorporated them with his troops, and. by their aid, accomplished the con-

est of India. Persia has sadly degenerated since the

'I'ya'ofNadir and Age Mahommed; btit not so the Ali‘- ‘Ii _ They are bold, athletic mountaineers, who have . flipliue of their own and fight iii masses. They are uhactjua’inted'with moderrt improvements iii the art of 1hr; but, physically, they. far superior to arty British troops that can be sent I [nit them. 'I he nature of their country, too, gives: ' a decided advantage over an inrfiling army. 'The English Will_not find them Chi- nese; t or are the Circassiaits of India. ‘

- AN unmitier WITH A LIONESS. . From an article iti‘ Bentley’s Miscellany, entitled

‘ Hours in Hindustan,’ we quote the following itnpresstve details of an adventure with a lioness. They are related by the sufferer himself, Mr. Atldison:-‘- ' ' >“I was quartered high up the country, commanding (detachment, at least fifty iniles from any other Euro- ‘ pean. ,V'Myiotily recreation was lion hunting, which I occasionally indulged in, and succeeded in destroying several of these superb animals, which were lit-'l’e so nu- merous and so bold as often to approach gay tents, and

“ I was thus amusing myselfone morning, wall mount- ed on a fleet Arab, followed by a dozen men on foot. and armed with an unerring rifle, when one of my people suddenly discovered the pritit of a lion’s paw in the sandy plain over which We were passing, apparently in- clining towards a deep jungle, sortie tivo‘h'undrcd yards iti advance oftis. I instantly dismounted to examine the foot marks, and was carefully tracing' them, wheri'a sudden cry ofterrur made me look tip. I did so, and beheld in front‘bf me a triagnificent lioness, which had suddenly bounded out ofthe covert. No: a moment was to be lost. I sprang towards my horse; mysvca, how- ever, alarmed by the appearance ofthe queen of beast8. had quilted the rein, and before I could reach_bim, the frightened animal was halfacross the open space. My servants bad all fled. I was left alone. The lioness was lashing her sides with her tail; she was evidently meditating an attack. I had but one resource left. Afr ter vainly calling on my servants to return and supprrt me, I levelled my rifle, and. just as she rushed forward, fired. For a single instant Livas not quite sure whether Ihad hit her or not. She suddenly halted, threw up her head. and gave a terriflic roar. I was now convinced she was wounded; btit alas! seemingly not in any mortal path. She glared on me. Human nature could stand on tnore. I threw down my giiti, and foolishly overcome by fear, I lied. In another second I was conscious of ntyxerror. I heard her come printing along close behind me. It was all over with me; I knew my fate was scal- ed. I threw myself down; the lioness actually, iii her haste to overtake nie. sprang upon me. I heard a shot. and a piercing cry from the animal told me she was again bit; but I did not once dare to look tip to see how seri- ou.~ly.

“After about halfa minute, I could not resist the temp- tation, the desire I felt to read my doom. I slightly turn- Pfl my head, only the least in life, and behold the liollt'é'S licking her ptw, through which a bull hail evidently passed, the blood was also flowing copiously from her j‘ltV," where my discharge ll’ltl in the first instance taken it ect. She was sitting on her li'iiiuchtrs iii evident agony. No sooner, however, did she perceive the very slight movement which I had made, than she sprung tip. and iii the next moment I I‘I‘II her teeth penetrate my back bone, while one ofber claws tore my left shoulder bare of flesh; tn the next she lifted me. off the ground, and carried the forward. This. however. was evidently an effort to her. Her wounded jaws refused to meet; but still she held the, screaming, struggling, praying for death, tightly in her teeth; she bore me on with the same ease with which she would have raised a kitten". I shout- ed to my servants to fire. It seems they feared to do so, least by accident they might destroy me instead ofthe animal. Alas! little did they know my feelings at that moment! Instant death, a releasc from tie excruciating torturesl was then suffering, would have been the great- est favour they could have conferred on me.

“ Thus wasl carried for about a hundred yards. wheh, overcome by pain, the lioness dropped the, and lying down, began to lick the blood which streamed from my Wounds. I could feel her rougn tongue as it passed along the bitten parts, and tore open the tooth marks. l could‘fcel her warm breath as she placed her mOlllh‘tt) my lttcerated shoulder. wound in my throat, to which she was close, and I knew all would be over. I even attempted to turn over to her, to offer it to her jaws. She placed her paw on the bare bone ofmy shoulder, and rolling me back. added ano- ther, and, if possible, a more acute pang, to my suffer- ings. Again she began to suck up my blood as I lay groaning beneath her.

“My servants, I supposed, rallied, and alarmed her; for she suddenly once more started tip, and making her teeth meet in my left arm; began to drag me away. Good Heavens! I feel even at this moment the same agony I then endured. Iii recalling the tortures of that instant, I almost fancy I again experience the pain she caused me as she dragged the along, evidently hearing me towards her lair, to feed her whclps. Sulfurng as I was, I knew all this; I read my doom and slitidderetl at it. Twice did the flesh break away from my arm, and twice did she renew her savage hold on me, and that so powerful, that she succeeded in getting me inside the jungle. Hero she paused, unable from pain to proceed further. Two or three shots were fired at her without success. At length, finding her situation perilous, and her prey likely to escape, she retired a few paces, and determining on one effort, raised herself, and, opening her litigejaws, suddenly bounded on me. I felt her teeth, but they closed not; I felt her whole weight oti me, btit she stirred not. In the next moment I heard a human voice. I was released from the ponderotis load, and lifted up—tlic lioness lay dead at my feet.”

OPENING on THE CIIESTS BEQUEATHED 'ro THE UNI- VERSITY or UPSALA BY KING Gusravus III.—Somn time since, we adverted to the circumstance, that iii l79l. Gustavus III. ordered to be deposited among the archives of the University of Upsala, two sealed chests, with injunctions that they should not he opened uiitil fifty years had expired, to be calculated from the day of his death; and then only in the presence of the assent- bled senate, and the municipal and judicial authorities ofthe city. This ceremony, it has boon some time an- nounced, was to take place on the 29th ult., and much curiosity has been felt, and much speculation hazardctl as to the nature of their contents. \Ve are now enabled, from a letter iii the Times, to give the particulars‘of this pompous and ridiculous piece of mystification 1—“ At eleven o’clock on the morning of the 29th, the commis- sion appointed for the purpose. consisting of the Vice- Chancellor, Rector, and professors of the University of Upsala, together with M. Sarte, the Governor of the pro- vince, assembled in the consistorium, and there opened a box containing the keys of the chests; along with these were found the following autograph instructions of King Gustavus respecting his bequest, which will be found to give a general view ofthe contents oftheches -' —‘ Iii giving my papers to the library ofthe Untver , -' ofUpsala, I think I am saving from destruction {itchy curious and interesting anecdotes of my reigri,’which must otherwise have remained secret, siitce the respect due to living personages would have forced me to destroy papers which might cause them vexation, but which, after the lapséof fifty years. can hurt no one, thouab they will throw much additional light on the historybe the time'. These papers are of'various kinds—partly let. ters, partly memoirs, partly trifles, partly projects handed in to me; many regard court festivities in my youth, and the beginning of my reign, invented, some by myself some 'by my family and others about the court; bui which Serve to show the taste and manner of life at. the time, There are also letters from foreign sovereiUnS. and from ladies with whom I became acquainted while abroad; of these in particular there are a great tnanv written by three clever and noble Frenchwomen ; name).

carry of our provisions.

_..t

y, Armande Septimannieer de Richillieu. Countpss

~

. . . ‘ ‘ . Y One gripe more, one Single ‘ing ofthese Clifififflilnellllllg would transpire as to the l. .

chillieii, who relieved" Genoa, and took ,Mn}10£l;’i?:fié: the most polished gentlemen of the. courts 0 inc?“ of the 14th, l5tli,g§ttrid16tli; her mother was a pr . d m the house of Lorraine, and she herself was marine thP the Comte d’Eguton, grandee of Spain; she die in.h I; autumn of I773. The second is Henriette do harm. {rile de Boufleers, known for her taletttszber. learnitig,ll0r’.

friendship of the late Prince de Lou“, and for raging been the first Frenchwotnan who crossed over toNotidg- land after the peace of I763. The third is N. Me Noaille, Comtesse de la Marque, daughter qfthe old In: réchal de Nonille. who commanded the I'rench‘arniies un‘der Loudvich XIV. attd LoudVIch XV., and who won the battleofDeuia. She is the Widow of the last Coulnt de la Marque, son of him who was ambassador attitpa court ofKiitg Charles XII. The title ofthe Count e a Marque has been brought by his daughter by his hyst marriage into the house of Aremberg. from the ladies are most of the letters. All these papers lie in the great- est disorder; but almost all those from .my youth up to I73“ are placed in the black trunk which is at the bottom ofllie chest. In this are the letters of my blessed father, those written to the Queen Dowager from my family, those from the Kings of France,_LoudVIch XV., XVI, front the Kings 'of Prussia, Spain. 51M“, together Wilt‘ll/ many papers concerning the revolution; letters R. . Count Carl Scheffer, in answer to those written by the to him, which originals were returned to me. ' after the Count 'Schefl'er’s death. by High Marshal Count Carl Botide, and which are to be found in a separate enclo- sure in the great chest. VVben those papers are ope'u'd, fifty years after my death, it is my Will that the Uiiivcr sin find some learned man, well known for his taste and love of history, to arrange, bind, and preserve them, alone with the Palmschcnld collections, iii a dry l’notn-IU the library. Should any one desire to write memoirs ofth life, or cause anything to Imprinted which may be thought curious, I should reg-1rd liis‘purpose With pleasure. Irt the meantime. I leave the university-a new pledge ofthe love I have ever borne to that institution which I directed duritig my youth, and which now, during the minority oftny son, I have taken more close- ly in my ri‘gttrd. I wish that my successors on the Swedish throne may ever cherish the same affection ‘for a foundation so useful and so honourable for the realm.——GUSTAE‘. Palace ofStockbolm, June 23. I783.” Front the ctirisistoriuui the Committee proceetletl‘ to the Gustaviautim (or part of the oltl ltbfary in which the chests were preserved), where they were met by the rest of the University authorities and the guests invited to attend. Soon after the doors were thrown open. as many ofthe students and the public as could find room were admitted. The two chests tvcre fastened and rivetted to the wall by a heavy iron chain, so that a smith was tie- cessary to commence the proceedings; after his labours were coded, the smaller chest was lifted off the greater one, and this latter was opened first. The contents of both chests are sufficiently iudipnted in the King’s letter, and the examination ofthe particulars as set forth by the writer only confirmed the first. irtipression oftheir tinim- portance. He tlitis continues :‘—“ Front the above it would seem that the world has been cheating itself for the last fifty years with the 'expectaiiou that on the open-

secret springs of conspiracy by which Gustavus III. lo.<t his life. Side by side with this expectation, a con- fused bitt very general report bad sprung tip, that a cer— tain high personage, not content to wait halfa century, had anticipated the stipulated time, and made a judicious selection from the contents of the clies’ls, prior to their being given over to the custody of the University. Tlll' apparent result of the ii'ivestigations has not at all dimi- nished this report; on the contrary, it has parsed into a belief, and those who, a week or two back, only doubted, are llflW sure that the Duke of Sundcrinania, when Re- gent. took care to abstract everything, criminatory to himself from among the papers in question. Without (it tempting to decide on a question which seems likely to remain an historical riddle for ever, it may be remarked, that as far as the autograph instructions tiftlic King go, (see above). it does not appear that we have any good cause to expect to find any papers of a date later than ITSS, when the bequest was made and the instructions signed, and though the King, on receiving his mortal wound, four years afterwards, may have added to the papers before iuclosed in the chests,during his suffer- -itigs, which were prolonged above ten days, yet, in the absence ofany positive proof that such was the case, we are ltardlyjustified in branding the name of King Char"- les XIII with so foul an imputation as is itnplied in the abstraction of these papers; since, if this be taken for granted, it seems impossible to acquit him of being nc-‘ ccssory to the murder ofliis brother. There is, besides, a curious circumstance connected with the matter, namely, ‘ All papers marked with a cross, or inscribed Freemasotis’ papers, must not be opened by any other than the reigning king of my family.’ A singular in- stance ofthe vanity ofhuman provisions. The family of Wasa are vagabonds on the earth, exiled front the land which their great ancestor raised outof the dust, fallen from his throne, because they had forgotten how to govern, and their place is filled by a child ofthe Frc‘nch Revolution. But many go so far as to say that these papers must be handed over to the Pritice Wasa, as the lineal descendant ofGnstavus; but prince or no prince, one thing is certain, he is not, nor ever was, ‘the reign- tng king ofthe Wasa family,’ and therefore cannot be the pefson pottited out in the instructions. Others, in des- pair, say, the papers must be kept close sealed for ever— a long-time: But it is not to be doubted that the govern- ment. if so inclined, might fairly exercise a right, which few, perhaps, would deny it to have, and settle the case of casuistry at once, by breaking the seals, tiitich iii the same way as Alexander treated the unmanageable Gor- dian knot; thus proclaiming, once for all, that the reign- ing family had not only succeeded to all the rights ac- tti:illy possessed by the former dynasty, but to those also which, fifty years back, it fancied it would possess at the present time. There is one thing to be said before this notice is closed. No reader can have failed to wonder at'the -marve||ous spelling ofthe French words in the King’s instructions, but this astonishment will surely be Increased when we say. that the whole Swedish docu- ment is as anomalous, both in construction and ortho- grapliy, as the French, with which it is so sir-antrer re- lieved—another proof. if any were needed, thataa man, not to say a king, may enjoy the reputation ofa great author Without even ktiowuig how to pell."——Athen¢um.