must not be omitted. The jailer of the press, he affected the patronage of letters-the proscriber of books, he encouraged philosophy -the persecutor of authors and the murderer of printers, he yet pretended to the protection of learning! Such a medley of contradictions, and, at the same time, such an individual consistency, were never united in the same character. A royalist a republican and an emperor -a Mohammedan Catholic and a patron of the synagogue-a subaltern and a sovereign a traitor and a tyrant—a Christian and an infidel — he was, through all his vicissitudes, the same stern, impatient, inflexible original — the same mysterious, incomprehensible self - the man without a model, and without a shadow. a S EXTRACT FROM THANATOPSIS. O live, that, when thy summons comes to join To that mysterious realm where each shall take Thou go not like the quarry-slave at night Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed Like one that draws the drapery of his couch A THE SMACK IN SCHOOL. DISTRICT school, not far away, When suddenly, behind his back, Rose sharp and clear a rousing smack! Let off in one tremendous kiss! "What's that?" the startled master cries; "Wath William Willith, if you pleathe- With smile suppressed, and birch upraised, Be guilty of an act so rude! Before the whole set school to boot- ""Twas she, herself, sir," sobbed the lad; THE FIREMAN. HE city slumbers. O'er its mighty walls Night's dusky mantle, soft and silent, falls; Sleep o'er the world slow waves its wand of lead, And ready torpors wrap each sinking head. Stilled is the stir of labor and of life; Hushed is the hum, and tranquillized the strife. Sweet is the pillowed rest of beauty now, When, hark! Oh, horror! what a crash is there! "Help! help! Will no one come!" She can no more, But, pale and breathless, sinks upon the floor. Will no one save thee? Yes, there yet is one He mounts the stair—it wavers 'neath his tread; The sinking floors his hurried step betray; And ruin crashes round his desperate way. Hot smoke obscures - ten thousand cinders rise- The stair is passed- the blazing hall is braved! SPEECH OF SERGEANT BUZFUZ. OU heard from my learned friend, Gentlemen of the Jury, You that this is an action for a breach of promise of marriage, in which the damages are laid at fifteen hundred pounds. The plaintiff, gentlemen, is a widow; yes, gentlemen, a widow. The late Mr. Bardell, some time before his death, became the father, gentleman, of a little boy. With this little boy, the only pledge of her departed exciseman, Mrs. Bardell shrunk from the world and courted the retirement and tranquillity of Goswell street; and here she placed in her front-parlor window a written placard, bearing this inscription" APARTMENTS FURNISHED FOR A SINGLE GENTLEMAN. INQUIRE WITHIN." Mrs. Bardell's opinions of the opposite sex, gentlemen, were derived from a long contemplation of the inestimable qualities of her lost husband. She had no fear-she had no distrust - all was confidence and reliance. "Mr. Bardell," said the widow, "was a man of honor- Mr. Bardell was a man of his word - Mr. Bardell was no deceiver- Mr. Bardell was once a single gentleman himself; to single gentlemen I look for protection, for assistance, for comfort, and consolation; in single gentlemen I shall perpetually see something to remind me of what Mr. Bardell was, when he first won my young and untried affections; to a single gentleman, then, shall my lodgings be let." Actuated by this beautiful and touching impulse (among the best impulses of our imperfect nature, gentlemen,) the lonely and desolate widow dried her tears, furnished her first floor, caught her innocent boy to her maternal bosom, and put the bill up in her parlor window. Did it remain there long? No. The serpent was on the watch, the train was laid, the mine was preparing, the sapper and miner was at work. Before the bill had been in the parlor window three days, gentlemen- a being, erect upon two legs, and bearing all the outward semblance of a man, and not of a monster, knocked at the door of Mrs. Bardell's house! He inquired within; he took the lodgings; and on the very next day he entered into possession of them. This man was Pickwick-Pickwick the defendant! Of this man I will say little. The subject presents but few attractions; and I, gentlemen, am not the man, nor are you, gentlemen, the men to delight in the contemplation of revolting heartlessness, and of systematic villany. I say systematic villany, gentlemen; and when I say systematic villany, let me tell the defendant Pickwick, if he be in court, as I am informed he is, that it would have been more decent in him, more becoming, if he had stopped away. Let me tell him, further, that a counsel, in the discharge of his duty, is neither to be intimidated, nor bullied, nor put down; and that any attempt to do either the one or the other will recoil on the head of the attempter, be he plaintiff or be he defendant, be his name Pickwick, or Nokes, or Stoaks, or Stiles, or Brown, or Thompson. I shall show you, gentlemen, that for two years Pickwick continued to reside constantly, and without interruption or intermission, at Mrs. Bardell's house. I shall show you that Mrs. Bardell, during the whole of that time, waited on him, attended to his comforts, cooked his meals, looked out his linen for the washer-woman when it went abroad, darned, aired, and prepared it for wear when it came home, and, in short, enjoyed his fullest trust and confidence. I shall show you that on many occasions he gave half-pence, and on some occasions even sixpence, to her little boy. I shall prove to you that on one occasion, when he returned from the country, he distinctly and in terms offered her marriage-previously, however, taking special care that there should be no witnesses to their solemn contract; and I am in a position to prove to you, on the testimony of three of his own friends most unwilling witnesses, gentlemen, most unwilling witnesses that on that morning he was discovered by them holding the plaintiff in his arms, and soothing her agitation by his caresses and endearments. And now, gentlemen, but one word more. Two letters have passed between these parties-letters that must be viewed with a cautious and suspicious eye-letters that were evidently intended at the time, by Pickwick, to mislead and delude any third |