"Speak!-speak on!" cried the fisherman eagerly; and he placed his hands on his heaving bosom, and gazed anxiously, now towards the preacher, and again towards his Agnes, who wept upon his shoulder.

The Providence that had till then sustained you, while your fellow creatures perished around you," added the clergyman, "supported her. She reached you--she grasped your arm--After long struggling, she brought you within a few yards of the shore; a wave overwhelmed you both and cast you upon the beach, with her arm--the arm of your wife that saved you--upon your bosom!"

the prayers o' my bits o' bairns, or the advice o' the minister, I wad hae escaped the sin that I hae this day committed, and the horrors wi' which it has been visited. But tell me how, or in what manner I was saved?" "John," said the aged elder, the father of Agnes, "ye was saved by the merciful and all-sustaining power o' that Providence which ye this morning set at naught. But I rejoice to find that your heart is not hardened, and that the awful visitation--the judgment, as ye hae weel described it-which has this day filled our coast with widows and with orphans, has not fallen upon you in vain; for ye acknowledge your guilt, and are grateful for your deliverance. "Gracious Heaven?" exclaimed the fishYour being saved is naething short of a mir-erman, pressing his wife to his bosom--"my acle. We a' beheld how long and how ain Agnes! was it you !--was it you !--my desperately ye struggled with the raging wife!-my savior!" And he wept aloud, waves, we knew not who ye were, and knew it was na in the power o' ony being upon the shore to render ye the slightest assistance.--We saw how ye struggled to reach the black rock, and how ye was swept round it; and, when ye at last reached it, we observed how ye clung to it with the grasp of death, until your strength gave way, and the waves dashed you from it. Then ye was driven towards the beach, and some of the spectators recognised your face, and they cried out your name! A scream burst upon my ear--a woman rushed through the crowd--and then John!--oh, then!"But here the feelings of the old man overpowered him. He sobbed aloud, and pausing for a few moments, added--"Tell him, some o' ye." "Oh, tell me," said the fisherman; "a' that my father-in-law has said, I kenned before. But how was I saved? or by whom?"

The preacher took up the tale. "Hearken unto me, John Crawford," said he. "Ye have reason this day to sorrow, and to rejoice, and to be grateful beyond measure. In the morning ye mocked my counsel and set at naught my reproof. True, it was not the speaker, but the words of truth that were spoken, that ye ought to have regarded--for they were not my words, and I was but the humble instrument to convey them to ye.--But ye despised them and as ye sowed, so have ye reaped. But, as your father-in-law has told ye, when your face was recognized from the shore, and your name mentioned, a woman screamed--she rushed through the multitude -she plunged into the boiling sea, and in an instant she was beyond the reach of help!"

and his children wept also. "There is nae merit in what I've dune," replied she, "for wha should have attempted to save ye, had I not! Ye were everything to me, John, and to our bairns."

But the feelings of the wife and the mother were too strong for words. I will not dwell upon the joy and gratitude of the family to whom the husband and the father had been restored as from the dead. It found a sorrowful contrast in the voice of lamentation and of mourning, which echoed along the coast like the peal of an alarm-bell. The dead were laid in heaps upon the beach, and on the following day, widows, orphans, parents, and brothers, came from all the fishing towns along the coast, to seek their dead amongst the drowned that had been gathered together; or, if they found them not, they wandered along the shore to seek for them where the sea might have cast them forth. Such is the tale of the Sabbath wrecks-of the lost brave of Dunbar.--Foreign Magazine.

A MAN of a weak, complying disposition, whom no one fears, no one will be at the trouble to oppose; while a man of a strong and fixed character will be liable to opposition, at least from those who expect to derive a certain kind of importance from the dignity of their adversary.--But he will compel even this opposition into subserviency to himself; just as the mariner obliges the wind that opposes him to help him forward.

MERCANTILE LAW.

missible to prove cash lent, advances, or cash paid for another. Nor to prove that It is well known that Books of Original goods were given to the defendant to sell Entries are the only vouchers of millions on commission. Nor is a book, kept by of dollars annually; yet few know, or seem a man for the purpose of settling with his to care to investigate the rules of law which workmen, in which are entered their names, must be observed to allow them to be used the quantity of goods delivered and somein a Court of Justice; rules that all must times the prices, such a Book of Original concede to be salutary and just, and abso- Entries as is evidence against the purchaser lutely requisite, when it is considered that of goods, although it contain, also, the such books are evidence of a man's own names of purchasers, nor an invoice book. manufacture, and may be employed as instruments of fraud by the unprincipled. They are a species of evidence admitted from the necessity of the case; else a debtor might escape from the enforcement of a just demand, because it would be impossible to prove the sale and delivery of every minute article in an account.

The law has, however, laid down certain standard and inflexible rules in regard to them, which should be universally known. The occurrence of a debt, lost by illegal books of entry, repeatedly happens in our courts; and may be easily guarded against, for the system in regard to them is free of complication.

In all such cases, the creditor should arm

himself with sufficient evidence, at the time

the debt is contracted. The book is only evidence against the original debtor; therefore, it cannot be used to prove that one person has assumed the debt of another, even if made at the time the debt was con

tracted and assumed.

A Book of Original Entries is evidence of the sale and delivery of goods, or of work done, and, prima facie, of the prices; (i. e. sufficient until disproved of by the debtor) but it is not conclusive evidence; either party may give other proof of the prices on the trial; and the book may be set aside on sufficient proof of incorrectness; the judgment of the jury is to be formed on the whole case.

The book must be proved by the oath or affirmation of the person who made the entries; or if such person be dead, or out of the reach of a subpoena, proof of death or absence, and of the hand-writing, is sufficient. In Pennsylvania the store-keeper may prove his own books; this is a variation from the English rule, which requires the assistant oath of the clerk who made the entry.

It has been wisely said, that while Books of Original Entries are a convenience to the creditor, they are a protection to the debtor; for the chances are, that a fresh memorandum of a transaction, made at the moment of sale, is more likely to be precise and honest, than an account made up long afterwards, with a view to litigation and in ill blood, depending for proof upon the uncertainty of human memory, and the pliability of willing witnesses. Besides, it is rare that a fraudulent Book can go long undetected in any community; and such a case rarely makes its appearance in our courts, nor, indeed, can exist, except in the concoction of cool and deliberate villany. The Bench and the Bar find this kind of evidence of great value, easily investigated, and little harm; and neither the Judges, nor any First: The book must be a Book of OriLegislature have evinced any disposition to ginal entries. Therefore, if it be a transcript expel it from our jurisprudence. of another book, or a ledger, it is not eviBooks of Original Entries are only evidence; although it is no objection to an dence of two descriptions of debts, viz: original book that it is kept in ledger form. goods sold and delivered; and work and But a book is clearly competent if the enlabor done; with this exception: the day- tries be transcribed from any temporary book of a consignee and agent is evidence memorandum, made on a slate, card, or to prove his disbursements in the outfit of board, or scratcher, on which they are ena vessel in a foreign port, in an action tered for the moment, with the intention of against the owner. But they are not ad- immediate transfer to the Book of Original

It must appear, first, that the book is a Book of Original Entries; second, that the entries were made at the time they bear date; and third, that such entries were made at, or near the time of the delivery of the goods, or the doing of the work.

Entries intended to be the permanent evidence of the charge. But they must be transcribed into the permanent book on the same or next day. Thus a book made up from entries on a slate, some transcribed the same day, and some not for one or two weeks afterwards, was rejected altogether; and entries made up of loose slips of paper, carried in the pocket for one or more days, always were rejected.

gation, or the examination of the party, or clerk in court, that the book is not a Book of Original Entries, the court may reject it at once, as incompetent; but if this do not clearly appear, the court will allow it to be read to the jury, with instruction to disregard it, if in their opinion, the legal requisites do not exist. And if it appear that some entries were made at an undue period of time after the debt accrued Second: The entries must be made the and some made at the time; unless the parday they bear date: in regard to books as ty, or clerk, can distinguish the bad from well as papers, ante-dating is suspicious, the valid entries, the whole book will and, unless satisfactorily explained, by strict be rejected by the court. If the book proof, fraudulent. The law views ante- contains receipts for goods sold, signed dating of documents, as an afterthought, by the debtor, the book is not evidence, indicating a dishonest purpose, and pre- without proof of the hand writing of the sumptive of a contrivance to overreach. | debtor. It is competent to the creditor to But this presumption, like every other pre- prove a sale and delivery of goods to his sumption, may be negatived by satisfactory debtor, without relying on his book; but if proof. It is improper to make erasures or his book be in his possession, the court will interlineations; the former especially, as compel him to produce it on trial; and in they allow, and encourage suspicions of some cases the court have decided, that evfoul play. The advisable mode of correct- idence of goods sold, shall not be received ing a slip of the pen, is to write across the at all until the non-production of the book entry the word void," and make the is accounted for. A book containing entries correct entry below it. This process proves that the error was corrected at the moment, and prevents all doubt of fairness. There should be no marginal, or extraneous remarks made on the book; the entry should be simply a charge against the debtor, and the goods, or work, detailed by items.

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Third: The entries must be made at, or near the time the work is done, or goods delivered; not when the work or goods are ordered. Strictly, the entry should be made at the time of delivery; but the courts allow entries to be read, made the same evening or the next day. It is advisable, however, to make them on the day, to prevent doubt or controversy of fairness. In some trades, the work is in several hands, many days, and goes through more than one hand; if the entry is made during the period of manufacture, at a time when it proceeded a certain length, it was lawful; thus goods ordered or bespoke, as for instance, clothing, may be charged when cut and delivered to the journeyman; if charged before, the entry is irregular, and will be rejected. It is always better, not to make the charge until the time of actual delivery. Entries made up, the same evening, from the reports handed in to an employer, by his men, are clearly admissible.

In all cases where it appears, on investi

without date, or not mentioning the name of the debtor, is not evidence. But it is not necessary that the entry should be in any book: it may be kept on a slate, door, slip of paper, or cards, in ink or pencil, but the evidence must be carefully preserved and actually produced. In one case, a barn door with chalk entries was brought into court, and proved to be the original entries against the debtors.-Philadelphia Evening Star.

SINGLE BLESSEDNESS.

BY A LADY.

I HAVE met with a very few unmarried ladies, who have not appeared to me to feel, after the age of thirty, that their existence was thoroughly comfortless and wretched. Many have I heard express it openly; and that such is the fact, can very easily be discovered by an accurate observer of the human countenance. It is also certain that three out of every five of the young English ladies of the present day must remain unmarried, because no man can exist on less than two thousand a-year when married; and how few young men there are with two thousand a-year, compared with the number of

young ladies! Five, six, eight, sometimes in bridge, has learnt that fifteen hundred a year one family; generally all tolerably pretty, and is nothing, and, in all probability, determost of them pleasing and accomplished wo- mines (not to be taken in) not to marry any men--many possessing talents of no ordinary lovely girl, without at least, forty or fifty thoustamp-yet, perhaps, in our saloons these sand pounds. I now come to my four young lovely and accomplished beings are com- ladies. I will suppose one very pretty, and pletely neglected by the other sex, "be- the other three rather plain. They have cause," (I must repeat the sentiments I have been educated, in all probability, as the heard from thousands of young men of greater proportion of English girls are. fashion,) "I never talk to girls-I dare not First of all, they go every Sunday to church; pay attention to unmarried women, because and are, as I conceive, all, or nearly all, the I am not a marrying man-my friend. class of moderately rich English gentry, to flirted with so and so, and was accused of be perfectly honorable, upright, and wellbehaving ill-I don't like to excite false principled. It is only for their own happihopes-I shall never marry unless I can find ness that I would propose any change in a wife with at least two or three thousand the education of a class for whom I have so a-year, because I am much richer, unmar-high a respect. To return to the four young ried, with the fortune I have." It is of no ladies. They have all been brought up use to quarrel with the state of society as it with the idea that they will become wives is at present constituted, for we cannot alter and mothers, and taught to cherish those it; but I think it might be beneficial to give natural affections which, if by some remote a few hints on the education of women, chance one out of the four ever does marry, which might perhaps be useful in procuring make them so amiable and lovely as such. them, in a state of single blessedness, as it They are all allowed to read modern novels, is very falsely called, a greater share of at least all such as are considered to have happiness, or a less load of misery, than a moral tendency. Now, I maintain that they at present appear to possess after the there is scarcely one of these works which awful age of thirty. A girl at thirty is does not impress any young woman with called an old maid-she goes to a ball, and the idea that happiness can alone be found generally sits neglected all the evening, or in love and marriage. The heroine is very dances with some gentleman who has been amiable and perfect, surrounded with admioften asked to dine at her father's house, and rers, all contending for the honors of her last who, perhaps, remarks, “Miss➖➖➖is rather notice; but where is the novel which reprepassee―a good old girl-and I must do my sents four poor, pretty, unnoticed girls, who duty there; and now I shall dance with the are destined to pass their young years, withbeautiful Miss." My heart always out, perhaps, so much as one admirer bleeds for the mortifications I see endured amongst them? by these poor old girls continually. There their bloom and beauty fade-and my are certainly some single women whose four lovely and accomplished warm-hearted talents have made them as much considered beings, having seen all their youthful castles in society as they ought to be; but then I fall one by one, become listless and unhaphave generally observed that they have for-py. They have little in life to interest them; tunes, or have had advantages above others one dies of a complaint in the spine; another to bring into notice, and to give to the lives many years on calf's foot jelly, and is natural ambition of the human species some enveloped in flannel even in July; a third scope of action. I will suppose a case in is under the care of Doctor S. for indigeswhich there are four girls-a moderate pro- tion; and perhaps the fourth, who is made portion in one family-and two sons; and I of tougher materials, and born with less will suppose their father possessed of fif- feeling than the others or perhaps from teen hundred a-year. The estate, of course, having something to occupy her mind in goes to the eldest son; the second must preparing the arrow-root for one sister, and be a clergyman, if his relations have any ordering the hard dumplings, prescribed by preferment, or he must be of some profes- Doctor S. for the other outlives her sorsion; of course, he can never marry without rows and disappointments; and if she takes a large fortune; unless at the age of forty- an interest in her brother's children, or a five, he has made one for himself. The share in their education, or in something eldest son, having been to Eton and Cam-which gives vent to those affections which

Year after year passes—

The appeal was such as not even Louis XI. could resist, and Lannoi's punishment was delayed until time proved his innocence.

are implanted by nature in the breast of row meant for you on the night you went the woman, she becomes happy. This, then, rounds, I carrying a torch before you." appears to me to be the secret too much neglected in female education. Teach them, by all means, that one great source of happiness consists in the indulgence of virtuous affection; but do not teach them that there is no affection capable of producing this happiness, except such as may be felt for a lover or husband. If the heart be properly regulated, it may take a warm and sufficiently engrossing interest in many objects less intimately connected with it. Marriage is a lottery, and, at the best, is a state full of cares and anxieties. Freedom and independence ought not to be lightly parted with, or set down as possessions of little value. Foreign Magazine.

CHOICE OF DEATH.

THE Count of Lannoi, one of the most brilliant ornaments of the court of the treacherous Louis XI. of France, was condemned to death by that monarch on a wrongful charge of having carried off the daughter of the celebrated painter Foucquet. To add to the torture of his situation, the king, by an exquisite refinement of cruelty, sent his barber, Oliver le Dain, (so familiar to the readers of Quentin Durward,) to announce to him, as a special favor, that the king allowed him to choose whatever mode of death he might prefer. Lannoi was a man of courage; he knew, too, that the king, himself brave, loved to see that same quality in others; he therefore did not lose heart, but announced his choice in the following letter:

"SIRE-I am penetrated with gratitude for your majesty's extraordinary kindness, and for the anxiety you testify on the subject of my punishment. You will believe me when I say I had far rather have lost my life in your majesty's service than on such a charge as this; but since my death is determined, I send you for that purpose the chain of gold you wore at the battle of Quesnoi, and placed yourself on the neck of my father, Raoul de Lannoi, in the thickest of the danger, with these memorable words'Paque Dieu, my friend, you combat too fiercely; you must be chained up, for I do not want to lose you, but want you to serve me many times more.' With this chain, sire, I wish to be hanged at the foot of the Tower du Nord, where I was wounded by an ar

GOD SEEN IN ALL THINGS. It is a poor philosophy and a narrow religion, which does not recognize God in all things. Every moment of our lives, we breathe, stand or move, in the temple of the Most High; for the whole universe is that temple. Wherever we go, the testimony of His power, the impress of His hand, are there. Ask of the bright worlds around us, as they roll in the everlasting harmony of their circles; and they shall tell you of Him, whose power launched them on their courses. Ask of the mountains, that lift their heads among and above the clouds; and the bleak summit of one shall seem to call aloud to the snow-clad summit of another, in proclaiming their testimony to the Agency, which hath laid their deep foundations. Ask of the ocean's waters; and the roar of their boundless waves shall chant from shore to shore a hymn of ascription to that Being, who hath said, "Hitherto shall you come and no further."

Ask of the rivers; and, as they roll onward to the sea, do they bear along their ceaseless tribute to the everworking Energy which struck open their fountains and poured them down through the valleys? Ask of every region of the earth, from the burning equator to the icy pole, from the rock-bound coast to the plain covered with its luxuriant vegetation; and will you not find on them all the record of the Creator's presence? Ask of the countless tribes of plants and animals; and shall they not testify to the action of the great Source of life? Yes, from every portion, from every department of nature, comes the same voice; every where we hear thy name, O God; every where we see Thy love. Creation in all its length and breadth, in all its depth and height, is the manifestation of thy Spirit, and without Thee the world were dark and dead. The universe is to us as the burning bush which the Hebrew leader saw: God is ever present in it, for it burns with His glory, and the ground on which we stand is always holy. How then can we speak of that Presence as peculiarly in the sanctuary which is abroad through all space and time?-Francis.