"Farewell, ye blooming fields, ye cheerful plains Enough for me, the church-yard's lonely moundWhere melancholy with still silence reigns, And the rank grass waves o'er the cheerless ground. "There let me wander at the shut of eve, "I have not many friends," observes Bruce, in a letter to Mr. Pearson, on the decease of his former school-fellow, Dryburgh, dated November 20, 1766, "but I love them well. Scarce one enjoys the smiles of this world in every respect, and in every friend, I suffer. Death has been among the few I have-Poor Dryburgh!--but he is happy-I expected to have been his companion through life, and that we should have stept into the grave together; but Heaven has seen meet to dispose of him otherwise. What think you of this world? I think it is very little worth-you and I have not a great deal to make us fond of it-and yet I would not change my condition with the most wealthy, unfeeling fool in the universe-if I were to have his dull heart in the bargain. Farewell, my friend-my rival in immortal hope! my companion, I trust, for eternity. Though far distant, I take thee to my heart. Souls suffer no separation from the obstruction of matter, or distance of place-oceans may roll between us, and climates interpose in vain. The whole material creation is no bar to the winged mind. Farewell!-may'st thou shine when the sun is darkened may'st thou live and triumph when MEMOIR OF CAPT. FRANKLIN. Triumphant over foes and elements, Captain John Franklin was born at Spilsby, in Lincolnshire, in the year 1786, and entered the Navy, as Midshipman, at the early age of fourteen, under the command of the present ViceAdmiral Lawford, in the Polyphemus. After serving in that vessel at the battle of Copenhagen, in April, 1801, Mr. tain Flinders, on his voyage of discoFranklin subsequently sailed with Capvery, in the Investigator; and upon that ship being declared unservicea"There let me sleep, forgotten in the ble, joined the Porpoise, under the When sleep sits heavy on the la bourer's eyes; clay, When death shall shut these weary aching eyes; Rest in the hope of an eternal day, Till the long night is gone, and the last morn arise!" command of the present Captain R. M. Fowler, and was wrecked on a coral reef on the East Coast of New Holland, where the crew remained up, wards of eight weeks, until they were relieved by a vessel sent to their as sistance from Port Jackson. Mr. Franklin then accompanied Captain Fowler to Canton, and re-embarked with him in the Hon. East India Company's ship Earl Camden, commanded by Sir Nathaniel Dance; on which homeward bound passage the Company's fleet beat off the French squadron under the orders of Admiral Linois. Upon his return to England, Mr. F. joined the Bellerophon, Captain Loring, and was on board that vessel in the ever memorable victory of Trafalgar, then under the command of Captain John Cooke, who fell in the action.-In October, 1807, Mr. Franklin was appointed to the Bedford, in which ship he remained nearly eight years, employed on the Brazil, North Sea, and West Indian stations; during which period he distinguished himself in the capture of the American gun-boats previous to the attack at New Orleans; and was also attached to the parties of seamen serving on shore during the whole of the operations at that place, under the orders of Rear-Admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm. Mr. Franklin was next appointed First Lieutenant of the Forth, Captain Sir Wm. Bolton; but on the reduction of the war establishment remained on shore until January, 1818, when he was given the command of the Trent, on the voyage of discovery to the North Pole, under the orders of Capt. Buchan. That squadron having returned in the succeeding Autumn, in the April following Lieutenant F. was appointed to the command of an overland expedition in North America, with which he left England in May, 1819; and returned in October, 1822; was promoted to the rank of Commander in January, 1821; and made Post Captain in 1822. SPIRIT OF THE Public Journals. INDIAN SECT. This sect is represented as having its rise from Odhow, to whom the charge of the human race was delivered by Christna when he left this world; but the first actual appearance of it in Guzerat, was upwards of one hundred years ago, when a Brimcharee called Gopal began to preach the new doctrines at Gopnath Mahadeo, in the district of Valak in Goilwar. His successor Atmanund became a Swamee; by which the person is understood to lay down the observances of cast, and devote himself entirely to the service of the Deity. Nir Narin is the god worshipped, and an image of him is admitted, as by other Hindoos. The grand principle of the system seems to be, that the souls of all mankind are equal. Distinctions of Cast are observed by his followers, but they are told that these trammels are only corporeal, and will all be left behind with their bodies; and the souls freed from them, will receive the rewards or punishment of their actions in this life, without any regard to the Casts to which their bodies may have belonged. The principal observances enjoined are, abstinence from what are represented as the four besetting sins of the flesh, indulgence in drinking spirituous liquors, eating flesh, stealing, and connection with other than their own women. His votaries are sometimes indulged with what they call a Sumadhee, in which the spirit is said to leave the body, and to be transported to the blissful regions their imaginations are taught periods of its absence, no wound or to expect after death; and during the infliction produces the slightest effect, perfectly senseless, and after its return, or pain, the trunk is represented to be the favoured person gives lively descriptions of what he has seen, generally abundance of gold and jewels, with palaces, &c. according to the fertility of his imagination. A multitude of minor observances Fakeers receive a name, and are inare also prescribed. Those who become structed to submit to any ill usage without resistance, or without allowing the slightest resentment to remain on their minds; they are to forswear all worldly goods and all the concerns of this world; they are not even to possess any article made of metal, except a needle to sew their clothes and a knife to mend their pen for writing holy works; they are not to see, nor to think of a woman; if they do see one so as to distinguish her as such, if the idea of a woman comes into their minds, or if they touch one, they must fast for that day. The followers, or those merely converted, are not enjoined to such strict observances; they are (besides the four great sins) to abstain from lying and to speak truth; not to engage in quarrels ; to abstain from using all intoxicating substances, and some others that happen to be proscribed by the Mooksh Dhurm Geeta, Bhugvut and Veeshnoo Sehustr nam, which the Swamee professes to make the rules of his instructions. Like the Roman Pontiff he gives absolution for sins already committed, but does not venture (like him) to grant indulgences for the future. People of all Casts and persuasions resort to Swamee Narain, and the number of his followers is very great, estimated by the most intelligent natives at about one hundred thousand (100,000), principally from Kateewar and the western districts of Guzerat. Hindoos of all the four classes, Mahomedans, and even Dhers, are admitted; but all are seated, and feed, according to their Casts. The Swamee himself (who is a Brahmin) eats indiscriminately with any cast, as far down as Rajpoots, or Katees, but not below them. Swamee Narain himself must be a very superior man, as he has acquired such influence over men's minds; and the distinguishing tenets between his system and that of other Hindoos, are so inoffensive that they might at least have escaped violent opposition; this does not however seem to have been the case; all the orders of religious mendicants in particular used to take ample advantage of the peaceful professions of his disciples by beating them sometimes unmercifully; and they boast that no instance ever occurred of this violence being resisted. I shall mention (as tending to shew the Swamee desires to practice what he preaches) that the approach of a multitude of 50,000 people stated to accompany him on a recent visit to Ahmedabad, for the purpose of consecrating a temple to Nir Narain, having occasioned some reports that measures of security would be taken, which he heard of, he. immediately sent a message to express his regret that his coming should occasion any trouble, and that rather than it should do so, he would prefer not coming at all. These reports being of course unfounded, he came and had obtained permission to occupy the Shahee Baug, a house belonging to government, but on his arrival, finding that he could not stay there without a risk of his followers injuring the premises, he removed of his own accord to an uncultivated plain at a considerable distance, preferring to submit, to all the inconvenience and want of accommodation, to running the risk of the slightest damage being committed by the people resorting to him. The most intelligent people in the country, even while they regret (as CURSORY OBSERVATIONS ON To the Editor of the Mirror. Among the brute creation we see extraordinary instances of long abstinence. The serpent kind in particular bear abstinence to a wonderful degree. Rattle-snakes have been seen that had subsisted many months without food, yet still retained their vigour and fierce ness. Dr. Shaw speaks of a couple of cerastes (a sort of Egyptian serpent) which had been kept five years in a bottle closely corked, without any sort of food, unless a small quantity of sand, wherein they coiled themselves up in the bottom of the vessel, may be reckoned as such: yet when he saw them they had newly cast their skins, and were as brisk and lively as if just taken. But it is even natural for divers species of animals to pass four, five, or six months every year without either eating or drinking. Accordingly, the tortoise, bear, dormouse, serpent, &c. are observed regularly to retire at those seasons to their respective cells, and hide themselves, some in the caverns of rocks or ruins; others dig holes under ground; a third class get into woods, and lay themselves up in the clefts of trees; others bury themselves under water, &c. and these animals are found as fat and fleshy after some months abstinence as before.Sir G. Ent weighed his tortoise several years successively, at its going to earth in October, and coming out again in March, and found that of four pounds four ounces it only used to lose about one ounce. Indeed we have instances of men passing several months as strictly abstinent as other creatures. In particular the records of the Tower mention a Scotchman imprisoned for felony, and strictly watched in that fortress for six weeks; in all which time he took not the least sustenance; for which he had his pardon. Number less instances of extraordinary abstinence, particularly from morbid causes, are to be found in the different periodical Memoirs, Transactions, Ephemerides, &c. It is to be added that in most instances of extraordinary human abstinence related by naturalists, there were said to have been apparent marks of a texture of blood and humours, much like that of the animals above mentioned. Though it is no improbable opinion that the air itself may furnish something for nutrition. It is certain there are substances of all kinds, animal, vegetable, &c. floating in the atmosphere, which must be continually taken in by respiration: and that an animal body may be nourished thereby is evident in the instance of vipers; which if taken when first brought forth, and kept from every thing but air, will yet grow very considerably in a few days. So the eggs of lizards are observed to increase in bulk after they are produced, though there be nothing to furnish the increment but air alone; in like manner as the eggs or spawn of fishes grow and are nourished with the water. And hence, say some, 2 it is that turnspit-dogs, though they eat but little, yet are usually fat. D.K.L. THE SUSSEX CALF. A long time ago, a butcher, who had purchased a calf not far from Lewes, sat with it on a horse at a public-house door, which a shoemaker (remarkable for his drollery) observing, and knowing that the butcher had to pass. through a wood, offered to the landlord to steal the calf, provided he would treat him with sixpenny worth of grog. The landlord agreed, and the shoe-maker set off and dropt one new shoe near the middle of the wood, and another nearly a quarter of a mile from it. The butcher saw the first shoe, but did not think it worth getting down. for; however, when he discovered the second, he thought the pair would be an acquisition, and accordingly dismounted, tied his horse to the hedge, and walked back to where he had seen the first shoe. The shoemaker, in the mean time, unstrapped the calf, and carried it across the fields to the landlord, who put it in his barn. The butcher, missing his calf, went back to the inn, and told his misfortune; at the same time observing, that he must have another calf, cost what it would, as the veal was bespoke. The landlord told him he had a calf in the barn, which he would sell him. The butcher looked at it, and asked the price. The landlord replied, give me the same as you did for the calf you lost, as this, I think, is full as large. The butcher would by no means allow the calf to be so good, but agreed to give him within six shillings of what the other cost, and accordingly put the calf a second time on the horse. Crispin, elated with his success, undertook to steal the calf again for another sixpenny worth, which being agreed on, he posted to the wood, and hid himself; where, observing the butcher come along, he bellowed so like a calf, that the butcher, conceiving it to be the one he had lost, cried out in joy, "Ah! are you there? have I found you at last?" · and immediately dismounted and ran into the wood. Crispin, taking advantage of the butcher's absence, unstrapped the calf, and actually got back with it to the publican before the butcher arrived to tell his mournful tale, who attributed the whole to witchcraft. The publican unravelled the mystery, and the butcher, after paying for and partaking of a crown's worth of punch, laughed heartily at the joke, and the shoemaker got greatly applauded for his ingenuity. Anxious to mark, by a corresponding liberality, our gratitude for the extensive patronage with which the MIRROR has been honoured, we this week present our readers with extra embellishments. In our first page we have given a view of the House in which Napoleon died; and in order to make our graphic history of him complete, we here present a view of the House in which he was born, at Ajaccio, in Corsica; and Portraits-spirited portraits we may say-of Napoleon, his widow, the Empress Maria Louisa, and their son, the young Napoleon. Having already given a memoir of Napoleon, and several interesting anecdotes respecting him, we have only on the present occasion to add, that he was born at Ajaccio, in a house still standing, and of which the above engraving is a view. His father, who was descended of an ancient family, was advocate of the place in which Napoleon was born, was honest and much respected. Napoleon's first wife was Josephine, the widow of M. Beauharnois, with whom he lived long and happily; she was crowned with him and shared all his glory, until it was suggested, that in order to consolidate the power of the Emperor of France, he should seek for an alliance with some of the old families of Europe, and thus perpetuate his dynasty in his own blood, by giving it the support of other powers, who might thus feel an interest in its continuance. Napoleon consented to sacrifice the ties of conjugal affection to state policy; and the question now arose with what power he should seek a matrimonial alliance. Russia was the first power that suggested itself, and a negociation was set on foot for the marriage of Napoleon with one of the sisters of the Emperor Alexander. There is no doubt that it would have been consummated, but for an artful intrigue of the Court of Vienna, of which Prince Schwartzenberg, the ambassador from Austria to France, was the principal actor. The Prince having discovered the rapid progress of the negociations between Russia and France, dispatched several couriers to Vienna, by all of whom he announced Napoleon's marriage with a Russian Princess, as an affair nearly arranged, if not already concluded. He pointed out how injurious such an alliance would be to Austria, and added, that if the Emperor was not averse to giving one of his daughters in marriage to Napoleon, he thought he could break off the Russian marriage. He concluded with observing, that there was not a minute to lose, that he must therefore forthwith be furnished with full powers, and a carte blanche; and that with these full powers must be sent a man of straw, |