were the evils which menaced the union. On the contrary, if Mexico should be deprived of Texas, manifold advantages were to be expected; the coloured race would be deprived of all hope, with the entire continent for their prison, and only the distant frontiers of Canada to afford the very few which might reach it an asylum. On the other hand, a fine country admirably adapted for slave labour would be opened up to the slave-holding, and slave-breeding states; and also the future incorporation of the new state of Texas would strengthen the slaveholding interest in the senate and legislature of the United States. With such prospects before them, it is not surprising that the struggle in Texas should be viewed with such intense interest. The history of this most disgraceful transaction is one of the many facts which convince us, that at least, in the southern and western states of the American Union, the morals of the people are retrograding, and are now at a lower ebb than at the period of the separation from England. These evils which ought to be viewed with far other feelings than those of exultation, may be traced to two sources-the vast increase of slavery on the one hand, which every where deteriorates both public and domestic morality wherein, in the free states, the great extent of unoccupied land tends to scatter the pupulation over a wide

surface, thus depriving the children of the benefits of education or religious instruction, and sending them into the world with no other fixed principle of conduct than an energetic regard for individual interest. The following picture of the state of society in Kentucky, not by a flippant English traveller, but by a sober and respectable American writer, will show what a slave state is, and what the Texas has become.

"Mothers encourage their children to fight with their companions, and praise their spirit when they display passion or anger. The death of those children, stabbed or shot in some wild fray, is often the terrible result of such early lessons. Young ladies lavish their favour and approbation on the chivalric, and give their smiles to the lawless reprobate, who glories in the murders he has committed on the field of honour. Grey-haired men, counsellors, judges, and statesmen, to whom the country naturally looks for examples, are known to spend days and nights at the gaming tables."

We conclude with these remarks, which we quote with the more pleasure from the excellent spirit which they display-a spirit very different from that of the Rev. C. Newel, whose work, if it contains much information respecting Texas, is written in the spirit of a thorough partisan, and can be of but little authority in any disputed matter.

:

Demosthenes.

Dreams are toys,

ENCOURAGING as the issue of the interview on the previous day had been, Basil could not entirely master a few unpleasant sensations as he once more applied his fingers to the knocker of the Nabob's house-door. His proud and scrupulous nature made him feel ashamed and humbled to think that he could be tempted by any, even the most imperative circumstances, to accept of, nay to solicit, money from the hands

Winter's Tale. Act III. Scene 3. of another without tendering or at least proposing an equivalent in some guise or other. It is accounted a proceeding so shabby to avail yourself of the simplicity and munificence of a benevolent enthusiast to the amplest extent to which he will permit you to go! One of a truly noble mode of thinking would shrink from bearing the burden of an irrepayable favour, when bestowed by such a person. He

would say to himself, Here is a philanthropist who lavishes wealth upon his fellow-beings. But he does this in the conviction that he is assisting the excellent and meritorious. Let him discover that the objects of his bounty are little better than swindlers, and he draws his purse-strings together on the instant. If I grasp at that which is proffered me and seem gratified at getting it, my rapacity furnishes my benefactor with an unanswerable argument for checking the stream of his liberality towards others. Therefore I will not. So good a creature must not be led to harbour a degrading opinion of human nature through any dereliction of mine. No. I will shew him that individual aggrandisement is the remotest thing from my thoughts; that if he is generous enough to offer, I am disinterested enough to refuse. Thus I shall at once rescue my own perhaps too fastidious pride harmless, and be the means of accomplishing for those who may really stand in need of his help the best service within the sphere of my ability to render them.

Though these thoughts did not flow consecutively through Basil's mind as he walked into the parlour, he was conscious of such a feeling as might arise from the conclusion to which they conducted. He felt uneasy and qualmish, and half disposed to retrace his steps. It was consequently with no inconsiderable satisfaction that he saw the eyes of the Nabob, as he hastily rose up from a sofa, emitting sparkles of pleasure at his approach and salutation. The look of animation and gladness that greeted him was a sufficient justification of the purpose of his visit. It gave evidence that the Nabob considered himself as the obliged, not the obliging, party. In a moment every scruple that Basil had begun to cherish was dissipated, and he felt restored to his former position in his own appreciation of himself and his motives.

"Welcome, brother!" exclaimed the Nabob, as he warmly pressed his visitor's hand. "You are come to relieve me of another flask ?"

"I am indeed here again to abuse your generosity," returned Basil.

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To praise it rather perhaps ?" said

the Nabob.

Basil smiled. "You will appreciate my delicacy in a case like this," said he; "and if you will have the patience to hear a sketch of my circumstances, perhaps I might shew you—”

"I know them already," interrupted

the Nabob; so there is no necessity. Come in: I have no time to lose, for in half an hour I must be in the Green Suburb."

So speaking, he led the way into the flask-room, followed by Basil. The apartment presented the same appearance that had characterised it the day before, except that in the interval an arm-chair had been placed opposite the table.

"Are you fond of sight-seeing ?" demanded the Nabob, as he decanted the elixir.

"Not very," Basil replied.

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Well, then, would you have any objection to be mystified for a few mi

nutes ?"

Ay, mystified. Doubtless you have a high opinion of the fidelity and extent of your own perceptive powers, your judgment, understanding, and so forth; and you laugh at every body not endowed with a sufficiency of reason to counterpoise and curb the vagagries of his imagination ?"

"Why, I flatter myself"began Basil.

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Of course," interupted the Nabob. "Tell me news when you next speak to me. Here, drink, and take note (not notes) of what passes before you."

Basil obeyed the behest. Apparently flask the second was as strong as flask the first had been, but the effect it produced on Basil was unique and novel. For the tithe of an instant it stupified him: then a haze clouded his view, similar to that which envelopes objects about us, when after we have stooped earthwards a long while and then risen, the blood retreats from the brain like a descending cataract. He staggered. If he had not caught hold of the armchair probably he would have fallen.

voice. It was that of the Nabob. He "Walk this way, my man," said a but at the end of the room, close by a was not standing where he had been, window à la chinois.

Basil looked up. He stared around. The wax-lights were extinct; but the blue beams of an Autumnal moon came

ghastlily glancing into the chamber. He rubbed his eyes; he again cast them round; there was no change.

Slowly and with faltering steps he approached the Nabob. Bewilderment and awe seemed wholly to possess him. At first he could articulate nothing; and it was by an exertion that he finally

exclaimed, pointing to the window"This-was-not here then."

"Well; it is now," said the Nabob calmly. But do you observe nothing stranger than the sudden appearance of the window ?"

At the question Basil looked round once more, and then, as if making an effort at recollection, he said in the low, perplexed voice of a baffled self-communer, There was light here and there is darkness, but whence the light came I do not remember, and whence the darkness is I do not know."

“Well, as you do not know whence the darkness proceeds I will tell you,” said the Nabob, drily. "The darkness proceeds from the absence of the light. Keep that a secret. But, look up at the moon. Did you ever see that planet beaming more lustrously, or floating along a sky of purer blue ?"

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In all my life, never!" cried Basil. "She is in truth beautiful to contemplate ;" and he gazed at the moon with all the absorbing wonder of an infant.

"Yet there should be no moon up at this hour," said the Nabob. "It is mid-day. Recollect that, and recollect also that you did not recollect it before. How do you propose accounting for the double phenomenon?"

The query appeared to plunge Basil into deep meditation, but after a short pause he answered: "Spare me! spare me!"-" Oh!" he added, lifting his hand to his brow, "I have lost my senses: I try in vain to make the present harmonise with the past: my ideas are dislocated; chaos reigns in my mind. This is your doing, juggler!" Mine?" cried the Nabob. Ha! ha-excuse me if I laugh. What, pray, do you accuse me of?"

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Of bereaving me of reason by your spells!" exclaimed Basil. "I am no longer myself!"

"Well, at least, you are some one," remarked the East-Indian; "and that is more than I can say for myself I am a nonentity."

"This is horrible!," cried Basil. "Man or demon, or whatever you be, restore to me the exercise of my faculties, and let me quit this accursed house for ever!"

"I am sorry to be obliged to tell you, my dear friend," said the Nabob, quietly, "that I am as powerless to aid you as your shadow on the wall can be. If you wish for help you should apply to somebody or other: I am not in existence at all."

"Not in existence!" Basil exclaimed.

"Upon my honor," said the Nabob, "I speak the unequivocal truth."

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How am I to interpret your meaning?" demanded Basil.

"In the obvious sense," replied the Nabob, and without for a moment supposing that I shelter it behind any metaphysical subterfuge. I repeat it, I have no existence whatever: I am the mere creature of your imagination, or rather of your volition, which has unconsciously operated to endow a thought with speech and appearance. Need I add after this that you are now asleep and dreaming ?”

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Ah!-dreaming!" exclaimed Basil. "Yes-yes-it must be so; I see it! I feel it! Truly, there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy—or philosophised of in our dreams either. But if I dream," he added, his features assuming an intensely puzzled expression; "how is it that instead of intuitively discovering the fact from my own sensations, I should only be able to learn it from you, who are, as you yourself admit, no more than the phantom of my brain ?"

The Nabob laughed in derision. "Heaven mend your silly babble!" he said. "What signifies the How? Do you not perceive that in any case the knowledge must emanate from yourself? You may find it out, or I may acquaint you with it: does it not all amount to the one thing, when your own mind is the sole primary machine that works, the sole casuist that reasons not only for yourself but for me?"

"This is marvellous, and past my capacity!" cried Basil. "But why am I subjected to a delusion so inexplicable ?"

That you may think with more reverence of the Invisible and Unexplored," replied the Nabob. "You will, perhaps, now that you have seen by what a rapid and simple process a man may lose the memory of his very identity, feel less disposed to doubt that he may lose so small a matter as a part of his stature. This has been a gratuitous and supererogatory proceeding on my part; for I might leave you in your error much longer. But I take an interest in you, and I will even exert myself to undeceive you. Remember then-and let it be your first thought as you awake-that two of your inches are already lost."

It seemed as though an echo adopted the word lost, and repeated it in thunder through the long and broad apart

ment; for the loudness of the sound was such as to awaken Basil. He started from the chair into which he had sunk after swallowing the elixir. He saw the Nabob's eyes fixed on his

own.

"So!" said Basil-"I have been mystified, mein Herr! After all, then, it was but a dream, a fancy ?"

"No more; but you know that at first you mistook it for reality. So may you fall into the opposite error, and mistake reality for fancy. The dream you have just had was not without a purpose. I am desirous of shewing you that our compact of yesterday is the very reverse of the joke you imagine it. The hoaxing of greenhorns is not my forte; I repudiate it. Nature ordained me to enact a melancholy and mysterious part on the stage of life. I neither sympathise with nor understand the nature or tendency of humbuggery. I am aware that you think otherwise, and my conscience would reproach me if I longer suffered you to suppose our agreement a bottle of moonshine. No, Sir. It must be fulfilled to the letter. I now again tell you that you have lost two inches of your height. To convince you, if you please, I will measure you on the spot."

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O, no necessity, my dear Sir," said Basil, smiling; "if you insist upon it I yield-I will say Credo-Credo quia impossibile. But if I have lost two inches, I will swear that you have gained two; you look considerably improved since yesterday.”

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But

Evi

"Before you decide that I arrogate to myself supernatural powers," said the Nabob, "you should first satisfy yourself what the precise extent is beyond which mere human powers are incapable of rivalling supernatural. Who shall determine the legitimate limits of the mind's especial territory? That there have been from time to time human beings in existence who have exercised an incomprehensible control over some of the abstruser operations of nature is not to be rationally questioned. Natural events are established results from arbitrary causes. these results are not uniform. dence exists to shew that in every age diverse results have occasionally followed. Miracles have been wrought in all parts of the earth. The practice of necromancy is matter of notoriety in the east. I myself studied it for ten years. I know many others who have studied it like me. You are not to conclude, because such men are unknown and untalked of, that they have no existence. It is the characteristic of genius of a higher order to seclude itself; to shun communion with a world unworthy of it: while straws and leaves float upon the surface of the ocean the pearl disdains to ascend from its native abyss. If even I chose I could amaze and overwhelm you. But I have reasons of my own for not treating you to any private sample of my art. Let the dream you have had, however, serve you as material for reflection. Meantime be assured that the compact betwixt us is not of a nature to be trifled with. You have already transferred two inches of your stature to me. It is easy for you to test the truth of my assertion. All that you have to do is to measure yourself when you reach home. I confess I wish you would do so, that we might understand one another perfectly."

Basil shook his head and took up his hat. "The difficulties in the way of a mutual understanding between us," said he, I am afraid will rather increase than diminish. But I cannot depart without again tendering you my warm acknowledgments for your generosity. The ducats I presume

"Will be at home before you," interrupted the other. "Well, I wish you a good morning. When we meet again you will be wiser." "Amen!" said Basil.

pier?"

"And hap

"Alas!" sighed the Nabob. "Good day," said Basil. And they separated.