The Village of Alagna, which stands at the head of the Val-Sesia, and in the neighborhood of one of the great headlands of destruction, Monte Rosa, the very nido paterno of glaciers and avalanches-exhibits in its little, simple, and laborious community, the tyranny of habit, and the insensibility to danger, or want of forethought over a people whose intellects are little worked, and whose caution, through density of temperament, is rarely awakened. It is in vain that Monte Rosa, in past or recent times, flings down its avalanch, and buries beneath its overwhelming masses, the inhabitants of the village of Alagna. No provision against the future, but certain, catastrophy, is made by its innocent and laborious inhabitants-miners-whose work in the neighboring copper-mines requires a proximate residence; fathers have perished, and paternal homes lie buried under the indissoluble snows; but sons still congregate near the site, and new generations expose themselves to those devastating phenomena, which have from time to time overwhelmed the old, far as the ruin extended. But the village of Alagna is now at peace; the storm is yet far off, and the Alpine scenery, more sublime and picturesque than terrible, is now seen reposing in the moonlight. The surrounding Alps and peaked mountains are bathed in one broad silver tint-the little lake in the foreground, dark, shallow and splashy, formed evidently of melted or melting snow, appears to have a motion actually trembling; the perfect outline of a most picturesque cottage, whose kindling fire, within, throws a red ray on the water, and whose curling smoke, without, rises gracefully, stains the deep blue atmosphere, and incorporates itself with the fleecy snows of the peaks above. Beyond, as the moon sinks, a few bright lights twinkle in the air and on the water, and mark out the village, dignified with its spire, the land-mark of its church, or of some little cloistered community. All around rise the awful Alps, sublime and terrible; already darkening in a hurricane, and shaking down their light and swelling snows in the deep ravine beneath. Still all is peace, till the storm breaks out in sullen gusts, and, as yet, the snow falls in innoxious flakes! The moon sinks to rest, and so does the simple work-weary community of Alagna; the lights in the villages are gradually extinguished, the fire of the foreground cottage is quenched-the moon rises no more, and gradually, deep dense darkness involves the salient silvered details of the sublime whole! Sounds as sublime rise on the stillness, a distant muffled thunder-roll is heard, and then a perpetual whistling wind, with short sudden blasts, and then lengthened gusts, and then louder thunder. But the inhabitants of Alagna sleep on, surrounded by danger-they disregard its awful warning summons; but some one wakes and wonders, and then seeks to alarm; a speck of light suddenly beams forth from the little spire -the bell tolls, at first loudly, then faintly! it tolls the requiem of a last sleep to the inhabitants of Alagna, but fails to arouse them! The hurricane increases, the light is extinguished, the bell tolls no more, the tumbling avalanch thun

ders, and the utter darkness that follows, buries all!-There was a pause.

The imagination passes over dreary hoursthe day dawns in its first light on the highest peak of Monte Rosa; it descends into the valley, shines upon the little lake, upon the cottage which has escaped the general ruin, and reveals the whole sad scene of desolation of the pleasant, pretty village of the valley, on which the moon shone so cheerily the preceding evening. The site it occupied is now represented by a heaving sea of snow, which fills up the valley of Sesia; the spire alone remains—its dark small shaft alone marks the spot, where, a few hours before, so many lived and loved, and awakened to sleep

-for ever!

The action of all this melo-dramatic scene, this tragedy of nature's own composition, is so finely conceived, so exquisitely executed, that there is no chance of the judgment detecting the illusion: the faint and fainter toll of the tocsin-the fall of darkness-the outbreak of day-the slow brightening of the precipitous shafts of the snow mountains-the coming out of the outline of the foreground cottage-the appearance of the village, and the church and spire, and a thousand details-all appropriate and in the truth of nature, restore the mind to its cheerful contemplation of the beautiful and sublime, which first struck it on entering the magic circle of the DIORAMA.

VAUXHALL GARDENS.

This delightful place of fashionable resort opened for the season on Monday last, and has continued open every evening during the week. As usual, the weather was unfavorable on the first night, the rain descending in torrents soon after 8 o'clock. It cleared up, however, about 9; which was the signal for some thousands to venture out, to be present on the opening night. The appearance of the Gardens is, in every respect, greatly improved. The dark walks have had a light cast upon them. Statues, fountains, shrubberies, &c., have been added: and there are a variety of panoramic Views by Mr. Cocks. The principal novelty is "A Grand Moving Panorama" of the extraordinary voyage, performed last year, by the Nassau Balloon. This is alone worthy a visit. The concert is performed in the open air as usual; and there is a humorous drama enacted in the Rotunda ; also, a variety of other entertainments. The fireworks surpass even those of last season. We sincerely hope, the worthy proprietors may reap the fruits of their liberality and industry.

CHIT-CHAT.

TIT-FOR-TAT.-The Corps de ballet at Drury Lane, have given ALFRED BUNN a Roland for his Oliver. On Saturday last, he tendered them only four nights' salary instead of six! This they refused to take; and held out firmly till the ballet commenced. After keeping the audience waiting some twenty-five minutes, the

little manager began to fume, and, in spite of his teeth, was obliged to comply with the reasonable

F. De Porquet's Works.

E TRESOR de L'ECOLIER FRANCAIS, for turn

balance ! This is a signal triumph over avarice. The same insignificant animal let his Corps de ballet WALK home from the English Opera House, last week; because, as he said, he was too poor to pay for their coach-hire! Their coach-hire was paid to the theatre, by the hall-porter; but, we hear, it was afterwards deducted from his salary!!

Mrs. GRAHAM, having partially recovered from her late appalling accident, has signified her intention of making another Balloon-ascent on Monday next, from the Surrey Zoological Gardens! It is said, that her friends have vainly tried to prevent the ascent,-the unfortunate lady being too obstinate to listen to their entreaties. This rashness will, some day, lead to a fatal accident. What is Mr. GRAHAM about? Is he callous, or is his love of gain greater than his regard for his wife's safety?

ASCOT RACES.-The coldness of the weather

on Thursday last (the grand day of the Races), was such, that gentlemen were muffled up to their eyes, and nothing discernible but the tips of their noses! The ladies, too, had quite a dowdy appearance, and looked half-perished with cold. It was an amusing sight to see them set off; and no less so, to see them return home. Their eyes, the only part that was exposed, seemed to have suffered greatly from clouds of dust; while several gentlemen were minus their hats, which had been blown off by the wind.

MASQUERADE.-Another of these motley entertainments was given on Monday last, at the Lowther rooms, under the able direction of Mr. Blake. It was unusually well attended, and the amusements appeared to give universal satisfaction. The heat of the weather caused ices to be in great request, and they disappeared like lightning. The ventilation of the rooms was well managed, and prevented the heat being felt in excess; after supper, which by the bye was a very capital one, the sports recommenced, and were kept up till an early hour on Tuesday morning.

ADVERTISEMENTS.
AMUSEMENTS OF THE WEEK.

PANORAMA, Leicester Square. JUST OPENED, a VIEW of MONT BLANC, taken from the Flegere, exhibiting the whole of the Mountain Monarch, from base to summit, with the surrounding beautiful Aiguilles, the Mer de Glace, the Glaciers des Bois and des Buissons, and other extraordinary torrents of ice; together with the Valley of Chamounix, the Priory, and every object of interest in this wonderful and unparalleled scene. Also just opened, A View of the Bay and City of Dublin, with a great portion of the County of Dublin.

GERMAN TRESOR, on the same plan, 4s. 6d. ITALIAN TRESOR, 3s. 6d. with Foot-notes, and the Tonic Accent.

DE PORQUET'S ITALIAN PHRASE-Book. 3s. 6d. HISTOIRE DE NAPOLEON, 5s. In French. For Schools. PETIT SECRETAIRE PARISIEN, 3s. 6d. 7th Edition. Revised and corrected with the utmost care; Key, 3s. 6d.

a new

FIRST ITALIAN READING-BOOK for Beginners 3s. 6d. FIRST FRENCH READING-Book, 2s. 6d. for beginners. F. DE PORQUET AND COOPER, 11, Tavistock Street.

To Families and Schools.

MONSIEUR LOUIS F. DE PORQUET, Bookseller, who has been twenty years a Professor of Languages in England, and author of "Le Tresor de l'Ecolier Francais; or, the Art of Translating English into French at sight," informs the Nobility, Gentry, and Heads of Schools, that he has numerous applications from ENGLISH, FRENCH, and GERMAN Governesses, Tutors, and Teachers, in every Branch of Education, in want of situations. Monsieur de Porquet's experience as a Teacher, it is considered, enables him to be competent to judge of the several abilities of the Candidates who are recommended by him to Schools and

Families, FREE OF CHARGE.

Apply, if by letter stating full particulars, post paid, or personally, between Ten and Four daily, to Messrs. de Porquet and Cooper, School Booksellers, 11, Tavistock Street, Covent Garden.

in its

Boulogne, Calais, Paris, &c. K Various Amusements, Recreations, and Pleasures; IDD'S "HOW TO ENJOY BOULOGNE forming a complete Guide for Strangers, and Visitors, and containing every necessary information on the Subject of Passports, French Monies, Steam-boats, Customhouse Regulations, &c. &c. Price only 1s. 6d., beautifully illustrated by Cruikshank.

II.-KIDD'S "HOW TO ENJOY PARIS," (including a Guide to Calais) on a plan exactly similar to the above. Price 1s. 6d.

"These books have evidently been written for the Million; those who, in the Summer Season, flock by thousands, and tens of thousands, to the gay shores of France. They are written with Mr. Kidd's usual tact, and nice perception of the ludicrous. The information is correet,copious, amusing, and instructive."-Morning Post.

PARIS, with their Environs. Illustrated with numerous Engravings, and handsomely bound in morocco, with a rich Gold Label. Price 5s.

III.-KIDD'S NEW GUIDE TO LONDON AND

"A magnificent little volume, ably and humorously representing two of the gayest, if not the greatest, cities in the world."-Sun.

London: W. Kidd, 7, Tavistock Street, Covent
Garden, and G. Mann, 39, Cornhill.

The People's Newspaper. THE GUIDE, Price Three Pence Half-penny. The Cheapest and best Family Newspaper in London, permanently doubled in size and shape; and consisting of 40 COLUMNS, LARGE FOLIO-Contains all the week's News to Saturday morning, including Friday Night's Parliamentary Debates. This Paper may be received within 200 miles of the Metropolis on Sunday. Orders received by all News-Agents.

Printed by J. Eames, 7, Tavistock St., Covent Garden.

Published for the Proprietor by GEORGE DENNEY, at the Office, 7, Tavistock St. Covent Garden: sold also by Hetherington, 126, Strand; Strange, 21, and Steill, 20, Paternoster Row; Purkiss, Compton Street; and Clements, Pulteney Street.

VoL. I.No. 6.

THE JEW OF CLARE MARKET.

Having studied men and manners a long time in books, I come now to examine them more closely by a survey of real life. For this purpose, I need no introductions to foreign courts or men of rank. I am independent of all coteries, have no acquaintance with gay widows or rich dowagers, and am as little proud of dining in Grosvenor Square, as I am little ashamed of popping into an Eating-house, and taking a basin of a la mode soup, or a slice of corned beef.

I am an idle man in London; and having a friend with something of my own disrelish of studious occupation, and much of my own liking for lounging observation of people more busy than ourselves, and of their affairs, far more important than ours, we are to be seen almost every day, in every part of Town,-from the fashionable purlieus of the clubs, and St. James's, to the winding mazes of Westminster, the trackless paths of the Seven Dials, or the Irish colonies of St. Giles's-so remote from fashionable atmospheres as to be scarcely known to the aristocracy of Russell Square. Sometimes we are to be seen conversing with a seller of sprats in the street,-sometimes, enquiring into the latest invention in lamps; to-day there is a fresh caricature to be seen, and to-morrow Colnaghi has got a new print in his window. We listen to political ballad-singers, and can tell, from positive enquiry, how many different sorts of potatoes there are; we saw all the prize beef and mutton at Giblett's, on Christmas Eve, and found grouse selling from 1s. 6d. to 8s. on the afternoon of the same day. We have an intimate acquaintance with coach-makers, tailors, and second-hand furniture sellers,-insomuch that my friend bought me one day, for a mere trifle, a dozen chairs that had been actually used by the Bishop of London. We know how much a-day a woman can earn by a stand of apples and ginger-bread, and what is the average number of the children of paupers, hucksters, and licensed vagrants. We reckon the prosperity of London by the number of gin-shops we see erecting, and calculate the progress of trade by the number of people we see pouring in at one door and out at another of these stately monuments of national

[PRICE Two-PENCE.

weaith. Beside all this, we know what Jews sell hareskins, and buy old clothes for; how much gentlemen's servants spend at the ale-house, and what interest on pledges is paid by pawnbrokers. We have interpreted many of the London cries, and know the arms and mottoes of most of the carriages which crowd the shopdoors of Regent Street and Bond Street. We have a tolerable taste in servants' liveries, can tell a lady at a glance, and judge of a person, whether he be a gentleman or not, by the fit and polish of his boots, or the exact cut of his coat, or contour of his hat. We are great physiognomists, and can tell a member of Parliament by his impudent look; we can discern the member of a club in his confident strut, or clean beard and colored handkerchief. When we see a person on horseback, who has no earthly character in his countenance, we can tell his rank or station from the blood of his horse, or the dress of his groom. We have a great acquaintance with coachmen, tinkers, and greengrocers; know most of the coaches that start from the White-Horse Cellar and Saracen's Head; can recommend our friends, without hesitation, to the best Inns and Hotels in the different quarters of the Town, from Conduit House, Islington, to Harding's and Burlington. We have a great knowledge of the interior management and characters of the opera-house, from being often admitted behind the scenes.

the

In one of our late lounges, after having ascertained the price of veal in Clare Market, we were arrested by the grotesque figure of a Jew, standing in a small darkened shop in that neighborhood. This shop was an emporium of every thing stale and useless in creation. It was filled with the veriest refuse of destitute pauperism; the articles being spread out, and even arranged, in endless variety ofwretchedness. Old coal-skuttles filled with women's cast off shoes, that had been long worn as street slippers; by the side of these, a pile of rusty nails, and of the smallest pieces of old iron; shoe-horns burnt at one end, and frying pans without any bottoms; kettles wanting both handles and spouts; and tea pots past holding water, with a little earth in them to show they might still do for thyme and marjoram; hearth-brushes without bristles, old pieces of tattered carpet, daubs of pictures in ochre

legs of tables, backs of chairs, every form and dimension of broken looking-glass, with the quicksilver mostly worn off: these, and innumerable other odds and ends, especially of wearing apparel, filled the shop of the Jew. There were the ragged shawl, and scanty remains of a petticoat; the dirty straw bonnet without a crown, and the shreds and patches and remnants, without end, of aprons, gowns and tawdry muslins. Coats without tails, and tails of coats without bodies; waistcoat-fronts, and trowsers full of holes, with remnants of silk and cotton handkerchiefs, and of flannel shirts and drawers, were hung up in all directions, and lowered for the inspection of customers by means of a cramp-stick.-Buttons of all sorts and sizes and ages, handles of knives, and knife blades, old inkhorns, wafer boxes, and apothecaries' vials, with unmatched tea-cups and broken glasses-made up the more ornamental part of the Jew's stock. At the further extremity of his premises were coal cinders in a large heap, and in various piles of different sizes-bad potatoes, half-rotten cabbages and cauliflowers, long musty stalks of celery, field turnips, refuse carrots, and water cresses turning to brown.

The vendor of this miscellaneous rubbish was not

himself the least conspicuous part of it. His long beard was of a tawny white, and his sharp keen eyes shot, from their deep recesses, surveying looks of eager, inquisitive, and most penurious import. His greyish black hair, falling in a large and bushy mass upon his coat collar, discovered a brown, care-worn and wrinkled forehead, which, with his face, showed how little he regarded the practice of his forefathers in the matter of ablutions. A long brown coat, patched all over with various kinds of stuff, sewed on sometimes with thread, and sometimes with twine, reached down to his ankles; and only opened enough at the bottom to discover-a pair of hose that seemed never to have been washed, and a pair of shoes that had certainly never been brushed, with a pair of black tin buckles in them. "Ah, shirs, you be come for look-no for buy-no for shell," said this singular specimen of his tribe; but presently thinking, as it should seem, that people of as portly appearance as we, were often reduced to awkward shifts and predicaments in London, he took courage, and shrugging his shoulders and rubbing his hands, addressed us thus;-"You no got old shpoon, or wash, or coat you shell? me give good price, not tell nobodish; call at your room in de dark, and take de monish in my pocket." Amused at our friend's solicitude, for the furtherance of the only object for which he seemed to live, we told him that we were not then come to deal with him, but had been so, much struck

with his stock in trade, that we could not help stop ping to survey it. Making him a small present, moreover, on which he opened very wide his incredulous eyes, we told him we had a great curiosity to know with what class of persons he could possibly deal, so as to get together, or dispose of, the extraordinary collection of rubbish we saw. "Oh," said he, "it is de shin shop make de trade for me. All dem tings you shee de people do shell to me for buy shin, and when de shin drinkersh have one halfpenny for spare (it ish not mush times) den shey come for buy my pota

toe and my shoosh."

Much more learnt we, in his own way of telling it, from this descendant of Abraham. The conclusion of the whole matter, however, was, that he carried on, as indeed we saw he did, a most extensive trade of buying, selling, and pawning-and that, exclusively, with the devotees of the gin temple. These, it seems, go to a better class of pawnbroker, while they have any thing for which they can get a silver coin. To our friend they only go when reduced to absolute starvation and rags, and copper; and when they are ashamed to be seen any where but in the gin shop, or in the darkest and narrowest lanes of London.

At once shocked and horrified at all we had heard, we proceeded on our way, and began to understand more in detail, as we moved along, how it was that, in the midst of filthy streets, and the most impoverished neighborhoods, such splendid erections of houses were going on at every other corner. They are the Gin Temples-the palaces of deadly poison, into which the victims of drunkenness, and all the vices connected with it, are lured by every invitation which morbid ingenuity and covetousness can hold out. There is

cream gin, cordial gin, spiced gin; and all at prices so low, that you can only call them infamous. You have hogsheads piled upon hogsheads, varnished and bound with hoops of brass, and full of the draught of death. Blazing gas-lights, bursting forth from the most splendid lamps, drive off the face of day; the door is left a-jar so that none may see the persons engaged in the drunken orgies within; young women of modest appearance, and in rich attire, are stationed to minister the glass and it is precisely from such places as these that, sooner or later, the diseased, emaciated, outcast, and utterly impoverished wretches who frequent them, find their way to the shop of our friend the Jew. They there dispose of their last rag of raiment, or purchase a pittance of his miserable provision, to keep them, for a season, from starvation and death! MORDECAI.

REVIEWS OF BOOKS.

Goldsmith's History of England, from the earliest times to the Death of George the Second; with numerous original notes, and a Continuation to the year 1836, inclusive. By E. Bellchambers. 4 vols. 24mo. Allan Bell

and Co.

"Goldsmith's History of England" is a work already too well known to require further panegyric; we have, therefore, only to speak of the merits of this particular edition, which is one of the most beautiful as well as valuable editions extant. In addition to its elegant exteriorwhich, by the way, is only a fitting ornament to the interior, the work is embellished with nearly sixty engravings on steel, which comprise portraits of all the Sovereigns mentioned in History; and, among them, those of William IV. and Queen Adelaide: also, a variety of other historical illustrations from original drawings made expressly for the work. The Continuation of the History, up to the close of the year 1836, renders this edition particularly valuable. It is impartially written, and illustrated by a vast number of excellent and judicious notes by the worthy Editor.

As a literary present, we know not of any book that could be more acceptable,-especially in Schools, where it would be an appropriate reward of merit.