means of averting much misery and disease, and we trust are continuing every year to diminish them still more. The new law we have mentioned will no doubt have this effect, if it is strictly put in force; and we advise our town readers to inform their neighbours that such an act has been passed, and to urge them immediately to comply with its requirements. It will no doubt soon be found that a similar measure applying to other places would be of great benefit, and we may hope that all will assist in carrying out so excellent and necessary a regulation.

ANECDOTES OF A ROBIN.

I

In the summer of 1835, a male robin in my garden became so tame that he picked up worms from the hand of the gardener; and in the middle of the day, when the latter took his dinner, he constantly attended for the purpose of obtaining a portion of it. Upon the knee of my wife I have repeatedly seen him alight, and take bread out of her hand as familiarly as if he had been tamed from the nest. To me he likewise became very much attached. He continued so during the autumn. One cold morning in the beginning of winter, as I was standing at the door of my house, having heard my voice, he immediately flew to me, and, seeming to claim my protection, followed me into the parlour, and was quite at ease. caught him and put him into my garret, in which during the winter he sang most delightfully. Being sorry to see him alone, I got for him a helpmate to cheer him in his confinement. About the middle of April I set them at liberty, and, to my surprise, a few days after I discovered a very neat nest which they had built. The outside of it was composed of the stalks of dried horehound, which I had suspended from the roof as a medicine for the cold, and the inside was lined with a few feathers and the down of the ragwort, which I had there kept for my bulfinch. It shows to what shifts birds have recourse when deprived of the proper materials for the construction of their nests. About eight days after this, whilst I was sitting in the parlour, my old friend flew in and immediately recognised me. -Weir.

YOUTHFUL PIETY.

THE following extract is taken from a memoir of an interesting and remarkable child who died at the age of seven years.

"With uncommon strength of intellect and unusual manliness of disposition, he combined an acute perception of moral rectitude, and a scrupulous attention to all the proprieties and delicacies of more advanced age. His character was entirely of a religious cast. Prayer was his pleasure scarcely less than praise. After having copied a part of Patrick's Devotions,' he at length begged to have the book, and the good use he made of it cannot be better exemplified than in the two following instances. On the morning of his last birth-day, no sooner had his father quitted his room, than he hastened from play, in which he was briskly engaged, and entreated his mother to join him in offering up the prayer recommended for such an occasion. He had also selected for private devotion the Prayer for a Student' contained in the same work, this he used daily until his studies were interrupted by a visit into Suffolk; thither the volume was carried at his particular desire, but that petition, rendered less appropriate, was discontinued. Of hymns he had spontaneously committed to memory a considerable variety; before he was four years old, uninvited and unencouraged, he had learned the greater part of the one, contained in the Magdalen collection, commencing, Hark, my gay friend, that solemn toll.' The verses remained indelibly engraved, and the sound of a passing bell never failed to draw forth an emphatic repetition of the first line. From his earliest infancy the Bible had been to him what the story book is to children in general, an unfailing source of amusement; he had long been pursuing a voluntary plan of reading it regularly through. This natural bent had been indulged by permitting him to commence his acquaintance with the ancient languages. With the Hebrew his progress had been such as no talents however great could have secured, unless the heart also had been deeply engaged in the pursuit. A note written to his father in that language, earned him a

Hebrew Bible, and this possession was in his estimation, invaluable. He had for some time before his decease been importunate to be permitted to acquire a knowledge likewise of Greek, from an ardent anxiety to read the New Testament also in the original, and his advancement in that of Hebrew justifying a division of his attention, had obtained a promise of speedy gratification. He had acquired a useful habit of noting down, or requesting others to note for him in what he termed his Journal,' any piece of instructive information which his reading presented. Such is a brief notice of his literary hours. Of those of exercise the far greater number were devoted to the garden; in the spots appropriated to himself not a weed was suffered to appear, and he entered into a friendly competition with the gardener for the production of the first flower and the earliest vegetable. His ardent love to God was necessarily accompanied with a corresponding love to man. At a fair, of a number of shillings with which he had been presented, he expended only one sixpence for himself in the purchase of a watch key, which he really needed, and returned laden not with toys and trifles, but with a suit of clothes for the son of a labourer in the village. To a sister, one year younger than himself, he was a friend, a guide, and a guardian, bearing all her little fancies with imperturbable good humour, but on the slightest indication of misconduct, reproving her with a tone of gentle authority which was never resisted. When he had not long completed his third year, she was stooping to pluck a primrose, he rushed forward and checked her, saying that the flower was not her's but papa's; she cried in consequence, and he proceeded in his reasoning. though papa cannot see you, God can,' and enforced his observation with a quotation from Dr. Watts, 'There's not a place where we can flee, but He is present there,'' besides,' he added, you should not pull flowers, There's not a plant or flower below, but makes God's glories known'." Sent by M. D.

NEW RATES OF POSTAGE.

(From the Gazette.)

WE order and direct, that on and after the 5th day of December next, the present practice of charging the rates of postage on letters transmitted by the general post, consisting of more than one sheet of paper, or containing any enclosure, shall be wholly discontinued: and thenceforth all letters, of whatever description, transmitted through the general post, and legally chargeable with postage, shall be charged by weight, as hereinafter mentioned.

And we hereby fix and limit the following scale of weight of letters to be transmitted through the general post, and we subject such letters, on and after the said 5th of December next, to the following rates of postage; that is to say

On every letter, not exceeding half-an-ounce in weight, there shall be charged and taken one rate of postage.

On every letter, exceeding half-an-ounce, and not exceeding one ounce in weight, there shall be charged and taken two rates of postage.

On every letter exceeding one ounce, and not exceeding two ounces in weight, there shall be charged and taken four rates of postage.

On all letters not by law specially exempted from postage, and not exceeding half an ounce in weight, transmitted by the general post between places within the United Kingdom (not being letters sent to or from parts beyond the seas) there shall be charged and taken one uniform rate of postage of 4d. without reference to the number of sheets, or pieces of paper, or enclosures, of which the same may be comprised, or to the distance or number of miles the same shall be conveyed.

On all such letters, if exceeding half an ounce in weight, there shall be charged and taken progressive and additional rates of postage (each additional rate being estimated at 4d.) according to the scale of weights and number of rates hereinbefore fixed and declared.

EXTRACTS FROM THE PUBLIC NEWSPAPERS, &c.

ON CHEWING OR SMOKING TOBACCO.-When the fashion was so strong in England that James I. could get no one to preach against it, his own royal hand took the pen and wrote a treatise, which he denominates "A Counterblast to Tobacco." The strength of his princely antidote may be gathered from the following closing paragraph of his royal counterblast. "It is a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, and dangerous to the lungs."

Experienced people tell us that the habit of using tobacco, in any shape, will, after a time, render you emaciated and consumptive, your nerves shattered, your spirits low and moody, your throat dry and demanding stimulating drinks, your person filthy, and your habits those of a swine. It is difficult to leave off this as well as other bad habits:-let young people take care, therefore, not to begin the practice.—From the Labourer's Friend Magazine.

CIGAR SMOKING -Two persons of very moderate age have died within a short period of each other, at Cheltenham, of internal ulcers, brought on, in the opinion of an eminent medical practitioner, by the excessive use of cigars. -Morning Herald.

HEALTH.-Use exercise, practise temperance, breathe pure air, keep your skin clean, your conscience clear, and your mind cheerful.

ECONOMICAL FUEL.-In those parts where coal is scarce and dear, and in all cases where the saving of fuel is an object, the following will be found not only a cheap, but an exceedingly comfortable and pleasant mode of getting up a good fire :-Take a quantity of clay and roll or beat it very thin, into squares of about two or three feet, and less than half an inch in thick. ness: smear the surface all over with pitch or tar, on this sc tter a mixture, of equal parts, of slack and cinders, about half an inch thick and well moistened, roll it up exactly after the manner of a rolled dumpling, smearing the clay with pitch or tar as you proceed, until the whole is finished: cut it into small lumps with a spade or large knife, and it will be ready for The pitch may be regulated in quantity according to the wish of the person using the fuel, and may be altogether left out when a good blaze and a quick fire are not wanted. It is advisable, however, to cover the inner surface. Great care must be taken to roll the clay very thin, to prevent having too much of it, and producing a dull fire. The above preparation will be found greatly superior to the old clay balls.—Globe.

use.

There will not be a single eclipse of either sun or moon, visible in the United Kingdom, in the course of the ensuing year.-Globe.

A CURE FOR RHEUMATISM.-Rub dry flour of mustard upon the part affected, holding the part at the same time before the fire. Give it a good rubbing for some time, sufficient to bring out a rash on the skin, and it will relieve the pain. One rubbing is generally found sufficient. This is a Scotch old woman's recipe for rheumatism, and seldom fails in effecting a complete and very speedy cure.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We have received the communications of E.; Y.; J.; "an Old Correspondent;" F.; C.; E. M.; L. L.; M. D.;

The only answer we can return to " A Conservative Protestant" is, that he has quite misunderstood the intention of the article he complains of, and that we should be equally grieved with him if its real tendency were that pointed out in his communication.