"And so what?" said Vanslyperken, com-two." pressing his thin lips.

"I eat it myself—if you please-O dear-cat." O dear."

"You did, did you-you gluttonous scarecrow-you did, did you? Are you aware that you have committed a theft-and are you aware of the punishment attending it?" "O sir-it was a mistake-dear sir," cried Smallbones, whimpering.

"In the first place, I will cut you to ribbons with the cat."

you ought to have no breakfast." Snarley-denominated alamodes and lutestrings. The yow growled. "We are only four years ac- cutter we have described was on this service, quainted, and how many scrapes have you and was named the Yungfrau, although built got me into, Snarleyyow?" Snarleyyow here in England, and forming a part of the English put both his paws upon his master's knee. naval force. "Well, you are sorry, my poor dog, and you It may readily be supposed that Dutch inshall have some breakfast," and Mr. Vansly-terest, during this period, was on the ascendperken put the basin of bergoo on the floor, ant. Such was the case: and the Dutch offiwhich the dog tumbled down his throat most cers and seamen who could not be employed rapidly. "Nay, my dog, not so fast; you in their own marine were appointed in the must leave some for Smallbones, he will re- English vessels, to the prejudice of our own quire some breakfast before his punishment. countrymen. Mr. Vanslyperken was of Dutch There, that will do," and Mr. Vanslyperken extraction, but born in England long before wished to remove the basin with a little of the Prince of Orange had ever dreamt of the burgoo remaining in it. Snarleyyow being called to the English throne. He was growled, would have snapped at his master, but Mr. Vanslyperken shoved him away with the bell mouth of his speaking trumpet, and recovering a portion of the mess, put it on the table for the use of poor Smallbones. "Now then, my dog, we will go on deck." Mr. Vansly perken left the cabin, followed by Snarleyyow, but as soon as his master was half way up the ladder, Snarleyyow turned back, leaped on the chair, from the chair to the table, and then finished the whole of the breakfast appropriated for Smallbones. Having effected this, the dog followed his

master.

CHAPTER III.

a near relation of King William's own nurse, and even in these days, that would cause powerful interest. Previous to the revolution he had been laid on the shelf for cowardice in one of the engagements between the Dutch and the English, he being then a lieutenant on board of a two-decker ship, and of long standing in the service; but before he had been appointed to this vessel, he had served invariably in small craft, and his want of this necessary qualification had never been discovered. The interest used for him on the accession of the Dutch king was sufficient for his again obtaining the command of a small vessel. In those days, the service was very different from what it is now. The commanders of vessels were also the pursers, and could save a great deal of money by defraud

A retrospect, and short description of a new cha- ing the crew: and further, the discipline of

racter.

But we must leave poor Smallbones to lament his hard fate in the fore peak of the vessel, and Mr. Vanslyperken and his dog to walk the quarter-deck, while we make our readers a little better acquainted with the times in whic the scenes passed which we are now describing, as well as with the history of Mr. Vanslyperken.

the service was such as would astonish the modern philanthropist; there was no appeal for subordinates, and tyranny and oppression, even amounting to the destruction of life, were practised with impunity. Smollet has given his readers some idea of the state of the service some years after the time of which we are now writing, when it was infinitely worse, for the system of the Dutch, notorious for their cruelty, had been grafted upon that of the English; the consequence was, a combination of all that was revolting to humanity was practised without any notice being taken of it by the superior powers, provided that the commanders of the vessels did their duty when called upon, and showed the necessary talent and courage.

The date in our first chapter, that of the year 1699, will, if they refer back to history, show them that William of Nassau had been a few years on the English throne, and that peace had just been concluded between England with its allies and France. The king occasionally passed his time in Holland, among his Dutch countrymen, and the Eng- Lieutenant Vanslyperken's character may lish and Dutch fleets, which but a few years be summed up in the three vices of avarice, before were engaging with such an obstinacy cowardice, and cruelty. A miser in the exof courage, had lately sailed together, and treme, he had saved up much money by his turned their guns against the French. Wil- having had the command of a vessel for so liam, like all those continental princes who many years, during which he had defrauded have been called to the English throne, and pilfered both from the men and the goshowed much favor to his own countrymen, vernment. Friends and connections he had and England was over-run with Dutch fa- none on this side of the water, and, when on vorites, Dutch courtiers, and peers of Dutch shore, he had lived in a state of abject misery, extraction. He would not even part with his although he had the means of comfortable Dutch guards, and was at issue with the Com- support. He was now fifty-five years of mons of England on that very account. But Since he had been appointed to the Yungfrau, the war was now over, and most of the Eng- he had been employed in carrying despatches lish and Dutch navy lay dismantled in port, to the States-General from King William, and a few small vessels only being in commission had, during his repeated visits to the Hague, to intercept the smuggling from France that made acquaintance with the widow Vanderwas carrying on, much to the detriment of sloosh, who kept a Lust Haus, a place of reEnglish manufacture, of certain articles then sort for sailors where they drank and danced.

age.

Discovering that the comfortably fat landlady | ed at the wheel, to Obadiah Coble, who was was also very comfortably rich, Mr. Vansly- standing by him on the forecastle. perken had made advances with the hope of "I think so too: but there'll be a breeze, obtaining her hand and handling her money. depend upon it-never mind, the devil will The widow had, however, no idea of accepting have his own all in good time." the offer, but was too wise to give him a decid- "Got for dam," said Jansen, looking at ed refusal, as she knew it would be attended Beechy Head, and shaking his own. with his preventing the crew of the cutter Why, what's the matter from frequenting her house, and thereby los- Schnapps?" said Coble. ing much custom. Thus did she, at every return, receive him kindly and give him hopes, but nothing more. Since the peace, as we before observed, the cutter had been ordered for the prevention of smuggling.

When and how Mr. Vanslyperken had picked up his favorite Snarley yow cannot be discovered, and must remain a secret. The men said that the dog had appeared on the deck of the cutter in a supernatural way, and most of them looked upon him with as much awe as ill-will.

This is certain, that the cutter had been a little while before in a state of mutiny, and a forcible entry attempted at night into the lieutenant's cabin. It is therefore not unreasonable to suppose that Vanslyperken felt that a good watch-dog might be a very useful appendage to his establishment, and had procured one accordingly. All the affection he ever showed to anything living was certainly concentrated in this one animal,and the next to his money, Snarleyyow had possession of his master's heart.

Poor Smallbones, cast on the world without father or mother, had become starved before he was on board the cutter, and had been starved ever since. As the reader will perceive, his allowance was mostly eaten up by the dog, and he was left to beg a precarious support from the goodwill and charity of his shipmates, all of whom were equally disgusted with the commander's cruelty and the ungain temper of his brute companion.

Having entered into this retrospect for the benefit of the reader, we will now proceed.

66

66

now, old Schnapps-yes-the tyfel-Schnapps, I think how the French schnapped us Dutchmen here when you Englishmen would'nt fight."

"Mind what you say, old twenty breeches wouldn't fight-when wouldn't we fight?" Here, where we were now, by Got, you leave us all in the lurch, and not come down." "Why, we couldn't come down."

"Bah!" replied Jansen, who referred to the defeat of the combined Dutch and English fleet by the French off Beachy Head in 1690. We wouldn't fight, heh?" exclaimed Obediah in scorn, "what do you say to the Hogue?"

"Yes, den you fought well-dat was good." "And shall I tell you why we fought well at the Hogue-you Dutch porpoise-just because we had no Dutchmen to help us."

"And shall I tell you why the Dutch were beat off this Head? because the English wouldn't come down to help us."

Here Obadiah put his tongue into his right cheek. Jansen in return threw his into his left, and thus the argument was finished. These disputes were constant at the time, but seldom proceeded further than words certainly not between Coble and Jansen, who were great friends.

The boats were soon on board; from the time that the cutter had been hove to, every stroke of their oars having been accompanied with a nautical anathema from the crews upon the head of their commander. The steersman and first officer, who had charge of the boats, came over the gangway and went up to Vanslyperken. He was a thickset stout man about five feet four inches high, and wrapped up in Flushing garments, looked very much like a bear in shape as well as in skin. His name was Dick Short, and in every respect he answered to his name, for he was short in stature, short in speech, and short in decision and action.

Mr. Vanslyperken walked the deck for nearly a quarter of an hour without speaking: the men had finished their breakfasts and were lounging about the deck, for there was nothing for them to do, except to look out for the return of the two boats which had been sent away the night before. The lieutenant's thoughts were, at one minute, upon Mrs. Van- Now when Short came up to the lieutenant, dersloosh, thinking how he could persuade he did not consider it at all necessary to say her, and at another upon Smallbones, think-as usual. "Come on board, sir," for it was ing how he could render the punishment ade- self-evident that he had come on board. He quate in his opinion to the magnitude of the of- therefore said nothing. So abrupt was he in fence. While discussing these two important his speech, that he never even said "Sir," matters, one of the men reported the boats when he spoke to his superior, which it may ahead, and broke up the commander's reverie. be imagined was very offensive to Mr. Vans"How far off?" "demanded Mr. Vanslyper-lyperken: so it was, but Mr. Vanslyperken

"What have you been doing all night?" Pulling."

"Did you land to obtain information ?" "Yes."

"And you got none ?" "No."

Here Short hitched up the waistband of his second pair of trowsers, turned short round, and was going below, when Snarleyyow smelt at his heels. The man gave him a back kick with the heel of his heavy boot, which sent the dog off yelping and barking, and put Mr. Vanslyperken in a great rage. Not venturing to resent this affront upon his first officer, he was reminded of Smallbones, and immediately sent for Corporal Spitter to appear on deck.

(To be continued.)

LETTER

To the Editor of the Metropolitan.
Whitechapel Churchyard,
15th December, 1835.

SIR,

be called a gentlemanly acquaintance with all these. That is to say, he understands the great general and fundamental laws which govern them; and, therefore, if he is asked a question in any of these sciences, although he might not be able to answer the question, yet he would readily understand its nature and purport; and if the problem involved in that question were explained to him, he would have no difficulty in comprehending it. But not so with the science of health and disease, or rather that which teaches the nature of health and disease; and the reason clearly is, because he knows nothing whatever of the fundamental laws upon which life depends: nothing whatever of the several actions which constitutes life; nothing whatever of the intimate structure of the living organs; he knows neither how he lives, nor how he moves, nor how he breathes -neither the "How," nor the "Why." The very language of the science is a dead letter to him-being borrowed, I verily believe, from every tongue that was ever spoken, and, for aught I know, from some that were never spoken at all. It is true, he has some notion of the general appearance of a few of the larger organs, because he has seen similar organs in dead animals. For instance, he has seen a great reddish mass of flesh, and has heard it called liver; and he has been told that in the liver the bile is made: but beyond this vague and meagre noI HAVE lately received a letter from a near tion he knows literally nothing. As to how the and dear relative of mine, in which he states manufacture is performed, by what and from that he has been for some time an invalid, la- what, or what are the several steps and stages boring under a host of the most dissimilar of the operation; as to all this, which constisymptoms, all of which, he is assured, are re-tutes the very kernel of the nut, and without presented by the term indigestion. He com- which the shell is nought, he is in worse than plains bitterly that he can get no satisfactory Cimmerian darkness. information as to the real nature of this ProHaving read my brother's letter and digesttean malady, nor as to the probability of his ed its contents, I was forcibly struck with the perfect and permanent recovery. When he truth of his remarks, and felt that he really questions his medical attendants on this sub- had just cause for lamentation. It then ject, they evince every disposition to satify struck me, that a small concise work, clearly him, but cannot avoid making use of phrases explaining in common language the nature which are to him words without meaning. of the animal economy,-the mechanics of the These phrases are, nevertheless, only such as internal man-the mechanism of life; deare in common and daily use among all class- tailing step by step what actually takes place es-phrases which he himself has frequently in the performance of each of the functions used and fully supposed he understood, but concerned in the preservation of life and which he now finds, when he strictly examines health, and how, and by what causes, life is himself, really convey no definite idea to his sustained: it struck me, I say, that such a mind. He is told that his "digestion is im- work would be highly acceptable to the pubpaired." He asks what is meant by this, and lic, and would supply a desideratum in the is told, his "digestive apparatus is deranged in minor literature of the country. There is no its economy." My poor brother is still no mystery into which mankind are more cunearer the mark, and his medical attendant, rious to pry than the mystery of their internal observing his puzzled look, proceeds to ex-selves: and certainly there is none on earth plain and make the matter perfectly clear, by telling him that his "secretions are depraved, his gastric juice deficient, his nutritive functions feebly performed, and that the tone, the energy, the nisus formativus, in fact, the vis vite is full twenty per cent. below par." The enlightened patient bows his gratitude for this luminous explanation, and sadly reseats himself in his chair of sickness, as wise, perhaps, but certainly no wiser, than he was before.

Now my brother is neither a profound mathematician, nor a proficient in astronomy, nor a perfect chemist; but he possesses what may

which so nearly concerns them. There are many books written with a view to give men a general notion of the laws respecting their property, and it seems to me astonishing that there should be no similar work calculated to inform them concerning those infinitely more important laws which concern their health. Every gentleman is supposed to know something-the general principles, at least— of all the liberal sciences, excepting that particular one in which alone he has any really great and personal interest. I do indeed think that such a work as I have attempted

ters, because I think this will afford me the best opportunity of using that plain and conversational style which is so necessary when writing for readers who have no acquaintance whatever with the subject treated. For the same reason, I shall avoid all professional pedantries, all learned technicalities, all crack-jaw words, (when it can be done con

to describe, (providing it were well and plain- Such a work as I have described it is my ly written, and all technicalities and unne-intention, to the best of my abilities, to execessary minutiæ carefully avoided,) would be cute. I shall do so in a series of familiar letread with great attention and interest, and, I hope, profit, by all classes. It would be read by invalids, in order that they might acquire some notion as to their own maladies, and so be better qualified to understand and practise the rules of regimen prescribed by their medical advisers; and it would occasionally be consulted by those who were not invalids, in order that they might better acquaint them-sistently with perspicuity,) and I shall deselves with the best manner of preserving scribe just so much (and no more) of the the blessing of which they were then in pos- structure of the body as is sufficient to give session. I believe also that nothing would the general reader a clear idea of those parts tend more than such a work to induce men to only which are concerned in the preservation practise those rules of conduct which are of health. Thus, in speaking of the heart, I best calculated to preserve and promote shall divide it into two cavities, a right and a health; because men are ever more ready to left, although in fact, each of these cavities, is do this or that, when they can themselves again divided into two others. But as a clearly see and understand its necessity-knowledge of this fact is not at all necessary and the manner how, and reason why, that ne- to the understanding the general functions of cessity exists-than when they have no other the heart, and as the description of this secauthority than the dictum of another, howev- ond division into cavities would necessarily er high their respect for his knowledge and judgment may be. Neither, I think, should the medical men take offence at the publication of such a work; as it would have a direct tendency to ennoble the profession, to render it purely scientific, and to rid it of that mystification and humbug which formerly so much disgraced it, and a portion of which still clings to it. If patients had themselves a clear general acquaintance with their own internal machinery, of the nature of the several offices intended to be fulfilled by the several parts of that machinery, and of the nature of disease in general; and when with their mind's eye they looked into themselves, and beheld the complicated and delicate clock-work-every wheel in motion, every spring on the stretch-all acting in concert, and all tending to one end, yet requiring only the slightest imprudent interference to throw the whole into disorder and irreparable confusion-when, I say, they saw all this, they could not but feel and acknowledge that so beautiful, complicated, and wonderful a machine, can only be regulated by the hand of a mechanician intimately acquainted with its minutest structure, and with the particular uses and manner of handling the several instruments necessary to rectify whatever derangement may have accidentally befallen it. It would be very instrumental, too, in disabusing the public mind of its

involve a description of valves, mitral, semi-
lunar, tricuspid, fleshy columns, tendinous
cords, curtains, &c., all of which would be
"caviare to the general" reader, I have
thought it best to confine myself to the first
grand division, the only one necessary to be
known in order to acquire a lucid notion of
the course pursued by the blood. It forms no
part of the object of this work to teach the
anatomical structure of our organs generally;
but only to exhibit the several changes ne-
cessary to nutrition, which are wrought upon
our food within the ULTIMATE TISSUE of those
organs and how those changes are effected.
You are now in possession of this kind of
work I contemplate, and if it come within
the scope and object of your Magazine, and if
you are not averse from allowing the Metro-
politan to be made the vehicle of its publica-
tion, I will have my first letter ready for in-
sertion in your February number; while this,
to yourself, if you think proper to insert, will
serve as a preface to those which are to fol-
low.
I am Sir,

Your obedient servant,

E. JOHNSON.

predilection for quacks and quackery. For STANZAS ON HEARING THE HORNSEY

who that knows any thing at all of the animal economy, and of the nature of disease, can for one instant be gulled into a belief that any one remedy can be, all times, good or proper even for the same disease, and in the same patient? A bumper of brandy will cure the headache, providing it arises from a disordered stomach; but a glass of brandy administered for a headache arising from inflammation of the brain, would, in all human probability, destroy the patient. And how is the patient to know from what cause his headache springs?

BELLS RING IN THE NEW YEAR.

HARK! how the chime of merry bells
Proclaims the new-born year!
What magic in their music dwells,

To wake the slumb'ring tear!
It seems as though a thousand strings
Were vocal in my heart,
Breathing of long-forgotten things,
In which I once had part :

Of festivals and birth-days kept,
And Christmas, rife with glee,
When those who long in dust have slept,