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neighbourhood of a plantation already existing, or in a country where the scattered trees are found in a native state, the woods of which being fallen, the trees are suffered to remain on the ground till they become rotten and perish. In the course of twelve months after the first season, abundance of young pimento plants will be found growing vigorously in all parts of the land, being without doubt produced from ripe berries scattered there by the birds, while the fallen trees, &c. afford them both shelter and shade.

The trees blossom in June, July, and August, sooner or later, according to their situation and the different seasons for rains, and soon after the berries become fit for gathering; the fruit not being suffered to ripen on the tree, as the pulp in that state, being moist and glutinous, is difficult to cure, and when dry, becomes black and tasteless. It is impossible, however, to prevent some of the ripe berries mixing with the rest; but if the proportion of them be great, the price of the commodity is considerably injured.

The fruit is called all-spice, from its taste being supposed to resemble that of many species mixed together. It is gathered by the hand; one labourer on the tree, employed in gathering the small branches, will give employment to three below, (who are generally women and children,) in picking the berries; an industrious picker will fill a bag of 70lbs. in the day.

After the fruit is gathered, it is carefully separated from the twigs, leaves, and ripe berries, and exposed to the sun, from its rising to setting, for many days, being spread out on thin cloths, turned every now and then, and carefully preserved from the dews. It thus becomes wrinkled and dry, and from a green changes to a brown colour, and becomes fit for the market.

The returns from a pimento walk, in a favourable season, are prodigious. A single tree has been known to yield 150lbs. of the raw fruit, or one cwt. of the dried spice, there being commonly a loss of weight of one third in curing; but this, like many other of the minor productions, is exceedingly uncertain, and perhaps a very plenteous crop only occurs in five years.

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I HAVE just returned from witnessing the triumph of Science in Mechanics, by travelling along a hilly and crooked road from Oxford to Birmingham in a Steam Carriage. I enclose you a hasty account of our journey, and a sketch of this truly wonderful machine. It is the invention of CAPTAIN OGLE of the Royal Navy, and MR. SUMMERS his partner, and is the first and only one that has accomplished so long a journey over chance roads, and without rails.

Its rate of going may be called twelve miles an hour, but fifty, or perhaps a hundred, down-hill, if not checked by the Break, a contrivance which places the whole of the machinery under complete controul.

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which, when clear of the houses, was accelerated to fourteen. Notice of the intended journey having been carried forward some days before, every town presented an appearance somewhat similar; but it was not till it reached Birmingham, that real assis tance, as well as applause, was required, and willingly was it granted.

Just as the vehicle was entering the town, the supply of coke being exhausted, the steam dropped; and the good people, on learning the cause, flew to the frame, and dragged it into the inn-yard of the Hen and Chickens.

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THE VAMPYRE BAT. THE usual length of the Vampyre Bat is from nine inches to a foot, and the extent of its wings sometimes four feet and upwards. Its general colour is a deep, reddish brown. The head is shaped somewhat like tongue pointed, and terminated by sharp prickles. It that of a fox. The nose is sharp and black; and the is a native of Guinea, of Madagascar, and the other islands in the Indian Ocean.

The specific denomination of vampyre has been given by naturalists to this tremendous species of Bat, from the circumstance of its reputed propensity to suck the blood of men and animals during their sleep. There is, however, good reason to imagine, that this thirst for blood is not confined to a single species, but is common to several of the large kinds of bats, which are inhabitants of hot climates.

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The starting from Oxford was a grand spectacle. During the day-time these animals lie concealed in It was St. Giles's fair day; therefore, all the popula- the hollows of decayed trees, or suspend themselves tion, including thousands from the surrounding vil- to the branches by their claws; and toward the close lages, thronged the streets, reminding the beholder of evening they issue forth in flights even more numeof the multitudes at Juggernaut; whilst the ponderous than those of crows in Europe. We are informed rous machine, like that idol's car, appeared ready to crush its votaries. Care was, however, taken to make them understand the danger, and a passage being cleared, away went the splendid vehicle through that beauteous city, at the rate of ten miles an hour,

by Finch, in his quaint style of writing, that "they hang to the boughs of trees, near Surat, in the East Indies, in such vast clusters, as would surprise a man to see; and the noise and squealing they make is so intolerable, that 'twere a good deed to bring two or

three pieces of ordnance, and scour the trees, that the country might be rid of such a plague."

At Rose Hill, near Port Jackson, in New Holland, it is supposed that more than twenty thousand of these animals were seen within the space of a mile. Some that were caught alive, would, almost immediately afterwards, eat boiled rice and other food from the hand; and in a few days became as domestic as if they had been entirely bred in the house.

The smell of these creatures is more rank and powerful than that of a fox; yet the Indians eat them, and declare their flesh to be excellent food.

In no material respect do the habits and economy of the Spectre Bats, natives chiefly of South America, and of some of the islands in the Pacific Ocean, appear to differ from those of the last species.

Captain Stedman, whilst in Surinam, was attacked during his sleep by one of these bats; and as his account of the incident is somewhat singular, and tends, in a very interesting manner to elucidate the fact, I shall extract it in the language of his own narrative. "I cannot," says he, "forbear relating a singular circumstance respecting myself, viz. that on waking about four o'clock one morning, in my hammock, I was exceedingly alarmed at finding myself weltering in congealed blood, and without feeling any pain whatever. The mystery, however, was, that I had been bitten by the Vampyre, or Spectre of Guiana, which is also called the Flying-Dog of New Spain: this is no other than a bat, of monstrous size, that sucks the blood of men and cattle while they are fast asleep, even sometimes till they die; and as the manner in which they proceed is truly wonderful, I shall endeavour to give a distinct account of it.

Knowing, by instinct, that the person they intend to attack is in a sound slumber, they generally alight near the feet, where, while the creature continues fanning with his enormous wings, which keeps one cool, he bites a piece out of the tip of the great toe, so very small, indeed, that the head of a pin could scarcely be received into the wound, which is consequently not painful; yet, through this orifice he continues to suck the blood, until he is obliged to disgorge. He then begins again, and thus continues sucking and disgorging, till he is scarcely able to fly; and the sufferer has been known to sleep from time into eternity. Cattle they generally bite in the ear, but always in places where the blood flows freely.

These animals, it is said, will frequently hang to one another in vast clusters, like a swarm of bees. Mr. Foster assures us, that he has seen at least five hundred of them suspended, some by their fore, and others by their hind legs, in a large tree, in one of the Friendly Islands.-BINGLEY'S Animal Biography.

THE term JUGGLER, which is now used to denote persons who perform sleight-of-hand tricks, was originally employed to designate the instrumental performers who accompanied the ancient troubadours, or poet-musicians, of France, towards the close of the tenth century. It appears to be a corruption of the Latin word joculator, a jester, or droll, and was applied to them on account of the tricks and gesticulations which they exhibited. They were sometimes accompanied by monkeys, and in an order issued by King Louis, in the eighteenth century, respecting the toll payable on entering Paris, it is provided that any juggler, arriving with a monkey, and making him dance before the toll collector, shall pass toll-free, together with his monkey, and any thing he may have brought for his own use." From this circumstance arose the old French proverb, payer monnoie de singe, en gambades, (to pay in monkey's antics): and hence, probably, the vulgar English phrase, "Monkeys' allowance; more kicks than half-pence."

He that runs against Time, has an antagonist not subject to casualties.-JOHNSON.

ON THE DUTIES AND ADVANTAGES
OF SOCIETY.

IV. PRINCIPLES OF BENEFIT SOCIETIES. As the uncertainties of life are more numerous in proportion as life is more active, and as changes for the worse are often beyond the means of immediate cure before they are felt as reverses, it becomes the duty of every one to make provision against "the worst that may happen." The provision now under consideration is a money provision, and the object of BENEFIT SOCIETIES is to enable those to make or obtain that provision, who would otherwise be without it.

In order that the Benefit Society may be productive of the greatest good possible, the whole of the money paid into it should be devoted to those purposes of relief for which it is established; and which purposes, according to the provisions of the 10 Geo. IV, cap. 56, must be "sickness, infancy, advanced age, widowhood, or any other natural state or contingency, whereof the occurrence is susceptible of calculation by way of average." There should be no charges for management taken out of the funds, and that would make the office of Manager an honourable one-one to which members would aspire by seeking the respect of their fellows, which is not only an excellent principle in itself, but a principle fruitful of other excellence. Charity, like knowledge, should be "propagated." That which we scatter should be "the living seed" of more, and it should be "adapted to the soil." Unfruitful bounties, like lumps of dead matter thrown about, rot and breed corruption and disease; and there are points in every man's life, at which a few judicious and encouraging words are, even in a money point of view, more valuable to him in the end, than handfulls of gold.

EQUITY is the main principle of every Benefit Society. No member should pay more into it than he has the prospect, upon the average probabilities of life, and the other contingencies for which it makes provision, of getting back again, either by himself or by those representatives, for whose benefit he enters the society; and no member should pay less than that. The sums paid in should be reckoned in the same manner as if they had been saved and laid out at interest, the interest being added to the principal, yearly or halfyearly. The payments are in fact an annuity at compound interest. If the period of payment is long, the sum to be received will very considerably exceed all the payments; and the excess will be the greater the higher that the rate of interest is,

If the payment out of the Society is to be received in a pension, it will be still greater than if the amount were paid in one sum at the time when the pension begins, as it will be the value of an annuity for the coming years at the commencement of those years, which is the sum of the annual payments less the discount. If the payments are monthly, or weekly, the principles are still the same, only, as there are more payments, the calculation is a little more laborious.

Still, if life were a certain term of years, and the age of the person entering known, and the repayment one sum, payable at any period of life, or at its close, or culation could easily be made so as to adjust the paya pension commencing at any period of life, the calments and the return to each other with perfect equity. That, however, would not answer some of the most valuable purposes of a Benefit Society. Such a society is meant to provide against the "contingent" ills of life; temporary as well as final. Allowances when sick, when children are born, or when

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they attain certain statea ages, when partners in life | take a moderate estimate, and suppose that the young die, when old age comes on, for funeral expenses, and support for necessitous relations-all come within the limits of Benefit Societies; and it is possible that allowances at marriage might be a very useful regulation. That is of so much consideration, indeed, that it deserves to be treated a little at length.

In order to confine the objects of Benefit Societies to those contemplated by the Acts of Parliament that have from time to time been passed for their protection, namely those that can be averaged so as to adjust the payments fairly to the benefits, the legislature, by the 10 Geo. 4. c. 56. § 4, has directed the rules to be certified by a barrister; and in the case of a society formed after the 19th of June, 1829, it | requires that the Justices at Sessions shall be satisfied with the correctness of the tables of contributions, and benefits. But it must not be supposed that the provisions of any statute are intended to limit the usefulness of the societies; for the object and tendency are quite the reverse. The statute is framed for the benevolent purpose of preventing the members of such societies from wasting their contributions upon improper objects. Loss by fire, being out of employment, aud being in prison for debt, are grounds of relief in some of those societies which have been institued without reference to the statute. Now, as not one of these must happen to any one man, no certain of them can be taken; and, as they may average happen through negligent or improper conduct, as well as through unforeseen accidents, relief in cases of them, provided in a formal manner, has very much the appearance of a bounty on inattention and idle

ness.

The real cases are proper subjects for charity. That a Benefit Society has "worked well" in one place, is an argument in favour of its plan; but it is not a complete argument: for, on a subject of so much intricacy, there may be important elements left out; and times, places, and occupations, vary very much, both in respect of the contingencies of life, and of the periods of life at which they happen. Those who have capacity and inclination for such enquiries, and time to pursue them, cannot bestow more valuable aid upon their more occupied brethren, than by furnishing them with such information as that in question. If the informed part of society would, | upon occasion, lend judiciously a little of their knowledge to the unlearned, they would do much more real good than by giving their money.

Our next paper will contain some notice of the leading principles of Probability, so far as they are necessary for the establishing of Benefit Societies, and capable of explanation without language not in common use; and in order that the list may be the more complete, a few words shall now be added on marriage portions.

We shall, for the sake of brevity, suppose that, upon the average, youths begin to earn wages at eighteen, and girls at fifteen,-from which they could bear to spare a part, after the reasonable supply of their common wants. If that is denied, their marriage must bring misery; the children must go to the workhouse, or do worse; and the condition of society is incurable. But that should not be, and it is not :— ten in the dozen, even in the most unfortunate parts of England, are above that-all might be so.

Well, suppose that they can (and where there is a can, it is the business of instruction to find a will) begin to save a little at the ages that have been mentioned; and that young men, on the average, marry at twenty-eight, and young women at twenty-two. Thirty and twenty-five would be better; but there is some danger of bad habits being formed. We shall

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man could "put by "six-pence a-week, and the young
woman three-pence; or the one twenty-six,_and
the other thirteen shillings in the year.
eighteen to twenty-eight is ten years, which, with-
out any allowance of interest, is thirteen pounds
to the man; and from fifteen to twenty-two is
seven years, which is four pounds eleven shillings
to the woman; put the two together, and there is
seventeen pounds eleven shillings to furnish the cot-
tage, besides the interest, which would provide a
wedding dress for each. The whole chattels of
an English cottager, in the districts round London,
(and these should not be worse than the average of
the country) do not at present amount to three
pounds, and often not to one pound. The marriage
provision would therefore be a most valuable use of
Benefit Societies; and if it were general, it would
save many of the other uses, as well as prevent many
things that are objectionable. Still, as marriage is
not one of those cases that come within the meaning
of the Act of Parliament, it is probable that some
specific establishments for marriage portions would
be better than uniting them with the relief of the
necessitous.

A MOTHER TEACHING HER CHILD TO PRAY.

KNEEL, my child, thy Gon is here !
Kneel in love and filial fear;

Love Him,-for His Grace He shows thee,
Fear Him,for He made and knows thee.
Thou art His, through Christ His Son,
Saved by grace, by mercy won.
Lost to everlasting joy;

But my Saviour sought and found thee,
And His blessings now surround thee :
Praise Him for His constant care,
Pray to Him,-He heedeth pray'r

ONE of the deaf and dumb lads in the Institution at Paris
being desired to express his idea of the eternity of the Deity,
replied : “ It is duration without beginning or end; exist-
ence without bounds or dimensions; present without past or
future; his eternity is youth without infancy or old age; life
without birth or death; to-day without yesterday or to

morrow."

WE make laws, but we follow customs.-LADY M. W. MON-
TAGUE.

I WILL to-morrow, that I will,
I will be sure to do it ;
To-morrow comes, to-morrow goes,
And still thou art to do it.
Thus still repentance is deferred,
From one day to another:
Until the day of death is come.
And judgment is the other.

DREXELIUS on Eternity.

FAITH.

To our own safety, our own sedulity is required. And then blessed for ever be that mother's child, whose faith hath made him the child of God. The earth may shake, the pillars of the world may tremble under us; the countenance of the heaven may be appalled, the sun may lose his light, the moon her beauty, the stars their glory; but concerning the man that trusteth in God, if the fire have proclaimed itself unable so much as to singe a hair of his head; if lions, beasts ravenous by nature and keen with hunger, being set to devour, have, as it were, religiously adored the very flesh of the faithful man; what is there in the world that shall change his heart, overthrow his faith, alter his affection towards God, or the affection of God to him? If I be of this note, who shall make a separation between me and my God.--Hooker.

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Nothing more nearly resembles a Polypus than the common body in which the animal of the DIAZOMA is contained. This body is formed of cells, and spread out like a saucer of a firm, jelly-like substance, transparent, and of a light violet colour, which is deeper at the extremity of the cells. These cells are disposed in several concentric circles, containing the animals, of a grey ash colour, which are visible through the skin that incloses them. The cells are large, projecting, flattened, and inclined in a direction from the centre to the circumference; the various circular rows appear each to form a distinct group. Each cell has two tube-shaped pores of a purple colour, marked with six grooves, from which, when the creature expands itself, six lance-shaped feelers proceed; the largest and most projecting tube corresponds with the mouth, and is farthest from the centre.

The description of animals to which this is allied are called radiated, from the parts of which they are composed, arising from a common centre, and spreading out in a circular form like the rays of the sun. When in a state of rest, not the least appearance of life is visible, and they appear like unformed lumps of animal substance; but when left undisturbed and excited by hunger, their numerous arms are spread in search of food and we observe instead of the slimy mass we threw down in disgust, the appearance of a group of flowers in full bloom.

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The Sea Anemone, so common on our own coasts, is a beautiful specimen of an animal of this class. Persons, who some years back were lowered in a Diving Bell to inspect the wreck of the Royal George, that foundered at Portsmouth, were struck with astonishment at the appearance of its deck, which was covered with mud deposited from the sea, and become the abode of numerous groups of these creatures, who with their extended arms had converted the whole surface into the resemblance of an extensive and beautiful flower garden.

rose.

THE TWO ROSES.

BEING with my friend in a garden, we gathered each of us a He handled his tenderly; smelt to it but seldom, and sparingly. I always kept mine to my nose, or squeezed it in my hand; whereby, in a very short time, it lost both its colour and sweetness: but his still remained as sweet and fragrant as if it had been growing upon its own root.

These roses, said I, are the true emblems of the best and sweetest creature-enjoyments in the world,-which, being moderately and cautiously used and enjoyed, may for a long time yield sweetness to the possessor of them: but, if once the affections seize too greedily upon them, and squeeze them too hard, they quickly wither in our hands, and we lose the comfort of them; and that, either through the soul surfeiting upon them, or the Lord's righteous and just removal of them, because of the excess of our affections to them.

It is a point of excellent wisdom, to keep the golden bridle of moderation upon all the affections we exercise on earthly things; and never to let slip the reins of the affections, unless they move towards God, in the love of whom there is no danger of excess.-FLAVEL.

Lines quoted in TAYLOR'S Holy Living and Dying, as being found on a tombstone in Feversham Church.

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Whoso him bethaft, Inwardly and oft,

how hard it were to flit From bed into the pit, From pit unto pain

That nere shall cease again,

The would not do one sin all the world to win.

AN ALPHABETICAL ACCOUNT

An Austrian army, awfully arrayed,
Boldly by battery besieged Belgrade.
Cossack commanders cannonading come,
Dealing destruction's devastating doom.
Every effort engineers essay,

For fame, for fortune fighting; furious fray:
Generals 'gainst generals grapple, gracious good
How honours heaven heroic hardihood!
Infuriate, indiscriminate in ill,

Kinsmen kill kindred, kindred kinsmen kill.
Labour low levels loftiest longest lines;

Men march 'midst moles, 'midst mounds, 'midst murderous mines.

Now noisy noxious numbers notice nought
Of outward obstacles opposing ought.
Poor patriots, partly purchased, partly pressed,
Quite quaking, quickly quarter quest.
Reason returns, religious right redounds;
Suwarrow stops such sanguinary sounds!
Truce to thee, Turkey! triumph to thy train,
Unwise, unjust, unmerciful Ukraine !'
Vanish, vain victory, vanish victory vain,
Why wish we warfare? wherefore welcome were
Xerxes, Ximenes, Xanthus, Xavier ?
Yield, yield ye youths, ye yeomen, yield your yell.
Zeno's, Zopater's, Zoroaster's zeal,
Attracting all, arts against arms appeal.

LONDON:

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UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION, APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.

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