The Cornwall Correspondent. Electioneering. An active canvass has taken place in this parish during the last two three days, for its representation in the new House of Assembly. The candidates are our present members and His Honour the Custos. We have heard that Mr. Tattle is also to be put in nomination, and that he has nothing but the interest of his parish [his purse] at heart, that is, with all the heart he has. Day and Martin surpassed without Expense or Puffing. -Nothing gives so fine a polish to Shoes and Boots as a bit of Sugar Cane bruised, and rubbed lightly on them, after which, by applying the brush, the effect is as complete as any boasted composition ever invented. Art of preserving Wines. To keep wines from fretting, they must be in the same degree of heat, always carefully corked, and in a cellar, where they will not be agitated by the motion of carriages; on no account permit either bacon, cheese, onions, potatoes, or cyder to be in the same cellar with wine; and if there be any disagreeable stench, the wine will be injured by it, and lose its odour. To prevent the Dropping off of Grapes. - Make a circular incision in the wood, cutting away a ring of bark, about the breadth of the 12th of an inch. The wood acquires greater size about the incision, and the operation accelerates the maturity of the wood, and that of the fruit likewise. The incision should not be made too deep, and further than the bark, or it will spoil both the wood and the fruit. Grape Wine. Put three quarts of water to one quart of the juice of white grapes, and add three pounds and a balf of lump-sugar to each gallon; boil the water first; put the sugar in before it is cold, so th it may dissolve; when cold, put in the juice; let it work together three days, which it will do of itself; then put it into the vessel; after a few days, stop it close; let it stand six or eight months according to the quantity; make it beer-measure. EPIGRAM ON WILL TATTLE. WILL TATTLE Went running, almost out of breath, "Yet oft as I've rapp'd at the door of his dome,* Skull, so called in Childe Harold. Falmouth: PRINTED FOR THE EDITOR, BY A. HOLMES, THE GOSSIP; A Literary, Domestic, and Useful Publication, No. 12.] BY FRANCIS FIDDLEWOOD. A CHIEL'S AMANG YE TAKIN' NOTES, MAY 10, 1826. [Price 10d. THE GOSSIP. The Autobiography of Francis Fiddlewood. CHAP. II. Mr. Meek was followed to the grave by all his pupils, with that solemnity of locomotion, which has so often been observed to characterise the Scottish funerals. Sorrow is there eloquent though dumb, and the comparative infrequency of death increases the pangs of the mourner. It was the first funeral I had ever attended, and my aunt, who had always a particular regard for the reverend deceased, superintended the arrangement and economy of the funeral. At her request I for the first time in my life 'bent me o'er the dead'-I touched his cold, and chilly, and pulseless hand-I gazed on his pale, yet placid countenance, and never will time efface those awful impressions which this scene imparted to my puerile imagination. Here stood a group of his learned coms panions, there sat another of aged matrons, and I think, there was an air of gossipry lightly tinting the expression of melancholy that pervaded their countenances-but all was decency, solemnity, and decorum. Near the head of the body, sat one whose inward feelings surpassed her external woe-she was the betrothed-but she had profited so largely by those lessons of spiritual resignation inculcated by her deceased paramour, that mitigated even in her bosom the apparent tyranny of death. The loveliness of virtue is dignified in grief and adversity. Never did any living being so nearly resemble the poet's classical personification of "Patience on a monument" as did Ellen Bruce on this pathetic occasion---there was no smiling', but there was no feature that did not indicate love blended with grief, and all supported with dignity. Beside Ellen Bruce sat Jane and Mary his sisters, and opposite to them was seated the chief mourner, a brother of the deceased, all that now remained to stay his aged and widowed mother, who sat close by him. There had been four brothers in all, but the others died abroad, and the favourite son was now no more. But in these awful moments new pledges are exchanged and mutual forgiveness is often solemnly confirmed, and not infrequently a reformation of the inward man takes place that proves as great a source of pleasure to the penitent as to those connected with him. This was the case with William, who though brought up to, and following the profession of the law, afterwards proved that a good and virtuous lawyer was not altother a fictitious character. But the most awful and pathetic moment was now approaching, when the agony of our sympathy implores all human aid in vain-it was that moment when the last sad look of friends was to separate for ever an object esteemed and beloved for his virtues. The coffin lid was in the carpenters' hands, who waited patiently the last duties paid of the pious relations: at length the shroud was adjusted, the lid carefully placed on and screwed down, and, I believe, in every bosom present, that support and consolation in this trial denied from earthly means was now sought from heaven's eternal king-the fountain of mercy. It is scenes like these that tame the wild tumults of the human breast, that moderate and subdue our irrational desires, and make us rise superior to every debased and ambitious emotion. The procession now moved on as above described, to the West Church Yard, romantically situate beneath the dark rock and high grey walls of Edinburgh Castle. I never passed the church, either on truant or holiday occasion without loitering a while about the spot, or dropping a tear upon the tombless grave of the 'poor inhabitant below.' After a week's vacation, the academy was re-opened under the auspices of Gabriel Birch, a clergyman also, but, his learned predecessor, compared to him, was " Hyperion to a satyr." Mr. Birch, whose dark locks were clotted with pomatum and hair powder, and whose huge eyebrows frowned over a small sunk eyes peeping underneath their tunicles, seemed to indicate on first sight, a superior degree of discrimination, but it was affectation, a sort of short-sighted expression to sanction the use of a pocket glass, the quizzing-glass (that bauble of modern puppyism) being little known at that period. His features were sharp, and usually wore a Nero-like scowl on them: there was a cadaverousness in his countenance that bespoke a discontented and unsound heart, and this was the general sentiment among my companions, as well as my own. He new-modelled the classes, altered the routine of studies in fact he seemed in deed and in spirit a perfect radical. But he was not aware of the spirit of independence which the superior management of Mr. Meek had disseminated throughout the academy, and that that was ultimate. ly to organize a regular rebellion against the redoubted Gabriel himself: the cause of this was his tyrannical treatment of some of the elder boys (for a grievance of the younger tribe, like that of the poor, is rarely redressed,) who had been punished, as they conceived, beyond their deserts, for simply writing on the desks, "The memory of Meek"-" Meek for ever"-" A Meek and mild master!'' juvenile tricks, which might have been overlooked, but for the obliquity of satire on himself; for nothing rankles so deadly in the mind of the overbearing and petty tyrant, as to insinuate that his conduct is unpopular. But he had adminis stered his correction, without discrimination, though with sufficient severity, to defeat the very purpose it was intended to remedy. The mode of punishment was new, and hitherto unpractised in the school-it consisted of horsing, that is, mounting the boy on the back of another and being flogged round the school, and a lesser punishment, a sort of pillory, in which the head and hands were confined, and a label of degradation affixed to the chin. This was too systematic, and the consequence was a general revolt, the proposition being one and all not to return to school, but to repair to Leith, the sea-port of the capital, and spend the day. At this period none of that widelyextended improvement had taken place: it was then the Wapping of the metropolis of Scotland, at which period it might be justly said, "And on the broken pavement here and there, Scold answers foul-mouth'd scold; bad neighbourhood I ween." Such was the renowned and ancient city of Leith about forty years ago. But to return to our theme. When the erudite Gabriel Birch found himself the almost solitary tenant of his school, he began to vituperate against the elder boys, and in Caleb Quotum's phrase, he resolved to cut their rumps' as soon as he laid hands on them again; but he could not perceive that this evil he had brought upon himself. He therefore wrote letters to the parents of some, and waited personally upon others, butexaggerated the conduct of all, and particularly mine. He represented me as disobedient, obstinate, and insolent; but this was not the fact, though I could not learn to comply with the humours of his caprices and personal degradation. This lowered me, however, in the estimation of my grandmother and aunts, and gave me altogether considerable uneasiness. It marred my progress at the academy-I got dogged, and could not look upon the cause of my unhappiness, as any longer capable of |