the petty feuds and jealousies that divide and
distract parishes or large families, the little circles of the great
whole. At the foot of this column a paragraph records the death of
a miserly bachelor schoolmaster, who had worn the same coat twenty
years, and on the tester of whose bed were found, wrapped up in old
stockings L1,600. in interest notes, commencing thirty-five years
since, the compound interest of which would have been L4,000.; and
for what purpose was this concealment?--a dread of being required to
assist his relatives! Yet contrast this wicked abuse with a few of the
incidents we have recorded--the dinner of St. Patrick's, for instance,
and is it possible to conceive a more despicable situation (short of
crime) than this poor miser deserves in our chronicle.
The third column opens to us a scene of a very opposite character, the
Newmarket Craven Meeting--the most brilliant assemblage ever known
there; the town crammed with the children of chance, the innkeepers
trebling their charges, and like the Doncaster people, doing "noting
widout the guinea." What an heterogeneous mixture of fine old sport,
black legs and consciences, panting steeds and hearts bursting with
expectation and despair, and the grand machinery of chance working
with mathematical truth, and not unfrequently beneath luxury and the
mere show of hospitality.
The moralist will turn away from this rural pandemonium with disgust;
but what will he say to the records of wretchedness and crime that
fill up nearly the remainder of the folio. A Coroner's Inquest upon
a fellow creature who "died from neglect, and want of common food to
support life"--and another upon a poor girl, whose young and tender
wits being "turned to folly,"--died by a draught of laudanum--are
still more lamentable items in the calendar.
Beneath these inquests is a brief tale of a romantic robbery in an
obscure department of France. The priest of a village, aged 80, lived
in an isolated cottage with his niece. About midnight, he was
disturbed, and on his getting out of bed, was bound by two men, whilst
a third stood at the door. The robbers then proceeded to the girl's
chamber, very ungallantly took her gold ear-rings, and by threatening
her and her uncle with death, got possession of 300 francs. Two of
the ruffians then proceeded to the church, broke open the poor-box,
and took about 30 francs. They then bound again the old man and his
niece, and departed. One of the
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