AN INDEFATIGABLE TEACHER.

In the commencement of this century, in the parish of Alsace, which contains 600 or 700 inhabitants, there was a teacher who, of his own accord, had organized his school very much in the manner I have been describing. I recieved my own first instruction from him, and what I have now to say-inspired by gratitude as much as by the desire of being useful -is only the faithful expression of my remembrances. The grave has long covered the mortal remains of James Toussaint, but his memory lives in the hearts of his pupils, who never pass his tomb without experiencing the greatest emotion, and bowing with respect. His school consisted of 120 pupils; the teacher, a descendant of one of the numerous Protestant families who had taken refuge in Alsace, had not received any other education than was then given in ordinary schools. He had learned the trade of joiner, and wrought at the Ban de la Roche, where a worthy rival of the pastor Oberlin, struck with his capacity and vocation for teaching, gave him lessons and excellent advice, and placed him at the head of a school, where, under his direction, he was initiated in the profession of teacher. From that position he was called to the one whose organization I am now about to describe. Early in the morning from five to seven in summer, and from six to eight in winter-he instructed the pupils in the first division; those from twelve to fourteen years of age. After them came the others in assembled classes, who received four hours' teaching each day. At five o'clock in the evening he held what he called the French school, which was a sort of innovation-French not being generally taught in Alsace at that period. After the school for French, at which a considerable number of adults attended, there was in winter, from seven to nine, an arithmetical class for young persons; and thus did this indefatigable man teach ten hours a day in winter, and eight hours a day at least throughout the year. Nor was this all; there were, besides, about ten children from ten to fourteen years of age, who, in order to be more thoroughly instructed, spent the whole day in the school house, under the superintendence of the teacher and his wife, who assisted him greatly in his undertakings. By degrees he formed a sort of boarding-school at his own house, and something like a normal school, from which came many distinguished teachers, some of whom still live. Toussaint was also organist and notary of the

mayoralty, and fulfilled all his duties with the greatest fidelity. When I add that this energetic man was a prey to a painful malady, arising from no fault of his, but from a defective organization, which every day at the same hour caused him great suffering, it will be seen what can be effected by means of few materials, and even little science, provided that zeal is joined with some ability, and, above all, with love of

one's vocation. The career of Toussaint was

short: he died in 1811, scarcely forty years of age; but his work survives in his pupils, in the generation he has formed.- Willm on Education.

ANOTHER REVOLUTION.

Among the revolutions of the present year, which the English journals have not had time to chronicle, we find one mentioned in our German publications, the fame of which deserves to be more widely spread.

Harpstedt is a small Hanoverian town on the borders of that vast tract of barren moor, called the "Lüneburger Heide," extending over a large part of the kingdom, the inhabitants of which cling with desperate tenacity to the simplicity, rudeness and ignorance of their ancestors. We know a gentleman who, while travelling in this region, was obliged to halt for the night at a country inn, which contained no provisions of any kind except very hard and coarse black bread. But it was some time before he could enjoy even this delicacy, inasmuch as the only knife belonging to the establishment was missing; finally, however, it was discovered in the farm yard, where the proprietor was scraping the mud from his boots with it.

The inhabitants of Harpstedt had followed from times immemorial the natural but unæsthetical custom of placing their manure heaps in the public street, immediately in front of their houses. A year or two ago, however, an upstart radical became burgomaster, who issued a tyrannical ordinance, making the removal of the manure heaps and the cleansing of the streets imperative upon the citizens. The Hanoverians are a patient people, and they submitted in silence; the burgomaster's delicate olfactory nerves were no longer offended as he walked to the town-hall. But endurance has its limits; about three months since the news of the revolutions at Paris, Vienna, and Berlin, became known in Harpstadt through the post master, who has a cousin

at Lüneburg. For some days mysterious whisperings were observed to be going on in the streets, and the company at the beerhouse was unusually numerous and noisy. At last, one Saturday afternoon, it was proclaimed that a revolution had broken out; a barricade was erected consisting of three waggons and an old chaise, and "the people ensconced themselves behind it. Here they remained for more than an hour, when finding that they had smoked out their pipes, and that nobody came to dislodge them, they marched in a body to the house of the tyrant burgomaster, who speedily appeared at his window and humbly demanded their pleasure. "We want our dung-heaps back before our doors,' was the unanimous reply. "You shall have them, my friends," exclaimed the terrified burgomaster, and anything else that you may wish. What can I do for you besides?" "Nothing more," shouted the delighted patriots; "freedom and our dung-heaps forever! that is all we

want.

CONSEQUENCES OF A MILL FIRE IN MANCHESTER.

John Barton was not far wrong in his idea that the Messrs. Carson would not be over-much grieved for the consequences of the fire in their mill. They were well insured; the machinery lacked the improvements of late years, and worked but poorly in comparison with that which might now be procured. Above all, trade was very slack; cottons could find no market, and goods lay packed and piled in many a warehouse. The mills were merely worked to keep the machinery, human and mental, in some kind of order and readiness for better times. So this was an excellent time, Messrs. Carson thought, for refitting their factory with first-rate improvements, for which the insurance money would amply pay. They were in no hurry about the business, however. The weekly drain of wages given for labor, useless in the present state of the market, was stopped. The partners had more leisure than they had known for years; and promised wives and daughters all manner of pleasant excursions, as soon as the weather should become more genial. It was a pleasant thing to be able to lounge over breakfast with a review or newspaper in hand; to have time for becoming acquainted with agreeable and accomplished daughters, on whose education no money had been spared, but whose fathers, shut up during a long day with calicoes and accounts, had so seldom had leisure to enjoy their daughters' talents. There were happy family evenings, now that the men of business had time for domestic enjoyments. There is

another side to the picture. There were homes over which Carsons' fire threw a deep, terrible gloom; the homes of those who would fain work, and no man gave unto them — the homes of those to whom leisure was a curse. There, the family music was hungry wails, when week after week passed by, and there was no work to be had, and consequently no wages to pay for the bread the children cried aloud for in their young impatience of suffering. There was no breakfast to lounge over; their lounge was taken in bed, to try and keep warmth in them that bitter March weather, and, by being quiet, to deaden the gnawing wolf within. Many a penny that would have gone little way enough in oatmeal or potatoes, bought opium to still the hungry little ones, and make them forget their uneasiness in heavy troubled sleep. It was mother's mercy. The evil and the good of our nature came out strongly then. There were desperate fathers; there were bitter-tongued mothers (O God! what wonder!); there were reckless children; the very closest bonds of nature were snapt in that time of trial and distress. There was Faith such as the rich can never imagine on earth; there was "Love strong as death;" and self-denial, among rude coarse men, akin to that of Sir Philip Sydney's most glorious deed. The vices of the poor sometimes astound us here; but when the secrets of all hearts shall be made known, their virtues will astound us in far greater degree. Of this I am certain.-Mary Barton, a tale of Manchester life.

LAW BEYOND SENSE OR TRUTH.

as

If you tell a lie, stick to it. If you do wrong, continue in wrong doing. If you rob Paul, rob Peter also, for the sake of consistency. This would appear to be the doctrine laid down by the Attorney-General when pleading a cause in court a day or two ago. He maintained that if the judges had decided a point of law, they were bound ever afterwards to adhere to that decision, although they should subsequently find that they were wrong, it was of far more consequence that their decision should be consistent, than that uncertainty should exist in the minds of counsels when advising their clients, and thus suitors be misled. Mr. Porter added that this might be objected to by superficial reasoners, but all deep thinkers would agree with it. The opinion thus laid down, being only the statement of a counsel in behalf of his client, would not have been considered of much importance, if it had not been heartily assented to, and evidently much relished by the judges.— Cape Town Mail.

THE EDUCATION OF THE HEART.

Now, it is by an absurd error, my dear boy, that the heart, even looking at it in the light of art, is believed to be little susceptible of culture or development. The heart, like the speech, is developed, is kindled, grows and strengthens by exercise; action gives it tact and experience; the fulfilment of duties gives it dignity and seriousness; struggles exalt its sentiments and increase its force; misfortune, if it does not embitter, purifies it; it enriches it with melancholy, with pity, with depth, with sensibility-warm, penetrating, irresistible. He who said that great thoughts came from the heart-he who said that to have taste required to have soul, included in these two aphorisms the whole theory of eloqunce; and if he had added, Cultivate this heart, therefore, by the practice of the difficult virtues; cultivate this soul, not by empty studies, by barren precepts, by precocious essays in prose or in poetry, not by learning, but by the practice of goodness,' he would have given the briefest, the most complete, and at the same time the most luminous and most fruitful of treatises.' Rodolph Töpfer.

PRESENT STATE OF HOLLAND.

Although under Napoleon their commerce was nearly annihilated, that statesman will be greatly in error, who classes the kingdom of Holland among those which now stand low in political consequence. There are great riches still in Holland. It is a country in which there is less suffering than in any other in the world: there are no poor rates; yet those in distress are better sheltered, clad, and fed, than in any other part of Europe. Benevolent institutions for all necessary aid, whether to the orphan, the sick, the blind, or the lame, are found in every town in Holland. The principles under which all is managed are, no waste, no extravagance, no jobbing in the direction; that all who eat, if in health, must work, and for all who can work there is no excuse for being idle, as the municipal administrations are always prepared to employ the unoccupied. Beggary is there a profession that cannot be allowed."-Mac Gregor's Holland.

THE RAILWAY SYSTEM SUGGESTED.

horse labor on the iron railway; yet a heavy sigh escaped me as I thought of the inconceiv able millions which have been spent about Malta, four or five of which might have been the means of extending double lines of iron railway from London to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Holyhead, Milford, Falmouth, Yarmouth, Dover, and Portsmouth! A reward of a single thousand would have supplied coaches and other vehicles, of various degrees of speed, with the best tackle for readily turning out; and we might, ere this, have witnessed our mail coaches running at the rate of ten miles an hour, drawn by a single horse, or impelled fifteen miles an hour by Blenkinsop's steam-engines. Such would have been a legitimate motive for overstepping the income of a nation; and the completion of so great and useful a work would have afforded rational ground for public triumph in general jubilees!"-Manchester Exam.

THE KINDLY GERMANS.

"Gellert's Fables," says a memoir of that writer, "appeared between the years 1740— 1750-a time of literary drought in Germany. They were received everywhere with enthusiasm, and soon became the book of the nation. By their means Herr Gellert made his way into every heart in every family, of all classes and conditions. They gained for him not cold admiration merely, but glowing cordial love. The substantial proofs which he received of this affection were not few; and the nature of the gifts frequently bespoke the naïveté of the givers. For instance, one severe winter day a countryman stopped before his house with a huge waggon, drawn by four stout horses. It was loaded with well-seasoned firewood, ready split for use. On being asked its destination, he replied that it was for Gellert For I shall feel more comfortable,' he said, 'when I am certain that the poor poet, who amuses us well while we sit in the warm chimney of an evening, has the means of warming himself well also.""

Dr. Knox (Medical Times) says of the Welsh huts: "Here sits the Celtic woman conning over the antique songs of her race, or watching the husband as he fights his way through the drunken brawls of fairs and mar

rags; her domestic economy indescribable."

NEWSPAPER FLORA.-We are strikingly reminded of the presence of autumn, and the consequent dearth of intelligence, by the American aloes and Lilia lancifolia, which are now in full bloom in the newspapers-Punch.

MEMOIR OF LIEUT. G. A. F. RUXTON.Newspapers announce the death, from dysentery, of Lieut. George Augustus Frederick Ruxton, at St. Louis, on the Mississippi. He was the third son of John Ruxton, Esq., of Broad Oak, Brenchley, Kent, and of Anna Maria, daughter of the late Col. Patrick Hay, a lineal descendant of the noble house of Tweeddale. He was born on the 24th of July, 1821, so that he had but just attained his 27th year. He left Sandhurst without waiting for his commission, to learn the duties of a soldier in the Peninsula of Spain, and was present in the following actions while serving in the cavalry, under Don Diego Leon, in 1830:-Capture of Los Arcos-Action of Villatuerta and affair of the Ega-Action and taking the fortified Bridge and entrenched heights of BelascoinAction of Arroniz-Action of the Val de Berrueza. For these services, but more especially for his gallantry at Belascoin, he was created by Isabella II. a Knight of the First Class of the Order of St. Fernando-an order which he was permitted to wear in the British service. On his return from Spain in 1839, he joined the 89th Reg., while serving in Canada, and thus became acquainted with "Indian life." Here he threw off the soldier for the wigwams of the North American Indians, and for the wild, enchanting scenery around them, which created a thirst for adventure of the most daring kind. To add to our geographical knowledge some of the unexplored and hitherto inaccessible lands of Africa, was his first bent. This ardent and accomplished youth," to use the words of the President of the Royal Geographical Society, in his anniversary address in 1845, "formed the daring project of traversing Africa in the parallel of the southern tropic. With this intent he sailed from Liverpool in the Royalist for Ichaboe, and after reaching Walwish Bay, to penetrate through the central region to the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique. Some fifty miles of coast was all Mr. Ruxton was able to accomplish, for he was denied that assistance from the natives which was essential for his crossing over to Mozambique, owing to the jealousy of the traders established on the coast, but more especially of the missionaries. Short as untoward circumstances rendered this traveller's operations, he still had time to improve our maps, by expunging from them the Fish River, said to empty itself into Angra Pequenda, and three smaller streams, described as falling into the sea between the Gariep and

Walwish Bay-geographical errors which had nearly cost him his life, for he was still far from Walwish Bay, on his homeward route, when, exhausted with heat, fatigue, and want of food, he had to resign himself to the will of his Creator. A party of Indians, however, discovered him in this dreadful condition, and by administering to his wants, enabled him to reach the Royalist, still at her anchorage off Ichaboe. The detailed account of Mr. Ruxton's all but fatal journey is inserted at length in the Nautical Magazine for January, 1846.

Before leaving Africa, Mr. Ruxton made himself.acquainted with the natural inhabitants of the almost inaccessible valleys of the Snewburg Meuweldt and the desolate tracts of Karoo, or desert, extending from the northern boundary of the Cape Colony northward nearly to the Tropic. He contributed to the Ethnological Society an able paper on this interesting people, known as Bushmen, a race of human beings existing on locusts and the larvae of insects, food sought by them as a luxury, and deemed the greatest blessing-what to the rest of mankind is a plague and a pestilence.

Nothing daunted by the peril of his first adventure in Africa, and still having the same conception of his " daring project of traversing Africa in the parallel of the southern tropic, he asked again and again from her Majesty's Government some little assistance to enrich his private resources, which ended in the application being referred to the Geographical Society for its opinion, and that opinion being filed in the archives of the Colonial Office, an opinion greatly to the credit of Mr. Ruxton, strongly expressed in his favor. Delay followed delay, which our adventurous traveller could no more brook than those who have trodden before him the same crooked path, destined, like himself, to perform great works with little means; but that the Minister of the day was incapable of appreciating the rich storehouses he was resolved to lay waste, and in consequence he withdrew from the field of research in Africa.

Mr. Ruxton now became a silent observer of the sanguinary assault and capture of Monterey by General Taylor, and of the proceedings of a body of men composed of the wildest and most dissolute class in the state of Texas, called Texan Rangers. From this scene of horrors-and it might well be so called, for civilized society has scarcely offered a parallel to the excesses they committed-Mr. Ruxton proceeded to Saltillo, now the head-quarters

From Saltillo Mr. Ruxton made an extensive travel through Mexico to the great back-bone of North America, and thus made himself acquainted with the social condition of the Mexicans and of the Indian tribes of Mexico and North America. It is merely necessary to mention that the title under which this accomplished traveller has recorded his observations is, Adventures in Mexico and the Rocky Mountains," to call forth afresh that admiration for its author which has seldom been bestowed so universally upon a contribution to the "Home and Colonial Library," of w ich these adventures form a part. To the Ethnological Society Mr. Ruxton contributed, as one of the results of his Mexican adventure, a paper "On the Migration of the Ancient Mexicans and their Analogy to the existing Indian Tribes of Northern Mexico," which has an appropriate place in the Journal of the Ethnological Society. "Life in the Far West," in Blackwood's Magazine, also from the pen of Mr. Ruxton, is a vigorous picture of life in Western America, which has scarcely been equalled for boldness of touch; and a pamphlet "On the Oregon Question," which contains a glance at the respective claims of Great Britain and the United States to the territory in dispute, bears the mark of his usual acuteness. When we consider that all we have stated was the work of one who had but just attained his 27th year, and that he has been suddenly taken from us, a victim to climate, in the active prosecution of further research, we cannot refrain from deeply lamenting his loss. Even if the labors of this gallant young officer and intrepid traveller were a solitary instance of British enterprise, it would afford a contradiction to a contemporary, who stated a short time since "It is not extremely creditable to the Britishers that the two most extraordinary, most valuable voyages of discovery and development of our colonial resources, should have been performed by foreigners-Count Strzlecki and Dr. Leichardt, and instigated solely by their own individual love of science, and equipped at their own expense, or with the promiscuous contributions of a few private friends." At the time that our contemporary was using this language, there was a Ruxton, a King, a Daniel, a Johnson, a Richardson, all thorough bred

Englishmen, with English hearts, destined every one of them to perform gigantic works with little means, did but the love of country, and love of race, and love of travel exist a little more than it does in the Government and in the Press. - United Service Journal.

The Daily News, in a series of articles on "The Great Prisons of London," is usefully directing attention to the present state of metropolitan gaols and the systems of discipline pursued in them. Some of the revelations made are startling; and prove that, with all our reforms and improvements in the theory and model practice of penal science, the English prison is still the same theatre of moral and mental corruption as in the days of Howard. Let any man read the accounts of Giltspur Street, Compter, Newgate, the Bridewell, Horsemonger Lane Gaol-and then ask himself if these things should be suffered to continue longer. It is a notorious fact to students of penology (as Prof. Lieber proposes to call the newly-created science of prison treatment) that the City of London gaols are about the most abominable in Europe; and this fact, so disgraceful to a corporation which is one of the wealthiest and most powerful in the world, we are desirous of assisting our contemporary to make universally known. If the dictates of humanity will not induce the magistracy of the capital of England to improve their prisons,

their fears, their purses, and their sense of shame may be appealed to with more probability of success. By continuing such places as Newgate and its grim neighbor of Giltspur Street, they are not only throwing temptation and the means of corruption in the way of the weak and falling, but are likewise sowing the seeds of future expenses in such a way that they cannot fail to produce a plenteous crop. Here the promptings of mere policy are identical with the dictates of a wise philosophy. If we would arrest the progress of crime we must endeavor to reform the crimimal. As a matter of principle, we prefer a system which will deal with the pariah before he is committed to his guilty career; but it is absurd as well as wicked to place him in a school of vice by way of strengthening his virtues. Surely something will be done by the magnates of the City to redeem themselves from this disgrace. Meantime, our contemporary is doing good service, as we have said, by its exposures of the London prisons.-Athenæum.

Growing old is like bodily existence refining away into spiritual life. True, the ripeness of the soul is hidden in the decay of the body; but so is many a ripe fruit in its husk.