bending beneath the weight of fruit, and countless picturesque windmills, and delightful meadows, and charming villas, and neat cottages, and cosy tempting farm-houses with storks nestling their young on the chimney tops, and homesteads, and cattle, and all the accessories of a beautiful and interesting landscape. Never more tell us about the dulness of Dutch scenery! The dulness certainly exists, not in the country, but with the spectator who views everything through a prejudiced vision.

ing of colours on the exterior of the houses, impart a picturesque aspect to the streets. Little mirrors obliquely project at every window, that the inmates may see at a glance whatever is passing. The great nuisance in promenading the streets, or in sitting in the rooms at your inn, or any place of public resort, is the fume of tobacco. Everybody seems to smoke from morning till night; and sometimes a little urchin of five or six years old consumes as many cigars per day. The burgher never crosses his threshold without his pipe in hand. A traveller should somehow manage to pass a The great charm of existence would vanish were gala day in a Dutch village or small country town, tobacco to cease to grow. It is of course very to see the peasantry in their holiday attire-the cheap-sixpence, and even fourpence per lb.-and girls in red caps-the women with hoops of silver, the great excuse for smoking it is, that the humidity and even broad plates of gold, in some instances, of the atmosphere absolutely necessitates its use on their heads, and heavy ear-rings, and other for health's sake. We think there is some truth glittering ornaments--and the men and boys with in this, for the climate in Holland is exceedingly gaudy purple vests, and crimson neckerchiefs, and trying for many months in the year. But the Hol-jackets and trowsers with rows of bright metal lander knows not the meaning of moderation in buttons. The carillons, or chimes, then sound the gratification of more than one of his physical sweetly from every belfry; and in no country in tastes: take the practice of eating pickles as an the world is the art of chime-playing brought to example. He devours a perfectly amazing quantity such perfection. It is, indeed, a treat to hear the of all sorts of pickled trash daily, almost hourly. evening chimes of the churches both in the villages An Englishman stands aghast to see not merely and towns. portly mynheers, but young ladies, take hold of a jar of gherkins and cabbage, and munch away for half an hour at a time. This depraved and almost disgusting taste is acquired from infancy, and may be said to be hereditary. That it is highly pernicious, cannot be doubted-much more so than tobacco. It is no marvel that chemists' shops abound, and that all ranks are continually swallowing drugs to counteract the evil effect of being overgorged with pickles and sour-kraut!

A NEGRO ALMANAC-MAKER. ABOUT fifty years ago there died in America a man who, though of pure African blood, had acquired a high reputation for his scientific attainments, and whose excellent character and conduct, through a long life, gained for him general respect, in a community in which there existed a strong prejudice The lower orders in Rotterdam, and all Dutch against his race. The interesting facts to which cities, seem to live very hardly. Provisions are we are about to refer are not generally known generally dear, and they exist almost solely on at this day, even in America; but they are coffee, coarse bread, a little cheese, cabbage, and perfectly well authenticated. Most of them are fruits. The latter are amazingly plentiful and derived from a Memoir read before the Marycheap. The very hedges in the country are planted land Historical Society a few years ago. It is full of fruit trees. One great drawback to the deserving of notice, that though Maryland is one pleasure of living in Holland, that must be felt to of the "slave states" of America, there has long be appreciated in its magnitude, is the scarcity, or been in that state a growing feeling against slavery. rather the absolute non-existence, of water for drink- Emancipations have been numerous; the slave ing. It is highly dangerous to drink the water of population has decreased from 111,000 in the year the country. That used at the hotels, and in private | 1810, to 90,000 in 1850, while the free population families, is brought in stone bottles from Germany. has increased in the same time from 270,000 to There are railroads from Rotterdam to the 500,000. Of the free inhabitants, in the latter Hague, Utrecht, Amsterdam, etc.; but if the tour-year, no less than 74,000 were persons of colour; ist has time, and wishes to see the country and enjoy himself, let him by all means prefer the trekshuits, or canal barges, which are very comfortable old-fashioned conveyances, and go at the rate of four or five miles per hour. A striking object is commonly to be met with, in the shape of an immense raft of timber from the upper Rhine, the produce of forests growing in the valleys of the Murg and the Neckar. Cabins are built on the raft for the accommodation of the navigators, who frequently number one hundred to one hundred and fifty. The cost of travelling by the trekshuit is 1d. English, per mile.

Whether you travel by water or by land, every mile you go from Rotterdam takes you through a most fruitful country; and what astonishes an Englishman very much is, to see dense woods and charming old lanes-real old English lanes in every respect! Then there are endless orchards

and it was to this class that Benjamin Banneker, the negro almanac-maker, belonged.

The account given of Benjamin's parentage is noteworthy, as it shows that, to use the words of the Memoir, "he owed his peculiar and extraordinary abilities to no admixture of the blood of the white man;" and it indicates, moreover, that, like many an historical personage of greater fame, he inherited from his mother the natural intelligence and energy which distinguished him. His father was born in Africa, and was thence carried into slavery, and sold in America. His mother was the child of natives of Africa. She was, however, a free woman. Her husband was a slave when she married him, but, being possessed of great energy and industry, she very soon earned money enough to purchase his liberty. She was of a family named Morton, remarkable for the intelligence of its members. Prior to the year 1809, free people

of colour, possessed of a certain property qualification, voted in Maryland. In that year a law was passed restricting the right of voting to free white men. A nephew of Benjamin's mother, named Greenbury Morton-who, notwithstanding his complexion, was a person of some note in the community-was ignorant of the disqualifying law, until he offered to vote at the polls in Baltimore county; and it is said that when his vote was refused, he addressed the crowd in a strain of genuine and passionate eloquence, which kept the audience, that the election had assembled, in breathless attention while he spoke.

Benjamin Banneker, or Bannaky, (as the name was then spelt) was born in Baltimore county in the year 1732. Five years after his birth, the joint labour of the elder Banneker and his wife enabled them to purchase a small farm, which remained after their death in the possession of their son. Tobacco was then the currency of the southern English colonies in America; and 7000 pounds of tobacco was the consideration paid for this farm. It was situated about ten miles from the town of Baltimore. That town, now one of the principal seaports of America, with a population of 170,000 souls, was then an insignificant village. It had, in fact, been founded only five years before the elder Banneker made his purchase; and three years afterwards it was surrounded by a board fence, to protect it against the Indians. Fourteen years later, in 1754, when Benjamin was twenty-two years old, a view of Baltimore shows only about a score of houses, straggling over the eminences on the right bank of the river. All this is proper to be remembered, in order that the difficulties against which young Banneker had to struggle may be fairly understood.

society. In this way he gradually acquired a fund of general knowledge, surprisingly great for one in his position. At first, his information and abilities were merely made a subject of remark and wonder, among his illiterate neighbours; but by degrees his reputation spread through a wider circle; and Benjamin Banneker, still a young man, came to be thought of as one who could not only perform all the operations of mental arithmetic, with extraordinary facility, but exercise a sound and discriminating judgment upon men and things.

It was at this time, when he was about thirty years of age, that he gave the remarkable proof of his ingenuity and perseverance which at length raised him out of the narrow and humble circle in which he was born. With no instruction, and without even a proper model, he constructed a clock. He had seen a watch, but not a clock, such an article having not yet found its way into the quiet and secluded valley in which he lived. The watch was therefore his only model. It took him a good while to complete the machine to his satisfaction. His great difficulty, he often used to say, was to make the hour, minute, and second hands correspond in their motion. But the clock was finished at last, and proved an excellent timekeeper.

As may be supposed, the fame of this remarkable feat spread to quarters which Banneker's reputation had not before reached. It drew at last the attention of the Ellicott family, who had just commenced a settlement on the site now occupied by Ellicott's Mills. Being well-educated men, with a great aptness for the mechanical arts, they were well qualified to appreciate Banneker's talents. They sought him out, assisted and encouraged him, and continued during his life his firm and zealous friends.

When Benjamin was old enough, he was employed to assist his parents in their labour. The It would seem that several years must have fact that there exists in some parts of the United elapsed between the completion of the clock and States, and has existed for more than a century, a Banneker's first acquaintance with the Ellicott free negro peasantry, having many of the charac- family, since it was not till the year 1787, when he teristics of the cottier peasants of Europe, will was forty-five years old, that Mr. George Ellicott probably be new to most readers in this country. lent him several scientific works, including Mayer's It was to that class, an ignorant and poor but Tables, Ferguson's Astronomy, and Leadbeater's apparently not a vicious or debased class, that Lunar Tables. Banneker's " book-learning," at Benjamin's parents now belonged. It speaks fa- that time, was confined to the little which he had vourably for their condition and character, that they acquired at school; and not the least striking were both able and willing to give their son some evidence of his great natural abilities is afforded by education. Though scanty, it was probably quite the fact, that all his extraordinary acquirements as good as would have been obtained by a peasant were made at an age when close and profound youth, at that time, in any part of Europe. In the study, to persons not accustomed to it, is apt to be intervals of toil (we are told in the Memoir) he was exceedingly irksome. When Mr. Ellicott lent him sent to an obscure and distant country school, the books, he intended to have given him, at the where he acquired a knowledge of reading and same time, some instruction in their use, but was writing, and advanced in arithmetic as far as accidentally prevented. Before that gentleman double position." In all matters beyond these again met him, though only a brief interval had rudiments of learning, he was his own instructor. elapsed, Banneker was already independent of any On leaving school, he was obliged to labour for instruction, and was completely absorbed, like an several years, almost uninterruptedly, for his Indian faquir, in the contemplation of the new support. But his memory being retentive, he lost world which had been opened to his view. From nothing of the little education he had acquired. this time, the study of astronomy became the great On the contrary, though utterly destitute of books, object of his life. For a season he almost disaphe amplified and improved his stock of arithmeti-peared from the sight of his neighbours. His cal knowledge, by the operation of his mind alone. He was an acute observer of everything that he saw, or which took place around him in the natural world; and he sought with avidity information from all sources, of what was going forward in

parents were dead, and he was now the sole occupant of their cabin, or the little homestead which his father had purchased. He was still obliged to labour for his bread; but he lived sparingly, and spent at his books all the leisure time that he could

thus secure.
He studied chiefly at night, when he
could look out upon the planets, whose story he
was reading, and whose laws he was gradually but
surely mastering. He slept in the day-time, when
not obliged to toil for his subsistence. In this way
he lost the reputation for industry, which he had
acquired in early life. Those who saw but little of
him in the field, and who found him sleeping when
they visited his house, set him down as a lazy
fellow who would come to no good, and whose old
age would disappoint the promise of his youth. At
one time this estimate of him, by the ignorant
among his neighbours, led to some attempts to
annoy him, by tricks and rude practical jokes,
which caused him serious inconvenience. But as
the nature of his pursuits came to be understood,
his former reputation was revived, and these
troubles passed away. They seem to have been
almost the only vexations of which he had to com-
plain in the course of his quiet and unobtrusive
life.

genius-a complete and accurate Ephemeris, for the year 1792, calculated by a sable descendant of Africa." And they add, that "they flatter themselves that a philanthropic public, in this enlightened era, will be induced to give their patronage and support to this work, not only on account of its intrinsic merits, (it having met the approbation of several of the most distinguished astronomers of America, particularly the celebrated Mr. Rittenhouse), but from similar motives to those which induced the editors to give this calculation the preference-the ardent desire of drawing modest merit from obscurity, and controverting the longestablished illiberal prejudice against the blacks."

he had thought fit to decline, and requested that a side table might be provided for him."

The injustice of this "illiberal prejudice" Banneker himself felt keenly, but modesty prevented him from intruding beyond the line which the custom of society placed between his class and the whites. In the year 1789, commissioners were appointed to trace the boundary lines of the newlyformed district of Columbia, in which the capital of Banneker now, with a confidence in his own the United States, Washington city, was to be powers which the event justified, determined to established. Such was at that time Banneker's turn his newly-acquired astronomical knowledge reputation, that he was invited by the commisto account in the formation of an almanac. Of the sioners to be present during their operations, and labour and difficulty of such a work, no proper was treated by them with much consideration. On estimate could be formed by one who should at his return he used to say of them, that they were this day commence such a task, with all the assist- a very civil set of gentlemen, who had overlooked ance afforded by accurate tables, and well-digested his complexion on account of his attainments, and rules. Banneker had no such aid; and it is a had so far honoured him as to invite him to be curious fact that he had advanced far in the labori-seated at their table; an honour, he added, “which ous preparation of the logarithms necessary for his purpose, when he was furnished with a set of tables by Mr. Ellicott. About this time, he began a record of his calculations, which is still preserved. A memorandum contained in it corrects an error in Ferguson's Astronomy, and deserves to be quoted as an evidence of the propriety and clearness with which this self-educated mathematician expressed himself on scientific points. "It appears to me," he writes, "that the wisest of men may at times be in error; for instance, Dr. Ferguson informs us that when the sun is within 12° of either node at the time of full, the moon will be eclipsed; but I find, according to his method of projecting a lunar eclipse, there will be none by the above elements, and yet the sun is within 11° 46' 11" of the moon's ascending node; but the moon being in her apogee, prevents the appearance of this eclipse." In like manner, he points out two mistakes in Leadbeater's Astronomical Tables. His biographer remarks, and no doubt truly enough, that "both Ferguson and Leadbeater would probably have looked incredulous, had they been informed that their laboured works had been reviewed and corrected by a free negro, in the then almost unheard-of valley of the Patapsco."

The first of Banneker's almanacs which was published, was calculated for the year 1792. A benevolent gentleman, who took an interest in him, procured for him an introduction to a firm of publishers in Baltimore, Messrs. Goddard and Angell, who happily were men of similar disposition. The almanac was printed, with a brief account of the author as the most appropriate preface; and in their editorial notice, Messrs. Goddard and Angell say: They feel gratified in the opportunity of presenting to the public, through their press, what must be considered as an extraordinary effort of

But Banneker, though thus accepting, with dig nified modesty, the position to which the prejudice of caste had condemned him, was perfectly conscious of the iniquity of the system. In transmitting his almanac to Mr. Jefferson, then secretary of state, and afterwards president, Banneker took occasion to represent in warm terms the injustice of the fate to which his race was consigned in America. He was doubtless induced to do this the more freely from a knowledge of Mr. Jefferson's abhorrence of slavery-an honourable feeling, which was exhibited not merely in his writings and speeches, but in several earnest though unavailing efforts to induce the legislature of his native state, Virginia, to abolish the system. Banneker, however, after a respectful introductory paragraph, proceeds to address Mr. Jefferson as in a manner the representative of the oppressive white race, and lectures him in that capacity with a grave severity which must have drawn a good-humoured smile from the benevolent statesman, when he read the letter. After quoting the celebrated passage in the American Declaration of Independence (Mr. Jefferson's own composition), in which the world is informed of the "self-evident truths," that "all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," Banneker remarks" You were then impressed with proper ideas of the great valuation of liberty, and the free possession of those blessings to which you were entitled by nature; but, sir, how pitiable is it to reflect, that although you were so fully convinced of the benevolence of the Father of mankind, and of his equal and impartial distribution of those rights and privileges which he had

Philadelphia, August 30, 1791.

"Mr. Benjamin Banneker:

"Sir-I thank you sincerely for your letter of the 19th instant, and for the almanac which it contained. Nobody wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit that nature has given to our black brethren talents equal to those of the other colours of men, and that the appearance of a want of them is owing only to the degraded condition of their existence both in Africa and America. I can add with truth, that no one wishes more ardently to see a good system commenced for raising the condition both of their body and mind to what it ought to be, as fast as the imbecility of their present existence, and other circumstances which cannot be neglected, will admit. I have taken the liberty of sending your almanac to Monsieur de Condorcet, secretary of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and member of the Philanthropic Society, because I considered it a document to which your whole colour had a right for their justification against the doubts which have been entertained of them.

"I am, with great esteem, sir,

"Your most obedient servant,

THOS. JEFFERSON."

famine in the land. I therefore began to kill and destroy them, but soon saw that my labour was in vain, and therefore gave over my pretensions. Again, in the year 1766, which is seventeen years after their first appearance, they made a second, and appeared to me to be fully as numerous as at the first; I then, being about thirty-four years of age, had more sense than to endeavour to destroy them, knowing they were not so pernicious to the fruit of the earth as I imagined they would be. Again, in the year 1783, which was seventeen years since their second appearance to me, they made their third; and they may be expected again in the year 1800, which is seventeen years since their third appearance to me. So that, if I may venture to express it, their periodical return is seventeen years; but they, like the comets, make but a short stay with us. The female has a sting in her tail as sharp and as hard as a thorn, with which she perforates the branches of the trees, and in the holes lays eggs. The branch soon dies and falls. Then the egg, by some occult cause, immerges a great depth into the earth, and there continues for the space of seventeen years aforesaid."

Several other equally curious citations from his note-book might be given; but the foregoing will be sufficient to show the character of his mind, at once observant and reflective. With respect to his habits of life and general deportment, a letter from Mr. Benjamin Ellicott, of Baltimore, gives the following particulars:-" During the whole of his long life he lived respectably, and much esteemed by all who became acquainted with him, but more especially by those who could fully appreciate his genius and the extent of his acquirements. Although his mode of life was regular and extremely retired, living alone, having never married Banneker continued to publish his almanac regu-cooking his own victuals and washing his own larly, till the year 1802. It was in high repute, and had a large circulation in the states of Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. He did not, however, confine himself to the class of calculations and observations necessary for carrying on such a work. All natural phenomena were observed by him with careful and intelligent interest. His journal contains many notes which show that his mind was always active, and that his acute judgment frequently enabled him to deduce for himself the natural laws which he had no opportunity of learning from books. Thus, under date of August 27, 1797, he writes: "Standing at my door, I heard the discharge of a gun, and, in four or five seconds of time after the discharge, the small shot came rattling about me, one or two of which struck the house; which plainly demonstrates that the velocity of sound is greater than that of a bullet." Again, it is now a well-ascertained fact that the brood of the locust makes its appearance in America once in seventeen years. It is not long, however, since this opinion was regarded as a mere vulgar error. Banneker's habits of careful observation, and his retentive memory, enabled him to afford Some valuable testimony in relation to this point. In April, 1800, he writes:-"The first great locust year that I can remember was 1749-I was then about seventeen years of age-when thousands of them came and were creeping up the trees and bushes. I then imagined they came to eat and destroy the fruit of the earth, and would occasion a

clothes, and scarcely ever being absent from home

yet there was nothing misanthropic in his character; for a gentleman who knew him thus speaks of him:- I recollect him well. He was a bravelooking, pleasant man, with something very noble in his appearance. His mind was evidently much engrossed in his calculations; but he was glad always to receive the visits which we often paid to him.' Another of Mr. Ellicott's correspondents writes as follows :-" When I was a boy I became very much interested in Banneker, as his manners were those of a perfect gentleman; kind, generous, hospitable, humane, dignified, and pleasing; abounding in information on all the various subjects of the day; very modest and unassuming, and delighting in society at his own house. I have seen him frequently. His head was covered with a thick suit of white hair, which gave him a very venerable and dignified appearance. His dress was uniformly of superfine drab broadcloth, made in the old style of a plain coat, with straight collar and long waistcoat, and a broad-brimmed hat. His colour was not jet-black, but decidedly negro. size and personal appearance the statue of Franklin at the library in Pennsylvania, as seen from the street, is a perfect likeness of him. Whenever I have seen it, it has always reminded me of Banneker. Go to his house when you wou'd, either by day or night, there was constantly stai ding in the middle of the floor a large table covered with books and papers. As he was an eminent mathematician, he

In

was constantly in correspondence with other mathe- | little services, and to lend a half-unwilling ear to inaticians in this country, with whom there was an what was going on. It pleased Him, who leads interchange of questions of difficult solution." To the blind by a way that they know not, to reach this it may be added, that he appears, from his his conscience in this manner. He became very letter to Mr. Jefferson, to have been a man of uneasy, and, spite of his mean clothes, began to strong religious feelings. attend church. For a time his anguish of mind was greater than can be told. But at last that Saviour who came "to bind up the brokenhearted," and who died on the cross to save sinners, manifested himself to him as he doth not to the world, giving him "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness."

Banneker had sold his small farm to his generous friends, the Ellicotts, for an annuity, but he still resided upon it, and was occupied occasionally with rural labours to the last. At the age of seventy he speaks in his journal of being engaged in the field in corn-planting. He died in 1809, in the 72nd year of his age; and his remains were deposited, without a stone to mark the spot, near the dwelling which he had occupied all his life. On the whole, his calm and little varied existence seems to have been as peaceful as it was useful and respectable. But he has expressed his own feelings too clearly to leave any room for doubting that he felt deeply his exclusion from what he knew to be his proper sphere. Everything that is told, not only of his mental powers, but also of his character and manners, gives the impression that he was one of those men who are fitted to rise, in a free country, to the highest positions. Had he been born with a white skin and straight hair, it is highly probable that he would have been the compeer of Franklin, of Jefferson, and the other leading personages of his epoch and country. There is nothing unreasonable in the supposition that, when he died, his remains would have been followed to the tomb by a long procession of his mourning countrymen, and that an honorary inscription would have recorded the name and merits of the "Hon. Benjamin Banneker, late ambassador to England, governor of Maryland, and author of many scientific works." But the iron barrier of class-prejudice, which was impassable to him while he lived, still casts its shadow upon his humble grave; and when he is now remembered at all in his native country, it is only with a kind of wondering and patronising admiration, as a remarkable phenomenon, a “negro almanac maker."

LOGIC OF THE LIFE.

THERE is one way, and that, after all, the best way, in which the simplest and least learned christian may meet and put down the subtlest infidel; the way I mean is, to contend, not so much by words as by deeds; not so much by the logic of the lip, as by the logic of the life. I shall best make my meaning plain by a simple account, which shall be quite true, because it will be about what lately happened in my own parish, and partly under my own eye.

John -, a dyer, was some years ago as bad a character as can be well conceived; a drunkard, a blasphemer, a cruel husband, a noted boxer, and an infidel. As is usual in such cases, his house was the home of wretchedness, unfurnished and deserted; his wife was in rags, his cupboard empty, and debt and shame were his constant companions. About three years ago, however, he came under the notice of a pious clergyman. His wife was induced to open her house for a cottage lecture, and the husband, after a time, began to steal into the back part of the dwelling during the

The calm morning after a stormy night is not a greater change than that which followed in the life and lot of happy John. All things became new. He set himself at once to wipe away the heavy score which stood against him at the tavern and the shop, till at last he owed no man any thing but love. His house was made clean and tidy, and one piece of furniture after another was purchased, till the whole face of his cottage was changed. His wife and himself, decently dressed, were in their places at church whenever the sabbath-speaking bell bade them to the house of prayer, and ere long they were seen kneeling side by side at the table of the Lord.

A light thus put on a candlestick could not be hid. So striking a change in one who had been so notorious called forth much notice. He became a wonder unto many. Some admired, others mocked, and many persecuted him. His former infidel companions were more especially mad against him. They jeered him, reproached him, enticed him, swore at him, and did all in their power to draw or to drive him from his Saviour. But, deeply sensible of his own utter helplessness, he clung to the strength of God, and thus, out of weakness being made strong, his enemies only served to prove his faith, exercise his patience, and increase his watchfulness.

John had most to bear at his daily labour in the dye-house. It was his hard lot to work amongst a band of "Socialists," and they had it nearly all their own way. For a time, indeed, two men, members of a religious body, timidly took the Christian's part; but after a while, even these, worn out by annoyance, and ashamed of the cross, deserted both him and their profession of religion, becoming apostates, the vilest of the vile. The humble confessor was thus left alone, like a sheep in the midst of wolves; but he was not alone, "for the Lord stood by him." He was enabled to walk blamelessly and unrebukeably before them. Sometimes he reasoned with them, at other times he intreated them, but most commonly he did as his Master had done when beset by his accusers," he answered not a word." His meekness was the more lovely, because he had been aforetime a terror to his companions, nor was there one of them who would have dared to provoke him. But now the gentleness of the lamb restrained the strength of the lion.

The quiet influence of John's consistent walk could not fail to be felt. His life was harder to answer than his tongue. A beautiful proof of this occurred one day. His fellow-workmen had been for nearly an hour decrying Christianity as the source of all crime and wretchedness, whilst they