Varieties. THE QUEEN OF SPAIN A TOBACCO MANUFACTURER.It may not be generally known that Isabella the Second is the sole tobacconist in the realms over which she reigns. There is a vast square edifice at Seville, covering five or six acres of ground, where the "noxious weed" is prepared for consumption by her people, among whom, as she enjoys a complete monoply, she must do a very large business. A NOVEL BAKER'S BATCH.-A short time since, a baker at Angoulême, in demolishing an old oven, found about 200 live snakes. He also found nearly 400 eggs, about the size of pigeons' eggs, inclosing serpents just ready to break the shell. POSTAGE-STAMPED LETTER PAPER.-A proposal has lately appeared in one of our literary journals, to adopt the practice of stamping our letter-paper, in preference to affixing the stamp to an envelope. It is contended that, for letters of consequence, the former would be highly advantageous, especially where required for record or refer ence. The letter, when posted, would become a legal and satisfactory document, having all the appendages of proof attached to the identical letter, by the writer's name, date, and address, and the several post-office dates of posting, transmit, and arrival. The envelope is frequently mislaid or cast aside; and if a question arises, which often does in mercantile and other important business, regarding the real date and particulars, when bills or money orders were posted or arrived, or when summonses or notices were dispatched, the stamped letter alone can give the only satisfactory explanation. The falling off of stamps, now so frequent an occurrence, would also be prevented, as well as the difficulty in obtaining redress from the postoffice authorities for overcharge and irregularity of delivery. THE COSMOS INSTITUTE.-We are glad to find that a geographical institution has lately been organized for the purpose of popularizing and diffusing a better knowledge of that growingly important science. It is proposed by the association to purchase Mr. Wylde's "Great Globe" in Leicester-square, and to surround the present building with rooms and galleries, devoted to museums, libraries, lecture theatres, and other apartments. Retaining the model of the earth in its present position, it is intended to add to the present extensive collection all the maps, charts, and geographical works published throughout the world inviting foreign governments to contribute towards its geographical treasures, so that the public may have ready access to the best sources of information on this and the allied sciences. It is further proposed, to maintain a com. petent body of demonstrators and lecturers; to hold meetings at which scientific papers shall be read and discussed; and to uphold a library aud reading-room, where the most important newspapers, English, foreign, and colonial, will be filed-where the maps, charts, engravings, books, and transactions of learned societies, can be conveniently consulted-and where the latest information, and all matters especially relating to new shoals, rocks, and harbours, will be regularly exhibited. THE RECENT COMET.-The erratic stranger that has so lately visited in the comparative neighbourhood of our earth, and attracted the attention of so many curious eyes, is said, by Mr. Hind, to have measured in the diameter of its bright nucleus 8000 miles, about equal to that of the carth; while the tail, according to the same authority, had a real length of 4,500,000 miles, and a breadth of 250,000, or rather over the distance separating the moon from the earth. When at its nearest point to the earth, the distance was 68,000,000 miles. When at its greatest degree of brilliancy, it appears to have terrified the inhabitants of Madrid as much as one would have done in the middle ages. They imagined that it predicted pestilence, scarcity, insurrection, and war. JAMES WATT.-We are glad to learn that a monument to the memory of James Watt is about to be erected in Edinburgh, in Adam-square, in front of the Watt Institution and School of Arts. It is expected that it will be inaugurated on the 19th of January next, the anniversary of his birth. DAYLESFORD AND ITS OWNERS.-The recent sale of the Daylesford estate, and the dispersion of the furniture of the mansion, is an event suggestive of many historical recollections, and will serve to point another moral of "the vanity of human wishes." Many of our readers will remember the fiue reflections of Macaulay on the purchase of Daylesford by Warren Hastings. The dearest wish of his heart," he says, "had always been to regain Dayles ford. At length, in the very year in which his trial alienated more than seventy years before, returned to the commenced, the wish was accomplished, and the domain, descendant of its old lords. But the manor-house was a ruin, and the grounds round it had during many years been utterly neglected. Hastings proceeded to build, to plant, to form a sheet of water, to excavate a grotto; and before he was dismissed from the bar of the House of Lords, he had expended more than forty thousand pounds in adorning his seat." The last twenty-four years of his life were spent at Daylesford. In Macaulay Essay a graphic account is given of his mode of life and occupa tions, "when literature divided his attention with his conservatories and his menagerie." He died in 1818, in the eighty-sixth year of his age. Behind the chancel of the parish church, in earth which already held the bones of many chiefs of the house of Hastings, was laid the coffin of the greatest man who has ever borne that ancient and widely-extended name. On that very spot, probably, fourscore years before, the little Warren, meanly clad and scantily fed, had played with the children of ploughmen. And now Daylesford has again passed into the hands of strangers! rous. being IMPERIAL LIBRARY OF ST. PETERSBURG.-This institution contains a vast number of volumes, of which about 200,000 are catalogued. Amongst them are a good published in foreign countries on Russia. It many on natural history and geography, and all the works constantly increased by new purchases, and the addition to it, from time to time, of the private libraries of distinguish ed savans. The collection of manuscripts is very nume complete assemblage ever formed of religious and other The Imperial Library further contains the most images, cut out of the bark of trees, for sale to the common people-a branch of art, if art it can be called, peculiar to Russia. It also possesses a curious map of the world, representing the four quarters of the globe, and making the city of Moscow a trifle bigger than the North Ameri can continent, while it says of a certain island, "This island is deserted, but it contains dragons, with white faces and human bodies, called basilisks." The library is open to readers every ordinary day from ten in the morning to visited by 15,000 persons. nine in the evening. In the course of last year it was DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS.-Recent soundings have shown that there are profundities in the ocean much greater than any elevations on the surface of the earth, for a line has been veered to the extent of seven miles. In a communi cation on the subject before the British Association, Dr. Scoresby has stated his belief that the first soundings beyond a mile were made by himself, when quite a lad, in the arctic regions. Since then, it appears that, in 1849, her Majesty's ship "Pandora" had obtained soundings in the North Atlantic, at 2060 fathoms. Captain Basnet, in 1848, in the North Atlantic, got soundings at 3250 fathoms; and in 1849, Lieut. Walsh, of the U. S. navy, got soundings at 5700 fathoms. But a much greater depth has been obtained by Capt. Denham in the South Atlantic, who, in 1852, run out 7706 fathoms of line before the lead found the bottom. It was then raised a little, and then let out again, when it came to a pause at precisely the same point. The line used was a silk one, one-tenth of an inch in diameter, weighing about one pound to every hundred yards, the plummet weighing about nine ponnds, and being about eleven inches long. Dr. Scoresby, however, suggests that implicit reliance cannot be placed upon these deep soundings, as the strata currents of the ocean are very likely to cause considerable divergencies from the perpendicular. No. 102. A FAMILY JOURNAL OF INSTRUCTION AND RECREATION. PRICE ld. devoutly thank God for a good mother. My castles were never rudely demolished by her gentle hand, nor were my confused notions of things ever worse confounded by ridicule or sharp reproof. Sympahousehold peace, and while every thought was poured out into the treasury of my mother's love, the defective ones were calmly taken up and considered in their true light, and by degrees abandoned as useless. to any high degree of excellence there; but pinks we had in abundance, and roses too-fine cabbageroses, which, let rose lovers say what they may, have a sweeter scent than all the delicate flowers of that lovely surname bearing the fanciful, new-thy, ever-flowing sympathy, was the secret of our fangled appendages of the present day. Jessamine and sweet-williams, stocks, clove-carnations, and wall-flowers, flourished there also. Our garden, too, was a piece of family pride, for garden and house both had belonged to our grandfather, ay, and to his father before him. There were six of us in family; I had two brothers older than myself, and two sisters and a brother younger. As an elder girl, I believe that not more of exertion or self-denial fell to my lot than is usually the share of elder daughters; and our house was so perfectly peaceful, so intensely yet so calmly happy, that the labour which we had each to perform was truly and emphatically a labour of love, knowing neither weariness nor cessation. So time passed on. My father was, as I have said, an old man. The early part of his life had been spent in pursuits of a purely literary and classical character. He had lived for well nigh forty years in a sort of monastic retirement, just getting his living at a desk, and devoting every spare hour to his darling studies, without any ambition for great things in this world; but at last he astonished all the neighbourhood of G-- by going into business as an estate agent; and yet more astonished were they, when he took to himself the young orphan daughter of the clergyman of the parish, who was left alone in the world, and in the old house of which we have spoken. My dear father certainly made a great mistake when he went into business; his heart was never in it, and yet, like many clever men, he had now and then a grand scheme which was to be the making of him and his family, and was to turn his Perhaps we have each of us had at some time of our life, and in the inner temple of our hearts, an idol. I had mine once upon earth, and now in heaven. I am not quite sure but that she sometimes comes before me and the Holy One, when I think of her in one of the "many mansions." My idol was my mother. Oh, how I loved that mother! Her memory mingles with soft cradle hymns, silvery tones, gentle touches, fond heart-wife's little capital-for he had none of his ownwarm embraces, holy, earnest prayers, and selfdenying actions. But I must refrain. If I were about to write my mother's history, I might fill pages; but she was my mother, and I may be partial. Delicate and fragile she always was; but I never remember her in my childish days to have been quite laid aside. I can now see her gliding down the old oak staircase; or, in her neat muslin dress, floating along the gloomy passages, almost as noiselessly as an angel might have passed along; or leading some little one in the grassy garden, telling pleasant stories of birds and bees. She never told sad stories; they were ever as full of hope and joy and purity as she was herself. I love to think of all this: I love to picture her thus, or, better still, to see her with my grey-haired father, many years her senior, her arm fondly round his neck, with a beautiful mixture of the wife and the daughter, and the most exquisite tenderness united to the deepest veneration. She had bright, sunny, curling hair in those days, and as it floated on his shoulders, I remember feeling how exultant he must have been that my mother was really his wife. Such was my home in early life. Neither relics nor luxuries were there, but simply that which our dear old English tongue so aptly calls by the untranslateable word comfort, and peace. I said we were not rich. From very early childhood this was impressed upon us, and I think we had all a dim perception of the fact that, at some distant period of time, we might be obliged to earn our own living. I had a great deal of the castle-builder's nature in me, for I was an imaginative, sensitive, and delicate child, and very often my mother had to call me down from the heights of my airy fabrics to the forgotten stocking or wristband in my hand. I was a dreaming child; and here again would I into a splendid fortune for her and his daughters. I was too young to know much about the matter, but I am very sure of this, that no large fortune was made, and the small one became year by year sensibly less. I often recall now the resolution and calm self-possession of my excellent mother at this time, and the lessons of preparation which she gave us for that which she knew must come. There had always been much pains taken with our edu cation. My father devoted whole evenings to our instruction in Latin, and even in Greek. My mother, whose own mother was a German, spoke and understood that language perfectly, and of French and music, which were among her accom plishments, she had no superficial knowledge. For à home education, ours was certainly superior, and year by year our advancement became more seriously the object of my mother's exertions. We read much, partly to please our father, and partly from the early-acquired love of knowledge. My sister Mary was very like her mother in tastes and in quality of mind. Agnes had from childhood been the object of solicitude, from ill health, and no one ever thought of her but as one to be petted and nursed. My elder brothers were excellent, steady, every-day lads, and Edward, the last of the flock, was but a lovely child of three years old when I had attained my sixteenth year. It was at this time that my father began to droop. Heavier and heavier rested the hand on my mother's arm as they paced the grassy garden; slowly and more slowly did his footsteps sound on the pavement as he returned to dinner. Earlier and yet earlier was his hour for retiring; shorter and yet shorter the laboured breathing; and yet we were not alarmed. I say we; our mother saw it all, and night and day, as she has told me, she prayed for strength against that coming storm which she saw gathering in the horizon. It came at last, but not as a storm. One glorious summer's evening in August, just as the sun had lit up the standing corn, till it shone like gold in its rays, my father quietly sank to sleep upon her arm. He had gone to bed at his usual hour, and, according to his custom, had laid his head on his faithful wife's shoulder, to gain relief from the oppression on his breathing, while she sang him to sleep, as she would have sung a child. Her hymn that night was checked by a change in the breathing; she laid down the grey head upon the pillow, and, in a moment, it was all ended. That night our gentle mother was a widow, and we were fatherless! It was no surprise to us, when the will was read, to hear that we were poor orphans. We had long been prepared for this. Happily, my eldest brother had so far a turn. for practical matters that the business, which his father left him as an inheritance, was more likely to prosper with him than with his predecessor. Horace, the second, had for some time held a situation with our family surgeon. My mother should stay in the old house -that was settled. Agnes and little Edward should remain there too, and Mary and I must go forth into the world. But Mary was too young for a governess; and the principal ladies' school in Gat this very time advertising for an articled pupil, our dear Mary was "articled," as it is called; and it was only Emilie, the writer of these pages, who remained unprovided for. We pored over the columns of the "Times" henceforth; we dived into every advertising corner of the journals; we enlisted every friend in our service; and if one day our hopes were high, at another they sank again, as, one after another, our applications were treated with favour or the Two journeys I took to London, only to return disappointed and depressed. Of one of the situations I had felt so confident, that when I came back late in the evening, and reported my non-success, I wept long and bitterly. My mother, motherlike, tried to cheer and console me. reverse. "It is always thus, dear Emilie," she said. "In our first efforts for independence we are usually made to feel our dependence. Come, come, I have the Times' to-night. Let us look once My heart sickened at the thought of any 'Times'' advertisements now; but we looked carefully down the columns. "Wanted, chamber-maids, house-maids, cooks, ladies'-maids, but how few governesses to-day," said I. "Horace has the Morning Herald,' continued I; "now, Horace, look out for something for me, there's a dear brother." And Horace, eagerly glancing his eye down the columns, saw an advertisement headed, "Wanted, a Governess!" and immediately read as follows:: "Wanted, in a private family of the utmost respectability, a young lady, fully competent to impart instruction to three little girls and a boy, varying from the ages of four to eleven. She must be a perfect mistress of the usual branches of an English education, including geography, the use of the globes, arithmetic, history, and composition. None need apply who are not proficient in singing and piano-forte playing, and fully com petent to teach and speak the French language with a Parisian accent. Some knowledge of German and Italian indispensable.-N.B. A young person of lady-like manners and agreeable disposition would find this a desirable home." Once more I started by an early train, and once more prepared to present myself for approbation. This time my journey ended at N-, and very glad I was, with my country habits and tastes, to be spared the necessity of entering the dreary city again. I had some distance to walk before I arrived at the house which was specified on my address. It was at a chemist's shop at the extreme end of N——, and when I had accomplished the weary walk, in a dusty windy day in March, I found that I must retrace my steps, and walk almost to the very point whence I had set out, to arrive at the gentleman's house of the " utmost respectability." It certainly was encouraging in its outward aspect -a pleasantly-situated, elegantly-built, moderatesized villa, with large garden and shrubbery, and everything externally to justify the promise of the advertisement. The door was opened by a little page, who took my note civilly enough; but on hearing certain words, which I plainly caught through the open door, he somewhat altered his conduct on his return:-" Oh, don't go yet, Mrs. Turner; it is only a young person come after my governess's situation. Show her into the breakfast room, Rollins." I was trying to digest that disagreeable word "only," so offensive to one's natural, albeit wrong, pride, when Mrs. Serle entered. She was a fashionable, rather plain, lady-like woman, and so far from putting me at my ease in her presence, she scanned me with the keen curiosity and sharpsightedness of a woman thoroughly "up to this business," until I was every moment growing more and more uncomfortable and distressed. 66 I ventured to reply personally to your advertisement," I said, timidly; "I-” "Ah, yes, but you look so very young. Have you ever been out before ?" "Never." "Have you lost a relative lately?" My lips tried to say, "My father." Her eye never moved from my face, although tears, which could not keep back, coursed down my cheeks. Very young: and what can you teach ?" I 66 I said I had considered the requirements of her advertisement, and believed I was competent to undertake the situation. I had not learned French at Paris, but I trusted that as my mother was of a German family, and I could speak that language fluently, it might be considered equivalent. She thought otherwise, depreciated the use of German, and spoke of French as the "language of the world." I could only sit and blush, and feel very uncomfortable. However, she passed by this defect, and said she should be willing to try me, if my references were satisfactory. You will be obliged," she continued, "to be in the school-room at seven, and to attend to lessons until eight. Of course, you will not object to assisting your three little pupils to dress. From nine to twelve you will be in the school-room again. You will then walk, if the weather per mits, until two. You will dine with the children at our luncheon, at that hour; and at three you will have lessons again until five. Our dinner hour is six; the children join us at dessert, and, as your manners appear good, I think I shall feel no difficulty in your accompanying them into the dining-room. They will also take tea with us, and you will preside both at tea and breakfast time. They retire at eight, and you will have plenty of time then to do a little plain sewing, which my governesses are always accustomed to do for me. I must tell you that I never allow the children to be left. They must be your sole charge." I sighed; it was involuntary. "Shall I have any time at my own disposal, Mrs. Serle ?" I said, timidly. "What do you mean ?" she replied. "I mean that I should like a little time in the day, that I could call my own. I shall like to read, and improve myself sometimes. I am very young, and if I am always imparting knowledge, do you not think I ought to take something in ?" "I have nothing to do with that; your education is presumed to be finished, or why offer yourself for my situation ? You have but to rise an hour earlier if you are studiously inclined." I was silent, and at length said: "My salary." "Your salary!—Yes, I think I should not object to giving you twenty pounds, although it is a large sum for so young a teacher. I don't know what Mr. Serle will say; but I dare say he will comply. I shall hope to see you on Monday;" and here, as though in great haste to complete the bargain, she rose, leaving me in too much perplexity and astonishment to say anything more than "Very well;" and the bell being rung, I left the room and the house, feeling, as I looked back to it, as though my home it could never be. Weary and dispirited I returned home. I had not tasted food since my breakfast, for it did not appear to have entered into my elect-employer's calculations, that a poor girl from G-, come for the governess's situation, could be either faint or tired; but that might be mere forgetfulness, and we will not be censorious. The tea was very sweet at home, I remember, and the welcome and the love sweeter still. My mother talked hopefully of my twenty pounds soon swelling to forty; and we went to bed, if not gay, at least cheerful and con tent. There were but two days for my simple preparations; they were finished on the Saturday. The Sunday was my last at home. The bells, as they rang for service, seemed dirge-like, and my heart was very heavy as I knelt with the mourning family in the old pew for the last time. I cannot describe the parting. I was leaving home, and the knowledge of this truth was sufficient to excuse the many, many tears which fell as I sat in the corner of the railway carriage. There was no one there but an elderly lady, who appeared so engrossed with a book, that I thought I might weep unnoticed; but presently, when my grief was lulled a little, I saw that she was observing me, not curiously, but kindly, from a remote corner opposite. Soon she spoke. Oh! blessings on those voices which are tuned to gentleness and love! I knew at that very moment that the strange lady had not a cold heart. Ah, it is a bitter trial, my dear. I remember my own feelings at first leaving home." "Do you?" and I felt that we were no longer strangers. Are you-I hope I don't seem inquisitive-are you going to a situation?" Yes, and it is my first." "Poor child! but"-and she spoke cheerily, "much, very much depends on yourself, whether you are happy there or not. I do not ask what kind of people your employers are. That matters little if you take a right heart with you to them. It is very difficult, I acknowledge; one is so apt to feel pride sometimes, and as though we lost caste, in entering for the first time on a life of dependence; but this is wrong." "I know it, but it is natural." "Don't you think, my dear, that He who counts the hairs of your head, and who placed you in circumstances where dependence (if you will have it so) is necessary, can comfort you and guide you in that life." "Yes." "Yes; but you still hang back. Now I have been a governess for thirty years of my life, and I will give you one or two hints which you may find useful; may I? They have been the result of some dear-bought experience. First-never mind how natural it is to feel otherwise-take this thought to your new home- I am not lowering myself; I am in all respects the same as I was in my parents' house, simply compelled, under God's providence, to turn the talents and education which he gave me into a means of support.' This thought will be elevating; it will preserve your self-respect; it will give you a feeling of independence. Then again, do not expect too much consideration and respect from those with whom you live. It is well to look at the case as it is-not as it should be. If you and I and human nature were better, governesses' situations would be happier; but here is a plain truth. You are engaged to do a certain work-to teach. Now, depend upon it, there is too much selfishness abroad, for any reasonable expectations that a lady who engages you for this work should consider herself bound to give you more than your stipulated remuneration, and a fair amount of kind and civil treatment--" I interrupted her: "Not a person to whom they commit their children? Surely, surely they are entitled to more than common confidence and kindness !" My new friend shook her head. "I am looking at the matter, my dear, as it is, not as you and I may think it ought to be. Keep in mind then this one thought-I will never take a slight where it is not intended; I will not expect or require home-love and tenderness under a stranger's roof; and I will settle this point that, after all, my object in life is to be duty, not com fort; and that my duty, and pleasure too, should consist in devotion to the dear little ones." "Hard work!" "Hard! yes; but not impossible; for I hope |