pounds a year; it was afterwards increased (perhaps by Queen Anne's Bounty) to eighteen, which it never exceeded. On this income he married, brought up four children, and lived comfortably with his neighbours, educated a son at the university, and left upwards of one thousand pounds behind him. With that singular simplicity and inattention to forms which characterize a country life, he himself read the burial service over his mother, he married his father to a second wife, and afterwards buried him also. He published his own banns of marriage in the church, with a woman whom he had formerly christened, and he himself married all his four children.-European Magazine, 1814.

JOANNA SOUTHCOTT.

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POPULAR credulity in the most preposterous pretensions of religious impostors or fanatics is strikingly exemplified in the case of Joanna Southcott, whose followers at the beginning of the present century are said to have numbered over one hundred thousand,-most of whom, however, were of the ignorant classes. This woman is supposed to have been born of humble parentage, about 1750, and she was for many years a domestic servant at Exeter. When about forty years of age she seems to have commenced her career as a prophetess," and boldly declared herself to be the woman mentioned in the twelfth chapter of Revelation. Though very illiterate, she scribbled a vast quantity of rubbish, which she called prophecies and fulfilments of prophecy, and drove a thriving trade in the sale of "seals," or sealed packets, at half a guinea each, which were to secure eternal salvation to the fortunate possessor; and as her followers continued to increase, she predicted that she was to become pregnant in the same miraculous manner as the Virgin Mary, and this was to take place in her sixty-fifth year. What lent some colour to this extraordinary "prophecy," was the circumstance that after she had passed her grand climacteric, her person did really exhibit apparent symptoms of pregnancy. Her "Books of Wonders" were freely advertised in the newspapers of the day, as will be seen from the following advertisement taken from a morning newspaper published in 1814:

"The Coming of Shiloh.—In a third Book of Wonders is announced, that Shiloh will be born this year, who is to gather the Jews, Gen. xlix. 10; and that all may bless the day the child is born, that do not treat the babe with scorn. That Shiloh is the branch mentioned by Isaiah in the eleventh chapter: A branch shall grow out of his roots;' and by Zech. vi. 12: Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH ; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord: and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne,' etc. And it is said that Joanna Southcott will, in the sixty-fifth year of her age (which is this year), conceive and bring forth this child in the same marvellous manner that the Virgin Mary did the Child Jesus; and that, by the fulfilment of this prophecy, the truth of her mission and the truth of the gospel will be proved. In this book is strong argu

ment from Scripture and reason, calculated to remove the differences between Jews and Christians and it proves that the office of Shiloh, The Branch, was not fulfilled by Jesus Christ at His first coming, for the Jews were then scattered and not gathered, so that there could be no fulfilment of Jacob's prophecy then. My countrymen! you who are desirous of knowing the truth, will read this book, and judge of yourselves, that you may be prepared to receive Shiloh, the Prince of Peace."

Lord Byron, in a letter to Murray his publisher, dated September 2nd, 1814, calls Joanna "this new (old) virgin of spiritual impregnation ;" and "longs to know what she will produce;" and in another letter he expresses a fear that these matters will lend a hand to profane

scoffers.

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The following is extracted from a magazine of the same date :Joanna Southcott's miraculous conception, and the cot made by Siddons of Aldersgate Street, for the new Messiah,' are become almost as general a topic of conversation as the late Jubilee. In one of the prophetess's recent publications, entitled the Book of Wonders, the Coming of Shiloh' is thus announced: This year, in the sixty-fifth year of thy age, thou shalt have a Son by the power of the Most High, which if they receive as their Prophet, Priest, and King, then I will restore them to their own land, and cast out the heathens for their sakes, as I cast out them when they cast out me, by rejecting me as their Saviour, Prince, and King, for which I said I was born, but not at that time to establish my kingdom.' In consequence of this announcement, the followers of Joanna are making all sorts of preparations, and she has been literally overwhelmed with presents. Laced caps, embroidered bibs, and worked robes, a mohair mantle which cost £150, splendid silver pap-spoons and caudle-cups (one shaped like a dove) have been poured in upon her, till she at length determined to receive no more. The word 'Shiloh' is drawn in gold Hebrew characters on the cot, and over a canopy the inscription, ‘A freewill offering of Faith to the promised Seed.""

As the time of Joanna's predicted miraculous accouchement drew near, her house in London was besieged day and night by crowds of her credulous followers; but they waited in vain. Poor Joanna herself ultimately had misgivings as to the genuineness of her "mission," and declared that "if she had been deceived, she had herself been the sport of some spirit either of good or evil." She died on the 27th December, 1814, but many of her disciples would not believe that she was really dead, and kept her body unburied until it was far advanced in decomposition. A post-mortem examination of her body was made, and the prophetess was found to have died of dropsy! A section of her more fanatical followers believed that she would again appear in the flesh to fulfil her "mission ;" and some of her male disciples vowed they would not shave their beards till her resurrection. It is supposed that the last of a small band of believers in her pretensions died this year (1875).--W. A. Clouston.

A VERY ANCIENT FAMILY.

THE famous Lord Chesterfield had a relation, a Mr. Stanhope, who was exceedingly proud of his pedigree, which he pretended to trace to a ridiculous antiquity. Lord Chesterfield was one day walking through an obscure street in London, where he saw a miserable daub of Adam and Eve in Paradise. He purchased this painting, and having written on the top of it, “Adam de Stanhope, of Eden, and Eve his wife,” he sent it to his relation, as a valuable old family portrait.

ZOZIMUS, THE DUBLIN BALLAD SINGER.

ABOUT thirty years ago a tall blind man used to stand at the corner of Essex Bridge, Dublin, singing and reciting ballads, which, if not remarkable for wit, were more or less attractive to his audience from their singularity. This Homeric beggar possessed some of the sturdiness of Edie Ochiltrie, and had a certain pride in his calling, and in the fact of his being looked up to as king of street minstrels. Even now, in Ireland, the street minstrel pursues his occupation in a more interesting fashion than that in which the same business is carried on by the fellows who chant vulgar ribaldry in our lanes or public parks; but in the days when Zozimus flourished, the craft had retained an importance derived from its connection with the political history of the country. It is well known that Swift employed the Dublin balladsingers to chant and hawk about some of his rhyming squibs; and several of the chief opponents of the Union engaged the ragged followers of the gay science in a musical crusade against the Castle authorities.

The poet Zozimus derived his name from the fact of his having composed a lyric on the discovery of the desert of St. Mary of Egypt by a pious ecclesiastic called Zozimus. His biographer informs us that he was usually dressed in a heavy, coarse, long-tailed coat, and a very much worn hat, with exceedingly strong shoes. He recited or declaimed pieces of a sacred turn, interspersed with odd "asides" to the crowd, and always introducing himself with a sort of prologue :

"Ye sons and daughters of Erin attend;

Gather round poor Zozimus, yer friend.
Listen, boys, until yez hear

My charming song."

One of his most striking and effective readings was that of a romantic version of the story of Moses in the bulrushes. This he always prefaced by inquiring, "Is there a crowd about me now? Is there any blackguard heretic listenin' to me?" Having been satisfied on these points, Zozimus is reported to have delivered a series of stanzas, of which the following may serve as a specimen :—

"In Egypt's land, upon the banks of Nile,

King Pharaoh's daughter went to bathe in style ;
She tuk her dip, then walked unto the land,
And, to dry her royal pelt, she ran along the strand.

A bulrush tripped her, whereupon she saw
A smiling baby in a wad of straw;

She tuk it up, and said, in accents mild,

'Tare an' agers, girls! which av yez owns this child ?'” Zozimus could sing of his garret as gaily as Béranger,—

Gather round me, boys! will yez

Gather round me?

And hear what I have to say,
Before ould Sally brings me
My bread and jug of tay.

I live in Fiddle Alley,

Off Blackpits near the Comb,

With my poor wife, called Sally,

In a narrow, dirty room."

The poet, living in the O'Connell era, was a great admirer of the agitator, and celebrated O'Connell's election to the mayoralty with much enthusiasm. Zozimus died on Friday, April 3, 1846. A priest, who went to visit him, found the bard in a miserable room, lying on a straw pallet, and surrounded by a horde of ballad singers, to whom it seems he was teaching the doggrel that was no longer of much use to him. “How are you, Mike?" said the priest. I'm dictatin'," was the characteristic reply of the minstrel. He had a grand wake and a funeral, which no doubt Zozimus would have enjoyed, but for the inactive part he was compelled to take in it.—Pall Mall Gazette.

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SOUWORROW, THE RUSSIAN GENERAL.

IT has been generally considered as a mark of a great mind in a soldier successfully to attempt hazardous things on his own responsibility; that is, without orders, or contrary to their spirit. Souworrow did more, for he dared to violate the positive orders of his commander, and staked his life upon the issue of an enterprise, not only expressly forbidden, but extremely perilous, and seemingly desperate. While yet a major, he commanded an outpost in sight of the enemy who was daily growing stronger, and he requested permission to attack him, going so far as to pledge himself for the success. The commander-inchief thinking it rash and impracticable on account of the enemy's great superiority, forbade the attempt under pain of death; and made the chagrin of Souworrow, who was conscious of his own better judgment, quite insupportable. Foreseeing that the enemy's numerical superiority, constantly increasing, would shortly deprive him of the opportunity of striking the meditated blow, he invited his brother officers to a supper, and by flattering them with the certain prospect of glory, while the deadly prohibition was confined to his own breast, that he alone might suffer in case of failure, he prevailed on them to join in the attack, and they mustered a force of 1000 strong from the junction of different outposts under the command of Souworrow. Justly calculating that the enemy, being five times stronger, had too much confidence to

expect or to be prepared for an attack from so weak a body, Souworrow fell upon him at night, defeated him with great slaughter, obtaining a decisive victory, which he thus reported: "As a soldier, I deserve death for disobeying my orders; as a Russian, I have done my duty; the enemy is no more." The commander-inchief was thunderstruck on reading this dispatch, yet so pleased with the boldness of Souworrow's genius, and the brilliant result of his conduct, that not knowing how to decide himself, he stated the whole to the empress, and sent her the original dispatch. Her majesty immediately returned the following answer, addressed to Souworrow:"As a soldier, I leave you to the mercy of the commander-in-chief; as a Russian, I congratulate you as my lieutenant-colonel." From this time was Souworrow's rise regular and progressive; and the mpression he made on the empress was never effaced.

THE POET POPE.

IT is not probable, indeed, that a woman would have fallen in love with him as he walked along the Mall, or in a box at the opera, nor from a balcony, nor in a ballroom; but in society he seems to have been as amiable as unassuming, and, with the greatest disadvantages of figure, his head and face were remarkably handsome, especially his eyes. He was adored by his friends-friends of the most opposite dispositions, ages, and talents: by the old and wayward Wycherley, by the cynical Swift, the rough Atterbury, the gentle Spence, the stern attorney-bishop Warburton, the virtuous Berkeley, and the "cankered Bolingbroke." Bolingbroke wept over him like a child; and Spence's description of his last moments is at least as edifying as the more ostentatious account of the deathbed of Addison. The soldier Peterborough and the poet Gay, the witty Congreve and the laughing Rowe, the eccentric Cromwell and the steady Bathurst, were all his intimates. The man who could conciliate so many men of the most opposite description, not one of whom but was a remarkable or a celebrated character, might well have pretended to all the attachment which a reasonable man would desire of an amiable woman.—. -Byron.

PALEY'S "PUDDENS."

AFTER Paley's preferment to the archdeaconry, he dined with a large number of clergymen at his first visitation, all of whom were in eager expectation to hear the improving conversation of the great man. The latter remained silent till the second course was served. He then opened his lips, and every one listened with rapt attention to what the archdeacon would deign to say. His remark was: "I don't think these puddens are much good unless the seeds are taken out of the raisins." On another occasion Paley gave utterance to a speech such as we might have expected, as a joke, from Sydney Smith. Feeling annoyed by a draught of air behind him, he said, "Shut that window behind me, and open one lower down, behind one of the curates,"