military officers, and, according to the fashion of the times, and the custom of war in like cases, had indulged to excess in the bacchanalian festivities of the evening. In attempting to return home in the extreme darkness of the night, his centre of gravity being nowhere he had fallen headlong into the ditch where Kelly fortunately discovered him in his last extremity. It would be unjust not to add that Colonel. O-, on his recovery, exerted himself in favour of Kelly, represented his noble conduct to Government, obtained his pardon, rebuilt his cabin, and ever after behaved with great kindness to his preserver.

This anecdote is quite illustrative of the chequered feelings of Irish peasants, who are one moment softened by compassion or incited by generosity of sentiment, while at the next the most sanguinary deeds are scarcely sufficient to satisfy their cravings for the wild justice of revenge. »

They are, in fact, a people whose virtues are as a precious jewel in the mine; their vices as the rubbish which surrounds and obscures its lustre.

(UNITED SERVICE MAGAZINE.)

OLD AGE AND THE GREEN TREE.

BY W. A. C. SHAND A. M.

I am weary and mouraful, and where is the hand of a friend;

<< When the storms of the soul overtake us!

The Desires!.... and what is there here to desire without end?
But the Years-the best Years all-forsake us.

Green leaves! how glad ye seem

Oh! many an hour of vanished joy ye bring!
Life's tranquil morning-Hope's unclouded spring-
When boyhood's silver dream

Rose o'er our path, like a propitious light,

To make the earth more fair-the skies more bright,

How oft beneath your shade,

In other days, when heart and lip were young
Our voices in the brooding noontide rung

Through dell and winding glade;

And kindred accents to our songs replied,
And, like an Angel, Truth was by our side.

But Now no more we seek

The shelter of these over-arching boughs:

No more with wilding blooms we wreathe our brows-
Hot tears are on each cheek-

And sighs on lips unused to mourn before,
And grief where smiles were ever heretofore.

Youth and its visions pass

A swift procession with its bannered show,
And yearning music on the wind--and Lo!
Cold dews are on the grass-

And faltering sobs and trembling feet are heard
Upon the pathway where that pageant stirred.

VOL. IV.

60

My dreams are all gone by!

Gone as the cloud that mingles with the skies-
Gone as a vision from re-opened eyes-
Gone as a broken cry

In shoreless ocean lost, when midnight foam
Surges above the sailor's dream of Home.

And therefore, on my soul,

Green leaves! no more a balmy light ye shed-
Away! to decorate the dancer's head,

And crown the mantling bowl,

When Manhood kneels in Passion's early trance,
And Beauty consecrates the frail Romance!

Be ye where Revel waits

Amid the circling throng in stately halls,
When music swells along the pictured walls-
And minions at the gates

Flash the fierce torchlight in the wanderer's face,
Who comes too near the bower of Pleasure's race!

Be mine, sere Autumn leaves !
More fitting emblem of my day's decline-
Of Hope's decay-Passion's exhausted mine-
(The tale that sorrow weaves) -

Be mine to teach my heart man's solemn doom-
Be mine to strew the winter of my tomb!

St. Petersburg.

ELECTRO-MAGNETIC RAILWAY LOCOMOTIVE.

(From the Edinburgh Evening Journal.)

A trial of this very ingenious machine, constructed by Mr. Davidson, was made on Thursday on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, in presence of a number of gentlemen, many of whom were eminent for their scientific knowledge. The construction of the carriage is the first attempt which has been made in this country to apply the powers of electro-magnetism to railway traffic, and from the success which attended this trial sanguine hopes may be entertained that the period is not distant when it will either supersede, in many cases, the employment of steam, or lend a powerful aid to this mighty instrument in all the operations for which it is at present employed. The carriage was impelled along the railway about a mile and a half, and travelled at the rate of upwards of four miles an hour, a rate which might be increased by giving greater power to the batteries, and enlarging the diameter of the wheels. We understand that the carriage was built at the expense of the Railway Company, and we cannot but congratulate them in having the discernment to employ Mr. Davidson, a gentleman of much practical knowledge and talent, by whose genius great discoveries have been made in electro-magnetism, by whom the carriage was projected, and by whose unwearied exertions the practicability of the scheme is almost placed beyond a doubt.

The dimensions of the carriage are 16 feet long by 7 feet

wide, and is propelled by eight powerful electro-magnets. The carriage is supported by four wheels of 3 feet diameter. On each of the two axles there is a wooden cylinder, on which are fastened three bars of iron at equal distances from each other, and extending from end to end of the cylinder. On each side of the cylinder, and resting on the carriage, there are two powerful electro-magnets. When the first bar on the cylinder has passed the faces of two of these magnets, they immediately pull the second bar until it comes opposite them. The current is then cut off from these two magnets, and is let on to the other two. Again they pull the third bar until it comes opposite, and so on-the current of galvanism being always cut off from the one pair of magnets when it is let on to the other.

The manner in which the current is cut off and let on is simply thus-At each end of the axles there is a small wooden cylinder, one-half of which is covered by a hoop of copper; the other is divided alternately with copper and wood (three parts of wood and three of copper.) One end of the coil of wire which surrounds the four electro-magnets, presses on one of these cylinders, on the part which is divided with copper and wood; the other end of the coil presses on the other cylinder in the same manner. One end of the wires or conductors which comes from the battery, presses constantly on the undivided part of the copper on each cylinder. When one of the iron bars on the wooden cylinder has passed the faces of two magnets, the current of galvanism is let on to the other two magnets, by one end of the coil which surrounds the magnets, passing from the wood to the copper, and thereby forming a connexion with the battery. This wire continues to press on the copper until the iron bar bas come opposite the faces of the two magnets, which were thus charged with galvanism. On its coming into that position, the current is cut off from these two magnets, by the wire or rod of copper passing from the copper to the wood, and thereby breaking the connexion with the battery. But when the wire or rod of copper leaves the copper on the one cylinder, it leaves the wood, and passes to the copper on the other cy