morning and evening; and it may be, that it was the very ignorance of their system, that led them and their relatives more tenaciously to hold to Judaism.

But the voyage was drawing to a close. Soundings were taken, and showed that they were approaching the English coast. With what delight did they catch the first sight of the lighthouse at the Land's End! The next night the light of the Lizard was on the beam, and the following night they saw that at the Needles or Isle of Wight. The evening after they anchored in the Downs, and caught a sight of Dover Castle in the sunset.

CHAPTER II.-OLD ENGLAND.

The familiar and endearing term is the heading of our chapter. It gladdens the family fireside, and excites a pleasant echo in every part of the world. It is old, and yet ever new. Changes and material progress cannot alter the hallowed associations which dwell in the hearts of her children scattered in every land and clime.

But these changes have been many and varied. When the "Content" cast her anchor in the Downs, the outlines of the country were the same as they are now; but very different was its state in science, commerce, and manufacture. No steamers on the watery main, nor steam-engines on the land attracted the eye. The stage-coach, which conveyed its passengers from Dover to London in twelve hours, might be seen through the telescope ready for its start, or the boat, which once a week supplied more adventurous spirits with a tedious voyage round the South Foreland and up the Thames. But what the prospect lost in the progressive it gained in the picturesque. Hundreds of craft spread their sails to the breeze, and, as they reached their anchorage and settled for the night, gave interest and animation to all around. There was the deeply-laden Indiaman, and here the American clipper. From every land they seemed to have come, while stately and imposing, ranged amidst them the beautiful lines of an English frigate, which had been cruising in the Channel and with magic precision was furling her multitude of sails.

Abraham and Isaac Dacosta could hardly leave the deck

D

during this memorable day, and still were noting the chalk cliffs, and the grassy uplands, and all the novel objects which surrounded them, as the sun set and the stars appeared. The keen frosty air of the 1st of May did not cool their ardour. Looking upward, and surveying the evening sky, Isaac exclaimed, "Abraham, there is our old friend again, ‘THE STAK OF PEACE.' It greeted us when we left Jamaica, and now it welcomes us in England."

At early dawn the bustle aroused the young sleepers, who hastened on deck to feast their eyes on the surrounding scene, and to join in the process of weighing anchor. The wind was somewhat adverse to them, so that, when under weigh, the ship had to tack to and fro, in order to enter the mouth of the Thames. The little sailors took their part in these manœuvres, and as the captain was heard with his speakingtrumpet giving his orders, "tacks and sheets," "helm's a lee,” "mainsail haul," they would be ready to run off with the mainsheet, much to the satisfaction of the old Jack Tars. It was the pride of Captain Dickson that he always sailed up the river with every stitch of canvas set that his ship could carry. A gentle wind rendered this easy. Sky-sails and studding-sails were all set, and majestically the "Content" sailed up the great highway of England's commerce and renown. Gravesend was then but a village, and there was but little of importance except Tilbury Fort until they reached Woolwich and "lay-to off Blackwall. Greenwich Hospital, with all its memorable associations was in sight, but the West India Docks unfolded the jaws of their "locks," and soon the ship was lying at her berth, ready to discharge her cargo.

Every face was lighted up with peasure at the happy termination of a somewhat tedious voyage. For many of the passengers there were anxious friends who sprang on board to give them a joyful welcome. The Missionary was among the favoured number, but he did not leave without giving a special adieu to the Jewish lads, whose frank and open bearing he admired, while he prayed that God might enlighten their hearts and remove their unbelief. "The prayer of faith" would one day have its record of an answer in one at least of the two in whom he felt a peculiar interest.

There were no kindly faces beaming a welcome upon the two boys. They had friends in London, but they had not heard of the arrival of the "Content." But they were under the care of the captain, who asked them to accompany him to the owners of the ship, at whose office it was his duty to report himself. The environs of the docks were then, as they are now, covered with the habitations of the seafaring and industrial classes. The streets through which they wended their way were fitted to dissipate all the boyish legends that the streets of London were "paved with gold." But there was plenty of life and bustle. Street-cries resounded on every side. This was indeed great London, of which they had read and heard. And sweet sounds attracted their musical ears in the form of a hand-organ which had but lately found its way from Italy to England, and which drew around it a crowd which appeared to be more demonstrative than liberal to the poor Italian. Beyond it was another scene that had even greater charms for their youth and inexperience, for "Punch and Judy" were discoursing at their best to a large throng. The captain indulged their curiosity by a few minutes' stay before the mimic pageant, and in a few minutes more they were in the mazes of the City, threading their way to Mincing Lane, where was the first dwelling in England to give shelter to our young heroes. Here was the office of Daniel Mocatta and Co., the head of which firm received the captain as an old friend, and gave a kindly word to the Dacostas, whose father was one of their correspondents in Jamaica. It was strange to them to see a glowing fire in the grate, which, however, the frosty air rendered grateful and pleasant. Stranger would it have appeared to Isaac Dacosta, could he have conceived that in a few years he would occupy one of the lofty desks in that very room, and ere many more years had passed away would be a junior partner in the firm.

The boys were to be placed under the guardianship of a maternal uncle. He had been to the Docks, and, learning whither his young nephews had gone, appeared in due time with one of his sons, and carried them off to their house in Broad Street. The reserve which strange faces and strange scenes excited wore off, and the boys were soon "at home."

"Well, boys," said Mr. Hymen Samuels, the day after he had

received his nephews, "you must see a little of London, and then we must talk of school; Mr. Braham is ready to receive you at any time. In a week we shall be at the half-quarter, and I know that your father would object to your losing so much time with the summer holidays before you. But we must not say much about that now. You shall go to-night to Covent Garden Theatre, and next week your aunt will take you to the Zoological Gardens."

This was pleasant tidings to the young West Indians. If their elders had no power of discrimination between pleasures and amusements which were lawful and innocent and those which were otherwise, how could they be expected to know the difference? Who can wonder at the fascinating effect produced on their young minds when, fresh from the quiet isolation of the great Atlantic, they found themselves the spectators of one of Shakespeare's tragedies, performed by the greatest actors of the day, and in the greatest theatre of the Metropolis! A dangerous and seductive taste was thus excited, which, although circumstances did not in their after-life permit to reach very serious proportions, could not fail to exercise a mischievous tendency upon their minds. Early impressions are never entirely effaced. If the tendency is for evil and not for good, there are seeds sown which are not easily eradicated. When Divine power and grace give a new direction to the affections and desires, it is a ground for thanksgiving when we can look back upon the past and trace how that same grace has preserved us from excess of riot" and from habitual indulgence in doubtful pleasures which leave their stamp upon the life and character.

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Merry and joyous days were the first that the boys thus spent in England. Although they had left behind the brighter skies of the West, yet the weather was fine for Great Britain. It was not then a difficult matter to traverse the whole of London, and the new cousins, one of whom had just left school, were diligent in showing them every accessible point of interest. There was then the real old London Bridge, with its curious shops, which afforded a distressing hindrance to the increasing traffic. There was the old Royal Exchange, and old Smithfield, and other peculiarities which have passed away. The St. Paul's and the Westminster Abbey of those times were the same as those of

to-day, but into those Christian fanes even the somewhat lax principles of Hymen Samuels did not allow his nephews to enter. But the short holiday passed, alas! too quickly, and the day arrived for the journey to school.

(To be continued.)

BENJAMIN DAVIDSON'S POSTHUMOUS
WORK.

THE Anglo-Hebrew-Christian community have recently sustained a great loss, in the death of one of their body-the indefatigable Oriental Scholar, Grammarian, and Lexicographer, Professor BENJAMIN DAVIDSON. We know not of a greater benefactor to the modern student of the Hebrew Scriptures than our recently departed brother. All the English Jews taken together, with their Rabbis at their head, have never done a tithe of what the individual Hebrew Christian, BENJAMIN DAVIDSON, has done, for the promotion of the study of the sacred Text of MOSES and the PROPHETS. Had he done nothing else, but help forward the perfecting of the "Englishman's Hebrew and Chaldee Concordance"-promoted by Mr. G. V. Wigram-(published in 1843); or had he achieved no other performance than his magnificent Analytical Hebrew Lexicon, published by Messrs. Samuel Bagster and Sons, which is of the greatest service to the learner, and students of the original of the Old Testament. We say, had BENJAMIN DAVIDSON achieved nothing else than those two great works he would have secured the gratitude of diligent students of Oriental Literature not only from the present generation, but from such students of generations yet unborn. But his chef-d'œuvre is beyond question his posthumous work; and that is the completest CONCORDANCE, that was ever aimed at, that was ever compiled, of the Hebrew and Chaldee Scriptures. Our departed brother's name will be as permanent a household word amongst the students of the Hebrew Bible as is that of ALEXANDER CRUDEN'S amongst students of

A Concordance of the Hebrew and Chaldee Scriptures. Revised and Corrected. By B. DAVIDSON, Author of the Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon, the Syriac and Chaldee Reading Lessons, and joint Author of the Elementary Arabic Grammar and Reading Lessons, &c. London: Samuel Bagster and Sons.