ORIGIN OF THE PLAGUE. opening of the Chester and Holyhead railway, | adrift with an allowance of one cent a mile whereare events of such importance, both to the com- with to make his way home, and a pension of munication with Ireland, and to the character of four dollars a month hereafter. The gentlemen railway engineering in this country, that we who make wars and tell the country how glomust refer to them once again. We formerly rious they are, vote themselves from $25,000 a noticed the happy transference of the tube from year down to $56 per week, with forty cents per the workyard to its position between the oppo- mile for travelling, while they vote the men who site piers. But it was then a great depth below stop the bullets and blunt the sabre-edges one cent its final place. It had still to be pumped up by a mile for travelling expenses, and almost ninety a Bramah press and steam engine, to its height. cents a week to live on!-N. Y. Tribune. The pumping up of this great mass-nearly as large as one of the rows of houses in Great George street-by the two ends, is perhaps the most formidable lift ever attempted. It was effected at the rate of about two feet per hour, and was done uniformly, quietly, and so insensibly from the large mass, that it seemed rather that the ground and sea and houses sank down below the bridge than that the bridge itself was in motion. Trains have passed through with great loads, and without producing vibration. We understand that Capt. Wynne, the inspector general of railways, has sanctioned the whole line, with which he expressed great satisfaction, when the sepulchral rites of civilized Egypt having made a very minute and critical examination of it. We congratulate Mr. Stephenson in having thus converted one impossibility' more into a practical fact. We hope he will not delay to give the profession an account in detail of all the difficulties encountered and conquered. His Menai bridge will give him little trouble, we trust, after this; of which the difficulties are different in degree rather than kind." MICHAEL ANGELO. A friend called on Michael Angelo, who was finishing a statue. Some time afterward he called again; the sculptor was still at his work. His friend looking at the figure exclaimed, 66 You have been idle since I saw you last." "By no means," replied the sculptor; "I have retouched this part, and polished that; I have softened this feature, and brought out this muscle; 1 have given more expression to this lip, and more energy to that limb." "Well, well," said his friend, “but all these are trifles." "It may be so," replied Angelo," "but recollect that trifles make perfection, and that perfection is no trifle." MISERIES OF WAR. We had a visit yesterday from Mr. James Thompson, late a Sergeant in the U. S. Regulars, but now discharged because he was so wounded in one of the battles in Mexico as to disable him for farther duty. He was crippled by a ball through the leg, and had one eye blinded and his head scientifically laid open by a sabre-cut, which barely missed killing him. So, being no longer "available," he was sent | In ancient Egypt the plague was unknown. Although densely populated, the health of the inhabitants was preserved by strict attention to sanitary regulations. But with time came on The change-and that change was in man. soil remained; but when the experience of serene climate, the enriching river, that fruitful 2000 years was set at nought,—when the presoil from accumulated impurities were neglected, cautions previously adopted for preserving the were exchanged for the modern but barbarous practices of interment, when the land of mummies became, as it now is, one vast charnelhouse-the seed which was sown brought forth its bitter fruit, and from dangerous innovations came the most deadly pestilence. The plague first appeared in Egypt in the year 542, two from the ancient to the modern mode of sepulhundred years after the change had been made ture; and every one at all acquainted with the actual condition of Egypt, will at once recognize in the soil, more than sufficient to account for the dreadful malady which constantly afflicts the people.-Mr. Walker on the Metropolitan Grave Yards. "One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are Teach us true self-denial-we who seek Yes, even the heathen tribes- Each different sect, whose base That from each temple should go up to God, Is one continued burnishing of shields, Which sweetly blended, with the skill of love, We toil To controvert, to argue, to defend, And visioned heresies. E'en brethren deem So, come forth, Ye who have safest kept that Saviour's law, of the representation, extension of suffrage, vote by ballot, and triennial Parliaments, came on ou the 20th, when he presented a vast number of petitions, and made a long and able speech, in support of his motion, and the Premier, Lord John Russell, replied, in direct and decided opposition to it. In Ireland, clubs were forming very extensively, the members of which are said to meet regularly for military training. It is stated that in Dublin alone there were forty clubs of 300 mem bers each. A newspaper to be called The Irish Felon, was to appear on the 24th, as a successor to Mitchell's United Irishman. France appears to be in a great ferment. Disorders have taken place in several departments, and in Paris the Bonaparte excitement has resulted in a bloody insurrection. At the last telegraphic despatches from that city, it was announced that barricades had been erected, and the troops and National Guards were fight. ing desperately with the people. Still later accounts from London say that all communication with Paris appears to be cut off. The Austrians have gained some important advantages in the Venetian country, having taken Vicenza and Padua. The insurrection is spreading in the provinces of Naples, and Provisional Governments have been formed at Cosenza and Potenza. It is stated that the Swedes have commenced sending troops into Denmark to assist the Danes against Germany. It is also reported that a large number of Russian men of war are collected in the Baltic, and large Russian armies are gathering on the CONGRESS.-In the Senate, the debate on the frontiers of Germany. In Berlin, the Guards hav Oregon bill has been continued by Mason of Vir- ing wounded some men in endeavoring to disperse ginia, Johnson of Georgia, Davis of Massachusetts, a crowd of workmen who had gone to the Minister and Johnson of Maryland. On the 10th a bill was to demand work or money, the people took up passed, authorizing Alexandre Vattemare to frank arms, threw up barricades, and seized on the and receive free of postage, documents, books and Arsenal. It appears that the Assembly had agreed letters for international exchanges. This individual to a motion to send away the troops and put them. has been for some time in this country, endeavoringselves under the protection of the people. At the to bring about a system of international exchanges of public and official documents, &c. On the 6th, the President sent in to Congress the ratified Mexican Treaty. In the House, on the 5th, a resolution declaring that the Constitution vests in Congress the power to appropriate money for the improvement of harbors and navigable rivers, was passed, yeas 128, nays 55. A bill was reported for the purchase of the papers of Alexander Hamilton. SUMMARY OF NEWS. FRANCIS R. SHUNK, Governor of Pennsylvania, resigned that office on the 9th inst., in consequence of extreme ill health. By this resignation, William F. Johnson, of Armstrong Co., the Speaker of the Senate, becomes acting Governor of the State. The Constitution provides that in case of a vacancy occurring in the office of Governor, more than three months before the annual election, a successor shall be chosen at that election. The election will occur this year on the 10th of 10th month, and the individual then elected would assume the duties of Governor on the 16th of 1st month next; but the. North American points out a difficulty arising from the fact that the Election Law of 1839 directs that the writs of election to supply the vacancy shall be issued by the acting Governor at least three months before the election, which it is now too late to do. The above paper recommends an extra session of the Legislature to remedy this difficulty. EUROPE. The steamship Caledonia brings news from Liverpool to the 24th ult. The state of trade was considered rather more favourable. The long expected notion of Joseph Hume, for the reform last accounts the city was quiet. Austria is in great confusion-the races composing the empire appear to be separating. Bohemia has for some time been in a semi-insurrectionary state, and a Provisional Government had been constituted at Prague. The Emperor having refused to con firm this Government, the people rose in arms, and the royal troops thereupon commenced cannonading the city from the batteries around. It is reported that the city was reduced to ruins with a terrific destruction of life. It is also said that a band of Servians had marched into Hungary, and that a Russian army had entered Wallachia, in Turkey. Anarchy and bloodshed seem close at hand in many parts of the Continent, and the danger of a general European war appears very imminent. FREE PRODUCE STORE IN OHIO. We are informed that a Free Produce Store is about to be opened, under the care of Joseph Wil liams, at Mount Pleasant, Ohio, in which a general assortment of goods produced by the labour of freemen will be offered to the public. The abovementioned Friend is now in this city making up his supplies. A Friend with a small family wishes to obtain a couple of boarders. Apply next door below No. 163 Wood street above Tenth. FRIENDS" REVIEW. VOL. I. A RELIGIOUS, LITERARY AND MISCELLANEOUS JOURNAL. PHILADELPHIA, SEVENTH MONTH 22, 1848. From Hardshaw West Monthly Meeting concerning ELIZABETH ROBSON, deceased. This, our beloved friend, the youngest daughter of Isaac and Elizabeth Stephenson of Bridlington Quay, in Yorkshire, was born there on the 25th of the 6th month, 1771. Of her early religious impressions we have but few particulars, but there is reason to believe that when very young, her mind was preciously favoured with the visitations of Divine love. On one occasion, whilst but a child, her parents being absent from home, her youngest brother was much distressed at being left without them; observing this, and participating in the same feeling, she knelt down and fervently implored the Divine preservation, which had a calming influence upon their tender minds. After the decease of her parents, she resided with her brother, Isaac Stephenson, at Stocktonon-Tees, until the year 1796, when she was united in marriage with our friend, Thomas Robson, then of Darlington, a union which they were permitted to enjoy for the space of nearly forty-seven years. No. 44. ruler over more; yet she was deeply solicitous that, in so solemn an engagement, she might be preserved from moving without the renewed putting forth of the Heavenly Shepherd. In the year 1810, she was recorded as an acknowledged minister, and in the following year removed with her husband and family to Sunderland, within the compass of Newcastle Monthly Meeting. From a very early period, after this time, she was for several years largely engaged and in 1813, in company with her brother, Isaac in religious service in many parts of England, Stephenson, she visited Ireland. Of one of the services on this journey, she thus writes: "We have had about one hundred and twenty familysittings at Cork; the cup which hath been handed to us hath been mixed, both bitter and sweet, but without the former we cannot expect to enjoy the latter, so that I desire to be thankful for both." She also visited the' Scilly Islands, and had extensive labour amongst the miners and sea-faring men in Cornwall, Northumberland, and Durham, amongst whom, it is believed, that seals to her ministry remain to this day. In the year 1816, she was deeply exercised under a belief that it was required of her to visit some parts of the continent of Europe, and in company with Elizabeth Fry, (daughter of William Storrs Fry,) she entered upon this arduous engagement, in which they were joined by William Allen and his wife. After travelling through part of the Netherlands, Holland, Germany, and Switzerland, this little company was brought into much affliction at Geneva, by the illness of Charlotte Allen, whose decease soon For several years she had to pass through afterwards took place in that city. This was to many spiritual exercises and conflicts of mind, a Elizabeth Robson and her companion a distresspreparation, no doubt, for that service to which ing and discouraging circumstance; but their she was afterwards called. As the work of friend, William Allen, in the midst of his own Divine grace progressed in her own soul, her affliction, was made instrumental to their help, interest in the eternal welfare of her fellow-pro- and encouraged them to proceed with their relifessors increased also, and she was at times con-gious engagement, remarking, that "we ought strained to give expression of her feelings in not to dispute in the dark what we have seen in meetings for discipline. In the year 1808 she the light." Upon leaving Nismes, whilst on was made willing, in a Meeting for Worship, to express her desire that those who were qualified for service in the church might come forward in their ranks in righteousness.' After this act of dedication, she told her husband that her mind felt "clothed with the garment of praise." Being faithful in the little, she became this journey, she thus wrote: "Soon after we set off, I felt my mind drawn into silence, and such a flow of peace filled my heart, for a considerable time, as I have seldom experienced; in which I rejoiced, and a song of praise was raised in my soul for the many favours extended in divers ways to me, a poor unworthy creature." In the certificate from the Friends at Minden, this visit is recorded in the following terms: "By their ministry, received of the Lord, both in meetings and in families, they have enlivened, watered, watched, and strengthened the seed of the kingdom of God, so that we have cause to be humbly thankful to the Great Father for this extension of his favour." During the five following years she was much engaged in religious service, having in that period visited Scotland, the Orkney Islands, the southern counties of England, and some parts of Wales, also Ireland a second time. In the year 1821, she removed with her husband and family to Liverpool, and thus became a member of this Monthly Meeting. Respecting this change of residence she remarks, "I soon found an extensive field of labour opened for me, not only among Friends, but also among the people generally." Many public meetings were soon afterwards held in Liverpool and its vicinity, and in other parts of Lancashire. The sweet peace and cheerful composure which usually attended her at the conclusion of these engagements evinced, as she frequently remarked, that she had not expended her own strength, and that He whom she was endeavouring faithfully to serve, was a good and gracious Master. With that dedication which marked her services, she continued to labour diligently amongst Friends and others in various parts of this nation, until the year 1824, when she entered upon a visit to the continent of North America. This engagement occupied four years, during which she had many deep baptisms and conflicts to endure. These were greatly increased by having to contend against the unsound principles so mournfully prevalent there at that time; herein she had often to encounter much opposition, yet she was enabled, in the spirit of meekness, unflinchingly to uphold our belief in the divinity and atonement of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Referring to this engagement she remarks, "Thus, after many perils by sea and land, and amongst false brethren, I was permitted, through adorable goodness, to reach my own dear home, and to meet my beloved husband and children in sweet peace, to our humble rejoicing; everlasting praise be ascribed to the Lord for his care and protection to one of the least of his flock." also held numerous meetings with the inhabitants, both white and coloured, in many parts, not only where Friends are settled, but in other districts of the United States, remote from any of their meetings. We find the following memorandum written during the course of this journey: "The pure seed of life seems to lie very low in many places, and much obscured by an earthly mind and a spirit of ease; and sometimes, after feeling entirely divested of all sense of good, when there seemed to be nothing but death to be experienced, I have found that by keeping my eye directed to my gracious Master, a little light has arisen out of the darkness, like a little spring of life, which, by attending to it, has increased, and strength has been afforded and matter supplied to advocate the precious cause of truth; and in the fresh opening close doctrine has been handed forth in gospel authority, in love, and without fear of giving offence, the slavish fear of man being taken away. After such seasons of great exercise, sweet peace has been my portion, and my spirit at times has bowed in reverent thankfulness to my heavenly Father, in that He is pleased to make use of so unworthy a ereature, and desires have been renewed that I might be increasingly prepared for his most blessed work and service." She returned from this extensive field of labour in the year 1842, in the possession of that peace and comfort which abundantly compensated for all her labours, and for which her heart was often filled with gratitude to her gracious Lord, She regarded this as an evening sacrifice, and with the exception of paying a visit to the fami lies of Friends in her own Monthly Meeting, a visit to Friends in Scotland, and attending the Yearly Meeting in London, she spent the short remainder of her life in the quiet enjoyment of home, to which she had naturally a peculiar attachment. This, however, did not prevent her from being again made willing to forego her domestic comforts for the service of her Divine Master, and at. the Monthly Meeting, held on the 30th of the 11th month, 1843, she acquainted her friends that she apprehended it was required of her to visit Friends of the Quarterly Meeting of London and Middlesex, intimating, at the same time, her sense of the diminution of her bodily powers, but desiring that her little remaining strength might be spent in the service of her In 1831, accompanied by her husband, she Lord. She was cordially liberated for this work, again visited some parts of the continent of but on the following day, whilst making prepara Europe, holding meetings with those under our tions for the journey, she was seized with an name, and with serious persons of other denomi- attack of paralysis, which suddenly reduced her nations in Germany, Switzerland, and the South to a state of helplessness, and nearly deprived of France. From the year 1832 to 1837, she her of the power of speech. Under these circontinued to be diligently engaged in the dis- cumstances, almost precluded from any expres charge of various religious services; and in the sion, and awakening but at distant intervals to a year 1838, accompanied by her beloved husband, transient state of consciousness, the patient she embarked a second time for America, in endurance of her affliction, the calmness and which country she laboured abundantly, much serene repose which rested upon her counte to the comfort and edification of Friends. Shenance, and the precious feeling attending, fur nished abundant evidence that all was peace within. In this state she continued until the 11th of the 12th month, when her purified spirit, freed from the shackles of mortality, was permitted, we reverently trust, through the mercy and mediation of our holy Redeemer, to join the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in heaven, and the spirits of just men made perfect. In her dedicated course has been fulfilled that declaration of Holy Writ, "The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal. HISTORY OF A SOD. 'Always examine what other men reject as worthless.' (Concluded from page 678.) Let us lay the grass stem under the knife. On removing its leaves from the glistening surface of the stem, they will be found attached at their base to a joint, which they also partly embrace. What are these joints? Passing the knife through the stem, it is found that it has this striking difference from other plants: it is a hollow tube, and at each joint a sort of diaphragm. or eross partition is stretched so as to divide the stem into a number of closed cylinders, each having no connection whatever with the one above or below. This is exactly the structure of a bamboo. It is on this account that a great botanist had declared that our tiny inhabitants of the sod, which we have been wont to despise and trample under foot, belong to a noble family, which, under favouring influences of sun and warmth, carry their heads near ten times higher in the heavens than we ourselves-these are the bamboos. In his own words-the words of Nees Von Esenbeck-grasses are but dwarf bamboos. She died in the seventy-third year of her age, having been a minister about thirty-six years. Her remains were interred in Friends' buryingground at Liverpool, on the 17th of the 12th month, 1843, on which occasion a large and solemn meeting was held, and many testimonies were borne to the power and efficacy of that grace by which she had become what she was. Our dear friend deeply felt the need of renew ed baptisms preparatory to any public service in the cause of her Divine Master, and it was only to those most intimate with her that what she experienced on these occasions was known, she being concerned to observe the injunction, "But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret." She was largely gifted for religious service, sound and scriptural in doctrine, firmly upholding the religious testimonies more peculiar to our Society, and never shrinking from the faithful declaration of them. She was often led to unfold and explain the important doctrines of the Gospel, her illustrations of which were strikingly appropriate, and we believe that to many her Gospel labours were blessed. In expostulating with the careless, the lukewarm, the worldly-spikelets of the brome, or meadow grasses; and minded, or the rebellious, she was earnest and persuasive. In religious meetings, with those not of our own Society, she was eminently qualified, and in her private labours in the families of Friends, (a service in which she was often engaged during the whole of her course as a minister,) she was frequently led to exhort them to simplicity and moderation in all things, setting forth the safety of such a state, and how greatly it tends to relieve the mind from undue anxiety and unnecessary burdens. In the diligent occupation of her time our dear friend was a striking example, being always careful, when not called into public religious service, that it should be constantly and usefully employed. In her private walk she was careful to observe that simplicity and moderation which she was often engaged to recommend to others, and she was much beloved for her humility and meekness. She deeply felt for, and sympathized with, those in affliction, whether of body or mind, and amongst the many outward trials which it was her own lot from time to time to endure, she was preserved in much patience and resignation, and favoured to maintain great equanimity and cheerfulness. The microscope only can reveal the true beauty and structure of the minute flowers which adorn the lowly grasses. Thus examined, they present a pleasing and interesting study. Every one must have seen the curious little the attentive eye will have marked here and there a yellow stamen peeping out of its unattractive flower. The microscope, or a good lens, reveals the fact, that every spikelet is made up of many flowers beautifully arranged together, as if they were the coverings of one which does not appear. Each little flower consists of a couple of tiny scales, supporting the hairs or bristles with which we are so familiar. These little scalestechnically, palec-cover two other smaller scales, which appear to be the rudimentary calyx or corolla of the flower; and these, with the others, enclose and shelter the stamens and ovary. With the structure of the seed we do not think it necessary to deal. Suffice it to add, that in the counsels of a watchful Providence, it has been so ordained that that rapidity of growth which is essential to the speedy covering of the earth with her green mantle, has been both foreseen and beautifully provided for in its fabrication. We may consider that two chemical processes meet in our sod-the one belonging to the chemistry of life, the other to that of decay and death. To take the last first. If the roots of the sod are carefully examined, it will not be |