ulty, let us amend it--if
our science is defective, let us enlarge it. "Science with practice," is
the well-conceived motto of the Royal Agricultural Society of England;
such a motto, we hope, all Scottish farmers will adopt. Let them conjoin
the science of the books of Johnston with the practice of that of
Stephens, and they may still hope, as a body, to occupy the foremost rank
among the agriculturists of Europe.

STANZAS.

With every joy we haste to meet,
In hopefulness or pride,
There comes, with step as sure and fleet,
A shadow by its side;
And ever thus that spectre chill
With each fair bliss has sped,
And when the gladden'd pulse should thrill,
The stricken heart lies dead!

The poet's brow the wreath entwines--
What weight falls on the breast!
Upon the sword where glory shines,
The stains of life-blood rest.
Lo, where the rosiest sunbeam glows,
There lies eternal snow!
And Fame its brightest halo throws,
Where death lies cold below.

J. D.

LORD MALMESBURY'S DIARIES AND CORRESPONDENCE.[30]

In a late number of this Magazine we took occasion, under a different
title, to notice the two first volumes of this highly interesting work. We
have seen how Lord Malmesbury conducted himself, in his diplomatic
capacity, at the different courts of Europe under the _ancien regime_. It
is difficult for the men of this generation--whose historic era,
traditionary or remembered, commences with the outbreak of the French
Revolution--to realize in imagination the exhausted, broken, and unhealthy
state of Europe during the middle, and towards the end, of the last
century. Balance of power there was none. The leading continental states,
when not in actual arms, looked upon each other with eyes of the most
bitter jealousy. When they did combine, it was for some unholy purpose,
such as the partition of Poland; and no sooner had they brought down their
quarry, than, like the _Lanzknechts_ of old--to use no more brutal
simile--they began to bandy words and blows for their relative proportions
of the spoil. Good faith was a thing unknown either to prince or to
minister. To trick an ally was considered almost as meritorious a deed as
to undermine or defeat an enemy. In short it would be difficult, perhaps
impossible, to point out any period when public morality was at so low and
pitiable an ebb.

In some respects the older cont