d. We fought
for three weeks a most desperate battle, and might in the end have
been victorious, had not our last antagonist, at the very close of his
case, pointed out no less than seventy-three fatal errors in the
parliamentary plan deposited by the unfortunate Solder. Why this was
not done earlier, I never exactly understood; it may be, that our
opponents, with gentlemanly consideration, were unwilling to curtail
our sojourn in London--and their own. The drama was now finally
closed, and after all preliminary expenses were paid, sixpence per
share was returned to the holders upon surrender of their scrip.

Such is an accurate history of the Origin, Rise, Progress, and Fall of
the Direct Glenmutchkin Railway. It contains a deep moral, if anybody
has sense enough to see it; if not, I have a new project in my eye for
next session, of which timely notice shall be given.

VANDERDECKEN'S MESSAGE HOME;
OR, THE TENACITY OF NATURAL AFFECTION.

[_MAGA._ MAY 1821.]

Our ship, after touching at the Cape, went out again, and soon losing
sight of the Table Mountain, began to be assailed by the impetuous
attacks of the sea, which is well known to be more formidable there
than in most parts of the known ocean. The day had grown dull and
hazy, and the breeze, which had formerly blown fresh, now sometimes
subsided almost entirely, and then recovering its strength, for a
short time, and changing its direction, blew with temporary violence,
and died away again, as if exercising a melancholy caprice. A heavy
swell began to come from the south-east. Our sails flapped against the
masts, and the ship rolled from side to side, as heavily as if she had
been water-logged. There was so little wind that she would not steer.

At two P.M. we had a squall, accompanied by thunder and rain. The
seamen, growing restless, looked anxiously ahead. They said we would
have a dirty night of it, and that it would not be worth while to
turn into their hammocks. As the second mate was describing a gale he
had encountered off Cape Race, Newfoundland, we were suddenly taken
all aback, and the blast came upon us furiously. We continued to scud
under a double-reefed mainsail and fore-topsail till dusk; but, as the
sea ran high, the captain thought it safest to bring her to. The watch
on deck consisted of four men, one of whom was appointed to keep a
look-out ahead, for the weather was so hazy that we could not see two
cables' length from the bows.