LED AND BRIDLED.

BY A. CUNNINGHAM.

Saddled and bridled,
And booted was he--
A plume at his helmet,
A sword at his knee;--
Toom hame came the saddle
At evening to me,
And hame came his steed--
But hame never came he!

Down came his grey father,
Sobbing fu' sair;
Down came his auld mother,
Tearing her hair:
Down came his sweet wife,
Wi' her bonnie bairns three--
Ane at her bosom,
And twa at her knee!

There stood his fleet steed,
All foaming and hot;
There shrieked his sweet wife,
And sank on the spot,--
There stood his grey father,
Weeping fu' free,
For hame came his steed,
But hame never came he!

_Literary Magnet._

* * * * *

TOBACCO-PIPE CONTROVERSY.

A furious, and yet unappeased, controversy has lately raged in the
newspapers, upon the question of the filthy nuisance of smoking
tobacco--segars or pipe; and as in all other cases when men allow their
passions to be heated by opposition, has run in great personalities
between gentlemen who sign themselves Viator and Tabatiere. Whole
columns of the newspapers have been occupied in discussing, in the first
place, whether a man who smokes at all is a beast or not; and secondly,
the argument has run into the comparative beastliness of smoking and
snuffing. A future Hume, on looking over the journals, may thus sum up
the merits of the case. About this period great hostilities arose
between the advocates of segars and their opponents, which occupied the
attention of thousands, who took a lively interest in the successful
issue of the controversy. By the advocates for the practice it was urged
with some plausibility of statement, that as to the pleasure of a segar,
none but those who used them ought to express an opinion upon the
point--that to appeal to experience, tobacco was in more universal
use among nations than bread corn--that it had been known to stay the
plague, and was the friend and companion of rich and poor. These
statements were met with undisguised contempt, and it was retaliated,
that the practice of using tobacco either by smoke or snuff, was a
nuisance to others, thus infringing the very primary principles of civil
liberty--that it led to drunkenness and debauch--that snuff spoiled the
complexion--stopped the nose to the perception of odours--and that as to
the ladies, they would positively spurn any approach of familiar
friendship