ew of pleasing and cajoling the clergy;
for, in his heart, Ferdinand is rather a devotee to pleasure than
religion. In his habits he is remarkably domesticated; he rises at
an early hour, and passes the greater part of the day in his wife's
apartment, of whom he is passionately fond. The queen unites to a very
graceful figure an interesting expression of countenance, that sometimes
wears an appearance of sadness. Such is Ferdinand of Spain, whose actual
demise will disclose scenes that at present almost set political
calculation at defiance.
Ferdinand has been married four times:--1st, To Marie Antoinette,
daughter of the King of the Two Sicilies; 2ndly, To his neice, the
Infanta of Portugal, Maria Isabella; 3rdly, To the Princess Maria
Josepha-Amelia, daughter of Prince Maximilian of Saxony; and, lastly,
to his present queen, Maria Carletta, daughter of the late King of
Naples.--_Metropolitan_.
* * * * *
NOTES OF A READER.
* * * * *
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF EMIGRATION TO BRITISH AMERICA.
One of the disadvantages of emigration is the separation of friends for
ever. Time and distance no doubt gradually obliterate from our mind the
most endearing recollections; but, under untoward circumstances, which
will at times cross the path of every mortal in the most favourable
situations, the emigrant's, and particularly the female emigrant's,
breast must be "stung with the thoughts of home," on comparing the many
conveniences and comforts, and society, which they enjoyed in their
fatherland, and which cannot be within their reach in their newly
adopted country for many years to come, and perhaps not within the
period of their lives. Unavailing wishes that they were back to their
own country have been expressed by many, who looked with dread on the
hardships they had to encounter at their first settlement. The labour
required to clear a forest of gigantic trees is appaling to a man who
has nothing to depend on but the physical strength of his own body; and
if its powers have been impaired by low living, arising from a want of
employment previous to the period of his emigration, and if he have a
wife and large family depending on him for support, that labour must be
exercised at the outset to a painful degree. All the shelter he can
expect in the first winter of his sojourn is in a house of trees
piled together, and his wooden furniture must
|