greets their eyes. Great is the anxiety of the young party to see
who has been provided for, since the idea they are taught to entertain
is, that these tempting objects are bestowed by an invisible agent, as
a reward for good children, and that the naughty and ill-conducted will
find no share allotted to them.

Hebel, in one of his pretty, simple poems, describes a mother sitting by
her sleeping child, as she prepares its morning surprise. She enumerates
the various gifts she hangs on the tree, pausing in her pleasing task as
a moral reflection is suggested by any of the objects she has collected,
and concluding by a prayer for the future welfare of her darling.
Would not the Christmas-tree be a pleasant addition to our juvenile
amusements? The Twelfth-night King and Queen might plant such a one
in their royal domain, and graciously conclude their merry reign by
distributing amongst those who have served them as liege subjects for
the evening, the motley _fruits_ that grace it. Each should be
previously marked to correspond with the character to be drawn, which
would secure a token of their majesties' favour for each individual of
the sportive train.

* * * * *

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

* * * * *

ST. JOHN LONG

Has distanced the majesty of British justice in the persons of the
coroner, the bailiffs, and the Bow-street magistrates, after all. We
knew that he would do so; but in this we take no possible credit to
ourselves, for every one knew that he would do so. Public opinion is,
we must confess, still divided as to the place of his retreat, some
pronouncing it America, where his purpose is, to set up a bank with
Rowland Stephenson; others, New South Wales, by a natural and pleasant
anticipation; and others, Paris, which of late years has superseded
Philadelphia, and even New York, as the general receptacle of "the
unfortunate brave," the asylum of those men of genius, who have too much
talent to live in England, the favoured spot of regeneration for those
brilliant speculators whose conceptions equally outrun their credit and
their age. However, the majority are clearly for Paris; and the objects
of the visit are said to be political, and not personal. The friends of
the ex-ministers, it is understood, have succeeded in engaging him;
and he is about to put in operation a very extensive system of
_counter-irritation_ among the _canaill