would please me; that I would rest me by the fire, or any where, for I was a stranger in Edinburgh, and knew of no place where I could go. "You are from the country I see," said she. I answered that I was; and had not yet entered any other house in the town. She then asked if my parents

were alive, which I answered in the affirmative.

"Why,

then, did you leave them?" said she, " and come to a place where there is no one to own you? Believe me you are come to the worst place in the kingdom for a friendless and beautiful girl." I could make no answer but by tears. "I hope, (continued she,) you have not run away from your parents? If you have, what think you they will be suffering on your account ?" I sobbed till my heart was like to break-" What! you have then run away from your parents. Pray, what tempted you to do so? Was it some man who persuaded you to take so imprudent a step?"—" Yes,” said I; for that was all the answer I could make. " And what is become of him ?” said she, “ I hope he has not deserted you too.” "Yes," said I. The poor woman looked at me with compassion, and I saw a tear glistening in her eye. "Alas! poor girl," said she, “I see how it is with you. I fear somebody has been much to blame; but you are not the first who have been decoyed to folly and ruin by that unrelenting creature man; nor the first whom I have succoured in the same situation. You must not lodge in the street; and any other place into which you could find admittance would still be worse. Endeavour to compose yourself, and stay with me a night or two, until we consider what can be done for you."

66

The excessive fatigue I had undergone, and the violent agitation of my spirits, brought on premature labour before morning, and I was delivered of a daughter, without any other assistance than such as was afforded by my unfortunate lodgers. I looked upou my helpless infant with a mother's fondness, but had not even the means of providing it with clothes. In

S

wild agony I snatched it to my bosom, and wished in my heart that we might soon be companions in the grave. I asked if it was also accursed for my sake, and doomed, like me, to be the victim of a betrayer? But my anxiety for its fate was of short duration, for it only lived till next morning.

Those who may be least inclined to palliate my crime, would have pitied me had they known what I felt, while I wrapt the body of my child in a napkin, which I had received to keep in remembrance of its father, (for that was the only shroud I could provide,) and having laid it in its rude coffin, delivered it to be consigned to the grave of a stranger.

While I was thus expiating my faults, my parents were involved in the deepest affliction. They easily guessed the cause of my departure, and immediately despatched two of my brothers in quest of me; but, notwithstanding the most diligent search, they did not find me till three weeks after the death of my child. Having discharged what debts I had contracted, they conducted me to the house of a relation, a few miles from Edinburgh, where ill health still confines me.

I

Thus, Sir, you have seen that I possessed all the advanta ges of a virtuous education, and had given the most promising hopes of future worth and felicity: and you have seen these bright prospects clouded and destroyed by folly and wickedness. You have seen how gradually I proceeded, adding one crime to another, till I was brought into a state of wretchedness and distraction too severe for humanity. freely forgive the author of my misfortunes, and pray that he may have the pardon of God; nor will I be so harsh as to conclude that he would have pursued his schemes with such cruel perseverance, had he foreseen their fatal consequences. When intoxicated with passion, perhaps, he even believed his promises were sincere. Or is it customary, with the higher orders of your sex, Sir, thus to triumph over virtue and innocence, and take pleasure in the misery of those, who, depend

ing on their honour and integrity, sacrifice every thing to them. It is a gratification so selfish, mean, and ungenerous, that I wonder every delicate and sympathetic affection of the human mind does not recoil from it; from a principle so cruel and so adverse to all the laws of God and man. It is indeed a stain nowise hurtful to the character of a gentleman, and, consequently, may seem a small matter to such as look no farther than the bourne of mortal existence. But let them remember, that they will one day be obliged to answer at that tribunal where there is no respect of persons; and to a Judge who will not suffer the injurer of the meanest of those who bear his image on earth to escape with impunity. And lightly as this vice is treated by the present generation, Sir, there is no other that is so injurious to the cause of morality; so apt to eradicate every tender feeling which nature has shed around the human heart; or the cause of so much wretchedness, misery, and woe.

You see, Sir, that my tale is short and simple, and may appear uninteresting to you, and the greater number of your readers; but it is, nevertheless, highly interesting to me; and I think it does my heart good to relate it, as it recalls to my mind what I once was-what I still might have been-and what I now am. It may, perhaps, be instrumental in warning the young, the gay, and the thoughtless, of my own sex, to steer clear of that whirlpool where all my prospects of happiness have been wrecked, and swallowed up for ever. And that whatever they may suffer, or whatever they may be made to believe, never to part with their virtue; for it is only by preserving that inviolate that they can secure love and esteem from the other sex, respect from their own, the approbation of their own hearts, or the love of their Creator. I am, Sir, your most obedient and wretched

M. M.

SINGULAR DREAM,

FROM A CORRESPONDENT.

THE other night, on my way home, after a fatiguing day, I stumbled into the house of an old acquaintance, on purpose to rest myself, as well as to find amusement in his conversation, until my usual time of going to bed. This friend of mine is a phenomenon of wisdom and foresight. He keeps a weekly, if not a daily register of all the undermining and unmannerly actions practised by the men and women of this metropolis and its environs, as far as his information serves him, and he spares no pains to gain that information; and consequently can, when he pleases, retail all the incidents that have led to the births, marriages, and deaths, for twenty years bygone; as well as to all the failures in business, most of which he foresaw and prognosticated with the greatest punctuality. In a short time I was struck with astonishment at the man's amazing discernment, for though we were fellow collegians, and have long been known to one another, we have not been in habits of intimacy; and I did not use to hear him mentioned by associates with half so much deference as it appeared to me he was entitled to. I set him down in my mind as a most useful member of society, and from his extraordinary powers of estimating human characters, and human actions aright, one whom it would be wisdom for all men, both high and low, to consult before they formed any permanent connexion, or entered upon any undertaking of moment,

Impelled by a curiosity too natural, of seeing into futurity, I soon began to consult him about the affairs of the nation, and what was most likely to be the result of the present stagnation of trade, and measures of government. My heart thrills with horror to this hour, when I reflect upon the authentic and undeniable information which I received from him. We are

all in the very jaws of destruction; our trade, our liberties, our religion, Heaven be our guard! our religion and all are hanging by one slender thread! which the flames of hell have already reached, and will soon singe in two. This was a shocking piece of intelligence for me, who had always cherished the fond idea that we were the most thriving and flourishing people on the face of the whole earth. When I was a young man, the several classes of society in this country were not half so well fed, clothed, or educated as they now are, what could I think but that we were a thriving and happy people? But instead of that, we were ruined bankrupts, prodigals, depraved reprobates, and the slaves of sin and Satan. Much need have the people of this land to be constantly upon their watch-towers, having their lamps trimmed, and their beacons burning; for indeed there is not one thing as it appears to be. Our liberty is a flam, our riches a supposition, and the Bank notes in fact not worth a halfpenny a piece. Improvements in the arts and sciences, or in rural and national economy, are no signs of prosperity, but quite the reverse. And, would you believe it? There are some gentlemen high in office, whom I, and most of the nation, have always regarded as men of the utmost probity-Lord help us, they are nothing better than confounded rascals! O! that we were wise, that we understood this!

Taught thus, by incontrovertible arguments, that the end of all things, at least with respect to Britain, was at hand, I gladly relinquished the disagreeable topic, and introduced the affairs of this city; yet I confess I did it with a good deal of diffidence, having learned to distrust my own powers of perception altogether, and consequently knew how unfit I was to judge of any thing from appearance. But how shall I ever describe to you the deformed picture, which was now for the first time placed before my astonished view! It is impossible; for it was one huge mass of inconsistence. I was plainly told, that our magistrates are no magistrates, but that they only