strive against it. Yet, dear madam, I feel much happier in my mind than I did when I was leading a life of such great sin. Oh! dear madam, when I think of the sinful life I was leading, I look back with horror upon it; and when I think of the dear friends who snatched me from it my heart overflows with gratitude to them, and to that God who has showered so many blessings upon me-blessings which I never can be able to repay. Dear madam, I would not return to that life of sin again for the wealth of the Indies; for what is wealth compared with the blessing of God? I hope he will look down with mercy upon me and forgive me all my sins. Dear madam, Mr. * has now called and sends his kind remem

brance to you. He has been talking to me a great deal. He is very kind, and he told me any thing he could do for me he would with great pleasure, and lend me any books. I think I ought to be grateful to that God who has raised me up so many kind friends in the time of need.

Yours gratefully, &c.

Review Bepartment.

An Address to Young Women in the Humble Walks of Life. Third Edition. 12mo. pp. 16. Seeley & Co.

We have two reasons for inviting the attention of our readers to this tract: one is, that the profits arising from its sale are to be devoted to the London Female Mission; the other and principal reason is, that it is admirably calculated to promote one of the important designs of the mission-viz. the moral and spiritual welfare of young women.

* The clergyman to whom she had a letter of introduction, and from whom the agent has since received very satisfactory information concerning her.

Two editions of this tract have already been sold, and the recent circumstance of the two unhappy women convicted of the dreadful crime of infanticide at the last Worcester assizes render the publication of the third edition peculiarly seasonable. Well might Baron Gurney, when passing the awful sentence of the law upon the guilty women, remark that had the prisoners, when taking the first step in evil, known the fearful acts of crime to which that step would conduct them, they would have shrunk back with horror from it."

It is to warn young women of these "first steps," and to point out in a plain and scriptural manner how seriously the temporal and eternal interests of young women are affected by the "sin of young persons becoming mothers without the authority of the marriage ceremony," that this tract is written.

The following extract will enable our readers to judge of the author's mode of handling this delicate but increasingly important subject, and we trust they will do all in their power to aid the author in her benevolent design.

"To such of you as are receiving the addresses of a lover, and have engaged yourself to be his wife at some future time, -to you I would address a few words of very particular cau-. tion, because I consider your situation to be one where more than common warning is necessary. There are men so wicked as to endeavour to shake the principles of those whom they profess to love, who try to persuade them that if marriage is promised, and is to take place shortly, there is no sin in living as married persons before that solemn service shall have been performed. But "let no man deceive you with vain words." The Bible makes no such distinctions. Until you are wives, the word of God commands you to live in virgin purity and spotless innocence. God accounts that woman as sinful who goes to the altar having already parted with the chastity which is an indispensable Christian grace as if she

never had reckoned upon being made a wife afterwards. As you value God's favour, shun every situation which may bring you into danger; avoid all private and stolen meetings; let your parents be fully aware when you see each other, and in what manner you conduct yourselves; trust not yourself with your admirer in lonely places, at late hours, in walks where the eye of man is not on you; shudder at the idea of being persuaded by him to enter the doors of a public house to taste liquor to which he may offer to treat you, to be introduced by him to persons whom your parents and friends may not be acquainted with, or may not approve. Suffer not any liberties to be taken which you would fear to tell your best friends, and, if any proposal be made to draw you into sin, put an end to the acquaintance directly. Be assured that the man who does this, professing to love you, is not deserving of your regard; he has no real affection in his heart for you; he loves his own siuful pleasures, and he would rob you of your best possessions-God's favour, your own peace of mind, your good name, and the esteem and respect of all good people.

"In place of these he would bring sorrow, disgrace, and shame upon yourself and upon your family; he would himself despise you, whilst he pretended to admire and flatter you; and, if he felt himself bound to offer you the poor amends of marriage, he would do it with regret, and with none of the feelings of respect and real affection which welcome the modest wife to the heart and home of her husband. If you resist his proposal, he may perhaps try to persuade you that he did it only to prove you, and that he loves you better for having stood firm. Do not listen to him. No man has any right to put you to such a trial; no man who really loved you would make such an attempt or even pretend to do so; he would dread the thought of bringing shame upon one he loved. You also owe it to others to show by your conduct your hatred of sin. Wicked men are encouraged in their sinful habits by the indifference shown by young women as tothe morals of the men with whom they associate."

Miscellaneous Bepartment.

MAIDEN LADIES.

THERE is one object upon which ridicule seems likely to exhaust itself, and it is lamentable that even women of feeling

do not always scruple to indulge themselves in this way, while many from the solitary title of a wife, without any other pretension, suppose themselves at liberty to treat with contempt and ridicule females as much their superiors in character as in years, merely because they remain in a single state. This is a species of cruelty in which both sexes are apt to indulge; but it merits unqualified censure, and should call a blush into the cheek of every female who has ever been guilty of it. Perhaps, ladies, some of these traduced and persecuted beings have been only more delicate in their choice than you have been, or circumstances may have arisen in this mutable world to prevent their entering into a state which they were qualified to adorn-circumstances which have thus deprived you of the benefit of many excellent examples. It does not invariably happen that persons remain single because they are not worth having, or that others are married because they are: an example of here and there a married lady might perhaps be found which would prove the contrary. Her husband, it is true, may be known in the gates; he may bear the marks of her negligence about him wherever he goes. Her children may rise up, not to call her blessed, but to set her authority at defiance and to spread the contagion of an ill-governed family far and wide. She may be employed too in manufacturing girdles and other trappings, not to sell to the merchant, but to decorate herself in unbecoming finery and to instil the destructive passion for dress into her children. It is not from being a wife merely that real respectability can arise. MISS TAYLOR.

A SKETCH FROM KIRKE WHITE. BEHOLD that beautiful female, who is rallying a welldressed young man with so much gaiety and humour. Did you ever see so lovely a countenance? There is an expression of vivacity in her fine dark eye which quite captivates one; and her smile, were it a little less bold, would be bewitching. How gay and careless she seems! One would suppose she had a very light and happy heart. Alas! how appearances deceive! This gaiety is all feigned. It is her business to please, and beneath a fair and painted outside she conceals an unquiet and forlorn breast. When she was yet very young, an engaging but dissolute young man took advantage of her simplicity, and of the affection with which he had inspired her, to betray her virtue. At first her infamy cost her many

Her

tears; but habit wore away this remorse, leaving only a kind of indistinct regret, and, as she fondly loved her betrayer, she experienced, at times, a mingled pleasure even in this abandoned situation. But this was soon over. Her lover, on pretence of a journey into the country, left her for ever. She soon afterwards heard of his marriage with an agony of grief which few can adequately conceive and none describe. The calls of want, however, soon subdued the more distracted ebullitions of anguish. She had no choice left; all the gates of virtue were shut upon her, and, though she really abhorred the course, she was obliged to betake herself to vice for support. next keeper possessed her person without her heart. She has since passed through several hands, and has found, by bitter experience, that the vicious, on whose generosity she is thrown, are devoid of all feeling but that of self-gratification, and that even the wages of prostitution are reluctantly and grudgingly paid. She now looks on all men as sharpers. She smiles but to entangle and destroy; and, while she stimulates fondness, is intent only on the extorting of that at best poor pittance which her necessities loudly demand. Thoughtless as she may seem, she is not without an idea of her forlorn and wretched situation, and she looks only to sudden death as her refuge, against that time when her charms shall cease to allure the eye of incontinence, when even the lowest haunts of infamy shall be shut against her, and without a friend or a hope she must sink under the pressure of want and disease.

A STARTLING CALCULATION.

DR. MUSSEY states that greater numbers annually die among the female sex by the use of the corset than are destroyed among the other sex by the use of spirituous liquors in the same time! It has been estimated that more than 50,000 men die in the United States every year in consequence of the immoderate use of ardent spirits. For fear of being accused of exaggerating upon this fearful subject, let it be stated that 30,000 females die in this country every year in consequence of wearing corsets. This is doubtless below the number which should be set down, but makes enough to excite the attention of every head of a family and of every well-wisher of the human race. Thirty thousand per year make eighty-four for every day in the year sacrificed at the cruel altar of fashion. This we venture to say is a sacrifice of life for which we know no parallel. STATE HERALD.