ladder and letter to it; and on pulling it gently, it was instantly drawn up. He then retired, overjoyed at seeing the first danger so well got over.

After waiting three hours, he returned under the window, at which, shortly after, a figure presented itself; it was Mrs. Smith; the Marquess drew near; Mrs. S. asked in a low voice, "If he was her friend?” De Salvo replied, "I am that friend, and wait for you." Mrs. Smith instantly proceeded to fasten the ladder. "Scarcely was this done," says the Marquess, "when I saw Mrs. Smith take hold of the window, and cling to the wall, pressing with uncertain foot the first step. I perceived she was reluctant in trusting herself upon it; the unhappy lady stood tottering upon the step, and seemed to tremble so much, that I was afraid of her falling. But I was agreeably undeceived when I beheld her grasping the knots of the ladder, and boldly determined to descend. What an interesting spectacle! A forlorn woman, anxious to escape from captivity, committing herself from a height to ropes, which, even while they tore her delicate fingers, she kissed in ecstacy, because they were instrumental to her release. And at the same time, armed sentinels in the adjoining apartment, who were ready to dart upon her if their sleep were interrupted by the least noise. Happily, the silence of the night, and its intense gloom, remained undisturbed; and she reached the ground without receiving any essential injury.

Mrs. Smith and her gallant liberator now hurried in breathless haste from street to street, till they reached the summit of the fortress of Brescia. Here the violence of Mrs. Smith's desire to save herself was such, that she actually offered to attempt scaling the walls; but on the Marquess acquainting her that a chaise was in waiting at the inn near the gates, her agitation was somewhat calmed. They found the chaise ready, but

the hour for opening the gates had not yet arrived; at their earnest entreaties, however, the guard opened them, and they passed through on the 3d of May, at four o'clock in the morning.

They reached Salo at half an hour after six the same morning; hastened on board the boat which the Marquess had engaged to convey them across the Lake di Garda, and in eight hours more, reached the Tyrolean frontier in safety.

LAVATER.

This author having asserted in the second part of treatise upon Physiogonomy, that Shoe-makers generally have a sickly appearance and weak constitutions, and that at Zurich, of twenty-four children born of parents exercising that profession, seven only were boys, all the shoe-makers of that place rose up against him. They assembled in a tumultuous manner; and Mr. Lavater, in order to appease them, was obliged to declare publicly that he had been deceived, and that the proportion was twenty-eight males to thirty females. To give the society of Shoe-makers a more permanent testimony of his affection, he begged that he might be allowed to stand god-father to all the male children which should be born to masters. This request produced a perfect reconciliation.

THOMAS PAINE.

This notorious character was born in 1737, at Thetford in Norfolk. His father was a stay-maker: he was himself brought up to that profession, and exercised it during his youth, at London, Dover, and Sandwich. He afterwards turned Exciseman and Grocer, at Lewes, in Sussex; and, upon the occasion of an election at Shoreham, in 1771, the poets of Lewes being called upon, by the candidate of fairest pretensions, to

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furnish an election song, Paine entered the lists, obtained the laurel, and was presented with three guineas. This, we believe, was his first public appearance, as an author. In the year following, a design having been formed by the Excise officers throughout the kingdom to apply to Parliament for a consideration of the state of their salaries, he wrote their case, in an octavo pamphlet of twenty-one pages, which was republished in London a few years ago. Having been discovered, as a grocer, to deal in exciseable articles, and as a grinder of snuff, to buy smuggled tobacco, he was dismissed from the excise in 1774, after twelve years service. In the meantime, Paine, by his Case of the Excisemen, and by his plausibility of manner, had attracted the notice of the late Mr. George Lewis Scott, commissioner of excise. This gentleman recommended him strongly to the celebrated Dr. Benjamin Franklin, as a person who could be serviceable, at that time, in America; and Paine set sail for Pennsylvania, in September, 1774, upon a letter of introduction to governor Franklin, of the Jerseys. It was two years after this, that he attracted great notice, by the publication of his pamphlet, entitled, "Common Sense." Designed as this production was, to ridicule and expose the absurdity of monarchical government, it proved highly palatable to the republican taste of the united states. It has been called one of those few literary perforinances, which have been known to produce a great and sudden effect upon the sentiments and conduct of a nation; and, having been published at a very critical period, the commencement of the American war, served more, than any thing else, to induce the inhabitants of that country to an immediate declaration of independence.

We come now to that period in Paine's history, when his speculations were to shake the fabric of the public

mind to its very foundation, and his writings to infuse a poison among a deluded commonality, the effects of which, to a philosopher in the shade, would have been scarcely credible. Being released in November 1789, from a sponging-house, into which a debt, contracted by the project of erecting an iron bridge, had brought him, he beheld, with delight, the proceedings of that memorable year in France, and hastened to that country. Soon, however, he recrossed the channel, in his road to London. Mr. Burke's far-famed pamphlet appeared a few days before the celebration of the French revolution, November 5th, 1790. A few months labour produced Part I. of the " Rights of Man." It was submitted to the revisal of Mr. Brand Hollis, and a democratic committee; and after some struggles, between the desires of the author, and the wishes of his patrons, was committed by them to the press. In February 1791, it was printed for Johnson, St. Paul's Church Yard, but his regard for the credit of his shop, induced him to decline the sale, and a delay of a month in the publication thus took place. A few copies were, however, smuggled into private hands, and at length, on the 13th of March, 1791, it was published by Jordon, in Fleet-Street, with a dedication to General Washington. The apprehensions of Paine, upon this occasion, seem to have been very great. Always ready to take wing for France, he fluttered with anxiety about the metropolis. At length finding that the ministry, trusting to the good sense of the people, gave itself no concern about him, he took a lodging in Fetter-Lane, (where he remained till his final departure) and immediately went to work at Part II. of the "Rights of Man." This was published by Jordon, early in 1792. It is well known that the Jacobin societies took the utmost pains to distribute cheap editions of this work, over the whole nation,

particularly in manufactories, and among the labouring people. It is even said, that tobacco, grocery, and sweet-meats for children, were frequently sold in wrappers of its sheets. Many answers to the two parts were produced at the press, and at the anniversary meeting of the constitutional society. On the 13th of April 1792, the members of these Jacobin societies were stated to exceed forty thousand persons! Government, at length, became alarmed. Prosecutions were commenced in May, 1792, against Paine, as the author, and Jordan, as the publisher of the " "Rights of Man." The royal proclamation was issued, stating that seditious writings had been industriously dispersed for inciting discontent, and warning all magistrates to be diligent in suppressing tumult, and preserving quiet. Both houses of parliament declared their abhorrence of writings, which had anarchy for their end, and proclaimed their unalterable resolution to maintain the authority of the laws. The city of London avowed her loyalty to the king, and her attachment to the constitution. The other corporations followed the example of the metropolis; and the county meetings joined in the general abhorrence of innovation, and in the universal determination to support the wise system of policy, which had been transmitted by the wisdom of their ancestors.

When the Jacobin clubs were about to form a convention at Paris, of turbulent spirits from every quarter of the world, several departments contended for the honour of being represented by the celebrated Thomas Paine. Calais bore away the glorious prize from all her competitors, and she sent citizen Audibert to signify his appointment, and to solicit his acceptance of it. He required little solicitation; and quitting London, on the 13th of September, 1792, was received