and praise. Her reception, indeed, was such, that the Bath manager immediately put her forward by placing her in some of the most prominent characters; and 'so decided was her success, that before the close of the Bath season, in 1818, Mr. Cooke was offered an engagement for her at Covent Garden Theatre. Knowing the advantages of an introduction to the metropolitan boards, that gentleman gladly embraced for his pupil an offer so alluring, and closed with an engagement for three years upon the most honourable terms. She made her appearance therefore, in the arduous part of Rosina, in the “Barber of Seville," a character, as far as refates to vocal abilities, so difficult to be sustained, unless the performer is gifted with superior powers: in it, however, she obtained the most rapturous applause. From the favour she received on ber first appearance, she was imme diately announced for several other prin cipal characters; and she played with equal success Patty in the "Maid of the Mill," Lucy in "Guy Mannering," and Susanna in the "Marriage of Figaro," in each of which she was equally charming; and her proficiency in the histrionic art has certainly raised her to an eminence far above any singing actress of the day. The characters of Viola in "Twelfth Night," Julia in the "Two Gentlemen of Verona," and Lady Matilda in "Maid Marian," have been made by her peculiarly and exclusively her own. We do not know any actress who would attempt to rival her in them, as those pieces are adapted for representation at Covent Garden Theatre. In the character of Ophelia she displays as much excellence as an actress, as judg. ment and sweetness as a singer: indeed, this beautiful creation of Shakspeare's fancy never had a more interesting delineator. In the "Law of Java," she had likewise an opportunity of displaying her command over the finest and dearest feelings of the soul, by her just and powerful delineation of the fond and doting wife: the beautiful scene between her and Mr. Young has never been surpassed for heart-rending pathetic action. The success of Miss TREE has been entirely upon the score of her merit; she came forth unsupported by any powerful patronage, or play-bill puffs. She has decidedly been the architect of her own fame; and if we consider her youth, there can be little doubt of her arriving in time at the very height of her profession, in which she is already (taking her talents collectively) without a rival.

Recently in several popular Operas,

KINGDOM OF ASHANTEE.

THE kingdom of Ashantee, Mr. Dupuis informs ns, in his journal ofa residence in Ashantee, extends west to east, that is, from Gaman to the Volta river, and em braces about four degrees of longitude, and south to north, that is, from Cape Coast Castle to the tributary kingdom, Gleofan, about four degrees of latitude. There is a free communication with all the leading provinces. He says further,

"The metropolis of Ashantee, according to my reckonings, will be found about nine geographical miles to the southward of the parallel of seven degrees of north latitude, and in two degrees sixteen minutes, or nearly so, of west longitude. It approaches in bearing nigher to the meridian of Elmina, thau any other town on the line of coast, and when the path is open, the distance by that, which is called the Wassau path or route, is traversed in less time by one day, and as some say one day and two watches, than any other station on the sea coast, a proof of its westerly inclination in regard to the longitudinal meridian of Cape Coast Castle.

"The military resources of Ashantee are great indeed, without casting into the scale her preponderating influence in Sarem and Dagomba. The bashaw Mohammed assured me, that the armies of Ashantee that fought in Gaman, amounted to upwards of eighty thousand men, (without including the camp attendants, such as women and boys) of whom at one time above seven thousand were Moslems, who fought under his orders. In this estimate I speak within bounds, for I am inclined to believe he alluded to the army of Banna as a dis

a few who are desirous that we should believe what they do not themselves credit, and a fourth set who, knowing the country only in books and tradition, repent, as of to-day, manners and opinions long past away. That seers have pretended to see fairies, is not a species of testimony which will command much respect. That nine-tenths indeed of all this is utterly groundless, I am fully convinced; nor would it now be any praise to a people rapidly becoming enlightened as they are naturally acute, to suppose that they are not fast forgetting the follies that belong to the childhood of nations, to an age of barbarism. Still, I have, myself, met with just enough to prove that the relics of these ages of adult infancy remain; and that, among the past superstitions, or rather philosophy, of the æra of credulity, there are yet some keeping their holds over the imagination of a few individuals. It not the character of the country: but instances can always be found on which to build a general assertion, by those who take pride or pleasure in promulgating such a belief. It is not peculiar to these psychologists to generalize from partial or solitary instances; since it is of the vory essence and nature of all philosophers so to do. They need not, therefore, care for a remark which they share with all the great and wise of the earth. To say, as has been said, that the Highlanders carefully conceal their belief in the supernatural invisible world, is to make an ingenious provision for all possible doubts on this head: but it is one that will not convert these into convictions, If I have been less fortunate than others in my investigations, I have, 19 say truth, a shrewd suspicion that we must come to the task willing to believe,' as Dr. Johnson says; or, as not a less great character observes, there must at least be a permission of the will.' If you may have thus lost some of the amusement which I might have collected for you, there are none who can better dispense with it, and none to whom it is likely to have offered less novelty. To myself, I must own, it has been a source of disappointment. Scottish or English, Danish or German, or Tartarian, I also have read with delight, the lucubrations of the master spirits of the shadowy world, and shall continue to read as long as my spectacles shall serve. I could almost indeed sit down at the foot of Suil Veinn, and cry to think that the Elfe quene with hire jolly compaignie, danceth no more in the green mede,' and that we have in these

latter days been philosophised out of half our pleasures. To doubt that such things have been, whether they may now be or not, would in me be almost ungrateful, when one of my own worthy ancestors was himself rescued by the Little Men in Green, as you yourself well know, from an event which has always been esteemed peculiarly critical of a man's fate. M.

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THE FERRY HOUSE,

From the same.

It was early in the morning when Roger and I arrived at the pass; and, winding down the long descent between the mountains of the Kyle Rich, found ourselves in front of the inn. This is the ferry house.' 'Aye, aye, ye'll be wanting the ferry, nae doot.' To be sure; and you can give me some breakfast.' 'It's the sabbath.'-'I know that; but I suppose one may breakfast on the sabbath. Aye, l'se warn ye-that's a bony beast.It's my lord's poney." Aye I thought it was Roger; I thought I kenned his face. And where 'ill ye be gaun.' 'I am going to Eilan Reoch, and I want some breakfast. A weel a weel, I dinna ken; lassic! tak the gentleman's horse.' No sooner, however, had Mrs. Nicholson taken possession of the gentleman and his horse, and his property also, securing thus the soul and body both of Don Pedro, than all this civility vanished on a sudden; small as it was before. I asked for the ferryman, and the boat and the tide-she kenn'd naething about the ferry.-Why, 1 thought you said this was the ferryhouse. That was true; but the ferry boat was half a mile off, and she had nothing to do with the ferryman, and her husband was not at home, and the ferryboat would not take a horse, and Mrs. Nicholson did not care what became of the horse, or of me, or of the tide.'Would she not send.'-Na---I might gang and spcer myself if I lik it.'—Good Highland civility, this; particularly to your landlord's friend. - But Mrs. Nicholson said she cared not a baubee for my lord nor his friends neither.

I was obliged to go and look after the ferry-boat myself. When I came there, there was a boat, it is true; but the ferryman was at church, five miles off, on the other side of the water; he would probably be back by twelve o'clock, or two or three, or not at all. When I returned to Mrs. Nicholson, the breakfast was not ready. Where is my breakfast?" And dev ye want "breakfast?'--

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The deuce is in you. Ye manna swear on the sabbath, said the puritanital hag, but ye'll get your breakfast: Aye, aye, ye's get gude tea and eggs.' It was twelve o'clock before this breakfast came; and, instead of tea and eggs, there entered a dirty wooden bowl full of salt herrings and potatoes. This was the very diet with which her villainous ancestry fed the prisoners who were thrust into their dungeons to choak with thirst and when I remonstrated, she told me that I was 'ower fine, and a saut herring was a gude breakfast for ony gentleman, let alone the like o'me.' It was impossible to eat salt herrings, after six hours' walking and riding in a hot summer's day: but that did not exempt me from paying two shillings. In the end, the ferry-boat was not forthcoming, the man was not to be found, he would not carry a horse if he was. I was obliged to go without my breakfast, and finding a man with a cockle-shell of a boat, idling along the shore, I left Roger to the mercy of Mrs. Nicholson, and rowed down the strait to Eilan Reoch.

THE CONFESSIONS OF A JOURNEYMAN BAKER. •Confession is good for the soul.' OLD PROVERB. THOUGH no believer in transubstantiation, or the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, we acknowledge ourselves somewhat partial to the confes sional. Lackington once amused us much in this way, and the other day we had half an hour's laugh at the confessions of a bricklayer, showing by what process a bill for repairs was augmented. These confessions, excellent however as they are in their way, fall infinitely short of those of a journeyman baker, which have just fallen into our hands, and of which we propose to render a good account,

We have long been of opinion that Pharaoh's chief baker was not the only one of his trade who ought to be hanged; and could we for a moment have had any misgivings as to the severity of our judgment, they would have been removed by a pamphlet, just published, entitled Tricks of Bakers, unmasked by James Maton.' Of all the frauds of trade we ever read or heard of, we never met with any equal to those exposed by Mr. Maton; and if one half of his statements are true, there are or have been bakers in London, whose malpractices would, in Turkey, have caused their ears to adorn door-posts, if they did not procure them a baking in their own ovens.

Mr. Maton was apprenticed, in the year 1792, to a person in Salisbury, who was miller, baker, &c. and who had some army contracts; he afterwards came to London, and entered the service of a baker, where, on the first Sunday, he got initiated into one branch of the business, that is, of managing the dinner's the sent to be baked. "As I was underman,' he says, 'it became my duty to take the dishes out of the shop into the bakehouse; the second hand, as the cant phrase is, shaves the meat, (that is to say), cuts as much off from each joint, as be thinks will not be missed; the foreman drains the water off, and puts the dishes into the oven till they require to be turned; after which the liquid fat is drained from each dish, and the deficiency is supplied with water; this fat is the master's perquisite ! Here is a pretty particular considerable way of robbing Sunday dinners, as our friend Jonathan would say. While living with this master, Mr. Maton acquired a knowledge of the trade of dealing in 'dead men,' or charging loaves to the customers which they never had; this is another lucrative branch of the business, in which master and man strive which can get the monopoly. Such, at least, was the case in this place, and Maton kept a check on his master. He found that four shillings per week, with the spoils of the 'dead men,' was more profitable than sixteen shillings a week, with lodging, bread, and the spoils of a sharp knife in the beer, a Sunday dinner, broken victuals, bakehouse, which would shave off a dinner, to a hair's breadth.' This baker, plunderer, used to send a peck of flour who appears to have been a terrible four pounds short of the proper weight.

Another baker with whom Mr. Maton

lived, not only robbed the customers' dishes of the fat, but the journeyman of their accustomed perquisite the lean. On Christmas Day, which is usually a banquet with the bakers, Mr. Maton was sent out of the way, but returning rather unexpectedly, he found the master busily employed in filling his dishes, basons, and tea saucers, with puddings and mince meat, and ornamenting his dough boards with mutton chops, pork chops, yeat cutlets, and beef steaks, cut most scientifically from the viands before him; dishes from which he had taken toll. there were upwards of twenty pudding Bad as the master-baker was, our confessionalist, James Maton, to wit, was be about the Twelfth Day, says he, we worse. On New Year's Day, or it might had about a dozen good plum-puddings to bake, and I thought I had a right