That the custom of making fools on this day, is not unknown to other countries besides England, contrary to the supposition of Dr. Pegge, we have sufficient evidence from several writers. Torrens, a Swedish author, in his Voyage to China, says, "We set sail on the first of April, and the wind made April fools of us; for we were forced to return before Shagen, and to anchor at Riswopol." And another writer, speaking of Lisbon, says, "On the Sunday and morning preceding Lent, as on the first of April in England, people are privileged here to play the fool. It is thought very jocose to pour water on any person who passes, or throw powder in his face; but to do both, is the perfection of wit."

Of this kind is the practice alluded to by Decker, in his Seven Deadly Sinnes of London, (1606): "The bookeseller everafter, when you passe by, pinnes on your backes the badge of fools, to make you be laught to scorn, or of silly carpers, to make you be pittied." And Sauval, (Antiq. de Paris), hints at a similar custom on the festival of St. Simon and St. Jude; when, he tells us," simple persons are sent to the Temple to ask for medlars, (des neffles), in order to intrap them, and make sport for the byestanders."

In the North of England, persons thus imposed on are called " April gowks." Zouk, or gowk, is properly a cuckoo, and is used here metaphorically, in vulgar language, for a fool. The cuckoo is indeed every where a name of contempt. Gouch, in the Teutonic, is rendered stultus, a fool, whence came our northern word, a goke, or a gawky.

In Scotland, upon April day, they have a cus-tom of "hunting the gowk," as it is termed. This is done by sending silly people upon fool's errands, from place to place, by means of a letter, in which is written

"On the first of Aprile

Hunt the gowk another mile."

And in the old play of the Parson's Wedding, the Captain says, "Death! you might have left word where you went, and not put me to hunt like Tom Fool." So, in Secret Memoirs of the late Mr. Duncan Campbell, (1732), “ I had my labour for my pains; or, according to a silly fashion among the vulgar, was made an April Fool of; the person who had engaged me to take this pains, never meeting me."

A writer in the World, supposed to be the late Lord Orford, exhibits a happy display of irony, in some pleasant thoughts on the effect the alteration of the style would have on the first of April. "What confusion," he observes, "would not follow, if the great body of the nation were disappointed of their peculiar holyday? This country was formerly disturbed with very fatal quarrels about the celebration of Easter; and no wise man will tell me that it is not as seasonable to fall out for the observance of April-fool day. Can any benefits arising from a regulated Calendar, make amends for an occasion of new sects? How many warm men may resent an attempt to play them off on a false first of April, who would have submitted to the custom of being made fools of on the old computation? If our Clergy come

ous wars.

to be divided about Folly's Anniversary, we may well expect all the mischief attendant on religiHe then desires his friends to inform him what they observe on that holyday, both according to the new and old reckoning; "how often, and in what manner, they make or are made fools; how they miscarry in attempts to surprise, or baffle any snares laid for them. I do not doubt but it will be found that the balance of folly lies greatly on the side of the old first of April; nay, I much question," he adds, "whether infatuation will have any force on what I call the false April-fools' day;" and concludes with requesting an union of endeavours "in decrying a reformation, which only tends to discountenance good old practices and venerable superstitions."

Herald.

AMERICAN WITTICISMS.

MARRIED, in Washington, Mr. John Judge to Miss M. C. Noland.

"Most Judges contrive to get plenty of land—

For one we may instance Judge Toland;

But plump Lawyer Cupid has trick'd the whole band,
And shown us a Judge that has No Land!"

In Greenwich, Connecticut, by the Rev. David Peck, Mr. Eliphalet Peck, jun. to Miss Deborah Peck.

"Three Pecks, we find, have here begun
To make two different Pecks but one:
But vain their labour we shall see;
For let there pass of months a score,
Three Pecks will be increas'd to four
And then a bushel there will be."

Examiner.

THE SAINT AND THE GROOM.

A PETER PINDARIC-FOUNDED IN FACT,

AN age

like this, so fam'd for science *,

So bright its magisterial quorum,

Its kings so holy in alliance,

Its navy, every man sanctorum,

May well, as Greece now does the Turks,

Defy the devilt and his works.

But here and there it is our fate

To met a sort of reprobate:

And then you'll see the proverb's lame,

That man and master are the same.
It chanc'd within a century
There lived at Br-mb-r,

A Saint who well deserved to be
Preserved in amber:

So pious, and so fond of freedom ‡

No one to slavery would he doom;

But whites with him were not the crack ones,

His charity was all for black ones!

* Political.

+ Times are much altered since the days of Dante. He, as Cicerone in hell, being asked where the kings were, pointed to a snug warm corner; upon which the inquirer observed, "there are very few.""Few!" said Dante, "I don't know what you mean by few-there are all that ever reigned!" Mais nous avons changé tout-ça-the Devil shall have his due no longer. Dr. Southey (more potent than Dr. Faustus) has, on his own mere motion, turned the stream, and in his afternoon visions, trampled on the renown of Hercules and all his labours.

Dum Phaëtontea formica vagatur in umbra,
Implicuit tenuem succina gutta feram:

Sic modo quæ fuerat vita contemta manante,
Funeribus facta est nunc pretiosa suis.

Martial here gives us an admirable description of the progress of a
Puritan to canonization.

One day, a man (a common case)
Was looking out to get a place,

When he was told that there was room
In this said mansion for a groom.
He came the master most observant,
Strict in the hiring of a servant,

Went thro' the forms inherent in the scene
Of character, of wages, and of warning,
Good morals, sober, honest, steady, clean,
Shun plays, hate girls-rise early in the morning:
All which, tho' nicely he defined it,

He found just as he wished to find it:-
The man himself said so-

And he must know!

But now, though Thomas thought it all too much,
There yet remain'd this final, master-touch:-

He said, his visage graced with saint-like airs,
"When you have rack'd your horses up,
You'll comb your hair, and wash, and sup,
And then, I shall expect, attend at prayers,
There like myself behave

And sing a stave."

At this, the man somewhat confused,
Scraped, scratched his head and mused:
At length-

"Yes, Sir-O, yes!-but if I must-
As it is right to do what one engages-
Your honour won't object, I trust,
To let it be consider'd in my wages!"

Chronicle.

THE PERSIAN IDEA OF PARADISE.

THE Persian idea of Paradise is, "warmth without heat, and coolness without cold."

British Press.