With the faint rill just oozing through, But lo! the sun has stooped his head Fair Scotland's jocund swains, I ween: 1 Acorus palmita. * 2 Several varieties of the lo.xia, or finch tribe, in South Africa, suspend their nests from the branches of trees, especially where they happen to impend over a river or precipice. The object of this precaution, is obviously to secure their offspring from the assaults of their numerous enemies, particularly the serpent-race. To increase the difficulty of access to these tree-rocked cradles,' the entrance is always from below, and frequently through a cylindrical passage of ten or twelve inches in length, projecting from the spherical nest, exactly like the tube of a chemist's retort. The whole fabric is, most ingeniously and elegantly, woven of a species of very tough grass; and the wonderful instinct or foresight (or whatever else we may choose to call it) displayed by the little architect in its construction, is calculated to excite the highest admiration. Now wizard Twilight slowly sails, 'Midst fair Avon's woodlands green;- Or villain lynx, whose stealthy tread But lo! the night-bird's boding scream London Weekly Review. AUGUST. THIS month received its name in honour of Augustus. Its sign is Virgo. Remarkable Days In AUGUST 1828. 1.-LAMMAS DAY. THIS was anciently loaf-mass, it being customary for the Saxons to offer an oblation of new bread on this day, as the first fruits of the harvest. 6.—TRANSFIGURATION. The festival, in remembrance of our Lord's transfiguration on the Mount, was instituted by Pope Calixtus in 1455. The night-adder. 7.-NAME OF Jesus. This day, previously to the reformation, was assigned to Donatus: our reformers gave it its present appropriation. *8.1827.—RT. HON. GEORGE CANNING Died, Æt.57. This great man was a poet by nature, an orator by education, a statesman by accident or habit. His inclinations led him to the more elegant studies; to politics he never attended beyond the necessities of the moment; and he would always rather apply his literary reading to the confutation of a political antagonist, than make political argument a substitute and an excuse for the want of literary ornament. He was, however, better informed than many persons, who, because they are nothing else, set up for men of information; and, if his political knowledge were measured, not against the brightness of his own oratorical talent, but the ignorance of others, he would justly be deemed a great man. He was, in short, a man with a lively strength-a vivida vis of intellect and wit; a man of ardour, boldness, and warmth; always possessed with an animated love of fame, high sense of his own honour, and a sensitive anxiety for the happiness and dignity of his country. As a statesman, Mr. Canning displayed views at once liberal and profound. As an orator, his speeches were always distinguished by their purity of language, and bursts of extemporaneous energy; while his vast command of metaphor, which he never used inappropriately, or without effect, frequently mingled all parties in one common admiration. Lord Byron, whose opposite politics prevented all suspicion of an undue bias in favour of Mr. Canning, has, in more than one of his works, paid the highest compliment to him. 'Canning,' said he, is a genius, almost an universal one; an orator a wit, a pret, and a statesman;' and in one of his Lordsh's latest poems, speaking of the British Administration, he thus notices the subject of this memoir : Yet something may remain, perchance, to chime E'en I can praise thee? A summary of what Mr. Canning has accomplished during the short time since the Marquess of Londonderry's death, will best demonstrate the claims he has left to the world's gratitude, and best pourtray the blank which his loss has occasioned. He detached England from the cruel chariot-wheels of the Holy Alliance, almost before the familiars of that body could look around them, and discover the hand which set her free. The invasion of Spain was rendered, by Mr. Canning's dexterity and spirit, little more noxious in its result, than it was defensible in its origin; and the world saw contrasted an outrage by France on the Spaniards, with a blessing conferred by England on the Americans. Constitutional Portugal has been upheld against the House of Bourbon by diplomatic skill and military energy, so directed and justified as to protect the civil rights of the people of that kingdom. The spirit through which the whole South of Europe must one day vindicate the liberties of man, has been kept alive, and ready for seasonable exercise, by the mere notoriety that Mr. Canning was Minister. At home, the principles which he would have realized, had life been granted, were those under which the poor man's food would have been increased, and the national expenses considerably economized. As an author,' says a recent writer, Mr. Canning will not probably reap his full measure of fame in his lifetime; for, with the exception of his juvenile efforts in "The Microcosm," and his political satires R in the "Anti-Jacobin," he has furnished few opportunities of identifying him.' The satires of Mr. Canning are now only considered as brilliant effusions of wit and humour; but when they first appeared, they possessed considerable political importance; and while they rendered a few grave politicians extremely ridiculous, they combated with great force a more formidable enemy-French jacobinism. In all the relations of domestic life, Mr. C. is allowed to have been one of the most amiable of men. In person he was tall and well made-his step quick and firm-his voice harmonious-his utterance quick but distinct, his emphasis strong without effort; and, as a contemporary writer has well observed, he had a set of features, every one of which performed its part in telling what was passing in his mind: his habits of sobriety gave him vigour, and his whole appearance was well calculated to impress the beholder with an idea that he was destined for long life.' 10. SAINT LAWRENCE. Saint Lawrence was by birth a Spaniard, and flourished about the middle of the third century. He was laid upon a gridiron, and broiled till he died, August 10th, 258. 12. 1762.-King George EV born. 15.-ASSUMPTION OF B. V. M. This is a festival, in the Greek and Romish churches, in honour of the supposed miraculous ascension of the Virgin Mary into heaven.-See an account of a splendid pageant formerly exhibited at Dieppe in honour of this day, in T.T. for 1823, pp. 224-227. At Bonneval, on the day of the Assumption, a bunch of ripe, black grapes is put into the hand of the figure of the Virgin in the churches; and the same ceremony is used in the little chapel of St. Lawrence, |