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ON PARLIAMENTARY REFORM AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. No. IX.
An Awfu' LEEIN'-LIKE STORY BY THE ETTRICK Shepherd,
SIR H. PARNELL ON FINANCIAL REFORM,

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AN HOUR'S TALK ABOUT POETRY,

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ON THE FOREIGN POLICY OF THE WHIG ADMINISTRATION. No. I.

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OPINIONS OF AN AMERICAN REPUBLICAN, AND OF A BRITISH WHIG ON
THE BILL,

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TO A BUTTERFLY NEAR A TOMB. BY MRS HEMANS,

NOCTES AMBROSIANE. No. LVIII.

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EDINBURGH:

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, NO. 45, george street, EdinbURGH; AND T. CADELL, STRAND, LONDON.

To whom Communications (post paid) may be addressed.

SOLD ALSO BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.

PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND CO. EDINBURGH.

This day is Published, price 3s.

THE EDINBURGH LAW JOURNAL, No. III.,

For August, 1831.

CONTENTS.-1. Lawyer-Reform, or Observations on the Prevailing Moral Standård of Legal Practice, and Hints for a Revision of it by the Profession.—II. Distinction between Civil and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction.-III. Principles of Prescription, with the History of its Rise and Progress in the Law of Scotland.-IV. Teind Court.-V. Considerations as to the Expediency of Imposing on a Judge the Duty of Examining into Correctness of the Statements of the Parties.-VI. Suggestions for the Improvement of Courts of Justice, No. I.-VII. On the Forms and Style of Land Rights in Scotland.-VIII. Transactions of Society for the Consideration of Questions relating to the Form of Process.-IX. Remarks on Recent Decisions. -X. Legal Intelligence-Sequestrations awarded by the Court of Session, from 12th March to 11th July, 1831-Cessiones Bonorum, for the same period.-List of Persons confirmed as Trustees on Sequestrated Estates, from 12th March to 11th July, 1831.-Discharges.

Printed for WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, Edinburgh;

And T. CADELL, Strand, London,

EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.

No. CLXXXV. SEPTEMBER, 1831.

VOL. XXX.

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MARY M'GRAGHI sat under the tree,
That grows on the skirts of Fairy-land;
"And oh, I wish, I wish," quoth she,

"A buckle of gold, and a silver band,
And a silken gown of the purest white,
Oh, how would I shine at the Ball to-night!"

Now, Mary M'Gragh, dost thou not see

The boughs how they quiver above thy head?
Knowest thou not the Wishing-Tree,

That ev'ry green leaf is a Fairy's bed,

And they're bending out over, thy bidding to take,
And 'tis that which maketh the leaves to shake?

Then Mary M'Gragh she wish'd more and more
A costly wardrobe all complete,

As ever the Queen of Sheba wore

For wishes are seldom too discreet;

And fast as the words flew out of her mouth,

Away went the Fairies north and south.

Away went the Fairies east and west,
As, by the laws of Faierie,

They are bound to do for every guest
That wisheth beneath the Wishing-Tree;
But how they sped, and the work went on,
Wait but a while and you'll hear anon.

But first I must ring my magical bell,

To read me The Fairy-Chronicle;

To call my own dear Sprite to my ear,

And all you can comprehend you'll hear,

What's read from the book or seen with these eyes.

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Yet a thousand to one you take for lies

VOL. XXX, NO. CLXXXV.

PART II.

"WORK on, work on," quoth the Fairy Queen, "Work on, work on, my merry sweet elves, In air so bright or on earth so green,

Under the boughs or on lichen shelves, Under the pebbles in glassy wells,

The bat's dark holes, or in waxen cells."

They stitch, they hammer, they line, they mark,
And though fifteen hundred beetles' snouts
Are splitting the reeds and sawing the bark,
And each master-workman has fifty scouts,
Yet you could but hear such hum as floats,
When sunbeams sport with the busy motes.

A veil they made of the spider's thread,
And the gossamer's floating film they spin,
With flowers of jasmine overspread,

For a gown of the finest mosselin;
And another they peel from the silken skin
That lines the tulip, farthest in.

And to edge and trim the mosselin sleeves,
Myriads of insects are set to trace
The fibres among the fallen leaves,

Of which they make the finest lace-
And finer and better, sure I am,

Ne'er came from Bruxelles or Nottingham.

The sparkles they fly from the beetle's wing,
As they clip it and file it for a clasp,
As the golden dust from brooch or ring

That shineth beneath a jeweller's rasp;
And as they flew they bronzed the streaks
In the tulips, that look'd like Nature's freaks.

Full fifty thousand Dumbledoors

The Elves they slew with a forked pin, For a velvet boddice, except the gores,

And they were made of the black mole's skin;

The boddice was clasp'd with beetles' wings,

Prick'd with needles of hornets' stings.

They took a tuft of the trembling grass,
Sprinkled with dust of daffodil,

Till it shone as it shook like yellow glass,
Or light that sunbeams might distil.
And oh, it was a most rare device,

For a feather of Bird of Paradise.

From the damask-rose they cull'd drops of dew,
And made of them crystals ruby-stain'd-
They pinch'd the glow-worms black and blue,
And filch'd their light when they were pain'd,
Which in sand, in spar, and pebble set,
Became amethyst, diamond, pearl, and jet..

A thousand merry-men hunt the shrubs,
With links from the wild-foal's mane to bind

Living and writhing the hairy grubs,

For a tippet of the Boa-kind.

And the calceolaria's dew-steep'd woof,
They form into slippers water-proof.

Were I of the milliner craft, I ween,

I might the trinkums all explain, Nor refer to the Ladies' Magazine

For the fashions that enter damsels' brain; But I know of gowns there were fifty-three, Besides a bright green from the tulip-tree.

And of every texture they were made,

Mosselin, and velvet, and gros-de-Naples ;
And the boxes in which they were nicely laid,
Were all veneer'd with the birds'-eye maple.
And there they were, all speck and span,
As ever came home from a milliner man.

PART III.

Now perhaps you marvel all the while,
That Fairies should both toil and spin,
And think that I speak in too loose a style
Of beings of such a kith and kin.

But I've learnt their lore, and boldly state,
They can substances change, but not create.

And suppose they had furnish'd sweet Mary's dress,
With a snap of the fingers sans stitch or stroke,
They would be sorry patterns of idleness.

But Fairies must work like other folk,

Though with spells over water, earth, and air,

That can change them to things most strange and rare.

But there must be the seeds, as the syrup laid
The essence of honey in patient flowers-
And the sweetest of love that ever was made,

Has been ta'en from the fragrance of true-love bowers, And gentle thoughts from sunny looks,

And the soul of music from running brooks.

You cannot pick love from a pavement-stone,
For the chisel has chipp'd it all away;
But invisible hands have its essence sown,
O'er that which is cover'd with lichens grey.
And, pray tell me, who would enter the lists,
With Fays, the marvellous Alchymists?

Yet these are but mysteries and cabala,
That little concern or you or me;
And have nothing to do with Mary M'Gragh,
All the while under the Wishing-Tree;
To whom, at the winking of her eyes,
The Queen of the Fairies convey'd the prize.

If Thetis brought to her mortal son,

All nicely pack'd in her own sweet arms,

An armoury suit that might weigh a ton

You have learn'd very little of spells and charms, Not to know that a box of Millinerie,

Might drop at the foot of a Wishing-Tree.

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