There is no puling in the Journal; nothing in the very tender and touching strain. There is passion; but it is of the nature of indignation or of scorn, rather than of tearful sorrow or wringing despair. An Amazon writes; nor can you form a better image of her than to fancy the heroine with feet planted "in a small crack in the rampart near Sale's bastion," to obtain a fine view of what is going on below, and whence she may pronounce her sentence of shame or approval, as the case may merit. How soldier-like her praise, such as "commendable steadiness and great alacrity!"

We stop not to attend to the negotiations that were secretly carried on, with the view of forming a treaty with the enemy, but rather notice the significance of the circumstances recorded in the following passage:

This day Sturt was fortunate in purchasing a bag of otta (flour) sent in to him by Taj Mahommed, whose man brought another which our servants were purchasing. In a moment there was a cry of otta! and the garden was filled with camp followers and Sipahees. I never saw such a scene : the joy of those who got a handful for a rupee, the sorrow evinced by those who were unsuccessful, and the struggles of all to get close to the man! The gentlemen had to stand with thick sticks to keep the people off. There was no weighing; at first the man gave two handsful for a rupee, but the quantity soon diminished in consequence of the great demand for it. To prove our good faith and belief in that of the chiefs, we are to-day placed entirely in their power. They know that we are starving; that our horses and cattle have neither grain, bhoosa, nor grass. They have pretty well eaten up the bark of the trees and tender branches; the horses gnaw the tent pegs. I was gravely told that the artillery horses had eaten the trun nion of a gun! This is difficult of belief; but I have seen my own ridinghorse gnaw voraciously at a cart-wheel. Nothing is satisfied with food except the Pariah dogs, who are gorged with eating dead camels and horses.

The catastrophe is at hand; forts, ammunition, &c., are given up; and the journalist, with her family, receive these tidings:

Taj Mahommed Khan came again to see Sturt; and through his servants we got some new cheese. He told us that Shamsuddeen's brother died last night. Taj Mahommed assures us of the intended treachery of Akbar; and says the force will be annihilated, and is most anxious that we should accept such protection as he is willing to afford us somewhere in the hills until the return of the English ;-for that a strong force will be sent to retake Cabul, and avenge the meditated destruction of our army, is a general opinion amongst the thinking Affghans, several of whom, as well as Taj Mahommed Khan, obtained written testimonials of their friendship towards the English, that they may hereafter produce them for their advantage. We can only thank him for his good intentions. It is difficult to make these people understand our ideas on military subjects; and how a proceeding, which was only intended to save a man's life, conjointly with that

of his wife and mother, can in any way affect his honour. Certain it is that we have very little hope of saving our lives.

We cite a few paragraphs on account of their personal interest. The first night of the retreat :

There were no tents, save two or three small palls that arrived. All scraped away the snow as best they might, to make a place to lie down on. The evening and night were intensely cold: no food for man or beast procurable except a few handfuls of bhoosa, for which we paid from five to ten rupees. Capt. Johnson, in our great distress, kindly pitched a small pall over us; but it was dark, and we had few pegs; the wind blew in under the sides, and I felt myself gradually stiffening. I left the bedding, which was occupied by Mrs. Sturt and her husband, and doubled up my legs in a straw chair of Johnson's, covering myself with my poshteen.

.. Previous to leaving cantonments, as we must abandon most of our property, Sturt was anxious to save a few of his most valuable books, and to try the experiment of sending them to a friend in the city. Whilst he selected these, I found amongst the ones thrown aside, Campbell's Poems, which opened at Hohenlinden; and, strange to say, one verse actually haunted me day and night:

"Few, few shall part where many meet,

The snow shall be their winding sheet;
And every turf beneath their feet
Shall be a soldier's sepulchre."

I am far from being a believer in presentiments, but this verse is never absent from my thoughts.

Next day:

Sturt, my daughter, Mr. Mein, and I, got up to the advance; and Mr. Mein was pointing out to us the spots where the 1st brigade was attacked, and where he, Sale, &c., were wounded. We had not proceeded half a mile when we were heavily fired upon. Chiefs rode with the advance, and desired us to keep close to them. They certainly desired their followers to shout to the people on the height not to fire: they did so, but quite ineffectually. These chiefs certainly ran the same risk we did; but I verily believe many of these persons would individually sacrifice themselves to rid their country of us. After passing through some very sharp firing, we came upon Major Thain's horse, which had been shot through the loins. When we were supposed to be in comparative safety, poor Sturt rode back (to see after Thain I believe): his horse was shot under him, and before he could rise from the ground, he received a severe wound in the abdomen. It was with great difficulty he was held upon a pony by two people, and brought into camp at Khoord Cabul. The pony Mrs. Sturt rode was wounded in the ear and neck. I had fortunately only one ball in my arm; three others passed through my poshteen near the shoulder without doing me any injury. The party that fired on us were not above fifty yards from us, and we owed our escape to urging our horses on as fast as they could go over a road where, at any other time, we should have walked our horses very carefully. ***

The 37th continued slowly moving on without firing a shot, being paralysed with cold to such a degree, that no persuasion of their officers could induce them to make any effort to dislodge the enemy, who took from some of them not only their firelocks, but even the clothes from their persons.

Lady Sale and her companions :

The ladies were mostly travelling in kajavas, and were mixed up with the baggage and column in the pass: here they were heavily fired on. Many camels were killed. On one camel were, in one kajava, Mrs. Boyd and her youngest boy Hugh; and on the other Mrs. Mainwaring and her infant, scarcely three months old, and Mrs. Anderson's eldest child. This camel was shot. Mrs. Boyd got a horse to ride, and her child was put on another behind a man, who being shortly after unfortunately killed, the child was carried off by the Affghans. Mrs. Mainwaring, less fortunate, took her own baby in her arms. Mary Anderson was carried off in the confusion. Meeting with a pony laden with treasure, Mrs. M. endeavoured to mount and sit on the boxes, but they upset; and in the hurry, pony and treasure were left behind, and the unfortunate lady pursued her way on foot, until after a time an Affghan asked her if she was wounded, and told her to mount behind him. This apparently kind offer she declined, being fearful of treachery, alleging as an excuse that she could not sit behind him on account of the difficulty of holding her child when so mounted. The man shortly after snatched her shawl off her shoulders, and left her to her fate. Mrs. M.'s sufferings were very great; and she deserves much credit for having preserved her child through these dreadful scenes. She not only had to walk a considerable distance with her child in her arms through the deep snow, but had also to pick her way over the bodies of the dead, dying, and wounded, both men and cattle, and constantly to cross the streams of water, wet up to the knees, pushed and shoved about by men and animals, the enemy keeping up a sharp fire, and several persons being killed close to her. She, however, got safe to the camp with her child, but had no opportunity to change her clothes; and I know from experience that it was many days cre my wet habit became thawed, and can fully appreciate her discomforts.

Night accommodation:

Poor Sturt was laid on the side of a bank, with his wife and myself beside him. It began snowing heavily: Johnson and Bygrave got some xummuls (coarse blankets) thrown over us. Dr. Bryce, H.A., came and examined Sturt's wound: he dressed it; but I saw by the expression of his countenance that there was no hope. He afterwards kindly cut the ball out of my wrist, and dressed both my wounds. Half of a Sipahee's pall had been pitched, in which the ladies and their husbands took refuge. We had no one to scrape the snow off the ground in it. Capt. Johnson and Mr. Mein first assisted poor Sturt over to it, and then carried Mrs. Sturt and myself through the deep snow. Mrs. Sturt's bedding (saved by the ayah riding on it, whom we kept up close with ourselves) was now a comfort for my poor wounded son. He suffered dreadful agony all night, and intolerable thirst; and most grateful did we feel to Mr. Mein for going out constantly to the

stream to procure 'water: we had only a small vessel to fetch it in, which contained but a few mouthfuls. To sleep in such anxiety of mind and intense cold was impossible. There were nearly thirty of us packed together without room to turn. The Sipahees and camp followers, half frozen, tried to force their way, not only into the tent, but actually into our beds, if such resting-places can be so called-a poshteen (or pelisse of sheep skin) half spread on the snow, and the other half wrapped over me. Many poor wretches died round the tent in the night.

Married men and their families are placed under the protection of Akbar Khan, and marched off; and this is the brief sketch of part of an unparalleled journey :

It would be impossible for me to describe the feelings with which we pursued our way through the dreadful scenes that awaited us. The road covered with awfully mangled bodies, all naked: fifty-eight Europeans were counted in the Tunghee and dip of the Nullah; the natives innumerable. Numbers of camp followers, still alive, frost-bitten and starving; some perfectly out of their senses and idiotic. Major Ewart, 54th, and Major Scott, 44th, were recognised as we passed them; with some others. The sight was dreadful; the smell of the blood sickening; and the corpses lay so thick it was impossible to look from them, as it required care to guide my horse so as not to tread upon the bodies.

Three gleanings more: the heroine and the heading of the troops:

Nothing can exceed the folly I have seen in the papers regarding my wonderful self,-how I headed the troops, &c., &c. It puts me in mind of Goldsmith's verses on Mrs. Blaze, in which he remarks, that the "king himself has followed her, when she has gone before ;" and certainly I have thus headed the troops, for the chiefs told me to come on with them for safety sake; and thus I certainly did go far in advance of the column, but it was no proof of valour, though one of prudence. . . . Whilst I sat for hours on my horse in the cold, I felt very grateful for a tumbler of sherry, which at any other time would have made me very unlady-like, but now merely warmed me, and appeared to have no more strength in it than water. Cups full of sherry were given to young children three and four years old without in the least affecting their heads.

Capt. Mackenzie held his (the King's Commissariat) fort until his ammunition was entirely expended, and then cut his way through the town, but in so doing was wounded in three places. Strange to say, this officer owed his life to beating a woman! He told his people to abandon their property and save their lives. A woman put down her child to save her pots and pans; and expostulation being of little effect, and time most precious, Mackenzie drew his sword to strike her with the flat of it, by which means he had it in his hand when he was attacked immediately afterwards.

The meeting:

We had proceeded but a short way on our journey, when a horseman arrived with a note informing us that Sale was close at hand with a brigade. I had had fever hanging about me for some days; and being scarce able to sit on my horse, had taken my place in a kajava, the horrid motion of which had made me feel ten times worse than before I entered it. But this news renovated my strength. I shook off fever and all ills, and anxiously awaited his arrival, of which a cloud of dust was the forerunner. Gen. Nott was near Urghundee, and consequently close to us; and Gen. Pollock requested he would send a brigade to our assistance. This he refused, much to the disgust of his officers, alleging that his troops were fatigued. On this, Gen. Pollock sent Sale with a brigade at a few hours' notice. He left Siah Sung two miles east of Cabul, and made a forced march on the 19th (his sixtieth birthday) to Urghundee: he halted there that night, and on the following morning left his camp standing, and marched to meet us. At the pass near Kote Ashruffe he left his infantry to hold the position, and proceeded at the head of the 3rd dragoons. A party of Sultan Jan's men were in this neighbourhood, and some Kokhes in the immediate vicinity were driven off by the Juzailchees. Had we not received assistance, our recapture was certain; but as it was, they dared not attack the force they saw. It is impossible to express our feelings on Sale's approach. To my daughter and myself happiness so long delayed, as to be almost unexpected, was actually painful, and accompanied by a choking sensation, which could not obtain the relief of tears. When we arrived where the infantry were posted, they cheered all the captives as they passed them; and the men of the 13th pressed forward to welcome us individually. Most of the men had a little word of hearty congratulation to offer, each in his own style, on the restoration of his colonel's wife and daughter: and then my highly-wrought feelings found the desired relief, and I could scarcely speak to thank the soldiers for their sympathy, whilst the long-withheld tears now found their course.

ART. XII. On the Educational Clauses in the Bill now before the House of Commons, "for Regulating the Employment of Children and Young Persons in Factories, and for the Better Education of Children in Factory Districts." By W. G. Fox.

MR. Fox in this very able pamphlet starts with a summary of the proposed enactments of the Bill recently introduced by Sir James Graham, and now under the consideration of the Legislature, relative to Education.

That all children under thirteen years of age, employed in factories, shall produce every week a certificate of their regular attendance at school during the week preceding. That, with certain exceptions, to be noticed presently, these certificates shall only be granted by the masters of schools constituted according to the provisions of the Act. That schools so constituted shall be supported from the poor's rate, by fees deducted from the children's wages, and by voluntary donations or payments for instruction,