through screw-plates; all cutting, planing,
crunching, grinding the stubborn metal;
themselves under the indomitable sway of the
parent steam-automata in the engine-houses
that give life and motion to the whole;
never lying idle; untiring, incessant,
inexhaustible; plodding on from Monday morning
till Saturday night; working, working, working, —
along with the iron hands that never
rest from taking their iron will of iron, on the
banks of the Thames, the Clyde, the Tay,
and the Humber; at the feet of Welsh
mountains, upon the plains of Lancashire,
and in the vales of Staffordshire- to fulfil the
destiny that makes Britain the master
manufacturer of the world, the British navy
mistress of the seas, and the British subject
the most arrogant traveller and the most
patient tax-payer under the sun.

I was delighted to discover that iron does
not enter alone into the souls and
composition of the Lambeth-Marsh Mulcibers. The
softer influences of kindness, brotherhood,
and hearty good fellowship reign amongst
them. Their hearts, and their rough hands too,
are open when Charity makes her appeal. Not
long before my visit, there had been a public
meeting held in the fitting-shop, the occasion
of which arose out of one such appeal;
indirectly, but silently and spontaneously, made.
A subscription had been entered into, and there
was to be a presentation; not one of those
fulsome ceremonies at which the donors flatter
and soap and puff the recipient, in order that
the recipient may return money's worth in
more flattery and puffery and soft sawder, to
the donors; but a hearty, unstudied tribute
to worth in misfortune. The gift was neither
a silver épergne servilely laid at the feet
of a partner (the heads of the firm were
ignorant of the proceedings until after they
had taken place); nor a gold watch and
appendages given to a popular foreman, nor
any such compliment. It was a sensible live
present, with long ears and four legs. In short,
it was a Donkey.

A poor old man and his ass, I learned
from a well written account of the transaction
by one of its promoters, had been in
the habit of supplying the factory with
chisel-rods and birch-brooms for the last
two-and-thirty years. The respected quadruped
and his excellent master had gone on
together in harmony and companionship
for a quarter of a century, when the
donkey died. The master was inconsolable
and ruined; for, in addition to this great
affliction, another partner—his wife—was on
the point of following his other and equally
faithful friend graveward. A subscription
was instantly organised; not so much
to commemorate the startling fact coming
within the knowledge of fifteen hundred
credible witnesses, of a donkey actually dying,
as to help the poor man in his distress.
A new ass for the husband, and every sort
of comfort for the wife, were speedily

bought; and were presented at the meeting
convened for the purpose. " Gentleman,"
said the chairman, at the moment of actual
presentation, "the art of engineering has
arrived at a point of great perfection, and
I think I may assert, without fear of
contradiction, that this is the first instance
that a piece of machinery of this description"
(pointing to the donkey) " has been turned
out from an engine factory." The testimonial
was then trotted over to the hero of the
evening, and a document was handed to him,
inscribed thus: " We hereby present you with
this donkey, harness, cart, and other articles.
The animal being of the feminine gender, we
have designated Susan, after the name of your
wife, and we hope that you and she, and the
Susan now before us, may live long in health
and happiness." When the presentee marched
off with his prize (which was gaily orna-
mented with ribbons and rosettes), he was
received by the outer populace of Lambeth
Marsh with deafening cheers.

SLAVERY AT SURINAM.
OUR attentions have lately been so much
fixed on the slave struggle between North
and South America, that we seem to have
forgotten that Holland, a country to be seen
on a clear day with a good glass from the
coast of Yarmouth, or Lowestoft, owns forty
thousand slaves in the colony of Surinam,
situated between the English colony of De-
merara and the French colony of Cayenne.
Professor Van Hoevell, formerly a clergyman,
but now a member of the Dutch States-
General, has recently published a very interesting
work, entitled Slaves and Free, wherein
he reveals the mysteries of the slave-driving
craft in Surinam, in which colony he seems
to have spent several years. The work is now
in its third edition. Three editions in little
more than a year, of a Dutch work, is quite
a literary phenomenon. The work is at once
a noble contribution to Dutch literature, and
a fearful revelation of crimes perpetrated in
Surinam, under the sanction of laws
prescribed by the States-General of Holland-
one of the leading Christian Powers of Europe,
as the Dutch like to call it. We select two
sketches from it, and recommend those to
whom Dutch is not perfect Greek, to read Mr.
Van Hoëvell's volumes in their entirety.
                              I.

"WHAT news is there, bastinado? " * asked
a man about fifty years of age, of a negro
who stood before him with a whip in his
hand, the symbol of his dignity. He who
made the inquiry had a countenance on which
the traces of an immoderate use of brandy
and rum were clearly perceptible, while his
inflamed eyes and husky voice, his trembling
hands and bloated face, and the clammy sweat
that covered his forehead, were so many

* The name given to the surveyors of the negroes,
themselves being of the same race.