I remember a comic instance of the cooling efficacy of a medium of transmission in a scolding match. The late Dr. R. F., when he first settled in this country, brought over a wife and numerous family, not one of whom, except his eldest son George, knew a word of English. It was not long before misunderstandings arose between the mistress and the servants; and one morning, a lodger in the house was witness to the fol lowing scene. Mrs. F.stood at her chamber door, the maid at the stair-foot, and George on the landing place. The lady, in harsh Teutonic, thundered invectives, which George translated in their passage: "My mother says you are a thief, and a slut, and a naughty woman. The wench, in an equally loud key, retorts, ed that her mistress was a liar, a slanderer, and so forth; which George, with the same fidelity, and in the same calm unvaried tone, translated to his mother. Thus the dialogue was divested of all the accessary violence of speech and gesture, and passion soon subsided for want of fuel. I should suppose that the discussions of plenipotentiaries by means of interpreters enjoy a similar advantage; otherwise, the mutual complaints of rough and uncivilized people might be apt to bring their respective agents to blows,

CUSTOM OF SITTING IN DHERNA.

TO recover an arrear of pay, there is but one known mode, which is universally adopted in all native services, in India, the Mogul as well as the Mabratta: this is called Dherna, which consists in putting the debtor, be he who he will, into a state of restraint or imprisonment, until satisfaction be given, or the money actually obtained. Any person in the sircar's (government's) service has a right to demand his pay of the prince or bis minister, and to sit in Dherna if it be not given: nor will he meet with the least hindrance, in doing so; for no one would obey an order that interfered with the Dherna, as it is a common cause; nor does the soldier incur the slightest charge of mutiny for his conduct, or suffer in the smallest manner in the opinion of his chief; so universal is the custom. :

The Dherna is sometimes carried to very violent lengths, and may be executed on the prince or his minister indifferently: however, the effect is the same: as the chief' always makes it a point of honour not to eat or drink while his dewan is in duress. Sometimes the Dherna lasts for many days, during which time the party upon whom it is exercised is not suffered to either eat or drink, to wash or pray; and in short he is not permitted to move from the spot where he sits, very frequently bare-headed in the sun, until the money or security be given. So general is this mode of recovery, that I suppose the Mahratta chiefs may be said to be nearly one half of their time in a state of Dherna.

There are other modes of Dherna, beside the one described above, which may be put in practice either for the recovery of property or character. I will mention two other methods. The first is thus: the creditor goes to the door of his debtor, and demands payment or security; which if not given, he stands up in his presence, with an enormous weight upon his head, which he brings with him for the purpose; swearing never to alter his position until satisfaction be given; denouncing at the same time the most horrible execrations on his debtor, should he suffer him to expire in that situation. This seldom fails to produce the desired effect; but should he actually die while in Dherna, the debtor's house is razed from the earth, and he and his family are sold for the satisfaction of the creditor's heirs.

There is another mode of Dherna still more desperate, but I believe not often recurred to. This is called raising a koor; which consists in erecting a large pile of wood before the house of the debtor, and after the customary application has been refused, the party ties on the top of the pile a cow or calf, or very frequently an old woman, generally his mother or other relation; swearing at the same time to set fire to it, if satisfaction be not instantly given: the old woman all the time denounces the bitterest curses, threatening to persecute the wicked debtor both here and hereaf ter. I apprehend this dreadful practice is seldom carried to the extreme: it obtains principally in Hindus

stan, and I believe it has never found its way into the Deccan. These modes are the only known ones to recover a debt, as the Mahrattas have no idea of civil or criminal jurisprudence.

CURIOUS LEGAL DECISION.

AN indictment was tried at Huntingdon assizes, in 1807, which excited no small degree of pleasantry as well as interest in the county; but the issue, perhaps, is the most singular that ever took place. It was an indictment against'a miller for a nuisance, for working his mill so near the common highway as to endanger the lives of his majesty's subjects, by frightening the horses travelling on the road. The prosecutor was a clergyman residing in the neighbourhood of Huntingdon, and a man of considerable property and consequence in the county. The mill in question was an old erection, and stood sometime back far out of the high road upon a common; but by a recent act of parJiament had been enclosed, and the only road left, unfortunately for the miller, passed close under the fly of his mill. The prosecutor, it appears, was compelled to go this road, and the mill being at work as he passed, the horse took fright and threw him. This happened with almost every horse that passed the mill. Mr. Justice Grose addressed the jury, and observed, that as the mill now stood, it was unquestionably a nuisance, and the miller must be found guilty. It was, however, no fault of his, he could not move his mill; but the Commissioners under the enclosure bill, who directed the road to be set out, were most to blame, and he regretted they had not been made parties in the indictment. Neither was the prosecutor to blame in pressing the indictment. He could go no other way since the inclosure, and his life, as well as those of his fellow subjects travelling by the mill, was endangered, while the mill remained in its present situation. Under such → circumstances he felt himself wholly at a loss how to act; the miller ought not to be punished for what he was innocent of, and yet the prosecutor's convenience, and the public safety, must be consulted. He thought,

however, that the best way of deciding it, would be to direct the prosecutor to pay the miller forty pounds, and the miller to abate the nuisance, with leave to erect his mill ou some convenient spot adjoining. This decision caused much surprise in the county, it being the first instance wherein a prosecutor was made to pay a fine for obtaining justice.

RETALIATION.

A CERTAIN secretary, under a certain administration, was asked by a particular friend, why he did not promote merit: to which he pertinently answered, "Why! because merit did not promote me.'

THE DUKE OF GRAFTON.

THE late duke of Grafton being one day fox-hunting, near Newmarket, a Quaker, upon an eminence, at some distance, pulled off his hat, and gave a " Yoix! Tallyho!" The hounds immediately ran to him, and being drawn off the scent were consequently at fault, which so enraged the Duke, that, galloping up to the offender, he asked him, in an angry tone," Art thou a quaker?" "I am friend," replied the man. "Well then," rejoined his grace," as you never pull off your hat to a Christian, I will thank you in future not to pay that compliment to a fox."

HENRY IV.

WHEN Henry the Fourth of France was reconciled to the church of Rome, it was expected that he should give some remarkable testimonial of his sincerity in returning to the true faith. He accordingly ordered a cross to be erected at Rome, near the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, with this inscription: In hoc signo vinces, on the principal part of it. This passed at first for very Catholic, until it was observed that the part on which the inscription was placed, is shaped in the form of a cannon; and that he had really attributed

to his artillery, what they had taken to be addressed to heaven.

READY WIT.

A MAN seeing, in a street in Paris, an old woman who drove some asses, said "Adieu, mother of asses.' “Adieu, adieu, my son," answered she.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE POCKET MAGAZINE. SIR,-The public has heard so much of the feats of the Chinese, the Indian, and other jugglers, who have exhibited in this city, that perhaps your readers may not be displeased to see an account of the numerous wonderful performances which are shewn by Indian exhibitors, in their own country. The narrative is by Colonel G. Ironside, who was long a resident in Hindustan, and often a witness of what he describes. I beg leave to say that, in my mention of "other jugglers," I mean no allusion to state jugglers: their tricks are so multifarions that a voJume might be employed in the description of them, and, after all, your readers would, I fear, receive but little pleasure from the perusal. I am, Your's,

ACCOUNT OF FEATS

OF

HOCUS POCUS.

STRENGTH, ACTIVITY AND LEGERDEMAIN

IN HINDUSTAN.

BALANCING.

FIVE earthen water pots are placed above each other on a man's head. A young girl mounts upon the uppermost, and the man then dances about with the pots and girl thus balanced.

A pole is raised to the height of about twenty-five feet, topped by a slender spindle, capped by a small brass ball. A yard is tied across the pole. About three feet below the yard-arm, hangs a bamboo bent into the shape of a crescent. A woman ascends the pole by one of its corded stays, as easily as by a ladder, fixes the ball into a brass socket, inserted within her No. 37.

D