SCOTCH SNOW-STORMS. THE most dismal of all the snow-storms on record, is "the thirteen drifty days." This extraordinary storm, as near as I have been able to trace, must have occurred in the year 1620. The traditionary stories and pictures of desolation that remain of it, are the most dire imaginable; and the mention of the thirteen days to an old shepherd, in a stormy winter night, never fails to impress his mind with a sort of religious awe, and often sets him on his knees before that Being who alone can avert such another calamity.

It is said that during thirteen days and nights, the snow-drift never once abated; the ground was covered with frozen snow when it commenced, and, during all that time, the sheep never broke their fast. The cold was intense, to a degree never before remembered; and, about the fifth and sixth days of the storm, the young sheep began to fall into a sleepy and torpid state, and all that were so affected in the evening, died during the night. The intensity of the frost-wind often cut them off, when in that state, instantaneously. About the ninth and tenth days, the shepherds began to build up large semicircular walls of their dead, in order to afford some shelter for the remainder of the living; but they availed but little, for about the same time they were frequently seen tearing at one another's wool with their teeth.

When the storm abated, on the fourteenth day from its commencement, there was, on many a highlying farm, not a living sheep to be seen. Large misshapen walls of dead, surrounding a small prostrate flock, likewise all dead, and frozen stiff in their lairs, were all that remained to cheer the forlorn shepherd and his master; and though, on low-lying farms, where the snow was not so hard before, numbers of sheep weathered the storm, yet their constitutions received such a shock, that the greater part of them perished afterwards; and the final consequence was, that about nine-tenths of all the sheep in the south of Scotland were destroyed. In the extensive pastoral district of Eskdale Moor, which maintains upwards of twenty thousand sheep, it is said none were left alive, but forty young wedders on one farm, and five old ewes on another. The farm of Thaup remained without a stock, and without a tenant, for twenty years after the storm; at length one very honest and liberal-minded man ventured to take a lease of it, at the annual rent of a grey coat and a pair of hose. It is now rented at 5007. An extensive glen in Tweedsmuir, belonging to Sir James Montgomery, became a common at that time, to which any man drove his flocks that pleased, and it continued so for nearly a century.

The years 1709, 40, and 72, were all likewise notable years for severity, and for the losses sustained among the flocks of sheep. In the latter, the snow lay from the middle of December until the middle of April, and all the time hard frozen. Partial thaws always kept the farmer's hopes alive, and thus prevented him from removing his sheep to a low situation, till at length they grew so weak that they could not be removed. There has not been such a general loss in the days of any man living, as in that year. It is by these years that all subsequent hard winters have been measured, and of late, by that of 1795; and when the balance turns out in favour of the calculator, there is always a degree of thankfulness expressed, as well as a composed submission to the awards of Divine Providence. The daily feeling naturally impressed on the shepherd's mind, that all his comforts are so entirely in the

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hand of Him who rules the elements, contributes not a little to that firm spirit of devotion for which the Scottish shepherd is so distinguished. I know of no scene so impressive as that of a family sequestered in a lone glen, during the time of a winte storm; and where is the glen in the kingdom tha wants such a habitation? There they are left to the protection of Heaven, and they know and feel it. Throughout all the wild vicissitudes of nature, they have no hope of assistance from man, but are con versant with the Almighty alone.

Before retiring to rest, the shepherd uniformly goes out to examine the state of the weather, and makes his report to the little dependent group within-nothing is to be seen but the conflict of the elements, nor heard but the raving of the storm. Then they all kneel around him, while he recommends them to the protection of Heaven; and though their little hymn of praise can scarcely be heard even by themselves, as it mixes with the roar of the tempest, they never fail to rise from their devotions with their spirits cheered, and their confidence renewed, and go to sleep with an exultation of mind, of which kings and conquerors have no share.

But of all the storms that ever Scotland witnessed, or, I hope, will ever again behold, there is none of them that can once be compared to the memorable 24th of January 1795, which fell with such peculiar violence on that division of the south of Scotland, that is between Crawford-muir and the border. Within these bounds seventeen shepherds perished, and upwards of thirty were carried home insensible, who afterwards recovered: but the number of sheep that were lost, far outwent any possibility of calculation. One farmer alone, Mr. Thomas Beattie, lost 1440; and many others, in the same quarter, from 600 to 800 each. Whole flocks were overwhelmed with snow, and no one ever knew where they were, till the snow dissolved, when they were all found dead. Many hundreds were driven into waters, burns, and lakes, by the violence of the storm, where they were buried or frozen up; and these the flood carried away, so that they were never seen nor found by the owners at all.

The following anecdote somewhat illustrates the confusion and devastation that it bred in the country : the greater part of the rivers, on which the storm was most deadly, run into the Solway-Frith, on which there is a place called the Beds of Esk, where the tide throws out and leaves whatsoever is thrown into it by the rivers. When the flood after the storm subsided, there were found in that place, and the shores adjacent, 1840 sheep, nine black cattle, three horses, two men, one woman, forty-five dogs, one hundred and eighty hares, besides a number of meaner animals.

LIFE appears long to the miserable; to him that is happy, a moment. If this hold true of eternity, how dreadful will the condition of some be!

IF you would know the value of a guinea, try to borrow one of a stranger.-HUNTER.

THE ARCH OF TITUS. THE Emperor Titus having conquered Judea, and taken Jerusalem, the Roman senate decreed, that a triumphal arch should be erected to his honour. This arch still remains, and is one of the most curious and interesting monuments of ancient Rome. It is attractive to the sculptor, the antiquary, and the historian, in many points of view-but above all it is interesting to the Christian; and to the Jew so deeply affecting, on account of the humiliating calamity which

it records, that, it is said, u man of that nation will ever willingly pass under it. It is not simply the vent that it commemorates, so intimately connected both with the Law and the Gospel, from which it derives its interest, though that is remarkable enough, but the strong light which it throws by its sculpture upon several of those sacred deposits of the temple, which were most intimately connected with the service of the Jewish ritual, and carry us back even to the time of the great legislator himself.

The Arch of Titus is situated on the eastern declivity of the Palatine mount. On approaching it from the south (being the side least injured by time) its original form is lost in ruins at each extremity; but the arch itself, a column on each side of it, with the frieze and attic, are still pretty entire. The building, in its original form, must have been nearly an exact square. It is constructed of white marble. In the space formed by the curve of the arch, there are winged figures, personifying Fame. Upon the frieze is a representation of a sacrifice, with an allegorical figure at the extremity of the procession, carried upon a litter.

Upon entering the arch (which is about fourteen or fifteen feet wide) on each side are oblong spaces, seven feet in height, by nearly fourteen in length, containing a representation of the triumph of Titus, when he returned to Rome, after having taken Jerusalem.

On the east side appears the emperar in a triumphal car, drawn by four horses; Victory is crowning him with laurel; Rome personified as a female figure, conducts the horses; and citizens and soldiers crowned with laurel, compose the crowd that attends him.

During the time these sculptures were in execution, the objects themselves must have been under the eyes of the artist, as the accidents to which their loss is attributed, happened long after the arch was completed. The same sacred vessels made under the immediate direction of Moses, did not exist in the Temple at the time it was destroyed: those brought back from Babylon having been carried off by Antiochus Epiphanes, but they were immediately replaced by persons well acquainted with their form, and it is still easy to trace the general outlines of these objects in Exodus xxv. 3-36. The Jewish Historian, Josephus, an eye-witness of the triumph of Vespasian and Titus, distinctly mentions these objects as making a conspicuous figure in the procession. After mentioning some other particulars, he says, " But for these (spoils) that were taken in the Temple of Jerusalem, they made the greatest figure of them all; that is, the golden table of the weight of many talents; the candlestick also that was made of gold,"-" the branches were in number seven, and represented the honour in which the number seven was held among the Jews." He then adds, " and after these triumphs were over, Vespasian resolved to build a temple to Peace: he also laid up therein these golden vessels and instruments that were taken out of the Jewish temple, as ensigns of his glory. But still he gave orders that they should lay up their law and the purple veil of the holy place in the imperial palace itself, and keep them there*.'

Thus, although injured by time and accident, there is still standing at Rome a resemblance, taken from the objects themselves, of the holy instruments and vessels, originally formed according to divine instruction, 3323 years ago; bearing undeniable evidence to the truth of the Mosaic history.

It is probable that part of these injuries may be attributed to the antipathy which the Jews have to this monument of their final overthrow. The lapse of eighteen centuries has not effaced the memory of that calamity from the minds of the modern Jews.

At little more than a thousand paces from this monument, there is another memorial of their subjugation. In what is called the Ghetto Ebrei (or abode for Jews), from five to six thousand of them reside, and are confined every night, from an hour after sun-set till an hour before sun-rising, in a few arrow and dirty streets that have been allotted to

them.

After eighteen centuries of persecution, they remain a living monument and illustration of some of the most remarkable passages of Scripture prophecy. Moses foretold in detail, the miseries of the siege which Josephus has related, and predicted the signal punishment that awaited their unbelief; and the honours conferred upon Titus for completing their ruin, took place at the distance of no less than half a century from the time that our Saviour forewarned them of its approach. These prophecies are in our hands, and the captive nation itself has been dispersed among us to attest their accomplishment.

If the present condition of the Jews be a fact, for which we have the evidence of our senses, so the

The Copy of the Law and the Purple Veil of the Sanctuary were accordingly preserved in the imperial palace; thus they all remained for more than 300 years, till in the sack of Rome, 455, they

fell into the hands of Genseric, and were carried into Africa to Carthage from thence they were afterwards translated to Constantinople, then the capital of the Roman empire, by Belisarius, who recovered them in his conquest of Africa; and by a strange vicissitude they were again transferred to Jerusalem. What has become of them since, it is difficult to conjecture; it is suspected by some, they were carried to Persia in the year 641, by Chosroes, but there are doubts whether the ship in which they were embarked ever reached its destination

memory of those events which led to it, have been guarded by every circumstance that can give authenticity to history *.

Two Roman emperors of eminent renown (Vespasian and Titus) were employed in the work of destruction, and the notice taken of it by their contemporaries proves it to have been regarded as the most prominent achievement of their reign. The exploits of Roman power were recorded and speedily published to the utmost limits of an empire that extended from the Thames to the Euphrates. Surviving the convulsions by which that mighty empire was torn in pieces, the Jews remain a distinct people, preserving with religious care the history of their crimes, and sentences of condemnation, and though in avowed enmity to Christianity, supporting by their obstinacy the evidence of its truth.

Medals were also struck on the occasion, on one side of which there is a female figure in the attitude of grief, under a palm-tree, with the words JUDEA CAPTA, and on the other, the head of Vespasian or Titus.

THE following notice of Straw-platting, abridged from a fuller account, collected during the last Autumn in the districts where the occupation is followed, is published under the impression that it will excite an interest for the improvement of this ingenious manufacture, and lead to the adoption of it in new districts, where the supply of a populous neighbourhood may render it a profitable employment to industrious females. At the present time, upwards of 200,000 females are engaged in the process.

The precise period when the Dunstable bonnets made of straw-plat, that is of entire wheat-straws. platted in long narrow strips, and afterwards sewn together, were invented, is unknown. The Dunstable bonnet is probably a century and a half old.-Gay, in his Shepherd's Week, said to have been written about