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A Subject of Importance to All. As a great moral good, affecting our interests for Time and Eternity, Temperance demands tho earnest attention of every one laboring for I the good of the race, and Intemperance, tho op posite evil, should be fully considered. Much as has been said and written upon this point, there jet remains a vast and rapidly-accumulat ing field of facts—stern, startling, soul-sickening facts—from which the writer or speaker may glean the material for an absorbing sketch or a thrilling oration. Who among us that has reach ed the age of maturity cannot recall some one, perhaps many instances of the baneful effects of intoxicating liquors. In some cases how fearful the remembrance, of a near relative, a father or a brother, perhaps some dear friend, under their maddening influence. How fervent were the prayers that went up to tho Throne of Grace, that Ho would exercise an Omnipotent control over the loved one, and give him tho needed strength to overcome the Demon of Evil who is relent lessly forcing him down into the unfathomable abyss of misery, where kind friends, good ad vice, and all laudable ambition are forgotten, and tho poor wretch sinks lower and lower ; no friendly hand to interpose, and save him from tho fate to which he is madly hastening, the acme of human degradation and guilt, a Drunkard's Grave. Not a loved one near to compose the distorted limbs, and close the eyes in death, when the " fell destroyer " shall choose him for a victim. Those eyes which will no more Hash with drunken rage and hate, nor gleam with an intelligent thought or a loving smile. How sad the picture, yet how true ! How earnestly you labored with the erring one, and, oh, how you itrove with him, in his calmer moments, to abandon " the sin which had so easily beset tlim," and resolve to consult his best interests by controlling his wayward appetite and, break ing off all connection with his former dissolute associates, commence anew a life of domestic ranquility and virtuous happiness. What a long catalogue of degraded crimes, of misery and misfortune may be traced to this accursed fountain-head, and how many of the 'bright and shining lights " of this and former fenerations have been partially eclipsed, aye, otally darkened by this foul blot upon our en ightened civilization. Yet few in number are 'he advocates of Temperance, whero legions mould be found, who would bo willing to go 'into the highways and byways" on a saving mission to the poor outcasts who frequent the horoughfares of our cities and towns, and are o bo met with wherever man has yet dared dis >ute tho sway of Nature, and mado for himself 4 a habitation and a name." Lot our ministers md other guardians of tho public morals, take lp "the swelling theme" more earnestly than lerctofore, and determine to give at least one ' word in season " toward the glorious end to be ccomplished in tho freeing of mankind from the ' hams of a Slavery more debasing and destruct ve, both *to mind and body, than that from rtiich our nation is now being so rapidly freed. Vith this vico of Intemperance, now acting as ta incubus upon our national prosperity and ad ancement, onco removed, and with that grand ictory over armed traitors and troason which 11 loyal men are looking forward to with hope ll hearts, who can doubt but that wo will soon i o enabled to take that high rank among tho ] ations of tho world which our boundless re- ■ us. May the time speedily come when wo shall be a free, happy, prosperous and temperate nation. W. P. G. The Fatal Rifle. A party of men may be easily frightened, and their number materially lessoned by a single sharp shooter. A fact which is fairly illustra ted in the following from a lato London journal. Mr. M'Kerdy, a gentleman, speaking to a vol unteer meeting at Lesmahagow, told the follow ing anecdote: "Many years ago, when travelling on the continent, I had a servant, an old Prussian sol -1 dier, who related to me the following remark able circumstance— " In 1813 or 1814 he belonged to a corps of on I thousand men of small arms, operating as a guard on the right bank of the Rhine, while the French were in possession of the country on the left of the river. The season was early in au tumn, when the weather was delightful, and the harvest just gathered in. " One afternoon the corps bivouacked near the river for the advantage of water, and the [place was considered perfectly safe from attacks, as the opposite bank was a vast plain of corn stub bio, without a single fence as far as the eye could reach; an advancing army, therefore, could be most easily seen. The river was un fordable, and about 200 yards broad. "Thetroops, thereforo, considered themselves perfectly safe from attack, and set about pre paring their supper, and making themselves comfortable for the night, when a shot was heard from the opposite bank, and a cry from the bi vouac that a man was wounded. Every soldier started instantly to his legs, and looked across I the river, but no one could see even the vestige of an enemy, which greatly surprised* all, as I there was no covert, and the yellow stubble was especially well adapted to show the smallest ob ject for a considerable distance from tho river. "While the whole corps were thus gazing, a puff of smoke was seen rising about fifty yards from the stream, followed by tho report of a rifle and another soldier dropped wounded. In a moment, without the aid of an officer, about one hundred men rushed to the water and com menced firing at the spot where the shots came, although nothing but the stubble was to bo seen. J "Soon there was another report, followed by the fall of another man, which so exasperated the whole force that nearly every soldier set about firing at the spot from which tho puffs of smoke were seen to arise. By this time all were convinced that the mischief was done by a single gentleman. "Some eighteen shots had been fired by the rifleman, and seventeen men had been killed and wounded, when to the great satisfaction of all, a man was seen to spring from the stubble, a shot having hit him, but this did not take place until many thousand had been fired at him. " Here is an evidence of the power of tho rifle. The man had laid down in a slight hollow, so small that it was not perceptible across the river, and there brought down seventeen men, while Ihe lay in almost perfect safety. He nearly rout ed a little army." _ i ■■ > m Good-nature, like the little busy bee, collects sweetness from every herb; while ill-nature, like the spider, collects poison from honeyed On the 17th of September last there died at Florence, and amid thescenes with which ho had been so long familiar, the aged poet and eccen tric philanthropist, Walter Savage Landor. The details of the circumstances of his death have not yet come to hand, but the mere fact is all that in essential. The news will surprise no one, for Landor had long since outlived the usual spnn of time allotted to man's life. He was the son of wealthy' parents living at Ipsley Court, in the county of Warwick, Eng land, where he was born in 1775. He passed his earlier school days at Rugby, and received his college education at Trinity, Oxford, enjoying all the time the advantages of a private tutor, and every other educational benefit that money could procure. Mr. Landor's literary productions are rather those of an accomplished literary amateur of ed ucation and refinement than of a professional author. With every advantage of wealth and position to induce a life of graceful and useless idleness, it is surprising that he wrote at all; and as it is, none of his works bear tho deep impress of writers who have been sharpened or spurred on by misfortune or oppression. It is difficult to imagine a more delightful life than Landor has passed. Education and parental care in youth ; adventure and romance in early man hood; a middle age spent in domestic privacy, and an old age surrounded by family and friends j —the whole career, moreover, enhanced by the possession of a fortune which relieved its posses sor from fear of the future or thought of the nior- i«i The Zouave's Treasury. If one half of what is said of the Zouaves i* authentic, they are the most singular body of men in Christendom. Their propensity for the whimsical was well illustrated on the late feto Napoleon. During the march of the troops along tho boulevards and on the Place Vendome, pub lic attention was fixed on an elegantly equipped little dog, strutting jauntily at the head of tho regiment of Zouaves of the Imperial Guard.— From each sido of his tiny saddle a box in tho shape of a canteen was suspended—thus present ing tho appearance of a mule laden with pan niers, and on each of these boxes was written "The Zouavos' Treasury." But these words were to every one but themselves an enigma, which they solved by relating tho following story: The dog was called " Magenta," because on the day of the terrible battle of that narao, he was found in a house from which the affright ed owners had fled, and which had been de stroyed by French projectiles. Oneof the party, out of pity and because of the creature's gentle ness, adopted him. The dog's fidelity, accom panying them on the march, to the bivouac, and even to tho field of battle, insured him kind treatment from his new masters, and, after hav ing purtaken their perils, it was natural that he should share in their triumphs. Nay, more, to manifest their kindness for their protege, thoy attached to his head several of the bouquets that I were showered on themselves during the morn- I ing. And this characteristic interpretation wan given to the inscription on the dog. " Magenta, to make himself useful," said one of the sol diers, " must carry something." " That's true," said another, " but as he is not strong, wo must give him that which is lightest for us to bear." " Then let us entrust to him our money," added a third. And this was the origin of the sentence I "The Zouaves' Treasury." ,c