Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 002.djvu/451

1818.] To tyrannous hate! swell bosom with thy fraught, For 'tis of aspicks' tongues! Again, Was this fair paper, this most godly book Made to write whore upon? what, committed! Committed!—Impudent strumpet!"

But when he hangs over the sleeping Desdemona, vengeance is swallowed up in measureless grief, and he is melted into tears, tears of agony for the deed he is about to perpetrate, the murder of all that is lovely, where he had " garnered up his heart/' Justice to break her sword : One more, one more. [Kissing for. Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill tliee, And love thee after: One more and this the last : So sweet was ne'er so fatal I must weep Desdemona awakes, his eyes roll, and he bites his lip,, and vengeance re- turns (when he thinks on the cause) to benight his soul. If I be right in this interpretation, the passage should be printed thus : It is the cause, it is the cause, my oul. Let me not name it to you, ye chaste stars ! It is the cause, &c. J. H. ANECDOTE OF THE LATE DR WITHER- SPOON, IN 17i5. WHEN the country was alarmed at the Pretender's army, several parishes in the west raised corps of militia, which were paid by tne heritors or inhabitants. Among others, the parish of Beith, in Ayrshire, furnished its quota of militiamen. The late Dr John Witherspoon was at this time minister of Beith, He animated his parishioners in the cause ; and I have seen a resolution in the Doctor's own handwriting, of the feuars and tenants of one division of this parish, to fur- nish their proportion of the militia. As the document is curious, I give you it verbatim. " We, the subscribing farmers and tenants within the ba- roney of Broadstone, in the parish of' Beith, doe hereby bind ourselves, each of us for ourselves, effeiring to our re- spective valuations, to furnish seven men to join the other militia from the said parish, and to march with them to Stirling, for the support of our re- ligion and liberty, and in defence of our only rightful and lawful sove- reign King George, against his ene- inys engaged in the present rebellion, VOL. IL 43S which militia being to be engaged in the said cause, for the space of thirty days from the day of their marching from Beith, they shall be supported accordingly, agreeable to our different proportions, at the rate of two pence half penny sterling, upon every pound Scotts of valuation." (Then follows the subscriptions of eighteen different persons.) The Reverend gentleman put him- self at the head of this corps of Beith militia, and marched to Glasgow. At this place they were informed, that from the confidence reposed in the King's troops, as well as from their numbers, compared with those of the enemy, it would not be necessary for the militia to go farther, and they got orders to return. Mr Wither- spoon's enthusiasm was not so rea- dily cooled; he went forward, and was present at the battle of Falkirk. He was there taken prisoner, along with the Reverend Mr M'Vey, mini- ster of Dreghorn. They were both carried to Down Castle, where Mr Witherspoon remained prisoner un- til after the battle of Culloden. Mr M'Vey was more fortunate. Being a man of little stature, he got himself dressed in woman's attire, and walked out of his prison, carrying a tea-kettle. Mr Witherspoon was at length set at liberty, though his health was consi- derably impaired by this confinement. He was afterwards translated from Beith to Paisley, and in 1768 went to America, where his political and mili- tary career is well known ; and where, by his conduct, he shewed, that under whatever government he lived, it be- came him tto be a faithful subject. He died in 1794. His works have been published in nine volumes. His me- mory is venerated wherever he was known, and he is yet talked of by many who remember him with un- feigned respect. S, E. ABSTRACT OF METEOROLOGICAL OB- SERVATIONS FOR THE YEAll 1817. MR EDITOR, THOUGH I have already submitted to your readers an abstract of my meteor- ological observations for each month of 1817 separately, I hope it may not be uninteresting to any of them, but especially to such as may not be in possession of the earner Numbers of your Work, to see an abstract for the 3K
 * O balmy breath, thou dost almost persuade