dwelling. It is only by ceasing to see Azakia that I can cease to be ungrateful to Ouabi.” These words chilled with palenefs the young savage's face: Her tears flowed almost at the same instant, and she did not endeavour to conceal them. "Ah! ungratful Celario!" cried fhe, with sobs, and pressing his hands between her own; "is it true, ungrateful Celario! that thou hast a mind to quit those, to whom thou art more dear than the light of the bright star of the day? What have we done to thee, that thou shouldest leave us? Is any thing wanting to thee? Dost thou not see me continually by thy side, as the slave that wants but the beck to obey? Why wilt thou have Azakia die of grief? Thou canst not leave her, with out taking with thee her soul: It is thine as her body is Ouabi's." The entrance of Ouabi stopped the answer of St. Castins. Azakia still continued weeping, without restraining herself, without hiding for a moment the cause. Friend," said fhe to the Huron, "thou still seest Celario; thou seest him, and thou mayest speak to and hear him; but he will soon disappear from before thine eyes; he is going to seek other friends." "Other friends!" cried the savage, almost as much alarmed as Azakia herself; " and what, dear Celario! what induces thee to tear thyself from our arms? Hast thou received here any injury, any damage? Answer me; thou knowest my authority in these parts. I swear to thee, by the great spirit, that thou fhalt be satisfied, and revenged.' This question greatly embarrassed St. Castins. He had no reasonable subject for complaint; and the true motive of his resolution ought to be absolutely unknown to Quabi. There was a necefsity of pretending some trivial and common reasons, which the good Ouabi found very ridiculous. "Let us speak of other things," added he; to morrow I set out on an expedition against the Iro quois; and this evening I give to our warriors the custo- It is certain that this young savage loved her guest; and loved him with a love purely ideal, without doubting that it was such a love. She even took a resolution, which others who loved as fhe did, certainly would not have taken, which was to procure for St Castins the opportu nity of obtaining from another, what herself had obstinately refused him. The charms of the rival she gave herself, were well calculated to attract his regards. She was but eighteen years old, was very handsome, and which was not lefs necessary, was still a virgin. It has been before observed, that a maiden enjoys full liberty among the North American Indians. St Castins, encouraged by Azakia, had divers conferences with Zisma, which was the name of this young Huron lady, and in a few days he could read in her eyes that fhe would be lefs severe than his friend. It is not known whether he profited of the discovery: At least it did not make him forget Azakia, who, on her side, seemed to have no inclination to be forgotten. St VOL. vii. A A Castins felt himself, notwithstanding all his interior struggles, more attracted towards her. An accident, which every where else might have contributed to unite them, had like to have separated them for ever. His geHe for They were informed by some runaways, who had made more speed than others, that Ouabi had fallen into an ambuscade of the Iroquois ; that he had lost some of his party; and that he himself was left on the field of battle. This news filled St Castins with true sorrow. nerosity made him set aside all views of interest. got that in losing a friend, he found himself rid of a rival. Besides the death of this rival might also occasion that of Azakia. Her life, from that moment, depended on the caprice of a dream. Such was the force of a superstitious custom, sacred from time immemorial among these people. If, in the space of forty days, a widow, who has lost her husband, sees and speaks to him twice successively in a dream, the infers from thence that he wants her in the region of souls, and nothing can dispense with her putting herself to death. Azakia had resolved to obey this custom, if the double dream took place. She sincerely regretted Ouabi; and though St Castins gave her cause for other sorrows, if she was to die, the prevalency of the custom had the ascendant over inclination. It is not easy to express the inquietudes, the terrors, that tormented the lover of this beautiful and credulous Huron. Every night he fancied her a prey to those sinister visions; and every morning he accosted her with fear and trembling. At length he found her preparing a mortal draught: It was the juice of a root of the citron tree; a poison which, in that country, never fails of success. "Thou seest, dear Celario!" said Azakia to him, "thou seest the preparation for the long journey which Ouabi has ordered me to make." "Oh heavens !" said St Castins, interrupting her, "how can you believe in a foolish dream, a frivolous and deceitful delusion?" "Stop Celario!" replied the Huron; "thou deceivest thyself. Ouabi appeared to me last night; he took me by the hand, and ordered me to follow him. The weight of my body opposed this order. Ouabi withdrew with a mournful countenance. I called him back, and the only answer he gave me, was to stretch out his arms to me, and he afterwards disappeared. He will return without doubt; dear Celario I must obey him! and after bewailing thy hard lot, I will swallow this draught, which will lull my body into the sleep of death; and then I will go and rejoin Ouabi in the abode of souls." To be concluded in our next. PROCEEDINGS, IN PARLIAMENT. CORN BILL NEVER was a bill introduced into parliament, in a more pompous manner than that which forms the subject of our present discussion; and seldom, perhaps, has any bill pafsed into a law, which reflects lefs honour on those who prepared and brought it forward. Our readers are already in possession of the bill, as it was modelled before it was pafsed into a law, in the abstract of it which was given in the sixth volume of the Bee, p. 29. It remains only that we should give a cursory account of the steps that were taken, preparatory to the introduction of the bill, and the modifications it underwent in its progress through the House. Administration avowed that they had had this bill in contemplation for some time past; and boasted that they had been at so much pains in their previous investigation of the subject, that they were prepared to bring in a bill, that should not be of a temporary and mutable nature; but that it should be calculated to supersede the necessity' of future amendments, and ought, therefore, to be account ed a permanent corn bill. Men who have been accustomed to peruse treaties of everlasting peace and concord, will not, perhaps, be surprised to see this permanent law become one of the least stable that was ever enacted by the British parliament: But to people of simple understanding, there seems to be something very absurd in all this. The bill was mentioned during the last parliament, and a committee of privy council were ordered to investigate the subject, and to report; upon this they accordingly did report, and that report having been published, it was circulated throughout the nation during the recefs of parliament, to prepare the minds of the people, in some measure, for the regulations that might be expected to flow from the principles there afsumed. It would exceed our limits to give a detailed account of all these principles; but one, which seems to have influenced the framers of the bill, through all its clauses, cannot with propriety be here overlooked. It was afsumed as a fact, sufficiently demonstrated by the evidence produced, that Britain does not at present produce a sufficient quantity of corn to sustain its inhabitants; and from this fact they inferred, as an undeniable axiom, that Britain never can hope to be able to produce enough to sustain its inhabitants, unless they fhould fall considerably fhort of their present numbers. And as it is hoped that it may be pofsible, in spite of foreign wars, multiplied colonies, plans for plundering distant nations, or other motives for emigrations, equally powerful, that may at a future period obtain the sanction of government, that our population may not materially decrease, it hence follows, as an undeniable consequence, that in order to feed our people, it will be indispensibly necefsary to import corn from foreign parts in one way or another. But as these gentlemen also found, that all the countries in Europe were nearly in the same situation with ourselves, in respect to provisions, and would have little or nothing to spare for us, they saw no other pofsible resource than to apply to America for aid, on whose bounty alone, we must in future depend for our daily bread. On this reasoning as a basis, the important business of regulating the imports and exports of corn was founded. In a matter of so much importance, as that of providing food for a whole people, it is not fit that the nation fhould blindly adopt the opinion of any set of men whatever; far lefs the opinions of men, who, from their rank |