JANUARY, 1848. A VOICE FROM IRELAND. COME, listen, happy Englishmen, O listen to my song ; 'Twill serve to pass the time away, Now nights are dark and long. While seated round your blazing fires With children on your knee, O listen to the groans of men Who starve across the sea. Think not some wild, fictitious woe Is brought before your view: I tell of thousands famishing, A tale, alas! too true. 0, famine is a fearful curse! Its sharp, corroding fang Crushes all other agonies Into one sickening pang. It blights the strong man's sinewy frame, To a phantom of unrest; The baby at her breast ! O could you from your happy homes But gaze on Skibbereen! Behold the famish'd skeletons Upon the cold, bare stones : For living human bones. Here lies the mother with her babes, And there the dying sire: No food ! no clothes ! no fire ! And some, while torture wrung their hearts To madness fierce and wild, Have tried to sell a little corpse, Their own beloved child ! And still disease and famine stalk Through all the dreary land; And will ye sit at home unmoved, Nor lift a helping hand ? Are we not men and brethren too, Bound by one common tie? Though govern'd in a different way, Our rulers best know why. O let not politics, nor creeds, Repress your generous zeal ; But in this dire extremity Show ye have hearts that feel. Amid your cheerful families, Blest with a prosperous state, Poor Ireland desolate! So may the Judge of all the earth Your land with favour view: May never fall on you ! Sophia Cooke Rogers. THE POLAR BEAR. Within the regions of the Arctic circle dwells the Polar bear. Formed to endure the most intense severity of cold, this Monarch of a gloomy, desolated realm prowls in sullen majesty over wastes of snow, and among ice-glaced rocks, in search of food. He traverses fields of ice along the shore, clambers over rugged icebergs, and even swims out from island to island, ravenous for his prey. The seal forms his favourite diet; but he is often glad to satisfy his hunger with seaweed, marsh-plants, and mountain-berries. He will dive after fish, and will not fear to attack the walrus itself. About November he goes out to sea in quest of seals, and becomes very fat. It often happens that he is drifted out from the coast on a floating field of ice; and in this way Polar bears are often carried from the coast of Greenland to Iceland, where they commit such ravages on the flocks, that the inhabitants rise in a body to destroy them. The fur of this animal is silvery white, tinged with yellow; the sole of the foot is almost entirely covered with long hair, affording it a firm footing on the ice. The claws are black, thick, and short. There was a white or Polar bear exhibited in one of our large cities, which, on being commanded to show the little boys and girls how to break ice, would rise on his hind-legs, and stamp with his fore-feet with all his might on the bottom of the cage. When Lord Nelson was a boy, he was tempted to leave his ship one night in pursuit of a bear. It was not long before he was missed by his Commander, who was very angry at such a daring act, as it greatly endangered the life of the young sailor. He had attempted to fire at the animal, but his musket flashed in the pan, and the bear would have torn him in pieces if Captain Lutwidge had not fired a gun and frightened the beast away. When young Nelson came on board, the Captain sternly reprimanded him for his folly, and desired to know what motive he could have for hunting a bear. “Sir,” said he, pouting his lip as he was wont to do when agitated, “I wished to kill the bear that I might carry the skin to my father." |