An event happened in the village which caused some sensation about this time. John Thomas------, plumber and house painter, High street, had four children by a former wife and four by his present wife. The father of the first wife died, leaving £1,000 in the 3 per cent consols for the benefit of her children when they respectively came of age. The eldest son, John, was a wild, drunken youth, who in one of his paroxysms of rage threatened to stab his father. He then went to sea, and at the close of his then distant voyage would be twenty-one years of age and of course come in for his £250. Now his father, dreading his presence on his return, and believing that the possession of this money would only tend to increase the evil habits of the boy in an unsound state of mind, bethought himself of intercepting his obtaining it, and after much cogitation in an evil hour forged his co-trustee's name, a Mr. ------, made application for the consols through the medium of a broker, and was a prisoner in the compter, all in the same day. Not being acquainted with Mr.------, and decidedly opposed to him in politics, I was not a little surprised to receive a letter on the following morning from his legal adviser, Mr. Gregson, requesting an interview at the prison. My better feelings prompting, I yielded to his desire and repaired to the scene of anguish. A description of this meeting lies beyond my power: to depict the condition of the deeply contrite prisoner, the painful distress of his young wife, with a baby at her breast, and that of his daughter Emma, who would accompany her stepmother to the jail. Even Mr. Gregson evinced feeling of distress, and addressing himself to me, said: "We have sent for you, Mr. Johnston, to ask you to do an act of kindness to this miserable family, the head of which has brought ruin upon it by an act which would a short time ago have cost him his life. Happily, the law of late has been humanized, but the punishment awaiting the crime of forgery is necessarily still severe, namely, transportation to a penal settlement, the maximum being for life and the minimum for seven years. Now, with a view to shorten the term as much as possible, I have advised Mr.------to throw himself on the mercy of the court by pleading guilty of the crime with which he will in all probability be charged, and I am glad he has consented to do so. According to law his real estate on his conviction will be confiscated to the crown, and his wife and family thereby reduced to pauperism. To obviate this additional calamity we have taken the liberty of asking your aid. I have prepared a deed of trust and guardianship to be subscribed by Mr.------, giving the power to act into the hands of any person he thinks proper to appoint, and all parties concerned join me in requesting you to be kind enough to assume the responsibility for the sake of the suffering family. The duties will be simply to collect the rents of eight houses in Hill street, Peckham, quarterly, and out of the proceeds pay weekly to Mrs.------such allowance as the creditors of Mr.------ shall deem meet for the maintenance of the family, the balance to accumulate enough to warrant a dividend, which you shall call whensoever the cash in hand is sufficient to justify the expense." To the proposition I found it impossible to say nay. Nor was the document completed any too soon, for the trial came off earlier than was anticipated, the poor man received his sentence of seven years' transportation beyond the seas, and I found myself in charge of his wife and seven children during all the long years of his absence. My wife invited Emma to live with us, which she did for many years. The compassion and sympathy of the neighbors ran high in favor of the poor fellow, now he was condemned, many believing that he never intended to appropriate the money to himself, and that he spoke the truth when he said that the only motive which prompted the perpetration of the crime was an earnest desire to check the downward progress of his first-born son. Imbued with similar notions, and believing the severity of the punishment indicated a lack of discrimination in the case, being strengthened by the popular sentiment, I conceived the idea of keeping him by a well-timed effort at home. I first went to the seat of the learned leisure of the vicar and asked him to head a petition to the prime minister in behalf of John Thomas------, with a view of retaining him in England during his term of punishment. "I cannot sign such a petition," the vicar said. "Will you be kind enough to enlighten me with your reasons?" "As vicar of the parish of St. Giles, Camber-well, as justice of the peace, as a conservator of the law, I cannot sanction any movement that is contrary to the course of law." "I hope you will pardon me, but you appear to mistake the object of my mission, which is by no means to defeat justice, but to temper justice with mercy." Most of the justices of the peace refused to sign until the vicar headed the petition. Failing with the high priest I went to the poorly paid curate, who supported a family on a miserable pittance, Rev. H. W. C. Hyde, who readily headed the list; the notables of Camberwell quickly followed, and the petition was in two days swollen to an enormous magnitude. I then went to the neighboring parish of Lewisham, where------had been in business in his early years. The rector of the parish spoke well of the poor convict, and commenced a list that everybody signed that I could reach in the short space of time I had to spare.

On the following morning, on my way to the Home Office with the enormous list of sympathizers, who should take a seat next to me in the omnibus but my prince of antagonists, the vicar, who greeted me kindly, and was pleased to express his admiration of my indefatigability and pleasure at the success with which it was met, and even hoped that my efforts would not be thrown away, but have the desired effect. In fact, he was so genial as to lead me to suppose that he only required asking to induce him to sign the document. It was his place, I thought, to lead off. Following this supposition a train of thought set in. What if he should the second time refuse? We had wonderfully well succeeded without his aid : let him slide, and he slid. A cab soon brought me to Downing street, Westminster, where the government buildings are situated, wherein the executive affairs of England and her worldwide colonies are transacted. I had, in the canvass of the first two general elections of reformed parliaments, taken an active part, more particularly in behalf of our popular member, Benjamin Hawes, Jr., who in the interim had been elevated to the under-secretaryship of the colonies. Leaving my bulky parcel with the liveried porter, I was ushered into the waiting hall of the Colonies office, which was filled nearly to crowding by representatives from all parts of the world, many in their native costumes, waiting their turn for audience. To my agreeable surprise, on sending in my card I was immediately favored with an interview. Hastily informing Mr. Hawes of that which had been done in the case, I besought him to lose no time in assisting me through.

DIALOGUE: "What do you want of me?" "An introduction to the premier." "You know not what you ask." "I have ventured to ask, and I beseech you not to delay,—to-morrow if possible." "Who is this Mr.------? I don't know him." "It is not likely you should know him, for he was one of our bitterest political enemies when you were running for Lambeth on both occasions, but we lose no prestige in helping a Tory out of a scrape." "Where is your petition?" "In the outer office." Having the documents before him he expressed surprise at the number of names, many of whom were those of his friends and political admirers. He then said that to present a petition to the. minister in person would not be in accordance with the established rule. "You will therefore please to leave it with me, and I will present it in due form, and also do all I can to promote its prayer. But with regard to the other feature of your request, namely, an interview with the premier, I am afraid I can hold out no hope. Business at the present juncture is so pressing that I am loth to trespass on his time, even for a moment." I rose to depart, offering an apology for having occupied so much of his valuable time, when, placing his hand in mine, looking me straight in the eye, and doubtless detecting the illy-concealed workings of disappointment therein depicted, said: "Good-day, my dear friend ; be not discouraged, we know nothing of to-morrow." On the following day I received a note to call at his office next morning, which summons I gladly obeyed, and speedily found myself, under the auspices of Mr. Hawes, in the presence of the ruler of the British empire. The kindly greeting and simple mannerism of the premier inspired me with courage. I felt at ease when he said, "I have examined your petition in behalf of J. T: ------, handed to me by Mr. Hawes, asking a commutation of his sentence of seven years. You have expressed, a wish to see me on the subject; pray give me your views and I will listen." What I said I know not. But a favorable impression was evinced by the receipt of the following note:

Dear Sir,—I have to inform you that the sentence of John Thomas ------has been commuted from seven years' transportation to a penal settlement to two years in Portsmouth dockyard.

(Signed,) Benjamin Hawes, Jr.

The joy of Mrs.------, of Emma (who was now one of us), and the family was unbounded. The congratulations of the parishioners were numerous and sincere. During the period of his servitude he conducted himself with marked propriety, and became very useful to the government, which secured him many privileges, and even wages for extra work. Poor Emma received her periodical letters from her father, whom she dearly loved. They were generally satisfactory, though perused by the authorities. His black locks had become a sable silvered, but his health was excellent; nothing to complain of in the treatment, the restrictions falling short of the deserts of his folly. At length, restored to his manhood, he reached his home under the shades of night, and in the same hour, in the presence of Emma, in my parlor, poured out his soul in gratitude for what had been done in the behalf of himself and family. A debtor and creditor account of my stewardship I handed him, with the balance in hand; "and now," he said, with unspeakable thanks, "for what you have done for us, I hope you will pardon me asking a continuance of your legislation for a short time. I have had an offer for the property in Hill street, which would leave a balance of £400 clear in my hands, but I cannot overcome the horror of meeting those with whom I have done business. I must therefore not only leave Peckham, but the line of business I am in, and should like to avail my self of your advice." I said, "It is strange, but there is advertised in the Times of to-day a snug little shop in my line of business in the village of Acton, Middlesex. Let us ride out there to-morrow, examine the books, look around, and judge of its value." We went, we saw, we bought. Two years afterward I found the family all well and prosperous. On my way home I called on a friend, and while seated in his garden Cocking passed over our heads in his parachute, which was fearfully-oscillating, from the car attached to Green's Nassau balloon. He was only going up about a mile or so, as was announced, to astonish the natives by showing how easy it is to counteract the disastrous consequences of a rapid obedience to the law of gravitation by means of a judicious manipulation of the air we breathe. The last of poor Cocking was related by the aeronaut on his return in the evening to Vauxhall gardens, whence they ascended early on the same afternoon. "When they had reached the altitude required," said Mr. Green, "Mr. Cocking hallooed out: 'Green, cut the rope.' I replied 'that I was afraid to do so; that from my standpoint the extreme oscillation made it appear unsafe.' 'If you don't, I will.' 'That would make it unsafe.' ' Cut the rope,' were the last words of poor Cocking. I reluctantly did so, and relieved of his superincumbent weight the Nassau ascended too rapidly to be pleasant. In half a minute I was out of sight of the bold adventurer. A flash of lightning could scarcely be more evanescent than was my gaze upon his hopeless fate. He was found in a field near Lewisham, in Kent, with every bone in his body broken."

About this period one of the petty lions of London was to repair to some isolated spot outside the din of the city favorable to hearing the public time-pieces proclaim the midnight hour. Indulging in the whim under the lamplight on Vauxhall bridge, watch in hand, I might have been found timing the process. The light breeze from the east proved propitious in wafting on the broad and silent bosom of the Thames the varied sounds emitted from the wide metropolitan expanse, a medley of sounds not easy to describe. The period required on that occasion to strike the hour of twelve covered eight long minutes. The authorities of the Polytechnic Institution subsequently failed to perceive the force of Mr. Bain's* proposition to have the clocks of London, by means of electricity, strike every hour simultaneously. We are now, in the year 1833, developing the fruits of the great discovery of Benjamin Franklin, who, about 1760, by means of his ingenious kiting, chained the lightning to his scientific will.

The Princess Victoria, on the twenty-fourth day of May, 1837, became of age (eighteen years old). Considerable anxiety was aroused by certain unpleasant, ill-defined rumors, said to have emanated from her uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, King of Hanover, touching the succession to the throne, which, on feeling the pulse of the nation, the friends of the Duke suffered to subside.