he attended them to the theatre; and if they were old, he invited them to a seat in his pew. He seemed to feel toward all his country dealers the intuitive love which a cat feels toward catmint, and they could do no less in return for so much kindness than to give him their custom, and recommend him to their neighbors.

As he continued to be economical in his expenses and prudent in his credits, and omitted no opportunity of tickling persons who could tickle back again advantageously, he gradually but steadily increased in property. His family grew also with his other possessions, and he came to be surrounded with numerous children, while he, in the perpetual engrossment of business, lost all record of the flight of time, and seemed unconscious that he was no longer so young as formerly. But although he could thus lose sight of Time, Time took care not to lose sight of him, but stealthily kept tally of the fleeting years by whitening his hair, imprinting wrinkles at the outer corners of his eyes, and increasing his rotundity, until he was to every eye but his own a portly old gentleman. His father-in-law had been dead some years, and he was one of the executors of the deceased's will, and a legatee of no inconsiderable portion of the estate.

In this halcyon period of his existence, when he was well satisfied with himself, and by consequence well satisfied with the world, and all that therein is, he began to think of his brother, of whom he had not heard since they separated. He knew that the ship had been stranded in which Peter sailed, and that some of the passengers were drowned, and he always supposed his brother was one of the lost. By a coincidence which is far from uncommon, while he was thus musing on his brother, a letter from him was brought to the store, announcing that he had been long at Vienna, in the most deplorable destitution, and craving assistance to enable him to return to Baltimore. This was a case in which if Frederick tickled ever so much he could expect no lucrative return; still avarice had not rendered him wholly callous to the ties of consanguinity, and he forthwith answered the appeal of his brother by sending him a bill of exchange, with the proceeds of which, if managed prudently, he could come home.

The meeting of the brothers, which in due time occurred, afforded a surprise to both, so far as their personal appearance was concerned. They had separated as young men, and they met as old men. Still they soon recognised each other's early lineaments, and amused themselves with the rehearsal of early incidents. But what most astonished Peter was the wealth of Frederick; and what most astonished Frederick was the poverty of Peter, especially as both professed to have been governed in their conduct by the great maxim of their father. On an explanation, however, the mystery became solved. Poor Peter had committed a fatal mistake. He had never tickled any persons, but had waited to have them tickle first; while Frederick had practised on the plan of tickling in advance, and especially those who could tickle back again with many per cent. of advantage. The opposite results of the two modes were well exemplified in the different destiny of the brothers; and in view of this difference, which communicated an entirely new

idea to Peter, he insisted that the maxim was wrongly worded, and that instead of reading:

'Tickle me, BILLY; do, do, do!

the maxim ought to read:

'I TICKLE you, BILLY; see, see, see!
I'll tickle you, and you tickle me!'

In his donation to his unfortunate brother, Frederick intended to be disinterested, but he derived therefrom an intellectual pleasure which was more than an equivalent for the pecuniary expenditure. And now that he had obtained a taste of the pleasures that result from benevolence, a desire therefor grew in him fast, and he gradually extended gratuities to numerous objects where no pecuniary return seemed possible; but very unexpectedly to him he found that many of these cases would either collaterally or directly result in larger pecuniary returns than his most selfish ticklings. This was strikingly exemplified in the assistance which he occasionally made to his brother, who, enfeebled by dissipation and disappointed early hopes, had brought home a constitution as much impoverished as his purse. Frederick had long supported him comfortably, when on the formation of a new settlement, made in the vicinity of Baltimore by the Canton Company, the counsel of the company discovered that a piece of land, which was essential to the project, was owned (unknown to everybody) by the heirs of old Heapupit, and it accordingly had to be purchased, and it brought a large sum of money. Peter's share was more than sufficient to repay all advances which Frederick had made for him, and to leave an ample sufficiency for his own support. But as usual, when blessings come late they are not long enjoyed, and Peter, after a very brief realization of his new prosperity, was afflicted with apoplexy and died, but not before he had bequeathed his property to Frederick, who alone of all the family had substantially sympathized with his necessities.

Finally Frederick found himself possessed of a much larger estate than had ever been owned by his father. He had long been respected as a prosperous man, with large wealth but with sordid views. He now began to gradually acquire additional respect, by reason of the active benevolence that his later actions developed, and by several disinterested benefits he conferred on his city. He eventually retired from commercial business, resigning the establishment to his sons, and employed a still vigorous old age in the various cares that attended the due investment of his property, and in embracing every opportunity to make himself useful. He aided all worthy public enterprises, contributed to all useful charities, assisted all meritorious individuals who resorted to him for counsel or pecuniary aid, and to his last moment (which occurred only a year ago) he insisted that the maxim of his father was a true guide to prosperity; but that whoever would attain the full benefit its practice can insure, must perform the tickling from no mercenary or selfish motive, but simply from a principle of duty toward GoD and of good will toward all mankind. He was a good deal vain-glorious of his discovery, which he thought entirely new; and he was almost sorry when, after repeating it one day, with his usual self

complacency, he was told that it was as old as the Bible, being plainly included in the promise, that he that watereth shall be watered,' and 'the liberal soul shall be made fat.'

THE information I have obtained, and my own observations, have induced me to give some thought to two or three points in the present condition of the Republic of Liberia, and the probable results flowing from the existing state of things, and the principles and conduct of the people. I trust that their insertion will not be unacceptable to my readers.

There are two important interests in Liberia, I will not say necessarily or naturally antagonistic, but at least, as it would appear, not equally fostered and attended to. I allude to commerce and agriculture. At Monrovia the former is the leading interest, and the principal and most influential citizens are more or less prosperous traders. Some dozen or more small trading-vessels are employed in the coasting business, say about a hundred and fifty tons; and it is asserted that on an average about a hundred and fifty thousand dollars would cover the entire commercial transactions of the whole settlement of Liberia. And yet, although it would seem this branch of industry is so much fostered, I am told that the business done at this place previous to the establishment of the colony exceeded any thing known here since; for it was once a flourishing trading station, where an active and steady intercourse with the natives was carried on, the latter exchanging camwood, palm-oil, ivory, etc., for the usual articles of European manufacture fashionable in this quarter of the globe. If this be the fact, the

falling off in trade may be accounted for in some degree by the jealousy and ill-will of the Bushmen and people of the interior, who, knowing that the colored race from the New World have declared it one among their chief objects of settlement to contribute toward the suppression of the slave traffic, so lucrative to the natives, and to make for themselves a permanent residence in their new homes, from time to time have met the new-comers unavailingly in battle, and even now are shy and suspicious, for the most part, in their intercourse with them. As to the agricultural interests, if I might judge from information which I have reason to receive as correct, it would seem that the produce of the farms is not sufficient to supply the wants of the community. Rice, the chief article of domestic growth, is not produced in quantity enough to supply the current demand; the coffee, not over five or six hundred pounds per annum, is used almost exclusively for exportation, and is held at such a price, in addition to its scarcity, that it is decidedly cheaper to import the article; and of Indian corn, sweet potatoes, cassada, etc., enough may be raised for domestic consumption, but even of these the emigrant cannot boast, I believe, an abundance or superfluity. It is true that the colonization societies and the authorities in Liberia encourage the newly-arrived settlers to choose their locations in the interior, and to turn their means and labor to the cultivation of the soil; but of these emigrants those who have money and intelligence, seeing that the most thriving of the old residents are those who are engaged in trade or mechanical employments, often prefer to remain in town, to take a lot in exchange for a piece of land in the country, and turn their capital and attention toward a kind of business which offers greater inducements in a pecuniary point of view, and moreover exempts them from physical toil and exposure to the elements. Again, it being a leading trait in the negro character to be gregarious, and, therefore, unwilling as they are to live isolated and in remote and scattered settlements, nothing but a compulsory process, such as I am told exists at Cape Palmas, will direct the current of emigration into the interior and to the agricultural districts. We know that the free people of color in the United States almost universally collect in towns and cities, and that on our Southern plantations the slaves live in small but compact communities, and work in company; so that when the emigrants arrive to settle in their new homes, accustomed as they have been to these gregarious habits, it is not at all surprising if they are loth to pass by a place where they can enjoy society and the conveniences of a civilized settlement, and devote themselves to toil and labor in a thinly-peopled country, where their previous tastes, habits and inclinations cannot be gratified. To obviate therefore this inconvenience, and to distribute the population in due proportions over the territory intended for cultivation and settlement, the government should insist that the new-comers shall take and cultivate the tracts assigned them; for if the right of selection and choice be indiscriminately allowed them, the large majority will be unwilling to do such violence to their natures, and the community will be overrun with merchants, doctors, parsons, lawyers, etc.; occupations that require less bodily exertion and fatigue, and which may seem to aspirants