Then, with a smile that marked her forgiveness, she read aloud the few lines that accompanied the above, saying she did not think that Urcella would have accused her brother of hypocrisy if she had only opened the packet and seen its contents."

The lines were as follows:-"With deep respect, Gerald Marsdale begs "to be allowed to present the enclosed cross to Mistress Urcella. It was "taken from the ruins of the small chapel adjoining the house, a sanctuary, "where had knelt for successive ages many of her knightly sires professing "a creed, now but too faithfully maintained by their last and youthful "descendant."

Having read aloud the above, Alice took the little cross, and passing a silken cord through its ring suspended it round her own neck, saying that it should remain there, till she, for whom it was intended was fully convinced of the sincerity of him who had ventured to present it.

Mrs. Trenchard looked on, but said nothing; she kept her opinions to herself.

"I think," resumed Alice, "that I can discern the cause that has called forth these strange misconceptions on the part of my poor Urcella, and if my surmises be correct, why should I blame her for the grievous mistake into which she has fallen. The total ignorance in which my brother Gerald had been kept respecting the intended prosecution of Sir Algernon Trevillers, had made him, no doubt, express himself in such a manner in her presence as to lead the confiding girl to imagine that he was giving an assurance that no further annoyance would accrue from his family. Ought I therefore, to be surprised at her indignation, when a few days after her conversation with my brother, her father was summoned to the sessions, and there heavily fined through the means of those same persons whom she had been made to believe would pursue a friendly course in future. It was, indeed, almost natural that dear Urcella should view with distrust any new attention proceeding from the same quarter."

"Time, dear lady," said the good old woman, at length breaking silence, "will unravel these awkward events."

"I sincerely trust they will," replied Alice, "but in the meanwhile it is hard that false impressions should exist without the possibility of interpreting them in their true sense. Farewell my good woman, I will see you again soon."

(TO BE CONTINUED.)

"How happy I am that she should be so thoroughly assured of my sympathy in her regard. It is just as I hoped it might be; and my commission, you executed that also ?"

Mrs. Trenchard busied herself about the room as if she had not heard the question, but it being repeated, she gravely replied, "I had almost hoped, dear lady, that you had forgotten this part of my mission, indeed I would fain have passed it over in silence."

"In silence!" exclaimed Alice, with surprise, "I do not understand you. Has aught happened to the little packet, so as to have prevented you delivering it as you promised; keep me not in suspense, tell me my good woman what you have done with it?"

"I delivered it safely," said Mrs. Trenchard, "but it has not been retained. It is returned to you unopened."

"Unopened?" exclaimed Alice, "surely, Urcella did not refuse to look

at it?"

"Mistress Urcella took it from me eagerly, but when I mentioned the name of your respected brother, her countenance became instantly clouded with an expression of disapprobation; she examined the superscription for some seconds in silence, and then, as if suddenly making up her mind, she took her pencil and wrote a few words beneath it."

"Let me see quickly," said Alice, "what Urcella can have written to justify a proceeding so unlike herself." Whereupon Mrs. Trenchard drew slowly from an old chest the returned packet, and presented it to her young mistress.

"Ah!" said the astonished girl, as her eyes ran over the pencilled words, "what do I see here?

"He that dissembles once may dissemble twice.'

"Is this most unjust reproach intended for my brother? he who is candour and honesty itself. How little does Urcella know his true character! and how grossly has he been misrepresented to occasion her to think so ill of him. At all events," continued Alice, "dear Gerald shall never behold this unjust accusation."

On saying which she disengaged the string that confined the packet, and taking its outward cover threw it on the glowing embers of the cottage, hearth. "There," said she, watching the flame it created, "Let the r collection of words so untrue, so unkind, be as quickly annihilated paper on which they were written.

Having exhausted her natural feelings of indignation, shr the disordered little packet, which the above proceeding ha was about closing it up, when it occurred to her that it v tunity of letting Mrs. Trenchard see its contents, feeling fail to report the same in the quarter she most wishe unfolded the remaining envelope, and drawing fort wrought cross of gold, she held it up to Mrs. Alice, "is the little offering that has been returned

Then, with a smile that marked her forgiveness, she read aloud the few lines that accompanied the above, saying she did not think that Urcella would have accused her brother of hypocrisy if she had only opened the packet and seen its contents."

The lines were as follows:-"With deep respect, Gerald Marsdale begs "to be allowed to present the enclosed cross to Mistress Urcella. It was "taken from the ruins of the small chapel adjoining the house, a sanctuary, "where had knelt for successive ages many of her knightly sires professing "a creed, now but too faithfully maintained by their last and youthful "descendant."

Having read aloud the above, Alice took the little cross, and passing a silken cord through its ring suspended it round her own neck, saying that it should remain there, till she, for whom it was intended was fully convinced of the sincerity of him who had ventured to present it.

Mrs. Trenchard looked on, but said nothing; she kept her opinions to herself.

"I think," resumed Alice, "that I can discern the cause that has called forth these strange misconceptions on the part of my poor Urcella, and if my surmises be correct, why should I blame her for the grievous mistake into which she has fallen. The total ignorance in which my brother Gerald had been kept respecting the intended prosecution of Sir Algernon Trevillers, had made him, no doubt, express himself in such a manner in her presence as to lead the confiding girl to imagine that he was giving an assurance that no further annoyance would accrue from his family. Ought I therefore, to be surprised at her indignation, when a few days after her conversation with my brother, her father was summoned to the sessions, and there heavily fined through the means of those same persons whom she had been made to believe would pursue a friendly course in future. It was, indeed, almost natural that dear Urcella should view with distrust any new attention proceeding from the same quarter."

"Time, dear lady," said the good old woman, at length breaking silence, "will unravel these awkward events."

"I sincerely trust they will," replied Alice, "but in the mean while it is hard that false impressions should exist without the possibility of interpreting them in their tr se. Farewell my good woman, I will see you again soon."

QUEENSLAND AND EMIGRATION.

AMID the work-day world of Europe, carning their daily bread after their accustomed manner, living after their accustomed fashion-the artizan by his handicraft-the merchant by his venture-the official by his rauk, surrounded by old associations and old ties-there are few who give themselves the care to think upon the enterprise of those who have gone out to found new communities at the ends of the earth. Yet the subject is worthy of consideration. It involves all the eventualities that may arise from the extension of civilization and the birth of nascent empires. There is not concerned in it alone the fate of individuals-there is a greater concern by far. The men who colonize the lone places of the world may be the founders of royal peoples, whose commerce is yet to sweep the seaswhose cities, rising tower above tower, by streams, where the savage roams wild to-day, may, in a future time, receive tribute from many an humbled or dependent nation, and whose edicts may be heard, in times to come, with reverence wherever they are promulgated.

For us, in Ireland, there is a dearer interest than this great abstract and remote interest. There is no home in our land which does not number among those who have gathered at its hearth, some wanderer, now far away. If there be no relative lost to us in willing exile, it may be some dear friend whom we remember, whilst his footsteps leave their track in the tall grass of Southern Savannahs, amid the wild under-growths of northern forests, or on the desert sands of Austral shores. Amid the humbler classes of our people, such associations are bound up with another consideration. The tide of emigration sweeps them with a constant flow from their native land. They have a present or prospective concern in solitudes, south or west. They seek out fertile plains, where rich harvests may reward their labour; genial climes, where health may not be robbed from them in the midst of their toil; a promising country, where, in due season, the tribes of a people may gather and find room. The breath of war, which now sweeps with its fierce miasma the great continent that was once a tranquil asylum for their race, checks the Irish emigrant's hope from its wonted direction. Impelled from the green shores of Innisfail by causes which it is not our province to discuss, more at present, perhaps, than at any other period have they begun to weigh the vast advantages offered them by Australia, as a field for their toil. No wonder that they should. Situate in meridional parallels, which afford it all the delight of genial airs, large as Europe in extent-possessing districts of unsurpassed fertility great as many European kingdoms-its clime favourable to human longevity-free from periodical or local diseases-Australia presents a combination of qualifications not afforded by any other land under the sun. The native tribes are few, and not hostile to the settler. There are no terrible massacres to fear, such as those which the pioneers encountered from the wrath of the red men of America, whose homes they invaded.

The heats of summer are not extreme; the chill of winter is not so nipping as in our own land. Surrounded by many harbours-in the midst of an ocean, whose currents pass the shores where the wealth of the tropics abounds,―lands of silk, lands of spice, lands of gems-rich with corn, wine, gold, and oil itself,-Australia spreads its paths to the feet of the adventurer, as if to woo him to its possession. Before the discovery of the gold fields it presented all the requirements of a great pastoral country, where herds increased marvellously and flocks throve beyond belief. Its greatest capabilities were inutilised or unexplored under this condition. It was not peopled; and without a people there was no stimulus to the development of its resources. Up to that time its only markets were in Europe, and the way was long and the profit slow for its ventures. A few ship-loads of wool in the year constituted its exports. The bones of slaughtered cattle, their hides and their fat, sent annually to London, formed its traffic. A thousand pounds more, or a thousand pounds less, made up its balance of profit or of loss. In this way there was but little promise of the wondrous wealth, prowess, and commerce Australia has attained since. Life was easy in its solitudes, however. Men, sick of the struggle at home with us-in Ireland, in England, or in Scotland-chose to separate themselves far from their fellows, far from bustle, and trouble, and anxiety, and settle down in the land of Kan. garoos. A few government officials, who had connexion with the convict establishments, and to whom habit had been second nature, felt loath to leave a country where the best part of life had gone by, under the most silent of skies, amid the most lovely of lands. The inducements which influenced them to their settlement, were the same as those which prevailed with the fathers of mankind in the East-grazing for their cattle-soil where their corn might grow-peacefulness where they might reap it in due time. It can be understood, that such being the promise afforded by Australia to the settler, its growth was but slow for many a long year. It was far from the shores of Europe-the desire of gain was more potent with members of our old communities, where gain represented the materiel of happiness, at least, in giving the power to obtain all the pleasures and luxury of life. When, therefore, dissatisfaction with their condition at home-hard necessity-or the ambition of advancement, in wider fields, drew men from the households of the western world, to follow the track of colonization, they rather sought the settled places of America, than the wilds of other lands. Thus it happened that Australia, crowned with all wealth, happy in a beneficent sky, and a soil, hardly needing the tiller's care, was left to the convict, or the savage, or the misanthrope, its resources undeveloped, and its land a desert. So it remained, comparatively, until the burst of the news of the gold discovery reached the shores of Europe, and attracted men of all ranks, artist and student, noble and peasant, to delve the soil for its teeming wealth. City after city was raised high in air by the hands of the adventurers. States rather than colonies were founded at once, and the mart and the villa sprang up with a magic as wonderful as the palace of Aladin. Trade was initiated, and the land was peopled. Commerce spread its white wings abroad upon the solitary seas