istence are those of childhood. My own experience would lead me to question this. There is no period of my life, to the contemplation of which I return with greater reluctance, than that which is embraced in the preceding portion of this narrative. My horizon had been early darkened by the quenching of its brightest stars. The lines had not always fallen to me in pleasant places, and my slender bark had been destined, from the very commencement of its voyage, to encounter the buffetings of wind and wave. It may be, misfortunes like mine are uncommon. But memory which recalls most vividly the happiness of youthful days, is generally a more faithless record of their sorrows; and they who delight to dwell on the fragrance of the flower, are always the first to forget the sharpness of the thorn. Who indeed can recall the thousand griefs and anxieties of his early years? The throng of childish fears and disappointments, by which the sunshine of his young spirit was overcast and shadowed? The sufferings of youth are indeed more evanescent than those of maturer years, but are they necessarily less acute? I cannot think so.

the

I shall not encumber my narrative by any attempt to describe the feelings with which for the first time

I entered London. The impression produced by this great mart of the world, is, in all cases, I believe, pretty nearly the same; modified, indeed, in its intensity by the constitutional temperament of individuals, but varying little in the character of the emotions which it excites.

For the first few days my mind was bewildered by the vastness of the scene, and my conceptions of the character and grandeur of the objects around me were vague and dim. I was incapable of business, and devoting my time to contemplation, I roamed about the streets, regarding every thing I saw with wonder. By degrees, however, the charm of novelty wore off, and as my eye became gradually familiar with the splendour and magnitude of the objects among which I moved, new and unknown attractions did not fail to present themselves. Fresh allurements daily started up around me, and spread themselves in my path, and I was beset by temptations which my natural temperament and acquired habits of self-command were unable to resist.

In short, I was my own master, and in London. Chance brought me in contact with several of my early companions, already deep enough in worldly experience to be qualified to instruct my ignorance;

and before I had been a fortnight in town, I had become a thorough adept in metropolitan dissipation.

To a young man in my situation, it is perhaps a misfortune, that in London there is scarcely any length to which dissipation may not be carried, without loss of character. An individual forms so small a fraction of the mighty mass, and his proceedings are so much a matter of indifference to those around him, that the check of public opinion, which in smaller societies exerts so salutary an influence, is entirely removed. There is no privacy like that one enjoys in the crowd of a million; and it has been truly said by Dr Johnson, that he who would live perfectly secluded from his fellow-men, should make London the theatre of his solitude.

Engrossed by pleasure, I was insensible of the rapidity with which time flew by. The weeks allowed for preparation were gone, when I imagined them to be scarcely commenced. To enable me to prolong my stay, I solicited an extension of my leave, and it was granted. I did not fail to take advantage of the means thus afforded, of continuing my career in the devious path of vice and error on which I had thus early entered. To advance, required no

effort of volition, for I was carried on as it were in a vortex; to retrace my steps, on the other hand, was difficult, if not impossible. It required the exercise of strong energy,-perhaps, the influence of higher motives, than any by which my actions had been ever swayed.

Fortunately, circumstances did not permit that I should remain long enough to become a confirmed roué. The period when it was necessary that I should proceed to join my regiment soon came, and further delay was impossible. I did not regard the necessity thus imposed with much regret. The goblet of pleasure, too often quaffed, had already lost something of its savour. The world I was about to explore was to me a new one. In youth, even mere locomotion is allied to pleasure. Change of scene seems but transition of enjoyment, and the landscape, gazed on by young eyes, is ever bathed in sunshine.

My military enthusiasm, too, was once more awakened, dreams of ambition mingled in my slumbers, and hopes of future honour and distinction brightened my waking contemplations. I would have instantly set about the work of preparation, but a new and unexpected obstacle presented itself. I had squandered in dissipation the sum allotted by

my father to defray the necessary expenses of my outfit, and I suddenly found myself in a dilemma for which I was wholly unprepared.

I had no reason to complain of any want of liberality on the part of my father. He had given me a credit on his banker for three hundred pounds, a sum more than sufficient to supply my wants on the most liberal scale of expenditure. This, by my folly and extravagance, had been already dissipated, before the business of my equipment had commenced. What was to be done? Should I address my father in the character of a penitent prodigal, confess the truth, lay bare the secret of my errors, and, in guise of a humble supplicant, solicit present assistance, and forgiveness of the past?

It mattered not that my heart told me this was the proper course to be adopted-that it became me not now to shrink from the consequences of my guilty weakness-that having planted the tree, it was fitting that I should taste its bitter fruit. There was something within me that instinctively recoiled from such a course. Morally speaking, I felt that I had no father. He to whom I owed my existence had never treated me as a son, even in the days of innocent boyhood. From him, situated as I now