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"Well," said he, turning to his companion, "I never till now earned money so speedily; but what shall we do with it?" They then wished me a good-morning, and proceeded over Westminster-bridge.

The first object that presented itself to their view, was a poor woman crying bitterly, with three children hanging round her, each sobbing, though apparently too young to understand their mother's grief. On inquiring the cause of her distress, Mr. Wesley learned that the creditors of her husband were dragging him to prison, after having sold their effects, which were inadequate to pay the debt by eighteen shillings, which the creditors declared should be paid. One guinea made her happy!

They then proceeded on, followed by the blessings of the now happy mother. On Mr. Wesley's inquiring of Mr. Barton, his friend, where their charity was most needed, he replied he knew of no place where his money would be more acceptable than in Giltspur-street Compter. They accordingly repaired thither, and on asking the turnkey to point out the most miserable object under his care, he answered, if they were in search of poverty, they need not go far. The first ward they entered they were struck with the appearance of a poor wretch who was greedily eating some potato skins. On being questioned he informed them that he had been in that situation, supported by the casual alms of compassionate strangers, for several months, without any hope of release, and that he was confined for the debt of half-a-guinea. On hearing this, Mr. Wesley gave him a guinea, which he received with the utmost gratitude, and he had the pleasure of seeing him liberated with half-a-guinea in his pocket. The poor man, on leaving his place of confinement, said, "Gentlemen, as you came here in search of poverty, pray go up stairs, if it be not too late.”

They instantly proceeded thither, and beheld a sight which called forth all their compassion. On a low stool, with his back towards them, sat a man, or rather a skeleton, for he was literally nothing but skin and bone; his hand supported his head, and his eyes seemed riveted on the opposite corner of the chamber, where lay stretched out on a pallet of straw a young woman in the last stage of consumption, apparently lifeless,

with an infant by her side, which was quite dead. Mr. Wesley immediately sent for medical assistance, but it was too late for the unfortunate female, who expired a few hours afterwards from starvation, as the doctor declared. You may imagine, my lord, that the remaining eight guineas would not go far in aiding such distress as this. No expense was spared for the relief of the now only surviving sufferer. But so extreme was the weakness to which he was reduced, that six weeks elapsed before he could speak sufficiently to relate his own history. It appeared that he had been a reputable merchant, and had married a beautiful young lady, eminently accomplished, whom he almost idolised. They lived happily together for some time, until, by failure of a speculation, in which his whole property was embarked, he was completely ruined. No sooner did he become acquainted with his misfortune than he called all his creditors together, and laid before them the state of his affairs, showing them his books, which were in the most perfect order. They all willingly accepted the dividend except the lawyer, who owed his rise in the world to this merchant; the sum was two hundred and fifty pounds, for which he obstinately declared he should be sent to jail. It was in vain the creditors urged him to pity his forlorn condition, and to consider his great respectability; that feeling was a stranger to his breast, and in spite of all their remonstrances, he was hurried away to prison, followed by his weeping wife. As she was very accomplished, she continued to maintain herself and husband for some time solely by the use of her pencil, in painting small ornaments on cards; and thus they managed to put a little aside for the time of her confinement. But so long an illness succeeded this event, that she was completely incapacitated from exerting herself for their subsistence, and their scanty savings were soon expended by procuring the necessaries which her situation then required. They were driven to pawn their clothes, and their resources failing, they found themselves at last reduced to absolute starvation. The poor infant had just expired from want, and the hapless mother was about to follow it to the grave when Mr. Wesley and his friend entered; and, as I before said, the husband was so reduced from the same cause, that without the utmost care he must have fallen a sacrifice.

Mr. Wesley, was not for doing things by halves, and having acquainted himself with this case of extreme misery, he went to the creditors and informed them of it. They were beyond measure astonished to learn what he had to name to them; for so long a time had elapsed without hearing anything of the merchant or his family, some supposed him to be dead, and others that he left the country. Among the rest, he called on the lawyer, and painted to him, in the most glowing colours, the wretchedness he had beheld, and which he (the lawyer) had been instrumental in causing; but even this could not move him to compassion. He declared the merchant should not leave the prison without paying him every farthing. Mr. Wesley repeated his visit to the other creditors, who, considering the case of the sufferer, agreed to raise the sum and release him. Some gave one hundred pounds, others two hundred pounds, and another three hundred pounds. The affairs of the merchant took a different turn: God seemed to prosper him, and in the second year he called his creditors together, thanked them for their kindness, and paid the sum so generously obtained. Success continuing to attend him, he was enabled to pay all his debts, and afterwards realised considerable property. His afflictions made such deep impressions upon his mind, that he determined to remove the possibility of others suffering from the same cause, and for this purpose advanced a considerable sum as a foundation fund for the relief of small debtors. And the very first person who partook of the same was the inexorable lawyer!

This remakable fact so entirely convinced Lord Shelburne of the mistaken opinion he had formed of Mr. Wesley, that he immediately ordered a dozen of busts to embellish the grounds of his beautiful residence.-Hogg's Instructor.

EXTRAORDINARY VITALITY OF A PEA.

SEVERAL years ago the celebrated Egyptian Antiquary and traveller, Sir G. Wilkinson, presented to the British Museum, an antique vase hermetically closed, which he had found in a mummy pit in Egypt, and the age of which was computed at about three thousand years. Mr. T. J. Pettigrew, the librarian

of the late Duke of Sussex, proceeded to open the vase in order to - ascertain its contents, but in doing so, unfortunately broke it in several pieces. The interior contained a mass of vegetable dust, with a few grains of wheat and vetches; he was however amply indemnified for the destruction of the vase by discovering in this dust a certain number of peas, entirely shrivelled, of a rosin yellow color, and as hard as stone. At that time, it was already well known that many grains of wheat which had been long buried with Egyptian mummies, after having been sown, had come up and so multiplied as to produce whole fields of that antique wheat. Vetches also had been found, but this was the first time that the antiquarian's eye ever met with mummy peas, and the learned world was curious to ascertain their vitality also. Mr. Pettigrew accordingly distributed the grains amongst a few of his learned friends, who tried the experiment, but in vain, as the grains rotted in the earth in which they had been planted. It happened, however, that Mr. Pettigrew kept three grains for curiosity sake, which, after the lapse of several years, he presented, as one of the greatest rarities among the antiquities of the vegetable world, to Mr. W. Grimstone, owner of the beautiful and extensive Herbary at Highgate.

Mr. Grimstone planted his peas on the 4th of June, 1844, in a pot filled with an artificial mould resembling, as nearly as possible, the alluvial soil of Egypt, and placed it in a hot-bed, under glass, where, however, there was but a moderate heat. After incredible care, and a treatment at once rational and ingenious, Mr. Grimstone, at the end of thirty days, was amply rewarded by one of the peas coming up. But the plant that so grew was shrivelled, very weakly, almost without color, and promised anything but a long life. Art, however, came to the aid of nature; the heat was increased, more air gradually admitted, and the plant visibly increasing in strength, could at last be transplanted into the open ground. There it soon came to maturity, blossomed, and produced nineteen pods, containing nearly sixty grains, which, however, were but small and imperfectly developed. In the next year, 1845, several of these grains were planted at once in the open ground, and succeeded completely.

Upon this, Mr. Grimstone addressed himself to Dr. Plate, the

secretary of the Syro-Egyptian Society in London, with a request that the public might be made acquainted with this memorable phenomenon. Dr. Plate gladly availed himself of the opportunity, and at a public meeting of that Society, held a lecture on the Mummy Pea, which he illustrated with dried portions of the plant, the blossoms, and grains, as well as drawings, with which Mr. Grimstone had furnished him for the purpose. The blossoms caused great sensation among several botanists who were present at the meeting. They do not resemble the wings of butterflies, as the blossoms of all the other known species of cicer do, but are bell shaped, white with green stripes, and issue from the sides of the stalks in clusters of from four to eight blossoms. The pods protrude through the blossom in the shape of a capital S, and as each plant produces several stalks, with sometimes upwards of a hundred pods, each containing from six to ten peas, the mummy pea is no less prolific than the famous Egyptian wheat, which was praised as a wonder by the ancient Greeks and Romans. The Egyptian pea is of the dwarf kind, wants no sticks for climbing up, and in its exterior most resembles the scimitar or marrowfat pea. This pea surpasses in taste and color al other species, and its superior qualities, combined with the abundant crops it produces, warrant the prognostication that, some years hence, it will be generally cultivated in England.

In Germany some grains of the mummy pea, obtained from Mr. Grimstone, were first planted in 1846, in the garden of Henry Plate, Esq., Governor of Delmenhorst, near Bremen, and succeeded well.

This pea possesses such properties as must eventually recommend it to our agriculturist. It is described as the "finest flavored in the kingdom;" is excessively productive, and resists more than any other known species, the drought of summer, and the frosts of winter.

With regard to its productiveness, a correspondent of the Watchman Newspaper, under date of 24 November, 1847, writes:-Last April, I sent to Mr. Grimstone, Herbary, Highgate, for a package containing seventy of his wonderful Egyptian peas. I had them planted, as directed, and the produce of my package was the enormous quantity of 62,046 fine peas. I had