Page 29 (2/2)

of a country parish We cannot pursue the train of his argument, but we

should do injustice to the philosophy of Malthus, if we suppressed the

observation which Mr Daff ood-natured elder, "if it's true that we breed faster than the Lord

provides for us, we s"

"Na, na!" exclaihbour; I see now the

utility of church-censures" "True!" said Mr Micklewham; "and the

ordination of the stool of repentance, the horrors of which, in the

opinion of the fifteen Lords at Edinburgh, palliated child-murder, is

doubtless a Malthusian institution" But Mr Snodgrass put an end to the

controversy, by fixing a day for the christening, and telling he would do

his best to procure a good collection, according to the benevolent

suggestion of Mr Daff To this cause we are indebted for the next

series of the Pringle correspondence; for, on the day appointed, Miss

Mally Glencairn, Miss Isabella Tod, Mrs Glibbans and her daughter Becky,

with Miss Nanny Eydent, together with other friends of the minister's

fa chiefly about the

concerns of the family, the letters were produced and read