THE BREAKWATER AT PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND.

Plymouth, Massachusetts, was so named first by Capt. | quainted with English history, and imbued with sympathy John Smith, perhaps because of a fancied resemblance in situation to Plymouth, England; and this name was confirmed by the Pilgrim Fathers, on account of the kindness which they received at that port before leaving their native land. If in Smith's time the two harbors bore any resemblance to each other, this resemblance must be still greater at the present time. Those of our readers who have visited our Plymouth will recollect the long beach which stretches as a barrier between the harbor and the ocean, and around the point of which vessels are obliged to pass to enter the harbor. Formerly the harbor of Plymouth, England, was exposed to the sea, in the same way as the harbor of the Massachusetts Plymouth would be were this beach broken away. In order to render the harbor a secure anchorage in case of storm, the government of Great Britain, at the cost of about five millions of dollars, have erected a stone breakwater across the mouth of the harbor, leaving a channel between the shores at either end, thus making an immense artificial beach, corresponding exactly in position with the beach which protects the Plymouth of the Forefathers from the fury of the ocean. The following remarks, and description of the breakwater and its lighthouse, are condensed from an account of a visit to the breakwater, by a writer in an English periodical; and show with what affectionate veneration the Pilgrims of the May-Flower are remembered in their na tive land.

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"Plymouth Sound will surely carry back any one ac

for the heroes of religious freedom, to the time of James I., and bring before his imagination that quaint-looking old vessel which once harbored there, -now the well-known May-Flower, - bearing in its bosom the Pilgrim Fathers, destined by Providence to be the founders of the American Commonwealth, - a vessel more than worthy of being coupled with the Grecian ayos, and one which the Plymouth corporation might well be pleased to quarter in their armorial bearings. We can fancy the brave-spirited men on board that memorable ship talking over the state of their oppressed country, where conscientious people of their way of thinking could no longer find a home. The tyranny that threatened so many of their fellow-countrymen would seem to them like that very sea which was rolling yonder with tempestuous fury into the unsheltered sound. One of hopeful spirit might have said, 'The Lord in whom we trust will one day raise up a barrier against such injustice, and guard our children from the storms which emperil us.' We think we hear a rejoinder from one of little faith to the effect: 'It may be so, my brother; but my hope lays far behind thine. Nothing is impossible to God; but to me it seemeth as strange that men like us should ever have peace and liberty in this land of bondage, - that a bulwark should ever appear strong enough to guard us against the tempests of tyranny, -as it would be for a rock to rise out of these waters, and defend this town and harbor from the fury of the southern gale!'

"While this fancied conversation falls on the ear, it is

not a little interesting to turn and find uprising from the sea limit of this famous sound a real wall of rock, stretching like a reef the distance of a mile, and offering an effectual front of resistance to the mightiest billows."

The experience gained from these storms enabled the engineers to perfect their work. The spaces between the great blocks of stone were filled in with rubble, and the angles of the slopes decreased in order to present less direct resistance to the waves.

In 1841 the lighthouse at the western end was commenced, and finished in November, 1843. The height is fifty-nine feet; and the structure forms, as may be seen by the cut, a not inelegant tower. It is divided into five floors, and the entrance is approached by a narrow staircase from the breakwater, somewhat like a ship's ladder. About fifteen thousand cubic feet of granite were used in its construction.

When the May-Flower, bearing our Forefathers, anchored in Plymouth Harbor, and for more than a century and a half afterwards, - Plymouth Sound was one of the most dangerous places upon the English coast. Lord Howe used to remark that "Torbay was likely one day to prove the grave of the British navy." Plymouth Sound was more dangerous than Torbay. It was exposed in the southwestern gale to a tremendous swell; and the water being shallow the vessel was dashed on the hard ground and went to pieces. The Plymouth churchyards and burialgrounds are full of the memories of agonizing incidents of shipwrecks; and all the more dreadful that they occurred THE PILGRIMS' FIRST SABBATH ON SHORE. within the sight of home and friends. It is said that on an average ten English ships were lost here every year.

BY REV. J S. CLARK, D. D.

Why has no painter immortalized his name by transferring to canvass this Sabbath scene [on Clark's Island], the first ever witnessed on the shores of New Englaud? As an illustration of the true Pilgrim spirit, nothing can exceed it. We see them now, in imagination, grouped in devout posture around a forest fire, while "Deacon Carver," the newly elected governor, reads from his pocket Bible an appropriate chapter, and "lines" a favorite psalm, which gives vent to full-hearted and high-sounding praise. We hear the fervent prayers and earnest prophesyings of Bradford and Winslow, who, though yet young, are much experieneed in these exercises We behold the solemnity that rests even on the sailor's countenance, as, silently musing on perils recently passed, he participates in the I service, while not a rising cloud, nor breaking wave, nor frightened sea-gull escapes his ever watchful eye.

But why are they there, under the open canopy of heaven, on that raw December day? Because it was just there that the Sabbath overtook them, while searching to find a place of settlement for themselves and their little ones, whom they left four days ago at the end of Cape Cod, on board the May-Flower, in charge of a captain who begins to talk of setting them all ashore on the sand, unless they find a place soon. But how is it that, under such a pressing necessity they can spare the time for so much psalm-singing, and prayer, and prophesying? Do they not know that works of "necessity and mercy" are In 1788, a plan was submitted to the government for lawful on that day? Yes, but they do not believe that their rendering the sound a secure place of anchorage, but it present necessities are sufficient to justify a suspense of was not till 1806 that any active measures were taken to the Sabbath law in the sight of God. They are even more carry it into effect. In 1811, after the rejection of various scrupulous than that; rather than approach the Lord's other projects, the plan of the present breakwater, pro- Day under such bodily exhaustion as will unfit them for posed by Messrs. Rennie and Whidbey, was adopted. In religious worship (an essential part of their Sabbath obserform, it is a long, straight dike or mole, expanded some-vance), they would spend the whole of Saturday in recovwhat at the ends. The whole length is five thousand one hundred feet; the breadth of the top, forty-five feet; the breadth at the bottom, four hundred and ten feet; the inner slope is one hundred and ten feet, and the outer, one hundred and five. Notwithstanding the size of the blocks of which this immense artificial reef is composed, it was twice, during its construction, broken through by the waves. In 1824, in the month of November, occurred the most terrific storm which had been known for several generations. The water in the sound rose eight feet above its England, and printed by the Massachusetts Historical Society, the highest mark; and such was the terrific force of the waves that nearly one-half of the breakwater then finished was displaced. Nearly two hundred thousand tons of stone were lifted up and moved from their position. Yet it is probable that even in its then extremely imperfect state it saved the lower portion of the town from ruin, by breaking the force of the waves.

ering tired nature from extra fatigue, and in preparing for the Sabbath, -as they actually did!

Here we have the Pilgrim Sabbath, not as discussed in a learned treatise; not as explained in a catechism; not as enforced in a sermon, but as actually kept, and that, too, under circumstances which exclude all suspicion of any sham observance - any mere pretence of religious strictness.

In Bradford's Journal, lately discovered in the Fallhane library, account is given thus, immediately after the record of their perilous escape to Clark's Island on that stormy Friday night. "But though this had been a day and night of much trouble and danger unto them, yet God gave them a morning of comfort and refreshing (as usually he doth to his children), for the next day was a fair sunshining day, and they found themselves to be on an island secure from the Indians, where they might dry their stuff, fix their pieces and rest themselves, and give God

thanks for his mercies in their manifold deliverances. And this being the last day of the week, they prepared to keep the Sabbath.

erance.

prise; the men were to gather at the appointed rendezvous in small parties, while the women and children, with their goods, were to be conveyed thither in a small vessel. On reaching the spot, the ship had not yet come up, and the women and children suffering with sea-sickness were landed. The ship did not make its appearance until the next day, when, the bark in which they landed having been left ashore by the tide, the captain was obliged to take the party off in his boat.

King James had determined to "harry the Puritans | Grimsby. Every precaution was taken to prevent surand Separatists out of the land," and the whole machinery of despotism was put in motion for this purpose. The Court of High Commission, an eclesiastical tribunal empowered to detect heretics, punish absentees from the established church, and to reform all heresies and schisms, possessed power not only to fine and imprison at pleasure, but could compel the civil power to hunt up and drag before them the miserable victims of bigotry and intol"An act," says Hoyt, "was passed in 1593, for punishing all who refused to come to church, or were present at any conventicle or unauthorized meeting. The punishment was imprisonment until the convicted agreed to conform, and made declaration of his conformity; and if that was not done in three months, he was to quit the realm, or go into perpetual banishment. In case he did not depart within the time limited, or returned without license, he was to suffer death." Thus pressed and persecuted, the church to which Brewster and Bradford belonged resolved to take refuge in Holland.

Their first attempt to sail from Boston, in Lincolnshire, was defeated by the treachery of the master of the vessel, who, having received them and their goods on board his ship, delivered them up to the officers, by whom they were rifled of all their money and valuables of every description. Fortunately the magistrates of Boston sympathized with their sufferings, and, after a month's imprisonment, they were sent back to their homes.

But this failure, although so disastrous, did not restrain them from a new effort to accomplish their purpose. The year after, they agreed with a Dutch skipper at Hull to take them to Zealand, supposing there would be less risk in so doing than in again employing one of their own countrymen.

In order to avoid the risk of embarking at a large sea port, they bargained with him to take them on board at a lonely common on the flat coast between Hull and

Scarcely, however, had the first boat-load, consisting mostly of men, been taken aboard the ship, when the party on the shore were surrounded by a band of of horse and footmen, armed with guns, bills, &c., and made prisoners before the eyes of their husbands, fathers, and relatives, in the ship, who were utterly without means of helping them, and, to crown their distresses, the Dutchman, fearing to be implicated in the consequences, hastily weighed anchor, hoisted sail, and was soon a mere speck on the horizon.

The agony of those on board was intense, but still more deplorable was the case of the fugitives on shore, most of them women and children, with but a few men who had remained, to protect them.

"The women," says Bradford, "being thus apprehended, were hurried from one place to another, and from one Justice to another, until in the end they knew not what to do with them, for to imprison so many women and innocent children, for no other cause than that they would go with their husbands, seemed to be unreasonable, and all would cry out at them; and to send them home was as difficult, for they alleged (as the truth was) that they had no homes to go to, for they had sold or otherwise disposed of their lands and living." Thus they endured a world of misery, until their persecutors being wearied out, they were suffered to escape and join their relatives in Holland.

The Pilgrims are supposed to have removed to Leyden about the year 1608. It was at this time one of the most wealthy and prosperous cities of Europe, being second in Holland only to Amsterdam.

In 1573-4 it had suffered one of the most memorable sieges on record; its inhabitants had been reduced to the very verge of starvation and despair; and the city was saved from the Spaniards by breaking down the dykes and flooding the land with the sea. After the pacification of Ghent, in 1576, it began rapidly to recover its prosperity; and during the residence of the Pilgrims, it had so increased in population that it became necessary to enlarge its boundaries.

The Town Hall, of which a view is given above, is the chief edifice besides the churches; it was built at an early period, but the exact date is unknown; and in 1481, it blew up, causing the death of thirty-six persons. After

having been rebuilt it was remodelled in 1597. The interior contains an immense hall, hung with portraits and historical pictures.

In the pavement at the top of the stone staircase is the inscription "Niet sonder God" (Not without God); and another inscription above the door asks his blessing on Holland and Leyden: (Lord, save Holland, and bless Leyden!) and a singular acrostic of one hundred and twenty-nine letters, answering to the number of days of the great siege, which lasted from May 26th to October 3d. Among the pictures in the Council Chamber are several relating to the siege; and a very curious Last Judgment by the scholars of Lucas van Leyden. From the bell-tower is obtained a fine panoramic view of the city and its environs, stretching to the westward beyond Delfthaven and the Hague.

HARDSHIPS AND PRIVATIONS OF THE PILGRIMS. The mortality of the first winter was followed in the spring by a great scarcity of food. "Had we not," says Mr. Winslow, "been in a place where divers sorts of shell-fish are, that may be taken with the hand, we must have perished, unless God had raised some unknown or extraordinary means for our preservation."

It has been stated that they were at one time reduced to a single pint of corn, which, being equally divided, gave to each person five kernels, which were parched

and eaten.

During the first two or three years they were for several months together destitute of corn or any kind of

bread; and in the fourth year after their arrival, they were threatened with the total destruction of their crop, and absolute famine. From about the middle of May to the middle of July, they had not one shower of rain, and the extreme heat of the sun upon their sandy soil had so dried up their corn, that they were almost in despair of its ever being restored; but in the evening, after a day of fasting and prayer, it began to rain, and by repeated showers their corn recovered its verdure, and they had a plentiful harvest.

New comers were extremely affected with the miserable condition of those who had been almost three years