[Footnote 5:  Vide History of Guernsey, by Dicey.]

MRS. WILTON.  “What a very remarkable preservation of those little children.  Who could deny the finger of God, with such wonderful instances of his Omnipotence before their eyes?  Surely such events must shake the tottering foundations of infidelity, and cause the most disbelieving to confess ‘The Lord He is God.’  Jersey is the next island for consideration; but I know so little of it, that I must refer you to some person better acquainted with the subject.”

CHARLES.  “I have been to Jersey, madam, and shall be happy to afford you the trifling information I have gained respecting its peculiarities.  Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands, is situated in a deep bay of the French coast, from which it is distant twenty miles.  Its extreme length from east to west is twelve miles, its breadth six.  The island is fertile and beautiful, it enjoys a mild and salubrious climate; the coast is studded with granite rocks, and indented by small bays, which add greatly to the beauty of the scenery.  The chief town is St. Helier’s,—­its principal trade is with Newfoundland:  ship-building is carried on extensively.  The natives are kind, but thrifty and parsimonious.”

MRS. WILTON.  “Thank you, Charles; your description is short, and very much to the purpose.  The Channel Islands, I believe, were attached to England, as the private property of William the Conqueror:  the French have made several unsuccessful attempts to gain possession of them.  The natives are Norman, and the language Norman-French.  These islands enjoy a political constitution of their own; exemption from all duties, and various privileges granted them by Royal Charter; they are much attached to the English government, but entirely averse to the French.  We will now pass over the other islands, and, ‘putting our ship about,’ we will stop to view the Eddystone lighthouse.”

MR. WILTON.  “Before we quit the shores of France, I wish to read you an extract from Leigh Ritchie’s Travelling Sketches.  You remember in our conversations on the Rivers last winter, that we mentioned the stain that would ever remain on Havre from the prominent part taken by the inhabitants in the dreadful traffic in slaves.  The extract I am about to read is from the journal of a youth named Romaine, on board the ‘Rodeur,’ a vessel of 200 tons, which cleared out of Havre for Guadaloupe, on the 15th January, 1819.  The boy writes to his mother, while the vessel lay at Bony in the river Calabar, on the coast of Africa:—­’Since we have been at this place, I have become more accustomed to the howling of these negroes.  At first it alarmed me, and I could not sleep.  The captain says if they behave well they will be much better off at Guadaloupe; and I am sure I wish the ignorant creatures would come quietly, and have it over.  To-day, one of the blacks, whom they were forcing into the hold, suddenly knocked down a sailor, and attempted to leap overboard.