Old rusty hackneys still attend each hearse,
And scarecrows in black gowns complete the farce."
King. Temple Mills.
"By these old mills strange wonders have been done,
Numbers have suffer'd, yet they still work on;
Then tell us, which have done the greater ills,
The Temple lawyers, or the Temple Mills?"
JNO. SUDLOW.
BIRTHPLACE OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE.
It is commonly believed that the Island of Martinique was the birthplace of Marie Josephine Rose Tascher de la Pagerie, better known as the Empress Josephine. It would seem, however, from the following circumstances, that St. Lucia has a preferable claim to that distinction. By the treaty of Paris (10th February, 1763), St. Lucia, until then one of the neutral islands, was ceded to France, and was made a dependency of Martinique. The first step adopted by the local authorities on that occasion, was to offer extensive grants of land in St. Lucia to such families in Martinique as might be disposed to settle in the former island; and among those who took advantage of the proposal was M. de Tascher, the father of Josephine. In the course of the year 1763 he came over to St. Lucia, and settled with his family on the crest of a hill called Paix-Bouche, within a few miles of the site now occupied by the principal town. Here they continued to reside until 1771, when M. de Tascher, having been selected for the office of President of the Conseil Souverain in Martinique, returned with his family to that island, taking with him a child seven years old, to whom Madame de Tascher had given birth at Morne Paix-Bouche on the 24th June, 1764, and who was destined to become the wife of Bonaparte and the Empress of France.