mixture of equal quantities of common salt and Jamaica pepper.  Some of this mixture is carefully spread under the fins to prevent them from corrupting, which they sometimes do, especially if the weather is warm.  A board with a large stone is sometimes laid upon the fish, with a view to make the salt penetrate more effectually.  In some places, as Dumbarton, instead of a flat board, a shallow wooden trough is used, by which means the brine is kept about the fish; sometimes two or three salmon are kippered together in the same vessel, one being laid upon the other.  The fish, with the board or trough, is set in a cool place for two or three days; it is then removed from the board, and again rubbed with salt and pepper; after which it is hung up by the tail, and exposed to the rays of the sun or the heat of the fire.  Care is previously taken to stretch out the fish by means of small sticks or hoops placed across it from side to side.  After it has remained in the heat a few days, it is hung up in a dry place till used.  Some people, in order to give the kipper a peculiar taste, highly relished by not a few, carefully smoke it with peat reek, or the reek of juniper bushes.  This is commonly done by hanging it up so near a chimney in which peats or juniper bushes are burnt, as to receive the smoke; there it remains two or three weeks, by which time it generally acquires the required flavour.

T.S.W.

* * * * *

DEBTOR AND CREDITOR.

(Concluded from page 227.)

Debt is obligation, and “obligation,” says Hobbes, “is thraldom.”  This will be evident if we once consider to what a variety of mean shifts the state of being in debt exposes us.  It sits like fetters of iron on conscience; but as old offenders often whistle to the clanking of their chains, so rogues lighten their hearts by increasing their debts.  It destroys freedom as much as a debtor is his creditor’s slave; and, under certain circumstances, his range may be reduced to a few square feet, and his view prescribed by a few cubits of brick walls; and, humiliating as this may appear, it sits lightly on the majority, since, even the brawlers for liberty, forgetting “the air they breathe,” are often to be found within its pale; but in this case they also forget, that being in legal debt is less venial than many other sins, since it cannot be cleared by any appeals to argument, or settled by shades of opinion.  Subterfuge, lying, and loss of liberty, are not all the miseries of a conscious debtor:  in the world he resembles a prisoner at large; he walks many circuitous miles to avoid being dunned, and would sooner meet a mad dog than an angry creditor.  He lives in a sort of abeyance, and sinks under shame when caught enjoying an undue luxury.  In short, he is cramped in all his enjoyments, and considers his fellow, out of debt, as great as the emperor of the celestial empire, after whose repast other kings may dine.  Hence ensue repining and envy:  he fancies himself slighted by the world, and, in return, he cares not for the opinion of the world; his energies waste, and he falls.