We have copied the following paragraph from the pages of a local historian, because it gives us a striking instance of what perseverance and good fortune will accomplish, in raising a man to comparative distinction from the humblest walks of life. August 26, 1691--Sir John Duck, bart., departed this life, being Wednesday at night, and was buried upon the Monday after, being the 31st of August. The wealthiest burgess on the civic annals of Durham. Of Sir John's birth, parentage, and education, the two first have hitherto remained veiled in impenetrable obscurity; as to the third, he was bred a butcher under John Heslop, in defiance of the trade and mystery of butchers, in whose books a record still exists, warning John Heslop that he forbear to sett John Ducke on worke in the trade of a butcher. John Duck however grew rich, married the daughter of his benefactor, and was created a baronet by James II. He built a splendid mansion in Silver-street, where a panel still exists recording his happy rise to fortune. The baronet, then humble Duck, cast out by the butchers, stands near a bridge in an attitude of despondency; in the air is seen a raven bearing in his bill a piece of silver, which according to tradition fell at the feet of the lucky John, and was naturally calculated to make a strong impression on his mind. He bought a calf, which calf became a cow, and which cow being sold enabled John to make further purchases in cattle, and from such slender beginnings, to realise a splendid fortune. On the right of the picture is a view of his mansion in Silver-street, and he seems to point at another, which is presumed to be the hospital he endowed at Lumley. He died without issue, and was buried at St. Margaret's, where his wife, Pia---- Prudens---- Felix, lies buried beside him. On Duck the Butchers shut the door; But Heslop's Daughter Johnny wed: In mortgage rich, in offspring poor, Nor son nor daughter crown'd his bed. TRAVELLING IN THE UNITED STATES EXACTLY ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO. The American advertisement, of which we here give a literal copy, is deserving of preservation on account of the quaintness of the inn-signs, the peculiarity of the spelling and diction, the "shifting" of the passengers which it announces, and the general idea it gives us of the way in which travelling was performed in America at the time when it was issued. Philadelphia STAGE-WAGGON, and New-York STAGE BOAT performs their Stages twice a Week.