We publish the poetical tale, THE LADY AND HER SLAVE, by an American lady, subscribing herself _Incognita_. This is a poem of great genius and power. Whilst it possesses the inspiration of poetry, it has all the merits of a truthful and most interesting tale, combined with a splendid intellectual argument against slavery. This poem unites the logic of Pope with the genius and poetical inspiration of Goldsmith. It is a tragedy, and might be transferred to the stage. We trust _Incognita_ will continue her favors to THE CONTINENTAL. R. J. W. * * * * * The rise in specie and in exchange is, we observe, spoken of as 'unprecedented'. The following extract from a work entitled, 'The British Empire in America,' written in 1740, shows that we are as yet far from having attained the differences in these respects: 'As to Money, they have none, Gold or Silver: About 50 Years ago they had some coined at _Boston_; but there's not enough now for Retailers. All Payments are in Province Bills, even so low as _Half a Crown_; thus every Man's Money is his Pocket Book. This makes the Course of Exchange so exorbitant, that 100_l._ in _London_ made out lately 225_l._ in _New-England_; and if a Merchant sells his Goods from _England_ at 220_l._ Advance upon 100_l._ in the Invoice, he would be a Loser by the Bargain, considering the incidental Charges on his Invoice.' So that after all, they had as great 'ups and downs' of old as do we of the present day. Apropos of the old book in question, it abounds in quaint bits of information, given in a dry, free and easy style seldom found at the present day in any work of the kind. Thus it tells us, among the anecdotes of ELLIOT the missionary, that an Indian in a religious conference asked how GOD could create man in his own image, since according to the second commandment it was forbidden to make any such image? 'To qualify him for the Work he was going about, Mr _Elliot_ learnt the _Indian_ Language as barbarous as can come out of the Mouth of Man, as will be seen by these Instances: '_Nummatchekodtantamoonganunnonash_, is in English, _Our Lusts_; a Word that the Reverend Mr _Elliot_ must often have occasion to make Use of. As long as it is, we meet with a longer still: '_Kummogkodonattoottummoooctiteaongannunonash_, meaning Our Question. '_Gannunonash_' seems to be 'our,' because we find it in the End of the First Word, as well as the second, * * and this appears again in another Word: '_Noowomantammooonkanunnonash_, 'Our Loves.' 'The longest of these _Indian_ Words is to be measured by the Inch, and reaches to near half a Foot; and if Mr _Elliot_ did put as many of these Words in a Sermon of his, as Mr _Peters_ put _English_ Words in one of his Sermons, everyone of them must have made a sizeable Book and have taken up three or four Hours in utterance.'