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affair, so far as we are acquainted with it, concludes by a minute of the bailie, of date the 18th of January: "The defender appearing and craving to be allowed to prove that he uses his wife civilly and in the ordinary way, the baillie allows him till to-morrow for doing the same; with certification, if he failed, he would not only remitt the scandalous part to be punished by the kirk-session, but otherwise fine and amerciate him, as he should see cause."

HINTS ABOUT HOUSE-FURNISHING. A NUMBER of years ago, when I took up housekeeping, I had a great many things to buy in the way of furniture, and among the rest, those indispensable

articles, room and kitchen grates. After visiting various tradesmen's establishments, purchasing carpets at one, brushes at another, other articles at a third, and so on, I at last came to the ironmonger's. "I wish to look at some grates," said I to the shopman. "This way, sir," said he; "here are some capital articles-the most fashionable in town-all of the very best materials," and so forth. I looked about me. I was in a great room, filled up to the roof with grates of brass and iron and steel, all glittering like gold

and silver.

"How beautiful!” said I to the smiling attendant;

"really every thing is here quite fine and dazzling. I am afraid it will be almost impossible for me to make a selection from such a splendid stock of wares. Pray be so good as point out what you, who know best, think rost suitable for my purpose-here are the measurements."

I said this, because I knew nothing of the requisites of grates. What could I know?-nobody had ever told me, no book had ever informed me, of any thing on the subject. I was like a thousand other young men under such circumstances. I had a house to furnish, and all that troubled me was the desire to furnish it like the houses of my neighbours-" every thing good and respectable," was the principal con

cern.

The consequence of this ignorance or carelessness was, that I purchased grates at a very high price, which experience has proved to possess many faults productive of serious discomfort. In order to prevent persons furnishing houses from falling into the same error, I shall take the liberty of offering a few simple advices.

First, as regards room grates. Have nothing to do with grates or stoves faced with scoured iron or steel. I have two reasons for giving you this warn ing. The cleaning of such grates requires a large portion of time every morning, during the fire-burn. ing season, on the part of the housemaid, and this in small families is a serious annoyance. Besides, there are few servants who will take pains, or who possess the taste, to clean the cleared part as it ought to be. In performing this operation, the rubbing must be all one way, either straight across or straight up and down, in order to preserve the fine lines on the metal. If the rubbing be done, as usual, on the "any way" principle, the brightness becomes dimmed and marked with cloudy streaks, and is in that condition most offensive to the eye. Reason second is, that steel-faced grates, during moist weather in summer, are exceedingly liable to rust. Unless continually examined and scoured, they become dull and rusty, as it is natural they should, and are thus a standing pest to the housewife who has no relish for incessant scrubbing. The next thing I have to observe of room grates is, that you should select those in preference which are wholly faced with dark cast-iron of a neat pattern, and, at most, having only a stripe of burnished brass along the top and down each side. It is no doubt difficult to keep the brass clean at the angles next the bars; but this is a simple matter in comparison with cleaning bright iron or steel fronts. Whatever description of grates you purchase, let them be all of the register kind, and examine them to see that the registering process works well, and will exclude back smoke. If the lid do not shut perfectly close, or if there be any aperture in any part of the grate, your rooms during summer will frequently have a smell of soot and smoke. I have remarked that the fireplace in dining and drawing-room stoves is sometimes placed too high, which leads to discomfort in winter; for the heat by that means flies up the chimney, instead of being sent into the room or down upon your hearth. See that this is not the case with your grates; and take care also that the bars are not too wide, otherwise the place beneath will be constantly disfigured with ashes and burning embers. In London, parlour grates can be bought with a double set of bars. One

set is dark, the other burnished. The dark set is breaking of coals in the grates by the servants, and fixed on during winter, and the other set put up in its that the boiler would therefore soon be destroyed. stead for show during summer-a plan which people The experience of several years demonstrates the deof taste may prefer. When the fireplace is placed lusiveness of such an objection. In this, as in a thoulow, it has sometimes a belt of brass beneath the bars, sand other details, the comfort of families is made to to correspond with the brass on the sides. This belt, suffer through the grand palliatory excuse for adherhowever, very commonly extends so low that a brushing to old usages, "It can't be done." cannot be conveniently got under it to sweep out the ashes. In such cases, there ought to be a moveable box for the ashes to drop into.

The best kind of fenders are those made of stout cast-iron. Fenders of the most tasteful patterns and construction are now manufactured of this material, and are greatly preferable to those of brass, besides being much cheaper. If you buy a brass fender, let it be of open work; when of one piece, the heat is prevented from coming to the feet.

Such is now the taste displayed by our ironmongers, that you are less likely to be furnished with badly constructed or inelegant room grates, than of firevery far behind their neighbours the English as reranges for your kitchen. The people of Scotland are spects cooking apparatus. The very finest houses in Edinburgh are furnished with a kind of kitchen grates which must have been disused in the south for at least a century. This is a very curious fact, because the component parts of the grates and cooking apparatus of the English are chiefly made at Carron, in Scotland. The prevailing error in the construction of the Scotch kitchen grates is their unnecessary largeand higher orders would hold a hundredweight of ness. Those in common use in families of the middle coal. They are vast in their dimensions, require a mass of building to support them, and are generally kept choked up with ashes. Had Count Rumford seen them, he must have swooned away from grief and astonishment. I was so unfortunate as to purnot long before I was glad to turn it out of the house. chase one of these huge unmeaning things, but it was It would have required a coal pit for its own especial consumption.

A good kitchen range should possess the following indispensable qualifications:-It should require little fuel in cooking; should be able to roast, boil, and

dress a number of dishes at the same time; and should at all times, by night and by day, possess plenty of hot water. I sought far and wide before I saw such a grate as possessed these properties. However, I fell in with it at last. While one day sauntering down Kennington Lane, a long wide suburban street near Vauxhall, in the vicinity of London, I chanced to notice an ironmongery establishment, with an exhibition of grates of all kinds at the door. Among these, on examination, I detected the thing I stood in need of, and forthwith made it my own.

THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF MEXICO AND PERU.

THE most of our readers are probably aware that there are five varieties of the human race, one of which is

confined to the American continent. When the Europeans, at the end of the fifteenth and beginning

of the sixteenth centuries, first became acquainted with the people of that part of the world, they found them living as savages in all except two comparatively small districts, where an advance had been made from the barbarous mode of life. One of these regions, denominated Mexico, was a country of considerable extent the other, Peru, was a narrow country stretching in the centre of the southern part of North America: along the western coast of South America, at such a distance from Mexico, as, in combination with other circumstances, rendered it improbable that any communication had ever taken place between them. If we could suppose that the light of civilisation had aided efficacy of the mental powers of the natives, broken out in these two countries through the unthey would naturally become objects of great interest,

as it would be curious to trace the direction which the

human mind had taken under such circumstances, and to compare all its manifestations with those which communities. But, even supposing that the means of had been exhibited amongst the Asiatic and European intellectual advancement were borrowed from the Old World, the two countries in question exhibited it in a stage of its progress with which we are so little acquainted, that an account of the appearances which they presented to Europeans on their first discovery, is one of the most interesting chapters of human his. tory.

When Hernando Cortes, in 1519, invaded the Mexican territory, he found it in much the same state as that in which some of the Eastern empires appear to have been about a thousand or fifteen hundred years before Christ. In a city of considerable magnificence, in a central part of the country, reigned a monarch, who possessed a despotic authority over dominions stretching in every direction from twenty to forty leagues, with a less degree of influence over a more remote range of territory, and who, in personal pomp, rivalled the famous sovereigns of Babylonia and Egypt. The people, living partly in large towns and partly distributed over the country, were chiefly emity in the arts of the mason, the weaver, the goldsmith, the painter, and some others, to which individuals were regularly educated. They were not acquainted with the means of fabricating tools of metal, nor did they possess any knowledge of letters, or of money; but a native ingenuity, peculiar to the race, did much to compensate the first of these wants, and they were evidently going through the stages immediately preliminary to the discovery of the two grand media of intellectual and commercial intercourse.

Experience has proved the very great superiority of the article I mention; and I most sincerely recommend not only persons furnishing houses, but those already in possession of old-fashioned kitchen ranges, ing in fuel will soon remunerate them for the outlay.ployed in agriculture, but also exercised their ingenuto procure grates of the like construction, as the sav The nature and qualifications of this excellent piece of mechanism are these: It is altogether composed of plates of cast-iron nailed together, and requires very little building. It measures three feet three inches back, and two feet two inches in height. At one end and a half in length, eighteen inches from front to is an oven for baking, and at the other a boiler. In the centre is a fireplace, measuring fifteen inches in length. The oven is heated, not by a separately kindled fire, but by some of the burning embers being pushed in below it from the central fireplace. The central fire also heats and keeps boiling the water in the boiler. This boiler has more than one side presented to the fire; it extends all round the back of the fireplace like a square tube, presenting a large surface to the fire; and the water is therefore kept hot even while a very small quantity of fuel is in the grate. The top of the boiler at side and back, and also the oven, are perfectly flat, so that the whole upper surface answers the purpose of a hot plate. I have said the fireplace is fifteen inches in length, but this extent can be diminished by a moveable division and hob. From beneath the grate, a grated shelf can be pulled out to rest dishes upon. Thus, the whole is of a compact nature, full of conveniences. grate roasts meat in front, bakes a dish in the oven, boils a saucepan on the fire, keeps simmering at least other three vessels, all at the same time, while the fire employed is only about half what is usually consumed in the large unthrifty grates in common use in this country. Besides furthering these various operations, the boiler has always a store of hot water, which all good housewives know to be a most valuable com. modity, whether for culinary purposes, bathing, or washing. The life of an infant may often be saved by having plenty of hot water to bathe it.

Such a

Grates like that which I describe may be purchased from any ironmonger in London for about five pounds each. Smaller ones, called cottage ranges, may be got cheaper, and likewise larger ones at a higher cost. But the kind I mention are the best for all families in the middle ranks of life who do not require a great deal of cooking. Possibly they may be obtained in Scotland, although I have never seen any exhibited for sale; and I was informed in London that they are have heard such grates objected to by Scotch ironcast at Carron principally for the London market. I mongers, but for the very singular reason, that, having cast-iron backs, they could not endure the furious

The knowledge of their own history, which they derived partly from tradition and partly from rude paintings by which they were accustomed to commemorate events, represented the country as originally peopled by tribes resembling the savages in other parts of America. About a period corresponding to the beginning of the tenth century of our era, several tribes came from unknown regions towards the north and north-west, and began to train the original inhabitants to the arts of social life. At length, about the end of the twelfth century, the Aztecs, a more polished people than any of the former, advanced from the border of the Calithe centre of the country, where they founded the city fornian gulf, and took possession of the plains near of Mexico. For several ages they were governed in peace and conducted in war by such as were entitled to pre-eminence by their wisdom and valour; but an elective monarchy was at last framed, which, at the time when the Spaniards arrived, had existed a hundred and thirty years. Originally the power of the sovereign was limited by regulations favourable to the liberties of the people; but Montezuma, the monarch who reigned at the time just mentioned, had made considerable progress in establishing a pure despotism.

In the empire thus established, law and religion existed under distinct and acknowledged forms, and distinctions of rank and rights of property were fully recognised. The great body of the people, composed probably of the descendants of the original inhabitants, were, like similar races in the older continent, in a most degraded condition, some being attached to the soil like slaves, and deemed of so little account that to kill them was held no crime. tion of the people were freemen, and even they were body of nobles, about three thousand in number, postreated with little respect by the upper classes. A sessed of ample estates, and invested with titles of honour, some of which were connected with particu

Another por.

lar offices, were the next in rank; and between these and the sovereign, there were thirty subordinate princes or caziques, who exercised an almost independent authority. The latter order elected the sovereign, and formed a council without which he could determine upon no matter of importance. Every person who could be denominated a freeman had property in land, which, however, was held by various modes of tenure, some possessing it in full right, while in other cases it was connected with offices, and retained only as long as the individuals were in employment. The lowest order of the people possessed property by a very different tenure. In every district, a certain quantity of land was measured out in proportion to the number of families. This was cultivated by the joint labour of the whole; its produce was deposited in a common storehouse, and divided among them according to their respective wants. But as these portions of land were in no respect at the disposal of the people, they might be regarded in the light of a national provision for the poor, rather than as what the inhabitants of the old continent are accustomed to call property. The productions of the soil, as well as articles of manufacture, were exhibited in open market, and, in the absence of money, exchanged for other articles, according as the parties might agree; one article-the cocoa-nut, from which chocolate was made-being in universal requisition, and of certain value, had nearly obtained that general and ready ac ceptance which constitutes a representative medium, and might therefore be considered as a species of It may be mentioned here, that the respect due from one rank to another was prescribed with the most ceremonious accuracy, and had incorporated itself with the expressions and idioms of the language, which abounds in terms of courtesy. The common people were not allowed to wear the same dress, or to dwell in houses of the same form, with those of the nobles, or to accost them without the most submissive reverence; in the presence of their sovereign, they durst not lift up their eyes from the ground, or look him in the face. The nobles themselves, when admitted to an audience with the monarch, were obliged to enter barefooted, in mean garments, and with forms of homage approaching to adoration. It is remarkable that the nobles served the monarch in war with bodies of troops in proportion to the extent of their domains; a regulation which, taken in connection with the gradations of rank and other circumstances, suggests the recollection of the feudal communities of the Old World.

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Religion, among the Mexicans, had become an established and regulated system. They had temples of lofty dimensions, usually in the form of truncated pyramids, with a small building on the top, in which they placed idols, in the figures of tigers, serpents, and other destructive animals, which they consulted and worshipped with ceremonies of revolting cruelty, human sacrifices being considered the most acceptable to their deities. No Mexican devotee could approach the altar without sprinkling it with his own blood, and the fasts, penances, and mortifications which they endured in their ordinary course of life, were almost beyond belief. The priests were an order set apart for religious purposes, and their festivals were as regular as under any religious system of the elder continent. All the prisoners taken in war were sacrificed to the gods, to which the head and heart were consecrated, while the body was retained by the captor as a feast for himself and his friends. The barbarity of these ceremonials was even greater than what was observable among the ruder tribes of Ame. rica, and might appear inconsistent with the relations which we have received respecting the progress of the Mexicans in the arts of social life, if we were not aware, as Dr Robertson has remarked, that "nations, long after their ideas begin to enlarge, and their manners to refine, adhere to systems of superstition founded on the crude conceptions of the early ages." Justice, civil and criminal, was administered in Mexico, by judges appointed by the sovereign, in accordance with fixed laws, and with a degree of order and equity worthy of a civilised community. The government was supported by taxes laid upon land, and upon the productions of industry, and which were necessarily paid in articles of food and manufacture. Thus a vast quantity of stores of every kind was laid up, from which the monarch supplied his numerous train of attendants in peace, and his armies in war. The improved state of government was conspicuous, not only in points essential to the being of a well-ordered society, but in several regulations of inferior consequence. The king, for instance, had couriers stationed at proper intervals on all the principal thoroughfares throughout his dominions, to convey intelligence from the provinces; a refinement not then known in any part of Europe. The structure of the capital city in a lake, with artificial causeways or mounds giving access to it in three directions, and conduits for supplying the inhabitants with fresh water, shows ideas of security and convenience which could not have been entertained by any but a refined nation. It is also worthy of notice, that the city of Mexico possessed a regular body of police, who cleaned the streets, lighted them by fires kindled in different places, and patroled as watchmen during the night; an Institution which the contemporary nations of Europe did not possess in nearly so perfect a condition.

The works of art produced by the Mexicans were necessarily rude, as the use of metal tools was unknown

|

to the people; but it was wonderful to what an extent their ingenuity and industry compensated for this want. One of their most ingenious manufactures consisted of representations of men and animals by means of coloured feathers, which they could arrange in such a way as to give the effect of light and shade.* Their ornaments of gold and silver were also fabricated with dexterity and neatness. In common with the savage nations of America, they had been accustomed to commemorate events by rude representations on the bark of trees; but in this art they had advanced in a degree proportioned to their general civilisation. By figures of objects, they could exhibit a complex series of events in progressive order, such as the occurrences of a king's reign from his accession to his death; the progress of an infant's education, from its birth until it attained the years of maturity; or the different recompenses and marks of distinction conferred upon warriors, in proportion to the exploits which they had performed. One series of these pictorial writings, as they may be called, contained the history of the empire under its ten monarchs. The figures were very grotesque and rude; but some progress had evidently been made towards a more convenient mode of writing, symbols being employed instead of objects, while numbers were represented by particular signs. The figure of a circle represented an unit, and, in small numbers, the computation was made by repeating it. Larger numbers were expressed by a peculiar mark, and they had such as denoted all integral numbers from twenty to eight thousand. Had the empire been permitted to exist, they would have probably advanced through all those progressive stages by which, from similar beginnings, the people of the Old World at length attained to the construction of alphabets.

Their mode of computing time is considered as a more decisive evidence of their progress in improvement. Their civil year was a solar one of 365 days, and consisted of eighteen months, of twenty days each, with five supernumerary days, which were devoted to pastime and festivity. The day was reckoned to begin at sunrise, and was divided into four intervals, by the rising and setting of that luminary, and its two passages over the meridian. Each month was divided into four weeks of five days each. Thirteen years formed a cycle, to which they gave a particular name, and four of these constituted a period of fiftytwo years, which they denoted by another term. Two of these periods of fifty-two years formed what they called an old age. At the end of fifty-two years, thirteen days were intercalated to bring their time up to the seasons; which makes their year agree with the Italian period of 365 days and 6 hours, and discovers a considerable degree of philosophical accu

racy.

Among circumstances which, on the other hand, tend to prove the partial nature of their civilisation, must be reckoned their atrocious religion, the cruel character of their wars, their want of money and of metal tools, and the small progress which they had made in subjecting animals to their service. Their architecture was also of a humble sort. The houses occupied by the common people were mere hovels, nor were the dwellings of the nobles of a much superior character. Even the temples of the gods were little better than heaps of earth faced with stone. Their religion had also produced a ferocity of manners little superior to what was to be found among savages, while the tendency of their civil institutions was to degrade and impoverish the great bulk of the people. The higher classes alone possessed the more fertile lands; the governors of provinces indulged with impunity in the severest exactions; and the working people were every where oppressed. The highways swarmed with mendicants; and from the want of large quadrupeds, thousands of the lower orders were employed as beasts of burden, in conveying the maize, cotton, hides, and other commodities sent from the more remote provinces to the capital in payment of tribute.

The empire of Peru, at the time when it was invaded by the Spaniards, extended above fifteen hundred miles along the Pacific Ocean, and had attained to even a greater degree of civilisation than Mexico. According to the accounts communicated by its own traditions, and by a species of literature consisting of knotted cords, the country was originally peopled by ignorant savages, who struggled for ages with the evils incidental to that condition. At length, a man and woman, of majestic form, and clothed in decent garments, appeared on the banks of the lake Titiaca, representing themselves as children of the Sun, who had been sent by their beneficent parent to instruct and reclaim the inhabitants of the earth. With the aid

The descendants of the aboriginal Mexicans still display the ingenuity of their race in constructing miniature figures, in which the faces are either made of wax or of cloth. We have seen an extensive range of specimens in the possession of a gentleman residing in Edinburgh, to whom they were sent by a kinsman settled in Mexico. Those formed exclusively of cloth are the most felicitous as representations of the objects, though it might be supposed that they would not be the easiest of execution. The faces of the young are formed of a cloth slightly tinctured, to represent the dusky red complexion of America, while the old seem to require a much more dingy colour. Some of the latter present singularly lively portraitures of the human visage, every wrinkle and peculiarity of expression being given in a space of less than an inch. A scolding old virago, a cripple beggar, and a stout middleaged woman, who is rallying a pair of young lovers, seemed to us peculiarly happy pictures. It ought to be mentioned that the eyes are represented by beads.

Ammute account of these was given in the 87th number of the Journal.

of a few of the neighbouring tribes, Manco Capac and Mama Ocollo, for such were the names of these strangers, founded the city of Cuzco, and established a government, which was gradually extended over the more remote provinces. Manco Capac instructed the men in agriculture, and other useful arts; while his consort taught the women to spin and weave. He afterwards established laws, by which the administration of civil and religious affairs was regulated. The children of this mysterious pair had married each other, in order to preserve their divine nature from admixture with that of men, and twelve generations in succession had now ruled over the empire. Being esteemed as children of the Sun, the chief object of worship among the Peruvians, their government had assumed the character of a pure theocracy. The Inca, as the monarch was termed, was obeyed not only on account of his apparent and temporal sovereignty, but as the messenger of heaven. His messengers were every where treated with reverence, and his subjects of highest rank never appeared in his presence with. out a burden upon their shoulders, as an emblem of their servitude, and willingness to bear whatever the Inca was pleased to impose. All infractions of the law were punished capitally, as implying a kind of blasphemy against the decrees of the deity This des potism, however, and this severity, met with such perfect acquiescence, that neither did the Inca on the one hand become tyrannical, nor did the people grow fierce under a sense of wrong. Their religion was of a mild character, being directed only to such natural objects as inspire feelings of gratitude and admiration, such as the heavenly bodies. Under its genial influence, they conducted war in a spirit more humane than even the polished nations of Europe, taking those whom they subdued under their protection, and admitting them to a participation of all the advantages enjoyed by themselves.

All the lands capable of cultivation were divided into three shares, one of which was devoted to the support of religion, another to the government, while the third and largest was reserved for the maintenance of the people, among whom it was parcelled out. Neither individuals nor communities had a right of exclusive property in the portion set apart for their use. They possessed it only for a year, at the expiration of which a new division was made in proportion to the rank, the number, and the exigencies of each family. All those lands were cultivated by the joint industry of the community. The people, summoned by a proper officer, repaired in a body to the fields, and performed their common task, while songs and musical instruments cheered them to their labour. "By this singular distribution of territory," says Dr Robertson, "as well as by the mode of cultivating it, the idea of a common interest, and of mutual subserviency, was continually inculcated. Each individual felt his connection with those around him, and knew that he depended on their friendly aid for what increase he was to reap." There was nevertheless a gradation of ranks, terminating with a body of slaves as numerous and as degraded as in Mexico.

In Peru, agriculture was carried on with more skill and to a greater extent than in Mexico; and there was accordingly a greater abundance of food. The people were acquainted with both the arts of manuring and of irrigation. In turning up the soil for seed, which was done by a kind of wooden mattock, both sexes were employed. Their houses, especially those in the higher and colder regions, were superior to the hovels of Mexico, and their temples and other public edifices were extensive, and of massive and elegant form. Two roads, which extended through the length of the country, were equally wonderful monuments of the power of the Incas, by whose orders they were constructed. The one was conducted through the interior and mountainous country, the other through the plains on the coast. "We were surprised," says Baron Humboldt, "to find in this place, and at heights which greatly surpass the top of the peak of Teneriffe, the magnificent remains of a road constructed by the Incas of Peru. This cause. way, lined with freestone, may be compared to the finest Roman roads I have seen in Italy, France, or Spain; it is perfectly straight, and keeps the same di. rection for six or eight thousand metres." Before this pathway could have been formed along the skirts of a chain of mountains like the Andes, a vast labour must have been incurred in reducing eminences and filling up hollows. At various stages were placed storehouses for the refreshment of the Inca and his attendants. Dr Robertson justly observes, that, at the time when the Spaniards entered Peru, no kingdom in Europe could boast of any work of public utility that could be compared with the great roads formed by the Incas. The rivers which crossed these ways were passed in the high grounds by means of suspension bridges formed of ozier ropes, and in the low country by floats, supplied not only with paddles, but with masts and sails. The Peruvians were expert artificers in gold and copper, with which they made many neat ornaments, and also in clay, and in the making of warlike instruments.

Various opinions have been entertained respecting the origin of the partial civilisation found in these ancient American nations, but the question is not perhaps capable of being definitely settled. Humboldt, the latest and most industrious inquirer, endeavours to prove, from resemblances in their language, personal aspect, institutions, and popular traditions, to these

our

The carp, also, and tench, fish much esteemed for stocking waters in England, are met with only as curiosities among our preserves; they are rarely known to breed here, and require too much severe attention to repay the trouble of cultivating them to any extent for our tables. In a small pond at Redbraes, adjoining Edinburgh, seven or eight carp have been maintained for several years, along with numbers of perch; and though of both sexes, no disposition to shed spawn has as yet become apparent; in fact, it may safely be asserted by us, judging from what we have heard on the subject, that the carp will not thrive in Scotland, until some means be discovered for meliorating the climate, and giving a soft quality to our waters.

of various nations in the eastern parts of Asia, that point out the absurdity of introducing into preserves the light of civilisation must have been carried thence those more delicate kinds which require a warmer into America by Behring's Straits, where a constant temperature. Of fresh-water fishes, naturalised in or intercourse subsists at this day between the inhabi-native to Scotland, the principal are the salmon, char, tants of the various continents. But in eighty-three | trout, pike, and perch, with their varieties; American languages, only one hundred and seventy southern districts afford the bream, roach, and venwords have been found, in which any resemblance to dise; but these are confessedly localised, and, except Asiatic words of similar signification could be said in a few instances, do not exist north of Dumfriesto exist, while the other resemblances seem to be only shire. such as might arise by accident under the influence of a common human nature. If the originators of Mexican and Peruvian civilisation left Europe at a time when such ideas and institutions as those nations possessed were in existence, why did they not also bring a knowledge of money, of the use of iron, of mortar in building, and many other serviceable devices, which have been in vogue in the Old World since a period long antecedent to the existence of laws and regulations resembling those found in the two American empires? Upon the whole, in the case of Mexico at least, the arguments for a separate origin of civilisation are the strongest. With all its improvements upon savage life, we cannot fail to remark in that country a strong resemblance, in religion, cus. toms, and even in matters of civil polity, to the surrounding nations of barbarians-the resemblance which the apple bears to the crab. The original type was still, it may be said, conspicuous, having been only cultivated into something better, not altered by the engrafting of a new stock. Of Peru it is impossible to speak so decisively. The tradition respecting the pair of civilising strangers is so distinct, and refers to a time so recent; it was so strikingly supported by the existence of their descendants, and the reverence paid to them; the civilisation, moreover, of the Peruvians was of a nature so unlike that of Mexico, and every thing which we can conceive to have awakened naturally in the savage breast; that we can hardly doubt that the improved ideas of the nation came from a foreign source, though how or whence they came, it would be difficult to surmise. One thing seems clear, that the illustrious pair were no recent exportation from either Europe or Asia, as, if they had been so, they must have brought a knowledge of the use of iron, of the arch in building, and other ancient arts, of which the Peruvians were found to be destitute.*

FISH-PONDS.

We have more than once been asked by country gentlemen to give a paper in our Journal on the best means of constructing ponds for the raising and preserving of fresh-water fish; and being anxious to disseminate some correct information on this subject, we beg to lay before our country readers the following observations of Mr Stoddart, in his recently published entertaining little work on Angling. We need only premise, that, in the work from which we quote, there are cuts illustrative of the form and nature of the fishponds alluded to.

"The observations introduced into our initiatory chapters on Scottish rivers and lochs, with regard to the soils best calculated for the breeding of good trout, will apply, not without reason, to our present remarks. In these we have shown that a constant and plentiful provision is essential to the growth and increase of fish, and that certain dispositions of channel or bottom will furnish more readily than others the various kinds of sustenance required. Now, in treating of the construction of artificial ponds, whether intended for the raising or fattening of fish, we hold it to be of primary consequence that some means be taken to secure a steady supply of food, otherwise the object of the experimentalist is defeated at its very outset.

To do this successfully must depend very much upon the natural conveniences of soil and situation. No one can rationally expect to find worms and insects under a dry poor earth, or flies in any plenty apart from shrubs and trees. Undoubtedly those places which are, to a certain extent, fertile, and in the neighbourhood of wood, also mosses and moor ground, arising as they do from vegetable decay, are to be preferred before arid and unproductive lands for this purpose.

The most natural and effective situations, however, are small valleys and glens, pervaded by rivalets, and exposed in some degree to the sun. By throwing a strong bank across the lower part, or entrance, these are easily transformed into reservoirs of water, well calculated to nourish many sorts of fish, especially those native to Scotland. This simple method of constructing a preserve is very common in our hilly districts, where nature, the head architect, provides the greater requisites ; yet on level grounds, with no such inherent advantages, it is, we confess, a matter both of expense and nicety to complete a pond well adapted for the breeding of fish.

Before we discuss the plans most approved of for fish enclosures, we shall briefly notice what sorts of fish thrive best in our northern climate, in order to

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In a paper by Mr Whyte, land-surveyor at Mint law, which obtained one of the Highland Society's prizes, it is stated, that in some ponds belonging to Mr Fergusson of Pitfour, in Aberdeenshire, the tench thrives well; and the carp, although not very prolific, breeds. This is owing, we imagine, to a particular softness in the quality of the water where these fish exist: in fact, it is allowed by Mr Whyte, in allusion to the carp ponds, that it is wholly kept up by rain water-a very different fluid from the hard springs which naturally supply our preserves.

It comes to this, that the only fish we possess, capable of being bred and fattened in artificial ponds to any extent, are the trout, the pike, and the perch, along of course with eels and minnows; the former of which, namely, the eels, strange as it may appear, would almost seem to be produced spontaneously, or from the soil itself.

And first, as to the perch. This hardy fish may be transported with great ease, being very tenacious of life. Even in wet moss, it can be carried alive from a considerable distance. Perch, if well fed, breed quickly in dead dull waters. Their spawning time is March and part of April. There are two methods of stocking a pond with them; one, and by far the surest, is to obtain the live and grown fish; another is to collect the impregnated deposit, and lay it along the shoals of your preserve for the sun to hatch. microscope will enable you to detect the proper state of the ova, which you will find in large beds along the margin of any tank where perch abound. When properly impregnated, these will appear slightly discoloured, and open or cleft on one side.

A

Ponds intended solely for perch do not require to be made large; they should slope gradually down towards the middle, from a depth of six inches to one of five or six feet. Water weeds ought not to be greatly encouraged. A series, or chain, of small basins, at different elevations, is preferable to a single large reservoir for this fish. These basins should be connected by a sluice and flood-gate, so that one may be readily emptied into another for the mutual convenience of cleaning and repairing. Also, the uppernost ought to be shallower than those below, and more exposed to the sun, so as to serve for a nursery and breeding pond. Bream live well with perch in a warm situation; they are not, however, obtained readily in Scotland. Perch ponds should be let off and paved with channel stones every four or five years; many allow them to remain fallow for some months, and others sow them with grass and oats, a conceit laboriously encouraged by whimsy and theoretical writers of bygone days. We are no sticklers for antiquated and idle absurdities, and believe that many fish, for whose benefit they are performed, will thrive as well without them, provided you afford sweet, fresh water, and a plentiful allowance of food. Perch in some preserves have been known, although rarely, to attain the weight of three or four pounds, averaging, when well fed, from twelve to twenty ounces.

The pike pond, if for breeding and fattening to some extent, ought to be large, covering from eight to twenty acres; its mean depth, six or seven feet. One end, however, should be much shallower, and sown with bulrushes, or other water-plants. Previous to stocking it with this fish, a sub-stock of perch or trout should by all means be introduced, otherwise, with out a great supply of such sustenance, pike will not only become thin and ill-tasted, but quarrel and devour each other. Nay, we would recommend that both of these sorts of fish be, if possible, made subservient for their use; although, of course, as we shall shortly discover, it is in vain to attempt raising a proper proportion of trout without the aid of a stream, directed through the pond. To facilitate, however, a steady supply of perch, small tanks should be constructed along side of the leading preserve, with connecting sluices and flood-gates, so as to expel, when necessary, a shoal of live food.

Pike for stocking should be caught with a drag.net -of one size, and below two pounds weight. Although termed solitary fish, they are not so, but swim in small

Those who wish to make farther inquiries respecting the an- companies. No less than sixty-seven have been taken

cient Mexicans and Peruvians, may be directed to Robertson's History of America, and Humboldt's Researches concerning the Institutions and Monuments of the Ancient Inhabitants of Ame

rica

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When con

for the acre of water is quite sufficient. structing your preserves, include as many natural springs as possible: they both help to keep the water pure, and supply the bottom with eels, upon which reptiles pike fatten prodigiously.

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Next, as to the raising of trout. The error most prevalent with regard to this fish is, to suppose that, by providing an esteemed sort to breed from-for instance, of Loch Leven-you thereby secure to your table a first-rate stock, without calculating how to furnish proper food, and prevent the degeneracy of the fish. Very indifferent and badly flavoured trout will, it is ascertained, greatly improve when transferred into waters where food is plenty; also whitefleshed fish, if one may use the expression, will become red over certain soils. What, then, is to hinder a naturally good trout from losing its flavour and firmness when imported into a poor artificial water, from one that is rich in sustenance, and well gifted with shelter?

We cannot but point out the inutility of sending many miles for a pitcherful of one variety of fish, when another, which will probably turn out better, may be taken from the very nearest brook. As to the arrangements to be pursued in the planning of a good trout preserve: Let the primary matter be the choice of your ground, in which, should you be exceedingly narrowed, and at a loss for good materials, then give up altogether the idea of a fish-pond. If, however, you can discern the qualities of soil and neighbour. hood recommended by us at the outset of this chapter, and, besides these, are able to command a small stream or brook, then set about and prepare your ground as follows:

Choose from six to twenty acres, less or more, of an oval shape, but indented with small bays. Cast a long trench through the middle, from head to foot ; noticing that you can readily divert along it the stream just mentioned, which stream is intended as a spawning place, seeing that trout never shed their roe in dead water. Let this trench deepen gradually as the ground descends; so that, at the intended foot of the pond, it should sink nearly three yards, while the upper part thereof is kept shallow. Dig from either side of your trench, keeping it slope and level, until within four fathoms of the intended margin of the fishpond. When this is done, turn your attention to what is called the dam-head, at the outlet or lowest part of the pond. From it, continue your trench for a short distance in the form of a paved sluice. Build stones, grass-sods, and clay, along the bank on each side, if needful, and drive in a few piles to strengthen it. Then set a flood-gate at the outlet, and another to serve as a check in case of accident, three yards farther down, where your paved sluice terminates. A few cart-loads of coarse channel, not from the sea, ought to be emptied over the earthy parts of your pond, which otherwise are apt to get covered with weeds, or else to encourage eels, the marked enemies of trout in all stages. After this is done, let loose your stream, and form your preserve, introducing trout of about six inches in length, eight or ten to every acre. Raise also at the head a small nursery of minnows, connecting it by distinct sluices both with the pond and its feeder. These are favourite food of trout, and fatten them at a quick rate.

Some throw a sunken mound across the pond, rising to within a yard or so of the water-surface. By the assistance of this embankment, the fish are preserved from injury, at those times when you require to repair your preserve; since you thereby are enabled to expel only one-half of its contents at a time, keeping the other occupied during your cleansing operations.

The first, or parent breed, in an artificial fish enclosure, generally grows to a great size, and with astonishing rapidity. As an instance of this, we may mention, that, some years ago, several trout, weighing each about three or four ounces, were transferred from Loch Skene, in Dumfriesshire, to a newly constructed pleasure pond, belonging to Mr Younger of Craiglands, near Moffat; and that, in the course of eighteen months, they attained, individually, the weight of as many pounds; although Loch Skene itself produces no fish above twelve inches in length. The present breed from these trout is much inferior in size, owing, of course, to the increase of their numbers, and the minuter proportion of food attainable by each individual.

In our opinion, although not generally the practice, part of the parent or stock breed ought to be carefully preserved, in order to serve as a check upon the too plentiful spawnings which are apt to occur, and to devour, as their great size and appetites will enable them to do, the superabundant fry. Nay, in some places we would introduce a pike for this purpose, and believe him to do more good than harm.

During strong frosts in winter, the fish in artificial ponds are apt to suffer greatly, especially the young fry. To prevent this there is no proper remedy. A becoming disposition of large stones at the bottom of your reservoir, will, nevertheless, serve in part the purposes of shelter; although it is very true that the greater damage done by severe frosts results from the exclusion of air. Wherefore, order holes to be made in the ice that the fish may breathe properly, which most certainly they will attempt to do, coming up in great numbers to your vents, and by the agita tion they make, sometimes preventing them from re

at one haul from the river Tay, near Almond mouth. When stocking your pond, do not overdo it by put ting in more pike than is absolutely necessary of fish under two pounds weight and above one, eight | freezing."”

LONDON SYSTEMS.

[From "The Italian Exile," by Count Pecchio.] SOME people are quite thunderstruck at the silence which prevails among the inhabitants of London. But how could one million four hundred thousand persons live together without silence? The torrent of men, women, and children, carts, carriages, and horses, from the Strand to the Exchange, is so strong, that it is said that in winter there are two degrees of Fahrenheit difference between the atmosphere of this long line of street, and that of the West End. I have not ascertained the truth of this; but from the many avenues there are to the Strand, it is very likely to "be correct. From Charing Cross to the Royal Exchange is an encyclopædia of the world. An apparent anarchy prevails, but without confusion or disorder. The rules which the poet Gay lays down in his "Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London," for walking with safety along this tract of about three miles, appear to me unnecessary. The habit of traversing this whirlpool renders the passage easy to every one, without disputes, without accidents, without punctilio, as if there were no obstacle whatever. I suppose it is the same thing at Pekin. The silence then of the passengers is the consequence of the multiplicity of business. I do not say it by way of epigram, but if Naples should ever have a population of a million and a half, it would be necessary for even Neapolitan windpipes to put themselves under some restraint! It is only in Spain that silence is the

companion of idleness.

In London I have often risen early, in order to be present at the spectacle of the resurrection of a million and a half of people. This great monster of a capital, like an immense giant awaking, shows the first signs of life in the extremities. Motion begins at the circumference, and, by little and little, goes on getting strength, and pushing towards the centre, till at ten o'clock commences the full hubbub, which goes on continually increasing till four o'clock, the 'Change hour. It seems as if the population followed the laws of the tide until this hour; it now continues flowing from the circumference to the Exchange: at half-past four, when the Exchange is shut, the ebb begins; and currents of people, coaches, and horses, rush from the Exchange to the circumference.

chines, for example, at every certain number of strokes, the machine rings a bell to inform the workmen of the fact. The tread-mill, introduced for a punishment and an employment in the houses of correction, also rings a bell every time it makes a certain number of revolutions. In the wool-carding manufactory at Manchester there is a species of clock to ascertain if the watchman, whose duty it is to guard against fire, has kept awake all the night. If, every quarter of an hour, he omits to pull a rope which hangs from the wall outside, the clock within notes down and reveals his negligence in the morning.

One shopman, therefore, in London, supplies the place of forty or fifty servants: the shops may be distant, and remotely situated, without any inconveni. ence. The shopkeepers themselves do not remain idle, and, instead of men, in some places lads or children are employed. The newspapers are circulated from house to house at a penny an hour; the carrier is a boy of ten or twelve years old, active as a sprite, exact as time, who brings them and takes them away. By this system, the servants remain at home, with nothing to divert them from their occupations. The servant maids, especially, very seldom go out during all the week, until the arrival of Sunday sets them at liberty for three or four hours. It follows, also, that an English family has no need of keeping any great store of provisions in the house; there is in consequence less occupation of room, and less occasion for capital, less care, less waste, less smell, and less wear

and tear.

THE ADVENTURE OF THE MASON.

THERE was once upon a time a poor mason, or bricklayer, in Granada, who kept all the saints' days and holidays, and Saint Monday into the bargain, and yet, with all his devotion, he grew poorer and poorer, and could scarcely earn bread for his numerous family. One night he was roused from his first sleep by a knocking at his door. He opened it, and beheld before him a tall, meagre, cadaverous-looking priest. "Hark ye, honest friend," said the stranger, "I have observed that you are a good Christian, and one to be trusted; will you undertake a job this very night?" "With all my heart, Senor Padre, on condition that I am paid accordingly." "That you shall be, but you must suffer yourself to be blindfolded."

To this the mason made no objection; so being hoodwinked, he was led by the priest through various rough lanes and winding passages until they stopped before the portal of a house. The priest then applied a key, turned a creaking lock, and opened what sounded like a ponderous door. They entered, the door was closed and bolted, and the mason was conducted through an echoing corridor and spacious hall, to an interior part of the building. Here the bandage was removed from his eyes, and he found himself in a patio, or court dimly lighted by a single lamp. In the centre was the dry basin of an old Moorish fountain, under which the priest requested him to form a small vault, bricks and mortar being at hand for the purpose. He accordingly worked all night, but without finishing the job. Just before daybreak the priest put a piece of gold into his hand, and having again blindfolded him, conducted him back to his dwelling.

Among an industrious nation, incessantly occupied, panting for riches, man, or physical force, is a valu. able commodity. Man is dear, and it is therefore expedient to be very economical of him. It is not as in the countries of indolence, where the man and the earth alike have little or no value. A Turkish effendi, or gentleman, always walks about with a train of useless servants at his heels. In the same manner a Polish nobleman, or a grandee of Spain, consumes a great quantity of men, who are otherwise unproductive. I was told that the Duke of Medini Celi has in his pay four hundred servants, and that he goes to the Prado in a carriage worse than a Parisian fiacre. It was the same in England when there was a foreign commerce, and no home manufactures. Not knowing in what way to consume their surplus revenues, the old English landowner used to maintain a hundred, and, in some cases, even a thousand followers. At the present day, the greatest houses have not more than ten or twelve servants; and, setting aside the wealthy, who are always an exception in every nation, and taking the greatest number, it cannot be denied that in England, and especially in London, there is a very great saving, both of time and of servants. But how can this be reconciled with the loudly vaunted comfort of the English? Thus: the milk, the bread, the butter, the beer, the fish, the meat, the newspaper, the letters-all are brought to the house every day, at The poor mason's hair rose on his head at these the same hour, without fail, by the shopkeepers and words; he followed the priest with trembling steps the postmen. It is well known that all the street into a retired chamber of the mansion, expecting to doors are kept shut, as is the custom in Florence and behold some ghastly spectacle of death, but was rethe other cities of Tuscany. In order that the neigh-lieved, on perceiving three or four portly jars standbourhood should not be disturbed, it has become an ing in one corner. They were evidently full of money, understood thing for all tradespeople to give a single and it was with great labour that he and the priest rap on the knocker, or a single pull at the bell, which carried them forth and consigned them to their tomb. communicates with the underground kitchen, where The vault was then closed, the pavement replaced, and the servants are; while the postman distinguishes his all traces of the work obliterated. visit by precisely two knocks. There is another conventual sign for visits, which consists in a rapid suc cession of knocks, the more loud and noisy according to the real or assumed consequence or fashion of the

visitor.

This custom requires punctuality in servants, and an unfailing attendance at their posts. The price of every thing is fixed, so that there is no room for haggling, dispute, or gossip. All this going and coming of buyers and sellers is noiseless. Many bakers ride about London in vehicles so rapid, elastic, and elegant, that an Italian dandy would not disdain to appear in one of them at the Corso. The butchers may be frequently met with, conveying the meat to their distant customers, mounted on fiery steeds, and dashing along at full gallop. A system like this requires inviolable order and a scrupulous division of time. For this reason there are clocks and watches every where-on every steeple, and sometimes on all the four sides of a steeple; in the pocket of every one; in the kitchen of the lowest journeyman. This is a nation working to the stroke of the clock, like an orchestra playing to the "time" of the leader, or a regiment marching to the sound of the drum. Nothing can be more ingenious than the various ways in which the English contrive to mark the division of time. In some ma

"Are you willing," said he, "to return and complete your work?" "Gladly, Senor Padre, provided I am as well paid." "Well, then, to-morrow at midnight I will call again."

He did so, and the vault was completed. "Now," said the priest, " you must help me to bring forth the bodies that are to be buried in this vault."

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"That's what I want. I have an old house fallen to decay, that cost me more money than it is worth to keep it in repair, for nobody will live in it; so I must contrive to patch it up and keep it together at as small expense as possible."

The mason was accordingly conducted to a huge deserted house that seemed going to ruin. Passing through several empty halls and chambers, he entered an inner court, where his eye was caught by an old Moorish fountain.

He paused for a moment. "It seems," said he, "as if I had been in this place before; but it is like a dream. Pray, who occupied this house formerly?"

"A pest upon him!" cried the landlord, "it was an old miserly priest, who cared for nobody but himself. He was said to be immensely rich, and, having no relations, it was thought he would leave all his treasure to the church. He died suddenly, and the priests and friars thronged to take possession of his wealth; but nothing could they find but a few ducats in a leathern purse. The worse luck has fallen on me; for since his death, the old fellow continues to occupy my house without paying rent, and there's no The people pretend taking the law of a dead man. to hear at night the clinking of gold all night long in the chamber where the old priest slept, as if he were counting over his money, and sometimes a groaning and moaning about the court. Whether true or false, these stories have brought a bad name on my house, and not a tenant will remain in it."

66 Enough," said the mason, sturdily—" Let me live in your house rent free until some better tenant presents, and I will engage to put it in repair and quiet the troubled spirits that disturb it. I am a good Christian and a poor man, and am not to be daunted." The offer of the honest mason was gladly accepted; he moved with his family into the house, and fulfilled all his engagements. By little and little he restored it to its former state. The clinking of gold was no longer heard at night in the chamber of the defunct priest, but began to be heard by day in the pocket of the living mason. In a word, he increased rapidly in wealth, to the admiration of all his neighbours, and became one of the richest men in Granada. gave large sums to the church, by way, no doubt, of satisfying his conscience, and never revealed the secret of the wealth until on his deathbed, to his son and heir.-Washington Irving.

He

BURNS often made extempore rhymes the vehicle of his sarcasm having heard a person, of no very elevated rank, talk loud and long of some aristocratic festivities in which he had the honour to mingle, Burns, when he was called upon for his song, chanted some verses, of which one has been preserved :— Of lordly acquaintance you boast,

And the dukes that you dined wi' yestreen,
Yet an insect's an insect at most,
Though it crawl on the curl of a queen.
-Edinburgh Literary Journal.

ANECDOTE OF A DOG.-A small pet dog, belonging to a gentleman in Fife, lately had six pups, one of another took ill, and seemed likely to die also, when which died, and was buried in the garden. Soon after, the mother carried the miserable creature out to the

garden, scraped a hole, in which she deposited her offspring, and had proceeded to replace the earth, when her master entered, and, being attracted by a peepy cry, went up to the spot, and found the ailing pup nearly buried. There can be no doubt that the dog acted upon the principle of imitation.

NATURAL AFFECTION OF A LAMB. In the year 1810, a small enclosure in Leith Links, employed for keeping a few sheep, was broken into, and a ewe abstracted, the head of which was left by the depredators on the outside of the paling. In the morning, her lamb, only two days old, was found by the keeper standing over this relic of her parent, as if lamenting her fate, and could only be brought away by force.— Edinburgh Annual Register.

The mason was again hoodwinked and led forth by a route different from that by which he had come. After they had wandered for a long time through a PLOUGH AND HARROWS.-A clergyman in one of perplexed maze of lanes and alleys, they halted. The the agricultural districts of Scotland had busied himpriest then put two pieces of gold into his hand. self in producing an improved plough, about which he "Wait here," said he, "until you hear the cathedral was for some time very "full," as the Scotch say, and bell toll for matins. If you presume to uncover your accordingly, wherever he was, he was sure to overflow eyes before that time, evil will befall you." So say-in reference to the subject. He afterwards employed ing, he departed.

The mason waited faithfully, amusing himself by weighing the gold pieces in his hand, and clinking them against each other. The moment the cathedral bell rung its matin peel, he uncovered his eyes, and found himself on the banks of the Xenil, from whence he made the best of his way home, and revelled with his family for a whole fortnight on the profits of his two nights' work, after which he was as poor as ever.

He continued to work a little and pray a good deal, and keep holidays and saints' days from year to year, while his family grew up as gaunt and ragged as a crew of gipsies.

As he was seated one morning at the door of his hovel, he was accosted by a rich old curmudgeon who was noted for owning many houses and being a grip. ing landlord.

The man of money eyed him for a moment from

his busy brain in editing a school Horace, of which for some time he was also very "full." Calling one day upon a farmer in the neighbourhood, he said, “Well, have you seen my Horace ?" Na, sir," quoth the agriculturist, "I haena seen your harrows; but weel I kent your ploo !”

LONDON: Published, with Permission of the Proprietors, by ORE & SMITH, Paternoster Row; and sold by G. BERGER, Holywell Street, Strand; BANCKS & Co., Manchester; WRIGHTSON & WEBB, Birmingham; WILLMER & SMITH, Liverpool; W. E. SOMERSCALE, Leeds; C. N. WRIGHT, Nottingham; M. BINGHAM, Bristol; S. SIMMS, Bath; C. GAIN, Exeter; J. Pr DON, Hull; A. WHITTAKER, Sheffield; H. BELLERBY, York: J. TAYLOR, Brighton; GEORGE YOUNG, Dublin; and all other Booksellers and Newsmen in Great Britain and Ireland, Canada, Nova Scotia, and United States of America.

Complete sets of the work from its commencement, or numbers to complete sets, may at all times be obtained from the Publishers or their Agents.

Stereotyped by A. Kirkwood, Edinburgh. Printed by Bradbury and Evans (late T. Davison), Whitefriam,

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CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM CHAMBERS, AUTHOR OF "THE BOOK OF SCOTLAND," &c., AND BY ROBERT CHAMBERS, AUTHOR OF "TRADITIONS OF EDINBURGH," "PICTURE OF SCOTLAND," &c.

No. 189.

SINCERITY.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1835.

WHAT honesty is in deeds, sincerity is in words-the
best policy. It is a virtue, nevertheless, to which the
artificial habits of society are not very favourable.
The forms of politeness, with all their utility, have
this disadvantage, that, in teaching to restrain the real
sentiments and ideas which cannot conveniently be
expressed, they are apt to lead to the expression of
others which are not consistent with the truth. In-
sincerity, however, arises from many sources in the
human character. In some it springs from the ge-
nuine love of concealment and intrigue. In others it
is prompted by a dread of the consequences which
they suppose
would result from the disclosure of the
truth. In others, it arises from a false love of approba-
tion, the flattering of others seeming to them a sure
way of gaining that object.

To the first of these classes of individuals, all that can be said is, that they possess a feature of character which they should endeavour to keep in check, as, if indulged, it cannot fail to procure them much contempt, and frustrate all those cherished views which they think by such means to realise.

To the second class, I would say, that, like all cowards, they are apt to miscalculate the supposed danger. Even if a dread of consequence were a fair excuse for a departure from truth, they should still reflect that they should not give way to it in a greater degree than is absolutely necessary. They will readily allow that to incur a considerable danger in endeavouring to escape a small one, can only be the mark of an imbecile mind. In the most of circumstances, the danger from telling the truth, as it is usually immediate, can at least be calculated with accuracy; but no one can tell what mischiefs are to ensue, in long-drawn succession, from either the saying of what is false, or the suppression of what is true. In general, the straight-forward course only threatens us with a slight loss of the respect of others, which the majesty of sincerity is almost sure immediately to restore : but what an awful responsibility do we incur when we undertake to endure the unalleviated miseries, with which we are to be overpowered at that moment, when it is discovered that we were not only guilty of the fault, but destroyed our honour in a vain endeavour to conceal it! In the very dread of such a detection there must be infinitely greater pain than in the most humiliating confession. The timid insincere, when tempted to take this means of avoiding a little trouble, would do well to consider the one danger as well as the other, and not, for the sake of a trifle, pledge away more than the nature of the risk entitles them to stake. But persons of this kind often imagine there is danger where there is none, and act the hypocrite for nothing. They conceive themselves to be called upon either to assume certain feelings, which they would not naturally assume, or to put a disguise upon those which really animate them, and thus, from whatever cause -often from a mistaken deference to a few surrounding minds-subject themselves to the humbling and vitiating sense of doing what is mean and wrong; when a candid and conscientious course, so far from injuring them in any way, would gain them that approbation which sincerity never fails to command.

PRICE THREE HALFPENCE.

A GLANCE AT THE NEW FOREST. Be my retreat

ing present energies, and creating contempt in the in the placid enjoyment of an internal fountain of
discerning, serve but to postpone the time of genuine happiness, which can neither be damaged nor im-
approbation. The peculiar mode here pointed at is paired.
no exception from the rule. The insincerity is much
more liable to be detected than may be imagined, if
not by the immediate object, at least by some other
person; but, at the best, it can only impose upon those
whose approbation is not worth having, or will, when
obtained, be equally false. With the discerning and
good, such a miserable expedient can only serve to
raise the worst suspicions, neutralising the value of
any little merit that may exist.

There is a kind of insincerity to which it may be
more difficult to attach the idea of guilt, but which
must not be overlooked. It is the abuse of the habit of
innocent jesting. Some give themselves up so entirely
to an ironical and bantering kind of discourse, and
use a phraseology so full of whimsical slang, that their
real sentiments are at length buried beneath a mass
of rubbish, and, after knowing them for years, you
become alive to the painful recollection, that, during
the whole time, you have not found in their character
a single piece of solid ground whereon to rest your
foot. Persons of this kind live in a perpetual mas-
querade; they grow old with the rattle in their hands;
and, while their neighbours are all more or less bu-
sied with serious objects, aim at no higher gratifica-
All manly and
tion than that of being laughed at.
estimable qualities in time sink under the habit; the
motley, at first put on as a mask, eats in time into the
character itself; and that which was once perhaps a
good and valid human being, is found in the end a
mere painted husk. There is, in contrast with such
a habit, an open and pure kind of speech which, how.
ever homely its tone, or in whatever dialect it may be
expressed, dignifies every one who uses it, and is un-
questionably conducive to moral excellence.

Between the groaning forest and the shore,

A rural, shelter'd, solitary scene.-THOMSON.

IN that pleasant sunny district of merry England" which lies on the borders of the British Channel, opposite the Isle of Wight, and within the boundaries of Hampshire, lies the New Forest, or rather the scattered remains of that once famous hunting ground. What an antiquity does this tract of woodland boast, though still receiving the appellation of New! It was originally made a forest by William the Conqueror in the year 1079, about thirteen years after the battle of Hastings, and it took the designation of New, from its being an addition to the many forests which the crown already possessed. According to the chroniclers of the period, William laid waste at least thirty miles of cultivated lands, and committed great devastations on the property of the inhabitants, in dedicating the place as a hunting ground, and partially covering it with trees.*

In those days, however, it was a matter of little ceremony either to make or enlarge a forest. The king was invested with the privilege of having his place of recreation and pleasure wherever he might appoint. Agreeably to this arrangement the royal forests were regulated; each had its government and laws, which were sufficiently annoying; and in this manner the right of hunting or taking game became a peculiar privilege of the monarch and those who enjoyed his favour. The idea of forest law and forest rights ob. tained early, indeed in Saxon times. But the Saxon princes were in general a mild race, and there were In the indulgence of every kind of dissimulation, some traces of liberal sentiment in their institutions. in whatever circumstances, there is much danger. The Norman princes were a different race. They inHowever innocent a transaction may be in itself, how-creased the rigour of the forest laws, and to such an ever absolute may appear the necessity of managing it clandestinely, it cannot be so carried into effect without injury to virtue. In the very consciousness of putting a veil over our thoughts, there is a sure degradation. Hence, smugglers, conspirators, and the members of various ambuscading professions, how ever convinced they may be of the abstract innocence, and even praise-worthiness of their practices, in time become vitiated. It is of very great importance that the course of our lives should be such that we have little to conceal.

extent was the rigour carried, that, till the reign of one of the Edwards, it was death to be guilty of kill. ing a hawk. Forest law is now abolished, but the officials who are entrusted with the care of the New Forest, still in some measure continue to exercise their functions. The principal functionary is the lord-warden, who is appointed by the crown, and be neath whom there are rangers and other officials, for preservation of the game and timber. We believe that some of the ancient offices are now disused, especially that of bow-bearer. It was the duty of this personage to attend the king with a bow and arrows whilst in the forest. His salary was forty shillings per annum, with a fee of a buck and doe yearly.

offences in the forest courts, and prevents the destruction of game. In this last article his virtue is chiefly shown, and to this purpose the memory of every sound keeper should be furnished with this cabalistic verse

In conclusion, to all who may be disposed by nature or "evil communications" to the vice of insincerity, I would not only represent the obvious disadvantages which follow the practice of the vice, but also the The keepers and under-keepers form the principal great advantages which accrue from the opposite vir- executive in this ancient domain. According to GilNo one can reflect on the vast number of evils pin, the under-keeper feeds the deer in winter, browses tue. and inconveniences which afflict society on account of them in summer, knows where to find a fat buck, the necessity of being guarded against possible insin-executes the king's warrants for venison, presents cerity; no one can reckon up the fears, discomforts, and expense of both money and pains, which are every where occasioned by the few who habitually depart from truth,-or contemplate the happiness which would attend even a sublunary world, where truth Insincere discourse towards others, for the sake of prevailed more generally; without feeling that he gaining a larger return of approbation, is so short- cannot in himself practise a virtue more useful to his sighted and so contemptible a folly, that they must kind, or accord to any fellow-creature greater praise be weak indeed who are guilty of it. In more than than to say that he is sincere. But, besides the lustre one previous paper, an endeavour has been made to im- with which we are invested by the practice of since. press the great truth, that, without genuine deserv-rity, there is the comfort of the still brighter and ings, there can be no genuine or estimable praise. All false arts for obtaining the respect and admiration of our fellows, are labour in vain; or rather, by engross

more blessed light which it kindles in our own bosoms.
He who is conscious of sincerity can scarcely know
fear: he walks through the wilderness of this world,

Stable stand,
Dog draw,
Back bear, and
Bloody hand.

It implies the several circumstances in which offend. ers may be taken with the manner, as it is phrased. If a man be found armed, and stationed in some sus

The greater part of what follows is a condensation from "Gilpin's Forest Scenery," as edited and considerably extended by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder; 2 vols.; Fraser and Co., Edinburgh; and Smith, Elder, and Co., London, 1834.

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