purchase every year in Transylvania and Moldavia, flocks of sheep, which they feed during summer, and sell again in the markets of Hannasalva, Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia. Many of them convey in waggons wines and hides into Poland, Russia, Prussia, and Austria. The Scotacks form no alliance with other tribes, so that they preserve their dialect free from the least mixture of foreign idioms.

POPULATION AND POOR-RATE RETURNS.

Last Session of Parliament an abstract of the returns to 1820 inclusive was laid on the table of the House. An outline of its curious and valuable contents is as follows:

The first account shews the "amount of monies assessed and levied in England and Wales, at the several periods for which returns have been required by Parliament;" and this account includes twelve different periods since 1748. The total sum expended for the relief of the poor at that period, the average of three years, 1748-49--50, was £689,971; that for the years 181920, was £7,329,594, including sums expended in law during the latter year, the sum total was £8,672,252. What an enormous increase in the course of 70 years! But some of the intermediate periods are so curious as to merit to be quoted, to show how rapidly the expense advanced when it began to rise. The relief of the poor in 1776 cost £1,521,732, including law expenses, removals, &c. £1,694,458; those law expenses, therefore, being £172,726, The relief for 1783 was £1,912,241 including law expenses, &c. £2,167,148: for 1803, the expense of relief was £4,077,391; with law expenses, &c. 5,302,070; and for 1813 and 14, the relief expense was £6,294,584, with law expenses, &c. £8,511,863; the law expenses, removals, &c. being nearly £2,217,279;-considerably more than one third of the whole of the enormous cost of maintaining the poor having thus been expended in law charges and removals! The sums for 1819 and 20 are given above.

The next account abstracted (that is, sums total only being given) is of the money expended for the maintenance of the poor in England and Wales in the several years from 1813 to 1820

inclusive, distinguishing the amount expended in towns, from that expended in country parishes, and stating the number of parishes in each county, in which select vestries have been formed, or assistant overseers appointed. The result of this account is, that in England and Wales, the expense of poor relief (exclusive of that of law charges, &c.) for the year ending March 25, 1813, was £6,656,105; expended in towns, £1,112,691; in other parishes, £5,543,414. For 1819-20, expended in towns, £1,371,495, 10s. ; in other parishes, £5,958,098, 10.; sum total, £7,329,594. The sums for the intermediate years need not be quoted; those already given will tend to shew the expense in towns and in "other parishes." The remaining portion of the information contained in this abstract states the number of select vestries to be 2006; of assistant overseers, to be 2257.

The next abstract is highly curious: it is a statement of the monies expended on the poor only in England and Wales, in the several periods commencing the middle of the last century, and reaching to March 25th, 1820, with a table of the number of the people, according to the enumeration of 1811, and an account of the property assessed, under schedule (A,) in 1815. It gives all the counties, with the sums total illustrative of the above heads of information for each county: these, of course, are too numerous to be quoted here. Those for Middlesex and Lancaster, however, will be peculiarly interesting, at the same time giving an idea of the abstract's plan: Middlesex, poor relief, 1750, £81,030; 1820, £630,206; population, 953,276; property assessed, £5,595,536; Lancaster, (County,) poor relief, 1750, £21, 230; 1820, 420,441; population, 828,309; property assessed, £3,087, 774; total for England and Wales: poor relief, 1750, £689,971; for 1820 (average of 2 years) £7,430,622; population in 1811 was, 10,150,615, exclusive of army, navy, marines, and seamen navigating registered vessels. (See observations in Journals, vol. 67, p. 857.) Property assessed under schebule (A) in 1815, £51,898,423; the total sum assessed on an account of the poor for 1814-15, was £7,508,853; for 1813-14, £8,511,863. Thus nearly twenty millions went for Property Tax and the Poor.

THE author of this Naval History

has previously been advantageously known to the public; and the work before us, far from derogating from his reputation, will extend and perpetuate it. Mr. James has furnished ample materials for the future historian, who will consult these pages with confident reliance on their impartiality, accuracy, enlightened patriotism, and liberal feel. ing.

The author has evidently been guided by a scrupulous adherence to truth; the most sacred of all consideratioushe has woven for the British sailor, the fairest wreath that can adorn the brows of victory-deathless fame is by him conferred, with no alloy of national vanity or envy. His impartial pencil has delineated the merits of the enemy in their true colours, and has exalted the victors by doing ample justice to the vanquished. We should feel highly gratified if the exploits of our Armies were equally well pourtrayed.

This work is to form four volumes 8vo; of which number the first two (with tabular extracts in a 4to. volume) are given to the world; and include the Naval circumstances from the declaration of War, in 1793, to the peace of Amiens in 1802. The impartiality displayed in the following quotation, is thoroughly practised by Mr. James.

After describing the action between the American thirty-two gun frigate

Boston, and the French twenty-two gun corvette Berceau, Mr. James remarks,

"Much credit is due to the American captain for his candour-not the less estimable for its rarity on his side of the Atlantic-in publicly acknowledging, that 'the captain of the Berceau fought his ship gallantly, so long as she was in a situation capable of being defended.' Captors, if they new their true interest, always gain by such acts of fairness. The public, places a greater reliance upon their remaining statements; and, after all-is there not more honour in conquering a brave, than a cowardly enemy?""

To quote the history of any one of the engagements would be uninteresting to those of our readers, who are not strictly naval; therefore, we will confine ourselves to a few characteristic anecdotes.

In an action, in which the privateer Atalante, was taken by the Antelope Packet in 1793,

"The command devolved on Mr. Pasco, the boatswain; who, with the few brave men left, assisted by the passengers, repulsed repeated attempts to board, made at intervals during the long period, that the vessels remained lashed together. At last, the privateer's men, finding they had caught a Tartar, cut the grapplings, aud attempted to sheer off. The boatswain, observing this, ran aloft, and lashed the schooner's square-sail yard to the Ante

lope's fore-shrouds. Immediately a welldirected volley of small arms was poured into the privateer, and the crew called for quarter. This, notwithstanding the Atalante had fought with the red or bloody flag at her mast-head, was granted; and possession was forthwith taken of the prize.

"The unparalleled bravery of one of the Antelope's passengers, a M. Nodin, formerly a midshipman in the French navy, deserves to be recorded. It is related of this young man, that he stood by the helm and worked the ship, armed with a musket and pike, which he alternately made use of; that, when he perceived the Atalante's men climbing the Antelope's quarters, he quitted the helm, and, with the pike, despatched such as came within his reach; returning at proper intervals to right the vessel; that, with the pike and musket, he killed or disabled several men; and continued his astonishing exertions for more than an hour and a quarter."

In the account of the melancholy loss of the British thirty-six gun frigate, Tribune, is

"An anecdote strongly illustrative of that thoughtlessness of danger for which the British tar has been so famed. Among the survivors in the fore-top were two seamen, named Robert Dunlap and Daniel Munroe. The latter, in the night, had disappeared; and it was concluded he had been washed away along with several others. However, after a lapse of more than two hours, Munroe, to the surprise of Dunlap, suddenly thurst his head through the lubber's hole. His answer to his mess-mate's enquiry was, that he had been cruising for a better birth; that, after swimming about the wreck for a considerable time, he had returned to the foreshrouds, and, crawling in on the cat-harpings, had been sleeping there more than an bour.

"The first exertion that was made from the shore for the relief of the sufferers was, at about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, by a boy, 13 years old, from Herring cove; who pushed off, by himself, in a small skiff. With great exertions, and at extreme personal risk, this noble lad reached the wreck; and, backing his little boat close to the fore-top, was waiting to take off two of the men, all his skiff could safely carry, when occurred a trait of more than Roman magnanimity. Dunlap and Munroe, who, throughout the night, had, in a wonderful manner, preserved their strength and spirits, and who, of the four survivors in the fore-top, were

now the only persons in full possession of the faculties of mind and body, might have stepped into the boat, and saved themselves at least. But, no; they chose to save their two half-dying and unconscious companions; these they lifted up, and, with great difficulty, on account of the still raging sea, placed in the skiff; and the 'manly boy' rowed them triumphantly to the cove. After having deposited his freight at the nearest cottage, the joyous lad, to the shame of many older persons who had larger boats, again put off with his skiff: his efforts to reach the wreck were, however, this time, unavailing, and he returned to the shore, wrung with disappointment. Shortly afterwards two or three other boats, including the Tribune's jolly-boat, which, with four men, had quitted the ship just before she sank, ventured out, and succeeded in bringing from the wreck the six survivors; making, with the four that had taken to the jolly. boat and the two that had been saved by the boy, twelve only, out of two hundred and forty or two hundred and fifty souls; including, as already noticed, several women and children, and including also, many of those humane persous, who had come on board from Halifax, to lend their assistance."

In cutting out the Chevrette from Camaret Bay, in 1801,

"Mr. Brown, boatswain of the Beaulien, after forcing his way into the Chevrette's quarter-gallery, found the door planked up, and so securely barricadoed, that all his efforts to force it were ineffectual. Through the crevices in the planks he discovered a number of men sitting on the cabin-deck, armed with pikes and pistols: with the fire of the latter he was frequently annoyed while attempting to burst in. He next tried the quarter, and, after an obstinate resistance, gained the taffrail, (the officer who commanded the party was at this time fighting his way up a little further forward,) for an instant, while looking round to see where he should make his push, he stood exposed a mark to the enemy's fire; when, waving his cutlass, he cried, Make a lane there' gallantly dashed among them, and fought his way forward till he reached his old part the forecastle, which the men, animated by his example, soon cleared of the enemy. Here Mr. Brown remained during the rest of the contest, not only repulsing the French in their frequent attempts to retake his post, but attending to the orders from the quarter-deck, and assisting in casting the ship and making sail, with as much cool

ness as though he had been on board the Beaulieu."

We cannot dismiss this important work, without extracting Mr. James's reflections on the Mutiny at the Nore; they elucidate the probable causes of that dangerous combination among the sailors, and set in a proper light the disgraceful punishment of flogging.

"Thus was an end put to the Nore mutiny; a mutiny that, unlike the former, was as futile in its origin, as it happily proved unsuccessful in its issue; a mutiny that, in the opinion of many, has entailed on the British navy, more disgrace than can be washed away by the most brilliant triumph. It is notorious, that a custom has long prevailed, for the London police, when a culprit has had wit enough in his rozuery just to elude the letter of the law, rather than discharge him that he may commit, with increased confidence, fresh depredations on society, to send him on board a man of-war. He is generally a plausible fellow, with a smattering of learning and a knowledge of the world; two qualities that rank him very high in the estimation of the unsophisticated sailor. He sings a good song, or, at all events, tells a good story, and becomes, in time, the oracle of the forecastle. He knows his business too well to practise on so circumscribed a spot; and, therefore, as no one has witnessed, no one believes, any harm of him. He is, perhaps, a dabbler in politics, and, certainly, from the nature of his profession, a bit of a lawyer.' He therefore can expound acts of parliament to the sailors. In doing this he reads what he pleases, and explains how he pleases; tells them where they are wronged, and points out how they may

get redressed. In short, such a character (and how many such have been scattered over the British navy!)is capable of infecting a whole ship's-company; and many of the mutinous crews could, no doubt, trace their disorginization to the first appearance among them of one of these pests of society.

"A word respecting private grievances, or the grievances of particular ships, and we quit the subject of mutiny, we hope for ever. What a lamentable thing it is, that power and cruelty should be so often united no monarch is more despotic, to the extent of inflicting corporal punishment short of death, than the captain of a man-of-war. If a man speaks or even looks to offend, he is ordered to the gangway; and the bloody furrows on his shoulders soon increase, in number and depth, beneath the vigorous arm that lays on the cat-o'nine-tails. Captains there have been, and captains there are, who seemingly delight in such work; and who, were the cruise long enough, would not leave a sailor belonging to the ship with an unscarred back. Such men, however, are but exceptions. Moreover, they are, for the mort part, cowards at heart, and what is worse, usually make cowards of those they command. Hence, officers of this stamp are commonly the cause, mediately, if not immediately of dishonourbale defeats. The brave officer punishes one man that he may not have to punish twenty, and shares with the delinquent the pain which, for example sake, he is compelled to inflict. When he goes into battle, his men fight like lions: and, should they at any time be drawn aside from their duty, they, looking up to him as a father, listen attentively to his admonitions; and, knowing both his benignity and his firmness, can neither controvert the justice, nor doubt the fulfilment of his threats."

2 vols. 12mo. London 1822. to parental and filial duties; the superiority of cultivated mind and accomplished manners over riches or birth; the misery arising from groundless jealousy; confidence in, and gratitude towards the great Creator; are all enforced in language, that flows directly to the heart, and rivals in simplicity: and pathos the unsophisticated style of Mackensie. Since the "Man of Feeling" first appeared, never has the reader's heart been more powerfully and at the same time more gently affected. The

simple and pathetic stile, in which this tale is written, flows always pure and lucid. The emotions of the heart are described in every page, and the descriptions are perfect transcripts of nature. Madeline is a tale of tenderness, revealing the secrets of innocence, and its artless and unostentatious pathos swells the throbbing heart of the reader, and fills the eye with irresistable tears. It is the high praise of this gifted authoress, that all her tales are founded on facts; her portraits are therefore drawings from nature, and display the faithfulness and power of original pictures of real lifethese are far more interesting to the lovers of nature than all the wanderings of the imagination, and all the flights of fancy: vain meteors of disturbed intellect! Truth alone is permanent, and so universally useful, that the genuine history of any one earthly being, however obscure his lot, however apparently worthless, would be a legacy to mankind of incalculable value -Hence arises the deep interest we take in the journal of Madeline, who pathetically says,

"It contains nothing but the history of a weak woman's heart. But is not that heart a world to its possessor? Does not some writer say, 'That little world the human heart? and after all, is there, can there be any history more interesting than a history of the affections? Could the coldest hearted person be offered the secret details of the life, the affections, the

faults, the sorrows, the cares, the hopes, the sentiments, of even an indifferent person of his acquaintance, would he not read it in preference to a history of either

Roman or Grecian worthies?"*

A faithful picture of the human heart, that beats only in domestic life, without extraordinary circumstances to call it forth, and to agitate it with violent transitions, is no easy task; and to make it both faithful and interesting requires no common talent.-Minor intellects exert themselves in works filled with a train of numerous and rapid incident; superior powers only can dwell on isolated being, and delineate it with all the minuteness and fidelity of nature. Such is the powerful pencil that pourtrays the mind of Madeline.

Hearts accustomed to sorrow, and not steeled by misfortune to insensibili

ty, will best appreciate the pathos, the simplicity, and the tenderness of this tale-the anxious parent, the affectionate child, the tender-hearted sister, the votary of an honourable and delicate affection, will all recognize themselves in the portraitures of Ronald and his ever kind hearted wife, Madeline, Falconer, and Margaret.

Showers of tears will be unconsciously shed, over these little volumes, by those sympathizing hearts; who have deeply felt, and well remember, the delightful hopes and fears of a virtuous attachment-that breast must be as hard as adamant, that is not deeply penetrated by the simple effusions of the excellent heart of Madeline!

It is very difficult to make selections from a tale like this, which possesses neither prominent features of unusual life, nor new and striking situations. It is like a delicious landscape, more remarkable for simplicity, beauty, and the truth of nature, than for bold and jutting precipices, tumbling cataracts, or ruined castles.

Circumstances induced Mr. and Mr. Irwin to take into their family, and educate as a gentlewoman, the daughter of a Scotch cottager, or little farmer, Madeline Munro. Mrs. Irwin survived her husband, and intended to leave Madeline, her adopted daughter, a fortune suitable to her education, but was prevented by sudden death; a will could not be found, therefore, had not Mr. Irwin left Madeline a small remembrance, she would have returned to her father's cottage as poor as when she left it. After she had been home a month, she commenced her journal wherein she described every event of her innocent and retired life, and made it the faithful depositary of all the secrets of her affectionate heart, and all the reflections arising in her highly cultivated and well regulated mindThe regrets felt by Madeline deprived by one frown of fortune, of all the luxuries and enjoyments of the polished society of which she was so lately the grace and ornament, and the noble

manner in which she stifled them, are

beautifully and naturally expressed.. Days and weeks passed over Madeline in this retirement, and scarcely any thing disturbed the monotony of her existence, save the anxious solici tudes of her parents to make her as

263.