SOCIETY. I. ON THE PROVISIONS MADE FOR THE A CAPACITY of improvement seems to be a character of the human species, both as individuals, and as existing in a community. By this capacity man is distinguished, not only from all the forms of lifeless matter, but from all the various tribes of the brute creation. The mechanical and chemical laws of matter are not only unvarying, but seem fitted to preserve all things, either in an unvarying state, or in a regular rotation of changes, except where human means interfere. The instincts of brutes, as has been often remarked, lead them to no improvement: but in man, not only the faculties are open to much cultivation, (in which point he does, indeed, stand far above the brutes, but which yet is not peculiar to our species), but besides-this, what may be called the instincts of man, lead to the advancement of society. I mean that he is led to further this object when he has another in view. And this procedure, as far as regards the object which the agent did not contemplate, exactly corresponds to that of instinct. The workman, for instance, who is employed in casting printing-types, is usually thinking only of producing a commodity by the sale of which he may support himself. With reference to this object, he is acting, not from any impulse that is at all of the character of instinct, but from a rational and deliberate choice. But he is also, in the very same act, contributing most powerfully to the diffusion of knowledge, about which, perhaps, he has no anxiety or thought. With reference to this latter object, therefore, his procedure corresponds to those operations of various animals which we attribute to instinct, since they doubtless derive some immediate gratification from what they are doing. So man is, in the same act, doing one thing by choice, for his own benefit, and another undesignedly, under the guidance of Providence, for the service of the community. II. ON THE PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION. THE progress of any community in civilization, by its own internal means, must always have begun from a state above that of complete barbarism; out of which condition it does not appear that men ever did or can raise themselves. This statement is at variance with the views apparently laid down by several writers on political economy, who have described the case of a supposed race of savages, subsisting on those productions of the earth which grew of themselves, and on the uncertain supplies of hunting and fishing; and have then traced the steps by which the various arts of life would by degrees have arisen, and advanced more and more towards perfection. One man, it is supposed, having acquired more skill than his neighbours in the making of bows and arrows, or darts, would find it useful, both for them and for himself, to work chiefly at this manufacture, and to exchange these implements for the food procured by others, instead of employing himself in the pursuit of game. Another, from a like cause, would occupy himself wholly in the building of huts, or of canoes; another, in preparing of skins for clothing, &c. And the division of labour having thus begun, the benefits of it would be so evident, that it would rapidly be extended, and would lead each person to introduce improvements into the art to which he would have chiefly directed his attention. Those who had studied the haunts and the habits of certain kinds of wild animals, and had made a trade of supplying the community with them, would be led to tame such species as were adapted for it, in order to secure a supply of provisions when the chase might prove insufficient. Those who had especially studied the places of growth, and times of ripening, of such in request, would be induced to obtain a readier supwild fruits, or other vegetable productions, as were ply, by cultivating them in suitable spots. And thus, the society being divided into husbandmen, shepherds, and artificers of various kinds, exchanging the produce of their various labours, would advance with more or less steadiness and rapidity, towards the higher stages of civilization. cordance with the views apparently laid down by some I have spoken of this description, as being in acwriters; and I have said "apparently," because I doubt whether it is fair to conclude that all, or any of them have designed to maintain that this, or something similar, is a correct account of a matter of fact; namely, that mankind universally, or some portions of them, have actually raised themselves by such a process, from a state of complete barbarism. Some have believed this; but others may have meant merely that it is possible, without contending that it has ever in fact occurred; and others, again, may have not even gone so far as this, but may have intended merely to describe the steps, by which such a change must take place, supposing it ever could occur. all previous conjectures, and look around us for Be this as it may, when we dismiss for a moment instances, we find I think, I may safely affirm,—no one instance recorded of a tribe of savages, properly tion and assistance from people already civilized. And so called, rising into a civilized state, without instrucwe have, on the other hand, accounts of various savage tribes, in different parts of the globe, who have been visited from time to time at considerable intervals, but have had no settled intercourse with civilized people, and who appear to continue, as far as can be ascertained, in the same uncultivated state. It will, perhaps, have occurred to the reader, that the oldest historical records represent mankind as originally existing in a state far superior to that of our supposed savages. The Book of Genesis describes man, as not having been, like the brutes, created, and then left to provide for himself by his own innate bodily and mental faculties, but as having received, in the first instance, immediate Divine instructions and communications. And so early, according to this account, was the division of labour, that of the first two men who were born of woman, the one was a keeper of cattle, and the other a tiller of the ground. D. ON THE MUSIC OF ORGANS. OBSERVE this organ: mark how it goes. -QUARLES. THE PAINTED HORN-FISH. THE singular creature represented in the engraving is a native of the Southern Ocean, and frequents the coasts of most of the islands in those seas, where it is found watching for its prey among sea-weeds, or half-buried in a muddy bottom. The extraordinary manner in which it obtains its food is one instance, among many others, of the fertile resources of nature, where the preservation of any part of the creation is in question. The clumsy form of this fish and the small size of its fins, in proportion to its body, render it incapable of securing the creatures on which it feeds by active exertion; it is furnished, therefore, with a curious series of worm-like threads, which are placed on a species of horn on the summit of its head. These are employed by the animal in a still more curious manner: towards their extremities they become somewhat thicker, and when the creature is buried in the mud, and these appendages alone are visible, they appear like so many worms, and easily attract the attention of smaller fish; but as soon as the unwary victims have approached sufficiently near, the hidden monster suddenly raises its head, and seizes them in its capacious jaws. From this habit, it has obtained the common name of the ANGLER; it is also, from its form, called, in some places, the FROG-FISH. A species nearly allied to this, the Lophius piscatorius, or FISHING FROG, is not uncommon on the English coasts. ONE Mr. Hughes had a wig, which always hung on a certain peg in the hall. One day, Mr. Hughes lent the wig to a friend, and, some time after, called upon him. It so chanced, that this gentleman had on Mr. Hughes's wig, and Mr. Hughes had his dog with him. When Mr. H. went away, his dog stayed behind, and after looking full in the gentleman's face for some time, made a sudden spring, seized the wig, and running home with it, endeavoured to jump up and hang it on its accustomed peg.- -E. J. WHEN the Carcase frigate was locked in the Northern ice, a she-bear and her two cubs, nearly as large as herself, came toward them. The crew threw to them great lumps of sea-horse blubber. The old bear fetched these away singly, and divided them between her young ones, reserving but a small piece for herself. The sailors shot the cubs, as she was conveying the last portion, and wounded her. She could just crawl with it to them, tore in pieces and laid it before them. When she saw they did not eat, she laid her paws, first on one, then on the other, and tried to raise them up, moaning pitifully all the while. She then moved from them, looked back, and moaned, as if for them to follow her. Finding they did not, she returned, smelt them, and licked their wounds; again left them; again returned; and, with signs of inexpressible fondness, went round them, pawing and moaning. At last, she raised her head toward the ship, and uttered a growl of despair, when a volley of musket-balls killed her.-PHIPPS's Voyage. ANNIVERSARIES IN AUGUST. 1274 Coronation of Edward I. at Westminster, which did not take place till nearly two years after his accession, he being in the Holy Land at the time of his father's death. 1782 The Royal George, of 100 guns, sunk in calm water off Spithead; by this unfortunate accident 400 men and 200 women perished, as well as Admiral Kempenfeldt, who was on board at the time. THURSDAY, 22nd. 1485 Battle of Bosworth Field, in which Richard III. was killed. 1553 Execution of the Duke of Northumberland, father-in-law to Lady Jane Grey. 1752 A dreadful earthquake took place at Adrianople, by which great part of the town was destroyed: two hundred mosques were thrown down, and an immense number of people killed. 1792 The famous embassy to China, under Lord Macartney, sailed from Portsmouth. 1798 The French landed in Ireland, took possession of Killala, and made the Bishop prisoner. 1818 Died Warren Hastings, late Governor-General of India. He was impeached before the House of Lords in 1787; the investigation lasted seven years, but he was at length fully and honourably acquitted. FRIDAY, 23rd. 79 The first eruption on record of Mount Vesuvius, in which Pliny the elder perished. 1822 Died, at Slough, near Windsor, in his eighty-fifth year, Sir William Herschel. He was a native of Germany, and originally designed for the musical profession; but astronomy was his favourite study, and in it he became very eminent. His observations added a new planet to our system, to which he gave the name of the Georgium Sidus; but foreign astronomers usually term it the Herschel, to commemorate the name of its discoverer. SATURDAY, 24th. ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY.-Bartholomew, supposed to be the same who is called, in St. John's Gospel, Nathaniel, was, like the rest of the Apostles, a native of Galilee, and is said to have been of a good family, and in opulent circumstances. In the enumerations Philip, by whom he was presented to Jesus, on which occasion he of the Apostles, he is constantly mentioned in conjunction with received this honourable testimony to his character, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile." When the Apostles took different routes, in order more extensively to promulgate the glad tidings of salvation, Bartholomew travelled through Arabia, Phrygia, and Armenia, in which last country he suffered martyrdom, being flayed alive according to the barbarous custom of the East. The Festival of St. Bartholomew was instituted in the year 1130. 1572 The massacre of St. Bartholomew, by which upwards of 40,000 persons perished, had for its object the extirpation of the Protestants in France. So well was this horrible scheme planned, and so extensively executed, that, at a given hour, the inhabitants of many towns and villages in France rose on their Protestant neighbours, and put them to death without regard to rank, age, or sex. 1814 1270 1346 The Town of Washington taken by the British forces, under General Ross. SUNDAY, 25th. TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. Louis IX., usually called St. Louis, on account of his exemplary piety, died off the Coast of Africa, where he had gone with a view of inducing the King of Tunis to join him in a crusade. Battle of Cressy, in which Edward the Black Prince, then only sixteen, began his career of military glory. Edward III. was present, but took no share in the combat after he had put his army in order of battle. The French were commanded by the King Philip de Valois. LONDON JOHN WILLIAM PARKER, WEST STRAND. PUBLISHED IN WEEKLY NUMBERS, PRICE ONE PENNY, AND IN MONTHLY PARTS, PRICE SIXPENCE, AND Sold by all Booksellers and Newsvenders in the Kingdom UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION, APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. KENDAL, or Kirby Kendal (the Church in the Vale of Ken), is the largest town in Westmoreland. It is pleasantly situated on the banks of the Ken, or Kent, which flows rapidly through the fertile valleys of a tract of country, that after the Conquest was designated the Barony of Kendal, and was the reward of Ivo, or John, brother to the Earl of Anjou. His lineal descendant, William Steward, of the household of Henry the Second, assumed the name of Lancaster, perhaps, from the circumstance of being governor of Lancaster Castle. From this family the barony descended, through the noble houses of Bruce and Ross, to the Parrs, Sir William Parr, of Kendal, having faithfully served King Edward the Fourth, in his wars with France and Scotland, was created a Knight of the Garter. Catherine Parr, his grand-daughter was born here, and became the last Queen of Henry the Eighth; her brother, Sir William Parr, was by that monarch created first Lord Parr of Kendal, and afterwards Earl of Essex and K. B. By Edward the Fourth he was raised to the dignity of Marquis of Northampton. The Castle, the baronial seat of the above distinguished families, occupies a grassy hill, on the east VOL. III. side of the river, of this structure, four broken towers, and part of the outer walls, only are now remaining; the most perfect portion is the tower, represented in the engraving. Opposite the castle, and overlooking the town, is Castle-law Hill, an artificial circular mount, about thirty feet high, surrounded at its base by a deep fosse and a high rampart strengthened by two bastions on the east; the summit, which is flat, is crossed by a ditch, and defended by a breast-work of earth. This mount is of greater antiquity than the castle, and, as its name imports, was one of the spots on which, in ancient times, justice was dispensed to the people. On this eminence, an obelisk, commemorative of the Revolution of 1688, was erected by the inhabitants of Kendal, in 1788. To the tourist, Kendal Castle is well worth visiting, both from situation and from the interest attached to this venerable relic of former days. The Church is a spacious Gothic structure, with a square tower, containing ten bells; it has three chapels, memorials of the ancient dignity of three neighbouring families, the Bellinghams, Stricklands, and Parrs, and contains many ancient monuments. 73 CONDITION OF THE POOR IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. II. ENGLAND; SCOTLAND; THE POOR LAWS, MARRIAGES, EMIGRATION.-SWITZERLAND. HAVING, in the first division of this paper (see p. 53), considered the condition of the poor in China, New South Wales, and Canada, I will now continue the inquiry into that of the labouring population of our own country. It is of great importance that our young unmarried people should understand, that without due prudence and forethought on their part, no assistance that the rich can possibly bestow on them will effectually improve their circumstances. It is a great mistake to suppose that the distribution of money is capable of removing the pressure of poverty. No doubt, a sum of money given to a single poor family may effectually relieve them. But suppose that, by a general contribution of the rich, five shillings per week were given to every labourer in the kingdom, over and above his usual earnings. Is it not very clear, that as soon as they all went to market for more meat, more bread, more beer, than they had been accustomed to buy, the price of meat, bread, and beer, would immediately rise? Is it not well known to every one who has ever attended a market, that an increase of demand immediately raises prices ? The history of our Poor Laws also serves to prove how little can be done, by the distribution of money, towards relieving the wants of the poor. About eighty years ago, the total amount of poor rates raised in all the parishes of England and Wales was little more than a tenth part of what it now is, yet the poor seemed quite as well off then as now. Six millions of pounds yearly are expended by the parishofficers in this country, in allowances to the sick, the aged, the maintenance of widows and orphans, and the support of those who are unable to find employment for themselves. Six millions of pounds a-year! A sum greater, perhaps, than is expended for the same purpose and in all the rest of the world together. A sum so great, that a stranger might be ready to think the existence of poverty in this country impossible. How can any man be in want, he would say, when six millions of pounds are laid out every year in relieving the distressed? No doubt, if money could avail for this purpose, poverty would long ago have been driven from our land. But shillings and half-crowns cannot be eaten before they can satisfy our hunger, they must be turned into bread. Therefore, the question is, How much bread have we, and how many mouths to be filled with it? If a hundred loaves are divided between a hundred persons, each may get a whole loaf, but if a hundred loaves are to be divided among a hundred and ten persons, it is impossible that every one of them should get a whole loaf. give money to fifty of them, so as to set them above the rest, then fifty may still be able to procure a whole loaf each; but the remaining sixty will have so much less. If we Suppose even the whole property of the rich were taken from them, and divided among the poor; the poor would not have any more to eat or drink than at present: for a rich man does not eat more than a labourer. There would still be the same quantity of food in the country as at present, and the same number of mouths; therefore, the share falling to each person would be the same as at present. The poor would, indeed, for a time, be able, in this case, to have more silver spoons and silk stockings than at present; but they would not have more beef or beer, nor would they be freed from the necessity of daily labour. We have observed that the sum of money annually distributed in parish-relief is nearly ten times. greater than it was eighty years ago; and yet the condition of the labourer is not in any degree better. We may add, that the sum so distributed in England and Wales is a hundred times greater than in Scotland; yet the English labourer is not better fed or clothed than the Scotch labourer-perhaps hardly so well. This affords another proof how little money can do in improving the circumstances of the people. If the six millions expended yearly in this country, in the relief of the poor, by parish-officers, were increased to twelve millions, can any one believe that the comforts of the poor would be thereby increased? If the amount so expended has increased, in the last eighty years, from six hundred thousand pounds, to six millions-(that is, in the proportion of ten to one)—without in any sensible degree bettering the circumstances of our labourers, why should we suppose that a further increase from six to twelve millions would be attended with any better effect? Turn the subject in what way we please, we come at last to this point,-the greater the number of mouths, the less food is there for each of them. So that, in order to give each mouth as much food as it requires, we must endeavour to prevent the number of mouths from increasing so fast. Now this may be accomplished in part by Emigration: but then there is reason to fear that Emigration alone will never be able to provide for the annual increase of our population, unless aided by the prudence of the people themselves, in respect to marriage. The annual increase of inhabitants in Great Britain is not less than two hundred thousand persons; the increase in Ireland is at least half as much: the whole increase in the United Kingdom is, therefore, equal to at least three hundred thousand. Now the greatest number that have ever yet emigrated in a year is about sixty thousand-one-fifth only of the annual increase. In order to show how important an influence the habit of prudence, with respect to marriage, exercises on the condition of the people, we shall again advert to facts. We shall show, that even in oldsettled countries, where land is not to be obtained, except at a high price, the poor may enjoy a good deal of comfort, provided their numbers do not increase too fast. This is the case in Switzerland; naturally one of the poorest countries in Europe; consisting, for the most part, of mountains and rocks incapable of cultivation. And it is worthy of notice, that the comfort of the people of Switzerland is most remarkable in those districts where little or no trade exists. In the valley of the Eugadine, in the canton of the Grisons, there are said to be fewer poor than in any other part of Europe. The inhabitants of this and the neighbouring valleys are so sensible of the advantages they enjoy, that they are deeply attached to their country: and the young men who enter into foreign service, as soldiers, or emigrate for other purposes, scarcely ever fail to return, as soon as they can lay by a sufficiency to enable them to live comfortably at home. In very many cases, the desire of seeing their native country has been so strong, that when prevented from doing so, they have fallen sick, and even died of grief. This is a fact so well known, that it was strictly forbidden in the French ármies, into which Swiss regiments were incorporated, to play certain Swiss music, in consequence of the fatal effect which this music was found to produce upon the soldiers of that nation. The air which had this extraordinary effect on the Swiss soldiers was called the Ranz des Vaches; or Cow-Call. It was nothing more than a simple song, which the cow-herds in Switzerland are accustomed to sing as they drive their cows to pasture; and its fatal effect depended entirely on the strong recollections which it excited in the minds of the Swiss, of the happiness of their childhood. Although there is reason to fear that, in the more populous parts of Switzerland, the happiness of the people is not so great now as it was half-a-century or a century ago, yet the accounts of recent travellers show that in the more remote valleys, where the habits of ancient simplicity still exist, this happiness has been little impaired. Now we have the clearest and most unquestionable evidence, that in those parts of Switzerland where the people are so happy and contented, fewer marriages and fewer births take place, in proportion to the number of inhabitants, than in any other country of Europe. Instead of marrying at eighteen or twenty, without a penny to help themselves, as our labourers too often do, the Swiss are content to wait till five-and-twenty, or thirty. And it is remarkable, that, notwithstanding the later period of marriage, the proportion of illegitimate births is exceedingly small; so that prudence, with regard to marriage, does not always lead, as some persons have apprehended it might, to immorality. B. OUR SAXON ANCESTORS.-The infant state of this people when the Romans first observed them, exhibited nothing from which human sagacity would have predicted great ness. A territory on the neck of the Cimbric Chersonesus, and three small islands, contained those whose descendants occupy the circle of Westphalia, the Electorate of Saxony, the British Islands, the United States of North America, and the British Colonies in the Two Indies. Such is the course of Providence, that empires, the most extended and the most formidable, are found to vanish as the morning mist; while tribes, scarce visible, or contemptuously overlooked, like the springs of a mighty river, often glide on gradually to greatness and veneration.-TURNER. THE RICE PLANT. (Oryza sativa.) How beautifully visible is the provident hand of the Creator in the manner in which the fruits of the earth are distributed over its surface; and how weli adapted to the climate in which we live is the food provided for our use. In the sultry regions between the tropics, where the scorching rays of the sun descend in an almost perpendicular direction, we find the animals calculated for the subsistence of mankind but few, and those widely spread, while, at the same time, the quality of their flesh is much inferior to that of the same description of animals which inhabit temperate climates. The celebrated traveller, Belzoni, when crossing the desert between Egypt and the Red Sea, found that the average weight of the sheep of that country did not exceed 15 pounds. A LARGE crowd of people were hooting and laughing at a man who had done some act with which they were displeased; "Nay," said an aged woman," he is somebody's bairn. Such are the different views which different spectators take of the same subject; such is the feeling of maternal love, of which there is to me always an affecting image in Hogarth's fifth plate of Industry and Idleness, where an aged woman clings with the fondness of hope, not quite extinguished, to her vice-hardened child, whom she is accompanying to the ship destined to bear him away from his native soil, in whose shocking face every trace of the human countenance seems obliterated, and a brutebeast's to be left in its stead,-shocking and repulsive to all but her who watched over it in its cradle before it was so sadly altered.Thoughts on Laughter. It is well known to medical men, and all who have paid any attention to the subject, that an abundance of animal food, is, in hot climates, injurious to health even to the natives themselves, but much more so to strangers; and for this reason, no doubt, the provision made by Providence has been sparingly distributed. We all unfortunately carry with us wherever we go the habits and customs of our native climate, and instead of taking a lesson, when in India, from the simple Hindoo, whose chief subsistence is rice and fruits, the table of the European is loaded with all the same luxuries, in the shape of food, as those on which, when in Europe, he was, owing to the difference of climate, in the habit of partaking with impunity. The flesh of the pig, which, among us is a staple and wholesome kind of food, is unwholesome and indigestible in all the warmer latitudes of the earth. THE Complaints of the aged should meet with tenderness, rather than censure. The burden under which they labour ought to be viewed with sympathy by those who must bear it in their turn, and who, perhaps, hereafter, may complain of it as bitterly. At the same time, the old should consider that all the seasons of life have their several trials allotted to them; and that to bear the infirmities of age with becoming patience is as much their duty, as it is that of the young to resist the temptations of youthful pleasure. By calmly enduring, for the short time that remains, what Providence is pleased to inflict, they both express a resignation most acceptable to God, and recommend themselves to the esteem and assistance of all who are round them.-BLAIR. A LIVING hope, living in death itself. The world dares say no more for its device than, Dum spiro spero (Whilst I breathe I hope); but the children of God can add by virtue of this living hope, Dum exspiro spero, (Whilst I expire I hope).- -LEIGHTON. The distribution of the different kinds of grain with which the earth is blessed, follows the same general rule: of this, RICE, the subject of the present article, is an instance. It is of a drier nature, and less subject to fermentation than Wheat or Barley, and therefore more fitted for the food of the inhabitants of hot countries. We may also instance Maize or Indian corn, the qualities of which, in some measure resemble those of Rice. The cultivation of this grain, occupies a large portion of the population of the east, particularly in China, India, and Sumatra, large quantities are also grown in Italy, Spain, and Piedmont, and in some parts of America, particularly South Carolina. The mode of culture varies considerably, according to the climate and local circumstances. The following is the method employed among the Chinese, who cultivate it to a very great extent, in the midland and southern parts of their dominions, the low grounds of which are annually flooded by the Kiang and the Yellow rivers. These extensive inundations are occasioned by the heavy rains that fall near the sources of these rivers, which have their origin in the Himalayan chain of mountains. When the waters have receded, the earth is covered with a thick coating of slime and mud, which fertilizes the ground as perfectly as the richest manure. As soon as this takes place, the patient Chinese surrounds portions of this rich soil with clay embankments, always selecting the neighThe ground is bourhood of some running stream. then carefully harrowed, in the manner represented in the first engraving; this operation is several times repeated until it is well worked. In the mean time, the Rice intended for seed has been soaked in water, in which a quantity of manure has been stirred; this has forwarded its growth so much, that the young plants appear above the ground in two days after they have been deposited in the earth. It is necessary |