The Express. — London, England, 1851-02-22 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATUDRAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 22, 1851. • LITERATURE. so apostate to his Maker expect to be listened to when he . pretends to proich the word of truth ? 1 hate heard worts of arguMents about bring o guided by my word., not by R,, , orqg is ids Patifr, !coos MI In 1849; ritA a famics my deeds," ge., but will a blighted tree hew fruit ? I at t4jancia. By a • Merehant, long resident at Tahiti. esteem and venerate holy TIM, who act aceortliaz to their Two `oh. Imuntarts, profesaion, and ant aware that no man is infallible ; but In the year lel7. a young man, just convalesetlit when on'• yields to the " old man " the corrupt portion of from sit attack of plturisy, and labouring wider other his nature, and finds himself incapable of multduiog hit, " distreming circumstances"- - the victim of "ruined ie ne n : dout maal r4.011u. tc let i r . re . ..n i sizr u acr . l;:t r l nw l e i h ng ara c c n t: zm n p d t affection.' put up at a tavern iu the Borough, where on the mi i ..,!onary cause, and standing forth to the heathen be met a shipping friend, who offered hint a rtos:king comment on the Word of God. a fn.st passage to Australia in a ship vessel outward- After collecting all that was worth collecting from bound with convicts. Glad to knee behind him the wreck of which the author went in search, he scent-4 of which he was weary,to fly from the scn TONV4 appears to have entered into a commercial partner that had „ gathered about his young head—the author ship, and forthwith to have started on a pearl-diving of " Ramp in the Pacific" determined, with a expedition. At Bow Island his divers prepared to manly heart, tos.Fek a new and distant scene for the i begin their labours. employmnt of his faculties. Ile left England spoor man, and worked hi: way out to Australia. In an early page of his book we have a sketch of his ElCOo mutes on the voyage: tyro og Posan A cowvtev %MP. The boatswain was esteemed a first-rate seaman, a man of about tire feet in height, but with limbs and a breadth and depth of chest that could well base supported an additional foot in altitude. Ilia head was massive as his body, but round u a bulls t, thickly entered with coal black hair, in clined to curly : he had a frank, manly look, which did nut belie his ehameter, and a mouth famished with a most powerful set of grindi r, which wan continually laughing all liver his face." lle was exceedingly good-tempered, bad an ambition to 1e urn to write and cipher, and was im bued with much of that hartulew superstitions lore which sailor. lute to impart out to the other during the unbroken Midas ss, of the tnystt .iuus night-watches. " Old Sail.," as I his name implies, was past the prime of life, a tall gaunt figure. the rains of a Hercules . his body was warped by 1 age, and he hadn't a ruainled limb belonging to him ; but where that plumpness of youth had faded, the muscles and i sinews protruded in With and bunehe., bringing out his joints iu acute anal , s. His long horny finger resembled carrots Marled together, hot tho y curved like talons ; his shaggy black locks we re still a semptsal from the bleaching effects of time, and were matted on his brow like the inter mingled masses in front of a buffalo ; his forehead was low, and hi'. remarkably small me shaded by a penthouse of thick black hair, 'dun eseiitesi by mirth or anger, would neatly disappear, hut emit a sparkling light like the glancing of a fire-fir. whilst innumerable wrinkles would radiate from tho outer corners. lie was never without a plug of the weed of wisslora in his niouth, and the draining. of it impart.' a liquorice appearance to him mouth and Math. Ile was a great salininr of the Romans and Cartha ginians, and ever ready to lug them into his discourse ; his knowledge of their history haying been derived from a mu tilated metrical amount of the Punic wars. The carpenter, Of " Chips," as wax his mare common appellative, was the medium in years between the lamtswain and sail-maker, a dry caustic being, of reserved habits, aml inclined to be cynical ; like many of his class, his frame was bowed from the nature of him work, and his legs resembled the styles of a pair of onnpariss s ; he hall a crafty, clear blur eye ; and his head, square :IV a die, was covered with a tits., crop of flat curling Lrnwu hair, und altogethar the exprerion of hi. t a t, was a eumloissation of reserve and cunning. :Mak elesee was his idol , and his works formed the wily volume in his pnosss edon ; and in any controversy he was as mady with his favourite author as " 01.1 Sails" wax to lug into the held his Roman history. The steward wax a hut-beaded Irishman. sta ls in the performaioce of his duty, fasouring neither friend ow foe, and in that respect well itualitied for his situation ; bat he was rather fond of taking purser's nips. and in csnoispienee towarls night would talk with a' wait...chat thicks anal burr, grow disputatious, and occasion alt roll out his brogue in a way practicable only to a true M,lesiun. The hand of convicts with whom the author was necessarily brought in contact, during his lung voyage to St (lacy, included a disgraced solicitor, who beguiled the tedium of the ~.sago by tslit ing a weekly journal—of which the authtir gives a brief descrip tion: PEARL DIVERS IN Till PACIFIC. Qn comhez to a stationary anchorage the divers erected temporary huts fur themselves ashore ; and their custom was to start away at davityak for the diving ground, and return to the vowel by three or four o'clock in the after noon. The tient. that I accompanied them they were abso lutely diving for about six hours ; and the only relaxation W:,l pulling from oue coral knoll to another, indulging in an occasional smoke be the way, and resting for a few minutes to partake of a little MOW nut and dried fish. The coral knolls have about two feet water on their heads, and the• water round them varies from three to twelve fathoms. The knolls are composed of sprouts of coral, which have a growth something like broeoli or the heads of cauliflower ; and the pearl orb rs are found attached to and lying around these marine productions. On arriving at a reef or knoll the boat was secured by it. painter to *projecting branch, and the divers proceeded to dive from it in all di rection ; and as they brought up the shells, so they threw them into the shallow water on the knoll, until the shale became seam. or they became tired and wanted to pull to another station. Shell-fish of various descriptions are at tached to and wedged in the coral branches, apparently having grown with their growth. On a still calm day you may see to the bottom at ten or twelve fathoms, and the shell-fish when feeding reflect tints of the most brilliant and beautiful hue ; and fish of every conceivable form and colour may be seen sporting in the interstices of the coral branches. It is a curious sight to watch the divers : with scarcely a movement they will dart to the bottom like an arrow, exa mine beneath every protruding ruck, and, on continuing their investigations, by a simple movement of the arm will propel themselves horizontally throuth the water, and this at the depth of seven mai eight fathoms. I timed several by the watch ; and the longest period I knew any of them to keep under water was a minute and a quarter, and there were only two who accomplished this feat. One ' of them, from his great skill, was nicknamed by his com panies the " WM" (stone). Itather less than a minute was the usual duration. In fine weather they can see the shell., when, if the water is deep, they dive at an angle fm t►em ; and as the shells adhere firmly to the coral by strong beards, it requires no little force to detach them. I was LwOanished ou one occasion at witnessing a diver, after one sr two ineffectual attempt. to tear away a large oyster, sink ►is leg. beneath him, and, getting a purchase w ,th his feet against the coral, use both his hands and fairly drag it off. When they dive in very deep water they complain of pains in the ears, and they sometimes come up with their noses bleeding ; but it is rarely that you can get them to attempt such diving, to, let the shells be ever so abundant, they will come up and swear there arc none ; the exertion from the great promisee is too painfully dietreseing. It has frequently happened, after a set of worn-out divers have sworn that no more shells could he obtained, that a fresh set has come and procured from fifty to sixty tons without difficulty. Circummtuncea carry the author into every part of the Pacific; and he gleans from every landing some thing mutating and instructive. In Vulpo.raiso he learns that in Chili no man's signature is valid with out a flourish appended, although the flourish sub scribed to a promissory note or other document with out the siynalsre is esteemed legally binding! At l'ahiti the pearl merchant becomes concerned for the cause of Queen Pomare, and is entangled in the CONVICT . % WITILLT JOCIVIAL. One of the quondam solicitors ennintenced editing a mniiieeript newxpaper, undu•r the title of the "Traveller," I with "Open to all, ingueneed by none," for ill watchword 1 of intl. is while, It altirdvd groat amusement ; and as , the editor'. boa was so pooled close to the stanchions of the after-hatch% ay, it used to reecive general contributions. ! It was isu.d a eery Saturday evening, nod two sheets of foolscap, ruled in (4.111:1111.1, were regularly filled with clear mien writing. It had its advertisements, its city and Gxs•ign intelligenes•, its hinter, state of markets and stocks, police and law reports, fashionable nt ws, literary notices, original essays, poets' comer, correvondenee, &c. ; and I haM upon saue of the eltsay* a. worthy of being charac terised i.I print. Independent of literary labour for the " Travel!. r," I persevered in maintaining a daily journal ; but the monotony of the on ago wow nearly unbroken. Although the it rovings iu the Pacific were under taken in the pursuit of c..mmen•int schemes, and the reader allowed to peruse the story of the author's marriage to an adopted daughter of a Tahitian chief (an English woman by descent), and is kindly per mitted to enjoy the amatory verses which the fond hu.band ha. written on more than one occasion to his wife, the author's sudden elevation from a clerkship at Sydney.—after a fruitless voyage to New Zealand.—to the proprietorship and command of a twuntl on a wrecking expedition, is not so fully recounted for. Suddenly we find our poor, light-hearted eulventurer become a apeeulativu mer. ehant,eruizingubmt the l'acitic,and combining all the ardour and daring of a true sailor with that shrewd ness whieli is the nurture of the counting-house. The P4l-111 , of most interesting adventures which belel him in the course of his reveler., are narrated in vigo rous and unpolished language; and are evidently faithful impression. set down while experience was fresh, and while the author was far away from the comentionulititawhichotteu deaden original faculties, and constrain men's thoughts. On his way to the wreck he lands at the ishuidof Itntumah, walk Ribald in a business-like way, and collects a number of t'm•ta relating to the manners and customs of the makes, of which the following is not the least remarkable : schemes and plots which preceded her overthrow. He gives an account of the death of this notorious lady s child—that child which she had christened Victoria, iu the hope that our Queen would recipro sate the compliment by calling some future daughter Pomare; and a little experience gleaned in the Sand wich Islands, relative to California, is thus heartily given : vice. CALIFORNIA MANIA AT HONOLULU. Judging from details that were furnished me, I imagine that fur tiniest few yens as much business has been trans acted at Honolulu, as at any place of its size upon the glebe ; but latterly, within seven or eight months, a rush has been made to 'aliforuia, in consequence of the discovery of a gold region of unknown extent ; andthe islands in the Paribe are emptying themselves of their white population to Seek thither. Rumour after rumour reached us in Ta hiti, but we were unwilling to credit the reports. At length parties appeared, bringing with them their swugs of the precious metal, having made their "eternal" to the Yankees called it, and botind to their respective homes to enjoy it. The sight en ated a "golciferce,' and every one who could muster sufficient to pay his passage commenced packing up for the land of El Dorado. The tales in the Arabian Nights are put to shame, and poor Dick Whitting ton's speculation as to the streets of London being paved with gold, are more than realised. The immense sums of gold that are reported to have been taken are incredible, and still the cry le, that ant one half the truth is known. Both whites and browns are Mocking from the Sandwich Islands and the impossibility of procuring labour at San Francisco fur the ordinary purposes of life, is such, that day labourers are receiving ten dollars per day, when they will condescend to work; conks, on board vessels plying up the river Sacramento, IA dollars per month; teamsters, 200 dollars per month, and their board ; and every thing else is in the same outrageous proportion. The store, in }lonian's, that were glutted with goods previous to this wonderful epoch, are now emptied, and merchants are homeward-bound with realised capital. The most extravie• gent prices an. asked; and even to the immaculate Hudson's Bay Company's store the contagion has spread, their servants demanding the same ratio of prices ruinous to visitors not coming from San Francine. I remonstrated playfully with a pale flat-faced Highlander in charge al the store, against his putting on the screw so powerfully : "By Jove," said I, "it isn't the screw you're applying, but the hydraulic press. Sir George. Simpson has announced to the world, that the Company is content with reasonable profit over cost and charges • but here you age charging fift per cent. on the wholesale prices over what we ask re- MD in Tahiti; I think I must undeceive the world." "Do your best, ma friend; ye may tak' it ur leave it, I don't care a farthing," was the cunediatory rejoinder; sad Donald thrust his hands deep into the pockets of that gar ment proverbially unworn on the heather of his native hills, and balaiseed himself on his toes and herb., with an air of unflinching determination and mashed self-importance. " There s one part of your polite intimation quite un necessary," replied I, "fur I suppose I may retain sa money without requiring your permission to do so; and I will assuredly want your goods before I pay the exor bitant price you ask 'tor them ;" and with this I turned away, thinking of the old proverb, "Put a beggar en horseback," de. This mania scents to have affected the pearl mer chant, since we find hint soon afterwards with his sails hoisted fur the Sacramento, after having carried his cargo to the market of Hong-Kong. c should be tempted, had we space, to extract an account of the great Manilla tobacco manufactory, in which between MOO and 900 women are employed; and, in corroboration of the descriptions of the dire state of things which a scarcity of labour some time since brought about at St. Francisco, we might cite tho authority of so practised and truthful a traveller as the energetic gentleman from whose volumes webers gleaned so much new and solid information. We must find space for the following extraordinary statement relative to that imaginative depicter c l'acific life, Herman Melville: Has AN MILLTILLI AND IRS TAHITIANS. Since the above entry was made in my journal, two works have appeared, " * Typee" and " Grano," purporting to have been written by - Herman Melville. By his own showing, Herman Melville has been a most reckless loafer, curing not a pin what enterprises were ruined, so long as he could indulge the gratification of his own propensities. Gratitude for his escape, and horror at the reminiscences of the hardships to which he bad been exposed, impel him to acknowledge the kind manner he was received on board the Julia, where be met with every attention. His sketches are amusing, and skilfully drawn, but bear as much relation to truth as a farthing dos in value to a sovereign. It is as if the said Herman Melville had burnished and gilded the farthing, and then circulated it as the gold coin. With those unable to detect the difference, it would of course pass current. Herman Melville—l love to repeat his name—working upon detached images profusely scattered throughout Polynesia, has drawn largely upon a fertile imagination in grouping them, and thrown together an ex ceedingly spirited narrative; but, regardless of all truth, gratitude, or manliness, has gronly scandalised hr name some worthy meu tiring at Tahiti, who very probably have done more good, gratuitously, to their fellows since the it residence there, than Herman Melville has done during his ! whole existence. I allude more particularly to Dr. John ' stone, who has been most grievously misrepresented, and considerably to his injury. But, as Herman Melville has born so free in giving publicity to certain names, it is a pity he did not extend his candour—perhaps his memory failed him, as he "kept no notes." However, I will try and jog it for him. After the first desertion with which he pleases to acquaint the public, and his subsequent escape from the horrors of a residence in a narrow ravine, shut in by boulders and inaccessible cliffs, his companions, naked savages, hideously tattooed, and ferociousas demons, unable 10 vftk their language, trembling . for his life, and without Mod adapted to his European origin—l say, after his escape lam this wretched state of existence, in his first deep-felt enestion at the mercy that had been vouchsafed to him, he neknowledges the debt, and expresses his gnotude • but bendoes he ultimately repay it? Why, according to his own I amoun t, he is incapable of all bodily exertion ; and he knows I no other way of repaying the obligation he has incurred bat by being the instigator of a mutiny, that he, and others like him, may be sent ashore at Tahiti, where they could loaf ROTEMIAII TIR01!4 AND HER BRIDAL. A very singubar mob= }mails amongst them : all vir gin. arrived at the age d pahorty wear their hair cropped elm., awl plastered with a lenflit made of burnt coral and the juke of a tree which turns it completely red, or of a dull foxy e ur ; a stiff white ridge glistens along the forehead. Th.. name for virgin in the Rotuma!' dialect is waitage, and }:nglish eintors, with their usual success and good taste. haw convert...4l it into " white bead," which is certainly temooviant with the appearance the plaster gives the head. They an- net suffered to brush the cement out of their hair until they are married, nor an they allowed to wear it after the nuptial ceremony has takeu place. I was present ut one of their marriages. The bridegroom makes a present to the chief who introduces the bride ; the friends of the Itridegroom lay offerings of mats, die., at the fret of the bride, and her relatives make similar presents to the brat. etesau the happy couple arc seated side by side, and their foreheads and biotic. are profusely daubed with the turmeric powder and oil ; pigs and fowls are killed and mond. and abundance of wgetableseooked ; bowls of kava, a tier,,. of 'mimetic drink, are prepared, and the friends of either party are invited to the fe-tiral. If the bridegroom is A man "(an) . consideration, certain of his friends spring up and he at their heads with clubs and tomahawks, to, flirting at times such serious wounds as to lay them up fur months: and some continue to beat thee heads till the old N. otnen of the party interfere and take their clubs from do in: The newly-marriesl man makes presents to those who wound themwlves, and if they continue payed for any length of time, lie is bound to supply them with food until they are convalescent. Wbeu the feasting termimee.. the nuptial tie is complete. After they have lived together for n few days the wife will sometimes tog the husbaud to leave her, and he will then absent himself for three or four month', when he will then again sojourn with her fur a few days, sad to keep on until she is recon ciled to bee with him altogether ; but it sometimes happens that the wife nduses to quit her relations, and the husband being , unwilling to abandon his, they separate by mutual and are at liberty to enter into a fresh con tract. The girl. of these dissolved matches are now free, and they net us libertinely as they please without their cha racter being affi'eted ; but adultery in the marriage state is punished a ith death, so aLoi is the forfeit of vimusity be fore marriage. The narrow escapes, the romantic adventures, the perilous leaps on 'Emery's Island, and the author's quarrels with one of his crew, must be passed by. Events crowd so thickly in these volumes, and they are all so new, that it is difficult to decide which are the most interesting ; it may, however, be of service to many home readers to learn the following par ticulars of the relations between Tahitians and the Eugli,h missionaries located amongst them : .111 , %11),NAILT LABOURS AT TAHITI. _ I will not sully the pages of my journal with "Wrdilul the detail. that have been given me, both by natives European. ; but done tithe of them ba correct, and, na fOrtunatelv, I have seen corroborative testimony in some instanci ~ instead of improving the native character. the missionaries have superinduced upon their other bad qua hypocrisy of the deepest dye. I speak dispassionately' when I -4, that I conscientiously believe the moral dm- ratter of the natives has not been improved by stiasionary intercourse. It is true, that by long sojourning with them the mi—ionaries hove instilled the cons 'mina et the power and grandeur of European nations, by this memo laming their ferocity and rendering them more leargibrm to visit ors, and less dangerous to shiwrecked ; but fear, and not religions restraint, Is the somanin g principle. I du not mention MOM OW will quote even authentic anecdotes to sampan my amsetions ; bet it is right that the world should know, and that the maims eq.poefa ef mir aionery exertion sheuhl be smois aapaiaMi midi tie IN% that there have boon at many wallow as abspirmle sumpt the fold.; and that many have " atoms W Shia amiedige without being provided with a wedding praws." I mention no names, " nor aught an dews is mass r and perhaps these remarks will not fall he dm pew& Cis and sponge at will, till the chance offered of their , ruining some other voyage, if peradventure any one' could bo found to receive such worthies on board his vessel. It was the Sydney whaling barque Lucy Ann, Ca?tain Ventom, that had the honour of hrinring 1 vpee-Omoo livrtn-in Melville to Tahiti ; and in the month of June, 1818, this said barque Lucy Ann was lying at ituatain, one of the New lielandes, taking in san dal wood So much for the way in which the cook used to pick her to piers for firewood. Herman Melville undoubt edly the rimtleader of the mutineers, was lying in the call house when I was dragged there; and from the an-Eng lish way in which the ruffian who assaulted me handled his knife, I have the strongest suspicion that it was Her man Melville who threw himself upon a hound, defenceless man; and I only regret that, amongst his other remini- SC*: IlebS, he omitted to take notice of this. That he was in the cilibose at the time there is nut a question; and that the mtn WAS a Yankee who threw himself upon roe I will' swear, not only from the peculiar intonation of his voice, his pale unwhisken.-d face, and the thatch-like way in' which his hair feU on either side of it, but from the like nsture of his tongue—a qualificatiOn by no means-un common with ordinary American seamtm, which may be account..l for from the fact, that many of them are grown men before they think of gratifyin4 a roving fancy, and arc much more devoted to loafing and reading than attending to their duties. The follow extract gives an interesting view of life in the place towards which so many thoughts and so many adventures have turned full of golden hopes. LIFE TN SAN FRANCISCO. Shortly after the conquest of California, the city of San Francisco was planned; and streets, crossing each other at right angels, were mapped on a. shoal extending 400 or 300 yard: into the sea. The water privileges thus tlirown open to the good citizens of California found ready buyers at 16 Bois. and 18 dole. the lot ; but since then the mighty influx of immigrants has so incalculably raised the price of land, that I much doubt whether I shall obtain credence fur par-ntters that transpired before my own eyes. In the " Declaration of High's," section 17, it is pro-, sided—That foreigner' who are, or who may hereafter become, bona -fide resident' of this State, shall enjoy the same right. in respect to the possession, enjoyment, and inheritance of property, es native-born citizens." This appears to me a liberal and wise provision ; hut it has opened the most extraordinary field for adventurers that has ever been seen or heard of in the annals of the world. Be it remembered that the gold of the country is inex haustible, or assumed to be so, and be it known that gold dust is the general circulating medium, receives! at 16 dolt. the ounce troy weight: speculators or schemers, or land sharks, or whatever other term they are known by, who hail scarcely a dollar to bless themselves with on their first arriving in the country, becoming convinced of the fact that the mines were banks not likelyl.ooll to break, and fore seeing, moreover, the mighty mass of population that must eventually find its way to this wonderful region, commenced gambling in real testate, by degrees at first, and assisted by credit. Supported by the influx of new corners, glad for a season to get housed any where, houses have been rattled up, and sales of land effected unexampled before the era. The gamblers have aided this state of things by the enor mous rentals they are willing to pay for their stations, and which, per consequence, keep up the rental of every descrip tion of property at rates hitherto unheard of. For any sort of room, ten feet by twelve, forty and fifty dollars per month is the lowest sum asked and paid. A small wooden cottage, connoting of two rooms and a kitchen, will let erudite , at 200 duls. per month; and any kind of a store, with one or two rooms off it, leases at from 1,500 doh. to 2,000 slob. per month. The merchants in San Frunciseo , wished to erect a building for an exchange, and a land holder having a spot of land deemed eligible for its site, ap plicateni was male to him for it: he declined selling, but offered to lease it at the modest ground rent of 14,000 dells. per annum. And what may the reader imagine was the extent of this piece of land ? 117.5, it did not exceed eiyAly fret by sixty. I was present when the merchant deputed to make the inquiry put the question, and heard the response. At inn I thought the matter was a jest, and treated ft as such : but sulks itvntly, the merchants not agreeing to pay this enormous ground-rent, the same piece of land has been leased at a rental of 29,000 dole. per annum. But that "there is method in the people's mad ness" is shown by the way in which the lease is prepared, as it contain. a clause regulating the rental every six months, subjecting it to addition or subtraction, according to the rise or fall of property; and arbitrators are to he appointed half-yearly to fix the rental fur each ensuing six months. The merchant who inquired the price of the land on which it was contemplated to erect an exchange, shortly , after made a boitUjide purchase of one of the lb dole. water privilege", for which he paid 20,000 dole. ; and an he and I were taking a walk, we made a descent into a sandy hollow, be,nlering on the sea, where much wretchedness and sick. seas were found under canvas tents, but which hai, received la mockery the name of the " happy valley ; " and coming to a wooden shanty, occupied by some Sandwich Island Kanakae, my companion inquired whose lease and lot they were occupying. Mine," said sue of the men. "Then why don't you sell it, and go to y our own coun try, where you never sneer from cold and sickness as you are now doing 1 Why, I dare say, you could get a thousand dollars for it ! ' urged my companion. " It's worth more than that, air, " replied the man, in very good English. " I was offered 5,000 dots. for it, and re fused it." This was a clincher, and we renewed our jaunt, which we continued till we reached the mission of Saint Dolores; and here squatters were locating themselves in every direc tion, it being part of the general constitution of the Gutted States that any wiatelipied government lands may be taken pienession of by her citizens, and in this country the privi lege extends to foreigners, who may claim pre-emption rights and obtain foe-simples of property thus acquired by, payine the government upset price of land. This privilege extends only to a certain proportion of land for each indivi dual, and the land must be occupied and improved. Successful speculators in San Francisco have gone further afield, and projectors have planned towns and cities on ranchos ur tracts of land, in the hope of obtaining similar results. At the confluence of the Rivers Sacramento and San Joaquin, "blew York City of the Pacific " has been laid out. Besides this, on the route to the city of Sacra mento, there arc San Raphael, Benicia, Martinez, Monte zuma, Sulsoon, Webster, and Suttorville, no less than eight cities within a distance of forty miles; but with the excep tion of New York and Benicia, which have a sprinkling of wooden houses, the others, at present, only rejoice in the name. The city of Sacramento may be estimated its eighty or ninety miles from San Francisco. The land is more elevated here than at parts lower down the river, and spreads away into a vast plain tar as the eye can gaze. The city has been laid out with some regard to its future destinies ; fine wide streets are left for public traffic, and many of the giants of the forest remain unscathed by the axe, imparting a sylvan appearance and grace to the roads, without in any way in terfering with the busiest wayfarers or traffic that can throng the scene. The place is covered with houses and tent', which have arisen as if by the touch of a magic wand. What a few months ago was primeval forest land, bears now the worn traces of a truffle that has annihilated all such primitive vestiges, with the exception of the trees above alluded to, judiciously spared to promote both elegance and comfort; for I um told that nn the summer season the climate is intemperately hot, and the country deluged with showers of impalpable duet *wept front the plains, by the then prevalent strong winds. The banks of the Sacramento are, generally speaking, low and marshy; and I have heard that the city itself is occasionally subject to being flooded. I think it exceedingly probable, although I could detect no indications of such an event being of re cent occurrence. Lower down the river there is no want of the most conclusive evidence un this point, the bushes and trees furnishing irtefragable testimony thereof. Ships of 200 and 300 tons burthen, and many smaller eraft, lie moored to the banks off the city. Whether they will ever get away again is problematical. Having accom plished the voyage thus far, it is not unlikely that their sacrifice can be submitted to. Nut a vessel in San Francisco possesses its complement of men. Mine all quitted as MOOR as it suited their convenience, and we were compelled to hire others at 3 doffs. a day. From Sacramento City is one of the greatest thoroughfares to the e diggings," which may account fur its unexampled rise; and landholders, both there and San Francisco, have found themselves, without any effort or exercise of judgment, suddenly the possessors of princely income', merely by the rental of lands formerly of no value, and which, in the wildest dreamings of intsgs nation, could never have been contemplated as likely to yield more than a bare existence, if even they were capable of doing that. About two miles from Sacramento City, in an easterly direction, is Suttor's Fort, a quundam trading post. esta blished sonic years ago by a Swim gentleman, known as Captain Suttor. Tired with the busy hum of civilised life, Shia gentleman sought retirement in the wilds of California, and, like the agents of the Hudson's Bay Company. de voted his time to traffic with the Indians and the endeavour to improve the country. He had (so it is asserted) hundreds of Indians in his employ, and became a little king amongst ; his dependant', who looked to him for food and clothing. The fort is an oblong square of adobe walls, with bastions at the four corners ; compartments run round the interior of I the walls, and in the centre of the square stands a two- storied house of greater pretensions, and which, probably, was Sutton's residence. It is now converted into a public- ' I house. Captain Suttor's exertions were not confined to very narrow limits, for whilst he was engaged in conetructime a dam for the purpose of irrigation at a plies upwards of forty miles from the fort, his people, in cutting a mill race tat drive a saw, ripping the timber necessary for the construes don of the dam, chanced to hit upon the wonderful die cover,' of the great fecundity of the gold in the coon From that moment, Othello 's occupation was gone :" the news spread like wildfire. Thousands rushed to the tease, and Captain Sutter has become more notorious, and is more, forced into society of the roughest and must uncongenial, nature than ever fate could have exposed him to in any—, the most densely crowded--city in Europe. I pity his psi-, tion, as he is looked upon as a sort of cora arts, and every successful man in the country considers himself at liberty to intrude upon hint with his rough courtesy and congratu lations: by rough courtesy I mean—" vou take to drink, Captain Sutton?' and the extent to which this is conducted in Sacramento City is a "caution." "Hells," open to the light of day andwith doors that are dosed against the public but for a few hours' intermission, are as crowded here as they are in San Francisco, and Eight and day the poisoned chalice is presented to the lips of the =- reflecting who are in search of pleasure and excitement. The steam-boats plying on the river are not free from these abominations. as they have their dire and card-tables; and my blood ha. fairly tingled in my veins, as I have watched the sturdy, rough, and toil-worn miners sacrifice their earning on the altar; of these hawk-eyed sharpers, who were playing 2140 chances against the miner's one : all China against a China orange : and too often it is the case, that, like a well-sucked orange, the man who stakes his means '• upon the hazard of a die" has to roll away from • the gambler's table. The whole country is prevaded with I the baneful rpirit of gaming; but it must be seen to be fully understood. Men from the mines may at all times be seen, hazarding lump of gold against lump, and staking "dust " against dollars ; and the perfect indifference with which they witness the fruit of their labour swept from them is not the least re • arkable part of the affair. At pre sent, as may naturally he supposed, government is impotent to interfere in crashing this crying evil : nor do I see, in ease of determined opposition, bow the government can suppress it. " This is a free country," is the continued vaunt, and if the "enlightened citizens," are pleased to im molate themselves before men—compared with whom burglar. and highwaymen arc less culpable, as regards the injury inflicted upon society—who is there to prevent them ? In one of the principal streets in Sacramento, they have a hone market and general auction mart, held daily, al fresco, beneath the spreading branches of a gigantic tree ; and it is not a little amusing to listen to eight or nine vendors calling out the merits of their goods, cattle, and horses at the same time. All day long they are at it. One, mounted on a horse for ale, will clash into the throng with, " Here you are, gentlemen, this is the true Yankve-breed, a regular ring-tail roarer, warranted sound, wind and limb, or no sale, and only sixty dollars offered for him! tsh ! nine up!" —"One hundred and fifty! One hundred and fifty! Only one hundred and fifty dollars bid for this splendid team and yoke of oxen," eyes nnother.—" What do you say ?" asks a third. " Yon want blue blankets because they don't show the dirt ; you're the wrong chap for these diggings, my flue fellow, if vou care for a little dirt; it's the quality of the article, and . not its colour, that constitutes its value; and only twelve dollars bid for this splendid pair of blankets." Other cries in other voices arc going on, when in again dashes the horseman—" Seventy dollars for the ring-tail ; eighty! eighty-five! eighty-five! Don't let him he sacrificed: look at him, he's got any amount of work in him: see here and away once more darts the "true Yankee breed," with its rider shouting out its qualifications and the laat bid. And so they keep at it from dawn till dark. Sutter s town, or Suttorville, two or three miles lower down on the hanks of the river will soon be merged in Sacramento City. It possesses few buildings as yet; but the sound of the saw, the hammer, and the axe, never ceases, till the obscurity of night causes a suspension of labour; and such is the driving, tearing, onward-forcing movement, that no mercy is shown to the brute creation. Hundreds upon hundreds of horses, mules, and oxen, lie sweltering on the plains, literally wrought to death with over work and want of food ; and what surprised me was, that, though at every fifty paces you will stumble on bloated, decaying carcasses, sometimes lying six and seven in the fellowship of death, they yet emitted no offensive effluvia; which I presume, speaks for the great purity of the atmosphere. - Notwithstanding this, fever and ague are exceedingly prevalent, front the low marshy nature of the country. I have heard three or four different parties assert that they have pulled over what is now Sacramento City in a boat. To furnish an idea of the reckless-tearing, go a-head," spirit of the times, I happened to mention to a settler the advisability of raising the banks o the river to where it branches off to the north, middle, and south forks: for the distance is not great, and many lives, probably, and much property might be saved by such a precautionary measure. The answer was, " What if the city is inundated: it will soon rise like a phernix from its ashes; and if thousands were to perish, there are plenty more to fill their places." The fact is, in the scramble for wealth, every one is struggling who shall get most in the shortest space of time. No one thinks of raising permanent works; no one thinks of remaining in the country longer than he can avid; and the idea of waiting returns from the cultivation of the soil is out of the question. The excitement throughout California is so great, that one's head is in a continual whirl. No time is allowed for sober reflection ; the cry is ever " On, on!" You are swept into the whirling vortex, and it requires no little strength of purpose to resist the temptations held out for speculation. Lind in Sacramento City fetches nearly as high a price as it does in San Francisco, and it is continually changing hands at improved rates. Predictions have gone abroad month by month, fur the last eighteen months, that there will be a sudden and a mighty crash; but the growing aspect of affairs belies the vaticinationu, nutwithstunding the immense sums of gold that are shipped monthly from • the country, and the absorption caused by the gamblers and hotel-keepers, who I cannot but suspect are playing a "rosy , game." New hotels and restaurants are being opened • every, day : they last a few weeks, and are then closed, and I the buildings announced fur sale or lease. The custom they all receive is immense ; so is also the expense they are I put to: but their receipts arc the "ready," and 8,000 dots. • or 10,000 dole. shipped off by the steamer at a time would scarcely be noticed. Bagatelle as 10,000 dots. may appear in California, this sum, invested in the older states, would • enable a man to live in much comfort. Whether lam un generous in my conjectures let others determine ; but one or two shameful failures, falling beneath my notice, render me dubious of the fair play going on. These volumes altogether may be described as full of no‘elty and amusement, blended with much that is new and "passing strange." Popery: British and Foreign. By WALTER SAVAGE LANDOLL Chapman and Hall. Of course we have nothing to do with the papal mutter in this part of our paper, except under its literary aspect . Mr. Landor's pamphlet is the highest production as a brochure on the subject yet out. It has all the lucid dignity of his usual style and all its vigorous imagery. We note, too, as usual, a certain intellectuality of tone. Mr. I:andor sacrifices an opponent with the grace and loftiness of a classic priest. His point of opposition to the papal move ment is essentially that of a man of letters—not a sectarian. The man of letters is the born foe of the bigot —and knows that bigotry is not the weapon to use also on his own side. lie opposes on grounds of good sense and humanity. So it was that Erasmus opposed the abuses of catholicism; there is an Emmen felicity of exposition in this pamphlet. But Mr. Landor's is a higher character, and ho besides is a poet. here is a capital epigram. The age ! In regard to learning, it has rolled far back. Learning was never so highly cultivated in Italy as when Muretus delivered an oration in praise of Catherine de Medici, in celebration of the massacre on St. Bartholomew's day. tire the same priests the same power, and nothing will be wanting but Latinity for the oration. Mr. Landor directs attention to the importance of a thorough investigation of the question whether St. Peter was ever at Rome. What a happy metaphor is the following ! Emperors and kings are servants of the servant. The attendants and disciples of our Saviour were poor fisher men ; they would have stared at any gentleman leaping into their bt in a lappetted cap and flounced petticoat ; no preface of " with your leave, or by your leave ;" first Wang the helm, then seizing and dragging the net, simply and solely for his own emolument. The following deserves very attentive considera tion. There is a fashion among the very orthodox of running. down philosophical speculation—but surely philosophical good conduct is worth trying for ! The arts and sciences have made wonderful progress within our memory; has moral philosophy made may Compere the writings, compare the conduct, of those who occupy the highest seats in the Christian synagogue, both at home and abroad, with the writings and conduct of Epietetus, and Seneca, and Plutarch, and Marcus Antoninus. On which side lies C hristianity? It lies invariably on the side of those who knew not Christ. No persecution, no strife, no intolerance, on their part ; no cessation or re mission on the opposite. Mr. Landor has a very wholesome way of looking at the church of England. Idleness and high food have made our prelates restless and pugnacious, and, like game-cocks, they crow the louder by feeluig the corn stack under them. Then how excellent the allegorical history of the Puseyite movement, which we subjoin : Let us have cheap bread, whether we have it from our own country or from abroad. Let us have cheap religion, whether it comes from Lambeth or Geneva. The religion of Rome is found to contain snore impurities in the barrel; but though it is apt to get into the head, it agrees very well with most stomachs. The great capitalist who sends it, Over has a prodigious number of customers; he gives long credit and takes small interest, having a mortgage on every , article in the house, from the baby's whistle to the mother s nightcap. His factors must be admitted at all hours, whe they of the day or of the night, at the ringing of the bell ; so that presently - the wife is not the husband's, nor the husband ° the wife's, nor the children either's. If the flour is to be bolted at all, it must be bolted at such mill as he appoints ; land a pretty good quantity of bran is thought to make it ; wholsumer. However, by paying more you may be scoured less. At last , the factors in many places grew too numer ous for the consumers, and so insolent that they parti tioned the land among themselves, and assumed the names and titles of the landlords. The farmers cared not a straw who took the tithes, until it occurred to them that after one party had taken them, another might come and do the same. It had pleased them lately to see the children of their old curates made lords, and sitting in parliament with black aprons over their knees, as decent and orderly as their good housewives at home. Ultimately they to grow suspicious that somewhat was in the wind, b y e ll: they found candlesticks and candles, and artificial flowers on the communion tables in their parish churches. Stroking their hair forward, and drawing one foot backward, they "made so bold " as to ask the reason of this fashion; and they were informed, by a priest at each end and another in the middle, that it was no communion -table, but an altar. At last a whole detach ment in sable was landed upon the coast, and surveyors with long poles began their measurements. Then resem bled all classes to consult together w hat was to be done. Some of the elders took up the Book of Life, and examined it attentively. It soon appeared to them, not only that nothing could be found in recommendation of hers-wax as n salve for the soul, or of stone alters to nail their faith to,' or of another man's garment wherewithal to cover their nakedness and conceal their uncleanEncbs and unsoundness, but they also found a passage in which it is forbidden to make long prayers and nn ordinance by which only one ' prayer is sanctioned, and every word of it plainly written' down. The ordinance is from the Son of God himself; prayer is from his own dictation. They then met daily and , said that prayers, after which they consulted the best educated, the most moral, the fittest to instruct them in ; regard to their interests, temporal and eternal. Ere long, ' , the inquiry went so far as into the signification of lords spiritist!. Again the Book of Life was opened; but its , oracles here were mute. Nothing of the kind could be found in it from beginning to end; but sundry &nuncio , tions to shock the sincere believer, sadly troubled fur those who, whether from unbelief or from indifference, took openly to themselves, what hail been so solemnly interdicted. We have quoted sufficient to show the merits of this pamphlet. The waist informed reader scarcely requires to be told that Mr. Lantior is one of the noblest writers of the day, and one of the most high minded liberals. Ile feels like a good man, and writes like a great one. The Vision of the l'atierm. A Satire. By J. J. J. A. STRANGE. A fierce attack upon popes, priests, and papacy in general, written with a degree of skill and vigour which reminds us of the da y s and doings of ('hurehill. A quotation will display the writing quality better than any description can do. Oxford, most famous school on English ground, So long for "port and prejudice renowned — Where, hundred scholars who hod nothing read. Drove " four in hand," with nothing in the head— Where orthodoxy would in sons rejoice Who prayed from habit, while they sinned from choice— Where aft would seem to leave all in the lurch For one grand scheme—low morals and high Church ! But now the vision shows that there's a change, From white to black the Oxford fashions range ; Bulls 'stead of foxes arc the student's sport, And holy water streams dilute the port. A scuffling prelate domineers the land, With mitre like to Arlechino's wand ; Ile flirts with Rome, then cautiously withdraws, Sleek with his tongue, and timid with his paws. The godly prig, who in the Gorham tight Backed a wolf's threatenings with a parrot's bite, — Why hurt the dandy ? why, in God's name, note The Scarlet Esmcralda's playful goat ? Leave the poor trimmer with his fitful sense And briskness, one degree from impotence ; E'en fat old Pio scarce would drag to Rome This cleric 'frissotin from his snug home. Past, as he speaks, there goes a crowd id' boys With crucifixes, beads, and sable toys ; The pallid visage, supercilious air, The look that smells a sinner in the air— The hermit gently blending with the prig, And Xavier s raptures with a dandy's rig— The thousand symptoms clearly show to me, That these, my l'usey, arc the boys for thee! A gentle toadyism's not abhorred, And, if they love a mint, they love a lord: Their Mariolatry's a strange vagary— But then the mother—is a Lady Mary! 'Twere unpolite from her her praise to wrest ; And then the baby is so nicely durst! So, let us make our bow, and ask our boon, And sing an aye to a polka tune ! Behind the boys a stately figure glides, Thimble on finger, scissors by his rides, The Tailor! Ile's the fellow to prepare The artful waistcoat like the shirt of heir! With holy tape the sacred man will stand, And turn young Jones a Francis tut of hand. He canonises Charley, blesses Will, And sends their worthy parents in the bill! Th' enraptured Viceroy . next beholds, with glee, A half-fledged Roman i n a British see ; With Roman coot, and artificial pallor, Mild self-denial, gentlemanly squalor. His whole devotion a half-cracked pretence, And his poor head full of "non—natural sense." If such a man had means of being wise. I 'el say him life was now a mass of lies— But that were harsh ; he's weak. Of his trar.sgrosion, His long cars make " aurii-ular confession." Long the poor fellow wonders if his soul Would not be better its an alb and stole. Then, bit by bit, he fits his church at last With all our brave old ancestors threw past. Here figure eaudles—stran;re garbs figure there ; The folks who come to pray, are forced to stare. His sermons soon create a sad sensation ; He gently flirts with transubstantiation ; Till, by degrees to fuller practice grown, For Christ's blessed bread—he offers you a stone! Another figure meets the dreamer's eye— The smug Volpone, spiritually fly— Who loves the Roman catholic belief, But also loves the church of England—beef. At what is taught by Anglicans he mocks, But then—the mutton is quite orthodox. If from the church his teachings others scare, lie holds his faith—and his professor's chair. Live on Volpone," cried the happy Pope, 0 You have our license to its fullest scope. Teach the old tongue in which the prophets writ,— The Bible's tongue—with what we think of it." Sagacious Newman threaded next the dream ; Bright was his face with a polemic gleam. Through every creed that mortal can he passed, And joined a set, with half his brains, at last. Like .Esop's fox, with hundred shifts, yet he Ran off fur shelter to the papal tree. Sharp, keen, and subtle, for so long—the pest Makes others restless, in exchange fur rest ; Boasts of his peace, yet who admires his doom— The busiest worm in all the papal tomb ? And, like the bride in Goethe s fearful lay, Doomed to drag lovers from the realms of day ! And now pert Faber passed the papal bed, With a bask manner, and an upright head, For Faber much the humble dodge discanbi, And deals damnation as a man would cards. Behind him march an Oratorian hand, Saints of the suburbs—hermits of the strand. (Recalling, in the weakness of each lad, The one-eyed regiment Mehemet All had !) The pontiff smiles pontifical delight. As all these visions pass athwart his sight. "I see," he cries, " the Reformation's gone, The Bible shut up, and my England won. While, sleeping as young Hamlet's father slept, Safe to her ear the poisoners have crept. Old Fusel, that most dear ally of mine, Hu drugged her church's sacramental wine : Charles James of London slumbers on his see, And all's prepared, my cardinal, for thee! Where now, 0 England, your historic boast, Trade that you gained, or shackles that you lost? Swarming with priests, you'll have a different sight— Of Irish happiness, and Spanish light !" He woke. The visions all had left his bed, But the delusion lingered in his head. Scorned by his subjects, shall he dare to try Here, here alone, to set his standard high ? He does. The bull goes forth, and we have seen The dull presumption that ignores a Queen. Yet (as some comedy with all must mix) An ancient talc's recalled us by their tricks: The prelates who so coolly landed here, Aud whom the noise now startles into fear, Are like the tailors, who once, as we learn, Perched on an island, 'gait a fire to burn— But soon made hurry from the spot to sail, Finding the placid island—was a whale. Letters on Me Lays of Man's Nature and Development. 07111:NUT GEORGE ATIIIN6ON, F. 0.5., and HARRIET MARTINEAU. John Chapman. The late Lady Blessington wrote two lively books, called, respectively, " The Confessions of an Elderly Gentleman and " The Confessions of an Elderly Lady. Their joint titles might be given to the work before us, which contains the unreserved communications of a worthy couple on the most important subjects of human inquiry. They begin by complimenting each other on their love of truth—and proceed to renounce and deny all that the English people hold and believe, as—God, frec-will, and a future state, 'imma teriality, and the like. The mode of doing business, by the two writers of this volume, has been to add modern mesmeric "facts" to old materialist argu ments; and their production is m?tenahsm, plug clairfuyance. The whole is arrayed in a correspond ence, and the two "philosophers" agree so amicably that they are likely to have a ludicrous remembrance in our literature as the Darby and Joan of infidelity! It seems that Miss Martineau wrote off one morn ing to Mr. H. G. Atkinson, to inquire his notions about the universe generally, and requesting " a method of inquiry in mental philosophy." Mr. Atkinson, nothing daunted by the lady's billet dour, writes back that there " are not two philosophies, one for mind, and another " for matter;" and that the notion of free-will is a n were surprised b delusion ; and that " what men arc believing now is a kind of insanity." Of course all this has ken as sorted it to sert fi ed nd a m e ad r. Attkilineasonb°f:ll a g nd a hubbub we again. Surely, he must know that if the whole world were to vote unanimously to-morrow that they had no free-will at all, for example, things would go on just the same as ever ; or perhaps he fancies that by telling them they had no volition he could per , ' suade them to change their minds about matters in which he is interested? He concludes his first letter by saying " we must exhibit the real material causes ot inen's thoughts." Expecting the exhibition in cuestion the reader goes on, and of course finds that nothing of the sort is forthcoming. Mr. Atkinson has to take refuge in mystery, iike the meanest spiritualist he ridicules. He over and over again reminds us of the corporeal relation. , of mind ; a ga i n and again uses the old illustrations. But at last he has to fall hack upon language tantamount to the orthodox beliefs which he repudiates. After telling us (p. 30) that "mind (or the conditions essential to mind)"—as if the or were not virtually a waving of his theory !-- is evolved from the grey vesicular matter which forms the external layer over the con volutions;"—after repeatedly ridiculing metaphysics, he finds that he must say something about "time"— and very glad is a Berkleum to hear a materialist on that point. He clearly wishes to make it out a "sense," but expresses himself as follows : I think the idea of time may be an excepticn to the rule, and exist independent of any visual impression. (P. 14.5.) Here an exception is assumed, because time can not be " explained" according to his notions slant the brain.. Further on we hear: I do not consider the thought' , and feelings of man to be the doings of the solid brain, but of a spiritual condition ' or body eliminated from, or induced by, the action of the brain. How otherwise shall we expiain the simplest mo tion ? We know that solid things do not absolutely touta. (P. 146.) . ' • • - - - There is nothing half so unintelligible as this in the " Phtedo." e had been told by Mr. Atkinson before, that " each faculty of the mind was the tune , tion of a special organ of the great nervous centre," which sounded definite enough; but hero we have a "brain" whose "doings" cannot produce "thoughts and feelings," but whose "condition" Cali " elimi nate " them And all this vagueness from a precise gentleman, who swears by Bacon, and speaks as posi tively of his materialism as if he had proved the brain to be a musical-box to which the man compulsorily dances! _ 'Air. Atkinson, improving on phrenology, announces "consciousness" to be a separate organ. We have no objection to this kind of annouua•nient being put to the head, and let us have it proved. But what is our surprise to drop on the following: .• • - _ Consciousness and reason, after all, *cent hut as an out ward sign of an inward principle, which sees, as in a glue at once, and through phenomena to Laws, without the pro cess of induction." (P. 149.) No lonely anchorite of the second century ever had a more thoroughly mystical notion than this! It in little too bad for our friends to sneer at spiritualists, and broach doctrines which are founded on the same independent reliance on eonseiottAiess that spiritual ism is. Surely they don't mean that the above " inward principle " is a " function of the bruin." if so, it must have its "organ," and that an important one, soon ; and they must make Imste, or in the ad vancing state of the " science" there kill soon be no room left in the magic block. Mr. Atkinson, in his mesmeric experiments, has become acquainted with the state of trance. Indeed, the mesmerism is the real clue to his state of mind, and his ridiculous inconsistencies arise from his wishing to make every phenomenon in nature tally with it. One of his chief mesmeric patients apparently was a " lady of fifty," in a " weakly state of health," and also partially deaf," and who likewise, before) her death, "tumid to delusive dreaming." These are not promising phenomena! Accordingly, we hear she could discover things ; but what they were, we do not learn. However, we come, by and by, to the announcement of a very mystic p ower in man, the "apparent second self" the "voic e - , embodying, says Mr. Atkinson, the "intuitive and unconscious h*her condition." In this state, "we attain know dge at first hand, as it were, and stand closer to the law and principle of things." llowever, of this important matter the reader only gets a tantalising glimpse. " seldom find thee state pare and with out the alloy oh dreaming," save the master. We should think not; but how does Mr. Atkinson judge of that? How tan he decide oil the purity of a state which he declares superior to the common one, by the common one? And shut right has ho to compare to the sickly mutterinp of a cluirvoyant the mental impulses of a grand, calm, healthy intel lect like that of Socrates? Does he think that So crates is speaking any other way than with poetic metaphor when he tells young Muslims that his " demon" warned him not to cross the Elysaus, and hear repeated the oration of Lysias, which he pro ceeds to confute? Miss Martineau plays rather a secondary part in this work, for Mr. Atkinson takes a most ungallant share of the discourse to himself. But the lady is strong when she does hold forth. In Letter 5, she draws a happy comparison between man and the lower animals. " Vi'lien the monkey," she says, " puts the wig into the boiler, and hides the plum pudding, &c." Here is an exercise of "several facul ties." Very true, as everybody knows. But, because a monkey puts Miss blaruncau's wig into the boiler, that is no reusou that there was no quality in Shak speare but the medullary matter to make him higher than the monkey! Still less is it—or any thing else in this book—a reason why the lady should speak contemptuously of the understandings of those who believe they have free-wills or immortal souls. We admit the experience she has derived from;eimniining the "brains of the dead" (p. 27), and may agree with her in the fully "of slicing them;" but, seeing that so little results from it but contempt for her neighbours—we cannot help think ing that fingering the brains of the dead to seek at.- guments for overthrowing the faith of the living, is not an employment calculated to improve the intel lect or amend the heart. The application of the doctrines of this book is the strangest thing about it. "Trance," which them selves pronounce generally sickly (and yet the highest) state, is made to account for " religions." Christ is called "constitutionally a clairvoyant," and by a Csbrutality, not dignified enough to be called aPhemy, is compared to the boy Dacia in America As if the main point in such cases was not heroic purity of life and divine wisdom, with which it is not pretended clairvoyance has anything to do! His miracles are admitted when they suit mesmerism ; denied when they do not. The faculty of seeing " black boxes" in other rooms, when in a state between insanity and coma, is called prophesy. All religions are &Adored delusions. Sir Thomas More's gentle wisdom in faith, Cromwell's stern enthusiasm in it, Berkeley's clear-sighted piety, the highest humanities of the most human men, are assumed to be "disease," by a couple who seem to spend their lives in trying to learn truth from diseased people! They rave of "fact," and trust to the most dis puted and difficult facts of the day; they . refer every thing to the brain, and speak of mysterious powers independent of it; they aro compelled to believe at last in inner and utterly unapproachable forces, and decline to worship or cull them holy. • The effect of this book will of course he neither to shake idealists one whit, nor damage orthodoxy. It may seduce the vulgarest portion of the uninformed; and, literally establishing nothing, may mislead illi terate people—like what it is, an iynis fabrics, from the dank morass of materialism. r. Edited Lc W. HAzurr. Vol. I. Part I Itoutledge and Co. As one of the enterprises, now happily .o numerous, to diffuse the writings of our great dramatist, this new edition calls for commendation. Five plays of Shakspe,are, printed with a clear and bold type, upon good paper, and offered in a boarded volume for one shilling, prove at any rate a publisher's confidence in the sound taste of his countrymen. The title-page promises a life of Shakspcare, and the text is accom panied throughout with glossorial notes, for which Mr. Hazlitt is reponsible. YORKSHIRE MRTCULTCRAL BINK.—The affaire of this unfortunate banking tompane arc about being brought to a close. The trustees and directors have pub lished a report, preparatory to a meeting of the shareholders on Tuesday next, in York. This document intimates that the directors are anxious to return to the shareholders such portion of the remaining assets as may not be required to answer the outstanding liabilities. The directors propose to the shareholders to make a further return of ls. 6d. per share, which will amount to 2,0561. 135., and to take the residue of the bank effects to their own use, taking upon themselves the remaining liabilities. This proposition will form the principal topic of consideration at the meetilg. EXTENSIVE ROBBERY ON A RAILWAY.-011 Thom day evening, as a gentleman named Alford, resitting in Manchester, was waiting the arrival of the train at the Bolton Railway Station, New Bailey-street, Salford, some admit thieves contrived to abstract a red morocco pocket book, containing 8004., from his parson.