A SCRAP OF NATURAL HISTOR...
The Times, 1824-11-17T00:00:00

ASCRAP or NATURAL HSTORaY.-FFroln the VCots- uurn.1-It is well knowin to the learned and unlearned that Ireland nourishes no noxious aninmal-a fite for which a fial cause may be found, in tho imntemorial propensity of the people to take the office of the viper and the tiger into their own hands, by stinging, tearing, and worrying one another. In days gone by, our own soil had its share of wonders and virtues teooand precisely at the titne when feuds and forays wvere so numerous, that a peaceable man might justly reckon the wolf aLnd the serpent snore Inoffensive ncighbours than the creatures of his own species. Facts quite as marvellous respectinig Scetland, a; the snake-killing virtues of the sister country, are attested by old Hector Boethius, and having been copied from him by Cluverius, a well.known geographer, thev lhavc of course found their way into half the universities of Europe, and are, no doubt, still .eriously believed by the ingenuous aluvwi. 'ro let our readers see whlat are the admirable things learned foreign- era are taught to look for in our dear country, we quote the passage froni the 24th chapter of Philippus Cluverius, which was to a very late per-od (rand perhaps still is) a text-book in many universities. " Scotland,' says the annotator of Cluverius, " abounds in very' fierce wolves, whichi would render the wvhole country a desert, if they wecre not kept down by a breed of generous dogs." Tt would be re- fining too far to suppose that theae wolves are allegorical quadrupedis, and tvp'fy thetGpsics who robbed hen.rooats,or the hungry clans wrho leviett hlkel mQai.1 or, in modern times, the tribe of lawyvers who hunt down and howl1 over their clients. " Decr are found ;n such prodi- gious herdr., thlat I,(JOO or 1,'0O are taken and kSilled at a single hunting." Hence the Austrian Archdukes w ere firmnly persunded that every H?ighlander dined daily on venison, and derived his swift- ness of foot and fine c/mergin,, pace from this regimen. " In the Caledo- nian woodsarcwaildwv7itceoxcn,wi h armanc iikc the lion. which disdfaiu tocat, or even touch. the grass upon whb,ch tbe footofrnmn has trod." WNe might challenge Ulster, l,cinster, Connanght, and I.iunseer, to pro- duce any four-footed beast so liemn-like,'disdainful, and dignified as this Caledlonien Oar. But the6e are poor and paltry wdistinctions cotm- paredl w ith what w e have now to msention. The G erman asSUreS us, withl all thc solenmn gravity of a downright -msttecr-ot.fucf man- but wre must give it in his ow. xvotds :-" Mrr.r saejar noal repe- rrtar i7a Scotia, QC eflaude imsportatzs, ar.oriiar.!" *-TRe RATiS5 not touxnd iH Scotland, and if imported dies." lVould to heavens. Philip Clever, or John Butno, that thlou hadst tolrl the truth hare! Little (lost tbou known what progress the wisdom of Parliamnent has lmade in naturalizing quadrupede alien to tlhe sioil arid climate ot' oar country in the d'ays of simple Hfector Boece. The facinoeisimla. tapirs vwe know nothing of, and we can very well want his company; the bocs yltuesr has left his horns to the geologist, and is seen Dno more; hut theomas najor r Mhieh once found the very smlell of Scoarish earoh border, has tlen absolute possession of the laud fvd snvrmsfrrtlborerto border. Far from finding any thting h e3i to their constitution in the soil, they thrive and multiply like locusts in Bgypt. They are fonnd in all thle houses olf the nobilitv they arc very numecrous in the courts of lav; thec church is positiv'eiy un.- dermined by them;* the cam p sand barracks nre fuellof them - they infest all the public offiices. E;veti in the capital of 2he sister king- dom, Scottish rats, known by thrir superior voracity, abound pro. digioadly in both i-louses of *Parhiament- Shlade of John B3uno t some second-sighted Jacobite luadteenpted thee to indite thlis sly sN- tence, that time might turn it to a libeil upon our infirmities ! This is the unkindest cut of all. lAdveetisetntell.1-SI. FAUNTLEsIOY...-Mlany- intelligent per_ sons aving expressedt a desire to recoulmmend Dir. Fauntleroy to mercy, on-a difcrent ground to what has hitherto been suggesredfu namely, beradse thet considcr tbat the punishetint of deatkh folhrl geer omtght to lbe abolishied-a velition has aecorr1inxly bcetn prepared; emhodying this sentiment, and the an re is nowlchng s or slgnatere at the vane places in iondoias thle otne gveneral petition. The in_ habitants of any provinca f alqwn, c p ho af s of opinion that the lawe d too severe in the ease of forgery, have now the opportunity of ex. prescing that opinion, by preparing and transmitung sto -Lndon a petition rimilar to the following : "TO THtE !tljfG'S J?05T ExCCELLENcT ILtJETTY. d le, the funersigned, msost hlonbl and respectfully beg per_ tisison to state, that o e consider the crporinal lawy dsf this country to be f ar too severe, and the punishment. in - inanstrsnces un. justly apportioned; espeally mi those easdsr where the ofiender wnho debittvem another of his property, is doomed to suer the sare igno_ minious deth as the deliberate murderer; and, firmlyv hoping that the Legislature wiUl, in ifts wimpor and humanity, vry speeodily re_. versteand ameliorate the criminal law, sD that the puniahme:,, of ieath iany no Qlnger be attached te the srimd of' forgery we mast humbly and earntesty supplicate your Moat Gracious MaJesty, that the unfsotunate nSir. tenry Fauntleroy cn ay not be added to the n unber of sufheers an de r what we consider ao undecessarily sel, vere and crE eyare f n e