18.-Hood's Own, or Laughter from Year to Year, No. I. G. Dearborn & Co. New York.

gay

THIS is poor trashy stuff as to style, with principles as false as they are frivolous. His precept and practice is to drive away death by making a joke of it" to take care of the body, poor body, and give it as long a day as you can ;" and this he calls "the hearted philosophy!" Wretched folly! It is of such laughter Solomon speaks, when he says "it is mad." The "gay heart" is a plant of another soil; it comes from the sweet root of christian peace, and can flourish only in the atmosphere of "a conscience void of offence" towards God and towards men. Let us then have no more of such bedlamite dancing in their chains!

19.-Report upon the Finances and Internal Improvements of the State of New York, 1838, by the Committee of Ways and Means.

THIS is an able and lucid document, demonstrating in figures what every intelligent citizen of the state has long since had in his head, namely, that the actual resources of our treasury are even now equal to the highest demands which can be made upon it. The basis of this reasoning is a clear and conclusive one; it is this:Improvements made by the state are the property of the state; and, therefore, their net proceeds are to be reinvested for the benefit of those to whom they belong; that is, the great Erie canal has been made with state funds, or by state loans, therefore its reasonable tolls, after paying off the debt, is a productive capital, to be re-invested for the same object and the benefit of the same parties, and that again is for the cause of internal improvement and for the citizens at large. The tolls of the Erie canal are therefore, in all equity, already a pledged income, and to divert them to any other end, or to make them a present to those who use the canal, either now or hereafter, is robbery and injustice, so long as any internal improvement remains incompleted. This, then, is the fund from which our resources are to come. But having the means, we have heretofore wanted the wisdom. Our legislature has not hitherto appreciated the fundamental principle, (one now beginning to be universally recognized,) that internal improvements are matters of state, not of local policy, and therefore cannot be rightly carried on but by a state board, and upon a general plan, and by state funds. This it the true and only sound principle, and until New York adopts it, and enters vigorously upon it, her movements in the development of her immense resources will be, as they have

heretofore been, partial, hasty, and incongruous. Or if, again, such expenditure go beyond her actual means, then is she to borrow upon the strength of them, since every dollar judiciously laid out in opening new avenues to her hidden wealth, counts as fourfold in her treasury. This is a truth beginning to be felt both here and abroad; and European capitalists are at this moment returning home, with the settled conviction that no investment of their capital can be so safe as American state stock created for this end. The very investment of the loan becomes the security of the lender; all else that is wanted is honesty in the borrower; then, the very expenditure of the money becomes the sufficient guarantee of the debt. Such is their feeling; and we, in acting upon it, by making from them a sufficient loan for this purpose, should not only be advancing our own interests, but have the farther satisfaction of becoming instruments for advancing the peace and good order of Europe, since every dollar withdrawn thence for occupation here, makes war a less easy burden to them. The peaceful occupations of the new world, we venture to predict, are going to be the "safety valve" to the old; and American loans are about to become the channels by which the waters of strife are to be drawn off from the plains of Europe, and the sinews of war enfeebled. Thus is it in the affairs of this world, that self-interest is bound up with duty, making up the one great volume (which he who runs may read) of God's dispensations for the happiness and improvement of man.

20. Hints on a Cheap Mode of Purchasing the Liberty of a Slave Population. New York: 1838. G. A. Neuman, 99 Nassau

street.

HERE comes a German mind-for such, from many marks, we conclude the author to be-to the solution of a great and (hitherto considered) insoluble American problem. It is a dark question in more senses than one, but we think he has thrown some new light upon it. It is a striking instance of the new point of view in which a familiar subject may be put by the analytic process, and we recommend its attentive perusal, seriously and practically, to all committees of our abolition and colonization societies, and indeed are by no means sure but that its perusal might with advantage be substituted by the chairmen, at their respective public meetings, for the various eloquent speeches made by gentlemen on such interesting occasions.

The principle adopted by our author, is that of" uterine emancipation," founded on the received principle of the old Roman law, PARTUS SEQUITUR VENTREM. Setting out from this point, he de

monstrates that the whole purchase needful for the total emancipation of the blacks in the next generation, does not exceed one eighth of the actual number, and that eighth by no means the most valuable one; and that even the emancipation of one young female slave will, by the tenth generation, at the lowest calculation, have been the purchase of freedom to two thousand and forty-five human beings descended from her. But for details we must refer to the pamphlet itself, which is written with candor and moderation, much good sense, and an equal amount of unpretending good feeling.

21.-Introductory Address to the Students in Medicine of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the University of the State of New York. Delivered November 7, 1837. By EDWARD DELAFIELD, M. D., Professor, &c. New York: Published by the Students. 1837. 8vo. pp. 44.

We are sorry our notice of this excellent address was crowded out of our last number for want of room. Though somewhat late, we prefer not to omit it in the present number.

Dr. Delafield selected "Medical Education" for the subject of this address, as introductory to the regular course of lectures at the medical college of this city, at the opening of the course of 1837-8; and he has labored most zealously, and we hope and think not without effect, to instil into the minds of his pupils the necessity of making themselves thoroughly acquainted with the profession, the duties and responsibilities of which they voluntarily assume. We like the spirit of this discourse, and the manner in which the subject is treated. We like the elevated ground it takes, and the thorough course of study it presents for the medical student. It is the character given to the medical profession by such men as Professor Delafield, that must commend it to the confidence of the public, and eventually eradicate empiricism. We hope and expect to see New York the head-quarters of medical science in this country; there are peculiar advantages here for a great school of medicine; and it is not unreasonable to expect that we shall yet count our hundreds of students, who will annually resort hither for their education.

22.-A Clinical Lecture on the Primary Treatment of Injuries; delivered at the New York Hospital, November 22, 1837. By ALEXANDER H. STEVENS, M. D., Surgeon of the New York Hospital, and Emeritus Professor of Clinical Surgery.

THIS is also an admirable performance, which we are sorry to have omitted mention of in our last number. We are very glad to perceive, from the dedication to the governors of the hospital, that this is "intended as the first of a series" of lectures on clinical surgery.

In giving this lecture to the public, Dr. Stevens has conferred a great favor, not only on his brethren of the medical profession, but on the general reader. The subject is one which has not received sufficient attention in any systematic work on surgery; and the consequence is, that even medical men, in cases of severe accidental injury, when bystanders and friends are terrified, often find themselves without fixed principles, on which alone are based an appropriate treatment. Besides, every person may, and should, understand what is necessary to be done immediately after the infliction of a serious injury. Lives are too often sacrificed by a species of culpable ignorance. It is not too much to say, that in this single lecture of Dr. Stevens, there is more sound, original, practical information, which all classes of readers can understand, than in many professional works of five times the size. It is altogether a publication of the highest merit.

23.- Address delivered on the 22d of February, 1838, before the Philolexian and Peithologian Societies of Columbia College. By the Reverend EDWARD Y. HIGBEE. New York: Published by order of the Society. 1838. pp. 24.

THE object of Mr. Higbee's address is to show "the dependence of our social system, for all that can render it the object of our care and love, upon the diffusion of sound learning and religion." This obvious and important truth can never be too strongly and extensively felt; and therefore can never be too frequently urged: for though one of the most familiar common places of remark and acknowledgment, yet, like many others of the most important truths which concern man's welfare here and for ever-its very familiarity sometimes begets a habit of unreflecting acknowledgment, perfectly consistent with a practical disregard of the duties implied in it.

We are glad, therefore, whenever occasion is taken to make this truth felt. Mr. Higbee's enforcement of it is earnest and eloquent,

NO. V.-VOL. III.

22

becoming a sincere and upright man and christian minister. The action of Mr. Higbee's own mind has not invested the subject with any thing very new or original in argument and illustrations, which indeed it would be difficult to do; nor do we find any tokens of the presence of that very remarkable attribute and test of high genius, the power of giving to an old and familiar truth the freshness and force of novelty.

Nevertheless, the discourse is well done; its tone and spirit, and the particular cast of its sentiments, are good and wholesome, especially in respect to sound learning, in distinction from some of the education charlatanries of the day, and in respect to making religious instruction a part of popular education. And as we are glad at every utterance by the voice, so we are at every utterance by the press, of such sound principles: for every new utterance will have more or less of special influence for good.

24.-Benefits of the Gospel. A Sermon preached in St. Paul's Church, on the Nativity of our Saviour, December 25, 1837. To which is added, the substance of two Discourses on the Sunday following, being the close of a century since the first Church edifice was erected in Newburyport, (Mass.) Printed by Morss & Brews

ter.

1838.

THIS pamphlet came to hand too late to be noticed in our last number; and we do not notice it now for any thing that there is particularly worthy of attention in the first sermon, entitled the "Benefits of the Gospel." It is a plain, sensible discourse, such as Dr. Morss might very well preach, and his people might very well be edified in hearing; but there seems no good reason why it should have been printed: at all events, had it come out by itself, we should not have called attention to it.

But the other part of the pamphlet-"A brief History of the Episcopal Church in Newburyport and Vicinity," we wish to make particular mention of, for two reasons. In the first place, it contains the history of one of the early churches of New England, for a period of a century, including many details and documents, by no means destitute of curious interest, especially as illustrating the relations of the Church with the congregational authorities of Massachusetts.

In the second place, as furnishing a contribution to the history of the Episcopal Church of the United States, we wish to commend the example of Dr. Morss to the clergy of the church at large. Let them use the like diligence to collect, arrange, and publish