equal rights, we doubt not they prize highly; but the privilege of obtaining sufficient food and clothing at the expense of ther landlords and more comfortable neighbours, they certainly would prize still more highly."

But there is a despotic power to be vested in a central authority. "The reader will bear in mind that the system of the English Poor Laws as now administered, a thorough knowledge of which appears so important to this worthy gentleman, amounts, as we have shewn, to the art of mixing a suitable quantity of ashes and wormwood with the bread offered to the poor, for the very purpose of deterring them from accepting of it. And the want of a knowledge of this art of mixing up a judicious quantity of the said ashes and wormwood, so as to be neither too much nor too little, he thinks would be a disqualification sufficient to exclude all Irishmen from any share in the management of their own poor. It never for a moment occurs to this good man that a knowledge of the character and habits of the Irish, of their prejudices, of their apprehensions, of the mode of gaining access to their understandings and their affections, is a kind of knowledge quite as important in one who is to have the management of the poor among them, as the knowledge of mixing ashes and wormwood with bread destined for their use; and for that description of knowledge, we are under the necessity of saying Englishmen are, in general, not particularly distinguished. Mr. Nicholls does not seem to have the slightest apprehension that there can be any thing peculiar in the character of a people which, in legislating for them, requires to be attended to. He thinks of nothing but of treating his abstract notion of a man, any "two-legged animal without feathers," destitute of all those peculiarities of national character, on which just legislation must mainly depend, with his test of destitution, his irksome work-houses-his ashes and wormwood."

And where do our readers think this central authority is to be exercised? In Dublin? No!-By whom exercised? By Irishmen? No!

"He proposes that the whole poor of Ireland should be managed by the present Poor Law Commissioners of England. He notices the suggestion of adding one to their number for the purpose of attending to the Irish department (and such a one would, at all events, be serving an apprenticeship to the English system); but so tenacious is he of letting any part of the management pass from the English triumvirate, that, on several pretences, he rejects the suggestion; and, after some coquetry about the multiplicity of business with which the English Board is already burdened, he at length modestly gives consent to accept the control of the whole Poor Fund of both England and Ireland, saying he has little doubt his colleagues would undertake the duty along with him, and has less doubt that they, when their hands are relieved of some present pressure, would be quite able to accomplish it. A more arrogant piece of self-confidence and presumption, we will venture to say, never was exhibited. Let the reader look back for a moment on the successive pretexts upon which this gentleman draws every thing to himself. In the first place, the persons holding the supreme authority must be persons well

practised in the English system of Poor Laws, because it is the English system that is to be introduced, and this qualification he ranks so high as to found upon it the audacious proposal of excluding all Irishmen from the management of the poor of Ireland. But, again, to exclude Irishmen from a Board sitting in Dublin would appear harsh, and might perhaps, excite angry comment, he therefore proposes that the controlling authority should be in London, and modestly hints at the London Commissioners, notwithstanding their great and incessant labours, (dwelling particularly upon his own,) being willing to undertake the duty. And this, he says, would be desirable for another reason, namely, to secure a perfect uniformity of management in Ireland and England. For, says he, (p. 34,) "the law would be similar in both countries, it is true, but the practice might, and probably would, become widely different in each, as was the case in different parts of England under the old Poor Law administration.' But then it has been suggested that an additional Commissioner or two might be appointed to attend to the Irish department, but his answer is ready. In practice,' says he it does not always follow, that the efficiency of a Board is increased by an increase of the number of its members; and he further hints that there might be some danger of injuring the harmony of the English triad.'"

Such are some of the "Strictures" which our author has applied to Mr. Nicholls' Report, which has been countenanced, to a certain extent, by several members of his Majesty's government. We confess that we have never perused that Report, although we have read not a few extracts from it. At the same time it is our conviction that these "Strictures," however severely they may handle the Commissioner, do not misquote his words, or his opinions, while they assuredly prove him to be a rash, an incompetent, and probably a selfish speculator.

We are not bound, neither do we pretend, to point out the measures that should immediately be adopted for the amelioration of the sister island. It is sufficient for our author, and for ourselves through him, if first we can be the means of bringing about a more sane estimate of the value of poor-laws in general than does yet prevail in this country; and secondly, if we can help to throw obstacles in the way of passing inoperative and mischievous laws. That the publication and study of the pamphlet before us is eminently calculated to effect much, both of this general and special good, we confidently affirm; that it advocates principles we have often stood up for, we are glad; that it has carried us to more clear and convincing conclusions regarding Ireland than we before entertained, we are thankful.

In conclusion, let us just mark, what will be the real benefit that the most sanguine can suppose will attend Mr. Nicholls' proposed scheme-that is, providing workhouse accommodation for 80,000, when

A Poor Law for Ireland must be an attempt to provide, not for a few destitute individuals in a parish, whose destitution arises from their

peculiar circumstances; but it must be an attempt to deal with several millions of people. It is known and acknowledged on every side that a large proportion of the agricultural labourers, amounting to above 500,000 men, who, with the families dependent upon them, cannot amount to less than 1,500,000, are supported for about one half of the year by wages so scanty, that they can save nothing out of them; and during the other half of the year, by the produce of a small piece of ground, which yields barely food sufficient, with the strictest economy, to prevent their perishing of want, till the time of employment and of wages returns.

"Besides these, we have seen that there is about an equal number of persons engaged in agriculture who are holders of land, but in so small quantities, that they employ no labourers under them, multitudes of whom are, through imperfect agriculture, failure of crops, reduction in the price of produce which compels them to part with an undue proportion of it to pay their rent, brought from time to time to a state of destitution as appalling as that of the labourers who have no land, and who, according to Mr. Revans, must beg, or steal, or starve.'

·

"Does Mr. Nicholls really suppose that the cry of a million of people perishing for want could be withstood, or that it could be answered by such miserable expedients as the irksome workhouse test system? Here is no feigned destitution that requires to be put to the test; but as real and appalling a destitution as the most ardent admirers of the test system could desire. It must be met, and met promptly;-and the whole of his fences and guards would be swept away like cobwebs before a hurricane. "It is puerile to expect that a starving peasantry, after the announcement that a rate is to be levied for their relief, and houses provided for their accommodation, will, as by common consent, continue to husband their little stock with the same economy which they have been accustomed to practise, when no other means of subsistence was opened for them. Without supposing them to become recklessly extravagant, they will be furnished with an excuse, or rather an irresistible temptation will be held out to them to eat till they are satisfied, at least, unless the workhouse be represented to them, and believed by them, to be something absolutely terrible. Their stores will then be exhausted before the time of employment or of wages arrives, the cry of hundreds of thousands of people being in danger of perishing with hunger, will resound through every corner of the kingdom. To attempt to cast such a multitude of destitute persons, who have been betrayed into destitution by the legislature itself, upon the gentry and small farmers of Ireland, in addition to the mendicants that are already exhausting them, would be in itself the most cruel injustice, and would create a convulsion, which without prompt and energetic measures to allay it, would shake the throne of Britain itself. Additional levies must be made. To draw the funds necessary to meet the exigency from the landed proprietors, would exhaust their whole resources, without accomplishing the object, and the British public would be constrained to submit to a rate in aid of the exhausted rate-payers of Ireland. The first opening of such a resource would increase the evil. Year after year the cry of famine would be raised, till, as we have already said, as effectual and universal a transfer of land in Ireland from the present proprietors to the peasantry would be effected, as that which took place on the occasion of the French Revolution."

70

ART. VII.-The West Indies: the Natural and Physical History of the Windward and Leeward Colonies, &c. By SIR ANDREW HALLIDAY, K. H., M. D., &c. Deputy Inspector of Army Hospitals. London: Parker, 1837.

LIKE many other works of modest pretensions, the one before us deserves to be spoken of with more than ordinary approbation. It is full of useful, as well as entertaining matter, and contains also not a few notices that are new; at the same time bearing on every page the stamp of a variously informed, inquisitive, and remarkably benevolent mind. In treating of the "Moral, social, and political condition of the inhabitants, immediately before and after the Abolition of Negro Slavery," as the title of the volume announces, there is a scope afforded for extremely instructive and interesting particulars. The state of religious tuition and progress in these colonies obtains special notice. Then there are geological discussions, remarks on climate, health, and natural history, together with many facts and anecdotes, which convey to the reader a great amount of precise knowledge-knowledge that has, both from its peculiar nature and the habits of reflection illustrative of the author's disposition, an eminently humanizing influence.

It would appear that Sir Andrew Halliday was induced to select the West Indies for his residence and professional occupation-the government acceding to his desire-on account of the gout, and the present volume is the offspring of his observations and acquisitions while there. One leading feature in his work, are certain speculations regarding the origin and formation of the Caribbean Islands. We are not going to discuss his theory, but merely mention that he adduces various facts and arguments which make it probable that they are the result of an immense volcanic stream, sent off after the Andes were formed, and that the course of this stream kept along the track of the hurricanes, from the equator to the Gulf of Mexico. To geologists this portion of the work will afford special interest; but in selecting our extracts we choose rather to keep to those that will be found to be more generally attractive. Here is one of those that may be classed, however, along with extraordinary natural phenomena. It goes to prove that the sweep and direction of the Atlantic extend over a much wider range than has been supposed.

"My readers may all recollect the melancholy accident of the burning of the Kent East India ship in the chops of the British Channel some few years ago. On board of that ship was Lieutenant-colonel M'Gregor, now of the 93rd Highlanders, who was going out with the regiment he then commanded to India. When all hope of saving the ship was at an end, and death seemed inevitable, the Colonel sat down and wrote a short narrative

of what had occurred, and the little probability that existed of any person being saved. This paper was put into a bottle, and whilst he was in the act of corking that bottle, so as to secure the writing, the cry of a ship in sight' was heard. What became of the bottle after that moment he had no recollection; but about three or four years ago, he went out to Barbadoes to take the command of his present corps, and shortly after his arrival at St. Ann's he was waited upon by a gentleman connected with one of the newspapers published in Bridgetown, and who, after some little explanation, presented to the Colonel his original manuscript from on board the Kent, which had been found in a bottle picked up by a negro on the northern shore of the island."

We may connect with the above statement another not less wonderful and providential. It took place during the last dreadful hurricane that traversed Barbadoes.

"A mother, a daughter, a female slave, and a child of two years of age, were living together in a cottage near his garden-wall. When the hurricane was at its height, they heard the roof of their cottage going off, and immediately rushed to the door for safety, the daughter carrying the child. At the same instant the door was blown from its hinges, and fell down, and, in the horror of the inoment, the young lady dropped or lost the child, and during the night it was no more heard of. Next morning the mother and daughter were found alive, in an open space of ground near the ruins of their cottage, and conveyed to the residence of Colonel Diggens. The person who had discovered these females, and had conveyed them to a place of shelter, then went to assist the Colonel in extricating his horses from the ruins of their stable: while so employed, they heard the cry of an infant, and, upon examining around, discovered at a little distance from them a child about two and a half years old, perfectly naked, and black with cold. This was the child that had been lost, when the mother and daughter had made their escape from their cottage. A wall, nine feet high, divided that cottage from the garden of Colonel Diggens, and the conjecture was that the child had fallen from the arms of the young lady, and dropped upon the outer door of the cottage, which had just then been blown down, and that, by some strange swirl of the wind, this door had been lifted up with the child upon it, carried over the nine-feet wall, and deposited in the Colonel's garden, where both it and the child were now found."

We may mention that Barbadoes was the first island which Sir Andrew visited, where as in the other colonies, the mortality among the troops necessarily claimed his particular attention. It cannot be supposed that government will be deaf to some of his statements of facts and suggestions regarding those provisions, which would tend greatly to preserve and prolong human life. It would appear, for instance, that many of the barracks are built in unhealthy situations. This fact has already engaged the deliberation of our rulers; but there are other matters that loudly call for alteration, where the change would be more easily and cheaply accomplished.

"It would be both wisdom and humanity, as well as great economy, to throw aside all the English and Irish contracts for salt beef and pork,