labouring, strenua inertia, to be happy; or to imagine themselves happy." It is often by means of these little trifles that mortals regain that greatest of blessings-HEALTH!

LOCH FINE-HERRINGS.

LOCH FINE is decidedly the finest loch in Scotland-for HERRINGS. We scent them in every gale-we taste them in every dish-we see them on every table-we almost feel them through the bottom of the steamer as we sail up the Loch! In fine (I mean Loch Fine) every conversation smacks of herrings, at this season of the year, and often consists of nothing else!

So, then, Anderson and Pennant have been hoaxing us in high style respecting the annual migrations of herrings! The flight of Xenophon's Greeks from Cunaxa, or of Napoleon's eagles from Moscow, has not been half so accurately traced as the routes of that innumerable army of herrings that starts, annually, from the North Pole, and pushes its legions into every creek, from Iceland to the Azores. The above-mentioned authors, and especially Anderson, must have been quarter-masters-general in the army of fins. Mr. Anderson avers, and Pennant believes that, in Iceland, the herrings are two feet in length, and that, when the army breaks up from winter quarters round the Pole, it is pursued by numerous sea monsters, especially by whales, who, like many droll fishes on dry land, have a great hankering after things which they cannot swallow or digest-that the army of fins divides into two great columns, the eastern, scouring the coast of Norway, penetrating the Baltic, the Zuyder Zee, and various other inlets—while the western column makes for Shetland and the Orkneys, and onwards to Scotland and the Hebrides, some going round through the Straits of Dover, and others by Ireland, till they unite their forces once more in the great Atlantic. Now all this is a very beautiful romance, containing about as much matters of fact as the " Mysteries of Udolpho," or any other fashionable novel. Yet, upon the accuracy of these details of herring campaigns, many thousands, perhaps millions, have been expended by fishing companies, all, or most of them, ending as did the South Sea scheme! It is probable, indeed, that herrings, like many other folks, have a great propensity to make summer excursions to the lochs and islands of Scotland, the shores of the Baltic, and the coasts of France and England-returning, when the frolic is over, to their unseen and unknown haunts in the unfathomable depths of the Western Ocean. Like other tourists, too, they have evinced a most capricious taste, in

their searches after the sublime and beautiful-hence the routes laid down by Anderson and Pennant, are now as antiquated as the itineraries of Smellfungus and other sentimental travellers of the last century. It is curious, however, that these inconstant lovers of the scaly tribe have still preserved a wonderful partiality for Loch Fine-probably from respect to that king of Highland chiefs, the Duke of Argyle, whose liberality every traveller must bless, for permitting the use of whiskey toddy, and abolishing the use of toll-bars throughout his dominions! May his Grace never want a fine salt herring for his supper, and a mutchkin of Glenlivet to frighten the nightmare from his Grace's couch, and chase the blue devils from his Grace's breakfast!

EAST TARBET.

The steamer which was expected to convey us to Inverary, darted suddenly into the harbour of East Tarbet, and our voyage was unexpectedly terminated for the time. In this little fishing town, where we anticipated bad accommodations, we found, in a small inn, the most comfortable quarters. Peggy and her mistress were all good nature, activity, and kindness. Every thing which the town could afford, and more than princes require, were at our beck. An excellent dinner, good beds, and assiduous attention were given us, for a mere trifle. I shall never cease to compare and contrast the luxury of a little inn at Tarbet, with the "splendid misery" of a "family hotel," in Edinburgh or London! Long experience and knowledge of the world, indeed, had taught me not to seek for happiness in high places, nor despair of comfort under the humble roof!

The narrow isthmus which connects East and West Tarbet, is not much more than a mile in extent. We wandered across it, one beautiful and still evening in August, calling up, in memory, the historical associations connected with the furtive expedition of MAGNUS the Norwegian king, and the patriotic march of the noble Bruce over the same ground in days of yore.

"It was a wondrous sight to see

Topmast and pennon glitter free,

High raised above the greenwood tree,

As on dry land the galley moves,

By cliffs and copse, and alder groves."

It is a still more wondrous sight to see a steamer dart across the same isthmus, a little farther north, (Crinan Canal,) without the assistance of human muscles-without oars or sails.

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While sitting on one of the turrets of the old ruined castle that overlooks the town and harbour of East Tarbet, now watching the approach of the far-distant steamer that was to carry us to Inverary-again, surveying the long lines of herring-busses, moored in the harbour, and canopied with their sable nets, conveying some idea of the funeral procession of some great marine deity-I found my mind entangled in a deep cogitation on the ultimate effects of REDUNDANT POPULATION! —a strange subject for contemplation in the Highlands! The links of that chain of association which connected this reverie with its primary cause or starting point, were entirely lost, though there can be no doubt that they were all regularly catenated, as cause and effect, notwithstanding that the last and most impressive link only had now possession of the sensorium. As the steamer was six miles distant, and my companions were sauntering through the town, I determined to have my solitary rumination as well as Malthus or any of his disciples.

The annual increase of population in our towns and villages, and the rapid spread of cultivation in the wilds of America and Australia, leave no doubt in any rational mind that, unless new worlds are discovered, or our present globe takes a fit of growing larger, (which, by the bye, as a MOTHER, she ought occasionally to do,) a time will come, when the products of our earth shall barely supply the consumption of its inhabitants, and when a check, moral or physical, must occur to the rate at which the MAN-FACTORY (if such a term be allowed) is now working. The optimists, or Candides, assure us that nature or nature's God did not confer on man the power of multiplying, without endowing the earth which he inhabits with the capability of supplying all the necessaries of life*. This is a very beautiful and consolatory doctrine; but unfortunately there is also one awkward piece of modern experience that crosses the path of the optimist. The Celestial Empire presents an example of what may be fairly called the saturated point of

* I once fell in with a most remarkable specimen of the nearly worn-out sect of Perfectibility" philosophers, while travelling from Carlisle to Penryn. A passenger was remarking on the contrast between the fertile plains around us and the Highlands of Scotland. "The wildest parts of the Highlands," observed an elderly gentleman, in broad Scotch, "will one day be as fertile and as well cultivated as these plains." Indeed, said I, will the savage scene around Loch Scavig, in the Isle of Sky, be ever cultivated? (6 Certainly," ," he replied. What will become of the rocks, I inquired? “They will be carried away to other countries, to build houses, bridges, and other works. In short," continued this optimist, "if the population of these isles were to increase a hundred or a thousand fold, the wisdom of God and the ingenuity of man will find ample means of sustenance for them all, without any necessity for emigration.” Such happy anticipations I should be sorry to disturb; but the idea of Loch Scavig becoming as fertile as Lancashire, tickled my fancy for some days afterwards.

F

population. For many centuries, China has seldom supplied more than a sufficiency of food and other necessaries for the existing inhabitants. But as these have constantly tended to increase more or less, the same as in all other countries, what has been the consequence of the saturaTION? INFANTICIDE in ordinary—and famine, with its necessary accompaniment, PESTILENCE, in extraordinary years!! It is of no use to blink the question. This must be the final state of every country, unless the march of intellect discovers some moral or physical check to the existing progress of population, which has hitherto eluded the search of philosophers. It is idle to talk about the thousands or millions of uncultivated acres in England. Their cultivation will protract, but not prevent the ultimate point of saturation, as in China. The wilds of America may, and probably will, become a garden; and the interior of Australia, if it be not a "lake of the dismal swamp," may one day be as populous as Holland; but the progress of population will absorb or swallow up every capability of the earth, and bring it to the state of the "Celestial Empire" at last*. That most orthodox monarch, of blessed and pious memory, Henry the Eighth, has greatly accelerated the miseries of England, by abolishing convents and monasteries, those sacred moral checks to redundant population. It was a sad oversight of our early REFORMERS, some centuries back, to allow the clergy to marry, and thus to encumber themselves with the worldly cares of a numerous progeny. No class of society contributes more to redundancy of population than the pastors. Our modern REFORMERS should mind this. The Mouvement party in France are blind to the future, by relaxing the reins of Romish discipline on this point. Let them look to the States of the Church in fair Italy. There the celibacy of monks and nuns, aided by the slender diet of Lent, and some other means which cannot be revealed to ears of flesh, has had a most salutary effect in checking the multiplication of our species, and keeping the people below the point of saturation†.

It is not a little curious, that the arch infidel, Voltaire, has stated the case exactly, in one of his fables. Speaking of the ultimate effects of redundant population, he makes one of the personages say-" Dans ce cas, il faudroit que la terre rendît le double de ce qu'elle rend-ou qu'il y auroit le double de pauvres-ou qu'il faudroit avoir lé double sur l'étranger-on envoyer la moitié de la nation en Amérique-ou que la moitié de la nation mangeât l'autre."

As America will one day close her ports against our people, when they shall have too many of their own, it seems that the last alternative of Voltaire will be our lot!

The climate of Italy, however, must be taken into account, as a check to redundant population. Thus, in any given number, or in the total population of Italy, the annual mortality is just double that of an equal number in England. Let us suppose, what

But is there no bright side, or relief, to the picture? It is evident that a long period must elapse before we shall find ourselves in the unenviable predicament of the Celestial Empire-before the forests of Canada shall disappear-the banks of the Allegany and Mississippi present the cultivation of those of the Thames and the Clyde-and Van Diemen's Land become an Isle of Wight. But when all these probabilities shall have been realized, there may be resources in store for the cravings of human appetite, and the support of rising generations.

There is every reason to believe that the solid portions of our globe are not the only parts that present a redundant population. In the ocean, as well as upon dry land, the first law of nature is-"eat or be eaten." If man did not devour or destroy his predecessors and competitors in the animal kingdom, they would eat and exterminate him. The inhabitants of the boundless deep appear to be even more carnivorous, or at least piscivorous than man. It is possible that some of the minor tribes may live upon water alone; but it is certain that almost the whole of the marine aristocracy feed on the flesh of their inferiors. The monarch of the floods-(and the same observation might possibly apply to monarchs on dry land)—is far less voracious than the generality of his subjects. The whale is contented with a sprat for his supper; while the shark, not half the size of a whale's fin, will bolt a seven pound piece of salt junk, hook and all, at the risk of his life.

As the density of population increases, and the relief of emigration diminishes, the supply of the luxuries of life must give way to the supply of the necessaries. Man must learn to live more on vegetable, than on animal food, because the same space of ground that supports one man on the latter, will support twenty on the former.

But, as gradation in this descending scale of diet, the ocean offers one of immense magnitude and utility. Fish, to an almost unlimited extent, may be procured for the subsistence of man; and a time must come when prudence, as well as patriotism will encourage fisheries, by inducing the better classes to curb their carnivorous propensities, and keep Lent six or nine months in the year, before they are compelled to live entirely on potatoes.

indeed is true, that, in an English town, the population doubles in twenty-eight years. Now if the annual mortality were, in that town, exactly what it is in Naples-one in twenty-eight-the population, instead of doubling, would be precisely the same at the end of the twenty-eight years, as it was in the beginning. But as the ratio of mortality is one in fifty-six-the population doubles in the above period. It is remarkable that writers on political economy have passed over this cause of redundant population—the salubrity of our climate.