The missionaries, however, are not the only settlers. "The country," says Mr. Ward, "has been partially colonised by other Englishmen of a very different description. There are upwards of two thousand British subjects now settled in different parts of the islands, of whom several hundreds consist of a most worthless class of persons, such as runaway sailors, convicts who have escaped from the penal colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, keepers of grog-shops, and other vagabonds of dissolute habits. Besides these settlers, there are always many temporary sojourners,-the crews of trading and whaling vessels, some of whom are generally to be found in the bays and harbours of both islands." From the want of regular laws the presence of British subjects, such as have been just described, has proved a curse to the natives. The crimes committed by some captains of British vessels have been so atrocious as to be hardly credible. The attempt of an adventurer, styling himself the Baron de Thierry, to establish himself as a sovereign among the New Zealanders, attracted a great deal of attention. He laid claim to a very extensive territory; and professed to rely upon moral influence for exercising a kind of assumed sovereignty. The baron, however, made no adequate provision for the accomplishment of his objects. He was abandoned by the party who had followed him from Sydney, and, in fact, was so far from really acquiring either territory or sovereignty, that, according to late accounts, he was living on the bounty of the natives and European settlers. The lawless state and desperate characters of the irregular settlers we have described, and the necessity of adequate protection to the industrious colonist, call loudly for a more direct exertion of legitimate authority than the extension of the powers of the courts of justice in New South Wales to British subjects in New Zealand, and the appointment of a resident there, the only steps yet taken by Government in respect to that country. Reasons not easily divined, have induced a repugnance in the officers of the Church Missionary Society in England to support any legislative measure for the purpose of the systematic and well-regulated colonisation of New Zealand; although the most respectable British residents there, including many of the missionaries themselves, and many others distinguished for talent and well qualified from their experience to form a sound opinion on the point,--such, for instance, as Mr. Polack, Mr. Montefiore, Mr. Enderby, and Capt. Fitzroy, -all concur in recommending the direct and energetic interference of government. The extent of the concession obtained by means of such representations, was an offer made in 1837, of a grant of a charter to the New Zealand Association then formed, "incorporating and committing to its members the settlement and government of the projected colony for a term of years, according to the precedents of the chartered colonies of North America; but to this offer a condition was attached, that the Association should become a trading joint-stock company, which condition the Association was unable to comply with; having especially excluded from its object all purposes of private profit." Thus disappointed in obtaining support from the executive, the Association turned to the legislature, and "a bill for the provisional government of British settlements in the Island of New Zealand," was brought into parliament by Mr. F. Baring, the chairman of the Association; but, in consequence of the opposition of her majesty's ministers, the bill was thrown out, and the Association was dissolved. Some of its members, however, were not inclined to abandon their project so easily, and formed the plan of continuing the prosecution of its leading objects, by means of a joint-stock company, with a subscribed capital. Other friends of colonization gradually joined them; and in the spring of 1839 the funds raised were sufficiently ample to enable the Company to purchase an extensive territory in New Zealand (principally the harbours of Hokianga and Kaipara, in the Northern Island), and to fit out and despatch an expedition for the purpose of making further purchases, fixing the site of a town, and preparing for the early arrival of a body of settlers from England. The first settlement is intended to be made at the most eligible harbour in Cook's Straits (the passage separating the Northern and Southern Islands) that can be discovered; and here a town is to be laid out, and the work of colonization to commence. Several advantages are expected to result from the choice of this situation for the main settlement. The easy communication with both islands is likely to be beneficial; and Cook's Straits is, moreover, the passage by which vessels returning from Australia by way of Cape Horn, or making the passage to the Bay of Islands, are accustomed to take. The plan of colonization adopted by the Company is similar to that put in practice in South Australia (see No. 12); and from the success which has attended it there, we augur favourably of its results in New Zealand. The first settlement is thus arranged. The site of the town will consist of eleven hundred acres, exclusive of portions marked out for general use; such as quays, streets, squares, and public gardens. The selected country lands will comprise one hundred and ten thousand acres. Their lands will be divided into eleven hundred sections, each section comprising one town acre and one hundred country acres. One hundred and ten sections will be reserved by the Company, who intend to distribute the same as private property amongst the chief families of the tribe, from which the lands shall have been originally purchased. The remainder being nine hundred and ninety sections of one hundred and one acres each, were offered for sale in sections, at the price of 1017. for each section, or 17. per acre, and speedily found purchasers, who received land orders. Priority of choice was determined by lot in London, one of the officers of the Company drawing for the section appropriated to the natives, and the choice is to be made on the spot. Twenty-five per cent. of the purchase-money is reserved for the expenses of the Company. The residue is set apart for the purposes of emigration`; and purchasers of land orders emigrating with the first colony were entitled to claim from the Company out of that fund an expenditure for their own passage, and that of their families and servants, equal to seventy-five per cent. of their purchase-money, according to regulations framed by the Company, with a view to confining the free passage to actual colonists. The remainder of the emigration fund is set apart for providing a free passage for young persons of the labouring class, and, as far as possible, of the two sexes in equal proportions. The Company offer a free passage to agricultural labourers, shepherds, miners, and those belonging to the several trades specified in their" Regulations," being actual labourers going out to work for wages in the colony, of sound mind and body, not less than fifteen nor more than thirty years of age, and married: preference being given to those under engage. ment to work for capitalists going out. The wives and children of emigrants are also taken out free, with the exception of children above one year, and not full seven years old, for each of whom three pounds is charged. A free passage is also offered to single women, provided they go out under the protection of their parents, or near relatives, or under actual engagement as servants to ladies going out as cabin passengers on board the same vessel. The preference being given to those accustomed to farm and dairy work, to sempstresses, straw-plaiters, and domestic servants. Persons not strictly entitled to be conveyed out by the emigration fund, if not disqualified on account of character, will, in the discretion of the directors, be allowed to accompany the free emigrants on paying to the Company the sum of 18. 15s. for every such adult person. At the beginning of the present year ten vessels had been despatched by the Company (one of them entirely devoted to the conveyance of machinery and other extra stores belonging to emigrants), and in all 1123 passengers, men, women, and children, were taken out. The spring will probably bring us accounts of the success they have met with; and we confess, for our own part, that we look for good tidings. Some peculiar advantages seem to attend New Zealand. The fruitful soil is well fitted for wheat; and in Australia is a market, now very inadequately supplied, and tions to negotiate with the chiefs for the general recognition of the authority of dependent in a great degree for that necessary article of food upon India. The native flax at once affords the staple of a valuable manufacture; the resort of shipping continually increas In August last, Government, stimulated no doubt by the active operations of the New Zealand Company, sent out a consul with orders to act in concert with the authorities of New South Wales, and furnished with somewhat vague instruc the British crown; to make purchases on behalf of the crown; and to prohibit British subjects from making for the future any purchases from the natives, restricting them to purchases from the crown. Such a proceeding, unaccompanied by any government plan of emigration, seems only calculated to check, instead of promoting, the prosperity of the islands; but as, before the arrival of this new envoy, the agents of the Company must have been at least four months in the country, they have in all probability secured a sufficient portion of land to permit them to carry out their schemes to their full extent. * Agricultural labourers, shepherds, miners, bakers, blacksmiths, braziers, and tinmen; smichs, shipwrights, boat-builders, wheelwrights, sawyers, cabinet-makers, carpenters, coopers, curriers, farriers, millwrights, harness-makers, boot and shoe makers, tailors, tanners, brick-makers, lime-burners, and all persons engaged in the erection of buildings. ing, gives an opening to commerce of a very extended nature, and will create a demand for supplies of all kinds; while the natural position of the islands makes them as it were the centre of communication for one half of the globe. Having now given as clear and succinct account of New Zealand, considered as an emigration field, as our limits permit, we proceed to fulfil the promise given to our correspondents, and say a few words on EMIGRATION generally. We have heretofore expressed our opinions on the subject on several occasions, and may especially refer our readers to the remarks we have made in the paper on "Emigration to Australia," in No. 12 of the LONDON SATURDAY JOURNAL; to papers on the same subject in Nos. 15, 42, and 49, and to one on Van Diemen's Land and Port Philip in No. 50. Some remarks concerning it are also to be found at the commencement of this article (in No. 54), and in some of our recent Letter Boxes. We have therefore little new to observe upon. In the first place, let us consider the peculiar character of the principal colonies which present themselves to the choice of the emigrant. Canada presents a field in which the emigrant capitalists, possessed of the knowledge requisite to succeed as agriculturists, of resolution equal to overcome the disappointment and hardships always incident to a settlement in a new country, and the total disruption of old habits, are pretty certain to succeed. The able-bodied agriculturai labourer finds there a ready demand for his services, and by steady, regular conduct, may look forward to establishing himself comfortably. But Canada does not hold out any temptation to those whose previous habits have not qualified them to endure much roughing, or whose knowledge of life has been confined to cities. The Cape of Good Hope affords a good lesson to the rash emigrant who flies from his native land to engage in speculations of whose nature he has failed to inform himself fully. Those who were by education fitted for a pastoral and agricultural life found their account in the enterprise; but many who expected that refined society, employ. ment for the artisan and the manufacturer, in fact, all the elements of a well-settled country, were to be found in the wilderness,— were woefully mistaken. Little encouragement is at present held out for emigration to the Cape. In Australia we find first the western settlement; a colony at first nearly ruined by a bad system of distributing the lands, but now beginning to revive. The dependence of this colony is upon flocks and herds; the population is necessarily scattered; and there is little encouragement for the artisan or the manufacturer to establish himself in the towns; nor do the infant commercial establishments as yet require a large number to carry them on. Passing on to Southern Australia, we find a settlement founded upon a very different system, but depending for its existence upon the same support as the western settlement. The degree of encouragement for artisans is apparently greater here than at Swan River; the growth of towns being quicker, trades receive more encouragement. But still, both Western and Southern Australia cannot be recommended to any emigrants who do not go out with a prior engagement, or intend to devote themselves, and feel equal to embracing a primitive and pastoral life. Sydney and Hobart Town are subject to the curse of a convict population; but notwithstanding this serious drawback, and the injury done to the latter colony by the injudicious manufacture of paper money (see No. 50), the extensive trade which is carried on in conjunction with the agricultural and pas toral facilities, render them both, viewed solely in relation to profit, very promising fields for emigrants. Of New Zealand we have already spoken fully its colonization is yet an experiment, and we can only form an opinion as to its probable success. drawback upon the improvement of society there, and therefore ORIGIN OF THE NAMES OF PLACES. NAMES have all some meaning when first imposed; and when a place is named for the first time by any people, they apply to it some term, in early times generally descriptive of its natural peculiarities, or something else on account of which it is remark. able, from their own language. When we find, therefore, that the old names of natural objects and localities in a country belong, for the most part, to a particular language, we may conclude with certainty that a people speaking that language formerly occupied the country. Of this the names they have so impressed are as sure a proof as if they had left a distinct record of their existence in words engraven on the rocks. Such old names of places often long outlive, both the people that bestowed them and nearly all the material monuments of their occupancy. The language, as a vehicle of oral communication, may gradually be forgotten, and be heard no more where it was once in universal use; and the old topographical nomenclature may still remain unchanged. Were the Irish tongue, for instance, utterly to pass away and perish in Ireland, as the speech of any portion of the people, the names o rivers and mountains, and towns and villages, all over the country, We have above given what we believe to be a pretty fair esti- would continue to attest that it had once been occupied by a race mate of the relative advantages of our several emigration fields; of Celtic descent. On the other hand, however, we are not and we now come to the question of who are the proper parties entitled to conclude, from the absence of any traces of their lanfor emigration, a question to which we cannot venture to give any guage in the names of places, that a race, which there is reason definite reply; so much must, in all cases, depend upon the pecu- for believing from other evidences to have anciently possessed the liar circumstances of the inquirer. The only real assistance we country, could not really have been in the occupation of it. A new can render to our friends, without running the risk of mislead- people coming to a country, and subjugating or dispossessing the ing them, is to furnish them with facts, which they, and not we, old inhabitants, sometimes change the names of places as well as of must apply to their particular case. If, after maturely weighing many other things. Thus, when the Saxons came over to this island, all the pros and cons, they find themselves equal to the task, and wrested the principal part of it from its previous possessors, they and possessed of an energy that is not likely to fail them at the seem, in the complete subversion of the former order of things pinch, let them go on and prosper; following this one golden which they set themselves to effect, to have everywhere substi rule, that the line of occupation they may fix upon as their main- tuted new names, in their own language, for those which the towns stay, should be that with which they are most familiar, and that and villages throughout the country anciently bore. On this their choice of a colony should be regulated accordingly. We account the topographical nomenclature of England has ever since have had several inquiries from young single men as to the eligi- been, to a large extent, Saxon; but that circumstance is not to be bility of their emigrating. The preponderance of the male over taken as proving that the country was first peopled by the Saxons. the female population in most, if not all, our colonies is a serious-Pictorial History of England. "SIR,-I shall feel much obliged to you if you can give me information respecting suitable employment for females. I have five daughters, whose ages vary from fifteen to twenty-four, who, during the lifetime of their dear and affectionate father, were educated in a manner suitable to their expectations. But, though they all have intelligence and tastes which fit them for a superior sphere of life (pardon a mother's vanity), they have also a degree of practical common sense which disposes them to try any means of adding to our limited income which would not expose them to degrading or unworthy associations. I cannot bring myself to permit them to go out as governesses; but could they not employ themselves at home in light or agreeable occupations, or manufacture, involv ing the exercise of taste and ingenuity, by which the independence of the workwoman might be attained, without the loss of that self-respect essential to the lady? I am, sir, &c., "A WIDOW." The subject of this letter is very interesting, but to answer it is difficult. Attention has been called to it, and suggestions have been made, such as that of ladies adopting the business of wooD- ENGRAVING. But there are obstacles in the way. It would appear, at first sight, easy and natural for an educated woman, having the taste and nice facility of hand requisite in wood-engraving, to receive employment from a large establishment, the work being comfortably done at one's own fire-side. This, however, could only be practised to a limited extent. Ladies who had no husband or brother to be their medium of constant communication-receiving instructions, procuring or returning work, &c.-would find themselves exposed to a daily annoyance or vexation only to be understood when practically undergone; and, the truth must be spoken, though females may be considered as being generally more delicately endowed, and though some ladies have acquired just reputation as engravers, it is found that, on the whole, they have less of that appreciable tact necessary and essential, and, therefore, they are far less capable of competing with those who are already too numerous for the work to be done. This want of business tact arises, probably, more from the home-bred nature of female education, than from want of natural or available capacity. Many instances occur in London of females resorting to employments usually reserved to men. Thus, in some watchmaker's shops, women may be seen occupied in the nice and delicate operations of the business. We are aware of an instance where the widow of a man, whose business was that of leathering the hammers of piano-fortes, was enabled to carry on the employment, and, in fact, to make herself better than during the lifetime of her husband, who was an intemperate fellow. But we shall be very much obliged to correspondents who will supply us with facts relative to employments for females, and thus enable us to enter upon the subject at large. We give the following as general heads on which we seek for information, but any particulars whatever relative to female employment will be welcome. 1. What is the nature of the employments for females in manufacturing towns -not including factory or mill-work-and what wages may they earn? Friends in Manchester, Glasgow, Paisley, &c., might give us practical and valuable information on this topic. 2. What wages are obtained by household servants in the provincial towns of England and Scotland? 3. Could females easily be enabled to acquire skill and facility in occupations usually left to men, such as those we have mentioned-watchmakers, pianofortemakers, &c., and also as designers or pattern-makers for manufactures, household furniture, &c. &c.? Early and accurate information on these points is particularly requested. 4. What employments can females resort to in provincial towns where no manufactures are carried on? As we have already mentioned, any other information-conveyed in a way calculated to inspire confidence-respecting employment for females, either in London or the country, will be received with pleasure. AMICUS." Having read in a newspaper of the extraordinary removal of a bog, which happened at Kanturk in Ireland on Christmas last, I could not understand how a body so large could be raised (of itself) into the air, and travel a number of miles, carrying along with it timber to the amount of 5001. If you could satisfactorily state how it is accomplished, you will oblige." the air and flew away with itself? Bogs frequently burst, especially after an excess of rainy weather. The waters underneath the boggy soil accumulate, and, having no vent, sometimes burst their embankment or inclosure, and the fluid and semi-fluid matter may be seen moving in one mass, and spreading over a large extent of adjoining country, covering arable land, and sweeping all before it. S. N., NORTHAMPTON." Why can a person at the bottom of a well see the stars at mid-day?"-We answer this in the words of Sir John Herschel, and recommend our correspondent to study that truly eminent man's plain and practical Treatise on Astronomy. "When the sun is above the horizon, it illuminates the atmosphere and clouds; and these again disperse and scatter a portion of light in all directions, so as to send some of its rays to every exposed point, from every point of the sky. The generally diffused light, therefore, which we enjoy in the daytime, is a phenomenon originating in the same causes as the twilight. Were it not for the reflective and scattering power of the atmosphere, no objects would be visible to us out of direct sunshine; every shadow of a passing cloud would be pitchy darkness; the stars would be visible all day; and every apartment, into which the sun had not direct admission, would be involved in nocturnal obscurity. . . . The stars continue visible through telescopes during the day as well as the night; and in proportion to the power of the instrument, not only the largest and brightest of them, but even those of inferior lustre, such as scarcely strike the eye at night as at all conspicuous, are readily found and followed even at noon-day-unless in that part of the sky which is very near the sun-by those who possess the means of pointing a telescope accurately to the proper places. Indeed, from the bottom of deep narrow pits, such as a well or the shaft of a mine, such bright stars as pass the zenith may even be discerned by the naked eye; and we have ourselves heard it stated by a celebrated optician, that the earliest circumstance which drew his attention to astronomy, was the regular appearance at a certain hour, for several successive days, of a considerable star, through the shaft of a chimney." G. C., SCARBOROUGH.-The solid framework of the body is made up of a number of separate pieces, the aggregate of which has been termed the skele ton, The bones are framed as a basis for the whole system, fitted to support, defend, and contain the more delicate and noble organs. They are the most permanent and unchangeable of all parts of the body. The bones also form points of attachment for the muscles, which are the active agents, or moving powers; whilst the bones are only passive. If we descend in the scale of animals, we find the skeleton becomes more simple, or rudimentary, until it is reduced to its fundamental part, the spine; and still lower down in the scaie, we find multitudes of animals altogether destitute of a skeleton, either internal or external, so that the muscular structure alone remains as the means of locomotion. The form and size of bones present a considerable variation: they are usually divided into long, short, and flat bones. The long or cylindrical ones belong, in general, to the parts intended for locomotion, and they represent so many levers, to be moved by the muscles in various directions-as, for instance, in the legs, arms, fingers, and toes. The short bones are usually situated in parts where solidity and firmness are required, combined with frec dom of motion, as in the spine. The flat or broad bones, for the most part, serve to form the walls of cavities, or to enclose spaces, as in the skull. The back-bone may be considered as the centre of the whole, both because it exists in all animals which possess an internal skeleton, and also because the different parts of the osseous system are, either immediately or mediately, connected with it. The number of pieces which compose the skeleton varies in the different ages of life; for some bones, which in the young subject are divided into several parts, become firmly united into one in old age; for, of all the systems of organs, the osseous is that which arrives latest at its full period of develop ment, the progress of ossification, or bone-making, not being fully completed, in the different parts of the skeleton, until about the sixteenth or eighteenth year, sometimes even later; thus allowing of the proper increase of the several parts of the body. The whole number of bones found in the ordinary skeleton are 197, as follows:-The spinal column (back bone) consists of 26 separate bones, called vertebræ (from vertere, to turn), because they turn one upon another. The skull and face are made up of 22; the ribs, 24, twelve on each side, with the sternum or breast-bone, 25. The two superior extremitiesnamely, the arms, hands, and bones of the shoulders, 64; the two inferior extremities-namely, the bones of the thigh, leg, and foot, 60. If a bone be steeped for some time in a dilute acid, the earthy salt, or inorganic part, is removed, leaving the cartilage, or organic part; and the bone becomes soft and flexible, but retains its form. The salts found in bones are phosphate and carbonate of lime, and phosphate of magnesia. The extremities of the bones forming joints, as in the knee and elbow, are covered with cartilage (or gristle), "Amicus" is rather green. Does he really imagine that the bog got up into and are joined together by strong bands of the same substance. We will give the spinal column as an example of this beautiful adaptation of parts. We have stated above, that it is composed of 26 separate bones, 24 of which are moveable, but the other two are not. Each of these 24 bones is moveable one upon another in any direction; but the motion allowed between each is necessarily small, which soon amounts to a considerable curve when a number are combined; and it is this combination of motions which prevents the spinal marrow from being pressed upon in any particular part, which would take place were there only one or two moveable points, from the sharp angles formed, and which would cause death, or at least palsy, of all the parts below the seat of pressure. The quantity of motion allowed is greater in some parts than in others; for instance, in the neck, which is frequently bent, and turned from side to side, the vertebræ are simple and not confined, easily moving one upon another; whereas, in the back, they are big and strong, and embarrassed by their connexions with the ribs; this is, therefore, the steadiest part of the spine, a very limited motion being allowed. Hardly can anything be more beautiful and surprising than this mechanism of the spine, where nature has established the most opposite and inconsistent functions in one set of bones;for they are so free in motion as to turn continually, so strong as to support the whole weight of the body, and so flexible as to turn quickly in all directions, yet so steady within as to contain, and defend, the most material and the most delicate part of the whole nervous system. A BUCKINGHAMSHIRE FARMER inquires about Cubic Nitre, or Nitrate of Soda, as a manure. This inquiry is not exactly in our "line;" but as we are glad to know that even one farmer reads the Journal, we will answer him so far as we can. From an advertisement issued by Mr. William Mitchell, dated from No. 12, Commercial Sale Rooms, Mincing-lane, we extract the following: -"Cubic Nitre, or Nitrate of Soda, has as yet been very partially used; last season, however, its properties began to be more fully known and better appreciated, and as the produce both from arable and pasture land, on which it had been used, far exceeded the most sanguine calculations, it will no doubt attract increasing attention. This article is imported from South America; it is more uniform in its strength than saltpetre, the alloy seldom exceeding more than from three to five per cent.; it is therefore sold without being subject to a refraction, and the precise weight is charged, not being liable to addition or subtraction." The price is, we believe, from 18s. Gd. to 19s. per cwt. Various other manures are advertised, as of superior efficacy:-" Owen's Animalised Carbon," "Clarke's Dessicated Compost," "Carbonised Humus," "Animalised Carbon," &c. A scientific farmer, Mr. Kimberley, Trotsworth, Egham, Surrey, advertises his "Trotsworth Liquid Manure," by which, he says, "an acre of land may be manured for one-fifth of the present expense, and equal to horse manure." We have received a letter from a DRAPER'S ASSISTANT, complaining of the tone of our remarks on his profession, and impugning the correctness of our information, in the article " Chances of Living in London." This, we believe, is the first complaint we ever received as to the spirit in which we write, and we are gratified to know that the great majority of our readers think very differently from our correspondent. As to our information, we relied on a most intelligent draper's assistant, well acquainted with London; and we are still inclined to think that his information is most trustworthy. All Letters intended to be answered in the LITERARY LETTER-Box are to be addressed to "THE EDITOR of the LONDON SATURDAY JOURNAL," and delivered FREE, at 113, Fleet-street. A PICTURE. I saw two children intertwine Like the lithe tendrils of a vine And ever and anon, As gaily they ran on, Each look'd into the other's face, Anticipating an embrace.-R. Monckton Milnes. THE FUTURE LIFE. If we are never again to live-if those we here loved are for ever lost to usif our faculties can receive no further expansion-if our mental powers are only trained and improved to be extinguished at their acme-then, indeed, are we reduced to the melancholy and gloomy dilemma of the Epicureans; and evil is confessed to checker, nay almost to cloud over, our whole lot, without the possibility of comprehending why, or of reconciling its existence with the supposition of a Providence at once powerful and good.-Lord Brougham. GOOD IN EVERYTHING. The man Who, in right spirit, communes with the forms No vengeance, and no hatred,-needs must fecl So deeply that, unsatisfied with aught He only knows by name; and if he hear, No feeling which can overcome his love.- Wordsworth. PREACHING. To preach to show the extent of our reading, or the subtleties of our wit-to parade it in the eyes of the vulgar, with the beggarly account of a little learning, tinselled over with a few words which glitter, but convey little light and less warmth-is a dishonest use of the poor single half-hour in a week which is put into our hands. 'T is not preaching the Gospel, but ourselves.-Sterne. THE VESUVIAN ALBUM. Two inscriptions, which I copied from the album, one by an Englishman and the other by a Hibernian, may serve as specimens of the style of writing which so strongly excited the censure of the French tourists ;-" John Hallett of the Port of Poole England, whent to see M Vesuvius on the 20th of October, 1823, hand I would Recomind anney person that go ther to take a bottle of wine with him, for it his a dry place and verrey bad roade.”—“ 1823. I have witnessed the famous Mountain of Vesuvius in Italy, and likewise the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland, which I prefer. They talk of their lava in a palaver I little understand, and as for the crater, give me a drop of the swait cratur of Dublin in preference. JAMES G."- Lady Blessington's Idler in Italy. A PURITAN SABBATH. Article 17. No one shall run on a Sabbath day, or walk in his garden, or elsewhere, except reverently to and from church. 18. No one shall travel. cook victuals, make beds, sweep houses, cut hair, or shave, on the Sabbath day. 19. No husband shall kiss his wife, aud no mother kiss her child, on the Sabbath day. Blue Laws of Connecticut. THE DEPTH OF DISTRESS. The following anecdote of the great Duke of Marlborough's pecuniary difficulties is given in Mrs. Thomson's Life of his Duchess. Writing on one occasion to a friend, he thus raises his lamentation :— "I beg pardon for troubling you with this, but I am in a very odd distress-—-too much ready money. I have now one hundred thousand pounds dead, and shall have fifty more next week; if you can employ it in any way, it will be a very great favour to me.'-Surely so strange a dilemma as that of having a hundred and fifty thousand pounds too much for one's peace of mind, and of being able to dispense with the interest of such a sum, is of rare occurrence." CHILDHOOD. The innocence of childhood is the tenderest, the sweetest, and not the least potent remonstrance against the vices and the errors of grown man, if he would but listen to the lesson, and take it to his heart. Seldom, too seldom, do we do so.-G. P. R. James. ENGLISH LADIES. The people of this kingdom are of genteel nature, and delicate constitution; most of the ladies, and females in general, are more delicate and refined than the blossom of roses. Their waist is more slender than a finger-ring-their form is beautiful, their voice gains the affections.-Journal of the Persian Princes. The VOLUMES of the LONDON SATURDAY JOURNAL may be had as follows:VOLUME I., containing Nos. 1 to 26, price 5s. 6d. in cloth. VOLUME II., containing Nos. 27 to 52, price 5s. Gd. in cloth. VOLUMES I. and II. bound together, containing the Numbers for 1839, price 10s. Gd in cloth. BACK NUMBERS and PARTS, to complete Sets, may always be obtained. London: WILLIAM SMITH, 113, Fleet Street. Edinburgh: FRASER and Co. Dublin: CURRY and Co.-Printed and Stereotyped by Bradbury and Evans, Whitefriars. LONDON SATURDAY JOURNAL. No. 60.] PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM SMITH, 113, FLEET STREET. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1840. CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS. ONCE, on a time, sages, "learned in the law," produced the authority of the Bible to justify atrocious modes of punishment; and because examples were to be found of persons being put to death in various revolting ways, they thought that the Bible sanctified the repetition of such deeds. That is so far past now: but still not a few persons are to be found who rest on Scripture as authority for capital punishments. Among the warnings and instructions given to Noah, on the subsidence of the Flood, occur the following words—“Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." This passage has long stood as the grand authority, or text, of all who contend that capital punishments cannot be altogether abrogated; and, accordingly, it has been quoted by learned writers, eloquent orators, grave judges, and reverend preachers, as conveying the universal sanction, to all future generations, of the LIFE-GIVER, to the taking away of life in the case of murder. Let us, therefore, look at the words. [PRICE TWOPENce. the Mosaic law. Things were permitted to the Jews, “because of the hardness of their hearts"-because of their ignorance, their incapacity, and their prejudices; and yet the Jews of our Saviour's time clung to all those temporary permissions and regulations of the Mosaic law, as if they were eternal. To return to the passage quoted from the book of Genesis. When we look at it, we distinctly see that the object is to enhance the value of human life-to make Noah and his family feel, that though before them was a moist wilderness, scarcely dry from the Flood, and where beasts might multiply, still they were not to be afraid, for they were under a divine protection. God also is giving to Noah and his descendants a distinct and a general permission to eat the flesh of animals-" every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you :" but lest this familiarity with the slaughtering of animals might engender a carelessness about the slaughtering of men, a warning is given, that human life is sacred, and far superior to the life of the beast. And to make this warning more effective and direct, God appeals to the LEX TALIONIS, the law or principle of retaliation, with which He has endowed the animal creation, and which man possesses in common with the brutes. All living creatures impulsively not only defend their own existence, but endeavour, as far as they can, to injure their assailants. This is a principle composed of conservation and destructiveness, and the beasts exercise it as they exercise their other appetites. Reader, have you read the words, and have you considered Man, by being an animal, is endowed with it, as he is endowed them? Then, do you not see, that IF-we say IF-this be a with other animal faculties: but being also a reasoning and command from God to punish the murderer with death, the man accountable creature, all his impulses or appetites are supposed to and the beast are placed on the same moral footing? the crime is be under the control of his reason. To this, therefore, the appeal the same in both, and both are amenable to the same law ;-"at the is made : "Whoso shed deth man's blood," let him beware; hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man." for by the vengeance of his fellow-man shall his blood be shed; The lion or tiger who tears, the bear who hugs, or the bull that human life is sacred, and human nature is endowed with a retaligores, a human being to death, are, in the eye of this law—if it beating propensity; "Whoso sheddeth man's blood," let him After forbidding the use of blood, it is said-" Surely, your blood of your lives will I require: at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man." beware of the AVENGERr of blood. The avenger of blood belongs to a rude and primitive, or else unsettled state of society. Before government is shaped into a law as much murderers as Cain was when he slew his brother Abel. Nay, more, if all who shed man's blood are to have their blood shed, the law applies with as much force to the executioner as to the murderer. There is no escape from this conclusion. "Inform-before men can understand the idea of a police, or feel the the image of God made He man," therefore, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed," whether that "whoso" be a lion, a tiger, a bull, a human being, or a hangman. But, in truth, there is not in the whole Bible-no, not from Genesis to Revelations—a single passage which can be honestly construed, as giving a general authority from God for taking away human life. The reverse is distinctly the case. But God deals with human beings as they are, with the view of ultimately making them what they ought to be; and as, in the infancy of human intellect, the immutable and everlasting God descended to the level of infant men, and spoke of HIMSELF as being angry, pleased, and as moved by feelings analogous to the changing and variable feelings of men; so, in the infancy of human institutions, and the incapacity of men to rise to larger and general principles, practices were permitted which would never have been permitted had man been more advanced. Our Saviour distinctly tells us, that this principle of accommodation to human weakness pervaded VOL. III. majesty that can be given to a prohibition, the protection of life is in the hands of every individual. Hence sprang up that system of individual protection which exists at this hour amongst the Arabs, and animated the North American Indians, by which the nearest kinsman of a slaughtered man was bound in honour to avenge the deed. This was the first rude form of protection in the social life of the Jews. Men in a rude and ignorant state care little for the life and sufferings of their fellows, however much they may value their own. This principle of self-protection was an appeal to that only effectual feeling in savage existence-the feeling of self-preservation acted on by fear. The man who might have scorned a law forbidding him to kill, would nevertheless pause if he felt that his own life would be in danger for the deed. We may see this sometimes illustrated in domestic life. A mother all unable to philosophise on the subject, may yet check the vicious propensities of a young child, by appealing through its feeling to its yet unformed sense of right and wrong. We have Bradbury and Evans Printers, Whitefriars I |