that there is no country in the world, (take the year | throughout,) where men can live so much out of doors, as in Great Britain. In a valuable work, lately published*, we are told that it has been ascertained by returns,

"That the mortality of Great Britain, its cities, and its hospitals, is greatly inferior to that of any other country in Europe, that it is incontestable that Great Britain is at present the most healthy country with which we are acquainted; and that it has been gradually tending to that point for the last fifty years."-" This superior value of life in Great Britain, is not confined to any particular districts or classes of individuals. To whatever point we turn our view, the advantage is still the same: the man of affluence, the pauper-patient of the hospital, the sailor and the soldier on active service, the prisoner of war, the inmate of a gaol, all enjoy a better tenure of existence from this country than from any other of which we have been able to consult the records. It has been long the fashion, both abroad and at home, to exhaust every variety of reproach on the climate of our country, and particularly on the atmosphere of London; and yet we shall find that the most famed spots in Europe, the places which have long been selected as the resort of invalids, and the fountains of health, are far more fatal to life than even this great metropolis. The annual proportion of deaths at Montpelier, was greater thirty years ago, and is greater at present, than in London.

"The annual deaths on the average throughout England and Wales are nearly 1 in 60. The country which approaches most nearly to us is the Pays de Vaud; where the mortality is 1 in 49. In France one inhabitant dies annually in 40, a proportion precisely similar to that of London. The kingdoms of Prussia and Naples range between 33 and 35. The annual mortality of Nice, though a small town, and reputed salubrious, is 1 in 31; Naples, 1 in 28; Leghorn, 1 in 35. We instance those places as being the frequent resort of invalids, but how astonishing is the superiority of England, when we compare with these, even our great manufacturing towns of Manchester, Birmingham, &c."-" If we take the great Cities of Europe, their inferiority to London in respect to the value of life is equally pointed." In London, as before observed, the annual deaths average 1 in 40; in Paris 1 in 32: Lyons, Strasburg, Barcelona, the same. In Berlin 1 in 34; Madrid 1 in 29; Rome 1 in 25; Amsterdam 1 in 24; Vienna 1 in 224. We perceive that the inhabitant of London has thus almost a two-fold advantage in this respect."

An Englishman cannot surely read this statement without a grateful feeling-fancied evils, when anticipated, should be met by the recollection of positive blessings-if this feeling were more common, we should be convinced that God hath dealt more graciously towards us than to any other nation on the face of the globe. There would be less "complaining in our streets," and hopes might be indulged, that such blessings would be mercifully continued to us and to our children.

M.

Elements of Medical Statistics, by F. B. Hawkins, M. D.

ARABIAN HOSPITALITY.

way,

HAJJI BEN HASSUNA, a chief of a party of the Bey's
(of Tripoli) troops, pursued by Arabs lost his
and was benighted near the enemy's camp. Passing
the door of a tent which was open, he stopped his
horse and implored assistance, being exhausted with
fatigue and thirst. The warlike Arab bid his enemy
enter his tent with confidence, and treated him with
all the respect and hospitality for which his people
are so famous. The highest among them, like the
Patriarchs of old, wait on their guest. A man of rank
when visited by a stranger, quickly fetches a lamb
from his flock and kills it, and his wife superintends
her women in dressing it in the best manner.

With some of the Arabs, the primitive custom (so often spoken of in the Bible,) of washing the feet, is yet adopted, and this compliment is performed by the head of the family. Their supper was the best of the fatted lamb roasted; their dessert, dates and dried fruit; and the Arab's wife, to honour more particularly

her husband's guest, set before him a dish of "boseen" of her own making. This was a preparation of flour and water kneaded into a paste, which being half baked was broken into pieces and kneaded again with new milk, oil, and salt, and garnished with "kadeed," or mutton, dried and salted in the highest manner. Though these two chiefs were opposed in war, they talked with candour and friendship to each other, recounting the achievements of themselves and their ancestors, when a sudden paleness overspread the countenance of the host. He started from his seat and retired, and in a few moments afterwards sent word to his guest that his bed was prepared, and all things ready for his repose; that he was not well himself, and could not attend to finish the repast; that he had examined the Moor's horse, and found it too much exhausted to bear him through a hard journey the next day, but that before sunrise an able horse with every accomodation would be ready at the door of the tent, where he would meet him and expect him to depart with all speed. The stranger, not able to account farther for the conduct of his host, retired to rest.

An Arab waked him in time to take refreshment before his departure, which was ready prepared for him; but he saw none of the family, till he perceived, on reaching the door of the tent, the master of it holding the bridle of his horse, and supporting his stirrups for him to mount, which is done among the Arabs as the last office of friendship. No sooner was Hajji mounted than his host announced to him, that through the whole of the enemy's camp he had not so great an enemy to dread as himself. "Last night," said he, "in the exploits of your ancestors you discovered to me the murderer of my father. There lie all the habits he was slain in," (which were at that moment brought to the door of the tent), "over which in the presence of my family, I have many times sworn to revenge his death, and to seek the blood of his murderer from sunrise to sunset. The sun has not yet risen:-the sun will be no more than risen, when I pursue you, after you have in safety quitted my tent, where, fortunately for you, it is against our religion to molest you after your having sought my protection, and found a refuge there; but all my obligations cease as soon as we part, and from that moment you must consider me as one determined on your destruction, in whatever part, or at whatever distance we may meet again. You have not mounted a horse inferior to the one that stands ready for myself; on its swiftness surpassing that of mine depends one of our lives, or both."

After saying this, he shook his adversary by the hand and parted from him. The Moor, profiting by the few moments he had in advance, reached the Bey's army in time to escape his pursuer, who followed him closely, as near the enemy's camp as he could with safety. This was certainly a striking trait of hospitality, but it was no more than every Arab and every Moor in the same circumstances would do.-TULLY'S Residence at Tripoli.

THE COCKFIGHTER'S GARLAND.

THE TAILOR BIRD.

as

HAD Providence left the feathered tribe unendowed with any particular instinct, the birds of the torrid zone would most likely have built their nests in the same unguarded manner those of Europe; but there the lesser species, having a certain foresight of the dangers that surround them, and of their own weakness, suspend their nests at the extreme branches of the trees; they are conscious of inhabiting a country filled with enemies to them and their youngwith snakes that twine up the bodies of the trees,

and apes that are perpetually in search of prey; but, by the instinct with which they have been endowed, they elude the gliding of the one and the activity of the other.

An Indian forest is a scene the most picturesque that can be imagined; the trees seem perfectly animated; the fantastic monkeys give life to the stronger branches, and the weaker sprays wave over your head, charged with musical and various-plumed inhabitants. It is an error to say that nature hath denied melody to the birds of hot climates, and formed them only to please the eye with their gaudy plumage. Ceylon abounds with birds equal in song to those of Europe, which warble among the leaves of trees, grotesque in their appearance, and often laden with the most delicious and salubrious fruit. Birds of the richest colours cross the glades, and troops of peacocks complete the charms of the scene, spreading their plumes to a sun that has ample powers to do them justice. The landscape, in many parts of India, corresponds with the beauties of the living creation: the mountains are lofty, steep, and broken, but clothed with forests, and enlivened with cataracts of a grandeur and figure unknown to this part of the globe.

But to give the reverse of this enchanting prospect, which it is impossible to enjoy with a suitable tranquillity, you are harassed in one season with a burning heat, or in the other with deluges of rain; you are tormented with clouds of noxious insects; you dread the spring of the tiger, or the mortal bite of the naja (a species of venomous snake).

The brute creation are more at enmity with one another than in other climates; and the birds are obliged to exert unusual artifice in placing their little broods out of the reach of an invader. Each aims at the same end, though by different means. Some form their hanging nest in shape of a purse, deep, and open at the top; others with a hole in the side; and others, still more cautious, with an entrance at the very bottom, forming their lodge near the summit. But the little species we describe seems to have greater diffidence than any of the others: it will not trust its nest even to the extremity of a slender twig, but makes one more advance to safety by fixing it to the leaf itself. It picks up a dead leaf, and, surprising to relate, sews it to the side of a living one, its slender bill being its needle, and its thread some fine fibres; the lining-feathers, gossamer, and down. Its eggs are white; the colour of the bird, light yellow; its length, three inches; its weight only three-sixteenths

[NOVEMBER 3

of an ounce ;- -so that the materials of the nest, and its own size, are not likely to draw down a habitation that depends on so slight a tenure.

The leaf in the print is that of the mango tree. A nest of this bird is preserved in the British Museum, -PENNANT'S Indian Zoology.

The Chimpanse.

The Chimpansés are less numerous than the other apes, but it is not altogether improbable that they count appears in a "Voyage performed by Hanno, were known to the ancients, as the following acsix years previous to the Christian era." Ile met some a Carthaginian admiral, three hundred and thirty

Africa. "There were many more females than males, of these animals in an island on the western coast of all equally covered with hair on all parts of the body. The interpreters called them gorillés. On pursuing them, we could not succeed in taking a single male; they all escaped with astonishing swiftness, and threw stones at us; but we took three lence, that we were obliged to kill them, but we females, who defended themselves with so much viobrought their skins, stuffed with straw, to Carthage."

hairs, which are not so thick on the front as on the The Chimpansé is covered with black or brown back, and, if the relation of travellers is to be believed, frequently grows to a size surpassing that of a

man.

THE RIDER NOT ALWAYS WISER THAN HIS HORSE. TWO gentlemen were riding together, one of whom, who was very choleric, happened to be mounted on a very high-mettled horse. The horse grew a little troublesome, at which the rider became very angry, and whipped and spurred him with great fury. The horse, almost as wrongheaded as his The companion, concerned for the danger, and ashamed of master, returned his treatment with kicking and plunging. the folly of his friend, said to him, coolly, "Be quiet, and show yourself the wiser creature of the two."

THE SWEET PEA.-(Lathyrus odoratus.) WE have much pleasure in introducing to our friends so pretty a group of their favourite acquaintances,varieties of the ever-admired Sweet Pea. This is one amongst other annual beauties, which never tires by its presence.

The Sweet Pea.

The purple variety is believed to be native of Sicily; the pink and white, or painted-lady, of Ceylon. The combination of their colours is variable, and some are called striped, but they have more the appearance of shadings in chalk, which rather diminishes than increases their beauty. Their formation, as well as that of other papilionaceous flowers, should not be neglected. The family is called papilionaceous from papilio, the systematic name of the butterfly, which their blossoms somewhat resemble.

LIBERIA.

NO. II.

THE climate of Liberia was thought at first to be unhealthy; but experience has shown, as might have been expected, that it is not unsuited to the constitution of persons descended from Africans. White men cannot live there. We perhaps should not be sorry for this, when we think of the many injuries which the blacks have suffered from the whites. The experiment will now be tried, whether negroes, when left to themselves, cannot make as great advances in civil and social life as the natives of Europe or Asia. There are at present only two white men in the colony, the governor, who is an American, and the physician. It is probable, that in a few years they will have a governor of their own nation; and a black physician is now being educated: so that they will not want any assistance from the whites.

The soil is rich, and will produce quite enough for the support of the colony, as well as for carrying on a trade with other nations. Sugar, cotton, coffee, rice, and various trees and plants, yielding valuable dyes and medicinal gums, can be cultivated with success. A trading company has been formed at Monrovia, with a capital of 4000 dollars; and an agreement entered into, that no dividend shall be made until the profits increase the capital to 20,000 dollars. The stock has risen from fifty to seventy-five dollars per share in one year. There are already some vessels belonging to the colony, and ships of other countries have touched at the port of Monrovia. There is an account of seventeen vessels having gone to or froin the port in one month, so that it may be said to have already made a good beginning as a commercial country. We may hope that it is now safe from any fear of attack from the neighbouring tribes; but it is right Those who have not examined this flower should that all proper measures should be taken for meeting do so. The seed parts, which require protection, are dangers of this kind; and the following account, securely enclosed in the central or lower petal, which was written by a person who visited the colony called the keel, from its resemblance to the keel of in 1830, may interest those persons who are fond of a boat. Over this is placed a little roof, as a shelter military affairs :-" The means the colony have for from rain, composed of two other petals, placed defence at present, consist of twenty pieces of ordin a sloping direction, which are called the wings. nance, and muskets, &c. for 1000 men, which may Human wisdom would have stopped here, as having be increased from private stores, if wanted. effected sufficient, for the purpose; for man's best in- Monrovia there are Captain Steward's company of tentions seldom carry his exertions beyond the point infantry, Weaver's company of artillery, and Draper's he believes to be requisite; and even in that degree company of rifle rangers; in Caldwell, Davis' comof perfection he is usually deficient. But not so the pany of infantry, and Brown's artillery; in Millswisdom and unbounded beneficence of the Divine burg, White's company of rifle rangers. All these Being. His care exceeds our conceptions. Even in are volunteers, and in uniform; beside which, a the flower before us, the very wind is debarred from respectable number of militia, not in uniform, and as ruffling its beauty, or disturbing its operations. Over many of the natives, under the protection of the cothe wings, as previously noticed, is erected a single lonial government, as it may think proper to arm. broad petal, called the standard or banner. The There is a respectable fort on Cape Montserado, which whole flower is raised by a long flower-stalk, to which commands the roadstead, and has protected an Engit is attached by a short, soft, and flexible pedicle or lish vessel chased in by a pirate." secondary flower-stalk. Thus elevated, the Sweet Pea blossom becomes a vane. The rude blast that would injure it, blowing on its standard, turns it from the wind, and preserves it from harm.

We now, concisely, state our culture and produce. Seeds sown in October, in a rich light soil, and warm situation. In June the plants were nine feet high, clothed in a mingled blaze of blossom. The produce, within a space of little more than five square yards, is 7825 pods.-MAUND'S Botanic Garden.

LINES ON A SPRING.

Gentle Reader, see in me
An emblem of true charity:
That while my bounty I bestow,

I'm neither heard, nor seen to flow;

And I have fresh supplies from heaven

For every cup of water given.-BP. HOADLY.

In

These, however, are very inferior considerations, when compared with the moral and religious condition of the inhabitants; and it is in this point of view that Liberia appears of such great interest to the Christian. It is impossible to cast our eyes over the vast continent of Africa, without thinking of the millions of human beings who are without the blessings of Christianity. We cannot doubt that God in his own good time will call them into the fold of his beloved Son; but it pleases him to employ human means in propagating the Gospel; and the benighted nations of Africa never had a fairer prospect of being visited by the light than when a settlement of free negroes was made in Liberia. The glorious work has in fact begun places of Christian worship are now open every Sunday, on the same spot where slaves were sold but a few years before: schools are esta

blished, to which, as we have already mentioned, the | ing about the barrenness of this country! they are neighbouring blacks are anxious to send their chil- the observations of such ignorant or designing men dren. Two native kings have put themselves and as would injure both it and you. A more fertile soil, their subjects (supposed to amount to ten thousand) and a more productive country, so far as it is cultiunder the protection of the colony, and are ready, vated, there is not, we believe, on the face of the should it be thought necessary or expedient by the earth. Its hills and its plains are covered with a settlers, to put arms into their hands, to make com- verdure which never fades; the productions of nature mon cause with them in case of hostilities by any of keep on in their growth through all the seasons of the natives; which, however, is not anticipated, as the year. Even the natives of the country, almost the most friendly disposition is manifested by all the without farming tools, without skill, and with very natives of the country from whom any danger might little labour, make more grain and vegetables than have been apprehended. In this way, religion and they can consume, and often more than they can civilization will gradually spread into the interior of sell. Cattle, swine, fowls, ducks, goats and sheep, Africa. Our own commerce and manufactures will thrive without feeding, and require no other care than be likely to reap the benefit; and it is interesting to to keep them from straying. Cotton, coffee, indigo, us, as Englishmen, to think that the English lan- and the sugar-cane, are all the spontaneous growth guage, which is already spoken by many millions in of our forests, and may be cultivated at pleasure, to America and India, has thus established itself also on any extent, by such as are disposed. The same may the western coast of Africa. be said of rice, Indian corn, Guinea corn, millet, and too many species of fruits and vegetables to be enumerated. Add to all this, we have no dreary winter here, for one half of the year to consume the productions of the other half. We could say more on this subject; but we are afraid of exciting too highly the hopes of the imprudent. It is only the industrious and the virtuous that we can point to independence, and plenty, and happiness, in this country; such people are nearly sure to attain, in a very few years, to a style of comfortable living which they may in vain hope for in the United States; and however short we come of this character ourselves, it is only a due acknowledgment of the bounty of Divine Providence, to say that we generally enjoy the good things of this life to our entire satisfaction.

A printing-press has been set up at Monrovia, and the first number of a newspaper, called the Liberia Herald, appeared in March, 1830. The object of this publication can best be told in its own words :-" Our principal aim will be the publication of the most interesting domestic and foreign occurrences of the day-the arrival and departure of vessels-dissertations on the manners and customs of the surrounding natives and essays on subjects which shall have a tendency to cement more closely the bonds of society, and to uphold the hands of the lawful authorities." The desire for newspapers has not yet risen to a great height in the colony, since they are satisfied with having it printed once a month; but we have seen nothing in the few numbers which have yet appeared, which any person might be ashamed either to read or to have written.

Our account of the colony may be concluded by the following extracts from an address, which was drawn up, in 1827, by the citizens of Monrovia, and sent to the free people of colour in the United States: "Forming a community of our own in the land of our forefathers-having the commerce, and soil, and resources of the country at our disposal-we know nothing of that debasing inferiority with which our very colour stamped us in America: there is nothing here to create a feeling of inferiority on our part-nothing to cherish the feeling of superiority in the minds of foreigners who visit us. It is this moral emancipation-this liberation of the mind from worse than iron fetters-that repays us ten thousand times over for all that it has cost us, and makes us grateful to God and our American patrons for the happy change which has taken place in our situation.

"The true character of the African climate is not well understood in other countries. Its inhabitants are as robust, as healthy, as long-lived, to say the least, as those of any other country. Nothing like an epidemic has ever appeared in this colony; nor can we learn from the natives, that the calamity of a sweeping sickness ever yet visited this part of the continent. In the early years of the colony, want of good houses, the great fatigues and dangers of the settlers, their irregular mode of living, and the hardships and discouragements they met with, greatly helped the other causes of sickness, which prevailed to an alarming extent, and were attended with great | mortality. But we look back to those times as to a season of trial long past, and nearly forgotten. Our houses and circumstances are now comfortable; and for the last two or three years, not one person in forty from the middle and southern states has died from the change of climate.

"Away with all the false notions that are circulat

"Our trade is chiefly confined to the coast, to the interior parts of the continent, and to foreign vessels; it is already valuable, and fast increasing; it is carried on in the productions of the country, consisting of rice, palm oil, ivory, tortoise-shell, dye woods, gold, hides, wax, and a small amount of coffee; and it brings us, in return, the products and manufactures of the four quarters of the world. Seldom indeed is our harbour clear of European and American shipping; and the bustle and thronging of our streets show something already of the activity of the smaller sea-ports of the United States. Not a child or youth in the colony but is provided with an appropriate school. We have a numerous public library, and a court-house, meeting-houses, school-houses, and fortifications, sufficient or nearly so for the colony in its present state. Our houses are constructed of the same materials, and finished in the same style, as in the towns of America. We have abundance of good building stone, shells for lime, and clay of an excellent quality for bricks. Timber is plentiful of various kinds, and fit for all the different purposes of building and fencing.

"Truly we have a goodly heritage; and if there is any thing lacking in the character or condition of the people of this colony, it never can be charged to the account of the country; it must be the fruit of our own mismanagement, or slothfulness, or vices; but from these evils we confide in Him to whom we are indebted for all our blessings to preserve us. the topic of our weekly and daily thanksgiving to Almighty God both in public and in private, and He knows with what sincerity, that we were ever conducted by His providence to this shore. Such great favours in so short a time, and mixed with so few trials, are to be ascribed to nothing but His special blessing: this we acknowledge: we only want the gratitude which such signal favours call for." E. B.