nothing better to urge against it than the multitude and | itself afford the slightest presumption that a writer is goodness of the roads we have already? No: when in the engaged in any thing blamable. If his attack is only character of a serious bar to the measure in hand, be that directed against that which is bad in each, his efforts measure what it may, an argument so palpably inapplicable | is employed, it can only be for the purpose of creating a diversion;-of turning aside the minds of men from the subject really in hand, to a picture which, by its beauty, it is hoped, may engross the attention of the assembly, and make them forget for the moment for what purpose they came there.'-(pp. 196, 197.)

The Quietist, or no Complaint.-A new law or measure being proposed in the character of a remedy for some in contestable abuse or evil, an objection is frequently started to the following effect:The measure is unnecessary. Nobody complains of disorder in that shape, in which it is the aim of your measure to propose a remedy to it. But even when no cause of complaint has been found to exist, especially under governments which admit of complaints, men have in general not been slow to complain: much less where any just cause of complaint has existed." The argument amounts to this:-Nobody complains, therefore nobody suffers. It amounts to a veto on all measures of precaution or prevention, and goes to establish a maxim in legislation directly opposed to the most ordinary prudence of common life;-it enjoins us to build no parapets to a bridge till the number of accidents has raised an universal

clamour.'-pp. 190, 191.)

Procrastinator's Argument." Wait a little, this is not the time."

may be productive of good to any extent. This essential distinction, however, the defender of abuses uniformly takes care to keep out of sight; and boldly imputes to his antagonists an intention to subvert all government, lau, morals, and religion. Propose any thing with a view to the improvement of the existing practice, in relation to law, government, and religion, he will treat you with an oration upon the necessity and utility of law, government, and religion. Among the several cloudy appellatives which have been commonly employed as cloaks for misgovernment, there is none more conspicuous in this atmosphere of illusion than the word order. As often as any measure is brought forward which has for its object to lessen the sacrifice made by the many to the few, social order is the phrase commonly opposed to its progress.

factitious delay, vexation, and expense, out of which, and By a defalcation made from any part of the mass of in proportion to which, lawyers' profit is made to flow-by any defalcation made from the mass of needless and worse

than useless emolument to office, with or without service or pretence of service-by any addition endeavoured to be made to the quantity, or improvement in the quality of return for such emolument--by every endeavour that has service rendered, or time bestowed in service rendered in for its object the persuading the people to place their fate at the disposal of any other agents than those in whose hands breach of trust is certain, due fulfilment of it morally and physically impossible-social order is said to be endangered, and threatened to be destroyed.,-(p. 234.)

In the same way establishment is a word in use to protect the bad parts of establishments, by charging those who wish to remove or alter them, with a wish to subvert all good establishments.

Mischievous fallacies also circulate from the con

at the same time, attach some adjunct of the dyslogistic cast, such as violent, intemperate, extravagant, outrageous, theoretical, speculative, and so forth.

bation is attached is an empty species—a species in which no individual is, or is intended to be, contained.

The species to which his disapprobation is attached is, on the contrary, a crowded species, a receptacle in which the whole contents of the genus of the genus Reform are intended to included.-(pp. 277, 278.)

Noodle's Oration.

'What would our ancesters say to this, sir? How Thus, then, in profession and to appearance, there are in does this measure tally with their institutions? How his conception of the matter two distinct and opposite species does it agree with their experience? Are we to put of reform, to one of which his approbation, to the other his dis- the wisdom of yesterday in competition with the wisapprobation is attached. But the species to which his appro-dom of centuries? (Hear, hear!) Is beardless youth to show no respect for the decisions of mature age?. |(Loud cries of hear! hear!) If this measure is right, would it have escaped the wisdom of those Saxon pro genitors to whom we are indebted for so many of our best political institutions? Would the Danes have passed it over? Would the Norman have rejected it? Anti-rational Fallacies-When reason is in opposi- Would such a notable discovery have been reserved tion to a man's interests, his study will naturally be for these modern and degenerate times? Besides, to render the faculty itself, and whatever issues from sir, if the measure itself is good, I ask the honourable it, an object of hatred and contempt. The sarcasm gentlemen if this is the time for carrying it into exeand other figures of speech employed on the occasion cution-whether, in fact, a more unfortunate period are directed not merely against reason but against could have been selected than that which he has cho thought, as if there were something in the faculty of sen? If this were an ordinary measure, I should not thought that rendered the exercise of it incompatible with useful and successful practice. Sometimes a plan, which would not suit the official person's interest, is without more ado pronounced a speculative one; and, by this observation, all need of rational and deliberate discussion is considered to be superseded. The first effort of the corruptionist is to fix the epithet speculative upon any scheme which he thinks may cherish the spirit of reform. The expression is hailed with the greatest delight by bad and feeble men, and repeated with the most unwearied energy; and, to the word speculative, by way of reinforcement, are added, theoretical, visionary, chimerical, romantic, Utopian.

Sometimes a distinction is taken, and thereupon a concession made. The plan is good in theory, but it would be bad in practice i. e., its being good in theory does not hinder its being bad in practice.

'Sometimes, as if in consequence of a farther progress made in the art of irrationality, the plan is pronounced to be too good to be practicable; and its being so good as it is, is thus represented as the very cause of its being bad in practice. In short, such is the perfection at which this art is at length arrived, that the very circumstance of a plan's being susceptible of the appellation of a plan, has been gravely stated as a circumstance sufficient to warrant its being rejected, if not with hatred, at any rate with a sort of accompaniment, which to the million is commonly felt still more galling-with contempt.'-(p.296.)

oppose it with so much vehemence; but, sir, it calls in question the wisdom of an irrevocable law-a law passed at the memorable period of the Revolution. What right have we, sir, to break down this firm column, on which the great men of that day stampt a character of eternity? Are not all authorities against this measure, Pitt, Fox, Cicero, and the Attorney and Solicitor General? The proposition is new, sir; it is the first time it was ever heard in this house. I am not prepared, sir-this house is not prepared, to receive it. The measure implies a distrust of his majesty's government; their disapproval is sufficient to warrant opposition. Precaution only is requsite where danger is apprehended. Here the high character of the individual in question is a sufficient guarantee against any ground of alarm. Give not, then, your sanction to this measure; for, whatever be its character, if you do give your sanction to it, the same man by whom this is proposed, will propose to you others to which it will be impossible to give your consent. I care very little, sir, for the ostensible measure; but what is there behind? What are the honourable gentleman's future schemes? If we pass this bill, what fresh concessions may he not require? What farther degrada tion is he planning for his country? Talk of evil and inconvenience, sir! look to other countries-study other aggregations and societies of men, and then see There is a propensity to push theory too far; but whether the laws of this country demand a remedy, what is the just inference? not that theoretical pro- or deserve a panegyric. Was the honourable gentle. positions (ie., all propositions of any considerable man (let me ask him) always of this way of thinkcomprehension or extent) should, from such their ex-ing? Do I not remember when he was the advocate tent, be considered to be false in toto, but only that, in this house of very opposite opinions? I not only in the particular case, inquiry should be made whe- quarrel with his present sentiments, sir, but I declare ther, supposing the proposition to be in the character very frankly I do not like the party with which he of a rule generally true, an exception ought to be acts. If his own motives were as pure as possible, taken out of it. It might almost be imagined that they cannot but suffer contamination from those with there was something wicked or unwise in the exercise whom he is politically associated. This measure may of thought; for every body feels a necessity for dis- be a boon to the constitution, but I will accept no faclaiming it. I am not given to speculation; I am vour to the constitution from such hands. (Loud cries no friend to theories.' Can a man disclaim theory, of hear! hear!) I profess myself, sir, an honest and can he disclaim speculation, without disclaiming upright member of the British Parliament, and I am thought? not afraid to profess myself an enemy to all change, The description of persons by whom this fallacy is and all innovation. I am satisfied with things as they chiefly employed are those who, regarding a plan as are; and it will be my pride and pleasure to hand down adverse to their interests, and not finding it on the this country to my children as I received it from those ground of general utility exposed to any predominant who preceded me. The honourable gentleman preobjection, have recourse to this objection in the char- tends to justify the severity with which he has atacter of an instrument of contempt, in the view of pre- tacked the noble lord who presides in the Court of venting those from looking into it who might have Chancery. But I say such attacks are pregnant with been otherwise disposed. It is by the fear of seeing mischief to government itself. Oppose ministers, you it practised that they are drawn to speak of it as im- oppose government: disgrace ministers, you disgrace practicable. Upon the face of it (exclaims some fee-government: bring ministers into contempt, you bring ble or pensioned gentleman), it carries that air of government into contempt; and anarchy and civil war plausibility, that if you were not upon your guard, are the consequences. Besides, sir, the measure is might engage you to bestow more or less of attention unnecessary. Nobody complains of disorder in that upon it; but were you to take the trouble, you would find that (as it is with all these plans which promise so much), practicability would at last be wanting to it. To save yourself from this trouble, the wisest course you can take is to put the plan aside, and to think no more about the matter.' This is always accompanied with a peculiar grin of triumph.

The whole of these fallacies may be gathered togeer in a little oration, which we will denominate the

shape in which it is the aim of your measure to propose a remedy to it. The business is one of the greatest importance; there is need of the greatest caution and circumspection. Do not let us be precipitate, sir; it is impossible to foresee all consequences. Every thing should be gradual; the example of a neighbour. ing nation should fill us with alarm? The honourable gentleman has taxed me with illiberality, sir. I deny the charge. I hate innovation, but I love improve

a dislike to the regular form of a journal, he throws his travels into detached pieces, which he, rather affectedly, calls Wanderings-and of which we shall proceed to give some account.

His first Wandering was in the year 1812, through the wilds of Demerara and Essequibo, a part of ci-devant Dutch Guiana, in South America. The sun exhausted him by day, the musquitoes bit him by night; but on went Mr. Charles Waterton!

ment. I am an enemy to the corruption of government, but I defend its influence. I dread reform, but I dread it only when it is intemperate. I consider the liberty of the press as the great palladium of the constitution, but, at the same time, I hold the licentiousness of the press in the greatest abhorrence. Nobody is more conscious than I am of the splendid abilities of the honourable mover, but I tell him at once, his scheme is too good to be practicable. It savours of Utopia. It looks well in theory, but it won't do in The first thing which strikes us in this extraordinapractice. It will not do, I repeat, sir, in practice; and ry chronicle, is the genuine zeal and inexhaustible deso the advocates of the measure will find, if, unfortu- light with which all the barbarous countries he visits nately, it should find its way through Parliament.- are described. He seems to love the forests, the ti(Cheers.) The source of that corruption to which the gers, and the apes;-to be rejoiced that he is the only honourable member alludes, is in the minds of the man there; that he has left his species far away; people; so rank and extensive is that corruption, that and is at last in the midst of his blessed baboons! no political reform can have any effect in removing it. He writes with a considerable degree of force and Instead of reforming others-instead of reforming the vigour; and contrives to infuse into his reader that state, the constitution, and every thing that is most admiration of the great works, and undisturbed scenes excellent, let each man reform himself! let him look of nature, which animates his style, and has influencat home, he will find there enough to do, without looked his life and practice. There is something, too, to be ing abroad, and aiming at what is out of his power.- highly respected and praised in the conduct of a coun(Loud Cheers.) And now, sir, as it is frequently the try gentleman, who, instead of exhausting life in the custom in this house to end with a quotation, and as chase, has dedicated a considerable portion of it to the the gentleman who preceded me in the debate, has an- pursuit of knowledge. There are so many temptaticipated me in my favorite quotation of the "Strong tions to complete idleness in the life of a country genpull and the long pull," I shall end with the memora- tleman, so many examples of it, and so much loss to ble words of the assembled Barons.—Nolumus leges the community from it, that every exception from the Anglia mutari.' practice is deserving of great praise. Some country gentlemen must remain to do the business of their counties; but, in general, there are many more than are wanted; and, generally speaking also, they are a

Upon the whole, the following are the characters which appertain in common to all the several arguments here distinguished by the name of fallacies:

1. Whatsoever be the measure in hand, they are, with rela-class who should be stimulated to greater exertions. tion to it, irrelevant.

2. They are all of them such, that the application of these irrelevant arguments affords a presumption either of the weak

ness or total absence of relevant arguments on the side on which they are employed.

3. To any good purpose they are all of them unnecessary. 4. They are all of them not only capable of being applied, but actually in the habit of being applied, and with advantage, to bad purposes, viz., to the obstruction and defect of all such measures as have for their object the removal of the abuses or other imperfections still discernible in the frame and practice of the government.

5. By means of their irrelevancy, they all of them consume and misapply time, thereby obstructing the course and retarding the progress of all necessary and useful business.

Sir Joseph Banks, a squire of large fortune in Lincolnshire, might have given up his existence to double. barrelled guns and persecutions of poachers and all the benefits derived from his wealth, industry, and personal exertion in the cause of science, would have been lost to the community.

Mr. Waterton complains, that the trees of Guiana are not more than six yards in circumference-a magnitude in trees which is not easy for a Scotch imagination to reach. Among these, pre-eminent in height rises the mora-upon whose top branches, when naked by age, or dried by accident, is perched the toucan, too high for the gun of the fowler;-around this 6. By that irritative quality which, in virtue of their irrele- are the green heart, famous for hardness; the tough vancy, with the improbity or weakness of which it is indica- hackea; the ducalabali, surpassing mahogony; the tive, they possess, all of them, in a degree more or less consi-ebony and letter-wood, exceeding the most beautiful derable, but in a more particular degree such of them as con- woods of the Old World; the locust-tree, yielding cosist in personalities, they are productive of ill-humour, which pal; and the hayawa and olou trees, furnishing sweetin some instances has been productive of bloodshed, and is continually productive, as above, of waste of time and hin- smelling resin. Upon the top of the mora grows the fig-tree. The bush-rope joins tree and tree, so as to render the forest impervious, as, descending from on high, it takes root as soon as its extremity touches the ground, and appears like shrouds and stays supporting the mainmast of a line-of-battle-ship.

drance of business.

7. On the part of those who, whether in spoken or written discourses, give utterance to them, they are indicative either of improbity or intellectual weakness, or of a contempt for the understandings of those on whose minds they are destined to

operate.

8. On the part of those on whom they operate, they are Indicative of intellectual weakness; and on the part of those in and by whom they are pretended to operate, they are indicative of improbity, viz., in the shape of insincerity.

The practical conclusion is, that in proportion as the acceptance, and thence the utterance, of them can be prevented, the understanding of the public will be strengthened, the morals of the public will be purified, and the practice of government improved.'-(pp. 359, 960.)

WATERTON. (EDINBURGH REVIEW, 1826.) Wanderings in South America, the North-West of the United States, and the Antilles, in the years 1812, 1816, 1820, and 1824; with Original Instructions for the Preservation of Birds, &c., for Cabinets of Natural History By Charles Waterton, Esq. London, Mawman. 4to. 1825.

MR. WATERTON is a Roman Catholic gentleman of Yorkshire, of good fortune, who, instead of passing his life at balls and assemblies, has preferred living with Indians and monkeys in the forests of Guiana. He appears in early life to have been seized with an mconquerable aversion to Piccadilly, and to that train of meteorological questions and answers, which forms the great staple of volite English conversation, From

birds. The mud is flaming with the scarlet curlew. Demerara yields to no country in the world in her At sunset, the pelicans return from the sea to the courada trees. Among the flowers are the humming. birds. The columbine, gallinaceous, and passerine tribes people the fruit-trees. At the close of day, the vampires, or winged bats, suck the blood of the trav eller, and cool him by the flap of their wings. Nor has nature forgotten to amuse herself here in the composition of snakes:-the camoudi has been killed from thirty to forty feet long; he does not act by venom, but by size and convolution. The Spaniards affirm that he grows to the length of eighty feet, and that he will swallow a bull; but Spaniards love the superlative. There is a whipsnake of a beautiful green. The labarri snake of a dirty brown, who kills you in a few minutes. Every lovely colour under heaven is lavished upon the counachouchi, the most venomous of reptiles, and known by the name of the bush-master. Man and beast, says Mr. Waterton, fly before him, and allow him to pursue an undisputed path.

We consider the following description of the various sounds in these wild regions as very striking, and done with very considerable powers of style.

'He whose eye can distinguish the various beauties of uncultivated nature, and whose ear is not shut to the wild sounds

in the woods, will be delighted in passing up the river Demerara. Every now and then, the maain or tinamou sends forth one long and plaintive whistle from the depths of the forest, and then stops; whilst the yelping of the toucan, and the shrill voice of the bird called pi-pi-yo, is heard during the interval. The campanero never fails to attract the attention of the passenger at a distance of nearly three miles you may hear this snow-white bird tolling every four or five minutes, like the distant convent bell. From six to nine in the morning, the forests resound with the mingled cries and strains of the feathered race; after this they gradually die away. From eleven to three all nature is hushed as in a midnight silence, and scarce a note is heard saving that of the campanero and the pi-pi-yo; it is then that, oppressed by the solar heat, the birds retire to the thickest shade, and wait for the refreshing cool of evening.

At sundown, the vampires, bats, and goatsuckers dart from their lonely retreat, and skim along the trees on the river's bank. The different kinds of frogs almost stun the ear with their hoarse and hollow-sounding croaking, while the owls and goatsuckers lament and mourn all night long.

About two hours before daybreak you will hear the red monkey moaning as though in deep distress; the houtou, a solitary bird, and only found in the thickest recesses of the forest, distinctly articulates "houtou, houtou," in a low and plaintive tone, an hour before sunrise; the maam whistles about the same hour; the hannaquoi, pataca, and maroudi announce his near approach to the eastern horizon, and the parrots and paroquets confirm his arrival there.'—(pp. 13–15.) Our good Quixote of Demerara is a little too fond of apostrophizing:- Traveller! dost thou think? Reader! dost thou imagine!' Mr. Waterton should remember, that the whole merit of these violent deviations from common style depends upon their rarity, and that nothing does, for ten pages together, but the indicative mood. This fault gives an air of affectation to the writing of Mr. Waterton, which we believe to be foreign from his character and nature. We do not wish to deprive him of these indulgences altogether; but merely to put him upon an allowance, and upon such an allowance as will give to these figures of speech the advantage of surprise and relief.

a small silk grass cord. The arrow is from nine to ten inches long; it is inade out of the leaf of a palm-tree, and pointed as sharp as a needle: about an inch of the pointed end is poisoned: the other end is burnt to make it still harder; and wild cotton is put around it for an inch and a half. The quiver holds from 500 to 600 arrows, is from 12 to 14 inches long, and in shape like a dice-box. With a quiver of these poisoned ar rows over his shoulder, and his blow-pipe in his hand, the Indian stalks into the forest in quest of his feath ered game,

These generally sit high up in the tall and tufted trees, but still are not out of the Indian's reach; for his blow-pipe, at its greatest elevation, will send an arrow three hundred feet. Silent as midnight he steals under them, and so cautiously does he tread the ground, that the fallen leaves rustle not beneath his feet. His ears are open to the least sound, while his eye, keen as that of the lynx, is employed in finding out the game in the thickest shade. Often he imitates their cry, and decoys them from tree to tree, till they are within range of his tube. Then taking a poisoned arrow from his quiver, he puts it in the blow-pipe, and collects his breath for the fatal puff.

About two feet from the end through which he blows, there are fastened two teeth of the acouri, and these serve him for a sight. Silent and swift the arrow flies, and sel dom fails to pierce the object at which it is sent. Sometimes the wounded bird remains in the same tree where it was shot, but in three minutes falls down at the Indian's feet. Should he take wing, his flight is of short duration, and the Indian, following in the direction he has gone, is sure to find him dead.

It is natural to imagine that, when a slight wound only is inflicted, the game will make its escape. Far otherwise; the Wourali poison instantaneously mixes with blood or water, so that if you wet your finger, and dash it along the poisoned arrow in the quickest manner possible, you are sure to carry off some of the poison.

Though three minutes generally clapse before the convulsions come on in the wounded bird, still a stupor evidently takes place sooner, and this stupor manifests itself by an apparent unwillingness in the bird to move. This was

very visible in a dying fowl.'-(pp. 60-62.)

The flesh of the game is not in the slightest degree

This gentleman's delight and exultation always appear to increase as he loses sight of European inven. tions, and comes to something purely Indian, Speak-injured by the poison; nor does it appear to be coring of an Indian tribe, he says,rupted sooner than that killed by the gun or knife. For the larger animals, an arrow with a poisoned spike is used.

They had only one gun, and it appeared rusty and neglected; but their poisoned weapons were in fine order. Their blow-pipes hung from the roof of the hut, carefully suspended by a silk grass cord; and on taking a nearer view of them, no dust seemed to have collected there, nor had the spider spun the smallest web on them; which showed that they were in constant use. The quivers were close by them, with the jaw-bone of the fish pirai tied by a string to their brim, and a small wicker-basket of wild cotton, which hung down to the centre: they were nearly full of poisoned arrows. It was with difficulty these Indians could be persuaded to part with any of the Wourali poison, though a good price was offered for it: they gave us to under-tand that it was powder and shot to them, and very difficult to be procured.'-(pp. 34, 35.)

A wicker-basket of wild cotton, full of poisoned arrows, for shooting fish! This is Indian with a vengeance. We fairly admit that, in the contemplation of such utensils, every trait of civilized lite is com pletely and effectually banished.

Thus armed with deadly poison, and hungry as the hy na, he ranges through the forest in quest of the wild beasts' track. No hound can act a surer part. Without clothes to fetter him, or shoes to bind his feet, he observes the foot steps of the game, where an European eye could not discern the smallest vestige. He pursues it through all its turns and windings, with astonishing perseverance, and success generally crowns his efforts. The animal, after receiv. ing the poisoned arrow, seldom retreats two hundred paces before it drops.

In passing over land from Essequibo to the Demarara, we fell in with a drove of wild hogs. Though encumbered with baggage, and fatigued with a hard day's walk, an Indian got his bow ready, and let fly a poisoned arrow at one of them. It entered the cheek-bone, and broke right off. The wild hog was found quite dead about one hundred and seventy paces from the place where he had been shot. He afforded us an excellent and wholesome supper.'-(p. 65.)

One of the strange and fanciful objects of Mr. Wa- Being a Wourali poison fancier, Mr. Waterton has terton's journey was, to obtain a better knowledge of recorded several instances of the power of his favourthe composition and nature of the Wourali poison, the ite drug. A sloth poisoned by it went gently to sleep, ingredient with which the Indians poison their arrows. and died! a large ox, weighing one thousand pounds, In the wilds of Essequibo, far away from any Euro-was shot with three arrows; the poison took effect in pean settlements, there is a tribe of Indians known by the name of Macoushi. The Wourali poison is used by all the South American savages, betwixt the Amazon and the Oroonoque; but the Macoushi Indians manufacture it with the greatest skill, and of the greatest strength. A vine grows in the forest called Wourali; and from this vine, together with a good deal of nonsense and absurdity, the poison is prepared. When a native of Macoushia goes in quest of feathered game, he seldom carries his bow and ar. rows. It is the blow-pipe he then uses. The reed grows to an amazing length, as the part the Indians use is from 10 to 11 feet long, and no tapering can be perceived, one end being as thick as another; nor is there the slightest appearance of a knot or joint. The end which is applied to the mouth is tied round with

four minutes, and in twenty-five minutes he was dead. The death seems to be very gentle; and resembles more a quiet apoplexy, brought on by hearing a long story, than any other kind of death. If an Indian happens to be wounded with one of these arrows, he considers it as certain death. We have reason to congratulate ourselves, that our method of terminating disputes is by sword and pistol, and not by these medicated pins; which, we presume, will become the weapons of gentlemen in the new republics of South America.

The second journey of Mr. Waterton, in the year 1816, was to Pernambuco, in the southern hemisphere, on the coast of Brazil, and from thence he proceeds to Cayenne. His plan was, to have ascended the Amazoй from Para, and get into the Rio Negro, and from

thence to have returned towards the source of the Essequibo, in order to examine the Crystal Mountains, and to look once more for Lake Parima, or the White Sea; but on arriving at Cayenne, he found that to beat up the Amazon would be long and tedious; he left Cayenne, therefore, in an American ship for Paramaribo, went through the interior to Coryntin, stopped a few days at New Amsterdam, and proceeded to Demerara.

mons with their ignorance and folly, and impeding the business of the country? There is no end of such questions. So we will not enter into the metaphysics of the toucan. The houtou ranks high in beauty; his whole body is green, his wings and tail blue; his crown is of black and blue; he makes no nest, but rears his young in the sand.

The cassique, in size, is larger than the starling; he courts the society of man, but disdains to live by his labours. When Leave behind you' (he says to the traveller) your high-sea- nature calls for support, he repairs to the neighbouring forest, soned dishes, your wines and your delicacies; carry nothing and there partakes of the store of fruits and seeds, which she but what is necessary for your own comfort, and the object in has produced in abundance for her aerial tribes. When his view, and depend upon the skill of an Indian, or your own, for repast is over, he returns to man, pays the little tribute which fish or game. A sheet about twelve feet long, ten wide, painted, he owes him for his protection; he takes his station on a tree and with loop-holes on each side, will be of great service: in a close to his house; and there, for hours together, pours forth few minutes you can suspend it betwixt two trees in the shape a succession of imitative notes. His own song is sweet, but of a roof. Under this, in your hammock, you may defy the very short. If a toucan be yelping in the neighbourhood, he pelting shower, and sleep heedless of the dews of night. A hat, drops it, and imitates him. Then he will amuse his protector a shirt, and a light pair of trowsers, will be all the raiment you with the cries of the different species of woodpecker; and require. Custom will soon teach you to tread lightly and bare-when the sheep bleat, he will distinctly answer them. Then foot on the little inequalities of the ground, and show you how comes his own song again, or if a puppy dog or a guinea fowl to pass on, unwounded, amid the mantling briars.'-(pp. 112, interrupt him, he takes them off admirably, and by his different 113.) gestures during the time, you would conclude that he enjoys the sport.

Snakes are certainly an annoyance; but the snake, The cassique is gregarious, and imitates any sound he though high-spirited, is not quarrelsome; he considers hears with such exactness, that he goes by no other name than his fangs to be given for defence, and not for annoy- that of mocking-bird amongst the colonists.'-(pp. 127, 128.) ance, and never inflicts a wound but to defend exisThere is no end to the extraordinary noises of the tence. If you tread upon him, he puts you to death forest of Cayenne. for your clumsiness, merely because he does not un- against the tree with his bill, makes a sound so loud, The woodpecker, in striking derstand what your clumsiness means; and certainly that Mr. Waterton says it reminds you more of a a snake, who feels fourteen or fifteen stone stamping wood-cutter than a bird. While lying in your hamupon his tail, has little time for reflection, and may mock, you hear the goatsucker lamenting like one in be allowed to be poisonous and peevish. American deep distress-a stranger would take it for a Weir tigers generally run away-from which several respec- murdered by Thurtell." table gentlemen in Parliament inferred, in the American war, that American soldiers would run away also!

The description of the birds is very animated and interesting; but how far does the gentle reader im agine the campanero may be heard, whose size is that of a jay? Perhaps 300 yards. Poor innocent, ignorant reeder! unconscious of what nature has done in the forests of Cayenne, and measuring the force of tropical intonation by the sounds of a Scotch duck! The campanero may be heard three miles!-this single little bird being more powerful than the beltry of a cathedral, ringing for a new dean-just appointed on account of shabby politics, small understanding, and good family!

The fifth species is the celebrated campanero of the Spaniards, called dara by the Indians, and beli-bird by the English. He is about the size of the jay. His plumage is white as snow. On his forehead rises a spiral tube about three inches long. It is jet black, dotted all over with small white feathers. It has a communication with the palate, and when filled with air, looks like a spire; when empty, it becomes pendulous. His note is loud and clear, like the sound of a bell, and may be heard at the distance of three miles. In the midst of these extensive wilds, generally on the dried top of an aged mora, almost out of gun reach, you will see the campanero. No sound or song from any of the winged inhabitants of the forest, not even the clearly pronounced Whip-poor-Will," from the goatsucker, causes such astonishment as the toll of the cam

panero.

With many of the feathered race he pays the common tribute of a morning and an evening song; and even when the meridian sun has shut in silence the mouths of almost the whole of animated nature, the campanero still cheers the forest. You hear his toll, and then a pause for a minute, then another toll, and then a pause, again, and then a toll, and again a toll, and again a pause.'-(pp. 117, 118,)

'Suppose yourself in hopeless sorrow, begin with a loud note, and pronounce "ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,"" each note lower, till the last is scarcely heard, pausing a moment or two betwixt every note, and you will have some idea of the moaning of the largest goatsucker in Demerara.'-(p. 141.)

Great travellers are very fond of triumphing over civilized life; and Mr. Waterton does not omit the opportunity of remarking, that nobody ever stopt him in the forests of Cayenne to ask him for his license, or to inquire if he had an hundred a year, or to take away his gun, or to dispute the limits of a manor, or to threaten him with a tropical justice of the peace. We hope, however, that in this point we are on the eve of improvement. Mr. Peel, who is a man of high char acter and principles, may depend upon it that the time is come for his interference, and that it will be a loss of reputation to him not to interfere. If any one else can and will carry an alteration through Parliament, there is no occasion that the hand of government should appear; but some hand must appear. The common people are becoming ferocious, and the perdricide criminals are more numerous than the violators of all the branches of the Decalogue.

"The king of the vultures is very handsome, and seems to be the only bird which claims regal honours from the surroundIt is impossible to contradict a gentleman who has ing tribe. It is a fact beyond all dispute, that when the scent been in the forests of Cayenne; but we are determined, of carrion has drawn together hundreds of the common vulas soon as a campanero is brought to England, to make tures, they all retire from the carcass as soon as the king of the vultures makes his appearance. When his majesty has satishim toll in a public place, and have the distance mea-fied the cravings of his royal stomach with the choicest bits sured. The toucan has an enormous bill, makes a from the most stinking and corrupted parts, he generally retires noise like a puppy dog, and lays his eggs in hollow to a neighbouring tree, and then the common vultures return in trees. How astonishing are the freaks and fancies of crowds to gobble down his leavings. The Indians, as well as nature! To what purpose, we say, is a bird placed in the whites, have observed this; for when one of them, who ha the woods of Cayenne, with a bill a yard long, making learned a little English, sees the king, and wishes you to have a a noise like a puppy dog, and laying eggs in hollow proper notion of the bird, he says, "There is the governor of trees? The toucans, to be sure, might retort, to what Now, the Indians have never heard of a personage in Demepurpose were gentlemen in Bond street created? To rara higher than that of governor; and the colonists, through what purpose were certain foolish prating members of a common mistake, call the vultures carrion crows. Hence the Parliament created?-pestering the House of Com-Indian, in order to express the dominion of this bird over the

the carrion crows."