the fishing towns of England and France, where the inhabitants live principally on fish, no very luxurious or rich food, and consequently, the converse of Mr. Malthus' theory, of one of the causes of too prolific increase,the town of Speights is densely populous. Here one meets in the streets, in the shape of idle loitering men, sauntering women nine times in ten enceinte, noisy children of all ages, and in the meaner description of houses, the doors and windows of which I observed to be thronged with squatting tailors, knights of St. Crispin, and hucksters,—a mass of human beings sufficient to excite the astonishment and admiration of the stranger. I should add, however, that Barbados for its size has been calculated actually to contain more human beings than any other spot on the surface of the globe, China and the island of Malta not excepted.*

I rambled over the place with Mr. X. as my cicerone, visiting its church, the schools, its police stations, and house of correction, before breakfast on the morning that followed my arrival in Speights. Mr. X. had found me out

* Barbados is 21 miles by 14 in its greatest breadth, and contains nearly 130,000 inhabitants.

at the hotel late on the past evening, and insisted on my accepting a bed at his house, promising to show me the "lions of Speights," and to convey the intelligence of my arrival there to Seacroft, with whom he was an intimate acquaintance, and at whose residence I had before met him. I could not have had a more amusing conductor. X. was a little middleaged bachelor, slightly inclining to corpulency, with light eyes and hair, the latter of which leaving the front of his head partly bare, caused a strong contrast between the clear white forehead and the roseate hue of his red and choleric face. Humorous in his temper, cynical in his manner, and poignant and cutting in his remarks on men and things, X. was, for all this, much esteemed for his hospitality, his strong attachment to his friends, openness, and honesty of character, and his willingness to assist deserving objects who needed pecuniary aid: those unworthy of his liberality knew the man, and were afraid to ask it.

Solitary cells!" burst from him, as the keeper of the station-house on Dover-hill showed us some small rooms built against the prisonyard wall. "Zounds, sir! comfortable cham

bers, sir! eight feet by eight and a half! why, this is holding out a premium for the commission of crim with a vengeance! Bless my

soul!" continued he, examining the inner wall of the cell, which was the outer wall or enclosure of the prison; "why, sir, I'd warrant with nothing else than my digits to scratch a hole here, and give you active demonstration, Mr. Keeper, of the meaning of the term leg-bail."

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Hush, sir," said I, in an audible whisper; and wishing to indulge his humour, "the solitary of the adjoining cell will certainly hear you, and commence an attack on the wall with his finger-nails, by way of amusing his lonely hours."

"Ha! ha!" chuckled X., "Good thatsolitary cells these, Mr. Keeper-eh ?—where the prisoners may play at Pyramus and Thisbe:" and leading me from the cell into the yard, he there commenced to inveigh strongly against the mistaken and fashionable philanthropy of the day, that would make palaces of prisons, and persuade itself that it punished or reclaimed hardened vice and crime, by changing their abodes, chiefly those of hovels and the worst description of dwellings, for places of

D

comparative ease and luxury! In this philippic the Government came in for its share of vituperation.

"Yes, sir, while out of office the Whigs denounced patronage, and having some little modesty, have not, when in office, sacrificed so much to this deity at home: they do not hesitate, however, to make up for this self-denial, by a full observance of her worship abroad. The tortured colonies have groaned under stipendiaries and commissioners by wholesale. They sent out one of the latter gentry to inspect prisons, a man that knew as much about a pri

-

son, and its proper object, as he did of a palace !

-save the mark !—and that could have been but little, to judge from his appearance ! The consequence was, the destruction of a good and wholesome house of correction, and the substitution of this ginger-bread baby-house. Only fancy too, sir!-as an instance of the ignorance of our distant rulers-the Colonial Secretary having advised the enactment of poor laws for Barbados, when there are not half a dozen paupers in each parish!"

On our way home, we visited St. Peter's Church; its interior is neatly fitted up, and is

in good keeping throughout with the style of architecture in which it is built: the order is Grecian. The edifice, however, is ill proportioned outwardly, from the want of height in the tower, which is the only relic of the old church, the hurricane of 1831 having totally destroyed the rest of the building: even the tower itself was damaged, and thrown out of its perpendicular; in consequence of which, no material addition has since been made to it. A slight superstructure is contemplated.

After a hearty breakfast, about which X. clamoured with his cook for its not being ready as soon as we entered the house, he retired; and returning with a bundle of manuscript papers, presented them to me, saying, "I found out by your inquisitiveness this morning, and by the interest you evinced in deciphering the half-effaced inscriptions on the tomb-stones in the church-yard, that you have a wish to know more of the traditional history of our island than I myself could impart. These papers are the labour of a deceased young friend, a great lover of research in such matters. He died, poor fellow! some years back, and left me his executor. The papers I found