THIS curious animal is one of eleven this apparatus assists them in leaping species of the squirrel, or sciurus; so from bough to bough, which they frecalled from two Greek words, which sig-quently do at the distance of ten yards, nify "tail" and "shade," and which de- yet the animal can scarcely be said to fly, signate the use of its tail as a kind of as it can only move in one direction, and umbrella. It inhabits the birch-woods of even then cannot keep an even line, but Finland, Lapland, and other Arctic re- sinks considerably before it can reach the gions, and is also found in Asia, in the place it aims at. Sensible, however, of woods of the Uralian Chain, and in vari- this incapacity, the squirrel, with an ous parts of North America. It lives amazing degree of sagacity, mounts the principally on the shoots and buds of the higher on the tree from which it springs birch and pine, generally in solitude, ex- in proportion to the distance it wishes to cept at one period of the year, and builds reach, and thus seldom fails to accomplish its nest of the softest mosses, in the hol- its object. The various endowments of lows of trees, at a considerable height this animal enable it to live apparently in from the ground. It is principally distin- a state of security and happiness: the guished from the better-known species of great rapidity of their movements defendsquirrel by a lateral membrane extending ing them from the attacks of less nimble from the fore to the hind legs, and which animals, and the similarity of their colour so far serves the purpose of a wing or sail to that of the trees on which they are as to have conferred the name of the found causing them to be discerned with flying squirrel. great difficulty, and so preserving them from the attack of rapacious birds. It is, however, to be observed, that this term is improperly applied; for although THE POISONOUS PROPERTIES OF THE SEEDS OF THE LABURNUM. Ir is generally believed that the seeds of the laburnum cytisus laburnum) are very poisonous, and, in consequence, children are frequently warned against eating them. Their poisonous quality is also mentioned in some botanical works; but, as no notice is taken of this opinion in Dr. Christison's Treatise on Poisons, or in Dr. Beck's Medical Jurisprudence, it may be of some importance to mention the following circumstance:-On Saturday last (September 15, 1832), I was called to see three children, of the ages two and a half, five, and about seven respectively, who, having been sent into the garden to amuse themselves, were induced to eat a small quantity of the seeds of the laburnum, which they mistook for mouse peas. Very shortly afterwards, all the children were taken very sick, and vomited repeatedly, the youngest and the oldest with less violence than the other. After vomiting, they were soon relieved, and in the evening had recovered their usual health and spirits. About thirteen years ago, I knew two young ladies at Cambridge, who were rendered unwell by steeping the seeds of laburnum in their mouths, to the end of passing a needle the more easily through them, in threading them into necklaces. The ladies were in age about eighteen and twenty-three, and the symptoms of their illness were headache and slight vomiting; after vomiting, they soon recovered. The seeds of laburnum are kidney-shaped, dark brown, have naturally a polished exterior, and, when perfectly ripe and dry, are so hard that a needle is not easily forced through them; on this last account it is that they are occasionally soaked previously to threading them, but, I believe, not if the needle can be passed through them without it, as soaking is deemed to lessen, somewhat, the brightness of their natural polish. As, too, the threading is frequently begun before the soaking is found to be necessary, the moistening them in the warm saliva is a very natural resource for producing the softening required at the instant.Loudon's Magazine of Natural History. Communications from Dr. G. Johnston and J. D. APHORISMS. WE fall not from virtue, like Vulcan from heaven, in a day. Bad dispositions require some time to grow into bad habits; bad habits must undermine good, and often-repeated acts make us habitually evil; so that by gradual depravations, and while we are but staggeringly evil, we are not left without parentheses of consideration, thoughtful rebukes, and merciful interventions, to recal us to ourselves.-SIR THOMAS BROWN. An elevated genius employed in little things appears like the sun in his evening declination; he remits his splendour, but retains his magnitude, and pleases more though he dazzles less.-LONGI NUS. Swearing is properly a superfluity of naughtiness, and can only be considered as a sort of pepper corn rent, in acknowledgment of the devil's right of superiority.-ROBERT HALL. Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, and extraction of that living intellect that bred they do preserve, as in a vial, the purest efficacy them.-MILTON. tion we raise against the living labours of public men-how we spill that seasoned life of man preserved and stored up in books-since we see a kind of homicide may be thus committed, sometimes a martyrdom, and, if it extend to the whole impression, a kind of massacre, whereof the execution ends not in the slaying an elemental life, but strikes at that ethereal and fifth essence, the breath of reason itself, and slays an immortality rather than a life.—Ib. We should be wary, therefore, what persecu RIVER OF VINEGAR. called, in the language of the country, Rio IN South America, near Popayan, is a river Vinegre. It takes its source in a very elevated chain of mountains, and, after a subterranean progress of many miles, it re-appears, and forms a magnificent cascade upwards of 300 feet in height. When a person stands beneath this point he is speedily driven away by a very fine shower of acid water, which irritates the eyes. M. Boussingalt, wishing to ascertain the cause of this phenomenon, analysed the water of the river, and found, among other substances, sulphuric and hydrochloric acids. The following is the result of the analysis:Sulphuric acid, 0,00110; hydrochloric acid, 0,00091; alumine, 0,00040; chalk, 0,00013; soda, 0,00012; silex, 0,00023; oxyde of iron and magnesia, traces. been pretty accurately determined. It was founded about the year 604, by Sebert, king of the East Saxons. If, however, we could rely on dreams, and particularly on those of monks, we might quote the authority of Wulsinus, that the Apostle St. Peter himself had a chapel or oratory on the site of the magnificent pile dedicated to him. The vision of Wulsinus was turned to some advantage by the succeeding monks, who added a new legend of St. Peter's' crossing the water one stormy night to consecrate the church, and rewarding the fisherman who ferried him over Thorney (water which surrounded the church, the site of which was called Thorney Island), with a miraculous draught of salmon, assuring him and his fellow-watermen that they should never want fish, provided they would give one-tenth of what they caught to the newly-consecrated church. To those who consider the influence of the Catholic priesthood, it will not excite much surprise that the tale was believed, and that, for several centuries, the monks of Westminster fed on the offerings of the Thames fishermen. What was at first solicited as a benevolence, in the course of time was claimed as a right, so that, in the year 1231, the monks brought an action at law against the minister of Rotherithe, in which they compelled him to give up to them one-half of the tithe of all salmon caught in his parish. From the foundation of the Abbey to the time of Edward the Confessor its history is very obscure; but this pious prince, in consequence of an injunction from Leo IX., who had absolved him from a rash vow, appropriated one-tenth of his property, in "gold, silver, cattle, and all other possessions," to the rebuilding of the Abbey. It was commenced in 1050, and finished fifteen years afterwards. This king endowed it very liberally, and enriched it with (what at that time was highly attractive) numerous relics, the authenticity of which, in those days, it was not the custom to dispute, though some of them are sufficiently startling. Among these relics, the monkish writers assure us, were part of the manger in which Christ was born, the frankincense offered to him by the Eastern Magi, a splinter of the table of our Lord, a crust of the bread that he blessed, and a slab of the wall of the prison in which he was confined. When the chapel had been completed, Henry III. resolved that the remains of the Confessor should be removed into the new shrine in the chapel; and, says Neale, in his excellent history of this Abbey," in the sight of all the principal nobility and gentry of the land, who were assembled here, he and his brother Richard carried the chest containing St. Edward's remains, upon their shoulders, to the new shrine, wherein it was deposited with vast ceremony and exultation. The princes, Edward and Edmund, together with the Earl of Warren, the Lord Philip Basset, and others of the nobility, assisted to support the chest ; and we are informed, by Matthew of Westminster, that, on seeing it exalted, the devils were instantly cast out of two possessed persons, who had come purposely (the one from Ireland, the other from Winchester), to receive benefit on the day of St. Edward's removal!" During the reign of Henry III. and Edward I., the eastern parts of the nave and the aisles were rebuilt, and finished in 1307. To Edward II., Edward III., and Richard II., we are indebted for the Great Cloisters, Abbot's House, and the principal monastic buildings. The western parts of the nave and aisles were rebuilt by successive monarchs, between the years 1340 and 1483. The west front and the great window were built by those rival princes, Richard III. and Henry VII.; and it was the latter monarch who commenced the magnificent chapel which bears his name, and which was finished by his son and successor. The first stone of this chapel was laid on the 24th of January, 1502-3, by the Abbot Islip; and although the king did not live to see the work finished, yet, after amply endowing the Abbey, he gave Islip £5000 towards completing it, only a few days before his decease. Although Henry VIII. finished the chapel, yet he did not spare the Abbey from the general dissolution of the monasteries, nor could an existence of upwards of nine centuries successfully plead in its behalf. From the time of Henry VIII. to the accession of the House of Brunswick, little appears to have been done to improve the Abbey; but, on the contrary, it suffered the profanation of the soldiery during the civil wars of Charles I., when Sir Robert Harlow, the bigot, who was employed to demolish the venerable Cross at Cheapside, broke into Henry the Seventh's Chapel, demolished the altar stone, and committed other outrages. From the time of the Confessor to the reign of Henry III., little appears to have been done to the Abbey; but, in the year 1220, the latter monarch laid the During the reigns of George I. and first stone of a new chapel, in honour of George II. the great west window was the Virgin Mary, on the site now occu- rebuilt, and the western towers compied by Henry the Seventh's chapel; but pleted; but it is to their immediate suclittle was done to the building until the cessors that Westminster Abbey is most year 1245, when it was more actively pro- indebted, in the restoration of the extesecuted, and that with a prodigality of rior of Henry the Seventh's Chapel to its expense which at the period was unparal-original beauty, after it had become so leled. much dilapidated. This work was commenced in 1809, under the direction of Mr. James Wyatt, and has been completed at an expense of about £42,000. The external appearance of the Abbey is not strictly uniform, but the appearance of the west front is extremely magnificent. The gate is wrought with much delicacy, and the light and elegant screen corresponds with the large window it supports. The chapel of Henry VII. is a magnificent specimen of ecclesiastical architecture, which, from the beauty of the design, and the rich and elaborate manner in which it is executed, proves that it must have been the work of no ordinary artists and artificers. The chapel is nearly square; the east end forming five sides of an octagon. When viewed exteriorly, it presents a light and airy structure; and the interior is of singular beauty and symmetry, though much disfigured by the stalls and flags of the Knights of the Bath, who are installed here. Edward the Confessor's Chapel, situated at the east end of the choir, contains several royal tombs, as well as the celebrated coronation chair, in which is the still more celebrated stone, related by monkish tradition to have been Jacob's pillow. This stone is placed within the frame-work of the chair, and was brought from Scone, in Scotland, in 1267, by Edward I. It is a remarkable instance of the force of superstition, that this stone has been the subject of an express article in a treaty of peace, as well as of a conference, between Edward III. and David II., king of Scotland. By the treaty, it was agreed to give the stone up to Scotland, and in the conference it was resolved that the king, after being crowned in England, should repair to Scotland, and be crowned king at Scone; but neither of these resolutions were carried into effect. A prophetic distich, said to have been cut on this stone, by King Kenneth, is no doubt the cause of the Scottish attachment to it; since, translated, it means, "Where'er this stone is found, or Fate's decree is vain, The Scots the same shall hold, and there supremely reign." There are several other chapels in various parts of the building, all of which contain the tombs of some distinguished persons. The south transept, commonly known by the name of Poet's Corner, is perhaps the most attractive spot, in this respect, which the Abbey contains. It would be impossible to describe all the monuments here which deserve notice, and even to enumerate their names would be but to furnish a long and uninteresting catalogue. Many of the inscriptions they bear are distinguished by a degree of pathos, simplicity, and terseness, which constitutes the perfection of this species of composition. The short epitaph upon Oliver Goldsmith, from the pen of Dr. Johnson, will readily occur to the minds of many as illustrating this last remark. Few sentences, perhaps, though dictated by the highest admiration and regard, could enclose in so small a compass such a comprehensive eulogy as that upon the literary character of Dr. Goldsmith :46 Nullum genus literarum quod non tetigit; nullum tetigit quod non ornavit." There was no order of literature which he did not touch; and none that he touched which he did not adorn." Among the monuments distinguished for their beauty and interest may be mentioned that to Lord Chatham, containing a statue of the great senator in an attitude of debate, and various emblematical female figures. It was executed by Bacon, and the success of the artist has been justly and happily expressed by Cowper: "Bacon there statues which ornament the peristyle, I placed myself above it, like Anchises of old, upon the shoulders of Encas. Climbing, says he, one of those enormous SO would hardly be too strong to do justice would be open to receive English and other of this amazing spectacle, a loud flourish of While I was occupied in the contemplation trumpets from two opposite sides of the area announced the approach of cavalry. First entered the nobles, in habits of green and gold, mounted upon sumptuous chargers, who came prancing into the centre of the military quadrangle. Other troops followed and the whole corps, saluting the balcony over the grand portals of St. Peter's, from which his holiness was to appear, arranged themselves in order. Gives more than female beauty to a stone, And Chatham's eloquence to marble lips." There is, nevertheless, an irresistible Another very striking monument is that interest connected with this place. The to Fox, by Westmacott. He is repre- spectator cannot but feel that he is sented as dying in the arms of his coun- walking among the monuments, and try. His form and features are depicted treading on the dust, of the greatest with great fidelity, and the expression of of his countrymen and of his species. By suffering in his countenance can scarcely that curious anachronism peculiar to fail to awaken a painful sympathy in the public cemeteries, his imagination is at mind of the spectator. Near him is seen once brought into immediate contact with a negro, whose anxious and grateful exthose men whose names have illustrated pression is intended to commemorate the the pages of history at different and dispolitical achievement which of itself would tant periods, and a feeling is excited suffice to attach to him the lasting vene- nearly corresponding in character with ration of posterity: we mean the aboli- that eagerness for posthumous celebrity tion of the slave-trade. There is one which distinguished and actuated the At this instant a bell tolled; and, throughmore monument which deserves some- mighty dead" around him-a desire out the whole of that vast multitude, such a thing more than a mere casual mention; factitiously to extend the limits of his silence prevailed as one would have thought this is to the memory of Joseph Gas- existence by a temporary and imaginary it impossible to produce without a miracle. coigne Nightingale, Esq., and the Lady intercourse with them. We cannot but Every tongue was still, and every eye directed Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Washing- admire that national taste and sentiment and venerable figure of the pope, standing erect toward the balcony. Suddenly the majestic ton, Earl Ferriers. The design of this which has crowded this spot with so many upon a lofty and self-moving throne, appeared masterpiece of art (the last ever executed affecting associations; for though we can- through clouds of incense burning around by Ronbiliac) is singularly pathetic. It not more powerfully realize the equal- him. As he advanced, his form became more consists principally of three figures in sta-izing power of death than by visiting the and more distinct. All behind was darkness tuary marble, representing Lady Night- spot where the ill-fated Queen of Scots and mystery. The most costly robes decorated ingale and her husband, and the personisleeps beside her vindictive and perse-brow; while enormous plumes were his body; a gorgeous tiara glittered on his fication of death. The latter is represented cuting sister, where Pitt and Fox moulder waving on all sides of the throne. As he apas a complete skeleton, in shroud-like within a few paces of one another, and proached the light, with elevated front and babiliments, raising his fatal dart to pierce the bitterest enemies lie together, and uplifted hands, he called aloud on the Althe bosom of the lady, who appears sinking "in their death are not divided;" yet mighty. Instantly the bare-headed multitude to the grave in the last stage of debility. here also we most fully appreciate that fell prostrate. Thousands, and tens of thouHer husband is seen rushing forward, general tendency of the human mind to sands, knelt before him. The military, with extending his right arm to ward off the preserve intellectual greatness and moral dier was seen with his face to the earth. A a crash, grounded their arms; and every solattack of the monster, while with his left worth in perpetual remembrance, and voice, which penetrated the remotest corner of he clasps his dying wife to his breast, thus acquaint ourselves with some of the the area, then pronounced the benediction. whose languid helplessness beautifully noblest features of our nature, while con- Extending his arms, and waving them over contrasts with the energetic and muscular versing the most closely with the monu- the people, he implored a blessing upon all attitude of her husband. The figure of ments of its frailty. the nations of the earth. Immediately the death is distinguished by wonderful anacannons roared, trumpets screamed, music tomical correctness, and is represented in played, all the bells in Rome sounded, the guns from St. Angelo poured forth their thunder; an attitude of eagerness and resolution. more distant artillery repeated the signal, and "It is almost impossible," says a writer the intelligence became conveyed from fortress in describing this monument, "to speak to fortress throughout the remotest provinces of such a masterly work without a degree Clarke. of the empire.-From Otter's Life of E. D. of admiration bordering upon enthusiasm; yet even the language of enthusiasm itself THE CEREMONY OF THE PAPAL DR. CLARKE received a card of invitation, seen THE TOURIST. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1833. disgrace. Happily for the interests of huma- THE SAFETY OF IMMEDIATE EMAN- long felt. In the latter part of it, exterminan CIPATION. No. III. ST. DOMINGO. Continued from p. 181. THIS state of things continued till the peace of Amiens in 1802, when Buonaparte fitted out a powerful armament for the purpose of reducing the negroes of St. Domingo to their former state of slavery. We have seen, that up to this period no evil consequences had followed Emancipation. The negroes were peaceable and the colony was flourishing. It was yet subject to France, under whose authority Toussaint held command. This state of things is a practical refutation of the statements of our opponents, respecting the ruinous effects which will be realized in our colonies if slavery be immediately abolished. It shows that the negro mind is competent to act with discretion, amid the new circumstances to which freedom would give rise,—that the ordinary laws of human conduct are as applicable to the African as to the inhabitants of Europe. If the immense population of St. Domingo could pass, with safety to themselves and to the white inhabitants, from slavery to freedom, without the slightest preparatory measures having been instituted, how preposterous are the fears which the colonists affect, of the consequences to themselves and the negroes, from the emancipation of the latter! If in the midst of a civil war, when they had been encouraged in pillage and murder by their masters, they could profit by the bestowment of freedom, with how much more certainty may we calculate on the happy effects which would issue from a similar boon in our comparatively thinly populated islands! It is in vain to reason with those who refuse to admit the soundness of such an inference. But to return to our narrative. General Vincent, a military officer and proprietor of St. Domingo, arrived in France with a communication from Toussaint, just at the moment of the peace of Amiens. He instantly repaired to Buonaparte, then first consul, and endeavoured to dissuade him from the prosecution of his design, assuring him that he could not succeed, and that the peaceable and prosperous state of the colony rendered it unnecessary. But his efforts were ineffectual, and banishment to the Isle of Elba rewarded his manly and faithful conduct The armament sailed, and the happy and flourishing island became a scene of outrage, cruelty, and blood. The French army was commanded by Le Clerc, who, having perfidiously seized Touissant, was opposed by Dessalines, afterwards emperor of the island. The atrocities which were practised by the planters have never been exceeded amongst the most savage tribes. Having induced the French Consul to undertake the expedition, they endeavoured, by every means which craft and worse than Spanish cruelty could dictate, to insure its success. But all their efforts failed. The proud military of France won no honour on the plains of Hayti, and the miserable remnant of their force was ultimately compelled to retire in | | tion rather than conquest was the object of all, whether it punish or protect. The rights of property are inviolable, and every individual has the free and uncontrolled power of disposing as he pleases of whatever belongs to him. The system is becoming general of dividing the land into small allotments, where the Haytian farmers culpigs, poultry, &c., for their own use, or for sale. tivate provisions and other articles, and rear cattle, Labourers are hired by the day or week, weekly labourers being paid on Saturday. On large estates contracts are entered into between the proprietors and labourers, for a certain term, of one, three, or five years, renewable with mutual consent; one fourth, and latterly, as will be seen "Is it to be wondered at, that, under these circumstances, Hayti should have ceased to export hereafter, one half of the produce being secured to the labourers, who are also fed from the estate, tropical produce? And how perfectly absurd, and who have Saturday and Sunday entirely to therefore, are all the reasonings which by a comparison of exports from that island in 1789 with themselves, with garden grounds to cultivate on those of 1805, would endeavour to establish the those days if they think proper; while the proinaptitude of a black population for productive in-prietor or renter pays all outgoings except labour, dustry? To secure the means of subsistence, in and provides for medical attendance and medicines, case of another invasion, and to defeat that inva- and for the care of children. The legal punishsion, if attempted, become now the grand objects ments for offenders are fine and imprisonment. of Haytian solicitude. It was made a fundamen- Corporal punishments are by law wholly abolished. Men and women labour together without distinctal law of the state, that the moment an enemy should begin to debark on the shores of the island, tion; but the men in larger proportion than the women, who are generally charged with the duties that moment every town on the coast and every of the kitchen. The labourers are punishable, by building on the plain should disappear, and the fine and imprisonment, for not fulfilling their conwhole of the population betake themselves, the women to their mornes, and the men to arms. tracts; or for absenting themselves without leave, And this state of uncertainty and peril, necessarily fatal to all schemes and efforts of prospective industry, continued to operate, in a greater or less degree, until the year 1826, when France first renounced her right to attempt again the subjugation of her ancient colony. except on Saturdays and Sundays, from the estate on which they have contracted to labour; or for changing their place of abode without a passport; and they are prohibited from keeping shops or exercising trades without a licence, as, indeed, all persons are, such licences being, in Hayti, one main source of revenue. Now, in all this long interval, what induce"Such is the general condition of the agriculment was there to expend capital in re-erecting sugar-works, and in renewing, on the plains of tural labourers of Hayti in point of law, even this island, those large agricultural establishments according to the evidence to be found in the He nowhere | capital, indeed, it had no existence. The very under-fed. Indeed, the very contrary may be which had been so completely destroyed? As for official report of Mr. Mackenzie. ventures to tell us that they are over-worked or means and instruments required for the culture, inferred from the whole of his writings. We hear preparation, manufacture, and safe keeping of exportable produce were annihilated, and had now not one syllable from him of their want or disas it were to be recreated; and was not this the tress, or of the severity of exaction or the cruelty very state of all others in which we might have of treatment to which they are subject. But if, expected to see realized those prophetic wailings turning our eyes from the agricultural class, we take a view of the general state of society in this of returning barbarism which we are told must infallibly accompany negro freedom? But what is community of emancipated slaves, we shall find the historical fact? It is, that in spite of all the that they have made such advances in the imruin which had thus overspread the island; in provement of their social and political institutions as infallibly indicate great progress in the arts of spite of the innumerable discouragements which combined to obstruct industrious effort, and the civilized life. The documents produced by Mr. employment of capital in prospective plans of agri-Mackenzie prove that Hayti possesses a regular constitution of government; a code of laws evicultural improvement; in spite of all the disorganising and demoralising circumstances in which dently founded on good sense and justice; an the people of Hayti have since been placed; they adequate administrative system of jurisprudence; have continued to struggle with their difficulties, a fiscal establishment which appears to be well and have risen superior to them; they have conregulated and effective; a well-disciplined military tinued to improve their social and civil condition, force; and a police which seems to give security to person and property. The whole of its laws, and, instead of declining in civilization, as we too, are clearly and intelligibly expressed, so as were assured would infallibly be the case, they have been progressively advancing in it, not only and, being printed and universally circulated, are to be level to the capacity of the most ignorant, but previously to that period; and a decisive since 1826, when their independence was declared, accessible to all; so that every Haytian may proof of such advance is to be found in the single easily make himself acquainted with all his social, fact, that, in the interval between 1804 and 1824, civil, and political rights, relations, and duties, Hayti more than doubled its population." while every thing connected with them is open also to the examination and criticism of strangers." It is probably known to most of our readers that the West India party have represented agricultural labour in Hayti to be as coercive as in our slave islands, and the condition of the labourer to be worse than that of the slave. Let such statements be reconciled with the following facts before they are again proposed for our belief:— "The Haytian laws have utterly abolished slavery. They proscribe and wholly abolish the use of the whip, both as a stimulus to labour and as an instrument of punishment. They give to rights. Every man is admissible to all offices, the whole body of the people the same equal whatever be his colour. The law is the same for • Report of the Lords, p. 850. Mr. Buxton, in his examination before the Lords' Committee, was asked, "Have you made inquiries into the moral condition of the inhabitants of Hayti, or the free people of colour in our own colonies; and what is the result of those inquiries, if you have made them?- have made inquiries as to Hayti, and the result of those inquiries is, that the people are a very prosperous state indeed, and that there is by no means any great proportion of crimes amongst them; that is the result of the inquiries have been able to make. forts of their own, or are they exporting ?—I be"Does that prosperity consist of the mere com • Ibid. p. 852. |