very far from lying solely or peculiarly at the door of the gentlemen to whom we allude. In our days it is not possible to look around upon the world, and to compare what we see in the style and structure of society with what we know to have been in the times of our fathers, without observing that many great and remarkable changes have taken place. Everywhere, and in every walk of life, it is too evident that the upper orders of society have been tending, more and more, to a separation of themselves from those whom nature, providence, and law, have placed beneath them. It is not now the season when men should hesitate to speak out fairly what they know and feel upon such subjects as these. A fastidious spirit of luxury and refinement has everywhere been gaining ground among us. The rich and the high have been indolently and slothfully allowing the barriers that separate them from their inferiors to increase and accumulate. An Epicurean spirit has gone wide abroad in our land, even among those that would be most inclined to startle at its name.

Men have come to deride and despise a thousand of those means of communication that in former days knit all orders of the people together. Weary of pomp, and shew, and circumstance, and of all that used most to dazzle and delight the vulgar eye, men of rank and wealth have foolishly, we fear, laid aside, along with these things, many more modest and secret, but still more effectual instruments of attaching these dependents to their persons. The spirit of general kindliness has not assuredly become extinct;-but we have learned to be too much satisfied with the conscious excellence of that general spirit-and to be too negligent of those minute and laborious services of human concern, by which alone that spirit can be made to operate as a healing and cementing charm over the whole wide-spread and diversified surface of human society. The master has not ceased to care for his servants, but he has become too delicate to shew his care by that cordial and grateful condescension of personal communication that of old made the vassal look up to his lord like a son to his father. Societies, and subscriptions, and magnificent donations, and beneficent directions and regulations, are all excellent in their way-but the

effect of all these things is nothing upon the heart of one poor man, compared with a single affectionate visit to his cottage-one simple gift to his children. The charm of sympathy is the only charm worthy of the namebut men are never willing to take the existence of that charm upon trust. He that is effectually to be obliged, must see the kind face, and touch the open hand, of his benefactor.It is too much to expect that we are to sit in the seclusion of our own private luxury, and scatter forth the droppings of our bounty like deitiestoo great to be visible to the eyes of those whom we would serve. If we would have our good intentions recognised, and our kindness enshrined in warm and grateful hearts, we must not disdain to come down into the homely walks of humanity-to mingle with our brothers of the earth, and shew that we not only relieve, but are anxious and fervent in relieving and assisting them in their hour of human distress. Every thing will be pardoned except the apparent scorn and visible selfishness of remoteness-and mortal sufferers will forget every other text of holy writ, ere they blot from their memories the touching and awful declaration, that

PRIDE WAS NOT MADE FOR MAN.

The fault, as we have said, has been universal-in every condition and walk of social life-and it is just and necessary to be had in view, that where its bad effects have been most manifested, the fault has been most excusable. The immense extent of the manufac turing establishments in many parts both of England and Scotland, has rendered it, without doubt, a matter of most extreme difficulty for those at the head of them to keep up any thing like those habits of minute acquaintance and tangible sympathy with their people, which prevailed among the masters and apprentices of the comparatively limited and trifling establishments of former days. But, if our information be correct, and we have all faith that it is so, this great difficulty has been effectually struggled with, and happily overcome, even in instances when it was greatest,-and not a few of our most magnificent establishments have, through no visible human means, save the extraordinary personal zeal, and kindly habits of their superintendents, escaped quite

free from the plague that has laid waste so many, immeasurably inferior to them in riches and extent. He that knows what his duty is, and resolves to do his duty, will always, without question, find time and means to do it. But this is not all. Is it going too far to say, that, after what has passed, it is the plain and distinct duty of every man to limit his establishment within the bounds that admit of his discharging the obligations inseparable from his condition? Is the hope of any temporary gain to be permitted to make an honest man voluntarily and deliberately draw around himself difficulties with which he is aware of his own incapacity to cope? Nay, more, is the hope or the certainty of any personal gain whatever, to be permitted to tempt any loyal man to do that which abundant and most lamentable experience has shewn to be pregnant with the elements of all social and national calamity? We trust that thoughts such as these are at this moment busy in many an honest and in many a loyal bosom, and that many willing sa crifices are on the eve of being offered up at the altars of Conscience, Patriotism, and Religion. The gentlemen at the head of the establishments, which have suffered most in these last trials, are the best judges of the modes and regulations, in and under which they are to allow the return of their deluded dependents. We have no doubt, firmness and mercy will be mingled in the measures they are about to adopt-but when that first great object of their present endeavour shall have been arranged and settled-we would hope such considerations as we have now been expressing, may receive no superficial or hasty portion of their after concern.

In country life, however, not a little of the same general fault has been gaining ground, as well as in the life of cities and manufactories-although, as in that happier life it is infinitely more inexcusable, so it has also happily made far less dangerous and alarming progress. There assuredly, there is nothing to prevent the evil from being easily and effectually arrested. There the old spirit may yet be said to be entire and untainted, although some unwise assaults have been made upon its precious outworks. Nothing is more evident to those who have vi

sited the scenes of recent tumult and disaffection, than the blessed effects which have been produced everywhere by the hearty and honest zeal of our yeomanry. Foolish, and shortsighted men, have indeed been found to condemn the great increase which has recently taken place in the establishment of yeomanry corps-but we fear not to say, that this voice of detraction can now find no listeners among the loyal men, either of Yorkshire or Lancashire, or of the West of Scotland. The services which these corps have rendered, are by no means to be summed up in their own marches and watchings. The intercourse which has occurred between them and the regular troops with whom they have acted, has, without all question, been productive of the happiest immediate effects-but above all, we look to the increased intercourse which they have already created, and which they must continue to create and strengthen between landlords and tenants, as affording by far the most sure and effectual pledge, for the future well-being of the wide face of the country. It is Shakspeare, we think, who remarks, that in times of war, the citizens of the same state are more affectionate towards each other than at any other time. The deeper sense which is then felt of the community-the identity of interests, is no doubt the chief element of this kindly feeling-but there is a charm for all human bosoms, in the very air and aspect of martial exercise, which may fairly be set by its side, as another and a most powerful strengthener of all the warmer affections of our nature. The foundations of the national character, both of England and Scotland, were laid deep and sure, in days when every gentleman and every ycoman was more or less a soldier-and now we confess, we look forward to the proud and willing revival of many manly feelings, which must necessarily attend the resumption of these manly exercises, as furnishing rich and bright hopes, for the welfare of ourselves and of our children. A single day spent by the young farmer on horseback in presence of his natural superior a single dark wet ride shared with his young master, will do more to bind him to his person and to his house than all the intercourse that could possibly occur between them in many years of ordinary life. Were

there no fear of any thing that might call again, in our day, for the actual services of these corps, we should still be vehement in applauding their maintenance, were it only for the sake of the cordial kindliness which these meetings together cannot fail to nourish. But, in sober truth, the case does not as yet stand so―or nearly so. The evil has, for the moment, been repressed, but he must be a bold man who will say that he believes it to be at an end. The day may come when these men may have to draw the sword in good earnest, in defence of the firesides at which they were nursed and reared the churches in which they were christened and weddedand the halls, by which offices of kindness have for ages been exchanged with the cottages of their Christian

ancestors.

The dark cloud has been dissipated, but alas! who shall prophecy that its lowering fragments may not again unite to blacken the free horizon of the land? The time is come when they who possess any thing that

they hold dear and sacred should know that peril hovers near, and that it is their duty to be prepared to defend it. The apathy with which many at a distance from the immediate circles of danger, still persist in regarding what is going on in the country, is not so much to be pitied as to be despised. There is wickedness in such blindness, and it deserves to be punished as a sin. We allude, in particular, to the great city in which we write-where, within forty miles of what, ten days ago, scarcely merited a slighter name than that of raging rebellion, the Lord President of the Court of Session has, with all his ardent and most honourable zeal, found it impossible to raise his regiment of volunteers to any thing like its proper compliment. But this reproach we would hope is not destined to lie long upon our headsand, at all events, we trust every man that has joined that, or any other corps raised for the same precious purposes, will abide there till he has a son able and willing to step into his place.

Dr Davy's Scientific Tour in Ceylon.The following Extract of a Letter from John Davy, M. D., to Sir H. Davy, dated Trincomalee, Oct. 3, 1817, relates to the same scientific tour in Ceylon of which a short notice was given in the Asiatic Journal, vol. VI. p. 475. But something more is unfolded of the extent to which Dr. Davy was able to explore the country. With chemical and geological researches he combined attention to the remains of antiquity, to existing specimens of natural history, to the manners of the native inhabitants, and to the statistics of an important dependency of the empire.

My different excursions have been highly interesting. As soon as possible I shall give you a pretty minute account of the results of my observations: now I must be very concise indeed. In July I went to the southern part of the island, and visited the districts of Matura and the Malaganpatton. In the former gems abound. I saw the natives at work in search of them in alluvial ground. Here I ascertained that the native rock of the sapphire, ruby, cat'seye, and the different varieties of the ziris gneiss. These minerals and cinnamon-stone occur imbedded in this rock. one place I found a great mass of rock, consisting almost entirely of zircon in a crystalline state, and deserving the name of the zircon rock. It is only a few miles distant from a rock called the cinnamon-stone rock, from its being chiefly composed of this mineral, in company with a little quartz and adularia.

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In the Malagan-patton, the most remarkable phenomena, and what I went chiefly to see, are the salt-lakes, the nature of which hitherto has been considered very myste rious from the want of inquiry." This I was able to make in a very short time, and ascertain the source of the salt. Many of these lakes are of great extent, and in à great measure formed by an embankment of sand, thrown up by a heavy sea along a level shore; the water, that falls in torrents during the rainy season, is thus confined, and inundates a great part of the country; the sea, more or less, breaks over or percolates through the sand-banks, and thus the water is rendered brackish. In the dry season the wind is very strong and dry, and the air very hot; it was from 85° to 90° when I was there: the consequence is, a very rapid evaporation of the water, the drying of the shallow lakes, and the formation of salt. It is from these lakes chiefly that the island is supplied with salt. The revenue that this one article brings government, amounts to about £10,000 annually.

The Malagan-patton altogether is a singular country; its woods, and it is almost

all wooded, are principally composed of euphorbia, and mimosa; its few inhabitants are a sickly race, miasmata destroying their health, and the wild animals with which the country abounds, as elephants, hogs, deer of different kinds, leopards, bears, &c. destroying the fruits of their labour. In the beginning of January I attended the Governor and Lady Brownrigg to Kandy, and had a good opportunity of becoming acquainted with the manners of the natives. The country in the interior, and particularly round Kandy, is magnificent; its grand features are high hills and mountains, and deep vallies and perpetual wood, and perennial verdure; the wood is in faulty exThe climate is fine; the air cool; generally at night below 75°, averaging all the year round the moderate temperature of 74°.

cess.

From Kandy I made an excursion alone into Doombera, and explored a mountainous region, where a white man was never seen before. My object was to examine a cave that yields nitre. It is a magnificent one in the side of a mountain, in the depths of a forest surrounded by mountains of great height and noble forms. I shall send you a particular account of this and other nitre caves I have visited. The rock is a mixture of quartz, felspar, mica, and talc, impregnated near the surface with nitre, nitrate of lime, and sulphate of magnesia, and in one spot with alum, and in another incrusted with hydralite, similar to that round the Geyser in Iceland. From the mountains of Doombera, I looked down on the wooded plains of Birtanna, and saw the great lake of Birtanna, which no European I believe ever before visited: it is full of alligators.

Returning to Kandy, after a short stay there I next came to this place, through a country almost entirely over-run with wood. I wish you could see some of the noble ebony trees which flourish here. Three days we travelled in a noble forest without seeing a single habitation, and without observing any traces of cultivation; but some fine remains of antiquity, especially about Candely lake, indicating that the country had once been in a very different state.

Topical Remedy for the Hydrophobia. Sig. A. M. Salvatori of Petersburgh, in a letter to Professor Morrichini of Rome, gives the following remedy for this dreadful malady:

"The inhabitants of Gadici, but when or how I know not, have made the important discovery, that near the ligament of the tongue of the man or animal bitten by a rabid animal, and becoming rabid, pustules of a whitish hue make their appearance, which open spontaneously about the 13th