Ireland is thus successively on the increase, as well from emigration as from other causes. The Protestant in general does not marry so young as the Catholic; he has more the ideas of an Englishman, and likes to provide some sort of settlement before he takes a wife. The Catholic, more improvident, marries while yet a youth, "piles up a heap of sods into a cabin," rears potatoes, and gets children like a patriarch of old.

The present traveller is very angry, and, in our opinion, with great reason, at the ridicule which tourists and dramatists still endeavour to throw on the habits and conversation of the Irish. We agree with him that much mischievous misrepresentation occurs on this subject; and that authors may be said to “manufacture Irish bulls in their garrets as vintners do port in their cellars." It is the duty of a tourist to give a picture, not a caricature; to observe men and manners; and to render a report for the instruction more than for the amusement of his readers :but, so far from doing this, the majority of travellers in Ireland appear to deem it incumbent on them to pursue the track of their predecessors, and to continue a supply of food for ancient prejudices; they go about, accordingly, twisting and perverting innocent expressions, and making bulls when they cannot find them. On referring to the well known principle in human nature, that contempt is still harder to be borne than injury, we shall not be at a loss to discover that the alienation of the Irish towards their fellow-subjects derives its origin, in no slight degree, from this offensive source.-The traits of national character in the present work, are very much in the style of former writers; and the author, in this as in other things, is often irregular and declamatory, though he seldom fails to convey a lively impression of his ideas. He mentions (p. 136,) the feeble resistance made in the year 1798 by a numerous body of insurgents who had fought before with courage, but were assailed in an unlucky moment by a small party of yeomanry:

"These unfortunate wretches made, it would appear, but a poor resistance, unworthy of their former reputation.-This will not be wondered at, by those who understand the character of the lower Irish -who are, beyond all others, governed by wild and unsettled emo tion, and are often as helpless in depression, as they are bold and enterprising under less desperate circumstances.-The courage of the Irish peasant, like all his other virtues, is headlong, violent, and unreflecting.-Furious in attack, cheered by example, and animated by hope, regardless of consequences, he rushes boldly into the cannon's mouth; but in hopeless danger, which he has leisure coolly to survey, his fortitude almost always forsakes him,-despair, which often gives courage to others, who never possessed it before, softens and relaxes his."

In contrasting the habits of the English and the Irish, the author gives by a few touches (p. 165,) an animated idea of their opposite character and tendency. With the one, all is the gratification of the moment; while, with the other, a provision for the future appears the foremost consideration. The Irishman delights in the " present moment, the present spot, the present company;" while the Englishman has comparatively a limited enjoyment of these, "and lives in the future, the distant, and the absent." Fortunate, however, as the disposition of the former is in some respects, it seldom fails to be attended, in advanced life, with the general consequences of improvidence. This fact is strikingly illustrated by a conversation which is represented (p. 172,) as taking place between the author and a lady, whose residence gave her the means of knowing the history of the companions of his youth:

"We talked of times that were long past, and of persons I had once well known-there was not one family among whom great changes had not taken place; and so much I fear does misery predominate over happiness, that not even in one of them was the change for the better,-many whom I left children, were grown up to men and women, and had turned out ill; many whom I left old and infirm, were alive still, a burden to others, as well as themselves;-while the healthy and vigorous, in the bloom of youth and fulness of manhood, had been snatched away, and now mouldered in the tomb.-There had been considerable emigration to America, a desire of change had taken some; poverty and drunkenness more. This latter vice had made great progress among the youth, and several promising young men were destroyed by it."

In the exposition of the character of the citizens of Dublin, the author dwells with much energy (p. 81,) on their charity; "a charity not founded on acts of parliament, nor weighed and measured by the standard of law, but the offspring of a sympathetic heart." He has the candour, on the other hand, to acknowledge that the progress of reason is abundantly slow in Ireland, and that much of what is really vice is not so deemed. Drunkenness among the lower orders is not accounted a sin; nor is quarrelling :-but we have had enough of these ungracious topics, and willingly relinquish them in order to transcribe the author's opinion of the ladies :

"In general they are fair and well-looking-They are not unsuccessful copyists of English fashions, and have a good deal the appearance of English women. If there is a shade of difference, it is that their features are harsher, and their persons rather more masculine. They are very fond of dancing, in which they display more vivacity and rapidity of movement than elegance or grace. This, perhaps

may be no evil. Young women who are taught the steps of opera dancers, are often apt to learn their tricks. They are more acute and knowing than English women.-They have not (I think) by any means, so much sensibility; their passions are not so easily inflamed. They can play about a flame, therefore, which would singe and consume an English woman. They have probably more vanity, and they have certainly more pride. In an Irish country town, there are four or five different degrees in female rank, and each class looks down with sovereign contempt on the one below it. Yet so strange a thing is human nature-so admirably are disadvantages, balanced by corresponding advantages, that I have doubts whether the negative qualities of this very vice of pride do not do as much good, as any positive virtue; at least, if female chastity is the essential virtue that people are disposed to think it. Irish pride gives chastity to the females, in a degree that hardly any country this day in Europe can boast of. Adultery, or an intrigue even, is unknown among females in the middle class.-A married woman may be violent, may be a termagant. An unmarried one, may be pert, may be ignorant, may be flippant, --but they are,

Chaste as the icicle,

That hangs on Dian's fane.'

Pride, pride is the buckram and whalebone in the stays of Irish chastity, which enables it to walk through life, as stately as a duchess at a coronation."

Our readers would be led to pronounce too favourable an opinion on the compositions of this traveller, were they to judge of the volume at large by the passages which we have extracted. From a wish to exhibit the useful parts of the book, we have hitherto avoided dwelling on the author's eccentric declamations and wandering digressions: but we are bound, in critical justice, to admit that they constitute a considerable proportion of the printed matter before us. Meeting accidentally with a friend who had been one of his comrades in the expedition to Holland, in 1799, he enters into a long detail of that unfortunate enterprize; and much of the well-known political disturbances of Ireland in late years is here repeated :—but the theatre affords him the principal fund for extraneous dissertations; and that topic seems uppermost to his recollection in his leisure moments, from the beginning of his peregrinations at Liverpool till they approached to their close at Ömagh. Another charge that we must prefer against him is a redundance of common-place quotations. He draws largely for this purpose on Shakspeare and Goldsmith; while the rapidity with which he flies from one subject to ano ther, and the abrupt appeals which he occasionally makes to his reader, may be said to afford an amusing exemplification of that irregularity which he is so ready to lament in the character of

his countrymen. Our third subject of complaint is of a different nature, and regards his inaccuracy in the observation of external objects. He acknowledges (p. 16,) that he is remarkably shortsighted; and as he does not appear to have called in the indispensable aid of glasses, he is apt to make remarks (p. 148,) on the illegibility of direction-posts, which would scarcely occur to any but a short-sighted traveller. On this charge, however, we are not disposed to lay much stress; the chief drawback of the book is the oddity already mentioned in the style, which is so conspicuous from the commencement, as to create a very unfavourable preposition in regard to the general merit of the production. It is to be apprehended, therefore, that many readers may lay down the work in disgust: but those who persevere will have the satisfaction of discovering that the writer, however volatile, is no where tedious, and that his sudden aberrations are generally followed by sound and liberal observations.

FROM THE BRITISH CRITIC.

The Geographical, Natural, and Civil History of Chili. Translated from the original Italian of the Abbe Don J. Ignatius Molina. To which are added, Notes from the Spanish and French Versions, and two Appendixes, by the English editor; the first, an account of the Archipelago of Chiloe, from the Description Historical of P. F. Pedro Gonzalez de Agueros; the second, an account of the native Tribes who inhabit the southern extremity of South America, extracted chiefly from Falkner's description of Patagonia. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 746. 18s. Longman, & Co. 1809.

IT must be perfectly unnecessary to state how very scanty our information has hitherto been, relative to the actual condition of Spanish America, both with regard to its natural history and civil policy. The vigilance and the jealousy of that government has systematically checked and suppressed any attempt to make that very interesting portion of their possessions more familiarly known, and very few publications at present exist at all calculated to throw light upon the subject.

The original author of this work was Don Juan Ignatius, a native of Chili, and a member of the celebrated order of the Jesuits. On the suppression of that subtle and powerful society, he was expelled from the territories of Spain, and took refuge at Bologna in Italy. As he was particularly eminent for his literary accomplishments, and above all for his knowledge of natural history, it is not surprising that he should be deprived of his collec

those animals that have not young, on the approach of the pagi at tempt to save themselves by flight; the ass alone, from his want of speed, is compelled to defend himself with his heels, which frequently proves successful; but should the pagi, notwithstanding his efforts, leap upon his back, he immediately throws himself on the ground, and endeavous to crush him, or runs with all his force against the trunks of trees, holding his head down so as not to dislocate his neck. By these means he generally succeeds in freeing himself from his assailant, and there are but few asses destroyed by an enemy so frequently fatal to much stronger animals.

"Notwithstanding his ferocity, the pagi never ventures to attack a man, although he is continually hunted and persecuted by the latter. He is naturally a coward, and a woman or child will make him fly and abandon his prey. He is hunted with dogs trained for the purpose, and when hard pressed by them, either leaps upon a tree, seeks an asylum upon a rock, or placing himself against the trunk of some large tree, defends himself in a furious manner, killing many of his enemies, until the hunter, watching his opportunity, slips a noose around his neck. As soon as the animal finds himself taken in this manner, he roars terribly, and sheds a torrent of tears. The skin serves for various uses; good leather for boots or shoes is manufac tured from it, and the fat is considered as a specific in the sciatica."* Vol. I. p. 244.

To the first volume there is added a methodical table of the various species of natural productions described in the work, a supplement to the table of the vegetable kingdom, and supplementary notes illustrative of the History of Chili.

The second volume is divided into four books, and is peculi arly full of interest and entertainment. The first treats of the origin, &c. of the Chilians, the state of the country before and after the arrival of the Spaniards. The second book gives the history and description of the Araucanians, a brave and gallant people, who long and successfully withstood the combined efforts of the army of Spain. This portion of the work commands the strongest sympathy for the high spirit of independence which marked this nation, evinced in their unyielding and protracted opposition to their powerful and disciplined enemies. From this part it seems due to the author to subjoin an extract.

Although the Araucanians have long since emerged from a sav age state, they nevertheless preserve, in many respects, the prejudices, and the peculiar character of that early, period. Proud of their valour and unbounded liberty, they believe themselves the only people in the world that deserve the name of men. From hence it is that besides the appellation of auca, or free, which they value so highly, they give themselves metonymically the names of che, or the nation;

* See Pennant and Shaw on Felis Puma. The latter, has a good figure of the animal. Rev.