of dogs and guns, and the varieties of game. It notices the remarkable
fact--that, notwithstanding 15,000 English agricultural labourers have
arrived in Canada within the last three years, they no more think of
shooting than if they were cockneys, and York, on the banks of a lake, and
surrounded by a forest, is positively without anything like a regular
supply of fish or game; yet it may be supposed that every twentieth of
these men, when at home, was a poacher, or had in his days infringed on
the game laws: "would a total repeal of the game laws produce anything of
a similar effect at home?"
Chapter V. relates to _Travelling and Communications_, with a few cookery
receipts of a London tavern, as frying beef-steak in butter; boiling green
peas till they burst, and serving them in a wash-hand basin; pickling
cucumbers, the size of a man's foot, with whiskey, and giving them a
"bilious, Calcutta-looking complexion, and slobbery, slimy consistence:
but," says the writer, "how poultry is dressed, so as to deprive it of
all taste and flavour, and give it much the appearance of an Egyptian
mummy, I am not sufficiently skilled in Transatlantic cookery to determine;
unless it be, by first boiling it to rags and then baking it to a chip in
an oven."
Chapter VI. relates to the _Soil_; in which are the following particulars
of Long Point:
"This country owes its settlement solely to the persevering industry of my
worthy and excellent friend, Colonel Talbot. Forty years ago, while
exploring the about-to-be province, on the staff of its governor, General
Simcoe, he was struck with the beauty and fertility of this tract; and
afterwards observing that, from the improvident grants of the colonial
government to friends and favourites, this fertile country, if left in
their hands, would continue for ages a howling wilderness, he procured
from the authorities at home an exclusive power of settling it. For this
purpose he set himself down in the very midst of the territory, without
another human habitation within fifty miles of him, and commenced his
arduous undertaking by cutting out roads, amidst much head-shaking from
the sage, and sneering from the ignorant. He however never was a man who
held as a part of his creed the wise aphorism, so often quoted in the
present day, '_Vox populi vox Dei_;' but held steadily on in the teeth of
opposition, vexation, and disappointment, until after about fifteen years
of unremitting labour and privation, it became so notorious in the
province, that even the executive government at York became aware that
there was such a place in existence as the Talbot settlement, where roads
were cut, and farms in progress:--and hereupon they rejoiced,--for it held
out to them just what they had long felt the want of,--a well-settled,
opened, and cultivated country, wherein to obtain estates for themselves,
their children, born and unborn, and their whole kith, kin, and allies.
When this idea, so creditable to the paternal feelings of these worthy
gentlemen was intimated to the Colonel, he could not be brought to see the
fitness of things in an arrangement which would confer on the next
generation, or the next again, the fruits of the labour of the present;
and accordingly, though his answer to the proposal was not couched in
terms quite so diplomatic as might have been wished, it was brief,
soldier-like, and not easily capable of misconstruction;--it was in these
words, 'I'll be ---- if you get one foot of land here;' and thereupon the
parties joined issue. On this, war was declared against him by his
Excellency in Council, and every means were used to annoy him here, and
misrepresent his proceedings at home; but he stood firm, and by an
occasional visit to the Colonial Office in England, he opened the eyes of
ministers to the proceedings of both parties, and for awhile averted the
danger. At length, some five years ago, finding the enemy was getting too
strong for him, he repaired once more to England, and returned in triumph
with an order from the Colonial Office, that nobody was in any way to
interfere with his proceedings; and he has now the pleasure of
contemplating some hundreds of miles of the best roads in the province,
closely settled on each side by the most prosperous farmers within its
bounds, who owe all they possess to his judgment, enthusiasm, and
perseverance, and who are grateful to him in proportion to the benefits he
has bestowed upon them, though in many instances much against their will
at the time. I spent a fortnight with him some eighteen months ago; and
certainly one of his levees with his settlers would, if as well reported,
be quite as amusing as one of those Mornings at Bow Street--that about the
time I left London were styled, by some wag, the leading articles of the
Morning Herald."
Chapter VII. describes the operation of the _Lumber Trade_, which has been
carried on as follows:
"A person, possessed of little or no capital and inflated with the spirit
of speculation, hires a number of hands, and purchases a quantity of
provisions (on credit), and betakes himself to the woods. His terms with
his men are to feed them, supply them with what necessaries they may
require, and pay them when he sells his raft."
Chapter VIII. enumerates the _Religious Sects_, and Chapter IX. consists
of _Odds and Ends_. From the latter we quote:
"Very erroneous notions are current in England with regard to the taxation
of the United States. The truth is, that though America is lightly taxed
in comparison with England, it is by no means to be considered so when
compared to most of the continental nations. The account usually rendered
of American taxation is fallacious. It is stated, that something under six
millions sterling, or about 10_s_. per head on an average, pays the whole
army, navy, civil list, and interest of debt of the United States, while
we require fifty millions, or nearly 2_l_. 10_s_. each, for the same
purpose. But the fact is, that that sum is only about half what the
Americans pay in reality; for each individual state has its own civil list,
and all the machinery of a government to support; and insignificant as the
expenses of that government appear in detail, yet the aggregate is of very
serious importance. For instance, there are five times as many judges in
the state of New York alone as in Great Britain and Ireland; and though
each individual of these were to receive no more than we would pay a macer
of the court, yet when there comes to be two or three hundred of them, it
becomes a serious matter; nor does it make any difference, in fact whether
they are paid out of the exchequer of the state, or by the fees of the
suitors in their courts; they are equally paid by a tax on the people in
either case. Although the necessaries of life are cheap in America, and
equally cheap in Canada, the luxuries of life are higher by several
hundred per cent in the one country than the other. Thus, wine in the
United States is so highly taxed, that in a tavern at New York you pay
more for a bottle of Madeira than in one at London, viz. five
dollars,--and fifteen shillings for port."
* * * * *
THE GATHERER.
LACONICS.
(_From the fourth edition of the work of that title_.)
The southern wits are like cucumbers, which are commonly all good in their
kind; but at best are an insipid fruit: while the northern geniuses are
like melons, of which not one in fifty is good; but when it is so, it is
an exquisite relish.--_Berkeley_.
* * * * *
There is some help for all the defects of fortune; for if a man cannot
attain to the length of his wishes, he may have his remedy by cutting of
them shorter.--_Cowley_.
* * * * *
Fear sometimes adds wings to the heels, and sometimes nails them to the
ground, and fetters them from moving.--_Montaigne_.
* * * * *
When I reflect, as I frequently do, upon the felicity I have enjoyed, I
sometimes say to myself, that, were the offer made true, I would engage to
run again, from beginning to end, the same career of life. All I would ask,
should be the privilege of an author, to correct in a second edition,
certain errors of the first.--_Franklin's Life_.
* * * * *
I do not call him a poet that writes for his own diversion, any more than
that gentleman a fiddler who amuses himself with a violin.--_Swift_.
* * * * *
Pleasure of meat, drink, clothes, &c., are forbidden those that know not
how to use them; just as nurses cry pah! when they see a knife in a
child's hand; they will never say any thing to a man.--_Selden_.
* * * * *
There be that can pack the cards, and yet cannot play well: so there are
some that are good in canvasses and factions, that are otherwise weak
men.--_Lord Bacon_.
* * * * *
A poet hurts himself by writing prose; as a race-horse hurts his motions
by condescending to draw in a team.--_Shenstone_.
* * * * *
I cannot imagine why we should be at the expense to furnish wit for
succeeding ages, when the former have made no sort of provision for
ours.--_Swift_.
* * * * *
Reserve is no more essentially connected with understanding, than a church
organ with devotion, or wine with good nature.--_Shenstone_.
* * * * *
Those beings only are fit for solitude, who like nobody, are like nobody,
and are liked by nobody.--_Zimmerman_.
* * * * *
Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders generally discover every
body's face but their own;--which is the chief reason for that kind of
reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with
it.--_Swift_.
* * * * *
Fools are very often united in the strictest intimacies, as the lighter
kinds of woods are the most closely glued together.--_Shenstone_.
* * * * *
Old sciences are unravelled like old stockings, by beginning at the
foot.--_Swift_.
* * * * *
If parliament were to consider the sporting with reputation of as much
importance as sporting on manors, and pass an act for the preservation of
fame, there are many would thank them for the bill.--_Sheridan_.
* * * * *
It is with wits as with razors, which are never so apt to cut those they
are employed on, as when they have lost their edge.--_Swift_.
* * * * *
Exile is no evil: mathematicians tell us that the whole earth is but a
point compared to the heavens. To change one's country then is little more
than to remove from one street to another. Man is not a plant, rooted to a
certain spot of earth: all soils and all climates are suited to him
alike.--_Plutarch_.
* * * * *
_Early Rising_.--The celebrated John Wesley, who became by habit an early
riser, says, "That the difference between rising at five and seven in the
morning, for the space of forty years, supposing a man to go to bed every
night at the same hour, is equivalent to an addition of ten years to his
life."
* * * * *
_Coronation Expenses of their present Majesties, William and Adelaide_.
£. s. d.
In the several departments of
their Majesties household .......22,234 10 3
By the Officers of Arms, for
the King's Heralds and
Pursuviants ......................1,478 3 9
In the Office of Works, for
fitting up the Abbey, &c. .......12,085 14 5
In the Mint, for Coronation
Medals ...........................4,326 4 6
The amount expended for
Fireworks, and for keeping
open the Public Theatres
on the night of the
Coronation .......................3,034 8 7
----------------
Total .........£43,159 11 6
----------------
The Coronation of his late Majesty, George the Fourth, amounted to more
than £268,000.
* * * * *
_Narrow Escape_.--Andrea Boscoli, the Italian painter, studied after
nature; and in his travels he drew sketches of any particular objects that
struck him. While pursuing this practice at Loretto, with regard to the
fortifications of the city, he was seized by the officers of justice, and
condemned to be hanged; but he happily escaped, within a few hours of
execution, by the interposition of Signor Bandini, who explained to the
chief magistrate his innocent intention. P.T.W.
* * * * *
_Women alias Angels_.--Acidalius, the eminent grammarian and critic, whom
Baillet reckons among his _Enfans celebres_, printed a small tract in 1595,
intitled _Mulieres non esse homines_, or that "Women were not of the human
species," which was falsely ascribed to him. He only accidently found the
manuscript and printed it. It is said, that in order to appease the wrath
of some ladies, who reproached him as the author, he declared his opinion,
that the author was a judicious person, the ladies being certainly more of
the species of angels than of men. P.T.W.
* * * * *
COMPLETION of VOL. XIX. of THE MIRROR.
Now publishing, price Twopence,
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WITH A STEEL-PLATE PORTRAIT OF
THE RIGHT HON. EARL GREY,
A Memoir of his Lordship, and Title-page, Preface,
and Index to Vol. XIX.
* * * * *
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