is a short lived race. It matters not to the question, whether this be true or not. It is singular if true, and the evidence is pretty strong, but it belongs to a department of Physiol ogy, which can have no important bearing upon the "question of hybrids." If it attaches to the Mulatto as a hybrid, then the same result must be looked for in the offspring of other crosses, not only in the human race, but among the inferior animals. But we know not the facts to warrant the assertion of such a general law. We have never heard that the mule was shorter lived than its parents. "I believe," says the writer, "that if a hundred white men and one hundred black women were put together on an island, and cut off from all intercourse with the rest of the world, they would in time become extinct." p. 34. I presume that our author would not assume one law for the Mulatto, another for the Mestizo, etc., and we must therefore take it for granted, that if the offspring of any two human races would run out, such would be the case in all. But the population of Pitcairn's Island, which was setstled in 1790, by English sailors and Tahitian women, regularly increased up to 1840, the last date of which we have any information. Dr. Morton says, that the modern Nubians are a mixed race of Arabs and Negroes, but we know not that they give any signs of extinction. Dr. Nott himself, speaks of the mixture of races in Africa and other parts of the world, as having been going on "from time immemorial;" (p. 34.) he says, "there are good grounds for believing that the varieties of men seen in any particular country, and the physical approximation seen in different tribes, originate in the mingling of different races; (p. 40.) that "Egypt and the Barbary States" were once "occupied by Caucasian colonies, and now by their mixed descendants;" that "Carthage... was a Caucasian colony from Asia,"....but "her people have been conquered and adulterated in blood by African hordes ;" (pp. 35-6.) and that it is reasonable to suppose, that there is not at present a single unmixed race on the face of the earth." (p, 28.) Surely his own facts do not warrant our author's conclusion, that "defective internal organization which leads to ultimate destruction, exists in the Mulatto," and "they would in time become extinct." The "Moral and Intellectual" division of the argument, we have not space or inclination to discuss. The "facts" under this head, are rather contingent than essential to the question, and cannot afford even a presumption of specific distinction. We should however be obliged to dissent from much of our author's argument, were we to consider it, for some statements do not seem correct, and his inferences are loose and remote. Much opposing testimony could also be furnished. The last topic is the "Affinity of Languages," and is a highly important branch of the argument for the unity of the human race. Dr. N. has passed it by with only a casual though specious objection. The "facts" on this subject are too numerous and stubborn to be set aside by a conjecture. Such men as Klaproth, Abel-Remusat, Adelung, Merian, the Schlegels, Humboldt and Herder, cannot be driven from their broad and stable ground by the breath of a supposition. We have not space for an intelligible outline of this subject, and must refer the reader to the general conclusions of some of these authors, which we have given in our remarks upon Wiseman's first two Lectures. In our review of these Lectures, we have endeavored to do the author no injustice. We have used occasional expressions of severity, but we considered it due to truth and science, that such a publication should not pass without merited rebuke. On perusing the pamphlet, we came to the conclusion that the writer was a young man, too eager for taking rank among savans to wait for a due digestion of his varied reading, too impatient for the slow toil of laying deep and sure the foundations of an impregnable reputation. The fame of his present essay will rest upon other ground than success, "Major deceptæ fama est et gloria dextræ. One word upon his motto and we have done. It contains a sophism worthy of Voltaire or Rousseau, in the confounding of the faculty and the acts of reason. We marvel that any man should adopt it who recognizes, (and who can fail to recognize?) the continual perversion of reason by mankind, and thus attribute to the Deity all the operations of the human reason. If one should say,-"My tongue being the work of God, it is the voice of heaven which speaks by it, and it must be listened to;" he would speak as much truth and no more blasphemy, than in the utterance of the other. We would recommend the following as far more modest and infinitely more truthful. Si l'imagination ou l'ignorance n'avoient pas tant de fois séduit la raison, lat somme de nos connoisances seroit infiniment plus grande ou celle de nos erreurs infiniment moindre. C. ART. VI. THE JUDICIAL TENURE. The proposed alteration of "the Judicial Tenure" in South-Carolina. Discussed by "THE BLACK SLUGGARD." Hamburg. 1844. pp. 30. THIS controversy is at end. We trust no daring spirit will again be found to disturb the quiescence into which it has settled. When party feeling mingles with a question, it at once assumes a new aspect,-it at once derives an undue importance,-a wrong position. The Colossus stands where the pigmy would have otherwise hardly shown itself. The last of all questions which should be involved in the meshes of politics, is that of the Judiciary. Unless an innovation upon this branch of the government be all-important, in heaven's name let the Judiciary alone. The people have decided upon this step. We shall see how long that decision is to be maintained. A word or two, however, from us, may not be altogether out of season. We may think upon a question, although we may not act. Let us indulge a few reflections here. We have before us a publication of rather quaint and eccentric character. Learning, originality and oddity, go hand in hand in it together. The combined force of the whole has been found irresistible. To use the caption of one of the chapters, "The effect was tremendous,-the Bastion was restored." The production has been attributed to one of our ablest lawyers. The bench, the bar and the public will acknowledge their indebtedness. It attacked the proposed innovation, and beat it down with a tempest of blows. The monster must indeed be hydra-headed to appear again. But what is this great question of the Judiciary? The reasons they tell us for changing the "tenure," are, that the incumbents almost universally, at the period of sixty-five years of age, are rendered naturally incompetent, both in mind and body, to discharge the judicial functions. It is assumed, that according to the ordinary course of nature, the mind is weak and unsettled at that age,-that its light burns with a faint and sickly flame, or hangs fitfully and tremblingly over its socket, if indeed it be not quite extinguished. If this really were a universal rule, or if it were sufficiently general to approximate to a universal rule, there could scarcely be found an individual who would undertake to oppose for a moment the contemplated change in our judicial tenure;-for Judges were created certainly for the immediate interest of communities, and when they fail to subserve this purpose, they should not be allowed to occupy situations which might enable them to do irreparable mischief. The present, however, is one of those matters, in which, above all things, we should not act hurriedly or unadvisedly. We should pause awhile and reflect, that we would be depriving ourselves of the advantage of the matured wisdom and experience of such men as Chief Justice Marshall, Mr. Justice Story, Mr. Chancellor Kent, and others, by the operation and terms of so sweeping and indiscriminating a rule as that which has been proposed. It is true we have precedent, in this respect, furnished us by several of the States of the Union,-Maine, New-Hampshire and Connecticut have severally limited the tenure to the period of seventy years, and the Judges of the Supreme Court and of the inferior Courts of Common Pleas of the several counties of New-Jersey, are only suffered to enjoy their office for the space of seven years. There are, however, other sections of the Union, in which, as with us at present, the only tenure is that of good behaviour. The States of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky, for a long series of years have experienced no disadvantage from this feature of their Constitution, and would show that this panic exists nowhere but in the imagination. Indeed, we all naturally look upon old age as the period of wisdom. We reflect that at that time of life, our reason is not blinded by our passions, that the general temperament is more calm and sober and equable. The ancients justly regarded it as a season of life peculiarly entitled to reverence and authority. It has been said, Temeritas est videlicet florentis ætatis, prudentia senescentis.* With regard to the opinion, that a • Cic. de Senec., cap. 6. man of advanced years is incompetent to discharge the duties of a public station, we will beg leave to make use of some historical facts and biographical reminiscences, which may perhaps induce us to speak less disparagingly of this period of life. It is related, that among the Lacedemonians those who had filled the highest magistracies, as they actu ally were, so they were styled old men. The same author goes on to say, that, with regard to foreign States, it will invariably be discovered that they have been ruined by the young, and sustained by the wisdom and experience of the old. Again,-whatever space of time was appointed to elapse before the commencement of the period of old age, the career of honours was always commensurate, and its extreme was more enviable than any intermediate portion, in this respect, that more authority and less labour was awarded it. But the summit of old age was ever crowned with supreme authority. It is said of Paulus, Africanus and Maximus, that not only were their sentiments and opinions entitled to the greatest weight and authority, but even the very nod of their heads was pregnant with wisdom. And we cannot but admire the prudence of the Grecian general's prayer, that he might have ten such sons as the wise old Nestor, instead of the vigorous Ajax, for he did not doubt that such a circumstance would seal the fate of Troy. With regard to the question, therefore, whether or not the mental faculties are impaired by age, we apprehend that no general rule advocating the affirmative can be laid down, which does not conflict with philosophy and experience. There is no man who will undertake to say that there exists so intimate a connection between the mind and the body, that the one is necessarily affected by the decrepitude of the other. We do not deny that this is the case with some individuals, especially such as have not had the advantage of education and mental cultivation. Our modern treatises on insanity abound with instances of bodily ailments disordering the faculties of the mind, but the case we are at present considering is that of men who are only objected to in consequence of a natural incompetency to discharge their usual duties, which time is supposed to induce. We have said before that no general rule could be prescribed with regard to this matter; for let us look for a moment at the ordinary occupations of life, which require no unusual mental capacity, will any one say at what time a man should stop business. Have we not frequently seen men |