strenuous exertions of its capturer. Every minute might | public in a collected form, the utility of such a be seen an unusually powerful rein furiously dragging a work would fall far short of that afforded by the Lap round and round the inclosure, and occasionally it would fairly overcome the restraint of the thong, and whirl present volume. Years hence it may be forgotten, its antagonist prostrate on the sod. This part of the scene or but vaguely and traditionally remembered, was highly exciting, and one could not but admire the whether the palm of superior skill or superior great muscular strength and the trained skill evinced by industry were the due meed of France or Austria, all the Laps, women as well as men. The resistance of a rein being overcome, the Lap would take a dexterous hitch Italy or Russia; but the period can hardly arrive of the thong round his muzzle and head, and then fasten when a book giving the minutest details respecting him to a trunk of a prostrate tree, many of which had been the rise, progress, and completion, from turret to brought within the level inclosure for that especial purpose. foundation-stone, of structure such as the world Even when thus confined, some of the reins plunged in the never yet saw, such as the fertile imaginations of most violent manner. Men and women were indiscriminately engaged, both in singling out milch reins and in authors of fairy-tale never dreamt of, when such a milking them. The wooden bowl, previously described, book will not be perused with unabated interest. was held in the operator's left hand, and he then slapped Nothing, we confidently affirm, can be more the udder of the rein several times with the palm of the clear, precise, or elucidatory than this present hisright hand; after which, moistening the tips of his fingers with his lips, he rapidly completed the operation. I paid tory that we owe to the able and united efforts of particular attention to the amount of milk yielded by a Messrs. Berlyn and Fowler. No single detail resingle rein, noticing only bowls which had not previously lating to the construction of this well-nigh fabulous received contributions; and I found that although some edifice has been omitted. We are enabled to test yielded little more than a gill, others gave at least double, its claims to preference above its rivals by judging and a few thrice, that quantity. I think the fair average for ourselves, from the text and plans before us, of might be half-a-pint. This milk is as thick as the finest cream from the cow, their comparative merits. We have, moreover, the and is luscious beyond description. It has a fine aromatic opportunity of tracing its career amid the thousand smell, and, in flavour, reminded me most strongly of cocoa- obstacles thrust forth by ignorance or prejudice nut milk. No stranger could drink much of it at a time to impede its course, and thus can we the better It is impossible to give an adequate idea of the impres-appreciate the glorious result of the successful sive, exhilirating tout ensemble of the whole inclosure. Every soul seemed fully occupied, for even the little Lap children were practising the throwing of the lasso, and evinced great dexterity, although their strength was insufficient to hold the smallest doe. it is too rich. struggle. Mr. Berlyn is, we find, about to publish an account of the "curiosities and wonders" now collected in this graceful building. If he deal but one-half as well with his narrative of the interior Here is a description of the famous "rein- as he has succeeded with his history of the exterior, hunds:" This unique breed of dogs is invaluable to the Laplander, and they set a proportionately high value on the creature, and can only with great difficulty be induced to part with one. Nevertheless, they are said to be very cruel masters to these dogs. The rein-deer dog is about the size of a Scotch terrier, but its head bears a wonderful resemblance to that of the lynx. Its colour varies considerably, but the hair is always long and shaggy. his name will be for ever associated with this mighty undertaking. Manual of the Anatomy and Physiology of the noster-row. 1851. To convey an adequate notion of the fallacies or Our space compels us to omit mention of the merits of a work treating of subjects lofty and many interesting spots visited by our enterprising comprehensive as those we have here discussed, traveller. Young, hardy, intelligent, and, above would of itself entail on us the necessity of ourall, kind hearted and good tempered, he sees every-selves giving to our readers a metaphysical thing and everybody (with the exception of the treatise. Such would be misplaced in columns naughty town of Göteborg) en couleur de rose, and devoted exclusively to the consideration of works his account of all he sees is animated in the extreme. Generally speaking, his style is terse and graphic, as becomes the subject-matter it deals with, although it is occasionally impaired by a tendency to affectation of sentiment which the author will do wisely to avoid when next he recounts his further wanderings. However, we heartily recommend his present volumes to our readers, with the assurance that they will find both pleasure and profit in their perusal. And here will we bid adieu to the Wandernder Vogel, wishing him God speed and a pleasant journey. of literature or fiction. Thus much, however, can we do, and that is, to recommend to such as are in the habit of applying their mental powers to the consideration of the nature, constitution and relation of those powers, the perusal of Mr. Carlile's Manual, as he modestly terms a work replete with the sound cogitations of one who has taken earnest counsel from the wisdom and research of his predecessors in the difficult path he has chosen. The very term metaphysics, combined with the thousand-and-one absurdities that crude empirics have, under such title, sought to foist on popular attention, have of themselves sufficed to deter many a one from engaging in disquisitions the most exalting that can employ the human intellect anxious to fathom the great gnothi seauton mystery. Our reverend philosopher has enunciated his WERE all that has been written, suggested, or sur-grave and elaborate lucubrations in a style not mised respecting the marvels, uses, or abuses of only concise and intelligible to the most indolent this great wonder of the world to be given to the thinker, but also in terms such as to render emi The Crystal Palace. Its Architectural History and LIST OF WORKS RECEIVED, AND UNDER nently interesting the mighty truths and theories female education it were judicious to accord the he would inculcate. In confirmation of his merits preference. in this respect we would particularly refer our readers to the chapter on "Memory," and those treating on the "Operations depending on Perception." They are most lucidly written, and the train of reasoning which they present is so clear and unbroken that it can be well followed by those the least addicted to abstruse researches. Recollections of Mrs. Anderson's School. By JANE THIS pleasing little volume is written in order to The Jesuits, their Rise and Progress. Lee's Botanical Looker-On. Pipe of Repose. Hand-book of Natural Philosophy, &c. Reid on the Steam-Engine. Lebahn's German Grammar, &c. Spirit and Scope of Education. Bunting's Lecture. British Controversialist. of 11,4837. Os. 9d. WHETHER the experimental application of a great prin- | pany, 1,015, assuring 303,7791., and yielding a revenue ciple meet with failure or success, it is not the less to be respected by all interested in its development. Fortunately, the report before us demands our congratulation, and needs not appeal to our sympathy. The establishment of the Indisputable Life Policy Company introduced a bold and daring innovation in the system hitherto pursued by insurance-societies, viz., the recognition of the owner of the policy's claims to recover its value without being harassed by a tedious and expensive process to prove those claims incontestable. Rien ne réussit comme le succés; and the present report speaks trumpet-tongued in favour of a principle which, however unwelcome it may prove in Westminster Hall, will, we venture to predict, secure the thorough appreciation of those who are anxious, not only to secure, but to insure, beyond all possibility of chance or doubt, certain advantages to those destined to survive them. The singular proceedings that took place before our courts during the last term afford no unapt comment on the text adopted by the Indisputable Life Policy Company, Caveat emptor. Fraud can scarcely be practised undetected in the preliminary inquiries, without great laches being committed either by the medical officer or those appointed to investigate into the value of the answers to such inquiries. We subjoin the following statistics, which will enable our readers to estimate the condition and prospects of the Company. It appears that, at the date of their last annual meeting, the Company had issued 631 policies, assuring the sum of 193,5737. 16s., and yielding a revenue of 7,4391. 12s. 2d.; and in the course of the last twelve months there have been received 439 proposals for the assurance of 148,9551.6s. Of these proposals, 384 have been accepted and completed, assuring 110,2051. 4s., and yielding in annual premiums 4,0341. 8s. 7d., making the number of policies issued, within three years from the establishment of the Com Whilst upon the subject of insurance-offices we will avail ourselves of this opportunity to advert to certain anhappy differences that have arisen between companies and the medical attendants of those referred to by persons anxious to effect insurances. These gentlemen, it appears, require to be remunerated for the very trifling informa tion they are requested to impart. Now we are utterly at a loss to conceive on what principle they can assert such claim, and still more why they should prefer it before the Companies. Let it be borne in mind, that by their answer to the questions asked they are forwarding the interests of their patients desirous to insure certain advantages to which their co-operation is a sine quả non. If A purchase a house from B, A must bear the expense of the necessary deeds of conveyance; so if A wish to insure his life with B, he must at his charge comply with the requisite conditions. In nine cases out of ten a simple negative or affirmative is all that is required from the medical attendant of the proposer, and we should imagine that there existed between such medical attendant and his patient mutual relations of good feeling that would utterly preclude the former from taking a pecuniary or professional view of a transaction so simple. What would result were the various companies sufficiently ill-advised to concede demands so illiberal and unjust? Why, the public would be the sufferers, as the assured would either have to put up with s diminution of bonus or an increase of premium. We are glad to find that at length a pamphlet on this subject has appeared. It is entitled "Medical Combinations against Life Insurance Companies." The subject has there undergone a most able, fair, and dispassionate discussion, and we unhesitatingly recommend it to such of our readers interested in a subject of no slight importance. * London: Orr and Co., Paternoster-row. 1851. LONDON: SALISBURY AND CO., PRINTERS, BOUVERIE-STREET AND PRIMROSE-HILL, FLEET-STREET. TAIT'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. SEPTEMBER, 1851. PARLIAMENTARY SESSION OF 1851. EVERY Parliamentary Session has its characteristic; head-with no danger overcome, yet with all the the session of 1851 has two, or the alternative of losses and evils of a struggle-with no work done, two-it is to be regarded as fruitless or as insin- yet utterly used-up and exhausted. cere, one or other, or both. The fruitlessness may be debateable; some people will say, and a few may actually think, that in a leaf of printed paper called "An Act to prevent the Assumption of certain Ecclesiastical Titles in respect of places in the United Kingdom," they have really got something worth their money, time, and tribulation (we shall consider that point before we have done); but as to the other characteristic of the session, its being, in an emphatic sense and an unparalleled degree, insincere, it is a universal intuitive conviction, or, if not, is absolutely demonstrable by merely recalling to recollection certain plain and unquestioned facts. On the great question of the day, the one product of the session, people and Parliament, Ministry and Opposition, have alike been playing, and playing with an affectation of more than ordinary earnestness, a part in which they were not sincere, which they (latterly at least) knew to be both foolish and mischievous, and which they would have dropped and repudiated but for the shame of confessing themselves in the wrong, and the baser fear of one another. These may seem strong assertions; but only let the reader, while we summarise the history and results of this wretched business, suppose some such question as the Reform Bill of 1831 to be substituted for the Aggression Bill of 1851, and deny, if he can, that the conduct of all the parties concerned is utterly inconsistent with the hypothesis either of their being sincere, or of their dealing with a real and tangible evil or peril. At the best, the conduct and the present plight of the Ministry, and those who joined in their crusade, is a parallel to that of Don Quixote in his famous assault on the dust-enveloped flock of sheep. They set lance at rest, and charged furiously at they did not know what. Finding out that they had no enemy, no "aggression," to cope withal, they have yet gone through with the engagement with as much show of prowess as if they had been fighting a real battle and slaying a real enemy; and now we have our Knight of the Rueful Countenance sitting by the wayside, with no glory gained, yet with some of his best teeth knocked out of his VOL. XVIII.-NO. CCXIII. That there was a good deal of sincere "alarm and indignation" in the country at first, and even that there remains some yet, are facts not inconsistent with what we are here maintaining. There is, as there always was, a certain proportion of the population who live in constant dread and horror of the Popish religion, and who deem it a thing which the law should not permit to live. The sincerity of these we do not question, and of their principles we need say no more than that they are irreconcileable with the legislation of the last two generations, with reason and justice, and with the peace of the country. Then there is an incomparably larger body-the bulk, we may say, of the people at large-who, like ourselves, apart from all questions of theology, view the Roman Catholic system with a certain unavoidable amount of dislike and distrust, as in its workings unfavourable to intellectual, and necessarily in the end to political, freedom. A considerable but not a preponderating proportion of these at first followed Lord John Russell's lead, though doubtingly or indifferently; a smaller proportion took up the matter hotly; and a still smaller continued to adhere after the delusion had been detected by the bulk of the earlier dupes. Remembering that, in the case of all former alarms of the same kind, people had been accustomed to see even Tory statesmen labouring to correct and moderate, while in the present case they found even Liberal statesmen labouring to mislead and inflame, it is not to be wondered at that at the first even the intelligent and the tolerant should have joined in a delusion so authorised and dignified. But what we say is, that not even at the commencement was the movement anything like cordially or generally participated in, save in the metropolis, and the districts influenced more immediately and abjectly by the London press and London politicians; and that long ago, and even in the London and Londonridden districts, the bubble utterly burst and dissipated. The proofs are numerous and easy. We cannot expect people to confess the mistake as publicly and formally as they made it; it is not in human nature that they should assemble together 2 M and pass resolutions saying to their Papist fellow is a very considerable part of the country. Mancountrymen, "We have sinned against common-chester may ask some things which the country is sense and against you." But they have proclaimed not prepared to grant, but a movement which their return to a sound mind by actual deeds as Manchester unanimously condemns and resists well as by silence and inaction, under circumstances cannot possibly be a national movement. Again, which, had they been or remained in earnest, would and to come nearer to the centre of the evil, the have caused them to speak in thunder and act with London district, there was, in the month of irresistible energy. June, a vacancy in the representation of Greenwich, and again the candidates were two Liberals, chiefly distinguished by being one for and one against legislation on the "aggression" question. Although Mr. Wire and his friends did their utmost to rekindle the smoking embers, by clamouring that Mr. Salomons was not only, as a Jew, unqualified to sit, but that he was "in league with the Papists," the electors treated the charge with cool contempt; and Mr. Salomons was not only returned by an overwhelming majority of the electors, but was all through (we shall not say because of, but certainly in spite of, his declaration against "the national movement"), in an emphatic sense, the popular candidate. We say again, that if the movement had been really national, or if it had been even metropolitan, in any sincere and rooted sense, this never could have happened; for Greenwich is not only a part of the country, but, which is of special interest and significancy in the present case, is a large part of London. Leaping from England to Scotland, and from burghs to counties, there was, in May, a keen contest for the representation of the united counties of Clackmannan and Kinross. Both candidates were Liberals and Free-traders, though the one was a consistent Liberal and the other an old Tory passing into Radicalism. Although both candidates were driven to great shifts, neither of them thought it possible to make political capital" out of the "aggression" question. Mr. Adam loosely indicated an intention to vote for the ministerial bill as cut down by its authors to a single clause, and before Sir F. Thesiger's and Mr. Walpole's amendments had been made, hinting at the same time that he thought that, even in that condition, it went fully far enough. His opponent, Mr. Johnstone, though an office-bearer and leader in the Church haunts of the Establishment, and having all the ecclesiastical party on his side, passed the subject by with the contemptuous remark, "Too much has been made of it." The constituency preferred Mr. Johnstone, who, as soon as he took his seat, voted for an amendment moved by Mr. Monsell, which would have insured the result (at present only likely) of the bill being a dead letter. We shall add another instance, differing from the rest in its nature, but perhaps even still more striking and conclusive. In April, Mr. James Moncrieff was appointed Lord-Advocate for Scotland, an office not only equivalent in its duties to that of Attorney-General for England, but being in addition virtually the Scotch Secre taryship of State. The new Minister offered himself for the Leith district of burghs in an unusually long address, entering upon an unusual variety of subjects, and containing on the subject on which the nation was declared to be infuriated, and regarding the ministerial bill, which was Five months ago we made the assertion which we have here repeated, as to the "alarm and indignation" having been from the first enormously aggravated, and having since (if we may use the phrase) enormously dwindled. Since we wrote, the dwindling process has gone on with steadiness and rapidity, and the fact has been proved by actual and unmistakeable events. Proceeding almost at random, let us look at what we are taught by the elections, and by some occurrences equivalent to elections, which have taken place within these four months in several constituencies of various sizes and ingredients. Early in April, a vacancy (by the resignation of a Conservative) occurred in the representation of the city of Coventry, a constituency that may fairly be taken as an average exponent of public opinion -large, independent, and mixed; so Liberal as to have returned the Right Hon. Edward Ellice for more than thirty years-so Conservative as to have always had at least one of its seats contested, and often (as at the last general election) carried, by a Tory. Two candidates presented themselvesMr. Strutt, claiming on his old and eminent services to the Liberal cause, and Mr. Geach, equally a Liberal in his opinions, and with only some local or personal circumstances weighing in his favour against Mr. Strutt's greater eminence and celebrity. But one broad distinction there was between them. Mr. Strutt (though he had manifestly no heart in the matter) declared he would support the ministerial "anti-Papal" measure. Mr. Geach placed in the very front of his claims a declaration that he would resist all legislation on the subject as unnecessary, oppressive, and contemptible. The electors, by an overwhelming majority, returned Mr. Geach with that declaration in his mouth. Of course, Coventry is not the country; but if the agitation with which we are dealing had been to the one-hundredth part as real a thing as it has been represented, such a result at Coventry, or in any similar constituency, would have been an impossibility. Moreover, Coventry is not a solitary case. A few days afterwards, the electors of Manchester were called together to pronounce on the conduct of their members, Messrs. Bright and Gibson. The members devoted their speeches principally to denouncing in Manchester, as they had denounced in Parliament, the "aggression" as a delusion, and the Bill as an oppression; and Mr. Bright declared that he would" resist to the atmost that and every such measure, though it should drive him from public life for ever." The meeting of electors unanimously and enthusiastically passed a vote of approval and concurrence. Neither, it will be said, is Manchester the country. We admit it; but still, in extent, in wealth, and in intellectual and political influence, Manchester then in the most imminent peril, not one word! | the country remained without any Ministry at all; Suppose, if you can, a Lord-Advocate addressing and in the knowledge that the Russell Ministry was a constituency in 1831 without mentioning Reform, the only one that would legislate on the “ aggresor in 1846 without remembering, or without think- sion," yet the return of that Russell Ministry ing it judicious, to say a word about Free-trade! to power was received by the country with a low It will be said, however, that these are but a few but universal groan of disappointment and disgust. instances, insufficient to set against the multitude They came back weaker and less respected than of meetings and petitions of an opposite tendency. ever; and what was the very first step they took To which we reply, that even these few instances to recover strength and character? Did they imcould not have occurred had the meetings and part new vigour to the measure which their new petitions represented a real public opinion, and not friends, and almost they themselves, had declared a mere hollow and simulated clamour; and, much inadequate to the " emergency?" No-they more, that if the instances are few, they comprise knocked out three of its four clauses, and ninepretty nearly all the opportunities. There have, tenths of its strength! We put it to any man of during the movement, been one or two other elec-common-sense whether, if the country had been in tions besides those mentioned-Bath, for instance; earnest in this matter, any Ministry could have been but we have said nothing about them, for the very weakened by taking up the cause, or would have sufficient reason that the question with which we are sought strength by virtually abandoning it? To dealing formed no element whatever in them, being stick to our original illustration, suppose that the either quite forgotten or thought not worth men- Grey Ministry had been ousted when it had charge tion. The sum of the whole matter, then, is, that of the Reform Bill, that it had crept back in conat all the elections that have taken place in the tempt and weakness, and that it had resumed its five months during which the Anti-Wiseman Bill course by making the bill only one-tenth of what has been stumbling through Parliament, amid it was before-and that the people all the while innumerable kicks and imminent perils, the subject stood by laughing and indifferent; would any has either been passed in silence and contempt, or man thereafter have been able to hold up his face the candidates that declared themselves opposed to to the assertion that the people were enthusiastic the "national movement" and the ministerial bill for Reform? But even this is not all. The bill, have been the chosen of the electors! Again we since the mutilation performed on it by its parents, say that in these instances alone we have demon-has undergone fifty other changes. It has been restration that the agitation was in great part hollow and unreal, and that much of it that was real, and almost all of it that was respectable, was founded on a mistake now detected and renounced. penny if he never heard a word more on the subject, or has any clear idea of what have been the results of nine months' agitation and six months' legislation, save that the Ministry have miserably botched a miserable business. duced and increased, modified and aggravated, till scarcely a word of the original remains. It has been in fifty dangers, not the least of which was the danger of dying under mere inanition and inThe same conclusions are irresistible when we difference; and, during all the process, the people look at what has been the fate and treatment of a never spoke, ceased even to listen, and at this moMinistry which, at the cost of deserting its princi-ment not one man in a thousand would care a halfples and destroying its party, has sought to float on to fortune by embarking on the passing delusion. It has proved a phantom bark, and left them sweltering in the water. Why, there never was a Ministry with which everybody found it safe and even popular to use such rough and contemptuous Although we cannot undertake, any more than liberties as this Ministry, which has sacrificed its the Ministers themselves, or the whole body of good name in the hope of gaining a dishonest lawyers in both Houses of Parliament, to tell what strength and a vulgar popularity. It has been used the bill really enacts--the change in its soul or no Ministry really espousing a popular cause substance-we can perform the more mechanical ever was, or ever could be used. It has been and infinitely more simple duty of telling the snubbed, thwarted, degraded by its opponents in changes that have taken place in its corporeal part. Parliament, to an extent that no previous Ministry It is no more the same bill that was introduced at ever bore and lived; and its misfortunes have been the opening of the session, or even the same bill received not only without the slightest symptom that was introduced at the reinstatement of the of indignation, but with a smile of malicious satis- Ministry, than Sir John Cutler's stockings were faction by those out-of-doors who were supposed to the same garments after they had become one unibe furious in the cause which the Ministry had versal darn. The bill, as at first introduced, convolunteered to champion. Baffled on the one side sisted of a preamble and four enacting clauses; the by Radicals and on the other by Tories, it raised preamble setting forth that it was expedient to itself in February to the virtue of resignation. It remove "doubts" regarding the 24th section of had made such a mess that no other party would the Relief Act, by declaring the designation of stoop to the dirty work of putting things to rights. any person as bishop or dean of any place in the It implored the co-operation of the party nearest United Kingdom, unless appointed by the Queen, it in principle, and was refused on the sole ground to be unlawful; the first clause imposing a penalty that it had committed itself to "the national move-of 100l. on any person so designating himself; ment." "Our differences," said Lord Aberdeen in and the second, third, and fourth clauses invalihis explanations in the House of Lords, "were dating all deeds and confiscating all bequests in confined to this single question." For ten days the making of which such designations were em |