prietor, from year to year, in a country where no civil suit is brought to trial under three years from its institution, and often not under seven, and where by law he may be removed from his property for ever, with or without offence, would enter upon a precarious speculation ?"

Our author, however, thus endeavours to convert the fact into an accusation against the Company, by asserting that, to the restrictive system alone, respecting the residence of Englishmen in India, is to be attributed the absence of all attempts to improve the quality of the cotton produced there; and to the same cause he attributes the imperfect manufacture of sugar. The improvement in the manufacture of indigo under this system, both as to quality and quantity, is nevertheless a startling circumstance; and he thus disposes of it, page 16:

'Indigo works, capable of producing yearly 10,000l. worth of the dye, may be constructed for about the sum of 7001.; sugar-works, capable of yielding a produce of equal value, would require an investment of capital to the amount of 24,000l. Who would invest such a capital where he can neither buy nor sell land, nor receive security upon it; where the judge and the magistrate are hostile, because labouring under the usual prejudice and delusion of their caste; and where the administration of justice is in such a state that an appeal to it is nearly hopeless?'

This reasoning may appear satisfactory to the author: we, however, will suggest another cause for the preference given to indigo; we strongly suspect that the profits upon that article are more certain than upon cotton or sugar, and that the latter products will receive an equal degree of personal superintendence from resident Englishmen, whenever our worthy countrymen can secure equal advantage in so bestowing their cares. Unless it be admitted that leasehold tenure is incompatible with improvement in agriculture -an admission somewhat opposed to experience in this and other countries-we do not immediately see that the possession of the freehold of a sugar estate must be indispensable to its improved cultivation, or to the application of machinery to the manufacture of the produce. The whole argument is fallacious; and the facts obviously lead to a conclusion the very opposite of that which the author tries to establish. Much stress is laid by him on the importance of directing British capital to the internal improvement of India; and, attributing the advances that have been made in production to the British capital already so employed, the proposition is plausibly maintained. We are inclined to doubt that the actual improvement has been effected by British capital, properly so called; on the contrary, we believe that it has been achieved by European skill and enterprise using the capital already accumulated in India itself. Englishmen resident in that country sel

dom

dom carry thither capital-they carry with them the superior intellect and knowledge of their race: native bankers and traders are to be found possessing wealth that brings them on a level with the Barings and Rothschilds of Europe; and operations devised by European talent and energy are carried into effect, in conjunction with those natives, and chiefly by means of their capital.

India neither wants capital nor population: a general diffusion of knowledge amongst the latter will give full development to the former; and the result must, and ought to be, not the colonization of India by Europeans, but the possession by the natives of a large portion of those advantages of civil life, and of commercial profit, which now form the patrimony of the master caste, whether the individuals comprising it be employed in the actual service of the East India Company, or live under the protection of its banners, as prosperous, though petitioning merchants.

ART. IX.-Salmonia, or Days of Fly-Fishing. By an Angler.. 12mo. London. 1828.

WHEN great men condescend to trifle, they desire that those

who witness their frolics should have some kindred sympathy with the subject which these regard. The speech of Henry IV. to the Spanish ambassador, when he discovered the King riding round the room on a stick, with his son, is well known. 'You are a father, Seignor Ambassador, and so we will finish our ride.' No doubt, there was to be remarked something graceful in the manner with which the hero of Navarre bestrode even a cane-something so kind in his expression, while employed in the most childest of pastimes, as failed not to remind the spectator that the indulgent father of his playmate was the no less indulgent father of his people. In taking up this elegant little volume, for which we are indebted to the most illustrious and successful investigator of inductive philosophy which this age has produced, we are led to expect to discover the sage even in his lightest amusements.

We are informed, in the preface, that many months of severe and dangerous illness have been partially occupied and amused by the present treatise, when the author was incapable of attending to more useful studies or more serious pursuits. While we regret that the current of scientific investigation, which has led to such brilliant results, should be, for a moment, interrupted, we have here an example, and a pleasing one, that the lightest pursuits of such a man as our angler-nay, the productions of those languid

hours,

hours, in which lassitude succeeds to pain, are more interesting and instructive than the exertion of the talents of others whose mind and body are in the fullest vigour,-illustrating the scriptural expression, that the gleanings of the grapes of Ephraim are better than the vintage of Abiezer.

For ourselves, though we have wetted a line in our time, we are far from boasting of more than a very superficial knowledge of the art, and possess no part whatever of the scientific information which is necessary to constitute the philosophical angler. Yet we have read our Walton, as well as others; and, like the honest keeper in the New Forest, when we endeavour to form an idea of paradise, we always suppose a trout-stream going through it. The art itself is peculiarly seductive, requires much ingenuity, and yet is easily reconciled to a course of quiet reflections, as step by step we ascend a devious brook, opening new prospects as we advance, which remind us of a good and unambitious man's journey through this world, wherein changing scenes glide past him with each its own interest, until evening falls, and life is ended. We have, indeed, often thought that angling alone offers to man the degree of half-business, half-idleness, which the fair sex find in their needle-work or knitting, which, employing the hands, leaves the mind at liberty, and occupying the attention so far as is necessary to remove the painful sense of a vacuity, yet yields room for contemplation, whether upon things heavenly or earthly, cheerful or melancholy.

Of the humanity of the pastime we have but little to say. Our author has entered into its defence against Lord Byron, who called it a solitary vice,' and condemned its advocate and apologist, Izaak Walton, as a quaint old cruel coxcomb,' who

' in his gullet

Should have a hook, and a small trout to pull it.'

We will not inquire whether the noble poet has, in the present case, been one of those, who

'Compound for sins they are inclined to,

By damning those they have no mind to.'

And we can easily conceive that scarce any thing could have been less suited to Byron's eager and active temper, and restless and rapid imagination, than a pastime in which proficiency is only to be acquired by long and solitary practice. But in this species of argument, whether used in jest or earnest, there is always something of cant. Man is much like other carnivorous creatures-to catch other animals and to devour them is his natural occupation; and it is only upon reflection, and in the course of a refined age, that the higher classes become desirous to transfer to others the

toil and the disgust attending the slaughter-house and the kitchen. Homer's heroes prostrate the victim and broil its flesh, and were, we must suppose, no more shocked with the moans of the dying bullock than the greyhound with the screams of the hare. The difference produced by a degree of refinement is only that, still arranging our bloody banquet as before, the task of destroying life is, in the case of tame animals, committed to butchers and poulterers while in respect of game, where considerable exertion and dexterity is necessary to accomplish our purpose, and where the sense of excitement, and pride in difficulties surmounted by our own address, overbalance our sympathy with the pain inflicted, we interdict by strict laws the vulgar from interference, and reserve the exclusive power of slaughter for our own hands. The sportsman of the present day is, therefore, so far modified by the refinements of society, as to use the intervention of plebeian hands in the case of cattle, sheep, and domestic fowls; but he kills his deer, his hares, his grouse, and his partridges for himself: in respect to them, he is in a state of nature. But if his retaining this touch of the qualities with which

Nature first made man,

When wild in woods the noble savage ran,'

shall be considered as a crime, it is surely equally inhuman to cause to be killed, as it is to kill; the guilt, surely, of the criminal who causes a murder to be committed, must be the same as that of the actual bloodspiller. My lady, therefore, who gives the maître d'hotel orders, which render necessary sundry executions in the piggery, poultry-yard, and elsewhere, is an accomplice before the fact, and as guilty of occasioning a certain quantity of pain to certain unoffending animals, as her good lord, who is knocking down pheasants in the preserve, or catching fish in the brook. In short, they that say much about the inhumanity of killing animals for sport, must be prepared to renounce the equally blameable practice of causing them to be killed, lest their delicacy be compared to that of the half-converted Indian squaw, whose humanized feelings could not look upon the tortures of a captive at the death-stake, but, nevertheless, whose appetite was unable to resist a tempting morsel of the broiled flesh, conveyed to her by the kindness of a comrade, as a consolation for her wanting her share of the sport. Our diet, in that case, would become rather lean and Pythagorean, much after the custom of our brahminical friend, the late Joseph Ritson. Of the hundreds who condemn the cruelty of field sports, how many would relish being wholly deprived, in their own sensitive persons, of animal food?

Our author takes a more special defence than the above-alleging that he is not guilty, like his predecessor, Walton, of using VOL. XXXVIII. NO. 76.-Q.R.

64

living

living baits, but always employs the artificial fly or minnow. This is, undoubtedly, more agreeable, more cleanly, and much more scientific. He also urges that, in all probability, fishes are less sensitive than man. Under the favour of such high authority, this is a point which none can know but the fish himself. The variety of modes in which the trout endeavours to escape from the hook certainly seem to show that his apprehensions are extreme, and the hurry and vivacity of his motions indicate irritation and pain. Being, however, a denizen of another element, our sympathies are not so strongly excited by the sufferings of fish as of the creatures that share the same element with us. We remember an amiable enthusiast, a worshipper of Nature after the manner of Rousseau, who, being melted into feelings of universal philanthropy by the softness and serenity of a spring morning, resolved, that for that day, at least, no injured animal should pollute his board; and having recorded his vow, walked six miles to gain a hamlet, famous for fish dinners, where, without an idea of breaking his sentimental engagement, he regaled himself on a small matter of crimped cod and oyster sauce. After all, the progress of extermination and reproduction seems to be the plan on which Nature proceeds in maintaining the balance amongst the animal tribes and carrying on the system of the universe. Man, in his sphere, is one of the most constant exterminators; and if, in satisfying the instinct which impels him to be such, he can acquire the power of realizing the following beautiful picture, there is little to be said concerning the inhumanity of angling :

'The fisher for salmon and trout with the fly employs not only machinery to assist his physical powers, but applies sagacity to conquer difficulties; and the pleasure derived from ingenious resources and devices, as well as from active pursuit, belongs to this amusement. Then, as to its philosophical tendency, it is a pursuit of moral discipline, requiring patience, forbearance, and command of temper. As connected with natural science, it may be vaunted as demanding a knowledge of the habits of a considerable tribe of created beings-fishes, and the animals that they prey upon, and an acquaintance with the signs and tokens of the weather and its changes, the nature of waters, and of the atmosphere. As to its poetical relations, it carries us into the most wild and beautiful scenery of nature; amongst the mountain lakes, and the clear and lovely streams that gush from the higher ranges of elevated-hills, or that make their way through the cavities of calcareous strata. How delightful in the early spring, after the dull and tedious time of winter, when the frosts disappear and the sunshine warms the earth and waters, to wander forth by some clear stream, to see the leaf bursting from the purple bud, to scent the odours of the bank perfumed by the violet, and enamelled, as it were, with the primrose and the daisy; to wander upon the fresh turf below the

shade

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