The two next extracts are of even greater importance :

'There was Babra, the goddess of infants, in Phoenicia: there are babies in England. No doubt it is the same slipper, though we cannot tell under what petticoat it has slipped.'--ii. p. 187.

'Sheep's heads with the skin left on, are in Morocco as in Scotland carried to the smithy to be singed. Things that are worth anything are only invented once. There is nothing without its history, if we only knew it. Whatever is, had a beginning.'-ibid.

Even singed heads had a beginning!-We now do know their history.

We cannot enter at length into the series of proofs by which Mr. Urquhart has demonstrated that the dishes, discourse, and dresses of the Moors and the Highland clans are identical' (i. 164, 416). One word only on the Barbary haik-the Scotch plaid. This motley garb—

...

'Prometheus might have singled out as his most serviceable invention for man..... When Eve had to bethink herself of a durable substitute for innocence, this is what she must have hit upon. . . . The last step of dress is but merely to perceive the beauty of the first conception, and yield a barren and aesthetic applause to the perfection of the primitive design.'-i. 418.

From Eve's soft fingers,' the haik passed through Babel and the flood

To clothe Solomon, Pericles, Amalek, and Porsenna-as it before had Hercules, Abraham, and Porsenna.'-ii. 325.

'It is not an extravagant stretch of the imagination to picture the listeners to THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT decked with the eagle's plume, and girded with the sporran and dirk.'--ii. 327.

If ever the illustrious princes of the Sobieski-Stuart, alias Hay-Allan, dynasty should recover the legitimate crown, which they depict in such sad and shattered plight on their pathetic title-pages, surely a vivid sympathy will be acknowledged between the inventors of the Vestiarium Scoticum and the rebuilder of the Pillars of Hercules. They, at least, will appreciate his discovery, that the supporters of the royal arms of Scotland are visible, in their right heraldic position, on the carved stones of Persepolis! (i. 201). Under their government we can hardly doubt that this diplomatist will be authorized to exhibit his eagle plume, sporran, and dirk,' as ambassador-extraordinary at the court of Prester John.

6

It is a subject of regret in our little senate that, being included in the category of plebeculary criticks,' we are forced to bestow much of our space upon transactions and lucubrations of 'fugacious pressure;' otherwise it would have afforded satisfaction to dwell at considerable length on the extraordinary and instruc

tive parallelism between the brain-babes' of our two Urquharts. The transmission even of idiosyncracies of temper and genius through half a score generations is rare; but in this case the truly marvellous circumstance is the direct inheritance of tenets, theories, views, tastes, and opinions. To be understood and appreciated, their works must be studied together. The truth, for example, is that the whole logic of The Pillars of Hercules' would be unintelligible but for the pedigree sketched in the Pantochronochanon.' David II. has written these two volumes principally to prove that the Highland clans, with clan Urquhart at their head, marched from Achaia to their present localities in Inverness, Cromarty, &c., viâ Canaan, Egypt, Morocco, and Andalusia, and that accordingly the most marked traces of identity are still 'clear and evident between the said clans and the Moslem, but especially the Moors. Now, although hypotheses of a kind not dissimilar had been broached with no contemptible ingenuity by Vallancey and other Milesian antiquaries, it is undeniable that their readers always desiderated a solid substratum of evidence; but who will hesitate to admit that this hiatus is supplied by the unquestionably authentic traditions of the personal movements and adventures of the successive heirs of Seth, of whom Esormon was the first to assume the ancient and honourable' surname Urquhart?

We expressed our hope at the outset of our paper that the living Chief might hold his earthly honours longer than besel the illustrious Parresiastes. We are confident that at all events one whose tendencies are so avowedly to the Mussulman section of the Christian world can be in no danger of having his days shortened in consequence of any such indulgence in tumulencious symposiasms as has been reported of the enthusiastic Cavalier of 1660. It would, however, be wrong to allude again to that solitary spot on Sir Thomas's reputation without noting that in this matter that gifted man had a prophetic glimpse of some things that afterwards came to pass. Such at least is the interpretation we put on a very striking chapter of his Logopandecteision, where, after justly stating that wine drunk with mediocrity conduceth to wisdom and learning,' he adds that on the other hand, if immoderately taken, it oftentimes occasioneth much prating,

*Sir Thomas, at p. 162, refers to the voluminous History of the House,' of which the Pantochronochanon' is only a compendium. We hope if his descendant possesses the larger history, he will edit it forthwith. We observe that in the copy of Dod's Parliamentary Companion for 1850, there is a note, intimating that the honourable Member's pedigree is disputed' by a certain Mr. Urquhart of Meldrum. The publication now suggested, clearly establishing the regular transmission of the Archives of the House,' would of course silence this Aberdeenshire pretender to the representation of Esormon. For ourselves, the internal evidence of the Member's own writings, as compared with those of Sir Thomas, is more than sufficient.

and

and enrageth those that in taverns be well whittled with Septembral juyce;' of which last and most fatal result the actual insanity supervening upon jovial commensalls '-he gives some touching and memorable examples observed during his own travels in regions not remote from the Pillars of Hercules. Thus :

"In many that kind of disease taketh such deep roote that no remedie can prevaile. I saw at Madrid a bald-pated fellow who believed he was Julius Caesar, and therefore went constantly in the streets with a laurel crown on his head.'-Works, p. 364.

As to David Bey, our only apprehension in this connexion' (as the Yankees say) is that he, like another profound statesman of our times, M. de Lamartine, may be tempted to venture occasionally on a too liberal dose of the orthodox hashish. He certainly rather alarms us by the modest statement in the Pillars of Hercules (vol. ii. p. 90), that ere he had been long in Barbary he found, by the ultra-reverential demeanour of the natives, that he had entered on the hereditary privileges of a Saint or Madman.'

ART. VI.-Facts in Figures, a Quarterly Digest of Statistics, abstracted chiefly from Official Returns, with Practical Deductions. No. 1, New Series, March, 1850. London. Pp. 32.

CONSIDERING the course which legislation has taken of

late years, and the prevailing taste of the country in matters political, we should be disposed to set much value upon a wellexecuted abstract of official statistics, periodically issued. Nor might there seem to be much difficulty in the way of such a publication, for Parliamentary papers are now attainable at a low price, and to prepare an useful popular digest of them requires only industry, fidelity, and some moderate degree of political intelligence. Nothing, however, is more rare than an accurate abstract of official or Parliamentary documents; and the pamphlet now before us, though it has the names of several respectable booksellers on its title-page, is only noticeable for its superlative worthlessness. We are sorry for the publishers; but it is difficult to conceive how anything so grossly erroneous, should, even by accident, have been given forth with their imprimatur. What is rightly stated could only have been learned from documents containing upon the face of them other facts which are either wholly omitted, or completely misunderstood and misrepresented; and the philosophical deductions appended to these mutilated and perverted

data

data are nothing better than servile repetitions of the most stale and questionable dogmas of the Manchester School.

We shall give a few examples of the bad faith or the almost incredible blundering of this pamphlet, before proceeding to offer some details of things as they really are. Under the head of Trade,' its editor presents An Abstract of Imports during 1848 and 1849, showing the increase or decrease therein.' One looks naturally in the first instance to the import of bread stuffs, of the increase of which every one has heard. The import of wheat is set down from the official return, and all sorts of grain and pulse, down to pease and beans;-but of the import of wheat-flour not the slightest mention is made, though the quantity taken for home-consumption in 1849 was no less than 3,937,219 cwt. Butter and cheese are omitted-though of the former 282,501_cwt., and of the latter 379,648 cwt. were imported in 1849. The import of eggs is not mentioned-though it reached the number of nearly a hundred millions. The import of oliveoil for salads is recorded-but no notice occurs of oil-cake for feeding cattle, the import of which was 73,029 tons in 1848, and 59,144 tons in 1849. Among provisions,' fresh pork is alone set down, amounting to 924 cwt.-while of salted pork, amounting to 347,352 cwt., and of beef, amounting to nearly 150,000 cwt., nothing is said. Among seeds, clover seed is equally ignored-though it is the only import under that head which paid duty. In spices none but pepper is given. In the return of sugar this abstract-maker includes more than a million hundred weights of molasses. Tallow he altogether omits.

But all this is correctness itself when compared with the abstract of exports. A table is given, purporting to be an abstract of the export-trade in the under-mentioned articles during the years 1848 and 1849;' but neither in the said abstract, nor in any other part of this singular Digest,' is there the slightest record of the export of any one single article of British production. The compiler, by accident we are to hope, fell upon the official table of the export of Foreign and Colonial merchandise from the United Kingdom, and this he copies as if it were the total export. Thus if one were to rely upon the facts' of our very liberal master of 'figures,' the export of cotton goods from the United Kingdom would be taken at about 225,0007.—this being in truth only the foreign supplement to an export of nearly twentyseven millions' worth of home manufacture, about which he says not one word!

It is not necessary to pursue further the stupidities of this publication.

Great as our foreign trade is, the ideas which generally prevail

here,

here, and yet more upon the Continent, with respect to its comparative importance, are much exaggerated. In France it appears to be taken for granted by public writers that the principal part of the industry of Great Britain is devoted to the manufacture of goods for foreign markets, and that the principal dependence of this country is upon the sale of domestic or colonial productions to foreigners. This is a most erroneous supposition. Let us take the last year (1849), when the exports of Great Britain exceeded by 20 per cent. the exports of the preceding year. According to the official return of the Board of Trade, the total value of the exports of the principal articles of British and Irish produce and manufactures for the year 1849 was 58,848,0427., and this includes the value of the raw material, which, in respect to some of the most important articles of British export, is of foreign production. Now this sum, large though it be, is probably not more than an eighth part of the annual production of wealth in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Mr. W. F. Spackman, in his elaborate work on the Occupations of the People,' gives the following estimate as an approximation to a correct statement of the annual creation' of wealth in the United Kingdom

6

Manufactures (deducting the value of the raw

material)

Mining interest

Colonial interest

£250,000,000

127,000,000

37,000,000

18,000,000

Foreign commerce, including the shipping interest, 10 per cent. on the amount of our exports and

imports

15,000,000

Fisheries

3,000,000

£450,000,000

Mr. Porter estimates (or did estimate some two or three years ago) the annual value of the produce of the land of the United Kingdom at upwards of three hundred millions. As to the gross value of manufactured productions, Mr. Spackman estimates it at 187,184,2927., of which 118,600,000l. are for the home trade, and 58,584,2921. for the foreign trade. His general conclusion is, that of the products of manufacturing industry, the foreign trade absorbs one third, and the home trade two thirds. It is probable that foreign writers may have been misled by looking too exclusively at our cotton manufacture. Of the products of that particular branch of industry the larger portion is exported. It is calculated that the home consumption is to the export consumption as 20 to 25.

VOL. LXXXVI. NO. CLXXII.

2 G

The