other side of the Tweed, that the first Latin class at Glasgow has contained between 300 and 400 pupils; all of whom would have been much better employed in passing a fifth or even a sixth year at the grammar-school. These objections apply with double force to the practice of parents in Scotland, in postponing altogether the study of Greek until the pupil is sent to college. A lesson given for an hour in a day, during five or six months, is certainly a very inefficient mode of learning a language; and the long vacation comes unfortunately at the time when, of all others, the progress already made should be diligently increased. A second session of six months may operate to a certain length in overcoming elementary difficulties, but can never be considered as a thorough initiation into the beauties of the language. It is in a great measure to this very defective plan that Mr. R. is led to ascribe the comparative deficiency of our fellowsubjects in the north, with regard to Greek literature. - The 2dly, Mr. Russel, however, does not go so far as to recommend that all branches of education should be begun at school, the University being evidently the fit place for moral or natural philosophy; objects decidedly of a higher stamp than the acquisition of a language, and admitting, if not requiring, certain intervals in the course of their prosecution. point to be considered here is an alteration, not of the place for these studies, but of the succession in which the different departments of them are followed up. Mathematics and natural philosophy are evidently less abstruse, and fitter for the early part of a course, than the serious disquisitions of logic and morals; yet the mode still adopted in some Universities is to make logic the earlier study: a plan for which we can account only as a remnant of the old absurdity that syllogism was the portal of science, an engine not only for detecting error, but for arriving at the acquisition of extensive knowlege." Will it be believed by our posterity," says an eminent writer, "that, two hundred years after the date of Bacon's philosophical works, the antiquated routine prescribed in the days of scholastic barbarism should, in so many seminaries, still take place of the study of real science?" The chief exceptions from this cen sure in Great Britain are at Cambridge and Aberdeen. The latter takes also the lead of the Scotch Universities in point of frequency of examination in the classes; it being a rule there 'that the same class shall meet three times in a day, that the students shall take notes, and shall be expected at all times to stand the test of the professor's inquiries. Unluckily, the rules of this University allow but a very insignificant portion of time to Greek and Latin. At Glasgow, the moral-philosophy class class meets two hours in a day; one of which is employed in the lecture, and the other in the examination of the students: a certain time being set apart weekly for reading the philosophical works of Cicero, and the Novum Organum of Bacon. In Edinburgh, no attempt is made to examine the students of moral philosophy; and it is but lately that the professor has prescribed essays to be written by such of them, comparatively a small number, as conceive themselves able to follow the train of reasoning that has been laid before them. This is one step towards improvement: but it still falls very short of the benefit of personal interrogation, in which the answers of a few make the teacher aware of the difficulties felt by the whole; and enable him, by going over the subject in different language, by varying the illustrations, and by introducing familiar analogies, to make himself intelligible to every capacity. 3dly, Public Examinations. It is in this important department that the improvements of Oxford and Cambridge during the last ten or twelve years have chiefly consisted. They have the effect, if not of enforcing the habit of application during the period of term, of rendering it necessary for the pupil to exert himself at some time; unless he be content to rank in the ignoble class whose names are not recorded in any of the three kinds of university-distinctions. Nothing can be more impartial than the public examinations both at Oxford and Cambridge, and nothing, we believe, better calculated to put the acquisitions of the student to the test: while the Scotish Universities have yet to learn the benefit of this stimulant, the public examinations in them having hitherto been little else than matter of form. The great improvement, however, that we should desire to see, both on the north and on the south of the Tweed, would be the enforcement of regular application during five, six, or seven hours in a day, by means of the superintendence of tutors. These gentlemen should be charged not merely with reading a lesson or putting questions to the young men for an hour daily, but with keeping them under their eyes during all the time that is necessary to their acquisition of the task prescribed. What should we say of the head of a public office, or of a merchant's counting house, who was satisfied with recommending a given task to his clerks, and left it to them to perform it in their own time and manner? The plan at which we have hinted seems to us the only effectual method of correcting the general laxity of university-studies; and it might, we believe, be managed with much less drudgery to the tutor than may at first be supposed. As the thorough acquisition of the lesson can be the result only of the pupil's exertion, the tutor would be pledged to little E 4 more more than attentive superintendence; a duty of no very painful nature, when we limit the number of pupils to those that can conveniently sit in his room; and when we take into the account that most of the hours thus passed would at all events have been given by him to his studies. Now these studies may, by means of certain habits of discipline and arrangement, be carried on by him almost as well in the presence of four, five, or six young men, as if he were the sole occupant of his chamber; while the greater progress of the youths would enable their parents or guardians to make a liberal addition to the customary fees. ;. A part of Mr. R.'s pamphlet is occupied by a controversy with Mr. Dunbar, the Greek professor at Edinburgh, into which we are by no means disposed to enter. We prefer to consider the work as a treatise on academical education at large, and have no hesitation in adding that in this sense we generally coincide with the writer; our objections being confined to the vagueness and repetitions in his style, to an occasional overstraining (pp. 74, 75.) of a favourite argument, and to the introduction (p. 70.) of disquisitions that ought to have been excluded from a tract of which the best characteristics should have been plainness and brevity. ART. VIII. Travels in some Parts of North America, in the Years 1804, 1805, and 1806. By Robert Sutcliff. 2d Edition, improved. 12mo. pp. 325. 6s. Boards. Darton, Harvey, IT and Co. often happens in the case of new publications, as in other matters, that a plain and unassuming outside is found to contain the most instructive and valuable interior. Thus we have now before us, in a small volume, introduced with no professions and few ornaments, a clear, circumstantial, and entertaining account of the state of society on the other side of the Atlantic. The writer, one of the people called Quakers, who was settled in mercantile business at Sheffield, had occasion to make two voyages to America for the adjustment of his accounts with correspondents on that side of the water, where the inhabitants, whether of town or country, have long been famed for tardy remittances; and, in his second expedition, he kept a journal of his peregrinations, without any intention of giving it to the public: which he was not persuaded to do until assured by his friends that a knowlege of many of the remarks and occurrences recorded by him might prove beneficial to juvenile readers. Fortunately, the journey thus circumstantially minuted took place in 1804, 1805, and 1806, before the the Orders in Council and the war that ensued had rekindled antient animosities, and spread discouragement and distress over the United States. -We shall lay before our readers a number of extracts from the most remarkable passages, accompanying them with few comments, because they are themselves so clear and explicit as to stand in very little need of explanation. Mr. Sutcliff seems to have been extremely anxious to ascertain how far it was practicable to introduce civilization among the Indians; and his excursion to the Falls of Niagara, along the Genesee country, was calculated to give him rather sanguine expectations in this respect: Nov. 21. In the evening, I came to an Indian village, called Brothertown. Here I was comfortably accommodated at the house of an Indian, whose name was Obadiah Scipio. His wife Elizabeth is the daughter of an Indian Chief of the name of Fowler. She was a personable woman, and of an expressive countenance, and was very industrious. Her dairy produced excellent cheese and butter, notwithstanding a great part of her time was employed in spinning for the family apparel, which was very decent. It was mostly prepared for the weaver by her own household; and, whilst I was in the house, a female weaver of the village brought in a piece of cloth, made from yarn spun in this family, which was such as would have done credit to any female in England. This reputable Indian couple had four fine healthy children, who sat by the fire; and, though of a copper-colour, their countenances were far from unpleasing. 6 The schoolmaster of this Indian village, who is paid by Friends, introduced me to a chief of the name of Hendricks, with whom I had some conversation; and we sat about an hour by the fire-side of a pretty large family of Indians, where it was pleasant to see the spinning-wheel go briskly round. There were 16 or 18 Indians round the fire; the older part of the family sat on a bench in front, and the little Indians on the ground on each side. The fire was made at the end of the building, and the smoke found its way through the roof, without the aid of a chimney. The walls and roof were hung with ears of Indian corn, and other winter provisions.' As I went along, I met with two clever-looking Indian young men, carpenters, having their tools with them. And under the piazza of a commodious Indian dwelling, I saw, hung up in neat order, the harness and yokes of horses and oxen. There was also a good farm-yard surrounded with barns and stables, the whole having every appearance of good management.' Nov. 23. We set out early, and came to a large good inn belonging to an Oneida Indian, who has assumed the name of John Denny. This is a large brick house, having four good rooms, and a spacious passage and staircase on the ground floor. The rooms were not less than 18 by 20 feet, lofty and well finished. He had an offer of 821. 2s. 6d. a-year rent for it, or one dollar per day, which he he had accepted. This house of Denny's, and that belonging to Stockden, were built by Indian workmen, and do them great credit.' Nov. 24. I travelled along the Genesee turnpike, and passed many fine tracts of land, covered with beech, the sugar maple, &c. &c. Much of the land in these parts, I believe, could scarcely be sold for 10s. per acre, to be paid for in cash; and yet, in the neighbourhood of many principal towns in Great Britain, would be thought cheap at 1ool. per acre. From the many local advantages of soil, climate, &c. I think it is very probable, that the longextended line of the Genesee turnpike-road, may, in a few years, be as thickly inhabited as some parts of Europe are at this time. In the afternoon, Irefreshed myself and horse at a comfortable inn, on the outlet of the Lake Skaneatetes, which forms a sort of milldam, covering a space of about 3 miles by 15. It was pleasant to observe on this outlet a number of mills, sufficient to do the work of some thousands of Virginia slaves. It is greatly to be lamented, that the absurd policy of the Southern States has placed these poor creatures as a barrier against every improvement in mechanics, &c. 'Some of the mills were employed in the manufactory of cloths. On the banks of this lake are many delightful situations, which would be highly valued in a country like England. On every side they descend with a bold slope, and are generally covered with fine timber, excepting here and there an insulated plantation, where the ground is cleared. These cultivated farms add greatly to the beauty and variety of the scenery.' In riding along these pastures, I met several parties of Indians who, from the quantity of their baggage, seemed to be pretty wealthy, having several loaded horses. Thus far, I have not met with the least rudeness or improper behaviour from these people; though I have several times passed individuals, as well as large companies of them, when I have been without a companion, and might have been an easy prey.'. A friend supped with us this evening, from Providence in Rhode Island, and gave us an interesting narrative of a journey he took through the wilderness-parts of this continent, to New Orleans in Louisiana. A considerable part of the way he went by water in canoes, having Indian conductors, and passed through many Indian settlements, by the chiefs of which he was, in general, kindly and hospitably entertained. At one Indian village in particular, the chief, calling together the inhabitants to a place where they held their public meetings, and placing the friend by his side, made a long harangue. The substance of it was, his approbation of the principles and practices of friends, concerning which he had obtained information at some former period, and which he then endeavoured to explain to the Indians about him. Amongst other things he remarked, it was a self-evident truth, that the power which gave life and breath to man, alone had the right to take it. 'At another settlement of Indians, he was agreeably surprised to find what great progress was made in agriculture and manufac tures. He was told, that, in this district, there were 200 looms employed 10* |