ART. VIII. 1. An Address to the Churchwardens, Guardians, Over- seers of the Poor, and Rate-Payers of the Wingham Division of St. Augustine, in the County of Kent, on a Resolution adopted at a Meeting held at Wingham, on Thursday the 22nd of January. 2. Two-and-Twenty Reasons for refusing Assent to the Proposition for instituting large Unions of Parishes, and the erection of Central Workhouses, particularly in the neighburohood of Seven Oaks, in the County of 3. An Account of the Foundling Hospital in London, for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and De- IX.-1. Thoughts upon the Aristocracy of England. By 2. A Letter to Isaac Tomkins, Gent., author of Thoughts upon the Aristocracy: from Mr. Peter Jenkins. X. The Influence of Democracy on Liberty, Property, and the Happiness of Society considered, by an American, Page THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. ART. I.-Wanderings in New South Wales, Batavia, Pedir Coast, Singapore, and China; being the Journal of a Naturalist during 1832, 1833, and 1834. By George Bennett, Esq., F.L.S., Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, &c. London, 2 vols. 8vo. 1834. IF F our readers are as weary of new novels as we confess ourselves to be, they will thank us for pointing out a book of travels, which carries one rapidly and pleasantly over a wide diversity of sea and land; presents many objects of natural history, and traits of social peculiarity, well calculated to excite and gratify our curiosity; and is distinguished by a merit now exceedingly rare among writers of this once rough-spun class, namely, freedom from the slang and cant of sentiment. Mr. Bennett sometimes, no doubt, treats of serious subjects in too light a vein; but we acknowledge that, as his offences in this way are not numerous, we are willing to overlook them on account of the satisfaction which results from the absence of pseudo-poetical raptures about nothing. Most recent travellers seem to have been bit with the ambition of rivalling those overgrown babies, male and female, honourable and right honourable, who record the ecstacies of what they call their minds' in the gilded pages of the Annuals. We do not pretend to class Mr. Bennett, on the whole, with such authors as Captain Basil Hall and Sir Francis Head; but he has, in common with them, what must be felt as among their chief excellencies-a manly temperament, and a thorough scorn of puerile rhetoric. We are told little or nothing of Mr. Bennett's own condition or personal objects-and in this omission we acknowledge another wholesome deviation from the prevalent fashion. We infer, however, that he has been employed for some years as a surgeon in the merchant service; and are hopeful that his literary adventure may stimulate many of the well-educated gentlemen who in these piping days of peace are content with such employment, to improve the opportunities which their mode of life affords for the extension of natural science in almost all its departments. Humbly as their position may be thought of, we are of opinion that it is in their own power, by so doing, to elevate it very effectually in general estimation. The number of persons destined for this branch of VOL. LIII. NO. CV. B the the medical profession, who can afford to cultivate and expand their minds by extensive travel at their own charges, is extremely limited. A few voyages in a merchant-ship afford a very good succedaneum, and may serve to fill up not only pleasantly, but in every sense of the word profitably, those years which hang the heaviest on the spirits, as well as the purse, of the young practitioner, whether in town or village. No professional man, it must be remembered, is so effectually fettered to the spot, after he has once settled himself in life, as he who labours in this honourable walk. The lawyer has his long vacation, and usually contrives, in these days of steam-boating, to refresh himself with an annual excursion, either to another of his Majesty's kingdoms, or to some interesting part of the Continent. But a week after he has beenbawling himself hoarse in the noisome atmosphere of Westminster Hall, he may be detected in eating pâtés de chamois on the Simplon, or dancing reels in the Hebrides, or gliding in a carriole amidst the gloom of a Norwegian forest; nay, by skilful management, he may re-appear at Michaelmas with a budget of good stories from Moscow or Constantinople-or even bring back with him from Jerusalem a legitimate claim to the style and title of Hadgi. Even the parish clergyman may occasionally command a furlough, and enlarge and strengthen his attachment to his own country and calling by a few months' perambulation of less favoured regions. But the country doctor is a complete fixture; nay, it is considered as the most hazardous thing in the world, even for the first-rate physician or surgeon of London, to absent himself for a fortnight on end, even at the dullest season of the year, from the habitual scene of his exertions. We believe a Halford or a Brodie would no more dream of spending an August at Töplitz or Baden, than a Pemberton or a Follett of passing a winter at Washington or St. Petersburgh. In short, patients are apt to regard and resent it as a positive injury, when they are compelled, by the absence of a first confidant, to make their delicate discoveries to a second. On every account, then, the young Esculapian, if he has any ambition to survey mankind with extensive view,' ought to make carpe diem his motto. Mr. Bennett's title-page has this defect-that it does not prepare us for finding a considerable portion of his book occupied with observations made neither in New South Wales, nor Batavia, nor China, but on ship-board, while far enough from any land whatever. This part of the work is, however, about the most interesting; and no wonder-for here he has had time and opportunity to test his first-sight impressions by subsequent remark and experiment, much more largely than with respect to any of the, announced scenes of his Wanderings.' The mass of facts which, he he has brought together concerning the oceanic birds, in particular, appears to be highly curious. We shall not, however, in this place, consider critically what additions he has made to the materials of science strictly so called-we mean as to the addition of species, if not of genera, to the zoological system; but afford the general reader some specimens of the style in which he describes those incidents of his life at sea which he has turned to solid account in the technical sections of his Appendix. We begin with a paragraph or two on that well-known phenomenon which has so long perplexed and divided our philosophers, the peculiar phosphoric light given out by the ocean, more especially and more brilliantly in tropical regions, during the absence of the sun's rays. Mr. Bennett had one splendid opportunity of witnessing this effect when traversing the bay of Manilla. He thus writes : 'The wake of the vessel is one broad sheet of phosphoric matter, so brilliant as to cast a dull, pale light over the after-part of the ship; the foaming surges, as they gracefully curl on each side of the vessel's prow, are similar to rolling masses of liquid phosphorus ; whilst in the distance, even to the horizon, it seems an ocean of fireand the distant waves, breaking, give out a light of inconceivable beauty.'-vol. i. p. 36. : 'It must not be for a moment conceived that the light described as like to a sea of "liquid fire," is of the same character as the flashes produced by the volcano, or by lightning, or meteors. No it is the light of phosphorus, as the matter truly is, pale, dull, approaching to a white or very pale yellow, casting a melancholy light on objects around, only emitting flashes by collision. To read by it is possible, but not agreeable; and, on an attempt being made, it is almost always found that the eyes will not endure the peculiar light for any length of time, as headaches and sickness are occasioned by it.'-p. 38. Having stated his concurrence in the opinion, that this brilliant appearance is mainly occasioned by shoals of the molluscous and crustaceous tribes, but that it may often be accounted for merely by the débris of dead animal matter with which sea-water is loaded our author gives us the result of a practical experiment of his own on the 8th of June, 1832, after a large shoal of fish had been observed: Late at night the mate of the watch came and called me to witness a very unusual appearance in the water, which he, on first seeing, considered to be breakers. On arriving upon the deck, this was found to be a very broad and extensive sheet of phosphorescence, extending in a direction from east to west as far as the eye could reach: the luminosity was confined to the range of animals in this shoal-there was no similar light in any other direction. I cast the towing net over the stern of the ship, as we approached nearer the luminous streak, to ascertain the cause of this extraordinary and so limited phenomenon. The ship soon cleaved through the brilliant mass, from which, by the disturbance, strong flashes of light were emitted; and the shoal (judging from the time the vessel took in passing through the mass) may have been a mile in breadth: the passage of the vessel through them increased the light around to a far stronger degree, illuminating the ship. On taking in the towing net, it was found half filled with pyrosoma atlanticum, which shone with a beautiful pale greenish light-and there were also a few small fish in the net at the same time; after the mass had been passed through, the light was still seen astern until it became invisible in the distance, and the whole of the ocean then became hidden in darkness as before this took place. The scene was as novel as it was beautiful and interesting, more so from having ascertained, by capturing the luminous animals, the cause of the phenomenon.'-vol. i. p. 39, 40. Of the length to which albicores, bonitos, sharks, and dolphins will follow a ship Mr. Bennett gives us many striking instances. One albicore having been wounded on the back by some sharp instrument, leaving a noticeable scar, first caught his attention on this voyage, 3° north latitude, and he continued to recognize it almost daily as far as latitude 11° south-a distance of eight hundred and fifty miles. The length of aërïal voyages accomplished by the huge albatross and other oceanic birds is even more extraordinary. In reviewing Earle's residence at Tristan d'Acunha, a few Numbers back, we extracted some curious details as to the habits of the albatross when on shore; but that writer said nothing of the real roc on the wing. Mr. Bennett says: It is pleasing to observe this superb bird sailing in the air in graceful and elegant movements, seemingly excited by some invisible power-for there is rarely any movement of the wings seen, after the first and frequent impulses given, when the creature elevates itself in the air-rising and falling as if some concealed power guided its various motions, without any muscular exertion of its own-and then descending and sweeping the air close to the stern of the ship, with an independence of manner, as if it were "monarch of all it surveyed." It is from the very little muscular exertion used by these birds that they are capable of sustaining such long flights without repose.'-p. 45. The largest albatross shot by Mr. Bennett during this voyage measured fourteen feet, but we have seen distinct accounts of specimens reaching across the wings to full twenty feet. He proceeds When seizing an object floating on the water, they gradually descend with expanded or up-raised wings, or sometimes alight, and float like a duck on the water while devouring their food; then they skim the |