however, can be accounted for without the supposition of a superior degree of morality in the metropolis;) and the greatest proportion in England in Lancaster and Hereford. We were grieved to see that our neighbours the Welsh bear in this respect an exceeding bad character; the proportion in England being one in twenty, while that in Wales is one in thirteen. The worst part of England has one in thirteen, while one county in Wales (Radnor) actually displays one in seven!

We shall next notice a valuable table, giving an "Abstract of christenings and burials in the various parishes of London and Westminster, and in the out-parishes in Middlesex and Surrey, comprehended within the bills of mortality, stating the different diseases whereby the deaths have been caused, in each year from 1820 to 1833, inclusive." Our limits will not permit us to notice more than a few of the most remarkable diseases; but we cannot help expressing our opinion, that much valuable information, and many practical conclusions might be derived by medical men from these tables, by comparing the progress of each disease, as well as observing those that were contemporaneous, or the reverse; and it is also possible that some of the phenomena occurring in such investigation might be explained by other parts of the work, showing the circumstances of the people at the period. Consumption appears to have increased in 1823, and to have then remained stationary till '29; since when it has been decreasing. Convulsions were steadily decreasing, during the whole period: the different kinds of dropsy, especially that in the brain, increasing; erysepilas, typhus, palsy, ossification of the heart, scarlet fever, and rheumatism, increasing. Common fevers, small-pox, sudden deaths, and measles, rather decreasing. The years 1831, '32, and '33 are remarkable from the fact, that a great number of common disorders totally disappeared; for instance, teething, the deaths by which annually averaged nearly 500, was not fatal in a single instance in the years 1831 and '32. The same holds true in 1832 of still-births; of which there was not in that year one, while in every year before and since they had averaged above nine hundred!! There

was not an instance of death by palsy, or eruptive diseases in those years. Deaths by accident were nearly double in the year 1832. On the other hand, other diseases, particularly those relating to the stomach, increased enor mously in those years; among these, of course cholera holds a fearfully distinguished place. Enlargement of the heart appears to have been unknown previous to 1824, and contraction of the heart previous to 1826; from which period both increased rapidly, till 1831, when they disappeared altogether. We find, during the last three years many verdicts, "Died by the visitation of God." Sudden deaths appear to have been steadily diminishing; but, as apoplexy has been increasing, the fact probably may be, that the death has been accounted for, and entered under the latter title. 1825, we find two cases of "broken heart:" this year, it will be remembered, was famous for ruinous speculations. We shall close these observations with the melancholy fact, that suicides are on the increase, and average, in the district above mentioned, above fifty annually. This leads us, naturally, to the next division of our subject, the annals of crime.

In

From these returns we find that, in England and Wales, Lancashire stands unrivalled, (with the exception of Middlesex,) for the number of crimes committed in it; displaying nearly double the number in any other county-nearly treble that of any except York. We do not mean to draw any inference from the fact we are about to statebut it is a curious coincidence that this county abounds with Roman Catholic priests-Jesuits and popish seminaries, in unexampled multitudes. We do not pretend to say whether it is to this, or to its vicinity to Ireland, or to both causes combined, that it owes its unenviable superiority in crime. this list our Welsh friends will find a subject for pride, which may justly wipe from their recollection the little secret we were obliged to tell of them a while ago. We find the returns from the Welsh counties shewing units and tens, where the English counties show hundreds and thousands. It would really appear, that the beauties of nature, and the pure air of mountain scenery, had a beneficial effect on the

In

mind; for next, in innocence, to the Welsh counties are, Cumberland and its neighbours. Crime appears, upon the whole, to be increasing much more rapidly than the population. This increase, we are sorry to say, has been rather on the part of the fair sex. The total committed for trial in England and Wales, in 1833, was 20,072; the total convicted, 14,446; sentenced to death, 931; executed, 33. The last two totals display the necessity of an alteration in our criminal law; as, of all the incentives to crime, none is equal in efficacy to the uncertainty of punishment. We cannot avoid connecting with this another, which appears in the returns for London and Middlesex, during twenty-one years, ending 1833. The executions, in that period, had decreased from 138 in the first seven years, to 81 in the last seven; while the convictions had increased from 9000 in the first period, to 16000 in the latter. Transportation appeared to have been a favourite punishment during this period. It is undoubtedly true that transportation is to many persons, and especially to the lower orders of Irish, in itselfas severe a punishment as death; but when we say this, we would be understood to mean transportation considered in itself alone, and not as surrounded with the fascinating attractions with which our silly and short-sighted soidissant philanthropists have contrived to clothe it. We have before, and we do now, and we will again, for we cannot too often, draw the attention of our readers, and implore that of the legislature, to the monstrous, the criminal anomaly, displayed in the treatment of prisoners on board our convict vessels, and in our prisons. We ask, is not a legislature answerable for the ruin of the moral principles of its citizens, which so arranges the whole system of its penal establishment, as to hold out an increased degree of comfort, and even luxury as a reward for an increased atrocity of crime? The fact is, that while the English pauper lives more tolerably than the English labourer the suspected thief more comfortably than the pauper-and the convicted felon more luxuriously than the suspected thief-the transported felon is indulged with viands scarcely attainable even by our country gentlemen of small fortune. These are the facts,

for the result of these facts, a result for which we fearlessly assert, that the disgusting pseudo-philanthropy of our rulers is responsible, we refer to the Poor Law Inquiries in England; where our readers will find that on walking into a workhouse, you can generally be furnished by the paupers with an accurate list of the bills of fare attending each degree of criminality, and they will tell you to your face that they are only waiting for an opportunity to earn each superior stage of comfort.

Prisons were in one extreme when they were visited by Mr. Howard; and we have now run into the opposite; but in the name of all that is just, and all that is merciful, let us not longer continue to put our wretched criminals to death, for attaining one stage of crime, and hold out every species of reward to them for approaching to it as nearly as possible.

Our northern neighbours may well be proud of the fact that the total number of persons committed for trial in the year, in the whole kingdom of Scotland, does not appear to average twothirds of those in London and Middlesex alone. Among the several counties in Scotland, Lanark appears by far the worst; and next to it Edinburgh and Renfrew. The list of crimes appears much more minute, and in many respects very different from that in the other parts of the empire, as if the indictments were very special. Among these, for instance, we find an excessive exercise of marital authority, which we hope is not a common offence. Its title is as follows," Throwing his wife over a window two stories high."

In the arrangement of the crimes in Ireland, the county of Clare has been, for what reason we cannot divine, annexed to the province of Connaught, whereas it really belongs to that of Munster. We stated, when connecting the quantity of crime existing in Lancashire with the great prevalence of popery in that district, that we would shew our readers a similar phenomenon in Ireland. We shall subtract the county of Clare from the province of Connaught, and add it to that of Munster, to which it properly belongs, and requesting our readers to remember that Connaught, Munster, and the greater part of Leinster, are chiefly popish, and Ulster almost wholly

Protestant, we shall give the returns of crime for the year 1831 as followsConnaught, 8375; Munster, 3950; Leinster, 3062; Ulster, 1334. To this great contrast must be added the circumstance, that the returns for Ulster include nearly the whole number of crimes committed, inasmuch as the peaceable state of the country, the total absence of intimidation, and the intelligent and educated character of the jurors, render the detection and punishment of crime at least as easy as in any part of England; while the contrary of every one of these existing in the popish districts, renders the return of convictions very small indeed compared with the crimes actually committed. We cannot avoid, while upon this subject, calling the attention of our readers to a most audacious and profligate interference on the part of the present government with the course of justice, and the rights of property and life. At the late Spring Assizes, the government, directed by Mr. O'Connell, sent orders to the crown officers throughout the kingdom, not to set by any jurors. The consequence of which was, that in repeated instances the friends and agents of murderers were to be seen on the juries which were to try them; and in one instance we were ourselves witness to the following specimen of Whig justice:An individual had excited the attention of all present, by going back and forward with papers from a murderer in the dock, and acting as principal agent between him and his attorney and counsel. Immediately afterwards, this very fellow being put upon the jury, to try his employer, some persons expressed their indignation to the crown officer, but his reply was, "I see all this as well as you do, but my orders are positive, and I dare not disobey them." The consequence of a succession of acts of this kind was, as might be expected, the total failure of justice by the obstinate disagreement of juries; and the repeated spectacle of the murderer dancing from the jail to the court-house, waving his hat in triumphant answer to the applauding shouts of his fellow-miscreants, conscious that his friends and protectors, the government, would secure him against any danger. These infamous proceedings drew down, as they de

served, the indignant censure of the judges of assize. But little did a profligate ministry care for their opinions: they gained their two points; the first to fulfil the mandates and forward the designs of the man whom they denounced from the throne as an enemy to his country. The second to get a pretence for raising their guilty heads in the legislature, to put forth the lying boast that crime was diminishing in Ireland. But we shall turn from this disgusting specimen of unprincipled corruption, which we trust will, with many others of the same kind, be soon forced upon the attention of the public.

We shall now proceed briefly to notice the last division of this great work, the statistics of foreign countries. It would not be consistent either with our limits or our plan, to go with any minuteness into these details; we shall therefore only notice a few curious facts. It appears from the Russian returns, that the nobles in St. Petersburgh, form about one-tenth of the population; that they are nearly onehalf as numerous as the servants; almost equal to the whole military force; more numerous than the burghers; and four times the number of either the merchants or the artizans!!! No wonder Petersburgh is called a noble city, nor were we at all surprised to find that out of an import trade into the Russian ports, of near eight millions annually, considerably above eighty-two thousand a-year was expended in Champagne; upwards of sixty-nine thousand a-year in precious stones; a hundred and fifteen thousand a-year in coffee; upwards of two hundred and fifty-five thousand a-year in silk; and above a million in sugar. The number of manufactories in Russia, has more than doubled between the years 1812 and 1824.

The whole population of the Danish empire is not equal to that of Ulster, and yet she possesses nearly four thousand ton of shipping.

In the "Statement of the several charges of a public nature, borne respectively by a national and a foreign vessel of three hundred tons' burden, upon entering and clearing from the port of Bordeaux," we find a remarkable difference made in favour of Great Britain-the total expenses of a national vessel being £56 19s. 10d.; of a British vessel, from British port in

Europe, £57 14s. 10d.;-while a foreign vessel not from British port in Europe, is charged £88 18s. Id., exclusive of consular fees.

We were surprised to find that the operative population of the town of Lyons exceeded a hundred and six thousand-among which there were 35000 silk manufacturers; considerably above 8000 shoemakers; 6000 tailors; 4600 hatters; 1100 jewellers; and 1050 hair-dressers. We find that 171 cwt. of cod fish were in one year exported from Marseilles to Cayenne. This may be on the principle of bringing the mountain to Mahomet; but we cannot help thinking the more natural and useful way would have been to bring the Cayenne to the cod-fish.

The average consumption of wine in Naples annually, is about a tun to four men!

An important dissension appears to exist at Venice, between the ecclesias

tics and the municipal authorities, with respect to the important fact, as to whether the population is increasing, or the opposite, since the census of 1811, which estimated it at 112,000— the ecclesiastics stating its present population to be 120,000, while the municipal authorities assert it to be only 100,000. It would be amusing to trace the causes and motives of this discrepancy.

We were glad to find that emigration from Ireland was rather decreasing during the interval from 1827 to 1834. That from Scotland has increased; and that from England nearly trebled, during this period.

We shall close our remarks on this most important work, with one observation, that we do not know any class of society who may not derive information and amusement from some portion of it, while to many, its pages would form a most valuable study.

THE name of Sir William Temple has been so associated in our minds from early years, with every thing that is polished, elegant, and classical in character, that it is with pleasure we select out of the reams of biographical rubbish that dishonours the press of our day, the memoir at the head of this article.

It has made substantial additions to our previous knowledge of the subject of the memoir; and notwithstanding some inaccuracies, both in matter, and style, and that too many of the "nugæ canora" are scattered over his pages, we deem the author entitled to the thanks of the reading public, both for the additional light he has thrown on Sir William Temple's private habits and character, and for the strain of good political feeling, and, what is far better, of religious feeling that distinguishes the work.

Swift, who knew Sir William Temple

well in the latter years of his patron's life, has described him as a person of the greatest wisdom, justice, liberality, politeness, and eloquence of his age and station; the true lover of his country, and one that deserved more from it, for his eminent public services, than any man before or since; besides, his great deserving of the commonwealth of learning, having been usually esteemed the most accomplished writer of his time.+ The Hon. Charles Boyle also, afterwards Earl of Orrery, and nephew of the celebrated Robert Boyle, speaks of him as the most accomplished writer of his age, whom he never thought of without calling to mind the happy lines of Lucretius_

Quem tu dea tempore in omni, Omnibus ornatum voluisti excellere rebus, -a character which he adds, "I dare say Memmius did not better deserve than Sir William Temple." Notwith

standing these panegyrics, it is but too true that neither his writings nor his life are generally known. His style has been a favourite theme with writers on English literature; his political and diplomatic character-which latter is every way peculiar and well worthy of intimate acquaintance has been the subject of much historical praise; his works are on the shelves of every library-and yet neither they nor his character are by any means generally known. It is justly said by his present biographer, that an incorrupt statesman in the days of Charles the Second, a diplomatist who rejected deceit and intrigue, a writer who gave elegance and harmony to the English language, assuredly deserves that his actions should be recorded, and his writings perused.

It is a singular fact that the first memoir of Sir William Temple was written, not by a countryman of his own, but by a Frenchman Abel Boyer, a Protestant refugee from France, with whose grammar and dictionary we were acquainted in our school-boy days. Lady Gifford, however, the sister of Temple, seems to have been the first who gave to the public any of the particulars of his private life; but even her memoir, which was prefixed to an edition of his works, published in 1731, was prepared for publication by omitting all that related to his "more private life."

Temple's present biographer has, through the medium of the Rev. Robert Longe, into the hands of whose father, the Rev. John Longe, late vicar of Coddenham, in Sussex, the MS. memoir by Lady Gifford, and other papers relative to Temple and his works, had come, furnished us with much valuable and interesting materials, on which the former biographical memoirs of Temple were silent.

Mr. Courtenay has shown good sense in steering clear of a too common fault of our modern biographers, that of converting what ought to be strictly a biography, into a flimsy and superficial "history of the times." His object is, almost exclusively, to describe only those transactions in which Temple was personally concerned. He is also much to be praised for his anxiety to give, on almost all occa

sions, the authorities for his respective statements, that the reader may judge for himself whether the foundation will bear the superstructure. He gives as the result of his experience, what every one, we believe, can confirm who is conversant with historical and political writers, be they of what age, country, or language they may, that even the most honest and veracious are not to be depended on for matters of fact, where they make an averment, and give no authority for it. In such cases there is too often an equal chance whether the averment be false or true. If founded on an unnamed document, there is a high probability that that document will bear another construction; and he who, writing of matters that occurred before he was born, conceals from his readers the ground of his notions or his belief, may be justly suspected of caring more for establishing his own views, than for the truth of the matter.

William Temple was born at Blackfriars in London, in the year 1628. The family of which he represented a younger branch, had long been seated at Temple-hall, in Leicestershire, and the head of it was one of the first baronets. The earlier genealogy of the house, which pretended to the most ancient nobility, may be left to the heralds, but so much of its history may be given as illustrates the connections and opinions of those who stood nearest to the subjects of the present memoir. The most independent mind takes an impression from a father, and is often imperceptibly affected by occurrences in the life of a grandsire.

The grandfather of Sir William Temple, who bore the same name, and was knighted, was secretary to Sir Philip Sidney, to whom he had previously dedicated two treatises in elegant Latin. After the hero's death he acted in the same capacity with Robert Devereux, the unfortunate Earl of Essex, whom he is said to have accompanied to Ireland when Lord Lieutenant. That he served in Ireland is the more probable, because after the death of Essex, in 1600, he retired into that country, and became afterwards a master in Chancery, Provost of Trinity College in Dublin, and representative of that city in Parlia