it does not require much foresight to see that Ore- | lations of his roar-the poor beast has been worked gon can and will compete with any other portion and belabored more than any costermonger's of the world in supplying the islands of the Pacific, donkey. I will not surprise me, soon, to see the the Russian settlements, and every other flour British Lion advertised as peculiarly fitted for the market contiguous, with bread stuffs at as low a most timid lady.' Certainly, timid gentlemen, rate as can reasonably be desired. In connection who might pass for ladies, have of late ridden him with this it may be remarked that pork and beef, hard enough. I much question whether the Culof an excellent quality, can be raised in this coun- ling Smiths, the Sibthorpes, and the Plumptres, try with greater ease and facility even than wheat. are not-for their sharp taskwork inflicted on And the climate being favorable for curing them, the British Lion-obnoxious to an information the time is not far distant, when these articles will for cruelty to animals. However, to my own also be exported in abundance. Already there are many settlers in the country who have from two hundred to five hundred head of cattle, and it is not an uncommon thing for a man to be the owner of one hundred hogs. At present, however, from the great influx of population, these kinds of property bear a high price in the country, but the time may be anticipated when the home market will not be so extensive, and the vast supplies from this quarter must find an outlet. As in many portions of the country, spruce, fir and pine timber abound, and as there are many water-falls, which afford excellent hydraulic privileges, the facilities for procuring timber in the country are abundant. Already considerable quantities of lumber are exported annually. It should also be observed that salmon in any quantity, and of the very best quality, may be yearly barrelled, which, with the products of dairies, that the country offers the greatest facilities for conducting, in addition to what has already been said concerning the products of the country, is sufficient to show that the exports of Oregon, in proportion to the number of its inhabitants, may equal those of most other countries. There are but few countries in which a poor man can place himself above want, with greater facility than in this. This is the testimony of every one that settles in the country. But every country has its defects, and this certainly is not free from them. It is not the garden of Eden, nor is it a barren desert. It does not "flow with honey" like the land of Canaan, but in some places it literally abounds in milk. And though it is not "a land of wine," yet in the more necessary articles of "corn and oil" it greatly abounds. Though gold and silver are not yet found in the rich veins of the earth, nor in great abundance in many coffers, yet a competency of whatever is necessary, is always awarded to industry and economy. That it is a land of mountains and valleys, of rivers and streams, of mighty forests and extended prairies, of a salubrious climate, and a rich and fertile soil, the foregoing remarks will sufficiently show. And in summing up the character of the country, it may be said to be not the best country in the world, but it is well entitled to be called a good country. THE BRITISH UNICORN. "MR. PUNCH, case. "I am a modest brute; so modest, that I have suffered all sorts of scholars and philosophers— men who take the universe to bits and put it together again, like a child's puzzle-to question even my existence. By some I have been called the Indian ass; by others the rhinoceros; and all these presumptuous men have flatly denied my right to the graceful form made familiar by the royal arms to every true-born Briton. But, sir, patience has its limits. Trodden worms will turn; and-it will be found-outraged unicorns will gore. "Nevertheless, for myself, I could still endure the contempt and slander of the world with perfect indifference. Yes, sir: I could hear my companion, the British Lion, praised for his courage, his magnanimity, an very other after-dinner virtue-(though, between ourselves, I have known him guilty of certain rogueries and fooleries more worthy of the British fox and the British goose; only lions, by virtue of their claws, are privileged as occasional knaves and simpletons)-I say, I could, unmoved, listen to his praises-unmoved as one opera-singer hears the applauding fame of another, (my frequent position over the proscenium has familiarized me with all play-house virtues,) were I alone concerned. But, sir, consider; if I am called a fabulous beast, a fictitious nonentity, a thing that never had a place in the ark, what a rebellious insult is thereby cast upon the Royal Escutcheon! The Lion is a terrible verity, says the world, and with his truthful strength, his awful looks, supports and watches the Royal | Shield; but the Unicorn is a nondescript nincompoop: a fib upon four legs: at the very best, a horned flam! Now, I ask it, is not this opinion treasonous? Does it not make the Royal Arms lopsided? On the right they are supported by leonine power; on the left by a worse than nothing-by a fiction! Now, sir, will you urge Lord George Bentinck to move for a committee to inquire into the truth of the existence of the British Unicorn? I suggest Lord George, because, as I am more than half equine, the inquiry could be best carried out by his stable mind. Did I really feel myself the ass that some naturalists have written me down, I could name other honorable members of the honorable house as being peculiarly fitted for the investigation. "And in the mean time, Mr. Punch, do think of me. Let me not suffer for my long endurance. Folks must be tired of the roar of the British Lion; therefore, do now and then say something about the honor of the British Unicorn. For I put it to you, whether it is not too bad that I should bear half the weight of the Royal Shield, and the Lion monopolize all the glory? Besides, the British Lion, for a time at least, has had his day; therefore, do justice to his long-silent and long-suffer "You have made my companion, the British Lion, very popular; can you do nothing for me? Understand, I shall be well content with half the notoriety you have bestowed upon my leonine friend; for certainly, since you have signalized him by your notice-since you have drawn him from the obscurity of the National Arms, and discussed the length of his mane and tail, the sharp-ing companion, ness of his teeth and claws, and the various modu "THE BRITISH UNICORN." SYDNEY SMITH A PLAGIARIST. [In order to show that the sincere scorn and horror, with which this most original wit regarded repudiation, was consistent with something like it in his own practice, we copy the conclusion of a review by the Christian Observer, showing, first, that he could appropriate the writings of other men without acknowledgment-and secondly, and this is more important, that he held a high and lucrative office in a church whose doctrines he did not believe. The first fault we could readily forgive, as he did better than preach his own sermons; but Sir Roger de Coverley would not have excused the other.] SYDNEY SMITH again! Yes; we have not quite done with him. In our last number we took up his posthumous sermons wet from the press; and as we did not suppose that our readers would anxiously wish to possess themselves of the book, we thought we should meet their convenience, and perhaps sufficiently satisfy their curiosity, by a selection of extracts. It seemed also desirable to provide a caution against the always defective, and often grossly erroneous, doctrines and the 1809. "Those who have not strength of character to deviate materially from the customs of the world in the patronage of folly, and estimation of vice, need not go all lengths; some scanty limits, some feeble shame they may still preserve." This is a singular specimen of ne-quid-nimis advice. He would not have persons either too good or too bad. He is far from being so harsh as to require the ungodly "to deviate materially" from their vain and vicious customs, or "to keep themselves unspotted from the world;" but "they need not go all lengths" in wickedness; they should retain some regard to respectability of character. On the other hand, he would not have the godly too zealously occupied "with sacred things," but would that they should be decently "conformed to this world," and even "give way a little more than their strict judgment may approve.' pernicious principles, upon which the work is based, before it comes generally into circulation. There was, however, one point upon which we did not touch, and which we had no right even to hint at, unless we were prepared to verify any remark which we might let fall; namely, how far Sydney Smith-most original as Peter Plymley and an Edinburgh Reviewer-was also original as a writer of discourses for the pulpit. In the year 1843, the conductors of the Times Newspaper recommended our reverend author to publish a volume of his sermons. They were not aware that the facetious canon did perpetrate that enormity in the year 1809; and we took occasion (Christ. Observ. 1843, p. 800) to furnish from our review of the old discourses some anticipations of what the new ones suggested by the Times might be likely to contain; and the prediction has been fulfilled; as for instance, in regard to his constant ravings against "enthusiasm" as the great vice of the age; his dread of being "righteous over much; and what we called his ne quid nimis advice, of which we will lay side by side two specimens from the volumes of 1809 and 1846. 1846. "Do not wage war against the innocent pleasures of life; give way a little more than your strict judgment may approve, rather than alarm others by an air of austerity and needless denial; and above all things do not fall into the fatal mistake of attempting to rack the human mind to too high a pitch of enthusiasm, and to make men occupy themselves more with sacred things than the nature of the mind will admit of, or the condition of human life allow." per: unless at least he had been more careful in his selections than his friend has been for him. It is not necessary that we should here discuss the question, under what circumstances, and to what extent, it is desirable or lawful for a clergyman to copy, adapt, digest, or abridge, the writings of other divines in the composition of his discourses for the pulpit. But there can be no doubt that adequate care should be taken not to put into print after his death, as his own, what was not so; and in the case of Sydney Smith, whose celebrity as an author, and in former days as a preacher, was very great, his hearers or readers would scarcely suspect that his discourses from the pulpit were not his own productions, as much as the Peter Plymley Letters; and would feel, when the substitution was discovered, that their credulity had been practised upon;-and what is more painful, that much which raised the writer in their estimation as a divine and a Christian, was not his rightful property. In the critique in 1809 our reviewer showed that Sydney Smith had imitated some peculiarities in the style of Jeremy Taylor; and expressed a suspicion that he had "dipped deeply into a little volume of Selections from the Works of Taylor, Hooker, Hall, and Bacon, by Basil Montague;" and in writing the paper last month, some of the titles and contents of the sermons sounded to us We confessed ourselves last month very much rather familiarly; but it did not occur to us, pen- puzzled in reading these discourses, on account of ning our first thoughts as we cut open the fresh their manifest inequality, not to say inconsistency, pages, to look into the matter. It is due, how-in doctrinal and practical statements. Our readers ever, to our readers and the public, that we should must have thought that we wrote in a vague and not pass it over; and the editor of this posthumous vacillating manner, as in truth we did; for somevolume will doubtless be vexed with himself for having ushered into the world, as the original compositions of his friend, much that is borrowed; -how much, we have not ascertained; having only compared a few of the sermons with those of Dr. Barrow though, from internal evidence, we suspect that the larceny is very extensive, and from several authors. Sydney Smith acted prudently in not following the advice of the Times Newspa times we described him as saying nothing but what an Arian, and, we might add, a Socinian, might have penned; degrading Christianity into mere practical good sense in attending to the external social duties of life; and writing as though all the doctrines of the Gospel were despicable cant; yet at others putting forth sentiments which embodied many of its essential principles. The inconsistency was not ours, but the author's; who, in laying hold of the good things of other men, | Paul: Yea doubtless; and I count all things but does not always succeed in deteriorating them to his own standard. When our readers shall have perused the passages which we are about to quote from these discourses, side by side with extracts from those of Dr. Isaac Barrow, they will be able to account for the perplexity under which we wrote last month; as for instance at p. 294, where, having spoken of the genuine Sydney Smith, we added: "We are far from saying that in this volume there is nothing which rises above this manner of address. On the contrary, we have been pleasingly surprised at much that is contained in these sermons, which ever and anon advance into the territories of religion to an extent which was not to be predicted from the ordinary style of Sydney Smith's Reviews, Plymley Letters, popular pamphlets, and, we may add, colloquial intercourse. There is a recognition of various truths of the Gospel which might have surprised some of the author's Holland-House acquaintance, and led them to ask whether their facetious friend had become a fanatic. In truth there is some discrepancy, or inconsistency, which it is not easy to reconcile." The reconciliation is now to our minds easy enough. Sydney Smith paid no attention to theological study; he was not a diligent reader of the word of God, as is evinced by his strange blunders in reference and quotation; he had no doctrinal system, except that of having none; he had no taste for writing sermons ;-we mean discourses for the pulpit, embodying Christian doctrines and precepts, as distinguished from mere essays upon human life and manners;-no understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as the power of God unto salvation; or if he understood it as a matter of theory, he was apparently skeptical in regard to it. Everything approaching to true religion in the heart, and evinced in the life, he scoffed at as rant and fanaticism; and, whether from distaste, or from a consciousness that divinity was not within the range of his attainments, he evidently eschewed it; so that wherever we find any remark in his discourses of a more than usually doctrinal character-the doctrine being sound -we strongly suspect that it is borrowed. Our task will now be to exhibit a few specimens of Sydney Smith's obligations to Dr. Barrow, confining our collation to that one writer, and to three of our author's discourses. The first which we select for notice, is that entitled "The Excellence of the Christian Gospel,” from Philippians iii. 8: "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." On this sermon we remarked last month: "One solution which has occurred to us of the seeming discrepancy in his sermons is, that in speaking of the Gospel, or its essential peculiarities, (so far as he touches upon them,) he does so in an extenuated sense; meaning little more by the Gospel than a code of moral conduct. He would keep down everything to this, so as to prevent what he calls enthusiasm. The proof of our remark is rather to be gathered from the general strain of his discourses, and from what they do not include, than from particular passages which may be briefly quoted. As an illustration, however, we will give some account of the sermon entitled, The Excellence of the Christian Gospel;' from that glowing declaration of the Apostle loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.' If there is any text in the Bible which exhibits what Canon Smith would have considered enthusiasm,' it is this; yet he manages to take the glow from it; by confining the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus to the social benefits conferred by the Gospel-its effects upon our temporal concerns. We say he confines it to this; for though what he predicates of it does not necessarily exclude something else not predicated; yet that something else, though the highest object of the Gospel, is not touched upon by him; the inferior, the secular, blessing engrosses all his attention; he does not intimate that St. Paul referred to anything higher: and he forbears to give the Apostle's own reason why he was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ-not because of its excellent effects upon our temporal concerns; but because it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.' We know that in offering these remarks, we subject ourselves to rebuke, as though we wished unfairly to lower the tone of the volume. We only wish to speak the words of truth; our desire would be to give to every passage the highest spiritual construction which it is able to bear; but if we find ourselves limited in one page by what we read in another, what can we do, as honest men, but state what appears to us to be the actual result of the whole? When we meet, for instance, with the words gospel, redemption, and salvation, we should not be justified in giving to them a meaning which Canon Smith would have deemed enthusiastic;' and then palming this meaning upon him. "But let us see how the sermon on The Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ,' bears out our estimate. The reader should weigh each sentence in the balance of the sanctuary to ascertain the momentum of the whole. In the very first line, for example,' the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord,' is called This eulogium upon our blessed religion.' Here at once Christ Jesus' is made a sort of abstraction for religion;' and all that relates to the Redeemer in his Person and Offices is quietly but effectually set aside. Try the experiment with another of the Apostle Paul's declarations respecting Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.' He says, I know whom I have believed; and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.' Is this enthusiastic?' The pious Apostle' (as Sydney Smith terms him) gloried in Christ; counted all loss for Christ; knew WHOм he had believed;' not merely what he had believed; not simply our blessed religion;' but its divine Author, our prophet, priest, king; who is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; whom having not seen, we love; in whom though now we see him not, yet believing we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." After these remarks, we gave illustrative extracts; but expressed ourselves much puzzled to understand how the merely secular or temporal benefits of religion could be accounted "the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus ;" and after quoting Sydney Smith's account of the "advantages of religion," we added that "The pious. Apostle (as the canon calls him) would not have known his own words in this free paraphrase." The solution is now evident to us. This discourse upon Philippians iii. 8, is copied from one of Barrow's, entitled "The Profitableness of Godliness," froin 1 Tim. iv. 8, "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." Barrow's line of argument was striking and appropriate; namely, to show that even as concerns the life that now is, "Godliness is profitable;" but it becomes almost nonsense when made to illustrate quite another passage; a passage of as apparently opposite a character as was consistent with both being true; for in Philippians iii. the Apostle is speaking not of "the temporal advantages of Christianity," but of the severe trials which had befallen him in this life for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, for whom he counted all things but loss; but, walking by faith and not by sight, he consoled himself for his present secular disadvantages, by a realization of the countervailing value of spiritual and eternal blessings. (See verses 9-11, and 20, 21.) Sydney Smith had better have adopted the satirical suggestion of another facetious prebendary, one Laurence Sterne, who advised clergymen, when they were at a loss DR. BARROW. "It hath been ever a main obstruction to the practice of piety, that it hath been taken for no friend, or rather for an enemy to profit; as both unprofitable and prejudicial to its followers: and many semblances there are countenancing that opinion. For religion seemeth to smother or to slacken the industry and alacrity of men in following profit many ways: by charging them to be content with a little, and careful for nothing; by diverting their affections and cares from worldly affairs to matters of another nature, place, and time; prescribing in the first place to seek things spiritual, heavenly, and future; by disparaging all secular wealth, as a thing, in comparison to virtue and spiritual goods, very mean and inconsiderable; by checking greedy desires and aspiring thoughts after it; by debarring the most ready ways of getting it (violence, exaction, fraud, and flattery;) yea, straitening the best ways, eager care and diligence, by commending strict justice in all cases, and always taking part with conscience when it clasheth with interest." "For voiding which prejudices, and the recommendation of St. Paul's project, I shall, as I said, propose some of those innumerable advantages, by considering which the immense profitableness of piety will appear." "First, then, we may consider, that piety is exceedingly useful for all sorts of men, in all capacities, all states, all relations; fitting and disposing them to manage all their respective concernments, to discharge all their peculiar duties, in a proper, just and decent manner. It rendereth all superiors equal and moderate in their administrations; mild, courteous, and affable in their converse; benign and condescensive in all their demeanor toward their inferiors." "It is therefore the concernment of all men, who, as the Psalmist speaketh, desire to live well, and would fain see good days it is the special interest of great persons, (of the magistracy, the nobility, the gentry, of all persons that have any considerable interest in the world,) who would safely and sweetly enjoy their dignity, power, or wealth, by all means to protect and promote piety, as the best instrument of their security, and undisturbedly enjoying the accommodations of their state. 'Tis in all respects their best wisdom and policy; for a text that suited their sermon, to choose "Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia;" which had Sydney Smith done, though his text would have been irrelevant, he would not have needed to turn it inside out. To show fully the extent of Canon Smith's obligations to Dr. Barrow in this discourse, we should be obliged to quote the whole; but a few paragraphs will suffice as a specimen. The sermon was preached at the Cathedral of St. Paul; so that, not only in addressing his village congregation, but in the few discourses which it was his duty to deliver in the Metropolitan church, in return for the large emoluments of his canonry, he did not deem it worth his while to think out a topic on so dry a subject as divinity; but was content to mangle one of Dr. Barrow's sermonsthe second of the first volume; as if his balloon alighted upon almost the first which presented itself. His reply, in his off-hand manner, would perhaps be, "Oh, I took the second, because I had already used the first.” SYDNEY SMITH. "It has ever been one of the principal obstructions to Christianity, that it has been considered as unfriendly to worldly advantages, for Christianity seems to smother and slacken the industry of men, by charging them to be content with a little by disparaging secular wealth, and praising spiritual feeling; by debarring men of what seems to be the readiest instruments of profit-violence, exaction, fraud, and flattery, and by limiting the use even of those instruments which are good-care, vigilance, and dexterity; by paring away the licentious use of wealth, and always taking part with conscience whenever it clashes with interest." "It is, therefore, the concern of all men who (as the Psalmist says) desire to live well, and would fain see good days-of all who have any considerable interest in the world, to consider the Gospel (independently of all other considerations) as the best instrument of their security, and the undisturbed enjoyment of the accommodations of their state. It is in all respects, then, the best wisdom and policy; that which will as well preserve their outward state here, as save their souls hereafter. All the arts and tricks, all the sleights DR. BARROW. that which will as well preserve their outward state here, as satisfy their consciences within, and save their souls hereafter. All the Machiavelian arts and tricks, all the sleights and fetches of worldly craft, do signify nothing in comparison to this one plain and easy way of securing and furthering their interests." "If, then, it be a gross absurdity to desire the fruits, and not to take care of the root, not to cultivate the stock whence they sprout; if every prince gladly would have his subjects loyal and obedient, every master would have his servants honest, diligent, and observant, every parent would have his children officious and grateful, every man would have his friend faithful and kind, every one would have those just and sincere, with whom he doth negotiate or converse; if any one would choose to be related to such, and would esteem their relation a happiness; then consequently should every man in reason strive to further piety, from whence alone these good dispositions and practices do proceed." "Is a man prosperous, high, or wealthy in condition? Piety guardeth him from all the mischiefs incident to that state, and disposeth him to enjoy the best advantages thereof. It keepeth him from being swelled and puffed up with vain conceit, from being transported with fond complacence or confidence therein; minding him, that it is purely the gift of God; that it absolutely dependeth on his disposal, so that it may soon be taken from him; and that he cannot otherwise than by humility, by gratitude, by the good use of it, be secure to retain it; minding him also, that he shall assuredly be forced to render a strict account concerning the good management thereof. It preserveth him from being perverted or corrupted with the temptations to which that condition is most liable; from luxury, from sloth, from stupidity, from forgetfulness of God, and of himself; maintaining among the floods of plenty a sober and steady mind." The discourse continues in the same manner; but we have quoted enough. But much of the DR. BARROW. "On the duty of Prayer. SYDNEY SMITH. and resources of worldly cunning, signify nothing in comparison of this one plain, easy way, of securing and promoting our interest; it is so excellent even in this point of view, that but for it, all things would be lost." "If, then, it is the greatest of all follies to covet the fruit, and not cultivate the stock from whence it springs—if a ruler would have his subjects loyal, if a master would have his servants observant, if a parent would have his children grateful, if a man would have his friend faithful-if every one would have those with whom they converse just and sincere-if to bear any relation to men of this stamp be happiness, then is the Gospel most excellent, even in this world, for from the Gospel do these good dispositions and sound practices ever proceed." "If a man be prosperous and wealthy in condition, the Gospel guards him from all mischief incident to that state, and while it disposes him to enjoy its best advantages, it keeps him from being swelled with conceit, and transported with fond complacence in his fortune. It reminds him that his lot is the gift of God, that it depends upon His disposal, that it may be soon taken away from him, and that he cannot otherwise than by humility and gratitude, and by the good use of it, be sure to retain it. It preserves him from luxury, sloth, forgetfulness of God and himself; it maintains among the floods of plenty a sober mind.” best of Barrow's matter is omitted. We will give an illustration from another sermon. SYDNEY SMITH. "On the necessity of Prayer. "1 Thess. v. 17.-Pray without ceasing. "1 Thess. v. 17.-Pray without ceasing. "It is the manner of St. Paul in his Epistles, "It is the manner of St. Paul in his Epistles, after that he hath discussed some main points of after he has discussed doctrines, to propose rules, doctrine or discipline, (which occasion required in the observance of which the life of a Christian that he should clear and settle,) to propose several consists: these he ranges not in any formal mangood advices and rules, in the observance whereof ner, but freely scatters them as they are suggested the life of Christian practice doth consist. These by the Holy Spirit which guided him." he rangeth not in any formal method, nor linketh together with strict connexion, but freely scattereth them, so as from his mind (as out of a fertile soil, impregnated with all seeds of wisdom and goodness,) they did aptly spring up, or as they were suggested by that Holy Spirit which continually guided and governed them." "Pray without ceasing. For understanding these words, let us first consider what is meant by the act enjoined, praying; then what the qualification or circumstance adjoined, without ceasing, doth import. "The word prayer doth, in its usual latitude of acceptation, comprehend all sorts of devotion * * It includeth that praise which we should yield to God, implying our due esteem of his most excellent "Pray without ceasing!' For understanding these words I will first consider what is meant by praying, then what is meant by the qualification adjoined, of praying without ceasing. "The word prayer in its usual meaning, comprehends every sort of devotion. It includes the praise we yield to God, implying our admiration of his perfections, of his works, of the wise dispen |
