The time has fully come, however, when something | should be done to meet this infidel boasting. Men may repeat a lie till they believe it, or till they infect others with it; and to prevent that, we must take care lest we leave the field open either to sciolists in knowledge, or to infidels in religion. If the facts alleged by geologists be facts, it is vain to deny them. They must be adopted, as surely as the facts of the Copernican system have been. And that these facts are what they claim to be is credible, whether we consider the high standing of the men who advance them, or the wide range over which geology has roamed to explore and investigate, now theorizing, anon correcting theory by observation, and at last testing all by methods of procedure purely and essentially Baconian. It has been said that geological investigation has fully exhausted Europe and the greater part of America. In consequence of that, its principles, and even very many of its details, are now considered as finally fixed. The theorizings and world-manufacturing of former times have given place to extensive inductions; and we must despair of ever arriving at facts at all, if many of those on which geology rests its claims or builds its system are not entitled to that character. As the result, then, of these investigations and researches, it appears that the deposits or materials which form the crust or shell of our earth must have occupied, in their formation into their present condition, untold and immeasurable ages. Geologists allege, that in the nature of things, it is impossible to explain the phenomena, except on that supposition. Periods indiscribably prolonged were needed to accomplish certain transformations, which are now as exactly ascertained as science or observation can make them. During all those periods, "the Cause of causes" was preparing and adjusting an abode for the crowning work of his hands-the creature man; and so clearly do geologists reckon this established, that they deem it impossible for any intelligent person to understand the facts, and believe that this globe was created out of nothing only six thousand years ago. The formation of even only one portion of the globe's mass-the Silurian system-is calculated to have required myriads of ages; and if there be about thirty or forty different strata, it can easily be supposed how immense is the epoch needed for the whole. And that these strata have not been assumed, but proved to exist, is plain from the fact --which geology accurately demonstrates-that they ever occur in regular order and succession. In different localities some members of the series may be absent, from causes which we need not tarry to explain; but A is never found under B, nor B under C, nor C under D. If they co-exist at all, they are found in regular succession. It is not our object to account for this, but only to state the demonstrated fact; and as an inevitable inference, geologists assure us that ages of ages-years which our arithmetic could scarcely count-have been needed for the construction of the whole. Now, assuming these things to be physical facts, no one can be blind to the conclusion, that geology and revelation appear to conflict. Dr Hales of Dublin calculated that the age of our world is about 7250. The chronology adopted in our Bibles makes it about 6000 years; but geology regards even the larger period as only a day-a moment in comparison of the earth's duration through its various transformations since its matter was first created. Geologists thus concede that their science opposes the current and common interpretation of the Mosaic Genesis. The sober and judicious among them are far from saying that the Mosaic system is wrong-they only argue that our interpretation of it is erroneous. "It is not the Word of God, but the expositions and deductions of men," that the modern geology opposes.* But this subject, at which we shall only glance, may be made plainer as follows. Scriptural geologists view the first verse of Genesis as containing a general and independent proposition, not connected with what follows it-announcing what Jehovah did at the point when time began, without defining when that was The subsequent verses are regarded as describing not what immediately followed that primal act when the matters that now forms our earth began, but a description, accommodated to the capacities and understanding of the men to whom it was addressed, detailing in a series the operations by which the Eternal adapted the earth created "in the beginning" to his ultimate purposes, and eventually fitted it up as the dwelling-place of man. In this view, Geologists argue that though geological investigations should suggest an antiquity which demands a million or ten thousand millions of years, the divine record does not forbid that conclusion or demand.+ Deep within the earth as well as on its surface, they say, there are unchallengeable phenomena, which point irresistibly to that conclusion; and through periods of time utterly beyond human power to assign, the matter of this earth has been the seat of life, and subject to innumerable vicissitudes and changes, all different from the common interpretation of Genesis, but not from the record of inspiration properly understood. To deny or evade this, geologists declare, is to injure Scripture precisely as the Inquisition did, when it doomed Galileo to a dungeon. Such in this respect is the fact which geology announces. We know that questions like these cannot be settled by names or mere authority; yet it may be interesting to inquire what are the opinions of those who have given their days and their nights to the study of geology. The facts have been gathered from the world. What are the opinions which they have suggested? Professor Sedgwick of Cambridge, one of the most accomplished men of our day, has said "By the discoveries of a new science, we learn that the manifestations of God's power on the earth had not been limited to the few thousand years of man's existence. The geologist.... counts his time, not by celestial cycles but by an index he has found in the solid framework of the globe itself." Mr Babbage, one of the most scientific men in Europe, has asked "What have those men accomplished who have restricted the Mosaic account of creation to that diminutive period which is, as it were, a span in the duration of the earth's existence, and who have imprudently rejected the testimony of the senses when opposed to their philological criticisms?" Again, he adds "In truth, the mass of evidence which combines to prove See Dr Pye Smith's Scripture and Geology, p. 54, fourth edition, from which nearly all our extracts in this paper are taken, ↑ Dr Pye Smith, D. 392, the great antiquity of the earth itself, is so irresistible and so unshaken by any opposing facts, that none but those who are incapable of observing the facts, and appreciating the reasoning, can for a moment conceive the present state of its surface to have been the result of only 6000 years of existence." Once again "The evidence (by which the conclusions of geology are proved) is in many cases so irresistible that the records of the past ages to which it refers, are traced in language more imperishable than that of the historian of any human transactions, the relics of those beings entombed in the strata which myriads of centuries have heaped upon their graves, giving a present evidence of their past existence with which no human testimony can compute." Sir R. I. Murchison says "The great truths of geology are sustained by the display of forms which mark the period when the first vestiges of life can be discovered, as well as the following successive creations; and thus, whilst with the exception of one sacred record, we can truly say that the origin of the greatest empires of man is buried in fable and superstition, the hard and indelible register, as preserved for our inspection in the great book of ancient nature, is at length interpreted and read off with clearness and precision." Our own Hugh Miller speaks of the incalculable periods which are indicated by the stratification of his favourite district, and the living creatures which have successively characterized the formations which he has so geographically described. Mr Lyel, perhaps the most devoted geologist alive, says, that thirty-four thousand years have been required for the Falls of Niagara to accomplish certain effects by erosion in the channel of their waters. According to the same author, the delta of the Mississippi, and the plain connected with it, have required more than 100,000 years for their formation by the detritus borne down by that mighty river. To conclude this list, Professor Hitchcock, one of the ablest living geologists in America, has said"Why should we hesitate to admit the existence of our globe through periods as long as geological researches require, since the Sacred Record does not declare the time of its original creation? Instead of bringing us into collision with moses, it seems to me that geology furnishes us with some of the grandest conceptions of the divine attributes and plans to be found in the whole circle of human knowledge." ¡lege of Edinburgh. Referring to some parts of the Mosaic record, that thoroughly competent judge declares "I do not feel, though a clergyman, the slighest reason to conceal my sentiments, though they are opposed to the notions which a false philosophy has generated in the public mind—” --And then the professor proceeds to give his views of the deluge, and other topics referred to in the record of revelation, utterly opposed to the current | interpretations. We might quote the opinions of others on this vital subject. Sharon Turner, for example, though not a very competent judge, concedes that, "whether months, years, or ages, occurred between the first creation of the material substance of our globe and the mandate for light to descend on it, is not in the slightest degree noticed" by Moses. Even Granville Penn makes concessions of a similar kind; and, on the whole, we cannot but notice a wondrous harmony on the subject. Theory is now abandoned-it is superseded by facts. Philosophy has taken the place of fancy, induction of baseless speculations; and geologists, at least, entertain no doubt, even with the Bible in their hand, and regarded as the Word of God, in arriving at the conclusion, that ages upon ages, untold, and beyond the reach even of the remotest guess, intervened between the primal act of creating our globe, and fitting it up as a mansion for man—the arena on which to display the glory at once of the Creator and the Redeemer. But along with this attractive subject, various others should be conjoined, did our space allow; but they must, at least, be reserved. The Deluge-was it universal? Does it explain the geological phenomena that meet us on the earth's surface? Both of these questions were once answered in the affirmative; but the modern geology alleges that it can utterly disprove such beliefs, and that in entire harmony both with the letter and the spirit of Scripture. Volcanic remains, the age of existing trees, and other phenomena, alleged to be unchallengeable, are quoted to modify the absolute universality of the Noachian deluge. It destroyed the whole human race-but terly environ the globe? Further, the notion that the the question still remains-Did it absolutely and utdays, implying periods indefinitely protracted, is now six days assigned by Moses to creation were figurative also exploded, like the visions of Burnet, the cosmogony of Penn or Fairholm, and the more cautious "We conclude with adverting to the unanimity of geolo- speculations or corrections of Gisborne. Facts read gists on one point-the far superior antiquity of this globe to the commonly received date of it as taken from the writings off from "the Stony Legend," to which a key was of Moses. What shall we make of this? We may feel a furnished by "the Magician of the Charnel House," security as to those points on which they differ, and confronting Cuvier, or rather by Stratum Smith, the father of them with each other, may remain safe and untouched be- geology, have demolished these reveries, and esta tween them. But when they agree, this security fails." blished the legitimate throne of the inductive philoThe present Archbishop of Canterbury has writ-sophy in a region where wild and dream-like specu But these are the sentiments of avowed geologists. Their evidence is perhaps ex parte. Let us therefore appeal to divines, qualified by study, for judging of the facts of the science. Dr Chalmers says— ten "There is nothing in the Mosaic records either to gratify the curiosity or repress the researches of mankind, when brought, in the progress of cultivation, to calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, and speculate on the formation of the globe. The expressions of Moses are evidently accommodated to the first and familiar notions derived from the sensible appearances of the earth and the heavens, and the absurdity of supposing that the literal interpretation of terms in Scripture ought to interfere with the advancement of philosophical inquiry, would have been as generally forgotten as renounced, if the oppressors of Galileo had not found a place in history.' We might also quote from Dr Conybeare, the dean of Llandaff; but we hasten to close with a single citation from Dr Fleming, professor in the New Col lation was once all in all. At the same time, various other opinions have been corelatively established by such inquiries. It has been held, for instance, even by those who believe the Mosaic record, that there would have been death to organized bodies (exclusive of man), even though Adam had not sinned-and on this inviting subject we would fain, but dare not, enter. Again, geology demonstrates, in harmony with the Mosaic account, that man was the last of God's creations. It points, in its speculations, to a central fire, and argues as to the probability of the ruin which it may yet inflict on the earth all in accordance with Revelation. Moreover, in accounting for the vast mountains of our globe, this science makes it not improbable that the space now occupied by the Alps was once a marsh, with a climate approaching to that of the tropics. But on these, and kindred topics, we dare not dwell. Enough, if we have suggested to our readers what will show that we must not leave this inviting field to the Infidel. Thorns and thistles will grow unless culture be bestowed, of which a specimen has already appeared in "The Vestiges of Creation," so antiphilosophical and shallow, yet so well adapted to confirm in their ignorance and delusions the men who wish revelation to be untrue. Geology, we say, must be studied. It must be Christianized, as astronomy, and other once suspected sciences, have been. It will not do to supersede investigation, or cherish indolence and error by the sweeping charge of aberration or Infidelity. Facts demand explanation; and if they be not interpreted aright, they will only foster error. The Bible is fearless, and so may its friends beindeed, it has nothing to fear; and, though some of the opinions of geologists may require correction, by still greater painstaking and more careful inductions, we cannot too soon enlist this new handmaid in the service of the truth. Some of the highest minds of the age long strove against the evidence of facts, but they yielded at last, and were repaid by the discovery, that the Bible, which they prized yet more than science, gave ample scope and verge for the system, once so much suspected and traduced. Why should not we participate in a pleasure which has been shared not merely by Sedgwick, and Buckland, and Conybeare, but by a nobler than they all, our own lamented Chalmers? A system which, in its general principles deduced from unchallangeable facts, has commanded the assent of minds so philosophical, and so gifted as those of Herschell, and Whewell, and a host besides, cannot be superseded except by counterfacts, and Christianity will be strengthened by another buttress when her friends shall have enlisted this new ally. A VISIT TO THE VATICAN. Or all the edifices in Rome, the Vatican is by far the most extensive, rivalling in its magnitude the residences of those emperors who were masters of the world, when a palace covered a hill. Do we resort to it for objects of art?-It is enough to say that the Transfiguration by Rafaelle, and the Apollo Belvidere are there. Do we wish to become acquainted with the treasures of ancient lore, MS. or printed?-Its library opens up riches which many life-times could not exhaust. Or do we wish to wander over the chief residence of him whose predecessors at least, trod on the necks of emperors, and upturned the thrones of kings; while even now, shorn and diminished as he is, the Pope, as the head of Antichristianism, enthrals the minds and the consciences of millions? Then here, with St. Peter's on the east, the gardens of the Palace to the south, the church-tipped Monte Mario (Clivus Cinnae) to the west, and the yellow Tiber and Rome to the north, we find the abode of that Man of Sin who still supports the system which vies with the grossest superstitions in corrupting and debasing mankind. But let us turn for a little from polemics, to examine in detail this wondrous pile, and record the impressions which a visit conveys. First, as to the arts-where shall we begin? We are in the chamber of Rafaelle, and on that frescoed wall the master has depicted the history of the apostle Paul in a style so life-like, so grand and speaking, that one expects for a moment to hear his voice, till reflection dispels the illusion. It returns, however, as you study the exhaustless production. One of the texts is the stone with the words, "To the unknown God;" the pulpit is Mar's Hill; the hearers are Athenians; the preacher, Paul, the painter Rafaelle, and where in the world's history, among mere men, was ever a group so noble, or associations so varied, or topics so exciting and suggestive as are thus presented to the eye? But pass through a few apartments, any one of which would signalize a country where the objects of art are more rare, and you stand before the Transfiguration by Rafaelle. In the Sistine Chapel, you find the Last Judgment by Michael Angelo, in fresco. It is awful and appalling, though in some respects its details degenerate into the grotesque; but you can turn from it without emotion, at least there is no drawing forth of deep feeling by all the painter's power. Before the Transfiguration, on the other hand, one feels attracted, and actually loves the production. The chief figure is so exquisitely beautiful and ethereal, that it appears not a thing of earth"His face shines as the sun, and his raiment is white as the light." Those apostles so stunned, those attendants, Moses and Elias, so ethereal, like their Lord, (1 John iii. 2), are all so inexpressibly lovely and perfect, that one can form no adequate estimate of the power of painting till objects such as these have been seen. We do not forget that criticism has pronounced certain censures on some details in this painting, and there may be truth in them; but that conceded, we speak of the effect of the whole, and that effect we describe by saying, that the genius is so visible and so great, that it subdues while it delights the on-looker. "It is raised a spiritual body," has a simpler meaning, after studying the Transfiguration by Rafaelle. Would we hold converse with some of the most noted of modern Italians?—They may be met in the halls of the Palace, the chapels of the Pope, or the corridors of the Library and Museum. But pass to another section of this vast pile. It is a chamber in the form of the segment of a circle. The view from it is one of the grandest in Italy. The Castle of St Angelo, the Campus Martius, the Tiber, Rome, the Sabine Hills, the Campania, Tusculum, Frascati, Tivoli-a thousand objects of interest meet the eye as it roams from scene to scene, beheld from the Palace and its halls. But in that chamber, small in comparison of many beside it, stands another amazing creation of art, the Apollo. It was found at Antium towards the close of the fifteenth century, and placed in the museum of the Vatican by Buonarotti. Perhaps there are some who feel, or think they feel, all the beauty of this wondrous statue, when they first gaze on it-and the first look, no doubt, conveys a distinct impression of its grandeur and symmetry. But the expression, the real greatness of the mimic god, are not discovered to their full extent except by visit after visit. He has just discharged an arrow, and gazes after it to mark its effects; and the attitude, haughty yet reposeful, the anger felt and expressed, yet not ruffling the countenance, the expectation of righteous retribution evident in the countenance, combined with the perfect proportions of the work as a human figure, hold us in a kind of awe in its presence-an awe which we felt deepened and enhanced by each creations of the artists of Rhodes leave a deeper im- Laoceonta petunt: et primum parva duorum 1 But there are other stores in the Vatican besides the treasures of art. It is said that there are 60,000 statues in Rome, and many of them adorn the halls of this Papal palace, but we turn from them all to the Library, there to glance at the treasures which it contains. It was founded by Pope Nicholas V., in 1447, who transferred to it from other quarters the MSS., which had been in course of collection for ten centuries before. The present pile dates from 1588, and the contents of the library have been augmented from time to time, and from innumerable sources. Leo X. was an active collector, and added largely to the stores. Yet the interior of this magnificent pile has little of that erudite appearance which its character as a depot of lore would lead us to expect. Indeed, its treasures are so buried or immured in presses, and these presses are so bedizened with ornament, that except in its vastness, it is more like the library of a well-conditioned and rather pretending citizen's villa, than the depository of so much that is antique and invaluable. It would be endless to attempt to cata reiterated visit. Except in that marvellous and mighty pile the Pantheon, nowhere in Italy did man's power affect us so much as in the presence of the Apollo. We have traversed the field of battle at Thrasymene, and tried to realize the feelings of the combatants when they struggled so intensely that they felt not the earthquake which rocked the ground on which they fought; we have followed Bonaparte over the Great St Bernard with its glaciers and snows, and explored with care the battlefield of Marengo; we have heard the British huzzas, and seen the French disasters at Waterloo-and these have drawn forth emotions which one would not wish to repress, and could not tell; yet the Apollo in effect surpasses them all, at least, it is sui generis. The mind versant in moral loveliness, learns before it, that even in things as they exist in our wrecked world, there lie concealed the elements and copies of beauty as it exists in the Divine Mind, waiting the appointed time when all the redeemed shall be morally lovely-literally like God. Quella venusta che da Dio deriva, conduce a Dio-is the aphorism of an Italian. It is true, at least in spiritual things, so that one carries to his ultramontane home, from the hall of the Apollo, a figure of loveliness, which it requires no effort for the mind to reproduce; and which it is nothing more than instinct to admire. Strange that the mind that conceived, the hand that chiselled that exquisite embodi-logue the treasures and true curiosities of literature ment of thought, was Pagan, worshipping, if it worshipped at all, a stock or a stone, and seeking pleasure in the objects which the true God abominates, and bids man abjure! The form, however, is only the more admirable on that account. It is the idealized creation of some high mind, the transcendentalism of taste, the absolute ideal of manly beauty, and prompts us to wonder more and more at the character of ancient Rome. To-day, its Vestal virgins were presiding at a massacre in the circus; to-morrow, adoring, after their fashion, in a temple worthy of Athens; now, the majestic people consigned a city to the flames; anon, they re-peopled it with statues just not living! Madame de Stael somewhere asks, Whether Nero, looking on such perfection, would not have foregone somewhat of his ferocity? She knew not that it is not that kind of beauty that can tame man's heart into tenderness. It is, nevertheless, A form of life and light, That, seen, became a part of sight; 66 The volume that are here. Romish partiality or pride estimates In the neighbourhood of the Apollo, though in a separate hall, stands the group of the Laocoon, another marvellous creation, though less imposing than the simple majesty of its companion. It is assigned The living literature of the Vatican is not the to three artists at Rhodes; it formed one of the orna- least attractive portion of its stores; we mean the ments of the palace of Titus, on one of the seven Italian literati, who are met with there, add a charm hills, and was discovered there amid the ruins in the to that storehouse of learning. Our first visit to it time of Pope Julius II. In complexity, it resem- was in quest of an early production of Calvin (a prebles the group of “ Niobe all tears," in the gallery at face), which we knew was in the Vatican, but which Florence; but the concentration or convulsion of the subordinate officials could not discover. Angelo feeling that is visible in the Laocoon draws one back Maio was called in, and with equal intelligence and to study it again, and again, and again-it is a tra- politeness, produced the stranger from its hidinggedy in stone. The struggle, yet resignation, as if to place. In his appearance, Maio is a favourable speinevitable fate, of the old man; the helpless and im-cimen of Italians. With rather more of grave and ploring resistance of the sons crushed, maimed, and tortured as they are by the coils of the serpents, and their sympathetic inclination towards their parent, even as they writhe in agony, all speak to the soul more than to the senses. Criticism is disarmed while we behold the Æneid surpassed in marble; for the portly sedateness than they generally exhibit, he has their frank and ready politeness, and withal, their communicative volubility. It cost no effort to lead him into his favourite themes, and there he was loquacious, as few but Italians can be a thorough enthusiast-a very devotee. Maio began his career overturn, till He comes whose right it is to rule," embodies the death warrant of Rome. It has been said of the past, and will be said of the future"And thou art she, the ghost of that proud Rome, Whose eagles fattened on the million corpses Of nations prostrate. Far as wind-rocked Thule Was felt thy crushing grasp-thine iron car, Swift as the thunder's fiery messenger, as keeper of the Ambrosian Library at Milan, where | of greater changes still. "I will overturn, overturn he signalized himself by his discoveries in ancient manuscripts, which had been effaced and written over by monks with their lying legends, though for some time he anonymously published his discoveries. Having attracted the notice of Pius VII., he was promoted to the office of librarian of the Vatican, and eventually exchanged the ruby-coloured robe of a Monsignore for the purple of a Cardinal. He has been called the Hero of the Palimpsests, and deserves the title. He is chiefly famed for his edition of Cicero de Republica, which is reckoned the most powerful production of the orator. Maio is now sinking into the feebleness of age. His policy as librarian is said to be illiberal, and the glory of his setting does not correspond with the promise of his rising, or the vigour of his meridian power. Another of the Italian savans whom we have met in those storehouses of literature is the Abate Mezzofante, now, like his friend Maio, a cardinal. He first became famed at Bologna, where he was professor of Greek and the Oriental tongues. In that chair he had for his colleague the noted Signora Clotilda Tamborini. Strange as it may seem, she combined her stores with those of Mezzofante in training the Italian youth in the knowledge of Greek; thus carrying us back to the days when Olympia Morata, Lady Jane Gray, and others, their contemporaries, rivalled their brothers and husbands in their knowledge of language, their literature, and philosophy. At her death, about the year 1821, Mezzofante profoundly lamented her removal-and evinced, by his regrets, how congenial were their studies and tastes. In our day, as in that of Tacitus, every thing in Italy that is either very good or very bad soon finds its way to Rome, and in due time, Mezzofante was called up by the head of that Church which has been so wise through all its generations. It was there that we made his acquaintance. On a cold February morning, we were seated in the compartment of the library where he usually studied, when an uncouth and not prepossessing figure took possession of the adjoining table. He was busied with a work on Turkey, which soon became our topic. He speedily discovered, from our mode of pronouncing Italian, that Britain was our home; and, without any forewarning, addressed us in our vernacular. His readiness and accent surprised us. He is reputed the master of forty languages, but he himself smiles at the assertion. That he has an amazing aptitude for acquiring them, however, is certain; but he does not pretend to be master of more than a few. With Greek and the Oriental tongues, he is familiar. Polish, Hungarian, German, Bohemian, Spanish, English, French, and others, he knows well, having acquired them mainly by intercourse with natives of those countries in Italy. But the accounts of his linguistic power are exaggerated, while, at the same time, his knowledge in other departments is limited. We once showed him a precious volume, marked, in the catalogue of the library, Rarior ipsâ raritate, but the Abate scarcely gave it a glance. But we must away from the Vatican, with all its treasures, artistic, literary, and living. Would they were in nobler hands than those who now pervert them! But the time will come. How vast the change that has passed over Rome since Augustus, or even Trajan, was its lord! and how shorn and subdued in our day, compared with what it was when Leo X. was its pontiff and prince! Harbingers these Rolled on and on, in triumph, till the suckling's scream The vengeance which has scathed thy scarry brow. THE LARGE FARM SYSTEM. IRISH evictions have of late occupied a considerable share of attention. Public sympathy has alternated between the ejecting and the ejected, both participating in it in almost equal measure. The wretched outcasts themselves, and the landlords, who in attempting thus to rid themselves of a profitless tenantry, provoked a terrible retaliation, are, at first sight, equally objects of commiseration. To pronounce impartially on the merits of the controversy is a task of extreme difficulty. It may, however, be safely affirmed, that in this, as in almost every quarrel, domestic, social, and national, blame attaches to both parties. The victims of the extreme legal remedy of eviction have, in too many instances, been the victims of their own indolence, improvidence, and turbulence; while the landlords, by pursuing a system of management but too much calculated to foster and encourage all this, have reaped the fruits in the reaction upon themselve of "the wild," and, in a sense, retributive "justice of revenge." All of course, with the exception of that curse of Irelandher demagogue priests-are thrilled with horror at the remembrance of the bloody barbarities of the ignorant and misguided peasantry; still, we should not suffer ourselves to be transported by our horror of indignation into a forgetfulness of the gross mismanagement, under which the existence of such a state of things has ultimately led to the expulsion of the tenantry, was tolerated so long that the wretched creatures, familiarized with the system, and utterly unprepared for a change, recorded their resentment of its alteration in characters of blood. We make these remarks preliminary to the state. ment and reprehension of a system fast raining ground in this country, closely assimilated to that which has been so unsparingly denounced when acted out in the sister kingdom of Ireland. There is a class of landlords in Scotland, with we believe the Duke of Richmond at their head, ardently bent on the adoption of the large farm system on their estates, who, in prosecuting this favourite scheme, are producing results scarcely less to be deplored than those which flow from the policy of their order in that distracted country. The Irish landlords have at least a plausible excuse for what they are doing; the Scottish, we conceive, have none. The former pursue their policy openly, avowedly, and in wholesale; the latter secretly, insidiously, and gradually. The one class acts with the boldness of the lion, the other with the cunning of the fox, but both alike compass the de |