a bottle apiece, a quantity which, if taken moderately, can, in the climate of Loch Maree, hurt not a hair on the head of any sober Christian. It was imperative upon them to have insisted on the boatmen, also four in number, whether they could or not, to empty their keg of calkers. It was incumbent upon them to have brought into a state of civilation all such of the natives of that wild district as had been gathered together in and about the inn, by the fame of the arrival of the Missionaries. The landlord, of course, should have been laid on his back among the blooming heather, long before sunset; and the pleasing toil of distribution been devolved on his wife and daughters, who, except at marriages, christenings, and funerals, eschew the creature.

Instead of a scene like this, equally rational and sentimental, and the sweet savour of which would have scented the mountain-air years after the departure of the Sassenachs, whose names would have been remembered till doomsday in many a flowing quaich,-" list, O list, if ever you did your dear Father love" -list to the brace of most portentous blockheads! Ornither. "Come, let us have another bottle of claret—a pint per man is not too MUCH!!!! after such a day's fatigue !!!! !!!!!!!!!!!" Halieus. "You have made me President for four days, and I forbid it!!!! A HALF PINT FOR YOUNG MEN IN PERFECT HEALTH IS ENOUGH; and you will be able to take your exercise better, and feel better for this abstinence!!!!!!!!!! !!! !! !!!!! Ornither. Well, I give up the wine-but I intend to wade in Hancock's boots tomorrow!!!!!"

A more mean, and melancholy, and miserable, and monstrous picture was never drawn of humanity than this! Half-a-pint of claret! Poor devils! Wading to-morrow in Hancock's boots! Cold feet! Apoplexy! Palsy! "Be guided by me -neither drink nor wade !!" "Remember old Boerhaave's maxims of health,—and act upon them—' Keep the feet warm— the head cool-and the body open!!!'" A maxim on a fishing excursion equally despicable and disgusting. Really Salmonia smells like a doze of Glauber salts in a tea-cupand Sir Humphry is unpleasantly strong of the shop.

The party remain for some days at a snug inn near the foot of the Loch, but we never feel ourselves to be in the Highlands; no thunder-cloud suddenly darkens the day; no float

ing mist-wreaths girdle the mountains; no gorcock is heard to crow; no red-deer bells; no goat bleats her kids along the cliff-terrace; no bagpipe is heard, "like subterranean music," far off among the hills, gradually growling and groaning, and shrieking and squeaking, and yelling and roaring, into the Gathering of the Clans," till the Personification of Pride appears, with red-blown cheeks and fiery eyes, keeping marching to and fro on the green before the inn, his instrument burning with streamers, as if the sole soul of martial music were tabernacling in his chanter, and all the military glory that was ever achieved on earth the patrimony of the descendants of the Black-Watch, and more particularly of "her nainsel," Donald M'Tavish. We quote with pleasure a conversation which takes place on the last night of the week. It is one of the best bits in the book-placid, pleasant, and pious-and proves that Sir Humphry is no Sabbath-breaker, but has a high respect for all the ordinances of religion.

THE INN.

POIET.-Should it be a fine day to-morrow, I think we shall have good sport: the high tide will bring up fish, and the rain and wind of yesterday will have enlarged the river.

HAL.-To-morrow we must not fish: it is the Lord's day, and a day of rest. It ought likewise to be a day of worship and thanksgiving to the great Cause of all the benefits and blessings we enjoy in this life, for which we can never sufficiently express our gratitude.

POIET.—I cannot see what harm there can be in pursuing an amusement on a Sunday, which you yourself have called innocent, and which is apostolic: nor do I know a more appropriate way of returning thanks to the Almighty Cause of all being, than in examining and wondering at his works in that great temple of nature, whose canopy is the sky; and where all the beings and elements around us are, as it were, proclaiming the power and wisdom of Deity.

HAL. I cannot see how the exercise of fishing can add to your devotional feelings; but independent of this, you employ a servant to carry your net and gaff,—and he, at least, has a right to rest on this one day. But even if you could perfectly satisfy yourself as to the abstract correctness of the practice, the habits of the country in which we now are, form an insurmountable obstacle to the pursuit of the amusement. By indulging in it, you would excite the indignation of the Highland peasants, and might perhaps expiate the offence by a compulsory ablution in the river.

POIET.-I give up the point: I make it a rule never to shock the prejudices of any person, even when they appear to me ridiculous; and

I shall still less do so in a case where your authority is against me; and I have no taste for undergoing persecution, when the cause is a better I now remember that I have often heard of the extreme severity with which the Sabbath discipline is kept in Scotland. Can you give us the reason of this?

one.

HAL.—I am not sufficiently read in the Church History of Scotland to give the cause historically; but I think it can hardly be doubted that it is connected with the intense feelings of the early Covenanters, and their hatred with respect to all the forms and institutes of the Church of Rome, the ritual of which makes the Sunday more a day of innocent recreation than severe discipline.

PHYS.-Yet the disciples of Calvin, at Geneva, who, I suppose, must have hated the Pope as much as their brethren of Scotland, do not so rigidly observe the Sunday; and I remember having been invited by a very religious and respectable Genevese to a shooting party on that day.

HAL.-I think climate and the imitative nature of man, modify this cause abroad. Geneva is a little state in a brighter climate than Scotland, almost surrounded by Catholics, and the habits of the French and Savoyards must influence the people. The Scotch, with more severity and simplicity of manners, have no such examples of bad neighbours, for the people of the north of England keep the Sunday much in the

same way.

POIET.-Nay, Halieus, call them not bad neighbours; recollect my creed, and respect at least, what, if error, was the error of the Christian world for a thousand years. The right observance of the seventh day appears to me rather a part of the Mosaic, than of the Christian dispensation. The Protestants of this country consider the Catholics bigots, because they enjoin to themselves, and perform, certain penances for their sins; and surely the Catholics may see a little more like that spirit in the interference of the Scotch in innocent amusements, on a day celebrated as a festive day, that on which our Saviour rose into immortal life, and secured the everlasting hopes of the Christian. I see no reason why this day should not be celebrated with singing, dancing, and triumphal processions, and all innocent signs of gladness and joy. I see no reason why it should be given up to severe and solitary prayers, or to solemn and dull walks; or why, as in Scotland, whistling even should be considered as a crime on Sunday, and humming a tune, however sacred, out of doors, as a reason for violent anger and persecution.

ORN.I agree with Poietes in his views of the subject. I have suffered from the peculiar habits of the Scotch Church, and therefore may complain. Once in the north of Ireland, when a very young man, I ventured, after the time of divine service, to put together my rods, as I had been used to do in the Catholic districts of Ireland, and fish for white trout in the river at Rathmelton, in pure innocence of heart, unconscious of wrong, when I found a crowd collect round me-at first I thought from mere curiosity, but I soon discovered I was mistaken; anger was their motive, and vengeance their object. A man soon came

up exceedingly drunk, and began to abuse me by various indecent terms, such as a Sabbath-breaking Papist, &c. It was in vain I assured him I was no Papist, and no intentional Sabbath-breaker; he seized my rod, and carried it off with imprecations; and it was only with great difficulty, and by rousing by my eloquence some women who were present, and who thought I was an ill-used stranger, that I recovered my property. Another time I was walking on Arthur's Seat, with some of the most distinguished professors of Edinburgh attached to the geological opinions of the late Dr Hutton; a discussion took place upon the phenomena presented by the rocks under our feet, and to exemplify a principle, Professor Playfair broke some stones, in which I assisted the venerable and amiable philosopher. We had hardly examined the fragments, when a man from a crowd, who had been assisting at a fieldpreaching, came up to us and warned us off, saying, "Ye think ye are only stane-breakers; but I ken ye are Sabbath-breakers, and ye deserve to be staned wi' your ain stanes!'

HAL.-Zeal of every kind is sometimes troublesome, yet I generally suspect the persons who are very tolerant of scepticism. Those who firmly believe that a particular plan of conduct is essential to the eternal welfare of man, may be pardoned if they show even anger, if this conduct is not pursued. The severe observance of the Sabbath is connected with the vital creed of these rigid Presbyterians; it is not therefore extraordinary that they should enforce it even with a perseverance that goes beyond the bounds of good manners and courtesy. They may quote the example of our Saviour, who expelled the traders from the temple even by violence.

On all this we have just two small remarks, or so, to make. In the first place, the whole party, as men of education, Poietes included, were bound to have known that, in Scotland, angling on the Lord's day would be looked on with religious horror, and all such anglers as impious reprobates. This being the case, Poietes might, with equal sense of propriety, have proposed walking into a church during time of divine service, in England, in the dress in which he might have chanced to perform the character of Beelzebub at a masquerade in the Pantheon. In a subsequent conversation (which shall be our last quotation), he speaks of the people of Scotland as if he understood them thoroughly—their love of education, and its peculiar nature, and effects on their national character. Yet here he is so utterly ignorant of all about them, as absolutely to propose fishing in Scotland upon the Sabbath! This is one of the many gross and glaring contradictions and inconsistencies into which Sir Humphry is ever falling, throughout every part of his unlucky volume.

When called to task by Halieus for his most improper proposal, Poietes says, "I now remember that I have often heard of the extreme severity with which the Sabbath discipline is kept in Scotland. Can you give us the reason of this?" So he who speaks authoritatively and oracularly about Scotland, and the people of Scotland, on the great question of education, here avows himself ignorant as a child of the history of its "glorious army of martyrs and apostles!" Secondly, suppose that in Scotland the Sabbath-day were not so religiously observed as it is in hall and hut, still, what possible excuse could there have been for Poietes in looking forward to the morning of that day for good sport in the river among the salmon ?-Would he not have been better employed in going to hear a Gaelic sermon? or in bringing up his Journal? or writing a letter to his wife or mistress? or lying on his back among the heather composing a sonnet? Why should he always be angling-angling-angling-and not attending a little, like other worthy and wicked people, to the interests of his immortal soul? Thirdly, Do the gentlemen of England angle on Sunday? No. You may see a Cockney— or other Cit-the round-faced, pot-bellied, happy little father of a numerous family, with knee-breeches, and buckles in his shoes, on a point or on a promontory, beetling three or four feet above the raging billows of a canal, pulling out an occasional "animal," somewhat more like a fish than a fowl, to the infinite delight of the progeny, with bags of worms and papers of paste swarming at his feet. Such a Cockney, or other Cit, you may see angling—and angling blamelessly, too-on a Sunday. But London Physicians, and Authors of Epic or Didactic Poems, and Presidents of Royal Societies, and Members for Counties, do not angle on Sundays in England; and were they to be met on the King's highway, on their progress to the river, creeled, rodded, and booted, while all honest and decent people were going to church, the first magistrate they met would commit them as audacious vagabonds to the tread-mill. "Can you give us the reason of this ?" But before we take leave of the Bart., we shall place him in an imposing attitude with his best foot foremost. We were struck with one passage, unconnected wholly with angling, and had the volume been written throughout with the same spirit, how different had been our critique!