rived from the malignance which gives a deto the pervading dulness of the book is de. finite tint to every uninteresting scene, anxious to waken a feeling, though only by exaggeration or positive falsehood, and this often in its basest shape, insinuation.

to vertigo. The ardent wish of seeing their | her to vent her venom upon all she has seen features, which they carefully conceal, causes or known, and drag the faults of her dearest them to be followed with eager curiosity; relatives before the world. The only relief but it requires great skill in sayas to follow a lady in this costume, for they all look alike. Oh! I defy the loveliest English woman, * * I defy equally the most seducing French woman** to contest with aLimanese in her saya. The Spaniard herself ** would appear but cold and distant to a Limanese in a saya. Yes, I would fearlessly proclaim that in this Poverty can be little excuse for her, since costume they are the queens of earth, if beau- it is its worst manifestation. poverty of spirit. ty of form and charm of looks can suffice. We know in all literature no other instance The saya is the national costume; women of all ranks wear it it is respected as part and of seeking society and courting friendship parcel of the manners of the country like the and confidence only to betray them, and for Mosleman's veil. From the beginning to the the sake of selling a book. The persons end of the year the Limanese go out in this and things, however, that Madam Tristan has disguise, and whoever should dare to raise the seen, are too remote from the general routine manto that covers the face of a woman en saya, of thoughts and interests to awaken much cu. would be pursued by public indignation, and severely punished. * The costume so riosity even for scandal respecting them. changes the person and even the inflections We do not hesitate to say that any one, writof the voice, (for the mouth is covered,) that ing with the same wish to outrage truth and unless there is something remarkable in feeling, must be equally successful; for if the height or figure, recognition is impossible. topics which delicacy restrains the rest of Even to the husband his wife is unknown in mankind are to form the staple of one writer, this habiliment: she meets him, ogles him, the boldness may strike the unwary as renotices him by manner, induces him to speak, sembling truth, though only because it is an enters into conversation with him, receives ices, fruits, cakes, makes an appointment, and unusual daring of malignancy and falsethen leaves him to begin the same game with an officer passing. *** Her husband on her The unnatural junction of the Abbé La. return asks no questions, for he is fully aware mennais and Madame Dudevant, the joint that if she wishes to conceal the truth she opprobrium of morals and religion, has led will tell a falsehood; and he has no means to the recent attempt in France of forming of ascertaining the fact. Thus the ladies go a new school out of the wrecks of St. Simoalone to theatres, assemblies, bull-fights, balls, nianism, supported by the worst and most promenades, and on visits. ** This costume has the immense advantage of being at pestilential portion of the doctrines maintainonce economical, appropriate, convenient, ed by the two writers above mentioned. But and always ready, requiring not the smallest the talents of these Neophytes are of the low. est class; and when they attempt to separate from their teachers, and to form a class of themselves, their proper weakness and igno. rance becomes conspicuous as regards general principles or isolated facts. In truth such doctrines can take only with the lowest scale of intellect, or the utmost perversion of licentious feelings. The struggle of the senses is with these people simply what Buffon has called, the domination of the mate rial principle; but carried to the utmost extent, in order to bring back society to the level of savage life, to licentiousness under the name of simplicity.

trouble."

There is another, and still more striking practice in this singular style of dress. If a lady puts on an old saya, unsewn, worn out, and ragged; an old manto, and an old cors. age, she is never accosted. She is approached with timidity, and it would be even disloyal to follow her; for it is rightly supposed that if she is disguised it is for important reasons, and that no right exists to examine her closely. This mode of dress is called disfrazarda, and is considered perfectly respect

able.

The reader may conceive how Madam Tristan enjoys and argues upon the freedom of the saya. The description is evidently written con amore.

hood.

Madame Tristan, we hear, is about to visit England in the rage of pauper proselytism; and the announcements therefore of her personal charms and moral tendencies We have now completed our task, but at may be intended as an advertisement of adfar greater length than the merits of the wri- vantages and terms. Into what decent soter required at our hands; and, were she ciety she can be admitted we shall not inquire, alone, would leave her to utter and deserved for who will carry to their own home's the oblivion. It is clear that the disappointment vipers of domestic treason and demoralizaof pecuniary and other, we wish we could tion? She calls herself a Pariah; happily say matrimonial, speculations have induced chosen name, which Madame Tristan in

consistent ignorance imagines to be the sen- |lowed, or is borne out, by recent German timental purist of St. Pierre. Had she real- geographers, who also place the Bay of Vinly known any thing of that miserable and cent Pinçon near to Cape North or about outcast Eastern race, she would have felt lat. 2° 15' N. Still these very maps define how well and truly the appellation expresses the French possessions in Guiana as bounded the absence of every virtue, and the low sink by the Yapock, or properly Oyapock, which of abject infamy to which we are courted to enters the sea at Cape Orange: and if, as is degrade ourselves by the precept and exam- probable, the ambiguity of two rivers of the ple of the fair Heteroclite. same name*gave rise to the difficulty at first, we would ask how it happened that France,

Peru, Guiana, and Navigation of the Ama- at the time when the asserted authority was

zons.

at hand for reference, and error, if any exof Cape North, and in the Treaty of Vienna isted, easy of correction, retired to the limits was satisfied to receive back from Portugal the territory conquered from her to the river Oyapock, defined expressly as BETWEEN THE 4 AND 5 DEG. LAT. N., i. e. near Cape Orange. Admitting all that France would claim by the Treaty of Utrecht in her acceptation of its terms, she lost all claim to every portion when it was conquered from her before the treaty of Vienna; and since she omitted at the time of this last treaty to assert her former claim in any shape, it is clear that she held it as utterly untenable

cluded, in the restoration of the remainder, it is equally obvious that she has no pretence of right now; for, when equivalents were weighed in restoration, neither giver nor re. ceiver held this tract as being in the category of equivalents.

CLOSELY connected in a commercial point of view with the subject of Peru, and still more with that of our relations, present and future, with Brazil, we are called upon before concluding this article, by the recent intelligence from Guiana, once more to claim at tention from the Public and the Government, respecting the navigation of the Amazon River. In our XXXVIth Number (for Jan. 1837) we dwelt strongly, both upon the advantages available for British enterprise by throwing open the course of that gigantic stream; and the benefits that would accrue to Brazil herself from civilizing and cultivat-then; and, since it is not specified, but exing that enormous tract, rich in the full perfection of every produce, and practicable for commerce by the active, social, and gentle habits of the Indians inhabiting the interior. We showed that this boundless and fertile territory, watered by innumerable rivers of the plain in every direction, across the whole continent to the western side of the great Cordillera of the Andes, and by the numerous streams that take their source in these mountains and render that vast portion of the world a lavish wilderness of unfortunately idle luxriance,―might by timely care, and a slight exertion on the part of Great Britain, open a wide field for commerce; inferior only to that of the discovery of America itself, or of the route to India by the Cape of Good Hope. We insisted on the precedents of Spain and Portugal in the case of the Douro, and suggested the convenience of a British settlement in or near some one of the numerous islands situate in the mouth of the Amazons. The Times newspaper, with its usual vigilant energy, has pointed out the encroachment made by France to obtain possession of the territory at the entrance of this important stream. Our limits and the lateness of the time will not now permit our examination at length of the claim set forth upon the basis of the Treaty of Utrecht, (Art. VIII.) ceding to Portugal the territory of the Amazons and Cape North to Yapock in the bay of Vincent Pinçon; but we must in justice remark that the Dutch map, said to have regulated that point of the treaty, has been fol

It is clear however that our enterprising neighbours are fully sensible of the value of the commerce we ourselves have so greatly neglected;, and this is evident from the extravagance of the sole pretension they bring forward to support their title. Its value ne. vertheless is not generally known. Father Acosta, in his Itinerary from Quito to Para in the reign of Philippe III. of Spain, gave an account of the tribes of Indians inhabiting the whole line of this territory, and his statements have been amply confirmed by more recent travellers, such as Mawe and Smythe.

It is not merely the range of the Amazons, though spreading across the whole breadth of the continent between 0 and 5 degrees of S. lat. that is embraced in this question, nor even the additional bend of the Marañon from the 4 to the 11 deg. of lat. S. The Ucayaliand Beni flow through the fertile valley of the Western Cordilleras, the richest portions of Peru, from La Paz, S. lat. 17, northwards into the Marañon at St. Joaquim; and the vast stream of the Madeira in a course of 1800 miles connects the navigation of the Amazons with the famed silver mines of

Yapu merely signifies a stream.

Potosi, through the rich soil of Moxos and portion of the country in question, and a Cochabamba. The old official reports of the complete list of its productions. And when, Peruvian viceroys to the Spanish government, in conjunction with the foregoing commercial found in the Secretary's department at Buenos Ayres, have been freely extracted by Mr. Woodbine Parish, late English Consul, with his usual enterprise and attention to the interests of his country.

"When this communication is realised," says that able observer, "Europe will dispute for the unrivalled sugar of Cuzco, the coffee of Huanuco and the Yungas of La Paz, the cocoa of Appolabamba and Moxos, rivalling that of Soconusco, the best in the world." The Geographical society has placed these extracts in its Journal; and M. Angelis, an Italian, has published several portions in a periodical work printed at Buenos Ayres, and still unfinished.

This immense market for our trade and manufactures, affording too articles of the first necessity and highest luxury in return, has been hitherto all but closed by the weakness and inertitude of the Brazilian Government; and this at a time when any outlet for our goods was invaluable. Three centuries had left former speculations in the dust of oblivion, when the union took place of all Peru under its present able and enlightened ruler, who has offered fresh inducements and full security for trade. The infinitely more expensive scheme of Wheelwright would, if carried into effect but touch, if we may use the expression, the worse surface and poorer portions of the Peruvian territory, viz. the western coast alone. We have great hesi. tation in receiving the statement of coals found at Concepcion for the steam communication, as they are entirely unknown to intelligent and disinterested residents of the place; but it is probable that a thin stratum of LIGNITE, known to exist there, has been mistaken for coal, and hence the erroneous speculations set forth in the appendix to Mr. Scarlett's volumes.

considerations, we look to the advantages of
a free and rapid communication with friendly
ports in the Pacific Ocean, for shelter and
station for our cruizers on the look-out after
Russian encroachments along the western
coast of America, we shall rejoice to see
Chile and Peru, relieved from the madness
of the present objectless_contest (unpopular
in both countries) by British intervention,
and feeling in common with the rest of that
continent the value of our trade in their in-
terior. We trust to see them evincing their
gratitude to the hand that would quell their
idle dissensions, and this by uniting the grow-
ing strength and resources of the second
named power,
and the naval skill of the first,
in common cause with their supporter, against
the common enemy.

From the political part of the question we purposely abstain at present, inasmuch as the vote of the French Chambers two years since for the occupation of Portuguese Guiana, will necessarily produce explanations in Parliament as to the course pursued by our Government since that occurrence was announced.

ART. X.-Aux Canadiens. Chanson. (To the Canadians. A Song.) Paris, 1838. WHEN treating, in our last number, of politi cal theories and constitutions of government, and slightly alluding to the illustration of those disputes which is afforded by the North American Revolution, we were not aware how soon the attention of all England would be directed to questions of constitutional right, between a parent state and her colonies, arising in the same quarter of the globe.

A steam communication of the Amazons could scarcely be objected to by Brazil in the present day, when any assistance to support her feeble authority in Para would be so im- The recent events in Canada have brought portant to her existence; and thus Europe into discussion questions of as much imporwould be brought in contact with the New tance in theory as in practice; and the inWorld precisely in its most valuable, most terest of the discussion is heightened by the exigent, and most neglected portion. But position in which it has placed the politicians without the assistance and weight of the En- who have to manage it on the part of English Government, all efforts even purely gland. The assertion of the supremacy of mercantile, must for years be fruitless, or the mother-country, the denial of the absoadvantageous only to our more active neigh-lute power of the purse, the enactment and bours. execution of coercive measures, have fallen upon a set of ministers who boast, justly in some instances, in others most idly, of their political, if not lineal descent from those Whigs, by whom the cause of the Ameri.

We have given in the Number referred to* ample details of the nature of a large

* XXXVI.

cans was espoused in the reign of George tinguish between the observations which we III. We shall not inquire at this moment have borrowed, and those in which we have how correctly the outbreak in Lower Cana- merely coincided with others. da is compared with the revolt of Massachusetts; but as the example of the thirteen provinces is naturally cited, we would in the outset disabuse cursory readers of history, of some popular notions concerning our American war. That eventful tale is often told simply thus:-Lord North, the Tory minister of George III., imposed taxes on the American Colonies, theretofore a loyal and contented people. They resisted; the minister, and still more the King, insisted upon the supremacy of England, and sent troops to enforce a compliance with her demands. The Whigs in the English Parlia. ment maintained that the Colonists were in the right; the Americans made a vigorous resistance; and their successes and our consequent disasters, and the voice of the suffering and indignant people of England, compelled the Tory ministers to submit, and acknowledge the independence of the United States.

Those who are fond of tracing governments to their supposed origin, will not forget that Canada was a conquered province. The constitution may in one sense be said to be founded upon an original contract, if the articles of capitulation and cession be taken to constitute that agreement. But without reverting to the fancies which we exposed in our former number, it is only necessary to observe, that there is no allegation of any breach of the agreement by which Canada came into our possession. Toleration of her religion was all that was promised; this, and more than this, has been uninterruptedly enjoyed. If the rights of the Canadian people were to rest upon the circumstances under which their allegiance was transferred from France to England, a free or representative constitution would certainly not be among them.

In 1774 a constitution was given to Canada, then constituting the one province of This story, perhaps in no part absolutely Quebec; by this instrument the free exerfalse, overleaps precisely the circumstances cise of the Roman Catholic Religion was which are most important at this moment, secured, and the French law in civil cases, because they regard the commencement and early events of the Colonial contest.-America was first taxed by a Whig minister, the assertion of supreme right was made by a minister and a party eminently and boastfully Whiggish, the independence of the Colonies was most scornfully repudiated by the most eloquent of the opponents of taxation. The war was not undertaken against the re. monstrances of the people, nor was it for a long time unpopular.

which had been temporarily superseded, was restored: of these provisions, which were intended and accepted as concessions to the natives, it would be unnecessary to speak, but for one or two remarkable passages in the debate upon them in the House of Commons.†

It was objected to the Bill, that in placing the government in the hands of a governor and council, it erected a despotism in Canada. Lord North's reply was, that the "num Whether or not we are now at the com. ber of English settlers who must choose the mencement of a struggle, which after a Assembly," if one were constituted, was protracted war will end in the establishment, very small. And it was thought cruel to in spite of our efforts, of a second American have an Assembly chosen by so small a Republic, we do not pretend to conjecture; body, govern a large one. No one who but we hope that those who live to the con- spoke appears to have contemplated the posclusion will not forget the commencement, sibility of giving any share in the election to but will recollect that the free constitution of the Canadians themselves. There was much Canada is suspended, and the decisions of talk of English liberty, but none of the freethe representatives of a people set at nought, dom of mankind. Yet the speakers were by the disciples of Locke, and the admirers the men, who soon afterwards espoused the of Sidney, and by those professing Whigs cause of America, upon the principles of who have recently asserted, and pretended Locke; and at no very distant period pato act upon the doctrine, that the will of a negyrised a revolution based upon the inpeople, signified through an elective assem. bly, is and ought to be supreme.

With these preliminary remarks, we in. troduce our history of the present controversy. We fear that both in our narrative and our observations we must commit plagiaries : but the narrative is necessary, notwithstanding that it has been well given in speeches and pamphlets; and we cannot always dis

alienable rights of man. And the other prin-
cipal ground of opposition to the bill was,
that it established in this French Colony too
much of the French law, and of the Romish
religion.‡

The merchants of London trading to Can-
* Act. 14 Geo. III. c. 83.
+ Parl. Hist. xvii. 1357.
+ Colonel Barré, xvii. 1361.

“Mr. Townshend.-Do you know if the Canadians are desirous of having an Assem-power was given to the crown to create bly to repsesent them in the government of hereditary members of the Legislative Counthe province? cil, of which the other members were to hold for life.