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have really been affected by climate: or whether the musculage and skin only. Other questions also might be asked; as whether these Portuguese carry their heads on the spinal pivot at the same angle of elevation as the negroes? and whether this has any effect on the formation of their skull, as derived from the weight of the brain? as the Dr. suggests, concerning the negroes. In short, this instance, with the reasonings which it might have supported, would have been in our opinion, of great importance: Dr. J. however, does little more than mention it, when about to terminate his disquisi tion.

But, though we do not find in this work, what we could wish for, and what perhaps is not to be obtained in this country, if at all, yet we shall readily acknowledge our obligations to the author, for some of his hints. His volume contains much that is commendable; and the constant reference ma ntained by the Dr. to the operations of Divine Providence as the great first cause, has its influence on our mind, though we trust it does not bias our opinion.

The following paragraph is a specimen of the writer's manner: a manner liable to strong objections, whatever we think of the sentiment. The "pedestal" does not surpass the other parts of a column in execution, the Dr. meant to say "the capital;"-recollecting we suppose, Mr. Burke's "Corinthian capital of polished society" If the "assistance is mutual," of various materials employed in a building, how can they be "independent of each other"?-A moment's reflection would prove that "superior intelligences may be "<< an improvement" on humanity whether or not they are "link

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In the view I take of the subject, no chain can be traced as the order of nature; her works are never incomplete; the present is not an improvement on the past, for she is not instructed by experience, nor does she depress and humble by marks of inferiority; her object is to benefit. A column is not built, of which man is the pedestal, surpassing the other parts only in execution, utility is the basis of her plan: the whole circle of nature is reciprocally beneficial; there is dependance without rank, usefulness without honour: one vast whole is constituted, of which the head cannot say to the foot, I have no need of thee. In erecting a house, various ma

terials are employed; they are essential to the building, but independent of each other: where is the analogy, where the link, between wood and lime? in their nature they are distinct, but their assistance is mutual. Among rank, but here a new order commences, for intelligent beings we are informed there is dependance ceases: some are more perfect and more pure than man; they are our superiors, but they are not an improvement upon us they are not linked so us; they were created for a given purpose, and would be what they are had man never existed.

Every fact in natural-history that tends: to elucidate a difficult question is valuable :› we therefore insert an observation on the migration of birds. If it could be discovered what other birds travel to double this distance, and what others, again, exceed those, and so on, the progress of this scale might afford interesting conclusions,

lies between Colchester and Harwich is visited That district of the county of Essex which annually by large flocks of rooks; they stay about two or three months, lodging at night in the woods of the country, and then return, it is said, to the rookeries in Norfolk, a distance of at least eighty miles; be that as it may, it is certain that their residence is at a considerable distance, by the elevation at which they are seen when on their passage. These birds are not commonly birds of passage, they want food, and by instinct search. for it: in fulfilling this first law of nature they are compelled to go to a considerable distance: but it is by instruction of the old that the young are directed.

ries, Dr. J. observes On the immediate subject of his inqui

To aim at superiority is natural to man; it is an excellent quality misapplied, when future good is not the object.

The American Indians think themselves the first of human beings: the Chinese look down with contempt almost on other nations; they, and they alone, are great: Europeans presume that the Africans are an inferior race of men, but although they are agreed in thus thinking of the Africans, they have not determined which among themselves is the greatest. The Swiss, the Frenchman, the Spaniard, the Englishman, each sets up his claim at superiority, and treats with disdain the pretensions of the other. Even unlettered nations, beyond the confines of Europe, besides the Indians of America, fancy themselves great. The Tartar, the Arab, are vain of their imagined excellency; they are fierce in war, and they are ignorant of their neighbouring nations, and hence fancy in

themselves an innate superiority. To mix the blood of a Tartar chief with a Persian, would pollute it.

The same principle runs through the world; there is a consciousness of greatness in every man. He ought to prize the feeling as one of the noblest his nature is capable of, and to lament its perversion; for when directed to wrong objects, it produces the worst of consequences. Compare Panorama, Vol. V. p. 675.

We approve of the comparison instituted between the anatomy of different nations of men, and wish it had been carried further. The result of a number of measurements of the length of the arms of negroes, compared with those of the same member in Europeans,

Establishes the general fact of the superior length of the fore-arm of the African; it also marks a difference between those Europeans measured by Mr. W. and those by Serjeant Brunton; for, on casting up the different columns, I find this to be the result: -A Scotchman, six feet in height, has, on an average, a fore-arm twelve inches long; an Englishman, supposing the measures of Mr. W. a standard for the nation, of six feet high, has a fore-arm eleven inches and a half; but the fore arm of an African, of the same height, is twelve inches and a half in length. Thus the Scotchman is the midway between the Englishman and the negro.From hence we learn, and to the sculptor the information must be interesting, that in a well-proportioned person, the fore-arm is to the height of the person, as 1 to 6; in other words, the fore-arin is one inch long to every six inches of stature.

But that part of the monkey which is most characteristic of the genus, is the length of the hand Now it happens, that the hand of a Scotchman, according to the observations I have been able to make, is longer than that of an African. The longest hard of an African I ever measured, was that of Henry of Leith; a man six feet in height, whose hand, from the wrist to the extremity of the middle finger, measured eight inches and a half. By turning to the measure taken by Serjeant Brunton, it will be seen, that it is not so long as some of those he had measured. Thus, on the doctrine advanced by Mr. White, the Scotch are no further removed from the genus simia than the Africans. I do not know how I could better refute the theory of that gentleman, than by such evidence as this.

This subject is capable of further elucidation. Laplanders should be measured, as one extreme of the human race in shortness; and because they live as far north, as man can subsist :-[From the

best delineations that we have seen of them, (and we have seen modern ones, apparently very correct) we incline to think, that they would be found long. armed.]-Patagonians, also, as a tall race, living as far south as their continent extends. The Hottentots may be thought no perfect specimen of African, comeli ness; yet something might be learned from them; and the Caffries, who are praised by Mr. Daniel as models of manly beauty, should also be examined, in order to do this enquiry justice. We need not say, that other members, as the legs, &c. should be included in such examination.

Speaking of the countenance and its parts, our author pays great attention to the eyes, and their sockets. But it never seems to have occurred to him, that the eye being the member most sensibly affected and influenced by light, the degree of force with which the light of the sun impinges on it, by reflection from objects, the power of the rays admitted by the pupil, and the degree of elevation of the luminary itself, may affect the eye, and thereby the manner of carrying the head. The quantity of light in activity daily at the equator, is very great; the desire of shade by the eye is in proportion; the manner of looking, also, is different by night, by twilight, and by day.

The eye-sockets of negroes, of monkeys, of sheep, of birds, and of fishes, are very similar to each other; they are round; and thus the fact is established, that in this respect

the negro and the ape resemble each other.. But there is another fact, which cannot fail of being interesting: the children of Europeans, in short, of those very persons who plume thdmselves on their superiority over the Africans, resemble them also; any per son, who has seen the skull of an infant, must have been struck with the roundness of the eye-sockets. Thus the resemblance is, brought home, and the children of Europeans are placed in the same connexion with animals that negroes are. It is true, this resemblance continues no longer than the years of infantry; afterwards they become less round; but why sa? It is because the nature of the child is altered, is it essentially less like a negro than it was ? Certainly not.

The upper part of the eye-socket supports the brain; in infantry it is soft and pliant similar to the other bones of the system, and accounted for. Where the pressure is small, yields on pressure, and thus their form is the roundness which is commom at birth to both Europeans and Africans, and I might add to the whole animal creation, is but

little interrupted, and continues through life. It is unnecessary to enquire which shape is most desirable.

Besides the bones of the eye-socket, the

motion of the eve itself is not similar in man and the inferior animals. To the eyes of brutes seven muscles are attached, to the eyes of man only five. I do not contend that these distinctions mark any superiority, but they are sufficient to determine the genus,

We must not accompany our author in his eulogium on the eye and its properties; but shall come at once to what should be the most distinct, clear, and satisfactory article in his book. We cannot compliment it as possessing those qualities in a super-eminent degree. The Dr. rather enquires than proves; rather than suggests demonstrates.

We know sufficiently well that the external skin of a negro, is not itself black; but derives its blackness from the hue of a substance seen through it. This substance demands examination. Dr. J. thus describes it.

Next above the culis vera, or true skin, is the corpus mucosum, a substance nearly fluid, and perhaps would be entirely so, were it not preserved in its situation by numberless small fibres, which pass through it, to connect the under to the upper skin. To these fibres the corpus mucosum adheres.. This substance (the corpus mucosum) is the seat of colour; which, in the African, is black in the European it is more or less brown, inclining to white, and in our own island, and in Germany, in many instances, it is colourless, resembling semi-transparent jelly.

In some of its properties, the corpus mucosum resembles the serum of the blood; but in others, it is so unlike that substance, as to make it evident that they are distinct. The serum is incapable of becoming black, and it separates from the other parts of the blood when allowed to be at rest. But the corpus The mucosum never spontaneously separates. serum is obtained by any mode of decomposition, and is a constituent and necessary part of the blood; but the corpus mucosum is a secretion. from it.

The corpus mucosum is not of an equal thickness in every part of the body, for every part is not equally black; that which is the least so, is the inner sides of the arms and the contiguous sides of the chest. The tongue is destitute of a corpus mucosum.

As a national colour, the jet black is proper only to Africa, or to the inhabitants who reside between the twentieth degrees of north and south latitude; further north or south, the complete negro colour disappears, and a dark olive occupies its place.

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We presume that our author had not inspected Mr. Daniel's plates of South African objects, when he wrote this paragraph; as that gentleman found jet black natives of the country several degrees further South.-And Mungo Park within "the Foulabs in these limits, found general of a tawny complexion"-and some" of a yellow complexion." Travels, p. 59. While the Moors, who have now been some centuries in the land of negroes, "resemble in complexion the Mulattoes of the West Indies." p. 58.

Dr. J. proceeds to institute comparisons between the colour of the hair, and that of the eyes; between freckles on the skin, the blackness that sometinies occurs on the breasts of women giving suck, and the He concludes, true negro complexion. that heat and moisture are the causes of swarthiness; and that blackness is the continued effect of these causes prolonged by a descent through many generations.

Freckles are natural to no one, for an infant is never freckled; exposure to the weather produces them in some persons, in the same way that it tans others. The parts most exposed, as the face and neck, are those which are the most liable to be freckled. The colour of the African may be called one entire freckle; were the freckles of au European concentrated, they would form a very considerable spot, of a very dark colour.

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At birth, the child of a negro is not blacker. than an European's, but the tendency to colour is so strong in them, that it appears much earlier than freckles in an European, but corresponds with them in being the darkest at the same period of life.

In old age much of the colour an African' possessed in his youth disappears. Dr. Camper has preserved several specimens of the skins of Africans which have lost much of their colour. Freckles not only fade as the current of life begins to ebb, but entirely leave the skin, and never afterwards appear. Some change evidently passes on the vessels which secrete the colouring matter of the African skin, by which its colour is diminished; and as the colour of a freckle is fainter, it is obliterated.

The idea I wish to enforce is, that the nature of the colour of freckles, and of the entire colour of the African, is the same, and differs only from circumstances which. admit of explanation. No aged person is freckled, nor is any so completely a negro. as in youth. Freckles are produced in summer; in winter they almost disappear; but the cause of their existence is so deeply rooted, that age alone can expunge them. In many cases, it is easy to trace the ex. ct portion of

the face and neck that had been uncovered and exposed to the weather; and in some instances the person is acquainted with the precise season in which the freckles became numerous and of a deep colour, and have assigned it either to a summer when the bath was frequently used, or of great exposure to sunshine and moisture.

Can the African endure the region in which he was born, cau he enjoy the elimate of his native soil? Yes, it is salubrious and balmy to him, but it is not so to others; an Euro pean inhales from it pestilence and death, There is some natural cause for this difference; and that cause, I scruple not to say, is indi. cated by the complexion; a certain state of with a certain state of the skin. The asserthe juices of the body being ever connected tion is bold, and may disgust and offend, but I advance it without fear of refutation, that

the perfection of the human colour is the negro blackness; it is the most complete, the most permanent, and the most useful, and therefore it is the most perfect. The negro can bear the hottest, or the coldest regions; he can sustain the vertical blaze of circle unannoyed; he resists every vicissitude; the meridian sun; he can traverse the arctic but it is not thus with any other people.

It is possible that a more happy arrange ment of facts, might have had stronger effect in producing conviction on our minds, that the Dr. has suggested the true causes of this variety in the human complexion, than we at present feel. Were we giving an opinion on the subject, we should pay much greater attention to the power of light, as an agent, than the Dr. has done. We should have en quired what colours are strengthened, deepened, by exposure to light, as in the There is, doubtless, an advantage, a pri instances of leaves of plants; also in those vilege, in being fitted for every vicissitude of of certain metallic oxydes;, we should the weather, for every change of climate. have enquired whether the watery parti-There is an advantage in being like the negro, cles of perspiration may not pass freely through the skin of a negro, yet leave behind them a something which admits of gradual change of colour also, what is that something? and whether the action of light on it is capable of illustration? It is certain, that the fairest skins are the most subject to freckles; but mere heat does not cause freckles: and absolute exclusion from the solar rays, ensures against them. It is certain that the most profuse perspiration (as in dancing), never tans the skin; but, light, for instance reflected from water (which may be supposed to have absorbed much of the heat that accompanied the direct ray), does tan and any person, though his face be carefully sheltered from the solar beams, by a hat, may prove this in a few days' exposure to the dazzle of the waves in summer time. Light, in fact, appears to be the great colorific agent, throughout nature: why not, therefore, on the human skin?

Dr. J. seems to think the perfection of colour in our race is blackness. He goes so far as to consider this as the mark of the sovereign of the globe.

What is beauty, but the expression of something that is desirable? And if there be any such property in a black complexion, it cannot be destitute of beauty; so that even this ground of dislike is merely prejudice.

Beauty is not an independant principle; its excellency is not in itself, but in what is implied by it.

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Contrast his case with that of the pale, but proud European, who arrogates to himself a vast superiority over others: he endangers his life by leaving his birth-place; his complexion sunshine, and its imaginary beauty is gone, is unformed, yet he boasts of it; a few hours it is tarnished. That which is unfixed and changeable, is unworthy of high estimation. The negro can bear heat or cold but some Europeans can sustain neither.

We must acknowledge, that we should not have discovered this preeminence, had not the doctor pointed it out. That the skin of a negro admitted of ready transmission of the serous fluid, we knew and that this, being probably more highly volatilized than in Europeans was capable of more rapid evaporation, we could conceive. Hence blacks are cooler than whites: and this refrigeration renders them attractive to European sensualists in some parts of India, where a negress is the favourite sultana during the heats. On this transpiration, we believe, depends the exemption of negroes from many diseases of hot climates that are fatal to Europeans.

Much more might be said on this subject it is extensive, and entitled to investigation; but to render that investigation useful, it must be accurate; and accuracy can be attained only by actual observation, in a great variety of cases, circumstances. and under very favourable and fortunate We must, therefore, close our account of this volume, by

wishing it had contained a greater collec-containing many particulars not elsewhere

tion of facts, derived from competent witnesses, foreign as well as native; in exchange for which we would willingly resign, an ample portion of hypothesis, suggestion, and inference, 'whatever honour they may reflect on the ingenuity of the author.

An Historical Survey of the, Foreign Affairs, of Great-Britain, with a View to explain the Canses of the Disasters of the late and present Wars.-By Gould Francis Leckie, Esq.-London: Bell, 1808, 8vo., price 5s. Pp. 172, Notes 80.

There are many positions in politics as well as in morals, that look fair enough at first sight, but will not bear the test of close examination. Among these we must be allowed to place the proposals of the gentleman whose tract we have been reading; and who advises Great Britain to seize on certain commanding stations, no matter whether belonging to friend or foe, in order to counteract the machinations and acquisitions of Buonaparte, who has grasped at all within his reach ;-but, who, we hope, has at length over grasped himself, and is likely to fall in consequence, perhaps to a depth of which the world has little suspicion. Our opinion of government is, that it was instituted for

the welfare of the district over which it

presides, and that it ought to be, and when wisely administered will be, desirous of the prosperity of that district in the first and principal place. To give undue importance to distant interests, is unwise: but to interfere in the concerns of others, and to assume the reformer in States that may be thought to need reformation, but are alien to our nation, is something worse than unwise; it is presumptuous. Such conduct, we deny not, may succeed in some instances, and for a time; but in the issue, it rarely answers the purposes of those who have indulged their passions (rather than their prudence) in such undertakings. In fact, it is one reason against the reforming machinations of Buonaparte himself, that we hate the interference of aliens; and what we oppose in him we ought not to practice ourselves.

Having thus stated our dissent from the leading maxims adopted by this writer, we acknowledge the more readily our inclination to do justice to his publication as

to be met with. Mr. L resided for a time in various parts of the Mediterra nean; and his reasonings refer chiefly to the advantages which Britain might derive from securing sundry of the islands which We ourselves have reexist in that sea.

commended attention to Crete, or to Cyprus, as proper for the maintaining of our importance and power in the Levant; and we shall not think the worse of our ministry if the report proves true, that Minorca, and some other places are to be taken, with the consent of the inhabitants, under our protection. Malta we already hold; and Sicily is occupied by our troops, which may be deemed for the present equivalent to our entire possession of that fertile, and very valuable island.

Mr. Leckie gives us a melancholy description of the oppressed state of Sicily; and we must own, were we Quixotic enough to propose the relief of the miserable, as the object of national politics, that island affords sufficient occasion for the exercise of all our humanity. Our author informs us that,

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The whole island is divided into three provinces, viz. the Val Demona, Val di Noti, and Val di Mazzara; this topographical division seems to have no connection with the government, as the whole kingdom, politically considered, is comprehended under the three bracci (arms), or orders. The military or feodal, the clergy, and the demesne, or royal townships, which answer to our free burghs in the rest of Europe. The population of the whole kingdom is estimated at 1,500,000. Palermo contains 200,000 souls; Messina, 80,000; Catania, 70,000; Caltagirone, 50,000; Noto, 35,000; these are the principal towns in the island.

When the sources of right become the means of oppression, what ́more is wanting to make a people miserable?—Sicily has too much reason to complain of this cause of calamity; according to our author's statement.

The Tribunal of Patrimony consists of six members, viz. the President, the Conservadore Generale, who is the King's Advocate, and four judges.

As this board superintends the king's territorial revenues, so it commands the munici palities of the royal and baronial towns; and as the property of every individual is implicated either in the one or the other, so it has become a civil court, under the pretence of an authority in what regards the royal inte rests. In the same manner it has an author

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