Of all our domesticated animals, sheep in a wild state are the most fastidious and nice in their tastes, yet, when tamed or half domesticated, no creatures lose their original relish so completely. Of every preparation from grain they freely eat, and even of a liquor in which their own species has been boiled they will swallow to excess, or of a broth into which animal juices have been infused they will greedily feed. When thus luxuriantly fed, it is no wonder they attain to great weight and size.

I do not mean to assert that there is positively a certain and fixed point of goodness to which the animals must alone attain, in order to secure their thriving condition and productive powers. There is no doubt a certain period of life, and to every sheep a certain flow of spirits and vigour, at which life is briskest, and all the vital functions proceed with the greatest ease, but a few degrees above or below this state do not sensibly impair the functions of life, or incapacitate animals for future productiveness; and it is fortunate that it is so, for what with injudicious management and improper feeding, what with unpropitious seasons, or even untoward courses of weather, which in no lengthened period of time injure the feeding properties of herbage, the creatures which are exposed to all these vicissitudes may not gain that fortunate point of health and strength for some sea

sons.

It is the person who purchases over-fed stock for breeding who is the only loser. When stock of this description is offered and sold to the butcher, he can be as certain of its value as he who has solved a problem in mathematics is sure that it is rightly solved. The person who buys stock for breeding is no doubt aware, that fraudulent arts are used to give sheep a shewy and sale-like appearance, but he may not know, at least cannot be certain, that they have been practised upon the animals he is bargaining for. He thus purchases in uncertainty, perhaps he must buy at all events; but one may as well expect that the progeny of sheep so artificially dressed, as they are in too many cases, will come into the world with similar private marks imprest upon their parents to testify their owners, as that they will exhibit in their figures the same proportion of parts, or the same embellishments on the head, legs, and tail, executed by cunning art and fraudulent intention. The fraud consists in

making coarse sheep assume for the occasion the external characters of fine.

In sheep intended either for sale or show, it is both allowable and commendable to clear away impurities from their coats, or any appendage or pollution they may have contracted from the pasture; but to suffuse a fictitious colour over the wool, that the wearer may appear healthy and hardy, when it is perhaps neither; to clip the wcol with that dexterity and cunning that imperfections in the animal's shape are suppressed, and those essential points to which a breeder principally attends, are exhibited so as to appear supereminent, thereby raising the expectations of the buyer, that if he put suitable mates to them, these excellences would be transmitted to their progeny, such deception is certainly an outrage upon the judgment of the confiding purchaser or hirer, who, if he did detect the deception at the moment, and expressed his conviction of its existence, could not legally prove its practice in the particular case, and thereby render himself amenable to the laws of his country. Whilst the duped purchaser, who is the only loser in such a transaction, is unprotected, the deceiver may appeal to the laws against what he would, no doubt, term defamation. The practice is abhorrent to honesty and fair dealing, and ought to be abandoned. Only think of the consequences of employing tups whose pedigree and from what stock they have been selected are unknown. Disease may thus be propagated by them into an hitherto healthy stock, and, at any rate, creatures artificially fed and dressed can never be proper animals to breed from, where the stock is destined for a mountain range. No one can ascertain how many bloods may centre in a single individual thus employed, whose origin is concealed and admitted to a stock of pure blood. What confusion and dissimilarity may not such a cross engender in coat, countenance, figure, and animation; and if the pure race is to be retained, the whole stock thus contaminated must be purified from the heterogenous blood, which purification may take several years, and, after all, leave a tincture of the foreign connection, nay, perpetuate a sickly, unsuitable, dissimilar breed for the situation they were intended. Using purer and fresher blood can never do harm, although the points of the progenitors may be dissimilar, for in such a case similarity will

be engendered and confirmed by the better blood; but the using of inferior blood and points entails incalculable mischief, and it is chiefly on the inferior animals that the fraudulent acts of over-feeding and dressing are practised by men pretending to high character.

ORDNANCE MEMOIR. -COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY.

THE first complete volume of the Topography and Statistics of the city and part of the county of Londonderry, has been recently published by the Ordnance Department in Ireland, under the superintendence of Colonel Colby, of the Royal Engineers. This book, sold at a very inconsiderable price, is a noble specimen of what may be expected from the scientific labours of very able and accomplished men; and such have obviously been engaged in the work. The quantity of important and interesting matter furnished is very considerable, and the style and arrangement are admirable.

The portion which comprises natural history and productive economy, drawn up by Captain Portlock, is written and arranged in a very masterly manner, and peculiarly suited to our pages; the antiquarian will find delight and information from the labours of Mr Petrie; and to Mr Laicom, of the Engineer department, who, according to Colonel Colby's preliminary statement, conceived the idea, "that with such opportunities, a small additional cost would enable him, without retarding the execu tion of the maps, to draw together a work, embracing every species of information relating to Ireland," whose capabilities and resources will, in the progress of their great work, be so perfectly developed, the greatest praise is due. The map of the city of Londonderry, and all the plates, are perfect specimens of engravings. We shall give an analysis of the "Memoir," as far as it is within the legitimate range of our own department.

The trigonometrical survey of Ireland was principally undertaken with a view of correcting the unequal pressure of taxation; and in order to effect this object, minute and accurate

* Published for Her Majesty's Government. Hodges and Smith, Dublin.

pur

information as to local boundaries, the nature and quality of different town-lands and districts, the capabilities of improvement by opening lines of communication, became of obvious importance, full and general knowledge is required for such poses, as the foundation of every movement in public works and local impediment, and the accuracy, as well as total impartiality, of such a national cyclopædia as we are now treating of, must form a basis or standard for reference, in every outlay of national expenditure, of the most satisfactory and infallible nature. The necessity of executing any particular works, must depend upon general statistical knowledge.

"The direction in which a railroad or canal should be made, might be indicated by the maps, but the necessity for making it must be sought in the objects to be attained by it when made."

We have, however, to regret, that the time required for the survey and maps is so considerable, as to render it highly probable that the statistics of all the Irish counties, with their respective baronies, will not be given to the public until many years shall have elapsed.

"Still what has been done once may be done again, and done better the second time. The initial steps of every extensive work are of necessity slow. A time wholly disproportioned to the apparent result must be consumed in the collection of material, and in the preparation of their assistants by the several persons entrusted with the different parts. These preliminary labours have been encountered, and it is hoped overcome; they are similar to those which impeded the publication of the early maps, and there is no reason to doubt that if it should be the pleasure of Government to continue the work, the result will be equally successful."

We pass over almost altogether the annals and history of the city, comprising a very large portion of the work, only noticing the extraordinary unanimity which prevailed in 1789 on the centenary celebration of the opening of the gates of Derry. On that occasion Dr M'Devitt, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Derry, and several of his clergy, accompanied the Earl of Bristol, then the Bishop of Derry, Dean Hume, and a numerous body of the clergy of the Established Church, with the Presbyterian ministers and elders, in procession to the cathedral, in order to celebrate the triumph of civil and religious liberty. The anniversary of the opening and shutting of the gates has been for some years past the occasion of such political tumult

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as to have rendered it necessary to abandon the solemnity altogether.

The character of the inhabitants of Derry still possesses much of its original features: gravity, solidity, and that indisposition to frivolous amusements, which marked the Presbyterians who were first planted there from England. A considerable infusion of Scotch colonists has also tended to give the tone of religious seriousness which it still bears. "It is manifested by the appearance of the city at night, when the streets, at a comparatively early hour, are nearly deserted, and the repose of the inhabitants rarely disturbed by the noise of the drunken brawler. It is exhibited still more remarkably on Sundays, and every thing indicates strict order, decorum, and a scrupulous observance of the Sabbath. It is apparent, also, in the prevailing indifference to public amusements, to polite literature, and to the fine arts. The theatre has been converted into a coach-house (the present amateur theatre, originating with the officers of the garrison, is of a temporary nature, and this unique theatre has been licensed but for one night); the concerts have been discontinued; the coteries, presided over by a king and queen of the night, have died away; and even the horse-races are probably less attractive than the meetings of the farming societies, and seem marked with all the symptoms of decay. These results are in part traceable to the absorbing influence of political as well as of religious enthusiasm, and in part to more local causes."

"Of the extent of habits of intemperance among the working classes in Derry, though perhaps less than in most towns, the most melancholy statements are given from local authorities, in the Appendix (C) to the First Report of Commissioners for inquiring into the Condition of the Poorer Classes in Ireland."

"The masons, carpenters, and sawyers are in constant employment from May to November; in the other half year the masons, in particular, undergo great vicissitudes. Of the sawyers, about one-half are employed in winter; they generally occupy only one room, at a rent of from 15s. to L.1 a-quarter, and their appearance is inferior to that of the other mechanics. The coopers, in general, have steady employment throughout the year. Of the tailors, about one-third are employed in winter; this trade is the most notorious for drinking. The coachmakers, the class who receive the highest wages, are also of dissipated habits. The shoemakers, on the contrary, are generally sober and well-behaved. The difficulties of the mechanics, in general, are greatly increased by the total absence of employment for their children."

Among the labourers of Derry great poverty prevails, from the want of steady employment, and their consequent exposure to dissipation, together with the total absence of employment for their children. The better class inhabit huts, which let for about L.3 a-year; but the poorer frequently lodge in garrets, or out-houses, chiefly in the bogside, at a rent of about 1s. 3d.