were the immediate and propelling agents, the others had prepared the subject matter to receive the impulse. If this reasoning be just, there can be no difficulty in the practical conclusion to which we ought to come: of these causes some may "be removed entirely, some in part; and at all events their concurrence may be prevented; there will be then no reason to apprehend the unhealthiness of the prison; and if so, there will be no reason why an institution so perfect in many respects, so promising in others, should be abandoned. The course of diet must be recast; it need not be restored to that excess, which induced plethora, and made the prisoners wasteful and fastidious; it were better far to give up the place as a Penitentiary, and turn it into a House of Correction for shorter confinements, than to make it a place for pampering those who ought to suffer severe privations and mortifications. But it must certainly be made more solid and nutricious than the Dorchester or Devizes fare; at the same time more air should be introduced into the yards by throwing down walls; the occupations of the prisoners should be made less sedentary, their times of exercise and labour much extended, and we cannot but think the duration of their imprisonment might be somewhat curtailed. We really believe it would be very difficult, if not impossible, in any situation or under any circumstances, or with any diet, to keep a body of prisoners in good health, who should understand that for seven or ten years they were to be confined, and lead, such a life as was prescribed in the Penitentiary. We here close our remarks, which have run to so great a length as to preclude us from adding to them by any recapitulation; we are well aware that they contain a feeble and imperfect, and yet perhaps not an useless summary of the great improvements that have been made, and the liberal views that have gained ground in this country upon every thing connected with prisons within a few years. As to the question of the Penitentiary at Millbank, when it shall again become the subject of parliamentary examination,* we are satisfied that it will be handled with that candour and patience, that freedom from prejudice, and that common sense, which so honourably distinguish the proceedings of the House of Comions upon all subjects calmly and seriously brought before them. Whatever be the result, we shall be sincerely rejoiced, if our examination should have the effect in any degree of preparing the minds of individuals for the discussion. A committee has been formed for reconsidering the subject, which has examined evidence, and closed its sittings, but circumstances have prevented the presenting of its report hitherto. Upon the nature of that report, and the probable measures of government in consequence, we deem it therefore becoming in us to say nothing at present.June 6th. ART. ART. VII.—1. Travels to Chile, over the Andes, in the Years 1820 and 1821. By Peter Schmidtmeyer. 4to. 2. Journal of a Residence in Chili during the Year 1822, and a Voyage from Chili to Brasil in 1823. By Maria Graham. 1 vol. 4to. 3. Extracts from a Journal written on the Coasts of Chile, Peru, and Mexico, in the Years 1820, 1821 and 1822. By Captain Basil Hall, R.N. 2 vols. 12mo. OF F all the territories of the southern division of America formerly subject to Spain, Chili has been the least explored by foreigners. Its shores have been visited, its ports examined, and its maritime towns described by many of our own countrymen, as well as others, who were either engaged in discoveries or occupied in voyages of commerce; and who, relating what they were told rather than what they saw, have raised most extravagant ideas of the fertility, wealth, populousness and civilization of the interior. The language of Spain is naturally bombastic when literally translated; for though its most swelling phrases convey to the natives no more lofty ideas than the simpler expressions of other nations, yet when transferred, by those who are not accurately acquainted with the conventional force of the words, into any other tongue, they produce generally exaggerated, and often very erroneous, representations. In this way those who have visited merely the shores of the Pacific Ocean have imbibed ideas of the progress made by Peru and Chili in the different branches of civilization, which far exceed the picture exhibited by such as have accurately observed their internal condition. From the time of Ovalle, who published his work in 1645, to that of Molina, who completed his history about forty years ago from notes taken long before in that country, no writer had furnished means for estimating the progress which Chili had made towards civilization during the intervening period. Vidaurre, like his predecessors, Ovalle and Molina, devoted more of his attention to the natural history of the country than to its actual productions. All those writers, whilst displaying the capabilities of the soil, neglected to inform us of the extent in which those capabilities had been called into action; and when describing the climate chiefly dwelt upon that which was the most genial and salubrious. From such accounts the European, who inseparably associates with such advantages the ideas of dense population and abundant production, will necessarily be misled. To counteract the imperfect and erroneous impressions thus created, it is useful to recur to mere travellers: from their journals-where the want of food, of water, and of resting-places is incidentally related-where the fatigue arising VOL. XXX. NO. LX. F F arising from rude means of conveyance, unformed roads, and uncivilized guides and attendants are complained of-and the melancholy feelings excited by travelling for days through barren or uncultivated districts, or over steep, dangerous, and frozen mountains graphically described-the reader may deduce a sufficient number of facts to enable him to correct the too favourable statements of resident observers. In this view each of the three works now before us has, though in different degrees and with some variation, considerable merit. Mr. Schmidtmeyer and Captain Hall have related what they saw with every mark of veracity and with becoming simplicity. The former of these gentlemen traversed the continent from Buenos Ayres to Chili twice, and returned by the same route; besides which, while in Chili he made excursions to the north and the south. He describes the manners and appearance of the inhabitants, the general face of the country, and what he saw of its agriculture, mining, manufactures and commerce. Mr. Schmidtmeyer's accurate observations ou the various occurrences that presented themselves make us regret that he had not consulted some native, who might have corrected his composition in what we must in candour presume to be a foreign language: we could, too, dispense with a portion of that German sentimentality which is sometimes suffered to interpose between more interesting matters. We are better pleased with his narratives than with his reflections, and should not have regretted the omission of much which he has extracted from other writers. With these slight censures we can cheerfully recom mend the work, and we deem its scattered hints most valuable assistants in forming a just idea of the real state of the countries through which he travelled. Captain Basil Hall, an officer whose amusing work on Loo-Choo has rendered his name familiar to the reader, has produced, under the unpretending title of Extracts from a Journal,' two volumes full of interesting anecdotes, and lively descriptions of events, which occurred during his professional visits to several places on the coast of the Pacific Ocean from Chili to the northern part of Mexico, We have not the slightest doubt of the accuracy of his narrative, and to every thing that he relates of what he saw or heard we give implicit credence. Mr. Schmidtmeyer has prudently avoided entering into the subject of those party-politics which have visited with such dreadful calamities the late dominions of Spain in America. We do not censure Captain Hall for having followed a different course; though we should have been better satisfied if he had been a less decided panegyrist of one of the chief actors in the business of destruction, or a more hesitating believer in the power of reproduction with which the revolutionary leaders have duped the natives of the countries whose coasts he passed and slightly touched upon. We are, too, rather surprized at the degree of importance which he gives to the expressions of popular feeling which he witnessed among those with whom he chiefly associated. The state of blind subject tion to which those people had been long accustomed, must have habituated them to such demonstrations as they exhibited in favour of whatever party obtained, for even a short period, the superiority. In countries differently circumstanced, the momentary ebullitions which the victorious party may excite, are very little to be de pended on. The shouts which accompanied Cromwell, on his visit to the Lord Mayor, were probably as loud as those uttered in the progress of Charles the Second from Dover to Whitehall. The. Parisians were equally versatile and equally clamorous in their applause of Buonaparte and of Louis XVIII. The Cortes of Spain, and their absolute monarch, were in their turn alike the objects of enthusiastic feelings and acclamations. In Chili, the Carreras, O'Higgins, and now Freire, have each, as their efforts raised them to supreme command, been the idols at whose shrine the popular incense has been rapturously offered. Captain Hall must be aware that in those territories which once belonged to Spain, and which now are said to be free, because they are no longer dependent on her, not the least symptom of disapprobation has been allowed to be expressed in any publication whatever. The few who can read must, if they read at all, receive the exaggerated representations and false colourings which the triumphant party may choose to publish. That such representations should be repeated from mouth to mouth by the vast proportion who are incapable of reading, is quite natural; and we do not wonder that even a British officer, amidst the triumphant shouts of victory, should be somewhat infected by the prevailing mania: we should have thought however, that a long voyage from St. Blas to Europe might have given time for reflexion, and sobered down that high-toned enthusiasm which, assuming prophetic power, can see, after a bloody contest of thirteen years, still raging with as much fury, if not with as much force, as at its commencement, the termination of the troubles in a state of pence, prosperity and freedom. The colonial systems adopted by the several governments of Europe were founded on the views of the importance of colonies entertained at the period when those colonies were formed, and on the political opinions which prevailed in the countries from which they emanated. Those systems did not contemplate the growth which the colonies subsequently obtained; nor did they, for it was not possible they should, partake of the more liberal FF2 ral views which the progress of time and knowledge gradually unfolded. The colonial system of Spain, formed in the reign of Charles V., could not possess that freedom which was admitted one hundred and fifty years later, when England planted her coloties in America. Spain had the task of subduing, and of reconciling to her policy and her religion, numerous tribes of natives, who were not so far advanced in civilization as herself, and who, like herself, had been subjected to an arbitrary and intolerant government. It is natural, then, that the institutions to be established should partake of the spirit of the age, and be accommodated to what were the habits of the old, as well as the new inhabitants of America. Had England formed establishments in America, in the reign of Henry VII., and had the countries in which they were -formed, been as thickly peopled, and as far advanced towards civilization as Mexico and Peru, at the time of their discovery, we apprehend the more free institutions, which began to be practically understood in the reign of the Stuarts, would scarcely have found a place in the provinces of New England. The rudiments of that freedom which North America now enjoys, were laid in a period when the due rights of the governed and the limits of power in the governors were better understood, and more accurately defined than during the reign of the Tudors. In the latest of these periods, the great principle of religious toleration was unknown, a difference in theological opinion was universally acknowledged to be an atrocious crime, and was uniformly thought of with an abhorrence that seemed to justify the cruelty with which it was frequently treated. Deliberative legislative assemblies, freedom of discussion on public affairs, uniformity of contributions, trials by jury, independence of judges, publicity of judicial proceedings, personal security-laws, and other social improvements, were all the growth of the period which intervened between the conquest of Mexico and the colonization of New England. During that period, whilst the rest of Europe was advancing by regular though unequal steps, Spain, as well as Portugal, was oppressed by that night-mare of the mind, the Inquisition, whose tremendous and invisible power, exercised chiefly on those whose faculties would have been most likely to lead to general improvement, extinguished every spark of genius directed to any other objects than those connected with the art of We are far from approving the mode by which Spain governed her distant possessions; but we cannot admire the taste which could induce an intelligent British officer, like Captain Hall, to repeat the exaggerated statement, which occurs in his 12th chapter, of the evils of that system, without even noticing the small portion of good which accompanied it. Some of the evils which he condemns |