difficulties altogether imaginary; for invested with numerous technicalities, divided into several classes, subdivided into genera, and interspersed with exceptions and variations from every established rule, many an inquiring mind has been turned aside in disgust from this most laudable and fascinating pursuit.

In the Linnæan system, the simplicity of the classification in its leading characters, will be readily admitted, but when the student has mastered this in its general features, and after he has perhaps collected a considerable variety of specimens, he will find to his mortification that his mind has made little or no progress in the science; that, in short, he has merely loaded his memory with a number of technicalities and names, without having entered, in any degree, into the physiology of the vegetable kingdom. Stripped, however, of its external disguise, few things are better calculated to invite the nearer approach of the student, and none to afford, independent of its acknowledged importance, a higher intellectual enjoyment-to elevate and refine the taste, and, as a main object, to magnify the wonders of Him who has surrounded his intelligent creatures with innumerable instances of his power, his wisdom, and his beneficence. It may be said that every advance in the natural sciences is a step that surrounds the throne of Him whose light is inaccessible but through the medium of his works.

The design of the Ladies' Botany" is to spread before us, in its broader features, the whole vegetable world. This the author has done by classing it according to the natural system, into three distinct families two of these comprise the whole flowering creation; the third, or Cryptogamic family, descends to the very verge which divides the vegetable and animal kingdoms. The two first of these classes he distinguishes as Dicotyledenous, or Exogenous, and Monocotyledenous, or Endogenous plants.

The first of these derives its technical distinction from the embryo containing two cotyledons or seed-lobes; and from the outer part of the stem, or sapwood, being the youngest, or last of growth. It is likewise generally distinguished by its throwing out branches-by the concentric circles of its wood-by medullary rays proceeding from the bark to the central pith, and by the veins of the leaves bearing the appearance of network. The second, or Monocotyledon class, is constituted of plants, of which the embryo contains but one cotyledon, which grow by the centre of the stem, throw out no branches, and whose leaves are not netted.

Thus the peculiar characteristics of these families lie equally in the corolla, the leaves, the stem, and in the carpels or seed-vessels; which enables the student, at every stage of vegetation, at once to decide as to which of the leading classes his specimen belongs.

The third of these families is the Crytogamic, which contains ferns, mosses, the junger mannia, lichen, mushroom, and sea-weed tribes.

The great and leading features of the vegetable kingdom as thus explained by the "Natural System of Botany" being clearly understood, the student has advanced one important step, and feels his foot firmly planted within its dominions. If he determine to advance further in this delightful province of natural science, he will discover that a film has been removed from his eyes, and that the way is clear before him to proceed as may suit his pleasure. And if his object have been merely to obtain a general view of the world of flowers, he will have done so in a manner materially to enlarge his conception of the wonders and graces of the vegetable creation, which from henceforth will no longer meet him in the character of obscure hieroglyphics, but will speak to him in a

language, plain, intelligible, and delightful. We strongly recommend this work to our readers.

2. We have also to notice, as an important acquisition to the lovers of botany, another work from the same learned author. We could not, perhaps, produce a clearer illustration of what has been said of the difficulties which meet the eye of the unlearned, than this publication; for although each plate is beautifully and carefully executed, the flower, as regards its more abstruse characteristics, must remain a sealed book to all but the initiated. Still to the advanced student, it cannot fail to be regarded as a valuable addition to his bibliothecal authorities.

Report of the Committee of the Doncaster Agricultural Association on the Turnip Fly, and the means of its prevention. Founded on returns received to the questions of the Committee from 102 correspondents in different parts of England and Scotland. James Ridgway and Sons, Piccadilly.

By this report, it appears that quick lime spread over and around the young plant as soon as out of the ground, and repeated as often as wind or rain should have dispersed it, until the plant be out of danger-is the plan recommended in most of the communications transmitted by the highly respectable agriculturists whose opinions have been consulted on this important subject. In those instances in which this method has failed, it is clearly shewn that for fear of the plants being burnt up by the hot lime, too small a quantity has been used, and this circumstance sufficiently accounts for its failure. Where freely and properly used, there can be little doubt of its successful results. To agriculturists, the knowledge of this simple remedy for the preservation of his turnip crop from the baleful influence of the fly, is most important.

The British Farmer's Magazine, exclusively devoted to Agricultural and Rural Affairs. Published Quarterly. J. Ridgway, Piccadilly.

The usual quantum of agricultural information distinguishes this number, and to the land cultivator it must be a very useful as well as entertaining miscellany. It includes the reports of Agricultural Associations and some excellent papers on topics connected with the farming interests.

Loudon's Gardener's Magazine; and Loudon's Architectural Magazine :— August numbers. Longman and Co.

These useful and well got up periodicals have this month lost none of their interest. They are filled with sound remarks, and must be of extreme advantage to all persons who may be inclined to engage either in gardening or architecture. To take from any of the arts and sciences the technicalities which envelop them, and make them clear to common capacities, is filling a useful station in society-and Mr. Loudon must certainly have the praise of effecting so much in the two branches on which he has so ably written.

NO. II.

U

FOREIGN CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Esai sur la statisque morale de la France, précédé d'un rapport à l'Académie des Sciences, par M. M. Lacroix, Silvestre et Girard; par A. M. Guerry, avocat à la cour Royale. Paris: Crochard, Rue et Place de l'Ecole de Médicine. London: Halinbourg, Southampton-street. Folio, pp. 70.

A curious and most elaborate analysis of crimes, their nature, frequency, and geographical distribution, in France. The tables are drawn up from the unquestionable authority of public records, &c. deposited in the archives of the Prefecture of Police, and the writer's deductions are filled with singular calculations, and no less singular opinions. A brief abstract of the contents we present to the reader. After some preliminary remarks, M. Guerry commences by dividing France into five regions (each composed of 17 neighbouring departments), these he distinguishes as north, south, east, west, and centre. He then adopts two great divisions of crime, the 1st, comprehending offences against the person; the 2nd, those against property, the period of his investigation beginning at 1825, is brought down to 1830. In his first table (p. 14) M. G. arranges according to their frequency the crimes yearly committed in France; the total amount is 7,147, of which crimes of the 1st class constitute one-fourth, there being, of these, 1,865, and 5,282 of the 2nd. The two following tables mark the proportion of crime in the sexes; by these we find that of 100 offences of the 1st class, 86 are committed by men; 14 only by women; and of 100 of the 2nd class, 79 by the former, 21 by the latter. The 4th table shows the distribution of crime according to the different periods of life from 21 to 70, and upwards. From this it appears that crime is most prevalent between the ages of 25 and 30; that the inclination to its commission is developed sooner in men than in women, that it subsides earlier in the former, and that from 50 to the conclusion of life, the tendency is on a par in both sexes. The 5th table demonstrates the crimes peculiar to each age. The sixth shows the presumed influence of the seasons over the evil propensities, but this visionary theory is in great measure destroyed by the evidence that the variations are comparatively unimportant. According to the table, it seems that the summer is most fertile in crime. In the 7th table M. G. has assembled the apparent motives of crime under 12 heads; hatred and revenge appear the principal, and to these hideous incentives may be traced 26 out of every 100, or more than 1-4th of the crimes of poisoning, murder, and incendiarism; a singular fact, jealousy stands the least influential in the scale. The 2nd portion of the 7th table, marked B, presents the capital crimes arranged in the order of their motives; from this we learn, that out of 100 cases of poisoning, 35 are the consequence of nuptial infidelity; the 3rd portion C, exhibits the crimes of poisoning, murder, assassination, and incendiarism, classed under the 12 heads alluded to. The 8th and 9th tables display the proportion of the same crimes originating in depravity of morals. M. Guerry then proceeds to fix the relationship existing in the five regions of France, between the population and the number of crimes of the 1st class. The amount of the accused compared with that of the inhabitants, proves to be in the south, 1 in 11,003; in the east, 1 in 17,349; in the north, 1 in 19,964; in the west, 1 in 20,984; in the centre, 1 in

22,168. A similar inquiry as to crimes of the 2nd class, produces-in the north, 1 in 3,984; east, 1 in 6,949; south, 1 in 7,534; west, 1 in 7,945; centre, 1 in 8,265. Following up an investigation of the alleged influence of education as a preventive of crime, M. G. infers that it does not in reality exist: his 10th table shows the distribution of education in the 5 regions. M. G. then goes on to define the proportion between the legitimate and illegitimate births, showing the excess of the latter in those departments where foundling hospitals have been instituted; to this M. M. Lacroix, Silvestre and Gerard, have appended a remark in their Report, stating, that by an effect, similar to that of those hospitals, the poor laws in England increase unlimitedly, the number of poor. M. Guerry's next principal object is to show the amount of suicides; from his research, it appears that from 1827 to 1830, the return for the whole kingdom was 6,900, or nearly 1800 annually. The result of the geographical distribution of suicides in the 5 regions, proves that out of every annual hundred, 51 take place in the north; 11 in the south; 16 in the east; 13 in the west; and 9 in the centre. In proportion to the population-in the north, 1 in 9,853; east, 1 in 21,734; centre, 1 in 27,393; west, 1 in 30,499; and south, 1 in 30,876. It is worthy of observation, that in the single department of the Seine, there annually occurs 1-6th of the entire suicides in the kingdom; the majority of these are, however, committed by strangers in the capital. The 11th table is devoted to a statement of the suicides in Paris. Seven engraved illustrative charts accompany the work.

We may here close the volume, having given the reader a tolerable notion of its contents. One or two remarks we must, however, make before taking our leave of the writer. In admitting that out of every hundred crimes of the first magnitude eighty-six are committed by men, M. G. hastens eagerly to argue that this inferiority in guilt is not as we have usually imagined, the consequence of the natural virtues of women, but rather of their physical weakness!! The native purity of the sex, "the last, best work of God," is with this frigid advocate but a dream; the "angel of life" is in his estimate but a piece of soiled clay, willing to commit atrocities, from which she refrains only through inability. But the gallant advocate forgets in his crusade against woman that pity and tenderness have their abode in her bosom, and lead to an endurance and a forgiveness of injuries, however cruel and long-inflicted; in her forbearance, the Frenchman sees nothing but an incapacity to avenge herself; he is unmindful that what man may effect by mere force, woman may compass by stratagem; and in his dishonourable anxiety to persuade us that she would fill up the measure of guilt if she could, he loses all thought of the hireling assassin, the dagger that drinks the blood of the sleeper, and the hemlock that freezes the fountain of life. He beholds her cowering beneath a consciousness of her physical incapacity for violence, and deterred by pusillanimous fears, not recollecting that the heroism which nerved the hand of a Charlotte Corday, also conducted her with unquailing intrepidity to the scaffold. He forgets also that a sense of morality and religion is so much more powerful in the breast of woman than in that of man; that she is created with a thousand pure sympathies and soft impulses of mercy ungiven to the ruder sex, and he forgets, too, that the more scrupulous education which she receives, the early discipline of her emotions to which she is happily encouraged, strengthen and nourish the virtues with which God has endowed her. In fine, M. Guerry has laboured to countenance the preponderance of crime amongst men by a bold conjecture that women are deficient, not in the "penchans criminels," but in the induce

ment (!), the capability, and the opportunity to steep themselves in guilt. Frozen hearted anomaly! his is a frightful hypothesis, like blotting the sun out of creation, it is depriving earth of all that is beautiful, and life of all that is soothing; but fortunately for man it is but an hypothesis, and one which no speciousness of argument, no ingenuity of position, no numerical trickery can ever establish.

Thascius Cæcilius Cyprianus, Bischof von Karthago, dargestellt nach seinem Leben und Wirken; von Friederich Wilhelm Rettberg. 8vo. Göttingen.-Thascius Cæcilius Cyprianus, Bishop of Carthage; being a delineation of his Life and Acts, by Frederick William Rettberg. Gottingen.

A highly interesting portraiture, which more than any other church monographie, invites especial attention, from its bringing under our view a man, not more distinguished for his extensive acquirements, his penetrating and original views of Christian theology, than for the important influence he has exercised on the external condition and the social constitution of the Christian Church, from the third century downwards. It was he who first suggested the idea of a spiritual monarchy exercising universal sway over the Christian world. The general notion among Protestants, that unhallowed ambition, employing the deepest calculations to obtain its ends, had alone given rise to hierarchical tendencies, is confuted by the unprejudiced and impartial delineation of the personal character and the acts of Cyprian, founded on historical sources and the Bishop's own letters. His elevated qualities, as well as the rough side of his character, such as the circumstances of the times, and of his office developed, are graphically pourtrayed. Though we desire to do justice to the motives and the good intentions of the man, it cannot be denied that he departed from the path of pure and primitive Christianity. We learn, also, in this work, that the Bishop of Rome was so far from being acknowledged by the other Churches in the third century as Primate in the sense in which the Roman conclave understand it, that there existed not even a coherent plan to raise the Roman See over the rest. Cyprian has incurred much censure for having fled from his See at Carthage, and concealed himself in obscure retirement during the persecution that raged at this period. The security of some sects demanded martyrdom, and his flight was deemed infidel cowardice. It is probable, however, that he was unwilling to make a sacrifice of his life, which, under the then circumstances, could not by its example have a beneficial influence on his flock; nay, this view of his motives is rendered certain, as he subsequently actually suffered martyrdom with great constancy, and thus washed away the reproach of a want of Christian intrepidity. Among Cyprian's works his moral and ascetic works deserve the preference. Like St. Augustin, there is seated in his soul a deep conviction of the utter demoralisation of man. The dogmas of the world, the devil, and hell, are analysed by him with peculiar predeliction; yet less theoretically than with an ostentatious display of glowing and terrific imagery. In his exhortations, truth and error are singularly mingled; as a specimen of his logic and style of address, we will cite the remarkable grounds in which he censures luxury of dress, especially in young women. He discovers in every ornament and embellishment of the body inventions of the devil. The human frame was formed by God, says he, devoid of all adornment; he, therefore, who would presume to improve and alter it by ornament, lords it over the Creator, and disfigures his work. The ears of men