and attended only by a faithful servant, who insisted on following him, though wholly unarmed, he rushed along Usher's Island, and turned up Bridgefoot-street, the nearest approach to Thomas-street. As he proceeded up the hill, he perceived before him, what, in the dusk, he thought was a column of his own men, with shouldered arms, and so telling his servant, he hastened forward to meet them. It was in vain that the servant warned him, that what appeared to him to be muskets, were, in truth, new-made pikes. He had, in fact, fallen in with a strong party of the rebels, at the entrance to the lane where their depot of arms and ammunition were afterwards discovered and detected. But it was too late to stop him-almost in the same moment, the brave officer discovered his error and suffered its fatal effect. He received a shot from a blunderbuss, and fell dead on the spot. Had Colonel Browne not been betrayed into a premature exposure of himself, he would probably have soon been joined by his men, for about the same time, Lieut. Felix Brady, of the 21st, with 40 or 50 men, had left Cork-street for the purpose, pursuant to order, and had proceeded as far as Thomas-street, on his way, when he encountered an advanced post of the rebels, whom they defeated and put to flight-and as this was the work but of a few minutes, the party would soon have reached its destination. The servant saved his own life by his presence of mind. When he saw his master fall, he turned and was hastening down Bridgefootstreet, homewards, when an armed ruffian stopt him, and demanded, where are you going?' 'O do not delay me the day's our own, and I am running for my pike,'-' make haste then,' replied the other, and suffered him to pass. Of the conflict itself (if it deserves the name) which in half an hour decided the issue of the insurrection, it is scarcely necessary to speak. It is matter of history. Counting on, and prepared, with arms for several thousands, the most that its leader could collect was about 400 men; of these, one party was met in Thomas-street and defeated, as we have seen, by Lieutenant Brady, of the 21st: another division encountered a similar discomfiture on the Coombe, from Lieutenant Hume Douglas, commanding a detachment of the same brave regiment; while Chief-Constable Wilson, with a few Peace-Officers, in one quarter, and a small band of yeomanry of the Liberty Rangers and Barrack Divisional Corps in another, completed the rout. But, contemptible as was the result, the design was bold and formidable, and if Providence had not interposed a short delay in a critical moment, it is awful to consider what might have been the catastrophe. The eastern end of Thomas-street, where the rebels stopped to glut their barbarity with the blood of rank, learning, and virtue, is not more than five hundred yards from the Castle-gate. How long would a band of infuriated ruffians have been in rushing, unopposed, through two short streets? Scarcely longer than I take to write down the question. Two sentries whistling at the gate, a few more scattered about the court, would have been surprized and filled in an instant; the body of the guard, lounging in perfect security in its guard-room, would not have had time for resistance, or the Castle-gates would have been closed against it-for the guard-room then stood outside the gate. Long before any effectual help could be had from the barracks, the inmates would have been overpowered, the gates secured, the green flag would have waved on Bedford Tower-VICTORY would have sounded through the city the intelligence would have spread throughout the country on the wings of the wind. To pursue this subject further is too painful. It is true, and the anti-alarmist of the present day may plume himself upon the fact, that the Castle is now in a better state of defence; it is true, that since the insurrection, that lofty iron barrier was erected, which extends from the corner angle of the street to the Royal Exchange, the whole western side of the Castle, from La Touche's bank to Ship-street, has been insulated, a lofty wall and broad passage (where sentinels are always stationed) now separating it from Hoey's Court and various dwellings, which before were in immediate contact with its buildings, and afforded innumerable means of access and annoyance. And I re collect, that for a long time the iron barrier itself was guarded by two long field-pieces that frowned grimly down Cork-hill, keeping the button-shop in their front in constant and wholesome check. Doubtless, the Castle is not at this day so utterly unprepared against a coup de main. But what shall we say of the improved dispositions of the populace? Alas! let not our governors deceive themselves; neither conciliation, nor concession, nor emancipation, nor reform, nor the praises bestowed on Dr. Doyle's Pastoral, nor the honours heaped upon the agitators, nor the exaltation of one class, nor the depression of the other-none of these, nor all of them combined, would weigh a straw in favour of a British government, against an invitation to arms, urged by any man of desperate fortunes, possessing talent and enterprise, and nothing else; raising "separation from England," as the ever-welcome watch-word, and holding out "Expulsion of heretics," with all its effects upon property, as the rich reward! And though the Castle be better walled and barricaded, where is the moral strength of its occupiers? Where is the yeoman army, which contributed mainly to the support of British connexion in the Rebellion of 1798, and to whose care, during many nights of that Rebellion (while the regular troops were dispatched to distant points) the care and guardship of the metropolis was solely and wisely entrusted? Where shall we look in this day-in what part of Ireland shall we find large bodies of the wealthy-the intelligent-the influential classes standing forth, ready and eager to rally round the British standard, and to support it with life and fortune? It is truly "more in sorrow than in anger," that these sad questions are asked by A YEOMAN OF 1796. XAIPE MOI. Belov'd and beautiful, I part Thou wert the sweet, the only theme, But now I end love's transient dream With “ Εις ἀιῶνα χαιρε μοι.” For blighted hope hath render'd vain The feeling it can ne'er destroy, And anguish wakes the mournful strain Οι “ Εἰς ἀιῶνα χαιρε μοι.” Unmingled bliss is still thine own, All pure from grief or care's alloy; Mine the sad memories alone Οι «Εἰς ἀιῶνα χαιρε μοι.” Ω ἀγαπῶμενη το μου MODERN GEOGRAPHY.* The celebrated Author of "The Spirit of Laws" held that the history of the communications of mankind was that of commerce; and the elder Dupin, in all his statistical labours, proceeds upon the supposition that the productive capability of a country will be in direct relation to the facilities of access and the perfection of the modes of transport. There can be no doubt that the mineral and vegetable productions-all the natural riches of a land, and its capability of improvement in agriculture or the arts can only be turned to account, multiplied, or even brought into action by means of traffic and interchange. But this can never affect the first elements of national prosperity, which are contained in the physical relations of the country, or its natural capabilities of soil and climate, and in the genius of the people, or their moral and intellectual attributes, by which success is engendered and political power is given; and it is curious to contemplate, in the history of one of the most mercantile countries of the universe, the results of extended commerce on the efforts of human intelligence. The mind appears to be immediately enslaved by the passion for lucre, and Mammon rules with a blind sway, which renders the acquisition of information subordinate to the possession of wealth, and frustrates the conscientious desire of communicating knowledge. Hence it is that Great Britain, which can boast of the most extensive commerce of present or ancient times, has made so little use of her gigantic powers to improve our knowledge of the terrestrial surface; and no attempt has been yet made to systematise the scattered materials of modern times and the collected evidence of three centuries of maritime domination. Geographical knowledge beyond the situation of places as taught at the form, is most generally a tacit convention-an oral, or even a traditional science; and a foreigner coming to our great commercial marts would be surprised to find that "many merchants, men of fame," whose ships plough the antipodal seas, relied for their whole advantages and prosperity on the stern sense-so nationally characteristic-of the navigator and traveller, employed under them; the class of persons who have time to read, chiefly professional, and who seek for information solely for the pleasure and satisfaction which it affords, can never amalgamate well with these practical persons; their habits of thought and their modes of acquiring knowledge are entirely different, and their objects so disinterested in the one, so mercenary in the other, are too far opposed to one another ever to generate sympathy in their pursuit. Then come apart from, and standing above all, the educated man, with his boundless energy and his heroic devotion. To this class we are indebted for a very great part of what has been done in geographical science, and the results of their toil and labour are admired by one class, made use of by another, but seldom rewarded by any. Except the triangulation of India and the survey of the coast, which frequent losses had rendered actually necessary, almost all that has been done towards making us acquainted with that vast country has been accomplished by private individuals. And in natural history it remained for the French to take advantage of our possessions in these unexplored countries, to hoard up the treasures so long neglected by our countrymen. If Government turns its tardy eye towards geographical discovery, it has A system of Geography, Popular and Scientific, by James Bell, with maps and engravings, 6 vols. 8vo. Glasgow, Fullarton and Co.; Dublin, W. Curry, Jun. and Co. 1833. been but too often to some objects of most partial interest, written into repute by the fanciful pen of a man in power, or extolled by the clamorous anxiety of a novelty-loving public. The two great problems that have occupied the attention of British Europe in modern times, and involved the destruction of many brave and enterprising men, are extraordinary examples of a perverted public taste, and a want of philosophic and humane motives to direct research and ennoble enquiry. The often-repeated voyages to the icy seas of the North have been conducive to some interesting geographical discoveries, which, nevertheless, can be of no utility to present generations, till changes in the temperature of the earth, as are evidenced in the vegetatable and animal remains of the fossil kingdom, to have taken place in former times, recur in their operation on the earth's surface, not from the effects of a varying axis of the terrestrial globe, but from an alteration in the configuration of the earth, either in the distribution of land and water, or in the progressive plantation and cultivation of these. We allude here to land alone, for there is nothing in the facts conveyed to us by the description of the present state of the arctic seas that would appear to preclude the possibility of their being ever rendered useful for the purposes of navigation. On the contrary, every thing testifies that an alteration once effected, and the navigation being kept up even to a very small amount, there would not be time for the ice to renew itself so as to block up the passages. Icebergs are not the growth of a season, but on the contrary, of many. In some cases they appear to be as ancient as many of the strata which form the mineral crust of the globe, and the floes which hurry down to the coast, and bury ships under their mighty plains, once moved, could never regain an extent and thickness which it required long periods of undisturbed repose to have attained. The chronicles of the bold and skilful attempts made to explore the North Seas also contain many valuable additions to the physical history of the globe, and the contributions made to natural history are splendid monuments erected by enterprise to a noble and amiable science. If, on the other hand, after history had recorded the attempts made to reach a central river of burning Africa, by twenty-five of our countrymen, fourteen Frenchmen, two Americans, and one German, of whom but a small number from the days of Houghton have not fallen victims to their ambition, when the tear was hardly dry at the recital of Laing's sufferings and the heart-rending burial of poor Clapperton; an Englishman should have succeeded in ascertaining the course and outlet of this much soughtfor river, what are the results? Are scientific men engaged to bring the labours of Adanson on the Gambia, and Tuckey in the Zaire into correlation, and fill up the gap that was wanting in the description of the western coast of Africa, or is even the slightest attempt made to obtain correct information on the capabilities of the river, and the productions of its shores and mountains. No! The organ that penned the misfortunes of the Congo expedition was silent when time and discovery exhibited those errors, which he did not attempt to retrieve, by even inculcating the necessity, or advocating the utility of an active survey of the new entrance offered to us into the interior of a country which, in magnitude and extent it has been truly remarked, exceeds the bounds of human imagination, and a company of merchants fitted up a vessel propelled by wind and steam, and guided by the bold discoverer, took their departure for these rich tropical scenes. A medical man and an engineer, but no naturalist, were associated to the expedition, and bound to secrecy, that the world might not know what forms of beauty and shapes of loveliness, in the vegetable or animal world, or what mineral treasures abound in these untrod shores. We do not discuss the right of a private body to do this, that cannot be denied, but was this what a nation had to expect from a discovery made at so great a sacrifice of life? a discovery rewarded by government and scientific institutions, to which the public had indirectly contributed in several expeditions, by defraying the expenses, which offered the most central and the most advantageous centre from whence to overthrow the system of human slavery to extinguish which they had without a murmur so long supported establishments that have proved charnel houses to European constitutions on these most deadly and inhospitable shores? But another and a more comprehensive enquiry suggests itself in connection with this discovery of the course of the Joliba or Niger river. France and America have planted colonies on the coast of Africa, with pretty nearly the same intentions and united views of philanthropy and national aggrandisement. The settlement of Liberia is said to be already producing the most beneficial results, and after the repeated insults we have received in humble submission from the sanguinary Cacique of Algiers, it is scarcely to be lamented that his "Excellency the Governor" as the rude tyrant is diplomatically designated, should have to make way for the more polished and far-seeking French. Africa is not every where an inert lifeless mass, rudis indigestaque moles; where there is water there is vegetation. The Bildulgerid, or Land of Dates, on the southern acclivity of the Atlas, glories in a most abundant and luxuriant vegetation of creepers intertwining round the colossal trunks of the palm, and shrubbery and flowering flanks growing in the shade of this natural temple. It abounds also in living things. On the borders of Lake Tchad, the jungle of a single season attains a growth that will hide elephants, and the acclivities of the Tarenta Mountains are clad with vegetation; it is thus probable, that the aridity and barrenness of the interior is entirely to be attributed to the unequal distribution of water, for similar parallels of latitude in the new world are neither desert nor arid. The moral condition of the inhabitants is neces sarily connected with the physical state of the country, the hazardous life, the difficult wants, the few enjoyments, give to the tribes, which, as Talleyrand has it, rather traverse than people these vast deserts, a moral aspect which is more gloomy even than the face of the country. Every consideration connected with Africa, should tend to the removal of these combined causes of a pestilential and unproductive clime, and of a degraded morality, -of death and slavery. An able writer and cleverthinker has proposed to drain the stagnant waters, for the level of "The first great argument which, in population had extensively increased. The great curtain of the West was then raised, and were we gradually made acquainted with a portion of our globe, whose features, its mountains, rivers, and plains, are on so vast a scale, that in ancient times men would have been totally unable to contend with them. "Seeing, therefore, that in the great history of the world different portions of the globe have at different periods successively been subjected to our use and dominion, it is surely reasonable to infer, that Africa will eventually become part and parcel' of the beneficent garden in which we are placed; and the very fact, that our steam and machinery are so rapidly increasing, that we literally can hardly imagine to what known obstacle we shall have occasion to apply them, tends to show, that there must remain |