6

Ginnistan, equivalent to our Fairy-land. They are represented as amiable and beneficent spirits of unrivalled beauty. The < Dives, on the contrary, are deformed and malevolent, and are perpetually engaged in making war against the Peris. In the Caberman Nameh' (the title of an oriental romance) the Dives baving made prisoners some of the Peris, enclosed them in iron cages, which they hung on the highest trees, where their com⚫panions came at intervals to visit them, and supply them with the most precious perfumes. These odours were not only the habitual nourishment of the Peris, but procured them another advantage, since they prevented the Dives from approaching to molest them. The exquisite scent of these perfumes was intolerable to those malignant beings, who, when they came nigh the trees and cages of the imprisoned Peris, were saddened and depressed by the uncongenial atmosphere.'-(Herbelot: Vol. III. p. 97, Ed. 1778.

The Elves of the old Scotch Ballad, though an interesting race, are sadly degenerated from the primeval purity of this delightful legend. They are not only infected with earth, but they - have about them a taint of still lower regions: they hold of Satan by a kind of feudal tenure, and pay a tiend to hell.' The most perfect conception of this aërial order of beings is, however, to be found in Shakspeare, who has traced their form, their movements, their habits, their tempers, and their intrigues, with that inimitable felicity, and that fidelity to nature, which distinguish this bright child of genius among all his compeers. Had there ever been fairies, their qualities and occupations must have been such as he bas described them. They would have lurked in the 'cowslip's bell,' flown on the bat's back,' sheltered under the blossom that hangs on the bough,' hung, dew drop-pearls in the cowslip's ear,' stolen 'honey bags from the humble-bees' and cropped their waxen thighs' for night-tapers,' tripped after 'the night's shade swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow,^ and danced their ringlets to the whistling wind.'

By paved fountain, or by rushy brook,

Or on the beached margent of the sea.'

Count Anthony Hamilton's fairies are of a different (and inferior) class from these. He has no Ariels, Oberons, Titanias, or Pucks; he selects his agents from a lower sphere, and has no claim to invention in its higher moods, nor to that magic faculty which gives to its wildest creations the form and features of simple reality. His fées, good and bad,are little or nothing more than gifted mortals, performing their slight-of-hand tricks by wizard-wands" and mystic books and muttered spells; and his whole diablerie is of quite a common-place cast. But his excellence lies in the consummate skill with which he tells his story, in the beauty of Vol. XV. N. S. 2 Z

his descriptions, in the sly humour of his persiflage, and in an indescribable air of graceful and courtier-like ease which pervades his strangest and most ridiculous excursions. His sarcasms cut with the finest edge; and every now and then, there darts from his keen and laughing eye, a satiric glance that withers a whole host of prevailing follies before its brilliant but momentary flash. His Fleur d'epine is, with all its unaccountable absurdities, an exquisite story The description of the heroine, as she first appeared to Tarare, is the most enchanting portraiture of female loveliness, in prose, that we can at the present moment recolleet. The Belier, inferior to the former in interest, surpasses it in humorous badinage, and is full of satirical phrases which have passed into proverbs. Even the Quatre Facardins, a tale of which the whimsical and intertwisted extravagance was probably designed to ridicule similar excesses in other works, is written in a style which communicates fascination to undisguised non

sense.

We cannot, certainly, pay the Author of the fairy tale before us, the compliment of placing her on the same level with Count Hamilton; but we think that she has displayed considerable ingenuity in her adaptations, and that while she dresses up a fantastic story of this kind quite as well as Madame d'Aulnoy, she deserves the praise of having directed her inventive and decorative faculties to a more important end. As, however, we do not feel ourselves much inclined to enter into an elaborate analysis of such a work, we shall content ourselves with stating that it contains the history of Mary, Queen of Scots, transformed into a Conte des fees. We are informed by the Writer, that, being on a visit to a lady who took occasion to regret the little relish that her young daughters testified for the study of history, and their inordinate appetite for books of fiction, she determined on composing an historical' tale in which actual events should be represented in the guise of Elfin romance. The scheme succeeded to admiration, attention was excited, and the little deviations from strict parallelism which were purposely introduced, answered the intended objects of stimulating inquiry and of affording the gratification of eliciting truth. We shall not now discuss the propriety of a systematic adoption of such a plan; but we must say, that we have never yet seen the instance in which history failed, when judiciously taught, of interesting the youthful mind without the aid of artificial excitement. Assuming the utility of the scheme, we have no hesitation in praising the execution. Much fanciful description and much appropriate decoration are lavished on the tale: the national fairies, with their respective costumes and liveries, are well discriminated; and, altogether, the spirit of this kind of composition is not unskilfully kept up.

Art. X. 1. The Emigrant's Guide to Upper Canada; or Sketches of the Present State of that Province, collected from a Residence therein during the Years 1817, 1818, and 1819. By C. Stuart, Esq Retired Captain of the Honourable East India Company's Service, and One of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the Western District of Upper Canada. 12mo. pp. 335. London. 1820. 2. A few plain Directions for Persons to proceed as Settlers to His Majesty's Province of Upper Canada in North America. Pointing out the best Port to embark at for Quebec, a Description of that fine and interesting Province, &c. &c. &c. By an English Farmer, settled in Upper Canada. With a Map. 12mo. pp. 100. Price

8s. 6d. London. 1820.

3. America and the British Colonies. An Abstract of all the most useful Information relative to the United States of America, and the British Colonies of Canada, the Cape of Good Hope, New South Wales, and Van Diemen's Island. Exhibiting at one View the comparative Advantages and Disadvantages each Country offers for Emigration. Collected from the most valuable and recent Publications. To which are added, a few Notes and Observations. By William Kingdom, Jun. 8vo. pp. 360. Price 10s. 6d. London. 1820.

THERE can be no greater cruelty than that of decoying

poor men from their native country, by delusive representations, to endure tenfold hardships and privations in the uneóngenial climate of some untamed wilderness, or to beg in foreign cities, or to return, if any means of returning are left them, broken spirited and disgraced, to die at home. To a man whose habits are formed, Emigration must, under the most favourable circumstances, involve a large measure of inconvenience and discomfort. To one who has any love for his native soil, it will present itself only in the shape of a last resource, painful sacrifice of feeling to necessity. Instead of wishing to escape from his country, be will be glad to carry along with him into distant lands, all that will bear transplanting of English feelings, English recollections, and English manners. He will not wish to strip himself altogether of the character of a subject and citizen of his native land; but will prefer, if he can enjoy the undisturbed possession of civil and religious freedom, to enrol himself among her colonists, and to live still under Bri. tish laws, and in a country where the familiar names of home districts bestowed on the divisions of the territory, or on the infant towns, may serve to cheat him into the feeling that he is not quite a foreigner. It was with such feelings as these that the patriot emigrants of other days, left their country, yielding, not to discontent, but to a sad necessity, flying from the intole rable yoke of ecclesiastical tyranny, to found free commonwealths in the New World; and they carried with them a spirit

and a sanction, a strength of principle and a power of endurance, an intelligence as well as moral resources, which precluded their ever repenting of the adventure. They were men fitted in every sense to overcome the world.

A man driven from his country by the pressure of the times, whose object is to obtain, not independence, for he would be content to be dependent at home, could be secure a maintenance, but subsistence,-an emigrant of this description carries with him no such resources; and his condition in a foreign country is likely to be peculiarly deplorable. Our closet philosophers, who are for referring all the distresses of the times to a redundant population, may view with undisturbed complacency the exportation of successive ship-loads of these poor victims to transatlantic prairies. But the philanthropist will shudder at such a mode of reducing the amount of pauperism. It is not by such colonists, that the advantages to be reaped from a well regulated emigration, in reference alike to the parent state and the new settlers, can be realized.

We have been much pleased with the excellent spirit, sound sense, and integrity displayed by Mr. Stuart. The poor man, he says, will tell me, and I shall admit the fact, that in Britain, even with all that the most diffusive system of charity in the world can do, in a society, and under a government, one of the happiest existing, he and his wife and children may starve, or verge in chillest penury on starvation, although their arms are strong, and their hearts ardent for labour; and he may ask, what worse than this can be endured in a foreign ' country?'

It is worse than this, I would say, to be destitute amongst strangers; in a climate, fine as it is, still not yet assimilated to your Constitution: to see your wife, if you have one, deprived of the comforts of an established acquaintance, and she and your children, should you be taken away from them by sickness, destitute of all human countenance or friends. True, there is a Power which watcheth over the fatherless and the widows, and which sayeth, "Commit thy destitute ones to me." But his voice of love is addressed to the sorrows of the afflicted, to cheer the souls of His faithful and his contrite ones; not to encourage the impatience of discontent, or the hasty efforts of inconsiderate enterprise.

Beware, I would say, for my heart has seen, and mourned over the sufferings in America of such as you; of arms as strong as yours, and of tempers as prepared as yours for toil. Oh, beware, nor think lightly of the evil, because it is distant. Accept the warning of one, who calls himself your friend; who contradicts his own interests (or what, in the language of the world, would be called his interests) in thus advising you: for he himself is a settler in Canada, and his tem poral advantages are greatly involved in the early peopling and improvement of that country. But, perish such interests for ever,

before he become an accomplice in accumulating the poor man's sufferings. pp. 79, 80.

The first difficulty is that of removing from your native country. This is seldom appreciated at the time; but is often felt bitterly afterwards. It is a difficulty, to produce which, arise all those associations of reason and affection, which bind us to our native place wherever it be; which when removed from that place, throw around its remembrance a kind of sweet, but melancholy enchantment, and often unnerves at a distance the arm that was strong, and the heart which at first forgot or despised them. Many has been the mind, firm as it was, and willing to struggle, which pining in secret under their influence, hath found through them, prosperity shorn of its charms, or adversity aggravated with thorns not its own. This indeed is a diffi culty, from which many doubtless are free. But I would call upon every man, before he undertakes to leave the scenes of his former life, the abude, perhaps, of his ancestors, the graves of those whom he hath loved, and still loves, the places where he hath smiled, and where he hath wept (now alike dear to him,) and the companions of his past years, and his own people, and his own country; I would call upon him seriously to examine his heart, and if possible, to ascertain, what is the strength which it possesses to control or to smother all these recollections, when placed at a distance, and amongst a new people, and in a new country, and surrounded by objects, not one of which comes to his bosom, endeared with the bewitching recollections of earlier days!' pp. 170, 171.

The difficulties to be encountered by foreign settlers, are such, Mr. S. justly remarks, as ought to make every stranger pause. They demand the whole energies of our nature to overcome them, and should be contemplated with an enlight'ened and steady eye before they are confronted.' Common humanity requires that they should be fully and distinctly exposed to view; and the government is imperiously called upon to see to it, that the disposal of the superfluous population should not involve a useless cost of individual suffering, and a final loss to the parent community. To stop the tide of Emigration, were an impracticable as well as an impolitic attempt; but to direct it into right channels, and to facilitate successful colonization, is one of the most important duties of a state.

A solitary Emigrant is in the most helpless condition imaginable. Numbers without a plan, a definite object, and united means, form a body almost as helpless as the individual. The only chance of success is presented by a scheme of colonization that is attended by such adequate securities as either the Govern ment or substantial capitalists alone can furnish. It is not a little surprising, that while the United States have for many years past been receiving from this country so great an influx of English mechanics, English labourers, English capitalists, and English adventurers, our own colonies have been almost