PUBLIC OPINION AN AUXILIARY TO its effect, such as Hyociamus, Opium, Bella- | AN EXAMPLE FOR THE CLERGY OF CHRISTIANITY. Ir there be anything in this lower creation, with which men have to do, and which has to do with men, and yet too ghostly to be made the subject of a definition, it is public opinion. Though we cannot tell what it is, no one doubts its existence; though it does not present itself in palpable forms, all men feel it. Its secret and invisible influence operates on every mind, and modifies every one's conduct. It has ubiquity, and a species of omniscience; and there is no power on earth so stern in its character, so steady, so energetic, so irresistible in its sway. Every other power must do homage at its altar, and ask leave to be. The thrones of kings stand by its permission, and fall at its beck. It is a power that lives, while men die, and builds and fortifies its entrenchments on the graves of the generations of this world. With every substantial improvement of society, itself improves; with every advancement of society, itself plants its station there, and builds upon it, and never yields. Time and the revolutions of this world are alike and equally its auxiliaries, and contribute by their influence to its maturity and increasing vigour. And this is the power which has adopted Christianity, and set itself up its advocate and defender, in the hands of an Almighty Providence. 6 In the days of the apostles, and in subsequent ages, the public opinion of the world stood marshalled against Christianity. And it was not until after the political and moral convulsions of eighteen centuries-convulsions, in the bosom of which Christianity has been making its bed and planting its seeds: it was not until Spiritual Babylon had thoroughly disgusted and astounded the world by her arrogance and abominations;-it was not until the Sun of the Reformation, rolling on to the West, had gone down in that region where first he rose, and opened again his morning twilight on Luther's grave;-it was not until infidelity had done its worst, and played such tricks before high heaven, as made the angels weep;'-it was not until Mohammedism and Paganism had wearied out the patience, and drank the very life-blood of the most enduring hope of man, and man had tried every possible expedient to work out his own redemption, but the only true one; -it was not until every human and every diabolical invention, to overthrow the foundations and defeat the designs of Christianity, had been exhausted-Christianity in the meantime and all the while gradually settling down and gaining a stronger hold on the affections of mankind; it was not until all these grand events, and all that is comprehended in them, had transpired in the providence of God, that the world seems to have consented, evidently consented, that Christianity should reign. And here is the point, at which the enterprise of Christians of these times may safely begin. This is the ground which they ought to assume, as all cleared and settled at their hands. CALVIN COLTON. PHYSICAL EFFECTS OF INTOXICATION. "MALT liquors, under which title we include all kinds of porter and ales, produce the worst species of drunkenness, as, in addition to the intoxicating principles, some noxious ingredients are usually added, for the purpose of preserving them and giving them their bitter. The hop of these fluids is highly narcotic; and brewers often add other substances to heighten donna, Cocculus, Indicus, Laura, Cerasus, &c. Malt liquors, therefore, act in two ways upon the body, partly by the alcohol they contain, and partly by the narcotic principle. In addition to this, the fermentation which they undergo is much less perfect than that of spirits or wine. After being swallowed, this process is carried on in the stomach, by which fixed air is copiously liberated, and the digestion of delicate stomachs materially impaired. "Persons addicted to malt liquors increase enormously in bulk. They become loaded with fat, their chin gets double or triple, the eye prominent, and the whole face bloated and stupid. Their circulation is clogged, while the pulse feels like a cord, and full and labouring, but not quick. During sleep, the breathing is stertorous. Every thing indicates an excess of blood, and when a pound or two is taken away, immense relief is obtained. The blood, in such cases, is more dark and sizy than in others. In seven cases out of ten, malt-liquor drunkards die of apoplexy or palsy. If they escape this hazard, swelled liver or dropsy carries them off. The abdomen seldom loses its prominency, but the lower extremities get ultimately emaciated. The effects of malt liquors on the body, if not so immediately rapid as those of ardent spirits, are more stupifying, more lasting, and less easily removed. The last are particularly prone to produce levity and mirth; but the first have a stunning influence upon the brain, and in a short time render dull and sluggish the gayest disposition. They also produce sickness and vomiting more readily than either spirits or wine. Both wine and malt liquors have a greater tendency to swell the body than ardent spirits. "The most dreadful effects, upon the whole, are brought on by spirits; but drunkenness from malt liquors is the most speedily fatal. The former break down the body by degrees, the latter operate by some instantaneous apoplexy, or rapid inflammation. No one has ever given the respective characters of the malt-liquor and ardent-spirit drunkard, with greater truth than Hogarth, in his Beer Alley, and Gin Lane.' The first is represented as plump, rubicund, and bloated; the second, as pale, tottering, and emaciated, and dashed" over with the aspect of blank despair.”—Dr. Macnish's Anatomy of Drunkenness. FREE PEOPLE OF COLOUR, From Walsh's Notices of Brazi'. ENGLAND, IN THE CONDUCT OF "Numidia, a country adjoining to Carthage, in Africa, had been blessed with the light of the gospel, and in the third century a number of churches were planted in it. By an irruption of the barbarous nations, many Numidian converts were carried into captivity." In an epistle written by Cyprian, the Bishop of Carthage, on this occasion, he says, “Who, if he be a father, does not now feel as if his sons band, is not affected as if his own wife were were in a state of captivity? Who, if a husin that calamitous situation? This must be the case, if we have but the common sympathy of men. Then, how great ought our mutual sorrow to be, on account of the danger of the virgins who are there held in bondage? Our brethren, much more quickened by great sorrow and ever ready to work the work of God, but now anxiety to forward so salutary a concern, have freely and largely contributed to the relief of the distressed captives. Lord says in the gospel, I was sick and ye For, whereas the visited me;' with how much stronger approbation would he say, 'I was a captive and ye redeemed me! And when, again, he says, 'I was in prison, and ye came to me;' how much the prison of captivity among barbarians, and more is it in the same spirit to say, 'I was in ye freed me from the dungeon of slavery; ye shall receive your reward of the Lord in the day of judgment.' Truly we thank you very much that ye wished us to be partakers of your solicitude, and of a work so good and necessary. We have sent a hundred thousand sesterces (about £781 sterling), the collection of our clergy and laity of the church of according to your diligence. If, to try our Carthage, which you will dispense forthwith faith and love, such afflictions should again befal you, hesitate not to acquaint us; and be assured of the hearty concurrence of our church with you, both in prayer and in cheerful contributions."-Milner's Church History. APHORISMS. THERE are in nature certain fountains of justice, whence all civil laws are derived, but as streams; and like as waters do take tinctures and tastes from the soils through which they run, so do civil laws vary according to the regions and governments where they are planted, though they proceed from the same fountains.-BACON. No schism in the body politic can be more fatal than that which alienates the hands from the head, the physical strength of society from its presiding intellect.-ROBERT HALL. write; but error is a scribbled one on which we Ignorance is a blank sheet on which we may must first erase.-COLTON'S LACON. It is in literature, as in finance, much paper and much poverty may co-exist.-COLTON'S LACON. To be attached to the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle, the germ, as it were, of public affections. BURKE Faith says many things concerning which the senses are silent, but nothing which the senses deny : it is always superior to them, but never contrary to them.-PASCAL. derstand, is of a wider circumference to one creaThe sphere in which we move, and act, and unture than another, according as we rise one above another in the scale of existence; but the widest of these our spheres has its circumference.-AD DISON. term 44 COLONIAL SLAVERY. TO MR. POWELL BUXTON. York, Oct. 4, 1832. tinction of slavery, when it can be accomplished himself. by the liberal offer of making them "of any deno mination I please." I feel so convinced that these statements have Sir, there is still a point of minor importance on each, in their turn, been uttered in sincerity, that which I may be expected to say a few words. You I have laboured hard to resolve their apparent inhave borne, it seems, all sorts of calumny with ex- consistency. Will you allow me to suggest the emplary patience, "until sanctioned by so respect- best solution of the difficulty I can arrive at-a able a person as Sir C. B. Codrington." I might, solution which I have found to unravel many a Sir, have been flattered by such an expression, had discordant statement coming from the West Init not been preceded (scarce many days) by an ob- dies respecting the character and capabilities of servation, that you was not even aware of the the negro? It is this: that he is idle when he existence of such a person." You have honoured works for his master-industrious when he works me, Sir, with an introduction to your grandfather's for himself-diligent when supplied with a motive sister, but you have omitted to introduce me to inert when all motives are withdrawn. Does your grandfather himself. Far be it from me to this argue peculiar sloth in the negro race? Is it doubt any thing that comes from so respectable a not the case with men of every shade of comperson as Mr. Fowell Buxton; still farther be it plexion, and the characteristic of every family of to couple your name with a set of vagabond lec- man? Take the most laborious of the whites; he turers who, fortunately for themselves, have es- toils, not because he loves labour for its own caped from the West Indies just before the halter sake, but because he covets the reward of labour. was round their necks; you have, however, pro- Now, slavery is labour without reward. The exnounced my name as a slave-owner to be synony-ertion is required, but the motive is wanting. mous with villain. Now, Sir, there are obstinate Here lies the incurable evil of the system: we people who still assert that your grandfather had deny to the negro those motives to which nature considerable property in land and slaves in the has given an all-powerful influence, and we supisland of Barbadoes; that some 35 or 36 years ago ply their place by the rigour of the whip, and by he sent out the late Mr. Holden (indeed the in- those other rugged expedients which extort invoformation came from Mr. Holden himself) to dis-luntary, and therefore feeble, efforts, much to the misery of the slave, and as much, I apprehend, to the injury of his employer. This consideration brings me to the conclusion that all ameliorating measures are comparatively but idle dreams; they assail not the root of the mischief; so long as the system continues to be LABOUR WITHOUT WAGES, so long must it be unprofitable to the master, and a fruitful source of wretchedness to the slave. Sir,-So satisfied should I be to leave what you the controversy between us" in the hands of the electors of Gloucestershire (to whom your language is evidently addressed), that I would pass unnoticed your letter of the 21st ult., did I not indulge a hope that I might tempt you by an offer which might go some way towards putting your philanthropy to the negroes, as well as my own, to the test. But let me first request that, if you should honour me with any further notice, you will explain why every statement coming from me must be untrue, every expression intended to mislead? "What, in my first letter, I had called vessels, are, in my second, dwindled into boats; my negroes, instead of making constant exports of provisions, now make only occasional shipments a falling off which (you state) exposes their wretchedness." I thank you, Sir, for this assertion, as it comprehends in itself the proof of every foul libel uttered against the West India planter. But, Sir, my vessels shall be of any denomination you choose to give them; they are built to convey a few oxen or sheep from Barbuda to the neighbour-pose of that property; that it was so disposed of ing islands; they are manned (mark me) by my own slaves only, who have thus an almost daily opportunity of putting themselves on board vessels bound to North America, France, or even that land of liberty, England. But "my negroes send only occasional shipments; they cannot keep themselves at all during three-fourths of their time." A curious argument this to prove their wretchedness: they are so well fed, they have so little occasion (to say nothing of inclination) to work for themselves, that, with ten or twelve acres allowed them, the land is left uncultivated threefourths of the year. To this assertion, then, of wretchedness, I dare you to the proof: you have not in your brewery a man less wretched than one of those wretched slaves, not one of whom would change situations with them. And this leads me to the offer by which this state of wretchedness may be determined. In my last, I ventured a belief that your humanity to the slaves had never led you to visit those colonies. If I can tempt you (in the cause of the wretched slave) to trust yourself across the Atlantic, one of my vessels shall convey you from any neighbouring isle to Barbuda; while there you shall have every accommodation free of expense; and I pledge myself to give you, at the end of one week, the power of manumitting a boat-load (not exceeding fifty) of those wretched slaves, on the following conditions, viz. :-Their manumission shall not be compulsory; you shall fully explain to them the difference between their present and future state; and, as their number has increased beyond any means I can find of employing them, they shall quit my property. Doubtless, Sir, you will favour the public with a full and candid state ment of the condition in which you found them, as to food, clothing, comforts, and contentment. If you accept my offer, I shall be glad again to hear from you if you reject it, I must beg to decline further controversy. And now, Sir, a few words as to manumission generally. You do not covet it more than I do, when it can be bestowed beneficially to the slave himself. It cannot benefit him, without my receiving my share of that benefit. He is a slave by no act of the planter, but by the laws of England: by the same laws he is my absolute property, of which I cannot justly be deprived without compensation. By the colonial laws, he cannot be entirely manumitted; nay, shudder not, Sir! by that humane and salutary law I have no power of freeing myself, even after his manumission, from feeding, clothing, and supporting him; if either he turns out a vagabond, or in his old age. If, then, you force improvident manumission, you convert that into a curse which might eventually be a blessing. I repeat, Sir, that no man will see with more satisfaction than myself the total ex for a large sum of money, a proportion of which C. BETHELL CODRINGTON. TO SIR C. BETHELL CODRINGTON, BART. Of the wretchedness of the slaves in our West India colonies you "dare me to the proof." I have already adverted to one proof of that wretchedness, which, I persuade myself, carries conviction to every rational and unbiassed mind-viz., That IN ELEVEN YEARS OUR SLAVE POPULATION HAS DECREASED FIFTY-TWO THOUSAND. When you have discovered a satisfactory reply to this fact, I have other proofs in reserve almost as cogent. Sir,-You express a desire that the correspond- You ask me to explain "Why every statement I now come, Sir, to the principal point of your handsome proposal, the effect of which would be to get me out of the way during the impending discussions on slavery. I presume not to doubt your zeal for emancipation, of which we have heard so much. But, perhaps, I may assist in accomplishing the object you so earnestly "covet" as directly by staying at home. I shall certainly labour hard to promote the liberation, not only of your proffered boat-load, but of the remaining seven hundred and fifty thousand. You call the slave your absolute property. Here, indeed, is precisely the point on which we are at issue. I venture to call your property in him, however acquired, an usurpation. I deny that any human being, or body of men, can have had power to give him to you. My creed is, that to every individual born into the world belongs the absolute right to his own limbs, his own labour, his own liberty, to his wife, to his children, to the enjoyment of entire freedom; and to the unrestricted worship of his God. I know, in short, no claim you can plead to extort from him his unrewarded labour, which an Algerine might not plead, with equal force, to hold in bondage his Christian captives-ABSOLUTE PROPERTY OUR FELLOW MAN!!! IN I now come to a point which you truly call of minor importance. You charged me with having sold my slaves. I distinctly denied that I ever possessed, bought, sold, or hired a slave. You then bring, as a crime against me, that my ancestors were possessed of West India property. I have already told you that some of my near relations inherited the remnants of property derived from the West Indies; but that, to the best of my belief (and, in the difficulty of ascertaining exactly the source from whence property is derived, it is impossible to say more), no part of that property descended to me. I adhere to my original statement, that I never was master of a slave, and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, I am not, and never have been, owner of a shilling derived from slavery. TO THE EDITOR OF THE TOURIST. A little time ago I was talking to a liberalBut, allow me to ask, What if I had? Should minded man from the West Indies, respecting I owe less obligation to the negro if I had even some estimable characters who had been grievremotely participated in the fruits of his oppres-ously abused in the islands. He said, "Whension, and been enriched by his spoils? Prove, if ever you hear of a man being evil-spoken of, and you can, that I ever sold a man, knowing, as I persecuted in the West Indies, depend upon it he must have done, that he could not by any pos- being a respectable character." I have lately is a good, honest man; it is a sure sign of his sibility belong to me; and you, indeed, fix deeper been reminded of this criterion of character, by guilt upon me. Prove, if you can, that my ancestors were slave-owners, and that the produce of the obloquy that has been attempted to be thrown that property descended to me-I acknowledge no upon the Agency Anti-Slavery Committee by all criminality, for I was no party to their acts; but, parties, except those few who are really concerned I admit you show me that I have one motive more for the good of their poor oppressed fellow-creatures, to labour in the cause of the negro. the slaves. I hope the Agency Committee will not be discouraged; they are pursuing the most effective means of procuring an early annihilation of the slave system. Let them go on to inform the people of the real nature of slavery, and it will soon come to an end. I believe there is yet religion and humanity enough in the country to accomplish this, even if policy, and an attention to their own interests, did not urge the people of England to call for the abolition of a system of cruelty, for the support of which they are dearly paying. I sincerely wish the Agency Committee prosperity; and that, instead of being diverted mies and false friends, they may go straight forfrom their purpose by quarrelling with their eneBritish dominions. ward towards their grand object-the entire and immediate abolition of slavery throughout the I will not stop to point out how grossly you have been deceived as to my property and influence in the borough of Weymouth. With respect to influence in that borough, I pretend to none, save that for many years I have been the representative of the real independence of the town. A struggle is approaching, in which it will be de termined whether the right of returning members arises from property, or from the independent choice of the electors. I cannot think why you have dragged my constituents at Weymouth into this controversy, but you could not have chosen judges more to my mind. vaga that I have no wish to avail myself of your perI will only add to this already too long letter, mission to separate my name from those " bond lecturers" who, as you say, "have escaped from the West Indies just before the halter was round their necks;" on the contrary, I desire no greater honour than to be justly classed with those brave and good men, who, for a righteous cause, have borne the horrors of persecution, and to whose heroism future generations in the West Indies will owe much of their civil and religious liberty. One word more, and I have done. Appearances which are hourly coming to light so deeply impress my mind, that I cannot help saying, with all the emphasis of which I am capable, let us lay aside our differences, and commence instantly the necessary measures for a SAFE and immediate emancipation. The fact is, our time for emancipating at all is fast drawing to a close; let us avail ourselves of it, while a peaceful extinction of slavery remains within our power; we are all equally fervent in the desire that it should not meet its end by violent convulsions. With this solemn warning to you, and, through you, to every Englishman who may read this letter, I beg to subscribe myself, Sir, your obedient humble servant, Cromer, Oct. 24. AN ARAB'S REVENGE. The following disgraceful illustration of the text, " Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe," is extracted from Sir W. Ouseley's edition of Burckhardt's Notes on the Bedouins" In a skirmish between the Maazy Arabs and those of Sinai, in 1813, the former, by chance, wounded a woman of the latter, who, however, soon recovered. In the year following, the Sinai Arabs made an incursion into the Maazy territory, surprised an encampment near Cosseir, killed eight or ten men, and were going to retire, when one of them recollected the wound that had been inflicted on a female in the preceding year; he, therefore, turned upon the Maazy women, who were sitting before their tents weeping, and, with his sabre, wounded one of them, to avenge the blood of his countrywoman. His companions, although they applauded what he had done, acknowledged they should not like to imitate his example." This is the only circumstance of such a nature that was ever mentioned to me. A TRUE ABOLITIONIST. FECUNDITY OF INSECTS AND FISHES. According to naturalists, a scorpion will produce 65 young; a common fly will lay 144 eggs; a leech 150; and a spider 170. I have seen a hydrachna produce 600 eggs, and a female moth 1100. A tortoise, it is said, will lay 1000 eggs, and a frog 1100. A gall insect has laid 5000 eggs; a shrimp 6000; and 10,000 have been found in the ovary, or what is supposed to be that part, of an ascarides. One naturalist found above 12,000 eggs in a lobster, and another above 21,000. An insect very similar to an ant (Mutilla?) has produced 80,000 in a single day; and Leeuwenhoeck seems to compute 4,000,000 in a crab. Many fishes, and those which in some countries seldom occur, produce incredible numbers of eggs. Above 36,000 have been counted in a herring; 38,000 in a smelt; 1,000,000 in a sole; 1,130,000 in a roach; 3,000,000 in a species of sturgeon; 342,000 in a carp; 383,000 in a tench; 546,000 in a mackerel; 992,000 in a perch; 1,357,000 in a flounder. But, of all fishes hitherto discovered, the cod seems the most fertile. One naturalist computes that it produces more than 3,686,000 eggs; another 9,000,000; and a third 9,444,000. Here, then, are eleven fishes, which, probably, in the course of one season, will produce above 13,000,000 of eggs; which is a number so astonishing and immense, that, without demonstration, we could never believe it true. The fecundity of insects is no less remarkable than that of fishes. In some instances, particu. larly in those already mentioned, the numbers produced from the eggs of a single female far exceed the progeny of any other class of animals. It is this extraordinary fecundity which, under favourable circumstances, produces countless swarms of insects that give origin to the opinion of their being spontaneously generated by putrefaction, or brought in some mysterious way by blighting winds. The numerous accidents, however, to which insects are exposed, from the deposition of the egg till their final transformation, tend to keep their numbers from becoming excessive, or to reduce them when they are at any time more than commonly numerous.-Insect Transformations. ANECDOTE OF PAINTING. The following is an extract from a letter addressed by a young gentleman in London to his sister in Liverpool :- "As I am upon the subject of painting, I will mention to you an anecdote which I heard related by Hoffland (a celebrated landscape composer), regarding two of the finest pictures which are in this, or, perhaps, any other country; they are the works of the immortal Claude. A nobleman, whose name I now forget, purchased them in Italy, and sent them over to this country, directed to a friend, with instructions for him to pay the duty upon them, which amounted to £2710s., and to preserve them carefully until his return. These instructions the friend never received; and, when the pictures were landed at Dover, nobody being there to make any inquiries about them, they were seized by the officers of the port for non-payment of the duty, and were put to public auction, as is customary in these cases, for that purpose. Strange to say, there was no one who had discernment enough to see the merits of these stupendous productions, and the pictures were fortunately drawn in unsold, £17 being the greatest offer for them. Shortly after this the nobleman arrived in England, and instantly wrote to his friend about his property. You may imagine, by the sequel, what was his surprise when his friend returned for answer that he was extremely sorry to say that he was entirely ignorant of such things existing. The thought which struck him first was to proceed to the landing-place, Dover; and, after several inquiries, he at last found his treasures thrown by in an old wareroom, amidst a heap of confiscated rubbish. He paid the £27 10s. joyfully, and the pictures were given up to him. Two years after this those pictures were put up for sale, and purchased by Mr. Beckford, of Fonthill Abbey, for 12,000 guineas; when that gentleman sold his magnificent domain to Farquhar, the pictures were taken along with it, for the original price; when the latter died they were again put to the hammer, and bought by Angerstein, for an advance of 3,000 guineas, making the sum 15,000 guineas; and when his collection was purchased by government, as public property, they were taken at a valuation of 16,000 guineas, and they are, at this moment, the most splendid orna ments in the British Gallery." THE HEAVENLY REST. There is an hour of peaceful rest, To mourning wanderers given; A balm for every wounded breast- A couch for weary mortals spread, There is a home for weary souls, By sin and sorrow driven; When tossed on life's tempestuous shoals, Where storms arise and ocean rolls, And all is drear but heaven. There faith lifts up the fearful eye, The heart with anguish riven, And views the tempest passing by; The evening shadows quickly fly, And all serene in heaven. There fragrant flowers immortal bloom, And joys supreme are given; There rays divine disperse the gloom; Beyond the confines of the tomb Appears the dawn of heaven. Jamaica Watchman, July 13, 1832. Printed by J. HADDON and Co.; and Published by J. CRISP, at No. 27, Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row, where all Advertisements and Communications for the Editor are to be addressed. importance. His services have been chiefly of a military kind; and it is in the capacity of a soldier that we now propose to give a short account of him. It is not certainly ascertained at what time elephants were first employed in battle. We have notices of them as early as Semiramis; but the records from which they are drawn lie beyond that line at which history loses its authority, by merging into tradition and fable. The first credible account of them is in the war of Cyrus against an Indian tribe; and the statement of their numbers even on this occasion must be rejected as one of the exaggerations so frequently met with in the history of remote ages. Later writers, however, speak in positive terms of the immense numbers of elephants with which the kings of India went to war. Little was known of them to Europeans until the conquests and discoveries of Alexander the Great; nor were they much better known to some eastern nations, as is evident from the fact that the name of the animal is not to be found in the Hebrew language. It is uncertain whether Alexander used them or not. Certain ancient medals represent him mounted on an elephant; but Sir Thomas Browne reckons the opinion among "vulgar errors." There is no doubt, however, that Porus used them in considerable numbers in the great decisive battle against him, and in the former part of the day with success; until the Greeks directed all their efforts against them; chopping their legs with axes, and cutting off their trunks with a crooked weapon resembling a scythe. Upon this the animals became infuriated and unmanageable, and, turning on their own ranks, assisted the enemy in the frightful slaughter that ensued. This appears from history to have been most frequently the case when elephants have been employed in the field of battle; though, in the less active and dangerous parts of a campaign, they have often been found invaluable. In the march of an Indian army, for instance, there are peculiar circumstances in which their aid is indispensable. This is clearly illustrated by the following passage from a recent work on this subject: "The progress of an army through a country intersected with good roads is direct and speedy. In the newly acquired territories of India, remote from European settlements, thick jungles, extensive bogs, and precipitous mountains, offer impediments to an invader, which only the most undaunted perseverance could overcome. In such situations, the power of the elephant is called into action. In a 'Narrative of the late Burmese War,' the writer says, The road lay partly through a thick jungle; but, with the aid of three elephants, a passage was forced.' Here the strength which the animal ordinarily employs in a state of nature was a curi called into exercise. The impediment (never esteemed there but as Many of our most arduous military It was in the year 280, B. C., that the elephant was first seen in Italy, in the army of Pyrrhus, King of Epirus. This monarch brought them over in his campaign against the Romans, and in the first battle gained a complete victory by means of them. Shortly after, however, the Romans contrived a method of averting their overwhelming attack by carrying lighted torches against them. This was doubly successful, as it not only secured the Romans, but turned the strength of the elephants against their own party, and within four years after their introduction into Italy, they had ceased to be formidable. In the Punic wars, however, the Romans had to contend with them in much greater numbers. When Xantippus, the Lacedemonian general took the command of the Carthagenian army, he made such good use of this part of his forces that he completely routed the Roman army; but at the siege of Panormus (Palermo) some time after, a vast number of them were driven back, by a shower of darts, upon their own ranks, and a hundred of them were taken alive and sent to Rome. They were We see that we have rather confused the chronology of our history by our allusions to the more recent wars in India. It only remains to say, that the elephant is rarely mentioned in the accounts of the wars of the last half-century, between the British in India and the native troops; though he is still used by a few of the native powers, the farthest removed from European influences. SLAVERY. There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart, I would not have a slave to till my ground, |