tually be indispensable with some of them. Their subjects must, therefore, muster up strength against such contingencies. Against domestic and foreign enemies the Italians must arm. In order to have leisure to arm—they can never act with too much circumspection, calmness, compactness, and harmony.

As we would advise the Italians to beware of division, so we would also warn them against rashness and presumption. Such are the extremes into which southern people are apt to fall whenever suddenly released from abject fear and despondency. Let them bear in mind their disgraceful defeats of 1820. Europe has never forgiven them their dastardly defection. They fell away

from the cause of freedom without striking a blow. It is only by prodigies of valour that they can rehabilitate themselves--redeem their national honour. Let them neither magnify nor undervalue the strength of their enemy. Austria is sure to recover from the trance of her present perplexity. It is a crumbling colossus, but stands by force of habit, by time-hardened cohesion. Even in its ruin it can crush them. The same stubborn vitality it displayed in its deathgrapple with Napoleon, may again be called forth in a no less desperate contest. It can rely on the unshaken devotion of its troops, on the unconquerable allegiance of its hereditary provinces. There is a certain number of tons of German chair-à-canon Italian freedom must cut its way through. Italy, at the best, can only send forth unorganised, unarmed masses; soldier-citizens, proverbially inefficient and cumbrous. The enthusiasm of civic or national guards cools before the hardships of a prolonged campaign, even before it is brought to the paragon of a battle-field. Let the imminence of their danger inspire the Italians with the genius of discipline. Let them measure well their own forces, weigh the fearful odds of the approaching rencontre. They have not one man, not one musket to spare. Let them, above all things, make sure of the Sardinian

army: the only soldiery in Italy that is really worth its salt. Even by a combination of every means at their disposal, even with the most unbroken union and harmony, the strife will be a severe one and of doubtful issue. But let them save their honour at any cost. Europe has been filled with admiration at their late success. Credit is given them for the talent des révolutions. Let them give proofs of revolutionary valour no less than revolutionary genius. These bloodless victories too often lead to supineness and listlessness. Liberty too cheaply obtained is generally held too cheap. Public banquets, processions, medals, ovations, congratulations, will not rid the country of its foreign dominators. Religion has already too many festivals in Italy: let not freedom contribute to the laziness of those perpetual holidays. The Italians have work yet in store for them. They may be inoffensive and temperate as far as need be, but they must make ready for the worst. In

pace

bellum parate. Italians, let not these few moments of truce lull you into treacherous security. Let not the gravity of the danger plunge you into base despondency. Let not the apparatus of the armed force of your enemy strike consternation into your hearts. In the firmness of

your resolution, in the unanimity of your will, in the sanctity of your cause, you are invincible. Do your duty ! God and man will aid those who are ready to aid themselves.

IF amid the general diffusion of knowledge, and the monotonous results of an uniform civilisation, there still remains a kingdom or two, or a few isolated nations of men, with habits and customs which are singularly different from those of other nations, they are now almost solely to be met with on the western coast of Africa ; and among these, Dahomey, or the Snake Country, holds a remarkable pre-eminence.

This strange country does not receive its forbidding name so much from its exceeding reptile population, as from the holy character of many

of these. Houses are built for their reception, where they are regularly attended upon and fed as fetish (from the Portuguese feitiço, witchcraft), or sacred idols. When the snakes steal away from these zoological temples of superstition, if found by any of the natives, they are taken up and immediately conveyed back to the fetish house, while other natives prostrate themselves as the snake is carried past, throwing dust on their heads, and begging to be rubbed over the body with the reptile. Whereever, indeed, a snake is found, it must be immediately carried to the fetish house, whether it has ever been placed there before or not.

The most common svakes of Cape Coast and of the adjacent countries average four feet and a half in length, but in the interior, snakes, apparently of the boa kind, are met with of gigantic size. Mr. Duncan relates in his travels, that in crossing a swamp he met a number of women, laden with produce for the market and accompanied by several armed men, who walked in the rear, all much alarmed, and who informed the traveller of the extreme danger of passing any further, as a large snake had taken

up his position in a tamarind-tree on the road-side. “One of the party,” the author proceeds to relate, “ offered to go back and show us the enormous snake, and several others of the party volunteered their services also. Accordingly we proceeded about six hundred yards, when we arrived at the velvet tamarind-tree, which they had spoken of, and which was thickly covered with leaves ; but upon examining the tree, we could not observe any thing of the nature described. When I was just upon the point of accusing them of hoaxing us, one of them, who stood a little behind my horse, suddenly called out · Waroo-waroo! upon which, one of my soldiers seized my bridle to pull my horse aside, and, to my amazement, the monster was pointed out to me with part of its body coiled round a bough, and its head and a considerable part of its body hanging down very near our heads.

" It appeared this reptile had descended the tamarind, and had ascended a much larger tree of a different description. I immediately dismounted, and unstrapped my double-barrelled carbine, which was heavily charged, one barrel with swan-shot, and the other with smaller shot. The snake was certainly of enormous dimensions, and remained quite motionless. I took a steady aim at the neck, just behind its head, and fired the charge of slugs effectually, though, for some time, it seemed to have but a slight effect upon it, for it raised its head, and coiled the fore-part of the body round another branch of the tree; but the spine being injured, it soon appeared to lose strength, and the tail, which was coiled round a limb, began to relax. It again uncoiled its fore-part,

• Travels in Western Africa, in 1845 and 1846 ; Comprising a Journey from Whydah, through the Kingdom of Dahomey, to Adafoodia. By John Duncan. 2 vols. 8vo. Richard Bentley.

which hung down towards the ground. I then took my sword, which I had sharpened equal to a razor, and cut the head off at one stroke; but even then the people would not venture to touch it with their hands to pull it down, till I gave them a piece of small cord, which I invariably carried in my pocket. This was fastened round the body, and they then succeeded in pulling it down. The monster was of the boa tribe, and measured thirty-one feet long, but the natives told me they had seen them much larger.'

The present number of the New Monthly Magazine contains the first part of the narrative of a visit made in still more recent times than Mr. Duncan's, to this curious kingdom, which is, at the present moment, ruled over by a monarch of remarkably liberal and generous notions for a semi-barbarian, and who, unlike his neighbour and political rival of Ashantee, encourages the visits of Europeans. We even learn from Mr. Ridgway's interesting narrative, that the king has actually made war upon the tribes who opposed Mr. Duncan's progress, and has sent four prisoners to Cape Coast Castle, as an earnest of how he befriends British travellers.

The two great features which, added to snake worship, at once deform and impart singularity to the physiognomy of Dahoman social institutions,—the predilection for human skulls, and the organisation of an Amazonian

army-are, from Mr. Duncan's long residence in the country, most minutely entered upon by that traveller. Skulls decorate the walls of the metropolis, and grin their hideous welcome at the city gates. The regimental drums are ornamented in a similar manner with Death's heads. The king's footstool is composed of the skulls of three kings killed in battle, and the royal staffs bear the heads of distinguished enemies. Mr. Duncan having made a request for leave to inspect a few skulls of natives of the different countries the king had conquered, between two and three thousand skulls were brought out, and placed in the parade-ground in front of the palace, the heads of kings in large brass-pans, and those of caboeires, or sheiks, in calabashes.

The female soldiers of Dahomey, who actually, in the present day, represent the supposed fabulous Amazons of ancient times,

thousands in number. They weàr a blue and white striped cotton surtout, without sleeves, with short trousers beneath, and the cartouche-box girded round the loins, keeping the dress snug and close. These women are both strong and active; they carry a long Danish musket and stout sword, besides a sort of club. Mr. Duncan, himself an ex-life guardsman, describes their appearance as soldier-like and imposing. One of the most remarkable exercises performed by the African Amazons, was the rapid surmounting of a most formidable obstacle--such as serves for a defence to most towns in these countries—immense piles of a strong briar or thorn, armed with the most dangerous prickles and about seventy feet wide by eight feet high. “Upon examining them," says Mr. Duncan, “ I could not persuade myself that any human being without boots or shoes, would, under any circumstances, attempt to pass over so dangerous a collection of the most efficiently armed plants I had ever seen. Yet in a few seconds these redoubtable ladies charged the prickly fences, rushing at them with exceeding impetuosity and surmounting them with a speed beyond conception.

Mr. Duncan proceeded northwards of the Dahomey Country by the Kong Mountains to Adafoodia, in lat. 13 deg., 6 min., north, and long.

are many

9

1 deg. 3 min., east, and upwards of 300 geographical miles due north of Abomey, the capital of Dahomey. Through this long exploratory journey in central Nigritia, our traveller met with abundant water, a very general cultivation, and numerous villages, towns, and cities. There were also forests of shea, butter trees, and palms. At Adafoodia Mr. Duncan obtained some detailed information in regard to the death of Mungo Park.

In addition to the Dahomey Country, as we now learn from Mr. Ridge way's communication, about to be brought into the pale of commerce by treaty ; and the blood-thirsty Ashantees, who are more or less tributary to the Dahomans ; other populous countries are brought by Mr. Duncan's enterprising travels within the sphere of a legitimate commerce, which it is sincerely to be hoped may gradually take the place of the unlawful trade in human beings. It would certainly appear that more efficient modes of combating the long existing and odious slave traffic could be found in international influence with the receivers and abettors, and the gradual amelioration and civilisation of the benighted Africans themselves by intercourse and by legitimate commercial operations, than by the expensive, fatal, and highly Quixotic blockade of an almost continental extent

of country

ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF A STAG.*

A DEAL of false sentiment and a much too ornate and elaborate language will be readily excused by all right minded persons for the sake of the objects of this handsomely got up publication. The history of one day's hunt of the stag Acteon, taken from the impenetrable glens of the Amir of Athol, to be made the sport of the officers of Her Majesty's Regiment of Dragoons at that time quartered at Ipswich, constitutes the object of a curious argumentative and illustrative narrative, in which it is difficult to say whether the logic and feeling, or the "tall majestic" appearance of the lovely Gertrude Rivers, plead the strongest withthe more manly impulses of Frederic Manly. A hunt in olden time—the story of the “ White Hart of the New Forest"-is the best illustration of the subject. If an animal is to be hunted, let it be hunted to death ; or if it escapes, let it be housed and tended for life. The same animal, like a prisoner once tried, should not be put to the same torture over and over again. Beyond this we cannot follow the majestic, intellectual Gertrude. From the days of Nimrod the elder to those of Nimrod the younger, hunting has been natural to man.

The British as a nation have been especially distinguished by their prowess in the field, and the activity and physical energy acquired from the pursuit of game has undoubtedly greatly contributed to that success which, under God's blessing, the armies of England have, and it is to be hoped ever will, maintain over those of foreign powers

. It would not be doing justice to Mr. E. R. Smyth, of Ipswich, to omit stating that his illustrations of this lover's plea for a stag, are extremely pretty and highly creditable performances.

even

HIGHLAND SPORTS.*

This is, to say the least of it, a most seasonable work. It is so redolent of true enjoyment of the sports and scenes of the land of the mist, that it is impossible to peruse its stirring pages without experiencing certain symptoms of a very unpleasant restlessness, which, like the compass, do what you will, still ever 'point to the north. Farstretching solitudes of hill and valley, covered with their rich mantles of purple and gold ; secluded rocky glens and dark forests, denizened by graceful deer, and feathery grouse, and black cock, so picturesquely described, awake latent feelings, that are not easily set aside. If we have a regret, it is that such noble old mansions as are portrayed by pen and pencil in this book—the Castle of Maggernie, for example-of great antiquity, in excellent preservation, and in the most secluded vale of Perthshire, should be nothing more than a shooting-box. The traditions of such a place are the inheritance of the public; the family honour is in its own keeping, or rather no keeping. But with this we have nothing to do at present. Written with a keen sense of the beautiful and picturesque in nature, and with not only a thorough relish, but with a perfect familiarity with his subject, no one can have a spark of sportsman-like feeling, who does not love Mr. Hall for the pleasure to be derived from his volumes.

NEW NOVELS.

It is inevitable but that the social novel must present contrasts, bad habits as opposed to good, vulgarity to refinement, vice to virtue, and the ridiculous in life to that which is grave and serious. The lives of players-not the art-life, and its share in the spiritual manifestations of the

age, which is too frequently passed over for the sake of the flickering, phantasm-like details of a player's existence--abound in such contrasts, which are indeed often to be met with, even in extremes, in the same individual. Nor have such wanted their limners. Autobiographies and biographies innumerable, from Cibber's "Apology" and Raymond's “ Elliston” down to Dickens's “Grimaldi,” have long ago attested, that whatever the moral aim that may stand on the surface, or that can only be detected, if sought for, in final results, which is contained in the history of these eccentric careers; that still these very vagaries possess their own peculiar charms, the never-flagging spirits gild even sorrow and adversity, and the never-failing resources baffle all mundane disasters—50 long as the buoyancy lasts.

Mr. T. J. Serle has just given to the public three volumes* of the light descriptive kind which we allude to-life-like pen-and-ink sketches, derived from long practical experience, considerable powers of observation, a keen sense of the absurd and the incongruous, united to evidently no shallow under-current of sympathy, born from habit, if not inherent

* Highland Sports and Highland Quarters. By Herbert Byng Hall, Esq. With Illustrations, 2 vols., 8vo. H. Hurst.

+ The Players; or, the Stage of Life. By Thomas James Serle, Esq. 3 vols. Henry Colburn.