former have a rank and influence very rarely found among Indians. The females are permitted to speak freely before the men, to whom indeed they sometimes address themselves in a tone of authority. On many subjects their judgments and opinions are respected, and in matters of trade, their advice is generally asked and pursued. The labours of the family, too, are shared almost equally. The men collect the wood and make fires, assist in cleansing the fish, make the houses, canoes, and wooden utensils; and whenever strangers are to be entertained, or a great feast prepared, the meats are cooked and served up by the men. The peculiar province of the female is to collect roots, and to manufacture the various articles which are formed of rushes, flags, cedar-bark, and bear-grass; but the management of the canoes, and many of the occupations, which elsewhere devolve wholly on the female, are here common to both sexes. "The observation with regard to the importance of females applies with equal force to the treatment of old men. Among tribes who subsist by hunting, the labours of the chase, and the wandering existence to which that occupation condemns them, necessarily throws the burden of procuring provisions on the active young men. As soon, therefore, as a man is unable to pursue the chase, he begins to withdraw something from the precarious supplies of the tribe. Still, however, his counsels may compensate his want of 'activity; but in the next stage of infirmity, when he can no longer travel from camp to camp, as the tribe roams about for subsistence, he is then found to be a heavy burden. In this situation they are abandoned among the Sioux, Assiniboins, and the hunting tribes on the Missouri. As they are setting out for some new excursion, where the old man is unable to follow, his children, or nearest relations, place before him a piece of meat and some water, and telling him that he has lived long enough, that it is now time for him to go home to his relations, who could take better care of him than his friends on earth, leave him, without remorse, to perish, when his little supply is exhausted. The same custom is said to prevail among the Minnetarees, Ahnahawas, and Ricaras, when they are attended by old men on their hunting excursions. Yet, in their villages, we saw no want of kindness to old men. On the contrary, probably because in villages the means of more abundant subsistence renders such cruelty unnecessary, the old people appear to be treated with attention, and some of their feasts, particularly the buffalo dances, were intended chiefly as a contribution for the old and infirm." P. 441. This cruel treatment of the old prevails in the eastern, as well as in the western world. In Herodotus we read of a barbarous nation, the Padai, who killed and eat their parents, but this ceremony was, we believe, considered as an act of particular affection. Exposure of the old is however recorded by the same author. The disease which appears to have made the most dreadful havoe among among them is the small-pox, for which they have no means either of resistance or of remedy. The peculiar ease of parturition appears to have been bestowed by the bounty of Providence upon nations, whose necessary mode of life renders it impossible for their women long to remain in the same place. Their commercial intercourse is much more extended than would probably be imagined. With those who inhabit the shores of the Pacific, commerce forms the chief occupation of their life, and is the general subject of their discourse, and they will converse upon it with much readiness and information. The exchanges are principally in kind, as the use of money is unknown; a sort of circulating medium, however, is formed by the introduction of large blue beads, of which they seem so universally fond, that they supply the place of the precious metals. These are of the commonest and the cheapest nature, and are prized by them far above those beads which we should esteem most valuable. How long this passion may exist after a more extended intercourse with the whites, may be a matter of doubt; at all events, the immense influx of these cheap and worthless commodities, must, as would be the case of the precious metals with us, so effectually lower their value, as to make them no longer a means of trade. To what political purpose the Americans will be enabled to apply the information which they have received from this expedition of discovery, we are at a loss to determine. Much certainly may be done in the way of colonization, but very little in the way of commerce with the existing inhabitants of their newly annexed province of Louisiana, and, as they proceed farther westward, the difficulties increase. The mountains also appear to form an insuperable barrier against any inland communication with the Indians upon the mouth of Columbia, with whom a commercial connection would every way be most desirable. According indeed to the account of our travellers, there is very little to be gained by the intercourse, however well regulated and established. What the country might produce under the agricultural improvements of American planters and colonists, we know not, but it appears to produce little that would warrant an extension of the trade which is now partially carried on with the neighbouring natives. We should also doubt the sincerity of the Indians in desiring any such intruders or allies, as they appeared universally unwilling to send any of their chiefs in the character of ambassadors to the United States; and we know that the conduct of most of the Indian tribes during the present contest, has been decidedly hostile to the Americans. But whatever may be the event, it was both provident and wise in the government to to have made this experiment on a small scale, and to have trusted the conduct of it to such able hands. But if no political advantage shall result to our trans-atlantic enemies from the expedition, they will have had a satisfaction, which is sufficiently new to them, of presenting the world with a very entertaining volume. The form of a journal is maintained throughout, which we are inclined to think, notwithstanding the necessary breaks in the narrative, the most interesting form under which an account of this kind can be presented. By the precision and accuracy of a daily journal, the events of a tour assume a sort of reality, which is too often lost in the more loose and general account of an undivided relation. It does not admit indeed of the ornamental style of the latter, but what it wants in elegance, it supplies by the appearance of fidelity. Especially on travels of discovery, where every day produces new scenery, and new events, the division is not only more appropriate, but by assisting perspicuity, it adds to the interest. The style of writing in this narrative is clear and simple; there is no affectation of ornament either in description or sentiment. The plain matter of fact is rigidly adhered to, from which in general the reader is left to form his own conclusions. Where, however, any particular observations are ventured upon, they discover uniformly the good sense and the just discrimination of the author. In his description of scenery,.Captain Clarke appears to have studied truth rather than ornament: it is of course so interwoven with the narrative, that it would be difficult to extract any portion of peculiar interest. The magnificent appearance of the Pacific Ocean from a high land, called "Clarke's Point of View," is well pourtrayed. "We set out early, and proceeded to the top of the mountain, the highest point of which is an open spot facing the ocean. It is situated about thirty miles south-east of Cape Disappointment, and projects nearly two and a half miles into the sea. Here one of the most delightful views in nature presents itself. Immediately in front is the ocean, which breaks with fury on the coast, from the rocks of Cape Disappointment as far as the eye can discern to the north-west, and against the highlands and irregular piles of rock which diversify the shore to the south-east. To this boisterous scene, the Columbia, with its tributary waters, widening into bays, as it approaches the ocean, and studded on both sides with the Chinnook and Clatsop villages, forms a charming contrast; while immediately beneath our feet, are stretched the rich prairies, enlivened by three beautiful streams, which conduct the eye to small lakes at the foot of the hills. We stopped to enjoy the romantic view from this place, which we distinguished by the name of Clarke's Point of View, and then followed our guide down the mountain. The descent was steep steep and dangerous: in many places the hill sides, which are formed principally of yellow clay, have been washed by the late rains, and is now slipping into the sea, in large masses of fifty and an hundred acres. In other parts, the path crosses the rugged perpendicular. rocks which overhang the sea, into which a false step would have precipitated us." P. 421. The maps of the country, and the various plans descriptive of the course of the river, and of the situation of the falls and rapids, are scientific and good; and to any one who may hereafter be desirous of following the same route, they must be inestimable. We believe that every map of this immense tract of country his therto published is exceedingly erroneous. A very full and clear account is given, in a chapter appropriated to that purpose, of all the natural productions, trees, plants, and animals, of the region through which our travellers passed, which cannot fail of affording much amusement to the lovers of botany and natural history. To the readers of voyages and travels, we can strongly recommend this volume as a very pleasing and interesting work, from which they cannot fail to derive much useful information. There is sufficient novelty to attract the attention, and variety to amuse the imagination. The details of a savage life, even in a state least revolting to the feelings of humanity, cannot but inspire the most gloomy and discontented among us with gratitude to heaven for the blessings of civilization, both social and religious, for the comfort and security of civil government, and for the hopes and consolations of the Gospel dispensation. BRITISH CATALOGUE. DIVINITY. ART. 9. Does Faith ensure good Works? An Answer in the Negative. By the Rev. James Beresford, Rector of Kibworth, Leicestershire. Late Fellow of Merton Colleges Oxford. pp. 44. Hatchard. 1814. This essay is from the pen of the author of a celebrated work, the Miseries of Human Life, a publication which has done much, by the means of innocent aillery, to calm that fretful- ́ ness and irritation arising from the common occurrences of life, in which too many good men were apt to indulge, and to restore that cheerfulness and serenity in the midst of frivolous vexations, which are no less the duties than the ornaments of the Christian. and the Man. From the author of such a book, much might be expected, not indeed in the way of deep divinity, but of ingenious + genious and useful information. Nothing can be dull which has Mr. Beresford for its author. The old subject is here discussed with much acuteness and vivacity; and the conclusions drawn, are such as are conformable to the soundest reasoning; and what is infinitely more to the purpose, to the words and to the spirit of the Holy Scriptures. The style is peculiar to the author and not altogether unadapted to the service of controversy. We are not admirers of drowsy discussion, but we must confess that there is at times too palpable a display of logical flourish, too decided an appearance of the agility of attack and defence to be entirely suited to so grave a subject. From this very cause, Mr. B. has occasionally laid himself open to the weapons of the enemy; he is not content with securing himself behind the strong scriptural positions, but he occasionally opens a battery from an untenable spot. Upon so vitally important a subject as the present, the mode of argument which Bp. Butler pursues, is, we think, by far the best; to consider how much can be conceded to the adversary, and having yielded every weak and doubtful position, to attack him only from the strong holds, and to force his retreat upon his own grounds. There are two or three positions unwarily taken by our author, which would give his enemies a momentary triumph: one particularly, (p. 31.) where the writings of the great Apostle, are represented as the writings of a mere mortal. Πᾶσα γραφὴ θεόπνευστος.—From what follows, we are persuaded, that Mr. Beresford did not intend to maintain this opinion, but in the heat of argument he has asserted it, and an unfair enemy might take an undue advantage of it. He might also have allowed much more to the principle of faith, (and we could wish that he had) without the slightest injury either to the argument or the conclusion. But notwithstanding these minor failings, the manner is earnest, the matter is ingenious, and the conclusion just. A fair idea of Mr. Beresford's peculiar style may be formed from his concluding argument. "I will close up my reasonings upon the whole subject, with an argument, consisting in such a definition of the word, Faith, as my opponents, on their own principles, must accept,--although it shall contain a proof, on the direct authority of our Saviour, that, to forbear from preaching Good Works, is to forfeit all right to the appellation of a Christian Teacher.-I will state my argument with all possible brevity, and in the interrogative form. I ask, then, What is Christian Faith, but a sincere belief in Jesus Christ? How can such a belief in Him exist, unattended by a compliance with all that he has said,—and, (as far as humanity permits, by an imitation of all that He has done?-What has He said?-He has said to his Disciples, Mark xvi. 15.) "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature:" now whether |