REPORTING PROGRESS. are already issued; they are returnable on the 14th June. In two little months the battle of reform is to be fought, not as it was fought on the late occasion, but with all the advantages which it can ever enjoy. Will it be carried? This is a question that calls for a serious answer; we can answer only approximatively. Scotland is one entire close borough; family influence in the counties, the influence of a weighty purse in the boroughs, have here and there introduced a liberal member; but the exceptions only prove the truth of the rule. Of the thirty Scotch county members, nineteen are personally committed against the bill; the return of two is already disputed; one county, whose member voted with ministers, has sent up a petition against them; it seems, therefore, probable, that in these counties they will not secure above ten. Of the Scotch boroughs, ministers have three, but they will certainly gain over Dysart-and very probably Perth; the Scotch members for the bill and against it may, therefore, be calculated at fifteen and thirty. In Ireland there is not a county which, at present, returns one member favourable to reform, that will not make a powerful struggle to return two. Ministers will have fifty-six out of the sixty-four. In the boroughs they have now nineteen. There seems but small chance of Mr. North being returned for Drogheda. Dublin will, probably, oust Mr. Shaw, or his own prudence will; and the university is so directly interested in the bill, and Mr. Sergeant Lefroy has cut so miserable a figure, that it will hardly send him back; we think the bill may reckon twenty-two borough supporters. In England, out of about 132 proprietors of close boroughs, only thirtyseven, of whom twenty-two are peers, have yet come forward to support ministers. The votes commanded by these thirty-seven (and among them we include what are called the Treasury boroughs) are eighty-two. In a struggle which, to the boroughmongers, is one of existence, it would not be rational to suppose that any more would come over; on the contrary, it seems most probable that there will be a falling off. Already has the Duke of Marlborough, with Roman virtue, turned out his own son from Woodstock. Mr. A. Baring will probably imitate his example in Callington and Thetford; and we may rest assured that, balancing future against present gain, many will now refuse to sell who never refused before, or, if they sell, will only accept of a tory customer. Of the 258 nominee seats, therefore, ministers will hardly secure more than they already have, thus leaving against them a balance of 176. Of places open or deemed so, that is, large towns and counties, they have a majority of eighty-one, 160 having voted for and seventy-nine against the second reading of the bill. Supposing the sixteen absentees to be equally divided, this would give 168 to 87. In England, however, from the very general acceptability of reform, ministers will gain considerably. The number has been calculated, we know not on what data, at thirty; we would be well content with twenty. If twenty be secured, the numbers in the new parliament will stand somewhat thus: England Liberal. Illiberal. 15 86 14 363 295 Allowing for ratting and for conversions, this will give ministers a majority of eighty or ninety, and farther than that we hardly think they will rise. That majority is, however, quite sufficient to pass the bill triumphantly, and, the bill once passed, the liberal majority, which it permanently secures, will be sufficiently great for all subsequent improvements that the state of the nation may or can require. COLLOQUIAL DICTIONARY, OR CYCLOPEDIA OF SOCIAL INTERCOURSE AND ORDINARY LIFE. "WITH regard to the contents, although it is neither possible nor desirable expressly to divide the one kind from the other, they may be conveniently described under two heads: "Whatever a person placed in intelligent society would feel himself uncomfortable by not knowing,-so far, at least, as would enable him to take an interest in the subject; whatever is requisite to make him feel at ease in the companies to which his choice may lead, and his rank and means entitle him, from a consciousness that entire ignorance on such points may be construed as the mark of low breeding, or a proof, at least, that the man had taken no pains to bring himself up to a level with his circumstances. "Brief details of remarkable institutions, persons, events, and places, some knowledge of which is necessary or aidant for the perfect comprehension of the domestic and foreign history of the month; biographical_notices, at greater length, of distinguished foreigners; the great outlines and general results of the sciences and scientific arts; in short, all the points of information which the foregoing remarks have loosely but sufficiently characterised-so worded and so arranged as to be easily acquired and readily referred to, may be classed as forming the first head, or kind; while, in the second, we comprise all subjects of frequent occurrence in society, or calculated to become topics of conversation in mixed parties-theatres, menageries, exhibitions, mendicæ, mimæ, balatrones, hoc genus omne."-Introduction to the Colloquial Dictionary in the Magazine for April. FRENCH COLONIZATION OF THE coast of Algiers is not 140 leagues The old and thickly peopled countries of Europe, like ancient Greece and Rome, require a vent for the excess of population and activity created by a long period of civilization; and this relief should be sought by a regulated and continuous stream of emigration to fertile and thinlypeopled countries. Political economists may assert, in well rounded periods, that France ought to maintain twice her present numbers; but it is obvious to practical men and common sense, that any great increase of population could not be sustained without much injury to a large and industrious portion of society; nor, indeed, without some arbitrary interference with the rights of property. National improvement is necessarily slow; France cannot even now beneficially employ the numbers and the talent she contains; while each successive year brings forward many thousands of young men, educated, ardent, and enterprising; seeking eagerly for employment, and finding none, because all trades and professions are already occupied by numbers, whose competition is rapidly reducing their profits to a rate incompatible with adequate and permanent support. Official appointments are every where sought with increasing avidity, and the want of a more masculine occupation compels many active young men to embrace the idle alternative of shopkeeping, most departments of which could be as well or better filled by women and girls. The learned professions superabound with youthful candidates, who, while waiting for employment, are obliged to lean upon their friends for support. For some years past manufactures, commerce, and agriculture, COLLOQUIAL DICTIONARY. have ceased to yield a fair remuneration for the capital and incessant labour bestowed upon them; while the supply of home and foreign produce and manufacturers often exceeds the demand, and renders the return of rents and profits precarious and inadequate. The new multitudes seeking beneficial employment are every where repulsed, and the consequence is, a general friction and uneasiness throughout the frame-work of society. Such is the state, not only of France, but of England, Germany, and the Netherlands. This immense surplus of population and active industry, imperiously demands employment at home, or the means of passage and establishment abroad. The expense of conveying considerable numbers to distant colonies, is an insuperable bar to any effectual relief, and the old colonies of France are remote and inconsiderable; while the coast of Barbary, with a healthful climate, a rich soil, and a slender population, is at her gates, and offers inexhaustible resources. That magnifi cent country, which extends from the Atlantic to the Nile, was the most productive portion of the Roman empire, and abounded with flourishing cities, from which, so late as the fourth century, 400 bishops were delegated to the councils of Africa. ALGIERS. The portion of Barbary called Algiers, possesses a surface of 19,000 square leagues; an extent at least equal to that of Italy; but with a soil and climate permitting a rapid succession of crops, and equal to the support of twice the population of Italy. The inhabitants do not exceed 2,500,000, who have long been oppressed and plundered by a handful of Turks and their subordinate Moorish soldiery. The dominant Turkish force at Algiers has not, for a long period, exceeded 12,000 men, but has of late declined to six or seven thousand, who, under the command of the Dey's lieutenants, made an annual excursion in three detachments to plunder, under the name of an annual contribution, the oppressed inhabitants of the interior. In The climate of Algiers, and of Barbary not indigenous, but imported by Greek and Turkish vessels from the Levant. The substitution of enlightened quarantine regulations for the blind fatalism of the Mahometans, would, doubtless, exclude the plague altogether; while European habits of cleanliness would banish reptiles and vermin from the houses, and the advance of agriculture and civilization would exterminate the beasts of prey in the interior, as it has destroyed the wolves of Great Britain, and the panthers and rattlesnakes of New York and Pensylvania. A happy combination of warmth and humidity, gives a wonderful degree of size and vigour to the vegetable productions of this favoured region. Wheat, barley, and Indian corn are abundant. The prickly pear abounds in all directions; and while the tree forms an impenetrable hedge, the fruit is nutritious and palatable. Vines attain a prodigious height, and run from tree to tree, forming beautiful arbours; near the root the stem is sometimes as thick as a middle sized olive tree. Pomegranates are three times the size of those in Italy; excellent oranges, figs, and chestnuts ripen in great quantities; melons, cucumbers, cabbages, lettuces, and other vegetables abound. Olive trees are so numerous and productive, that the export of oil alone would be a source of national wealth. The sugar cane flourishes greatly; indigo and cotton would thrive abundantly; the oak, the cedar, the cypress, and the palm tree, attain prodigious size. Near the coast are woods of cork trees. and the acacias yield a valuable gum, In general the soil of Barbary is deep, rich, and well watered by the numerous streams which run through the beautiful vallies of the Atlas chain of mountains, to the Mediterranean, and which afford abundant means of irrigation. The plain behind the city of Algiers is a continuous and extensive garden, containing above 10,000 farms and vineyards. The white rose bushes are singularly abundant, and yield the valuable essence of otto of roses. The useful animals are camels, buffaloes, sheep, cows, goats, horses, asses, and mules: wild boars and many other The species of game are abundant. bees deposit large quantities of honey in the rocks and trees; sea and river fish and turtles abound. The art of mining is little understood, but there are stores of iron, copper, lead, tin, sulphur, gypsum, lime-stone, fine clays, and prodigious quantities of rock and sea salt. FERTILITY OF THE CYRENAICA, A MOUNTAINOUS DISTRICT BETWEEN TRIPOLI AND EGYPT. [Abridged from the Travels of Della Cella. ]} "PROCEEDING from east to north, we were surprised at the sudden and refreshing alteration of the scene; a spacious plain of verdant pastures, enlivened by numerous flocks of sheep, lay stretched out before us, extending from north to south, and bounded on the east by a chain of hills. This was the far-famed Cyrenaica, so renowned for the fertility of its soil, that the ancients fixed there the site of the celebrated garden of the Hesperides. The air of these hills is pure and temperate, and the moisture they afford enriches the beautiful pastures on the plain below. "Beautiful green vallies open between the hills, and the Bedouins, allured by the rich pastures and the abundance of refreshing water, wander from vale to vale with their flocks and herds. "The deserted state of these districts does not prevent the traveller from being particularly struck with their extreme fer. tility, and he will more especially remark the vigorous appearance of the olive-trees, which spread spontaneously over vast tracts of country. The Bedouins, who use no other sauce than butter, not only set no value upon this tree, but, from superstitious motives, prevent others from gathering its fruit and making oil, which, if sent by the way of Bengasi to the European market, would alone suffice to enrich the whole country. Gigantic fig, carob, pistacio, and wild pear-trees, grow and flourish among the olive-trees; and the whole aspect of these regions, though left entirely without cultivation, conveys a greater idea of fertility than any of the best tilled provinces of Italy. Struck as 1 frequently was, with this extraordinary degree of fruitfulness, and with the pure and temperate quality of the air, and surrounded by so many testimonials of the prosperous condition of the ancient inhabitants of Cyrenaica, I was unable to comprehend why, in the times of the crusades, no power thought of occupying that exuberant territory with such a force, and such a colony, as might have maintained a firm footing there, and why they neglected the politic example of the great nations that successively reigned over the shores of the Mediterranean. The Phenicians, the Carthaginians, the Greeks, and the Romans, by turns transported their surplus population to different parts of this extensive coast, and in their trading intercourse with these colonies, they were sure to find their kinsmen, language, habits, and religion. The Italian mariner who now traverses the Mediterranean, trembles at the sight of every distant sail, in the uncertainty of its being friendly or piratical, and shudders every time the wind blows from the north, lest he should be driven on these inhospitable shores, and there terminate his existence in captivity. Let us however consider what obstacles may have induced different governments to decline such an undertaking as a settlement upon this productive coast. It could not be the number or the power of a horde of vagabonds, the outcasts of other countries, and formidable only to the barefooted pilgrims who cross the desert, and whom a handful of these undisciplined miscreants fill with apprehension, and drive before them like a flock of sheep. The multitudes which, as it has been supposed, would issue from the interior, exist only in imagination; for the belt of habitable country extending southwards from the mountains of the Cyrenaica is extremely narrow and depopulated. The great bay of the Syrtis, and the desert of Sahara, which communicate with it, form a frontier too well fortified by nature, to be forced by any formidable body of those who inhabit the western coasts of Africa. Upon the Egyptian side are immeasurable deserts, as well as numerous defiles, which render it easy to defend the entrance of the Catabatmos; and along the coast, the country is inaccessible, except by the ports of Tajuni and Apollonia, which might easily be fortified. With such barriers, and such means of security, what height of prosperity might not an European colony hope rapidly to reach, if established in this fertile territory, where pasture grounds and the great abundance of game, would alone furnish the first settlers with ample means of subsistence. "Heaven forbid that, in the recommendation of such a project, I should inculcate the idea of an European colony renewing against this pastoral people, the harsh and sanguinary measures of which so many new settlers have been guilty. I consider their preservation, and the maintenance of their habits and usages, as essentially connected with the prosperity of a colony, and with that branch of industry and commerce which it should peculiarly devote its faculties. In my opinion the nature of the to soil and climate particularly points out the diligent cultivation of the vine, the olive, and the palm-tree, which would alike cover the calcareous hills and sandy shores of the country. The luxuriant pasture grounds in the valleys would continue to support the flocks and herds of the wandering tribes, who, protected in their property and habits, and profiting by the increasing value of their cattle, would become the most faithful allies of the colony. The Cyrenaic wool was more esteemed by the ancients than any other, and I have no hesitation in asserting, that the wool of the present day greatly surpasses the very best produced in Italy, though now, for want of local manufactories, and a foreign market, it is but little valued in this country. "A new colony would therefore be greatly interesting, not only in not molesting the present occupiers, but in religiously respecting their habits and customs; and, doubtless, their frequent intercourse with civilized people, and the divine influence of a religion which has humanized so many barbarous tribes, would soften their minds, and gradually dispose them to a more intimate and social communion with European settlers. "The Cyrenean district," says Herodotus, "is the highest part of Lybia, and unites in itself three successive harvests. The first in the lowest or maritime part; then begins the harvest of the middle or hilly region; and, when that is got in, the third or highest region is found alike fruitful, and ready for the gathering. Thus the harvest of the Cyreneans lasts eight months." STATISTICAL NOTICES OF POLAND. THE largest portion of the ancient kingdom of Poland-Lithuania, Volhynia, and Podolia, containing eleven millions and a half of inhabitants-has been incorporated with Russia, and this separation has ever been complained of as a heavy grievance and injustice by the present kingdom of Poland. In the three populous provinces above named, the nobles retain nearly all their ancient privileges, and the peasants are still slaves. The Austrian portion of Poland has a population of four millions. The statetaxes are not oppressive, but the condition of the peasantry is not sensibly improved, and complaints of the oppressive practices of the stewards, who manage the nobles' estates, are universal. In the Prussian grand duchy of Posen, the inhabitants, like the other Poles, are principally Roman Catholics. Here the endeavours of the Prussian Government to improve the condition of the peasantry have been eminently successful; and from 1814 to 1829 inclusive, 5395 peasants have been released from feudal claims, and become the proprietors of their farms. The population of Posen is 884,000, including 48,000 Jews. The small free state of Cracow numbers about 100,000 inhabitants. The eight Woiwodships, composing the present kingdom of Poland, contained, in 1828, according to official statements, 4,088,000 people, including 400,000 Jews. The increased intelligence and importance of the industrious classes in the kingdom of Poland, is evidenced by their rapid progress, under many fiscal disadvantages, in manufactures and commerce. In 1815 only one hundred looms were employed, and in 1830 six thousand were at work, producing annually above 7,000,000 ells of cloth of various kinds. Many spinning factories for wool and flax, on the best principles, have been established; and in Warsaw especially, a laudable and enterprising spirit prevails amongst the more opulent inhabitants. Hitherto the elementary schools have been inadequate to the wants of the population; but that the more educated classes are not indifferent to intellectual advancement is proved by the fact, that the small kingdom of Poland had, in 1830, thirtyseven newspapers and periodicals, while only thirty-eight were published throughout all European Russia. In Warsaw, twenty printing presses were actively employed in 1830; but the freedom of the press, although guaranteed by the Polish charter, has been trampled upon at pleasure by the government. An oppressive censorship was established, with power to controul every department of literature. All French newspapers, excepting the Moniteur and the Gazette de France, were prohibited; all other tolerated foreign papers were delivered, on arrival, to the censors, and returned or retained at pleasure. German works were especially interdicted, and amongst them the works of Jean Paul Richter. The French drama of La Muette de Portici and the Vaudeville of Avant, Pendant, et Apres, being revolutionary subjects, were forbidden at the theatres. A secret police was established under the controul of Rozniecki, who employed one hundred spies, accusers, and agens provoca◄ |