the space before the door of the drostdy church, which is the arena for exhibiting all the powers of complete coachmanship and well dressed horses. The boer puts his team into a gallop just before he reaches the first rise of a hill, and continues it half way up, if the hill be long ; or if it be of moderate length, the whole way; and considers the velocity given to the team to be a relief to the weight. As soon as a team of spirited horses see the rise of a hill they are to ascend, they start off at a pace and with a force not to be checked by a driver of a puny breed. In truth, nothing would surprise an English coachman more, than the sight and action of the pleasurewaggon of a boer, with its usual appointments in horses and driver.' Apricots, peaches, pears, and apples, are sun-dried to great perfection at the Cape, and preserve their taste until the next If the duty on dried fruits were lowered in England, these articles would form a feature of almost every dessert; and raisins, figs, prunes of all kinds, and even cherries, might become far more important objects of exportation. That measure is bad policy among us which checks the consumption of unmanufactured foreign produce; because the rate of exchange is most favorable to barter, to returnfreights, and to reciprocal increase of demand, where exports and imports most nearly counterbalance each other. season. The seventh chapter is financial; accurate, no doubt, but dull. On the society of Cape-Town, the author thus dilates in the eighth chapter: The society of Cape-Town is composed of various materials. Divines of different tenets, medical men with and without diplomas, civil servants of the various departments, naval and military officers, Cape-Dutch advocates, Cape-Dutch inhabitants, and civil and military servants of the East India Company, form the aggregate of the list. Upon the English part of the society, it is unnecessary to dilate. An Englishman, from the Orkneys to New South Wales, is the same unbending creature. He accommodates himself, with difficulty, to the manners of other countries; and nothing can be right or proper, that is not English, and to which he is unaccustomed. The Scotch and Irish mix more readily and sensibly with the members of a foreign society, and are more easily reconciled to its customs. In considering this subject, the death of one, who once filled so large a space in this colony, sorrowfully presents itself to memory Henry Alexander, colonial secretary, a man of the most excentric manners, possessing extensive benevolence of heart, accompanied by the highest endowments of the head. There was neither art nor science of which he had not acquired some knowledge, and in many he was eminently skilled. His powers of reasoning were strong, impressive, and overcoming, for he had the taste, sense, and learning of former ages to bring to his aid in argument, (in which he delighted,) and his me - mory mory was so perfect, that he could at once command all that he had ever heard or read. Fond of domestic happiness, and of company, he lived in the constant interchange of good offices and civilities with the most respectable English and Cape-Dutch families; and feeling a kind disposition towards all men of character, and seeking information wherever it could be found, individually he associated with those of every rank and station of life; ardent, social, liberal, kind and courteous, such was the man whom the Cape deplores. The Indian visitors exceed every other single class in number, as much as they surpass in talent. The institution of a college in Calcutta, and the more modern one of Haileybury, in both of which these gentlemen kept their terms, and attended the lectures of professors, and their subsequent examination in classics and mathematics, force on them, however idly disposed, a distinguished education. The climate of India, and the necessity of avoiding the sun, compel a continuation of literary pursuits. After his arrival in India, a writer, unless he be a mere trifler, advances by gradual steps into situations of trust and importance. In a few years, the collection of the revenue, the government of a district, or some other important object, is committed to his care. His thoughts become engaged on weighty concerns; his understanding is exercised, and the energies of his mind are called forth; and when he visits the Cape, he brings with him larger intellectual means of contributing to social intercourse than most other men possess. The Indian visitors are accused of selfish feelings; but where is the instance in which they do not subscribe to the general amusements of the place? or, where is the individual distress to which they do not generously contribute? On a decay of health, the Indians usually resort to the Cape, before they are reduced to the absolute necessity of abandoning their post and going to Europe. Many dreadful victims to Indian sun are seen here; for hope strengthened by interest beguiles men to remain in India too long, when, by an earlier arrival, this health-giving climate might have worked a cure. The majority of invalids, under that best of physicians air and exercise, soon regain strength and vigour sufficient to partake of the sports of the field, and occasionally to gain the brush at the end of the fox-chase. These gentlemen are daily fixtures in the circle of the society door. Men who have been so much confined within the house are excusable for keeping out of it when they have the opportunity; and the judge and magistrate, who daily, when at his station, sits from morning to evening, hearing causes in Cutcherry, has a claim to the indulgence of complete idleness it is the fallow-field of the body and mind. In coming to the Cape for health, a civil servant loses one-third of his salary; if he remains lingering for any period, and ultimately dies, the whole of his arrears is forfeited. The government-garden, called in the Dutch time the Company's Garden, occupies a space from the top of the heeregracht to the road which leads to the Table-Mountain, and on the right to to the Kloof. The centre walk, which is wide and of the length of about one mile, is carried through an avenue of spreading oaks, beautifully green in the spring months of August and September. At that season, although the sun be bright, the air is cool and elastic, and the blossoms, bulbs, and flowers, delight the eye. Upon Sunday, when the military bands continue to play their most lively tunes and airs, it would seem to be fairy land, were it not that the moving figures are mostly of a colour not described to be that of a fairy. The scene is interesting, and the walk fashionable, and there is a pleasurable feeling and freshness in the spring atmosphere of this delicious climate, indescribable to a stranger. One part of this garden was, in the Dutch time, reserved for curious plants, bulbs, and shrubs, interesting to the botanist; and in another part, vegetables were grown for the supply of the Batavian ships refreshing at this port on their passage. The whole has now merged into a private garden for the Governor, and the public is excluded from every part except the grand walk. A menagerie, the interesting appendage of eastern power and magnificence, still remains; but the spirit is gone; for there are only two or three lions, a Bengal tiger, and the panther and hyæna of the Cape. It is to be regretted that this establishment has been suffered to fall into insignificance. There is an interest and feeling peculiar to itself in the view of a well stocked menagerie, which is the triumph of man over the tyrants of the air and of the forest. There was a tolerable good collection of living and dead animals and birds in the museum of Mr. Villete, a naturalist of the Cape: but they were lately purchased by the commander of the Fairlie, and shipped for London, where they will be an acceptable object to the curious. Some of the stuffed antelopes are rare, and of great beauty. The government-house is situated about half-way up the garden, and is built in the Dutch style, with its portico and fountains (jets d'eau). It is cool in the spring, and not inconvenient for the purposes of state, or for the necessary parade and arrangements of a public day. But the vicinity of Table-Mountain, and the reflection from that immense mass of stone, throws upon this house in summer, as it does throughout Cape-Town, a burning heat by day, from which none recover until the cool and early hours of the next morning.' The Cape races, which take place in September and April, cause considerable interest, and furnish a strong attraction. Many of the best bred horses had been sent to Mauritius and India in 1821, and the sport slackened; but the increase of young produce this year, from English horses, caused a greater interest. The boers, who are the chief breeders, join eagerly in racing; and two of the principal ones offered a purse of 400 rix-dollars to be run for by produce of their respective studs. The Indian gentlemen are a great support to the races; and have proved, by success, their title to be considered good judges of the probable speed of an untried racer. An extraordinary custom prevails here of an owner entering his horses in an assumed REV. MARCH, 1824. X name. name. If it be a disgrace to a gentleman to be the acknowledged proprietor of a race-horse, he ought to abstain, and not have any concern in the transaction. The disguise of an unknown name excites curiosity; and the real one is soon discovered. - The ostrich puts its head behind a bush, and fancies itself concealed. The Olympic games were attended by all that was great and glorious; and, to be victor in the chariot-race, for in that way the horses were then trained, increased the pride, and added to the fame and glory, of a king and an hero. Alcibiades, who, besides being the bravest general, was the finest gentleman of his day in Athens, and in all Greece, sent seven chariots to the Olympic games, and gained the first, second, and third prizes; but so differently did he reason, that the valued part of the prize was the name of Alcibiades, published through all Greece, as the victor, and proclaimed aloud by a herald. It is on the race-course that the display of pleasure-waggons, carriages, and horses takes place; for what is dispersed at other seasons is there collected; and it would surprise a stranger to see, at the point of South Africa, so many fashionable curricles, chariots, barouches with four horses, landaus, tilburies, and dennets. It is true, that the greater part of the merchants' horses were working in a waggon the day before, and will do so the day after the race, when their owners return to the duties of their shops and stores. No part of the inhabitants makes a greater display than the lawyers. The leading advocates of the day sport barouches and four, on which they drive, or are driven, reminding the beholder of the fifth chapter of the second book of Kings, verse 9. The next in rank are content with a curricle; and the notary follows in a solitary gig. Physic also asserts her claim of distinction. The physician in his chariot with four greys, the surgeon in his barouche or tilbury, and the apothecary on his hack, passing the town burial-ground with an averted eye, hasten to the spot. It is a joyous scene all are busy; and during the raceweek care seems to be given to the winds. The Saturday after the race is pay-day; when some experience the pangs of a chancellor of exchequer, in his labour to find ways and means to meet the supply wanted. The races have been the principal cause of improvement of the Cape horse; the boers now, possessing high-bred English stallions, feel great satisfaction at the first victory of a colt from their stud. The Cape mares are small; but as their size and shape will be increased, both by import, and by the young mares now growing up from English stallions, they will be a race of horses equal to any in Europe, in the course of a few years.' There are "private theatricals" and a passable theatre at Cape-Town: but no regular company of European actors perform there, either in Dutch or English. For the sake of diffusing our language, it might be worth the Governor's while to endow an English theatre. Chapters Chapters ix. x. and xi. relate to settlers, to their location, and to the condition of the emigrants: these sections are chiefly interesting to those who project removal, but incidentally they betray some want of providence in the ruling powers. An appendix of state-papers, and notes by the editor, are subjoined, which are curious and valuable. The whole account, indeed, cannot but contribute to facilitate at home a wiser superintendence of the colony, and thus to bestow on the Cape an increase of prosperity and happiness. As man learns by blundering, the publicity of his errors is the speediest cure for his faults, and the surest pledge of his reformation. ART. IX. Lectures on the Elements of Botany. Part I. Containing the Descriptive Anatomy of those Organs, on which the Growth and Preservation of the Vegetable depend. By Anthony Todd Thomson, F. L. S., Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, and the Medico-Chirurgical Society of London, &c. &c. Vol. I. 8vo. pp. 730. 1. 8s. Boards. Longman and Co. THE HE leading facts relative to the economy of the vegetable system have been so ably discussed by Grew, Malpighi, Du Hamel, Bonnet, Sennebier, Mirbel, Keith, and others, that some apology may be expected for the appearance of the present volume, and the author' is prepared to offer it. Having, he says, accidentally met with a manuscript-copy of his Lectures, exposed for sale, and being apprehensive that his statements might be circulated in a mutilated or distorted form, he resolved to prepare them for the press. During the revision of his notes, the subject gradually opened before him, and new thoughts and trains of reasoning were repeatedly suggested; insomuch that little besides the name and the arrangement of the original course of instruction remained. He likewise apprizes his readers that, in the prosecution of his task, he had often to encounter those interruptions and anxieties which are inseparable from extensive professional occupation, but he shrinks not from the tribunal of fair and candid criticism. That tribunal, indeed, will scarcely withhold its favorable award from this portion of his labors, which is neither a mere compilation nor a crude assemblage of affected novelties, but a patient review of the subject; apparently prompted by an honest desire to ascertain the truth, and to treat with respect those from whose opinions he happens to dissent. The explanatory plates, which are prefixed to, and copiously interspersed in, the body of the text, might |