sonnet as our text, which was sent him July 3, 1652.

Vane, young in years, but in sage counsel old,
Than whom a better senator ne'er held

The helm of Rome, when gowns, not arms, repell'd

The fierce Epirote and the African bold. Whether to settle peace, or to unfold

The drift of hollow states hard to be spell'd, Then to advise how war may best upheld Move by her two main nerves, iron and gold, In all her equipage: besides to know

Both spiritual power and civil, what each means, What severs each, thou hast learned, which few have done:

The bounds of either sword to thee we owe, Therefore on thy firm hand religion leans In peace, and reckons thee her eldest son. In the beginning of these verses mention is made of that intuitive sagacity for which he was distinguished, in penetrating and laying open the crafty designs of hollow-hearted states, however "hard to be spelled"-however disguised under false and deceitful appearances. A statesman of such a spirit-one who can penetrate the designs of a rival or hostile power, even as if he led her councils and commanded her armies, might advise and contrive things with best advantage to his country, not only more effectually but more economically; or, as has been well, though somewhat quaintly, observed, by a contemporary writer, "without such a company of chargeable waste pipes of spials at home, or correspondents abroad, as is usual."*

As regards the next qualification to advise, viz., how war may be best maintained, and move by her two main nerves, iron and gold, the merits of Vane as a statesman are recorded on

In

the page of history. "So frugal," says Ludlow, had he and his colleagues been of the public purse, that upon the usurpation of Cromwell, a vast sum was found in the Treasury, and yet their fleets and armies had been fully paid, and their magazines plentifully furnished with stores." order fully to appreciate their great merits in this way, it is only necessary to compare them with what may be taken as a frugal Government for a monarchical one-we mean Cromwell's. At the return of the Parliament to the exercise of their authority, in the place of those vast sums they had left in the public coffers, they found a debt of two

millions and four hundred thousand pounds contracted by those who had taken upon them the management of affairs. And yet, along with this economy, when had the affairs of any nation been conducted with more energy and more wisdom, than those of England under the Parliament? Charles, even, with his oppressive and unjust tax of ship-money, had been unable to afford commerce the most common protection. But where was the nation on the face of the earth that dared to insult the flag of the Commonwealth of England? Hume, with his usual candour, ascribes the successes in the war with Holland to the use made by Charles of the tax of ship-money, whereas the reverse of this is notorious; those successes being solely attributable to the energy and wisdom displayed by Vane and his colleagues in the management of the navy.

The latter part of the sonnet refers to his skill in distinguishing the two "swords," or power, spiritual and temporal, and setting proper bounds to each. He held that the magistrate ought to keep within the proper sphere of civil jurisdiction, and not to intermeddle with men's consciences in matters of religion and divine worship. In order fully to appreciate Vane's merits in this particular, it is necessary to throw back our minds two centuries, and reflect how rare was that spirit of toleration in those days, aye, how still more rare in one, who was no lukewarm, indifferent Gallio, who cared for none of these things," but himself the warmest of enthusiasts. When all this is considered, surely his greatest enemy must confess that Vane was no ordinary man-that his was no common mind.

During the Long Parliament, Vane was usually so occupied with the public business in the House, and several committees, from early in the morning to very late at night, that he had scarcely leisure to take the necessary refreshment, converse with his nearest relations, or at all to mind his family affairs. In his solemn appeal on the scaffold to God and men, he declared

that he had never defiled his hands with any man's blood or estate, or sought himself in any public place or capacity; and in his case this was no empty boast; for such was the opinion entertained of his abilities for the despatch of a business, if good, or the hindrance of it, if evil, that, had his hand been as open to receive as those of others to offer, he might have trea

sured up gold as dust. Many hundreds a-year had been offered to some about him, in case they could but prevail with him only not to appear against a proposal. On the least intimation of such a thing to him, he would conclude it to be some corrupt, self-interested design, and set himself more vigilantly and industriously to oppose and quash it.*

GREAT things, it must be acknowledged, have transpired in a garden. The first sad fruits of human disobedience-the fatal knowledge of good and evil; the fall of Newton's apple gravitating towards the centre; and many things besides, including, it appears, a new theory of population by Mr Doubleday of Newcastle-upon-Tyne have all originated amidst those pleasant scenes where Cyrus revelled and Epicurus dreamed. Sitting in his pleached garden," and contemplating, through the medium of a little chemical knowledge acquired at his trade, the stimulating effects of manures upon plants, this author hit upon the fundamental idea which he has carried up through the vegetable, even to the very apex of the animal creation. He has at length embodied his views in a treatise, in which he endeavours to base upon his discovery a law explanatory of the principles of increase and decrease amongst men.

The first thing discovered by Mr Doubleday was, that, let the stimulus be what it might, an overdose of it invariably produced sterility in the plant; and, if the dose were increased, disease and death; that, in fact, there was such a thing as "killing" a plant "with kindness." Trees over-stimulated by manures made a superfluity of wood; they blossomed scantily at their extremities farthest from the root, and their blossoms rarely "set"

or produced ripe and perfect fruits. Flowering-shrubs, as well as flowers, were similarly affected; or rather, as regarded flowers, they became double and ceased to seed.

The next thing Mr Doubleday discovered was the remedy for this vegetable surfeit. It consisted simply in reversing the treatment. Debilitate the tree-"ring" its bark-lop its branches unmercifully-and trench its roots. Harsh measures! but affording the only chance of redeeming its life from the effects of former prodigality! Plants and flowers subjected to a corresponding check or depletion, recovered themselves. In the case of greenhouse plants, the severity of a slight exposure to cold was perhaps sufficient. The checked or debilitated plant afterwards flowered plentifully, and the tree which had been "ringed" and lopped began to bear.

Mr Doubleday, conceiving he had thus before him the distinct part and counterpart of a law in vegetable propagation, began to extend his inquiry to animated nature. He is, it would seem, fully of opinion that this same law is manifested throughout the whole animal creation, until it is finally applied by the Creator to man himself. He asserts, in regard to man, as well as in regard to plants and animals generally, that, whenever a species or genus is endangered, nature makes an effort for its continuance by

an increase of fecundity, especially where the danger originates in a deficiency of proper nourishment. He divides life into two states of existence—a DEPLETHORIC state, favourable to fertility, and a PLETHORIC state, unfavourable to fertility-both in the ratio of the intensity of each state. He alleges that, according to this law, a constant increase proceeds amongst that portion of society worst supplied with food-the poorest portion : a constant decrease amongst that portion well supplied with food-the affluent portion; a stationary population occurring amongst those moderately supplied with food, neither overtasked nor idle. Such is his theory. Now, then, for a resume of his proofs.

Somewhat we have seen already concerning the opposite influences of stimuli and anti-stimuli upon plants. Mr Doubleday suggests it to be a wise provision of Providence which shields a species from danger on the side of plenty-guarding against the transmission of the disease it engenders by the extinction of fertility it effects. The law of increase is nevertheless the more pleasing contemplation, especially as manifested in the little facts of vegetable life. The fig when first grown in this climate was particularly liable to drop its fruit in a half-matured state, until gardeners discovered that they might prevent this by pruning the tree so severely as to give it a "check;" or by cutting a few inches all round from off its roots, if grown in a pot. To save seed from a gourd or cucumber, a gardener, instead of applying to the plant extra manure or warmth, subjects it to some hardship, and selects the least finelooking fruit, being aware that it will be filled with seed, of which the finest fruits are nearly destitute. Harvests succeeding to long winters prove early and abundant. Vines bear most luxuriantly after severe trials from frost. When, in the winter of 1636-7, the snow lay upon the ground in some cases till June, it was ascertained by minute experiments, provoked by the wonderful rapidity of vegetation which ensued, that in a single night, of twelve hours, the blade of grass frequently

advanced three quarters of an inch ! Wheat and other grains progressed in a similar manner. Another-the most curious-modification of this law of vegetable life consists in the abundance of fruitfulness manifested by a tree or shrub immediately before its death or cessation of bearing. This Mr Doubleday attributes to a last effort to perpetuate its species-the effect of that depletion which is hastening it to sterility and death.

Admitting all these horticultural and arboricultural facts (and who will deny them?) what may be their analogy to the law of population? Mr Doubleday is plainly of opinion, that if there be in them no circumstances analogous to those connected with human increase, there are at least amongst the latter certain features remarkably coincident. The fecundity of the human female is visibly enhanced by an insufficiency of food, and also by marriage too near to the grand climacteric when that fecundity expires. The truth of such a hypothesis once established in reference to population would militate against many predominant opinions, since it points. to the poverty of men, as not the effect, but the cause of their increase ; whilst, instead of assigning the postponement of the marriage-period as a preventive check," it asserts that such postponement only tends to impart a peculiar impulse to population.

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Ascending from the sphere and experience of the gardener, the practical testimony of the farmer, the grazier and breeder of horses comes next to be appealed to, but that only to corroborate theories in reference to the animal creation, bearing upon this singular inquiry, acknowledged by, and, indeed, emanating from, the physiologist, the natural historian, the physician, and the pathologist. In the doe or female rabbit, fecundity, as every school-boy knows, is totally checked by the phle thoric or full state, and as certainly promoted by the deplethoric or lean state. Every farmer and breeder is aware that the sow will not conceive when fat, and that the number of progeny is generally in the ratio of her leanness. Leanness is indispensable to the con

ception of the mare, the cow, or the ewe. There is a remarkable instance given of a highly-bred blood mare, whose race the owner wished to perpetuate, having, after long appearing to be incurably barren, ultimately become the dam of a numerous progeny, on being put literally to the cart and the plough, fed sparingly, and worked down to a state of extreme leanness and tempo rary exhaustion. The sheep, if overfed, is sterile. But, in accordance with its degree of leanness, it produces one, two, or three lambs at a time. Of this fact improvers of the sheep breeds take advantage, and regulate the food of the ewe to such a nicety as to occasion the production of but one lamb at a birth, believing that to afford the best chance of a perfect animal. Other illustrations of the law of increase amongst the lower animals are alluded to by Mr Doubleday, as perfectly known to persons experienced in their habits, but who have never reasoned farther upon these data.

the sea. The fish diet of some miserable outcast, and unfriended districts of the Western Highlands and Islands of Scotland, where the very sea-fowls eggs are not eaten, but rendered an article of traffic, and an occasional" braxie" or sheep that has died of the rot, is the only food tasted by the poorer natives-is attended with the common occurrence of families of from ten to twenty children. The cause assigned for this by Mr Doubleday is, not that the diet is fish, but that it is poor. The season of Lent imparts an impulse to population in Roman Catholic countries, which he refers to the same cause. That it is the poverty of the diet, and not any other quality of it which leads to this result, may, he thinks, be inferred from the fact, that vegetable food, light and watery potato meals, produce similar results amongst the prolific peasantry of Ireland. The great bulk of cattle and stock of all kinds is exported from, not consumed in, Ireland. Wheat shares the same fate. The majority of the people rarely taste even the luxury of a bit of bacon. The green and beautiful sister isle is hence found to be overpopulated to an extent inferior only to China and India, where, in like manner, the use of animal food is almost unknown, and emigration less frequent.

Once more, the great question is, whether this chain of analogy, originating in the vegetable creation, and thus prolonged throughout the animated range of inferior animals, is continued into man? Does reason interpose? It is at least certain that reason was bestowed as a check on human passions. But the mere power to regulate an impulse does not by any means imply its extinction. Nor do the regulations imposed by society, such as that of each man being the husband of one wife, interfere with the operation of any natural law. Facts are, therefore, advanced by Mr Doubleday in various forms to evince the existence of this law of increase and decrease amongst men. We avail ourselves of the privilege of selecting from his researches such as best seem to deserve consideration; but regarding them for the present simply as coincidences agreeing with the theoretical assertions he has chosen to advance, and as nothing more.

Amongst mankind, then, it is an old tradition, that a remarkable degree of fecundity has been found exemplified in the "Icthyophagi," or nations living chiefly upon fish. Venus herself is fabled to have sprung from

On a strict comparison of the relations betwixt "condition" and "fecundity" in the human species, the instances illustrative of this alleged law of population become wonderfully striking. But, in accepting them at the hands of Mr Doubleday, it is as well to remember, that all of the facts adduced by him are culled avowedly in support of his theory, and quoted solely for its sake. He notices that all medical authorities, from Dr Cheyne and the older dietetic writers downwards, have concurred as to the effect of the "plethoric state in checking human fecundity-both by preventing conception and occasioning miscarriage. A poorer and lower diet are acknowledged by them to be invariably attended by the opposite effects. Thus, in numerous instances, misfortunes and privations have had the effect of giving

families to those who before were childless in their prosperity. It is known to medical practitioners, that persons semi-convalescent, after enfeebling and attenuating epidemics, such as fevers, pestilence, and plagues, evince tendencies of such a nature as to account for the extraordinary rapidity with which population recovers itself in countries ravished by plagues, marsh fevers and famines.

Perhaps the most striking instance that could be given of a law of decrease amongst men is derived from the inveterate decay of the privileged orders. One would think that bodies of men endowed with boundless wealth and ample possessions, having apparently every means, as well as every motive, to transmit them to posterity, stood the best of all chances of being able to perpetuate a lineal succession. But no! The great majority of our present House of Peers has actually been created since the accession of George III. in 1760. Within the memory of man, 272 out of 394 existing peerages have been created! As for the wealthy race of baronets, since the institution of the order in 1611, there have become extinct 753 baronetcies, being more than those existing up to 1819, which were only 635. Were it not, therefore, for perpetual creations, we should not have a single baronet existing. As it is, there is scarcely one but is a novus homo. Of the original creation in 1611, only 13 families now remain; and, of all those created up to the day of his death in 1625 by James I. of England (VI. of Scotland), there remain only 39. We naturally demand the causes of this extraordinary fatality amongst the privileged orders. For one thing, they are subject to causes of extinction which do not apply to population at large. Each single failure of offspring, amongst the barren shoots, occasions a gap in the whole order, which the extra fecundity of its fruitful branches avails not to supply.

Of many sons, one alone receives the title; whilst a failure of heirs extinguishes the patent. Such is not the

case amongst the Venetian nobility, where all the sons are ennobled ; and yet it can be shown that, alike with them, as with the noblesse of France and of the Netherlands, as well as such bodies as the bourgeoisie or wealthy class of Berne, an equally strange and rapid decrease is found to operate. Nor has this fact been newly observed in reference to the declension of races, generally presumed to possess peculiar advantages and inducements for keeping up their numbers. Tacitus mentions that, under the Emperor Claudian, it was found necessary to renovate the ancient nobility of Rome; the creations of Romulus and Brutus having become almost extinct, and even those of Julius Cæsar and Augustus exhausted. In a more ordinary sphere, it is found that the ancient freemen of Newcastle-uponTyne, possessed of peculiar corporate privileges, to which the whole sons of freemen, as well as others acquiring freedom by servitude were admissible, could scarcely sustain their numbers, until deprived of their exclusive trading privileges. A material increase of their number then occurred, apparently in consequence of a diminution in the fulness of their means of living, and the activity of competition. A similar body of men, the freemen of Berwickupon-Tweed, on the other hand, all but doubled their numbers in the course of a hundred years-an effect of their comparative poverty. Free from intemperance of any sort, the society of "Friends" or 66 Quakers," a body which has not increased, affords a striking proof, that, with generous and solid living, superfluity of numbers is not to be dreaded. The slave population of the United States of America, hard worked, and but moderately fed, increases; whilst the emancipated negroes, destitute of a taste for the common luxuries or comforts of civilized life, and enabled by a very little labour to indulge to the uttermost in vulgar sensualities, gradually decay. The mutineer colony on Pitcairn's Island, in 24 years, tripled their numbers, increasing from 15 to 48. They were destitute of grain, and lived upon yams and fish. Donald