swaggering beginnings, that could not be carried through; grand enterprises, begun dashingly, and ending in shabby compromises or downright ruin.”

There are, doubtless, few men who have not felt the fascination of the Irish ladies, when good fortune has brought them into their society; and of these the Cork ladies, in beauty and manners, are not behind their fair countrywomen. The men are far more fond of reading and literature than might at first sight appear to a casual observer. Cork has given birth to many men of distinction: Arthur O'Leary, O'Keefe, Barry the artist, Maclise, and Sheridan Knowles. "I think," continues our amusing informer, "in walking through the streets, and looking at the ragged urchins crowding there, every Englishman must remark that the superiority of intellect is here, and not with us. I never saw such a collection of bright-eyed, wild, clever, eager faces. Mr. Maclise has carried away a number of them in his memory; and the lovers of his admirable pictures will find more than one Munster countenance under a helmet in company with Macbeth; or in a slashed doublet, alongside of Prince Hamlet; or in the very midst of Spain, in company with Signor Gil Blas Gil Blas himself came from Cork, and not from Oviedo.

"I listened to two boys almost in rags; they were lolling over the quay balustrade, and talking about one of the Ptolemys, and talking very well too. One of them had been reading in Rollin, and was detailing his information with a great deal of eloquence and fire. Another day, walking in the Mardyke, I followed three boys, not half so well dressed as London errand boys, one was telling the other about Captain Ross's voyages, and spoke with as much brightness and intelligence as the best read English gentleman's son could do. He was as much of a gentleman, too, the ragged young student; his manner as good, though, perhaps, more eager and emphatic; his language was extremely rich and eloquent."

We conclude with the same writer's remarks on this city in a period of dearth; and may the present threatening aspect of things pass away without a repetition of these mournful scenes!

"In the midst of your pleasures three beggars have hobbled up, and are howling supplications to the Lord. One is old and blind, and so diseased and hideous that straightway all the pleasure of the sight round about vanishes from you—that livid, ghastly face interposing between you and it. And so it is throughout the south and west of Ireland; the traveller is haunted by the face of the popular starvation. It is not the exception, it is the condition of the people. In this fairest and richest of countries men are suffering and starving by millions. There are thousands of them at this minute stretched in the sunshine at their cabin-doors, with no work, scarcely any food, no hope, seemingly. Strong countrymen are lying in bed for the hunger,' because a man lying on his back does not need so much food as a person a foot.

Many of them have torn up the unripe potatoes from their little gardens; and to exist now must look to winter, when they shall have to suffer starvation and cold too. The epicurean and traveller for pleasure had better travel anywhere than here, where there are miseries that one does not dare to think of; where one is always feeling how helpless pity is, and how hopeless relief, and is perpetually made ashamed of being happy."

SINGAPORE.

THIS rapidly rising settlement, at the southern extremity of the Malay peninsula, is doubtless destined to become an emporium of the first importance, from its advantageous position between India and China. According to the Malay annalists, Sri Iscander Shah, the last Malay Prince of Singapore, to escape the superior force of the King of Majopahit, in Java, returned to the main land in 1252, where he founded the city of Malacca. Singapore is said to have been first peopled by Malay emigrants from Sumatra. It was, in ancient times, a place of considerable commerce; and the remains of religious and other edifices prove it to have been very numerously inhabited, probably by Dutch or Portuguese settlers. From what causes the population had diminished in such an extraordinary manner we are not informed; but in 1810 the number of inhabitants did not exceed one hundred and fifty, principally fishermen and pirates, living in wretched huts; of these more than a hundred were Chinese, and about thirty Malays. This inconsiderable little village, for such was Singapore at this recent period, attracted the attention of Sir Stamford Raffles, whose experienced eye at once foresaw the numerous advantages of the situation for commerce. He, therefore, recommended the East India Company to purchase it; and the Sultan of Jehore ceded it upon payment, we believe, of a pension of 24,000 Spanish dollars; but the sovereignty over the whole of the present settlement was not confirmed to Great Britain until 1825, by a treaty with Holland and the Malay princes. The result amply justified the foresight of Sir Stamford, as, within the next five years, the population amounted to 10,683, (census of 1824,) and at the present period it probably exceeds 50,000.

The town is situated in 1° 17′ 22′′ north latitude, and 103° 51′ 45′′ east longitude the settlement is of an elliptical form, extending from twenty-five to twenty-seven miles in its greatest length, from east to west; and about fifteen miles in its greatest

breadth, from north to south; its area is estimated at two hundred and seventy square miles, with about fifty small desert isles, within ten miles around, whose area is about sixty miles, the whole extending over a dominion of about one hundred miles in circumference. The town runs only a thousand yards inland, being inclosed by hills from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet high; but stretches two miles or more along the shore. A small creek, called the Singapore river, divides the town into two parts; of which the western is devoted to commerce, and the eastern contains the dwellings of the Europeans and the public offices. The extreme eastern part is inhabited by Malays and Bugis; here likewise dwells the Sultan of Jehore.

Singapore is the great commercial emporium of Southern Asia and the Indian Archipelago; the inhabitants of which send their different articles of produce in exchange for foreign necessaries and luxuries. It is a free port; no duties, dues, or fees being levied. In the very first year of the settlement the exports and imports exceeded four million dollars, and nearly three thousand vessels entered, of which only one-eighth were from Europe. Some idea of the geographical importance, and of the extensive diffusion of the commerce of Singapore, may be obtained by an enumeration of the principal countries of import and export. China, Calcutta, and Bombay figure each in the list for more than five times the tonnage from Great Britain; Manilla, Madras, Malacca, Penang, for nearly the same amount; whilst the commerce with Java is very considerable, and with Sumatra, Ceylon, Rhio, Siam, Cochin China, New South Wales, and Borneo by no means unimportant. The commerce with China is, or rather was, exclusively in the hands of the Chinese ; who avail themselves of the north-east monsoon in January, and return with the south-west monsoon (from April to October). The voyage from Canton lasts from ten to twenty days; from Fokien twelve or fifteen days. Notwithstanding the difference in the tonnage, the amount in value of the trade with Great Britain is greater than that with China.

Singapore, although the soil is marshy, possesses an exceedingly healthy climate; the temperature varies between 71° and 89° of Fahrenheit, and the thermometer, in its daily range, never rises or falls more than ten degrees. It enjoys a clear atmosphere, notwithstanding which the number of dry and rainy days is nearly equal; owing to this frequent moisture perpetual verdure prevails throughout the island. The sea is almost always smooth; the influence of the monsoons is inconsiderable; the winds softening down into mild land or sea breezes. At the first occupation by the British, the island was altogether uncultivated; but the industry of the Chinese settlers has succeeded in raising crops of different kinds of grain. The fruits of tropical climates are also cultivated with success. Of the animals introduced from