dubbed "The Green Man and Still !" New Expedition to Africa.-The preparations for this interesting expedition are proceeding with activity; and it will probably very soon leave the shores of England. The immediate objects contemplated are, to ascend the Niger, to establish a trade with the natives, and to enlarge our geographical knowledge of the country. Richard Lander sets out, accompanied by his younger brother. The steam-vessel in which the travellers embark, will be attended by a sailing craft, with fuel, stores, and supplies, so as not to exhaust the former on her progress to her destination. She will ascend the river as high as is expedient, and become a depôt, while a smaller steam-boat, of shallow draught, will adventure farther up the stream. This is of cast-iron, and is capable of going where there is four feet of water; and as Mr. Lander's experience will carry him forward at the time when the Niger is swollen by the rains, there is great reason to hope that he will surmount every difficulty of falls, and currents, and flats, and reach the famous Timbuctoo in his iron shallop! Cheap Publications.-The anticipations in which we indulged in our last number have been already fully realized. We have now before us the Halfpenny Magazine, the True Halfpenny Magazine, the Halfpenny Library, the Penny Journal, the Thief, as large as the Times for two pence, and we have heard somebody say that a Farthing Magazine has just come out in the Borough! We think it right to observe, that in none of these publications have we seen anything that ought to preclude them from the patronage of the country. The mania for cheap periodicals has not been confined, as many sup pose, to the year 1832. The following is a list of some few (by no means ALL) that sprung up in 1822-3. 1. Hive. 2. Mirror. 7. Literary Magazine. 12. Family Magazine. 15. Cabinet of Curiosities. 17. Album of the Muses. 27. Medical Review. 35. Register of Arts. 36. Mechanics' Journal, &c. Of these publications, some never saw a second number, and few lived to complete a volume. At present there exist but THREE, or at most FOUR, out of the whole lot. St. Alban's Abbey.-We rejoice to see, that at a public meeting at St. Alban's, the Earl of Verulam in the chair, steps were taken towards preserving the venerable abbey of that place, which has lately become so greatly dilapidated as almost to totter to its fall. Female Population.-An idea seems to be generally entertained that the number of females in the world greatly exceeds that of the stronger sex. The reverse however is the fact, if we may depend upon the calculations of a German periodical, in which it is stated that in Russia, the increase of males over females, in 15 years, was 804,453; in France, 347,254; in Prussia, 69,764; in Naples, 25,796; in Bavaria, 8,398; in Bohemia, 69,172; in Sweden, 15,195; in Wirtemberg, 6,877; in Hesse, 3,361; in Nassau, 6,484;-briefly, in a total population of 101,707,212, an excess of 1,356,754 males. If this proportion be applied to all Europe, with a population of 215 millions, the excess of males would amount, in the same period of peace, to 2,700,000, In the southern provinces of Russia, near the Caucasus, in the two Americas, and at the Cape of Good Hope, the disproportion is still greater. The Oblique Pen.-Seduced by the flattering reports which we had seen in various journals of this newly invented pen, we paid our eighteen pence for half a dozen. Alas, our eighteen pence is gone for ever! Never was such a humbug attempted to be practised on the public. One may indeed write with the oblique pen-but very obliquely indeed, and most indistinctly. What is worse, the obliquity of the instrument imparts itself to the ideas, and actually deranges them, The pen cannot become popular it is impossible that even after much practice any one can use it with satisfaction. : that this gentleman disappeared suddenly from England about the period of the Thurtell murder, and it was generally supposed that he had fallen a victim to that notorious criminal. It was soon ascertained, however, that Mr. Colton's disappearance was caused by pecuniary embarrassments, but for a long time, the place of his retreat was a mystery. He was at length seen in Paris, where, for a time, he mixed in good society, but soon afterwards became a confirmed gambler, and fell into all sorts of dissipation. During the last few months his excesses had reduced him to great poverty, and brought on a disease, to remove which a surgical operation became indispensable. The dread of this operation produced such an effect upon Mr. Colton's mind, that he became almost insane, and a few days ago blew out his brains in order to avoid the pain of the operation. National Gallery. The Committee of Taste have at length resolved to build a National Gallery at the east end of Carlton terrace, nearly on the site of the King's stables, which are to come down. -It is said a New Royal Academy, will likewise be appended to the National Gallery. :: Turkish Shops.-A novelty has been recently introduced within the walls of Constantinople, in the shape of three splendid shops after our own model they are decorated with great taste. One is appropriated to articles of British, and another to articles of French manufacture; but the third, for the sale of tobacco, cigars, &c. is said, for elegance, cleanliness, and magnificence, to excel any rival of the kind in London or Paris. They were opened in the beginning of last March, and honoured with a visit from the Grand Signior during the days of the Bairam; at the close of which he one evening took his station in the Tobacco Divan, and exhibited himself there to the gaze and no little delight of his subjects, whom he had directed the band of his guards to divert with the performance of military airs. The part of the town adjoining the shop was brilliantly illuminated with the myriads of torches borne by the surrounding multitude. Crime in Ireland.-During the past year the highest rate of crime in Ireland was in Dublin, where the proportion was 1 commitment to every 90 inhabitants. In the city of Waterford, the proportion was 1 to 111; in Kilkenny, 1 to 150; in Limerick, 1 to 180; in Cork, 1 to 200; and in Galway, 1 to 220. Of the counties, Sligo had the highest proportion of criminals, there being but 1 to every 240 inhabitants. In the other counties the proportions are as follow:-In Longford, 1 to 250 inhabitants; in Queen's County, 1 to 310; in Dublin County, 1 to 356; in Downshire, only I to 920; and in Cork, which is the most populous county, 1 to 700. The total number of persons convicted of criminal offences was 9,902about five-eighths of the number of commitments. Of these only 262 were sentenced to death, and of that number 32 only were executed. Earthquakes in Italy.-During the severe earthquakes which have recently agitated central Italy, the motion was partly in a direction upwards, proved by large balls of marble, hurled from the summit of the façades of several churches, where they had been placed as ornaments; but an undulatory motion was most frequent, and principally between -west and east, although sometimes between south and north, whence, correctly speaking, the shocks were in a direction compounded of three forces, producing a sort of whirling motion. The bells of the public clocks ran mournfully, and the small tremulous bells of private houses. When the shock was most violent, it seemed as if one heard the cracking and rending asunder of the roof and walls, which created the greatest alarm. At Modena many houses have been violently shaken, but the mischief done there is not so great as at Reggio, where many inhabitants have spent several nights in the open air. Small volcanic cones have appeared on several parts of the plain, where also some springs of hot water have suddenly risen to the surface of the earth. THE MONTHLY REVIEW. JULY, 1832. ART. I. The Animal Kingdom described and arranged, in conformity with its Organization. By the Baron Cuvier. Translated with additional Descriptions of all the Species hitherto named; of many not before noticed; and other Original Matter. By Edward Griffith, F. L. S., and others. Parts XXVIII. to XXXII. London: Whittaker & Co. 1832. IN noticing the numbers of this valuable work which comprised the class of "Reptiles," we paid what we conceived to be a just tribute, not only to Mr. Griffith's admirable accuracy in translating, but also to the additional importance and utility which he has conferred upon Cuvier's labours by his own original observations, and by his felicitous tact in abridging the mere technical details with which the French volumes are overloaded. He has thus rendered the matter of the publication as popular as it was possible to make it; combining, at the same time, with the severe correctness of science, the attractions of entertainment. The number now before us treats of insects; a class of the creation that more, perhaps, than any other is calculated to excite our attention, from the wonderful varieties which it comprehends, and the astonishing minuteness of anatomical mechanism which it discloses. In both these points it surpasses every other. The number of species which have been already observed, exceeds twenty thousand, and it is not too much to say that, taking the species indigenous to Asia, Africa, and America into consideration, there are at least as many more, of which we have, as yet, no adequate descriptions. Travellers, in those quarters of the globe, have too often contented themselves with collecting only those insects which appeared to them most remarkable for the singularity of their forms, or the beauty of their colours. Hence it happens, that their catalogues are very scanty, and their specimens still more VOL. II. (1832) No. II. Y limited; partly for the reason we have mentioned, but partly also, it must be admitted, on account of the great difficulty which attends the preservation and conveyance home of such fragile materials. " To the multitude, insects are uninteresting, because they are generally so small. But to all persons who have a moment for reflection, this very minuteness of conformation is the very feature of all others that renders them so attractive. 'Infinity,' observes Mr. Griffith, exists in small as well as in great things, and the insignificance of an atom, the imparting to it, under such minute dimensions, so many organs, capable of a variety of sensations, is a greater marvel than the production of those colossal animals on which we look with terror and astonishment.' "Wherefore," asks another writer-one of the most philosophical observers of nature "should we fear to bestow too much praise on the works of the Supreme Being? A machine is the more admirable, and does the greater honour to its inventor, in proportion as it is simple in relation to its destined object, though complex as to the number and variety of its parts. The union and concurrence of so many different and necessary pieces to the production of one given end, impress us with a high idea of the genius of the mechanist. He who has formed those animated machines which we term insects, has assuredly admitted no unnecessary parts into their composition. Notwithstanding their minuteness, they cannot fail to excite our admiration in a much greater degree than larger animals, when we consider that there are many more component parts in their body, than in the enormous living masses of the elephant or the whale. In the production of the butterfly, and of every insect which undergoes a true metamorphosis, the equivalent at least of two animals is produced." What a theme for meditation is suggested by these few remarks! In every insect that undergoes a complete transformation, there must be, in fact, the germ of one animal contained in the perfect body of another. Thus in the lion-ant we have the four-winged fly, and the beautiful butterfly in the mean-looking, crawling caterpillar. What is the use of all these insects and transformations? we have heard a thousand times asked. What good do they produce? Is it not, we ask in return, a sufficient good if they remind us even for a moment of the power and ever active presence of the Omnipotent? Supposing we were told that this object alone was the only one which the Creator had in view, when He peopled the air, the water, and the earth with insects, would it not be an adequate object for the display of such varied and miraculous power? He has intended us for Himself: but He knew that, placed in a world in which the multitude would have to labour for their maintenance, we might too often give up all our thoughts to the occupations which existence renders necessary, and He has in consequence strown our path every where with objects-like |