constitution, the food and general habits, and mode of life of the inhabitants, &c. ?

Has the nation much or little confidence in the efficacy of medical science? Do the people still indulge in superstitious notions regarding the infallibility of certain medicaments? Do the people in general know the medical virtues of the common plants of the country; do they apply this knowledge with success; or, being ignorant of this, are they, nevertheless, from poverty, forced generally to treat themselves when ill, and thereby frequently increase their ailments? Are there in the rural districts many old women who pretend to be possessed of infallible remedies and recipes, and if so, what good or mischief do they do?

What is the beneficial or prejudicial influence of the ordinary food of the people, and particularly of the labouring classes; where it is unwholesome, what kind of change is it possible or desirable to introduce?

Are there any particular manufactures or arts which are prejudicial to the health of those engaged in them, what processes might be employed to render these labours less hurtful?

Are there any endemic diseases, and, if so, to what causes may they be attributed? Have the people any particular modes of treating such diseases, and what are they? What are the most common diseases of the country; and what are those which, being common or known in other countries, are unknown or very rare in the country the traveller is visiting; and to what may this happy exemption be attributed?

Is vaccination known in the country? what attention is paid to its propagation? what does the government do or prescribe on this subject? Can any calculation be made of the probable number of lives that have been saved by this happy discovery, since its introduction into the country? when, and by whom was it introduced? does the small-pox still cause any ravages? Are the people generally favourable to inoculation, for the natural or the cowpox, or are they opposed to these preventive measures? What public or private establishments are there for the relief of suffering humanity? How are they organised and what influence have they exercised since their foundation? Is there anything yet wanting to be done in this respect, and what?

Are murrains frequent in the country, what animals

do they effect; at what seasons of the year; what may they be attributed to; how are they treated, and what steps are taken to arrest the progress of the contagion?

The success of the medical science in the country will be best shown by the hospital registers, where such are kept, and may be relied on; for they detail the number of the sick, and the nature of their complaints, with the number of cures effected, and the number of those who succumb.

These and every other observation which may suggest itself to the mind of the traveller should be made by him, if he would have a competent knowledge of the state of medical science in any country.

SECTION II.

LITERATURE.

In every civilized country, whatever may be its institutions, there exists a constant relation between the laws, the morals, the customs, the arts and sciences, and literature. The principles which regulate one of these objects, affects all the others, so that it is impossible to arrest the progress of, or effect any changes in, the one, without affecting all the rest.

When the institutions of a country facilitate the natural progress of things, and exercise such influence only as is necessary for the prevention or repression of prejudicial excesses and exaggerations, they all advance together towards perfection; wherever, on the other hand, the free development of man's various faculties is impeded by a thousand absurd regulations, every thing stagnates or retrogrades; and those governments that unwisely seek their safety by means so opposed to their own best interests, ever recognize, sooner or later, the fatal error of their system. A discontented people, paralyzed efforts, uncultivated fields, ruined manufactures, innumerable bankruptcies, a stagnant

a

or decreasing population, an impoverished treasury, extensive emigration, hurtful, because not occasioned by an excess of population; such are among the minor evils of those perfidious counsels which would persuade princes, that they can reign in safety only so long as their subjects are brutalized. Let us then render thanks to God, whenever holier inspiration actuates a sovereign's mind. The time is happily no more, when Royalty dispensed with duties. A higher ambition now fires the rulers of states, who feel, that if to reign be glorious, that glory is great only when it is free men they govern.

Those sentiments of humanity and generosity so noble in themselves, and of such beneficial influence, which assure the happiness of a people and confirm the paternal authority of sovereigns, are the work of civilization, the fruit of long and sad experience;-but to our subject.

The literature of a people, we have said, keeps pace with their laws, their manners, &c. By a natural connexion, these objects all exercise a reciprocal influence; so that it is sufficient to observe the actual state of any one of them, to enable us to judge with tolerable certainty of the rest.

Although the literature of a country be as various as the subjects upon which it is possible to write, the greater number of works, will, however, be on those subjects which bear the closest relation to the character and institutions of the people. Thus, when the press is free and the government constitutional, there will be a great proportion of political works and tracts, showing the active part which the nation takes in public affairs.

Deliberative and forensic eloquence is in honour wherever the discussion of state affairs and judicial proceedings are public. In such case, the general mind is naturally directed towards every thing relating to civil and political right. A crowd of public writers send forth from their retreats their essays on governments, legislation, &c. Each with more

or less talent, profits by the liberty of the press, to discuss the advantages or inconveniences of public measures, according as his private interest is benefitted or compromised. We shall not stop to consider the beneficial effects or general propriety of the right of this free publication of opinions; whenever it is established, it must, if not abused, be followed by the happiest effects, since it cannot exist but in conformity with the other established institutions of the

country. Be it remembered, however, that as liberty degenerates into licentiousness, that powerful engine, the liberty of the press, when misapplied, becomes a dangerous instrument of destruction, instead of a means of protection. The liberty of speaking and writing cannot, of course, exist under despotic governments, for reasons sufficiently obvious to all.

In free countries, there daily appears a multitude of polemical writings, and the same independence of spirit by which they are dictated, stamps upon them a noble and manly character, which reveals their origin. Nor is the freedom of which we are speaking, confined to writings of any particular kind; it gives birth to works innumerable on every subject. Many readers create many writers, and when much is written, there must, of necessity, be many indifferent and many utterly worthless publications. Competition, however, in literature, as in all else, excites emulation, so that among the great number of writers many will be found of superior talent, and their reputation so much the better established as they have proved themselves superior to their numerous competitors. Vanity leads thousands to over-rate their ability and aspire to literary fame, and the press groans under the accumulation of labour it has to perform. Individual liberty places the greater number above opinion in all that is purely personal, and this same freedom gives each a right to judge of the public actions of public men; hence, in free countries there is much originality of character, and while the most absurd and extravagant opinions and doctrines are tolerated, the acts of public men are fearlessly canvassed and attacked. Every one being free to publish his reveries, the most impracticable projects, the wildest schemes, the most ridiculous sys-' tems are found mixed up, in the literature of a free people, with the happiest conceptions and the most ingenious speculations. Whatever is bad is neglected or condemned, what is indifferent is unnoticed; the extravagant and ridiculous is laughed at, but whatever is good meets with attention and is rewarded as it deserves. Each claiming a certain respect for his own opinion, feels bound to respect the opinions of others; hence, there is a degree of urbanity in discussion, and if polemical writings sometimes display bitterness and party spirit, it is generally in those cases only, where the discussion bears on matters intimately effecting the private feelings, prejudices, or interests of

the parties. On other subjects there may be warmth, but it will be tempered with amenity, the reason of which is plain; the discussions are on things not on their authors. Public opinion, as we have said, has nothing to do with any man but in his public capacity, provided always that he no way violate the laws; and just in proportion as an individual is judged with severity in his public capacity, so is the private life of the individual respected. No where is libel and defamation more severely punished than in free countries, and hence, personality is banished. from all public discussions.

Where arts and sciences flourish, it is natural to expect a number of persons will write on these subjects; in a highly civilized country there are many who enjoy leisure, and thus poetry, novels, and other works of imagination will abound; but independent of the fact, that literature and the belles lettres, will be more or less cultivated in proportion to the degree of civilisation to which a people has arrived, it is essential to observe that they will be tinctured by the prevalent manners, customs, laws, religion, climate, &c. They are influenced by all the institutions of the country, and in turn, influence them. It is, therefore, under these aspects in particular that the traveller should consider the literature of a people; we will, however, say a word of the principal objects comprised under the general terms literature.

OF THEOLOGICAL WRITINGS.-It is to be hoped that the time is passed, never to return, and which it were to be wished could be blotted out from the annals of the world, when men shed each others blood for a difference of religious opinion; when self-styled Christians attacked each other in writings full of gall and animosity, and disputed with acrimony and diabolical rage upon subjects as ridiculous as they were indecorous, indecent and blasphemous. In the present day a spirit of tolerance, the distinctive feature of the age, allows each one to adore the Great Supreme in the way dictated by his conscience, leaving the Divinity sole judge in a cause which no human tribunal is competent to determine.

This toleration, so truly christian in its principal, so beneficial in its consequences, is a powerful lever in the machine of Government, whose action it greatly facilitates, by diminishing useless collision; and thus it is, that what is good in itself brings its own recompence. A tolerant people, en