the China population it would be crowded with 2,331,000,000 of inhabitants.....New Holland, so dimly conjectured in former ages to be a "Southern Continent," and so modestly concealed in the bosom of the Southern ocean, appears to the wondering eye of modern Europe an island or rather a continent exceeding the magnitude of China, and comprizing 600 square degrees. With the Chinese population this "unknown land" would supply food to 499,000,000 of men. From the addition of the above numbers results the sum of 10,665,000,000.-China owes its population, not to the native fertility of its lands, but to its own agricultural industry and owes the numbers of its subjects, not to foreign conquests, but to its peaceable temper and the peaceable increase of its native sons.-The same circumstances alone are wanting to render the whole earth a continued town and a continued garden, resembling China or Holland, Judea or England, in popularity and in cultivation : viz. national and universal peace; national industry. : Were nations individually industrious and universally pacific, all the usual evils of nature would be softened or removed; all the parts of the globe would wave with harvests and buzz with crowds, similar to those of China: every river would be thronged with vessels, every sea groan under a weight of navies: the winds would labour chearfully to waft over the ocean the innumerable fleets, and mother earth would rejoice to expose to her smiling family her hidden treasures of grain and her sources of fertility. In reflecting upon the greatest possible cultivation of the earth, however, take into your consideration local circumstances. 1. Mountains some are incurably barren, most may be useful. They are tilled in China, Japan, and Great-Britain. They were tilled from the summit to the valley in Canaan, in Moorish Spain, in Carthaginian Africa. 2. Observe the morasses of a country. They have, indeed, been drained in Old England, in Ireland : in a greater degree in Belgium, in modern China, in antient Babylonia. After drainage, their bed is incredibly rich. 3. Attend to sandy regions, thirsty desarts, and moving wastes. In Arabia, Africa, and Southern Tartary, they are by their extent, invincible obstacles to tillage. In antient Egypt, in modern China, in North Holland and South Britain, smaller districts of sand have yielded crops. In Numidia or Tunis, in Morocco and in Spain, in Europe, in Africa, and in Russ or Chinese Tartary, large sandy plains have been subdued, and are immensely fertile. Thus every soil, though unpromising and discouraging, submits in some degree to human industry and skill, to the increase of population and the increased demand of food. Thus every climate contains in its soil the requisites of sustenance, the valuable grains and roots and thus with the industry of the Chinese nation, and the peaceable character of that wonderful empire, the whole human race, like the laborious ant, may build cells in any place, may collect grain into treasure houses, may obtain all the necessaries of life. : CCXXXVI. THE SUN. An Irishman denied that the earth performed its daily motion on its own axis. Some one then asked him how it was that the Sun, which was in the west over-night, was seen the next morning in the East. "Oh" said the Irishman "he goes back again every night, and you do not see him because it is dark!" CCXXXVII. CURRAN. Curran, who was very small, was going to fight a duel with a very fat man. His antagonist seemed disposed to decline on the plea of his chance being very unequal. "That's true," replied Curran, "and to remedy the inequality, I'll chalk out my own size on your coat and all hits beyond shall go for nothing." CCXXXVIII. Cloth-machinery. THE FLEET, Sep. 12, 1837. MR SMITH of the BEulah Spa, who is a prisoner here, says that he was examining the machinery used for making cloth in the woods at Utica, about 300 miles from New York; he observed a machine used in finishing off cloth, which he considered to be both new and valuable, and likely to be universally adopted. He got a model of it, brought it over to England, but could not persuade his partner Mr Pawson to view its utility and profitableness for a patent in the same. light. The next year a patent was taken out by Mr Lewis, and the machine is now known as Lewis's patent, and is universally used the patentee has made £60 or £70,000 by it. The patent was infringed; various law-proceedings took place of which the result was favorable to the infringers. At length MR SMITH'S model was produced in Court, and he was fetched up as a witness; the model attracted great attention on the part of Brougham and Scarlett. SIR F. POLLOCK, who was employed in the case, said that MR SMITH had the best right, among Englishmen, to be considered the inventor or discoverer. But he has the best right to be considered in that light, who practically applies an invention or discovery to public utility. CCXXXIX. Mrs Clark. Oct. 13, 1837. Mr Chambers received 3000 guineas to be paid in case Sir John Harrington's son got a Writership in India; Mrs Mary Ann Clarke introduced herself, hoped Mr C. would be secret his gallantry, he said, would induce him to keep all secrets. The money was not paid, because the appointment was not obtained; £10,000 was paid into his hands in the name of an Attorney. : CCXL. Mr Montgomery. Oct. 16. Mr Montgomery, an Irish Magistrate, formerly a soldier, was joked about his bad orthography; as he was writing with a very bad pen, he exhibited the pen and asked how the devil any man could write with such a pen? CCXLI. Wilkes. Wilkes, who was one of the ugliest men of his time, had the tact of making himself eminently agreeable, conscious of which he used to say that it took him just half an hour to talk away his face. Compatriotism a good word coined by me Nov. 2, 1837. CCXLII. IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT. FLEET PRISON, Dec. 9, 1837. I received this day copies of B. M's two letters to the Duke of Wellington, in which he considers the various reasons for and against imprisonment for debt. The argument is close and masterly, and the inference is obvious, that imprisonment for debt ought to be abolished. My lord duke, LETTER I. Dee. 4, 1838. Upon a former debate on the law of imprisonment for debt you were reported to have expressed your disinclination to vote, from not having duly weighed the reasons in favour and in opposition to the principle of the Bill. The object of this letter is to state to your Grace respect fully and concisely the reasoning upon this important subject. The reasons in favour of imprisonment for debt are :— 1st. This power is necessary for the protection of credit in a commercial country. 2dly. The painful feelings of creditors ought to be indulged by a vindictive satisfaction. First, is imprisonment for debt necessary for the protection of credit ? The reasoning upon this head has been fully examined and winnowed during the last century. The Counsel on one side was Dr Paley, on the other Dr Johnson and Mr Burke: their arguments are before us. Dr Paley "Whatever deprives the creditor of the power of coercion deprives him of his security, and as this must add greatly to the difficulty of obtaining credit, the poor, especially the lower sort of tradesmen, are the first who would suffer by such a regulation. As tradesmen must buy before they can sell, you would exclude from trade two-thirds of those who now carry it on, if none were enabled to enter into it without a capital sufficient for prompt payments. An advocate, therefore, for the interests of this important class of the community will deem it eligible that one out of a thousand should be sent to gaol by his creditors rather than that the nine hundred and ninety-nine should be straitened and embarrassed, and many of them be idle, by the want of credit." Such is the reasoning of the Counsel on one side. Dr Johnson-"The motive to credit is the hope of advantage. Commerce can never be at a stand while one man wants what another can supply, and credit will never be denied while it is likely to be repaid with profit. He that trusts a man whom he designs to sue is criminal by the act of trust. The cessation of such insidious traffic is to be desired, and no reason can be given why a change of the law should impair any other. We see nation trade with nation where no payment can be compelled. Mutual convenience produces mutual confidence, and the merchants continue to satisfy the demands of each |