er of them can steer a direct course, and they both arrive at their port by means which frequently seem to carry them from it. Or in the "Spirit of Patriotism" Eloquence must flow like a stream that is fed by an abundant spring, and not spout forth a little frothy water on some gaudy day, and remain dry all the rest of the year." English is so essentially a spoken language, and so susceptible of idiomatic and irregular graces, that an orator had better write as he talks, instead of imitating Fox, who, in his excessive zeal to avoid diffuseness, has fallen into the opposite and more fatal error of dryness. But still we must admit to M. de Remusat, that Bolingbroke as a writer too frequently conveys the notion of the orator, and the following estimate is just in the main: French writers will find many points of sympathy in those very tastes and opinions of his, which are least calculated to command assent or conciliate goodwill in England, as when he says that he should like his country well enough if it were not for his countrymen. Many years have passed since Mr. Macaulay declared the chain of presumptive evidence by which Junius had been identified with Sir Philip Frances to be complete; but presumptive evidence cannot be deemed complete so long as the circumstances can be reconciled with any other hypothesis; and several theories of the authorship have subsequently been promulgated, which have kept the final judgment of criticism suspended. No literary problem was ever better calculated and the interest in the inquiry, which refor the display of learning and acuteness, commenced on the publication of Woodfall's annotated edition in 1817, has continued unabated to this hour. "It seems to us that, to take men in general, Bolingbroke has elevation, although he does not attain to the sublime—a mind bold and active, but affecting singularity-views rather than principles more elegance than grace-animated and brilliant talent without a powerful imagina- The extent to which the names of Burke tion, without genuine originality. His diction and Fox are associated with the early is sustained, ornamented, by no means cold, but stages of the French Revolution of 1789, monotonous; by no means obscure, but wanting in those luminous traits which throw a sud- and the influence they respectively exerden day over the thought. His spoken elo-cised on its direct results, naturally render quence must have been dignified, easy, abundant: he must have had warmth and movement, but neither the communicative attraction of sincere passion, nor that dialectic power which subdues conviction. In attack he must have wounded by disdainful sarcasms rather than have overwhelmed by invective; and what is told of his manners, his countenance, and his mode of speaking, place him amongst the orators whose eloquence resides greatly in action, and these are not the least worthy of the tribune. In him, the writer and the orator are in our eyes above the rest the politician and the man fall below them. The two last had only the show of greatness, and it is always fortunate that true greatness should be wanting where there is neither goodness nor virtue." The second volume is devoted to Horace Walpole, Junius, Fox, and Burke. These, if more familiar, are certainly not exhausted or easily exhaustible subjects. So long as the study of morals and manners shall possess attractions for the philosophic speculator, Horace Walpole will be eagerly read and emulously quoted; and them objects of earnest and improving investigation and discussion to foreign politicians, who are still practically suffering from, or contending with, the more remote consequences of that terrible and momentous epoch. We need hardly add, therefore, that Horace Walpole, Junius, Burke, and Fox, are each made the occasion for some thoughtful and suggestive chapters by M. de Remusat. But want of space compels us to rest satisfied with recommending the second volume as little, if at all, less valuable and interesting than the first. The distinctive qualities of both are judgment and good taste. The entire book is emphatically the composition of a statesman, an accomplished man of letters, and a gentleman; and the author will be allowed on all hands not to have excited groundless expectations, when he led his readers to look for something which should speak of experience in state affairs, genuine admiration for tempered liberty, and hopeful if patient patriotism. From Chambers's Journal. PISCICULTURE. ity in his treatise on fishes. The Journal of Hanover also had papers on this art, and an account of Jacobi's proceedings was likewise enrolled in the memoirs of the Royal Academy of Berlin. The discovery of Jacobi was the simple result of a keen observation of the natural action of the breeding-salmon. Observing that the process of impregnation was entirely an external act, he saw at once that this could be easily imitated by careful manipulation; so that by conducting artificial hatching on a large scale, a constant and and unfailing supply of fish might readily be obtained. The results arrived at by Jacobi were of vast importance, and obtained not only the recognition of his government, but also the more solid reward of a pension. Ir is not so generally known as it ought | wrote on the subject to M. de Fourcroy, to be, that efforts are being made upon a and Duhamel du Monceau gave it publicconsiderable scale to augment our supply of salmon by means of artificial hatching and breeding. This mode of increasing our stock of fish is denominated pisciculture by our allies the French, and has been practised in France for some years, particularly by the late Joseph Remy and his coadjutor M. Gehin, who, strange to say, rediscovered this art in 1842, unaware that it was supposed to have been well known among the ancient Romans, or that it had been carried on by modern naturalists for more than a century. The early Romans, we are told, knew and cultivated the art extensively; and not being contented with merely breeding fish, they studied also how to impart new flavors to the flesh, and were particularly zealous in fattening them to the largest possible size. Another branch of the art was likewise studied with great attention; it was that of acclimation, or the breeding of saltwater fish in lakes and fresh-water rivers. This was, in many instances, as may be supposed, a work of some difficulty; but the arts of the epicure, in those ancient times, were many, and generally very successful. We need scarcely, however, extend our researches into the knowledge of the ancient Romans or Chinese on this subject: it is not the antiquarian, but the modern phase of pisciculture, particularly in its utilitarian aspect, with which we have business. The honor of being the modern discoverer of this long-forgotten art undoubtedly belongs to M. Jacobi, who published, in 1763, a minute and interesting account of his thirty years' practice. This gentleman was not satisfied with his discovery as a mere scientific curiosity, for to him also belongs the still greater merit of making the art commercially useful as a means of keeping up supplies. At the date we have indicated, great attention was devoted to pisciculture by various gentlemen of scientific eminence. Count Goldstein The labors of Gehin and Remy deserve generous record, for it is to their exertions we are most indebted for the activity and enterprise which are now displayed in the art of hatching and breeding all kinds of fresh-water fish. Although, as we have already stated, this curious art was evidently known to the ancients, as also to certain savans who flourished about a century ago; still, to these two unlettered fishermen we must accord the same credit as if their discovery of the artificial process had been the original one. When they commenced the practice of this art, they were in utter ignorance of its ever having been practised before. These men lived at La Bresse, an obscure French village in the department of the Vosges. This district is rich in lakes and streams, and includes the Moselle and its tributaries, which are famed for trout, the supply of which was at one time so considerable as to form a very large portion of the food of the surrounding community. The experiments of Gehin and Remy were crowned with almost instant success; and to encourage them to make still greater efforts, the Société d'Emulation des Vosges The system of artificial fecundation has likewise been tried in Ireland. Two English gentlemen of capital and enterprise, Messrs. Ashworth, of Egerton Hall, near Bolton, having purchased the fishery of Lough Corrib, were determined, if possible, to solve the much-discussed question "Can the salmon-fisheries of this kingdom be restored to their former abundant state of productiveness?" Mr. Ramsbottom, of Clitheroe, was engaged by these gentleman to conduct the experiments, which were made as follows, and are described by Mr. Halliday in his letter to the commissioners of fisheries in Ireland, a passage of which we beg to quote: voted them a considerable sum of money | to conduct experiments at Chatsworth and and a handsome bronze medal. It was many other places. not, however, till 1849 that the proceedings of Gehin and Remy attracted that degree of notice which was demanded by their importance, economic and scientific. Dr. Haxo, of Epinal, then communicated to the Academy of Sciences at Paris an elaborate paper on the subject, which at once fixed attention on the labor of the two fishermen, in fact, it excited a sensation both in the Academy and among the people. The government of the time at once gave attention to the matter; and finding, upon inquiry, everything that was said about the utility of the plan to be true, resolved to have it extended to all the rivers in France, especially to those of the poorer districts; and at once made offers of employment to the two fishermen, through whose exertions many of the finest rivers in the country have since been stocked with fish. The system has been extended to Spain, Holland Great Britain, and many other countries. As shewing the extent to which artificial hatching is carried on in other countries, we may state that the reservoirs, breeding-places, and other suitable constructions of the government establishment at Basel, occupy a space of about twenty-five acres of ground, devoted to the propagation of salmon, carp, tench, and those other kinds of fish of which the French people are so very fond. At Huningen, also, there is another extensive establishment for the production of fish, in which trout and other freshwater fishes are propagated in myriads, and the neighboring rivers and streams are supplied with stock from this useful reservoir. Mr. Shaw was the first person in this country, we understand, to direct his attention to the subject. His experiments were made about twenty years ago; but differed in their object from those of Jacobi, inasmuch as they were undertaken principally to solve a problem in the natural history of the salmon. In 1848, Mr. Boccius, civil engineer, published a work on Fish in Rivers and Streams: a Treatise on the Production and Management of Fish in Fresh Water, &c., &c., This gentleman had taken up the subject in 1841, and made several very successful experiments. In the rivers of one estate alone he is said to have reared upwards of 120,000 trouts. He was also employed "On the 14th December 1852, a small rill at Outerard was selected for the experiment, by a rude check thrown across; a foot of water-head was raised over a few square yards to insure regularity in the supply. From this head, half-foot under surface-level, three wooden pipes, two inches square, by a few feet long, drew off respectively to the rill-bed and to the boxes all the water required-the surplus of the supplying rill passing away in its usual course. The boxes are six feet long, eighteen inches wide, nine inches deep, open at top, set in the ground in a double row, on a slope of two or three inches on each box, the end of the one set close to the end of the other in continuous line, and earthed up to within one inch of the top. They are partly filled, first with a layer of fine gravel, next coarser, and lastly with stones, coarser somewhat than road-metal, to a total depth of six inches. A piece of twelve inches wide by two inches deep is cut from the end of each box, and a water-way of tin nailed over this, with a turn up on either side to prevent the water from escaping. These connect the line of boxes, and carry the water to the extreme end, whence it is made to drop into the pond which receives and preserves the young fish. "The artificial rill is in all respects similarly prepared, excepting that its channel-course is in the soil itself. The pipe now introduced into the upper box of each line, and of the water-head, the spawn-bed is prepared; two hours' running will clear away the earth from the stones. The water will be found about two inches in depth over the average level of the stones in the boxes. By an iron wire grating, the boxes can be isolated, | of a meeting held at Ballina, that a small and the pipe protected against the pas- black insect had destroyed much of the sage of insects and trout." It is satisfactory to note that this Irish experiment was quite successful, as might be expected from the skill and experience of the gentleman engaged to conduct the trial. Mr. Ramsbottom has been the first to conduct the proceedings in each of the three divisions of the United Kingdom, with salmon-ova, to a successful termination; having in 1852 hatched about 5000 ova on the estate of Jonathan Peel, Esq., of Knowlmere; and more recently he has taken a prominent part in carrying on the attempt to re-stock the river Tay by artificial fecundation and nursing, which we will now attempt to describe. The immense fecundity of all kinds of fish is well known. They shed spawn sufficient to produce myriads of young. A salmon, for instance, of ten pounds' weight, it has been calculated, will yield 10,000 young. But when the spawn is deposited, in the usual course of nature, in the rivers frequented by the fish, it is exposed to so many dangers, that not more than onefourth of the quantity deposited ever comes to life. Mr. Robert Buist, of Perth, at the meeting of the Tay salmon-fishing proprietors, stated that there were many spawning-beds in the Almond River, and one had been found dry, owing to the long-continued dry weather, and the spawn was thus destroyed. But even after the egg is hatched, the little fishes are subjected to innumerable dangers. If the spawning-beds escape the danger of being dried up mentioned by Mr. Buist, they are liable to be ploughed up, and the seed carried away by the storms of winter; or if spared from both of these calamities, the water - hen breaks into them and gobbles up the deposits. The ova is much preyed upon by other fish. From the gullet of a large trout upwards of 600 salmon-eggs have been taken during the spawning season; and all kinds of remorseless enemies attack and devour it in its various shapes of egg or fish. Wild ducks, and other kinds of fowl, demolish great quantities of the spawn; the maggot of many of the flies which are hatched in the water also preys upon the defenceless ova. On this enemy to the salmon, Mr. Buist, of Perth, makes the following remarks, in a letter to the government inspecting commissioners of Irish fisheries: "I observed it stated in an account ova in the experimental ponds there. This insect I observed while our eggs were hatching in 1854, and had some specimens brought in, and saw in a crystal jar the whole operation of the vermin on the ova. It fastened on it with its feelers, and stuck to the egg like a leech. It is the grub of the May-fly that takes wing that month, and in its turn is devoured by thousands of the finny tribe. This is what may be called retributive justice; but mark the reaction. This little insect of a day, while playing in the water, and swallowed by myriads of tiny fish, drops eggs which next season become hatched by the sun of spring, and then in their larva state prey on the egg of the salmon, and suck the very heart's blood from the embryo fry. Such is life-the strong living on the helpless." Hence the urgent necessity for bringing forth the young, securely sheltered in these breeding-ponds from the most destructive of their natural enemies, and securing for all the fish which comes to life a safe asylum, till the period when they may be safely sent on their travels. The largest experiment in salmon-breeding yet made in Great Britain has been tried on the banks of the river Tay, at a spot called Colinhaugh, but better known as Stormontfield, on the property of the Earl of Mansfield. The operations at Stormontfield originated at a meeting of the proprietors of the river, held in July 1852, when a communication by Dr. Eisdale was read on the subject of artificial propagation; and Mr. Thomas Ashworth, of Poynton, explained the experiments which had been conducted at his Irish fishery-station. He said that "he had entertained the opinion for a long time that it would be as easy artificially to propagate salmon in our rivers as it was to raise silkworms on mulberry-leaves, though the former were under water, and the latter. in the open air. It was an established fact, that salmon and other fish may be propagated artificially in ponds in millions, at a small cost, and thus be protected from their natural enemies for the first year of their existence, after which they will be much more capable of protecting themselves than can be the case in the early stages of their existence. His brother and he have at the present time about 20,000 young salmon in ponds, thus pro duced, which are daily fed with suitable food. Mr. Ashworth also observed, that a great deal had yet to be discovered in the artificial propagation and feeding of salmon. They know but comparatively little of the habits of salmon, and in order that a greater amount of knowledge might be obtained, he had recommended to the commissioners of fisheries, in Ireland, to take a portion of the fish propagated in the way he had mentioned from the ponds, and immerse them annually in the sea for a period of three months, and to be again deposited in the ponds for other nine months-to be repeated for several years. The commissioners had taken about a dozen of these young salmon from the ponds, and had had them many weeks in the Dublin Exhibition, where they were kept in a model of a wear, with a salmonladder in it, the model being supplied by a pipe with a constant run of water. These little creatures shewed their agility by mounting the ladder, and so passing over the wear to the amusement of the bystanders; and he was informed they were alive and thriving, being perfectly healthy in this small run of pure water, and were fed with chopped meat every day. It was only in this way a more accurate history of the ages and habits of the salmon species might be written. The expense of this plan of artificial propagation he did not estimate to exceed a pound a thousand, which was at the rate of one farthing for each salmon." In conclusion, Mr. Ashworth said: "The great consideration that weighed with him was, that by the artificial propagation of salmon a vast increase to the quantity of human food would be obtained." He then strongly impressed upon the meeting the importance of sending for Mr. Ramsbottom to commence operations in the Tay, and instruct others as to the plans to be adopted for increasing the salmon in that river. The plan proposed by Mr. Ashworth was unanimously agreed to, and a committee was at once appointed to have the resolutions arrived at by the meeting carried into effect. The breeding-ponds at Stormontfield are beautifully situated on a sloping haugh on the banks of the Tay, and are sheltered at the back by a plantation of trees. We have visited the place, which is situated about five miles from Perth, and about a mile and a half from a railwaystation. The ground has been laid out to the best advantage, and the whole of the ponds, water-runs, etc., have been planned and constructed by Mr. Peter Brown, C. E., and they are said to answer the purpose admirably well. There is a rapidrunning mill-stream parallel with the river, from which the supply of water is derived. The necessary quantity is first run from this stream into a reservoir, from which it is filtered through pipes into a little water-course at the head of the range of boxes, from whence it is laid on. The boxes are fixed on a gentle slope of ground on the pleasant bank of the silvery Tay; and by means of the gentle inclination, the water falls beautifully from one compartment or box to another, in a gradual but constant stream, and collects to the bottom in a kind of dam, and thence runs into a small lake or depôt where the young fish are kept. A sluice made of fine wire-grating, admits of the superfluous water being run off into the Tay, and thus keeps up an equable supply. It also serves as an outlet for the fish when it is deemed expedient to send them out to try their fortune in the greater deep near at hand, for which their pond-experience has been a mode of preparation. The planning of the boxes, ponds, sluices, &c., has been accomplished with singular ingenuity, and we cannot conceive anything better adapted for the purpose. Our only regret is that it has not been constructed on a much larger scale. If the number of boxes had been doubled, there would then have been accommodation for breeding one million of salmon. The operation of preparing the spawn for the boxes was commenced here on the 23d of November 1853, and in the course of a month, 300,000 ova were deposited in the 300 boxes, which had been filled with gravel and made all ready for their reception. Mr. Ramsbottom, who conducted the manipulation, thinks the Tay is one of the finest breeding-streams in the world, and says that "it would be presumption to limit the numbers that might be raised there, were the river cultivated to its capabilities." We prefer giving this gentleman's own description of the process of shedding the spawn, and the manner of impregnating it. "So soon as a pair of suitable fish were captured, the ova of the female were immediately discharged into a tub one-fourth full of water, by a gentle pressure of the hands from the thorax downwards. The milt of the male |