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never yet been witnessed on the face of the earth. Over animals, vegetables, and minerals; over manufactures, commerce, and navigation; over the lives, liberties and properties of the nation, the juntas of health, the general direction, and the minister of the home department, for the time being, would possess an unlimited, and undefined and capricious authority. They would possess the right to kill, burn and destroy, on suspicion. Precauti onary measures against a chimera would thus supersede, not only the constitutional laws of the state, but even the first law of

nature.

I cannot but figure to myself the surprise which Hippocrates would experience, if he could rise from the grave, in contemplating a machinery of this description, got up for the purpose of extinguishing atmospheric diseases! Would he not be apt to think, that persons, who could institute or countenance measures, so completely destitute of reason and common sense, must be much fitter for patients than for physicians ?

The preceding account of the project of the commission of government, is chiefly extracted from my exposition to the Cortes on the subject of sanitary laws, section x. The following observations on the project of the code framed by the committee of public health of the Cortes of 1822, are extracted from a critique on that project, which was also presented to the Cortes, and will be found in my "Sketch of Proceedings in Spain, &c."-The commission of government, and the committee of the extraordinary Cortes of 1821, had founded their sanitary codes on the usual belief in the existence of pestilential contagion. But the committee of public health of the Cortes of 1822, feeling that contagion was losing ground, determined to take a much wider range, and to assume a much more extended object for their code of sanitary laws. That object they stated to be "to procure for the people of Spain the highest health, and for Spain the highest salubrity." But to do this "by means of a general direction, or of any other authority, would require of course, besides super-human intelligence on their part, the subjection to the will of that authority of every agent in nature, capable of acting beneficially or injuriously on the body of man, or on the surface of the soil. In order to effect these objects, it would be necessary that the three members of the general direction (this committee, in their project, reduced the original number nine to three) should be endowed both with complete knowledge of, and complete power over, all the elements of matter-all the operations of mind-all remedies-food of every quality-drink of every species-exercise of every kind-all institutions public and private, even that of matrimony itself-arts-commerce-manufactures-navigation

-medicine-agriculture-the exact sciences-and, in general, every existing branch of knowledge, every public measure, and every act, even the most secret, of every individual. But these three great directors, it seems, notwithstanding the almost infinite knowledge and power, which they must be deemed to possess, in order to the due discharge of the functions thus allotted to them, are not to act, in all cases, according to the dictates of their own judgment; for that might possibly be not quite infallible but by the unerring and approved regulations contained in the 400 articles of the project of the sanitary code."

This project could not stand the test of a critical examination. Its discussion was first postponed, in June 1822, to another session; and upon its being again presented and read in the Extraordinary Cortes, in October 1822, it was finally rejected by 65 votes against 48. The substance of the debate, upon this occasion, will be given in "A Sketch of Proceedings in Spain, &c." actually in the press. A farther illustration of the subject of the yellowfever of the Peninsula is also expected, in a work about to be published, by Dr. O'Halloran, who distinguished himself by zeal and intrepidity in the investigation of the fever of Barcelona, and of which report speaks very favorably.

Whether any attempt will be made to revive the rejected project in a modified form, or in what manner the subject will ultimately be disposed of, I have not at present sufficient data to judge; but I feel confident, from the increasing knowledge and love of inquiry, which pervade Spain, that such of the sanitary laws as are still deemed to be in force, will soon be formally repealed; or that they will fall, in consequence of their demonstrated demerits, into disuse and oblivion, even if nothing more should be done to bring them into disrepute.

London, 7, Salisbury Street, Strand, January 3d, 1823.

ΤΟ

CONTINENTAL TRAVELLERS.

LATE

BY

J. W. CUNNINGHAM, A. M.

VICAR OF

FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE;
HARROW, MIDDLESEX; AND DOMESTIC CHAPLAIN
TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD NORTHWICK.

WOULD thou hadst hearkened to my words, and stayed
With me, as I besought thee, when that strange
Desire of wandering, this unhappy morn,

I know not whence, possessed thee! We had then
Remained still happy.

PARAD. LOST, b. ix.

SECOND EDITION, WITH CORRECTIONS.

LONDON:

[PREFACE.-The following remarks are designed to apply, not so much to the class of Travellers who merely snatch from the toils of a busy and anxious life a few weeks or months to refresh themselves by a rapid glance at the scenery of the Alps or the Rhine, as to those who either domesticate themselves and their families in foreign countries, or so protract their Continental visits as to allow themselves leisure to catch something of the manners and spirit of the countries which they visit.—The very simple and obvious Cautions at the end of the volume, may not, however, be altogether without their use to the first class of Travellers; and, if so, the Author desires to confine this little book to no class of his fellow-countrymen, but to put it into the hands of all who will do him the honor of perusing it,-humbly begging them to pardon its deficiencies, and to assure themselves that they cannot, either at home or abroad, be happier or better than these few remarks are designed, under the Blessing of the Almighty, to render them.]

CAUTION, &c.

THE circumstances of Great Britain with regard to the other nations of Europe, are such, at the present moment, as to demand the most serious consideration from every well-wisher to his country. Since the cessation of hostilites, our native land has been visited by a few foreigners of the very highest distinction, and by others of inferior ranks; but the whole number of visitors, especially when distributed amongst the respective nations to which they belong, has not been considerable. The want of money in foreign countries; the known expenses of English travelling; the wide difference between English and continental tastes and manners; our serious and somewhat haughty national demeanour ; our indisposition to converse, upon our own soil especially, in any language but our own;-these, and various other circumstances, erect a sort of barrier between us and all foreigners whom the ardor of science, or love of vagrancy, or strong perception of the excellence and elevation of the English character do not dispose to break through every obstacle. The danger, then, arising from the influx of foreigners into our own country, does not appear to be considerable.

But, on the contrary, if we examine the list of travellers from this country to various parts of the continent, it will be found to be large beyond all previous culculation. It was stated by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in Parliament, that more than 90,000 persons had embarked, in little more than two years, from one port alone, of whom 12,700 remained abroad.

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