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fertile soil, abounding in all the necessaries and many of the luxuries of life. Till something of this kind be done, the Sandwich islanders will, we suspect, advance but little in the arts and virtues of civilization: it may be feared indeed that, if left to themselves, they will relapse, on the death of their present sovereign, into their former state of intestine warfare and massacre.

If Christianity had no other advantage than that of placing women on a level with the other sex, the dissemination of it is well worth our best exertions. That alone, 'makes man mild and sociable to man.' Among those extensive and populous nations of the East, deprived of the light of its benevolent maxims, we look in vain for any kindliness of nature, any sympathy or fellow feeling for the sufferings of others; we find only masses of insulated beings, unconnected by any social tie, and actuated by motives purely selfish. The Chinese, who vaunt themselves as the most wise and virtuous of mankind, and whose government and institutions are founded on maxims of filial piety and brotherly love, are totally destitute of all social feeling; and the same is the case with the whole Mahomedan and Hindoo world. It would seem, indeed, that the light of the Gospel only can restore women to their true place in society, of which all other religions and superstitions have so unjustly and inhumanly deprived them. We have a beautiful illustration of the good effects which even the faintest glimmering of the Gospel truths produce, in the interesting case of good old Adams, and his innocent and amiable young savages on Pitcairn's Island; among them we find no murders, no pilfering, no quarrelling, except now and then some trifling quarrels of the mouth,' which are immediately adjusted by a reference to the patriarch; with them their daily prayer of forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us,' is not an empty jargon of words; as they pray, so they act.*

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The whole group of the Sandwich Islands consists of five principal and three small ones; of these, Owyhee contains about 6000

We have repeatedly been asked whether any thing has been done for this infant society? The answer rests not with us :-but convinced as we are of the difficulty and the delicacy of interfering, we cannot help repeating that the want of a few simple utensils for husbandry and household use under which they laboured might be supplied, in such a manner, as not to disturb their present state of innocence. Their comforts too might be increased by the introduction of such domestic animals, fruits, grain and culinary vegetables, as would afford them a palatable food; and of hemp, flax, or cotton, for their clothing. To preserve the happiness of this little society, and to guard them against intruders, we are not sure that the sendng among them a Moravian missionary with his wife would not be the most effectual means; the instruction and example of a good man might tend much to consolidate and perpetuate their happy state, and one of this description would unquestionably be the most useful kind of pastor that could be given to them. If something of this kind be not done, we greatly fear that the loss of Adams,who in the common course of humanity cannot survive many years, may be fatal to their innocence, and consequently to their happiness.

square miles; Mowee, 600; Morotoi, 300; Woahoo, 1800, Atooi, 1000; making, with the small islands, about 10,000 square miles; possessing, according to a calculation of Captain King, made however from insufficient data, a population of 400,000 souls, of which Owyhee contains about 150,000. From their position in the midst of the northern Pacific, they may truly be termed, (what, indeed, the editor of Marchand's voyage has called them,) the Grand Caravanserai for all vessels which traverse that sea, between the ports of Asia and America, to the northward of the Equator; and it is this which will one day make them a bone of contention among the great maritime and commercial powers. To us they belong of right by a double title, a voluntary and solemn cession to the King of Great Britain from the sovereign, by and with the consent of all the chiefs and priests convoked for the occasion; and by priority of discovery; the latter of which, however, we hold to be a very slender title to authorize the strong to dispossess the weak. Slender as it is, however, M. Fleurieu has thought fit, in his dull and ponderous narrative of Marchand's voyage, to dispute it,and, out of pure hatred to England, to assign the credit of the first discovery to Mendana, because this able navigator, on his return voyage in 1568, passed at no great distance from Owyhee; and because he finds the island of Mesa laid down in the 19th parallel on the obscure and unauthenticated chart of Galion de Manille.

The English, however, with all their claim to the legitimate possession of the Sandwich islands, are the least likely to profit by them. Campbell says, but we think he is mistaken, that prepara tions were made by the Russians at Kodiak, to form a settlement on them; that the Neva had a house in frame on board for that purpose; and that intimation was given to this effect in order to raise volunteers, but that none entered. Again, he says, on sailing along the shore of Owyhee, one Joseph Wynn, who called himself an American, but whose real name was Angus Maccallum, a Scotchman, came off in a canoe, to whom he told the circumstance; but that on this reaching the Russian captain's ears, he received from him a severe reprimand, and was ordered to say no more on the subject in future. As the Russians have nearly exhausted the Aleutian islands of the most valuable furs, and are spreading themselves down the north-west coast of America as far as Nootka, it may easily be conceived that the possession of the Sandwich islands would ultimately prove a most valuable acquisition to them; but we do not believe that they formed any part of the object of Captain Krusenstern's expedition, or that the time is yet arrived to make a forcible possession of them either necessary or politic. The Americans are the people who have hitherto derived the greatest benefit from the Sandwich islands, and we may add the

least deserving of it. These adventurers set out on the voyage with a few trinkets of very little value; in the southern Pacific they pick up some seal skins, and perhaps a few butts of oil; at the Gallipagos they lay in turtle, of which they preserve the shells; at Valparaiso they raise a few dollars in exchange for European articles; at Nootka and other parts of the north-west coast, they traffic with the natives for furs, which, when winter commences, they carry to the Sandwich islands to dry and preserve from vermin; here they leave their own people to take care of them, and in the spring embark in lieu the natives of the islands to assist in navigating to the north-west coast in search of more skins. The remainder of the cargo is then made up of sandal, which grows abundantly in the woods of Atooi and Owyhee, of tortoise shell, shark fins, and pearls of an inferior kind, all of which are acceptable in the China market, and with these and their dollars they purchase cargoes of tea, silks and nankeens, and thus complete their voyage in the course of two or three years. It seems, however, that with all this intercourse, they have gained but little ground in the good opinion of Tamaahmaah and his chieftains; for when His Majesty's ship the Raccoon made the island in the year 1813, under American colours, the king would not trust himself on board till he had ascertained what she was, when he immediately set off with his three wives; and declared to the captain, as he did a month afterwards to the captain of the Cherub, that he and his people were subjects of the King of Great Britain. He lamented very much that the Americans were the only people who came to trade with them, as from constant communication his subjects were apt to consider them as friends, notwithstanding the tricks which they played them—such as selling them muskets and pistols that burst at the first firing, mixing charcoal in the gunpowder, &c. The king added, that one of these American traders had defrauded him of 15,000 dollars, which he owed him for sandal wood.

We are not of opinion, however, that we should altogether lose sight of these islands. They completely command the navigation of the northern Pacific, and all ships passing from India, or China, to the western coast of America, or the contrary, must be at the mercy of the cruisers from the Sandwich islands. They have excellent hogs; yams of the finest kind; bread-fruit, plantains and cocoa-nuts in the greatest plenty; sweet potatoes of the best kind, and tarroo root (arum esculentum) which may be considered as the staple of the islands, affording an excellent farinaceous food. The Cherub and Raccoon, two sloops of war, with each a complement * of 120 men, were completely furnished at a moment's notice, with a three week's supply of fresh provisions; for which the king would receive no payment, but hoped (he said) that his master George III.

would send him a small vessel to sail about in, and collect his revenues from the several islands: such a vessel, we understand, has been directed to be sent from New South Wales. This circumstance makes us doubt the accounts received of the vast increase of his naval power, which in fact consists of forty or fifty small sloops, schooners, and decked boats, few of them exceeding fifty tons burden, and all laid up in a state of useless inactivity; in which they will probably be suffered to remain till the dry-rot consumes them.

ART. V. Shakspeare's Himself Again! or the Language of the Poet asserted; being a full and dispassionate Examen of the Readings and Interpretations of the several Editors. Comprised in a series of Notes, Sixteen Hundred in number, illustrative of the most difficult Passages in his Plays-to the various editions of which the present Volumes form a complete and necessary Supplement. By Andrew Becket. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 730.

1816.

IF the dead could be supposed to take any interest in the integrity of their literary reputation, with what complacency might we not imagine our great poet to contemplate the labours of the present writer! Two centuries have passed away since his death-the mind almost sinks under the reflection that he has been all that while exhibited to us so 'transmographied' by the joint ignorance and malice of printers, critics, &c. as to be wholly unlike himself. But-post nubila, Phœbus! Mr. Andrew Becket has at length risen upon the world, and Shakspeare is about to shine forth in genuine and unclouded glory!

What we have at present is a mere scantling of the great work in procinctu—πιδακος εξ ἱερης ολιγη λίβας—sixteen hundred restorations,' and no more! But if these shall be favourably received, a complete edition of the poet will speedily follow. Mr. Becket has taken him to develope; and it is truly surprising to behold how beautiful he comes forth as the editor proceeds in unrolling those unseemly and unnatural rags in which he has hitherto been so disgracefully wrapped:

Tandem aperit vultum, et tectoria prima reponit,

Incipit agnosci !—

Mr. Becket has favoured us, in the Preface, with a comparative estimate of the merits of his predecessors. He does not, as may easily be conjectured, rate any of them very highly; but he places Warburton at the top of the scale, and Steevens at the bottom: this, indeed, was to be expected. Warburton,' he says, is the best, and Steevens the worst of Shakspeare's commentators;'

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(p. xvii.) and he ascribes it solely to his forbearance that the latter is not absolutely crushed: it not being in his nature, as he magnanimously insinuates, to break a butterfly upon a wheel! Dr. Johnson is shoved aside with very little ceremony; Mr. Malone fares somewhat better; and the rest are dismissed with the gentle valediction of Pandarus to the Trojans asses, fools, dolts! chaff and bran! porridge after meat! With respect to our author himself, it is but simple justice to declare, that he comes to the great work of restoring Shakspeare'-not only with more negative advantages than the unfortunate tribe of critics so cavalierly dis-. missed, but than all who have aspired to illumine the page of a defunct writer since the days of Aristarchus. As far as we are enabled to judge, Mr. Becket never examined an old play in his life: -he does not seem to have the slightest knowledge of any writer, or any subject, or any language that ever occupied the attention of his contemporaries; and he possesses a mind as innocent of all requisite information as if he had dropped, with the last thunderstone, from the moon.

'Addison has well observed, that "in works of criticism it is absolutely necessary to have a clear and logical head.'" (p. v.) In this position, Mr. Becket cheerfully agrees with him; and, indeed, it is sufficiently manifest, that without the internal conviction of enjoying that indispensable advantage, he would not have favoured the public with those matchless' restorations ;' a few specimens of which we now proceed to lay before them. Where all are alike admirable, there is no call for selection; we shall therefore open the volumes at random, and trust to fortune.

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"Hamlet. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time?" This reading,' Mr. Becket says, 'he cannot adinit;' and he says well: since it appears that Shakspeare wrote-

"For who would bear the scorcs of weapon'd time?"

using scores in the sense of stripes.' Formerly,' i. e. when Mr. Becket was in his sallad days, he augured, he says, that the true reading wasthe scores of whip-hand time.'

Time having always the whip-hand, the advantage; but he now reverts to the other emendation; though,' as he modestly hints, the epithet whip-hand' (which he still regards with parental fondness) will perhaps be thought to have much of the manner of Shakspeare.'-vol. i. p. 43.

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We had been accustomed to find no great difficulty here: the words seemed, to us, at least, to express the usual effect of inordinate terror-but we gladly acknowledge our mistake. The passage is not to be understood.' How should it, when both the

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