SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

Taidests.

Nes Ibundlaud in 1842; • Sequel to " The Canadas in 1841." By Sir Richard Henry Bonnycastle, Knight. Lieutenant-Colouel in the Corpsof Royal Engineers.

In two VoltIONS C awn. The Expedition into Afghanistan : Notes and Sketches Descriptive of the Country, contained in a Personal Narrative during the Campaign of 1839 and 1840. up to the Surrender of Dust Mahomed Khan. By James Atkioson, Esq., Superintend- ing Surgeon of the Army of the Indus, Bengal Ktablishment, Author of an abridged Traudation, in Prose and Verse, a the •' Shahnameh of Firdousee. &c. Allen and Co. Itetormax LATIN POETRY,

A few Epigrams, &c. &c., attempted in Latin Translations, by an Old Pen nearly

worn to its Stump Private CNCIIIatioR. PRACTICE Or TAXATION,

A Guide to the Property and Income Act. Sand 6 Vict. cap. 35; with Forms of Pro- ceeding. Cases of Illustration, and Explanatory Notes, taken from Authentic Sources, and Tables of Calculation. By the Inspector-General of Stamps and Taxes. Second edition, revised and corrected: to which is tidied. a compendious

Index of the Act Climes and Suns.

BONNYCASTLE'S NEWFOUNDLAND.

THESE volumes, as Mr. JUKES intimated in his preface, are a useful if not a necessary companion to his own work ; the more solid topics of Sir RICHARD BONNYCASTLE filling up the picture of New- foundland, which the slight personal sketches of Mr. JUKES left in- complete upon most matters, excepting the nature of the coast and seabord country, and the habits of the settlers.

The character of the writers, too, differs as much as the plan of their works. Apparently fresh from England and society, the more than Colonial nature of the life of our oldest colony, with all the disagremens of an uncleared country, impressed themselves forcibly OD the mind of Mr. JUKES. Colonel BONNTCASTLE, OD the con- trary, has roughed it on service in various parts of the world ; he is well acquainted with all the ruggednesses of Colonial life, and is moreover a stanch stickler for the value of colonies of any kind. " Call a dog Hervey and I shall love it," said Dr. JOHNSON of his early though vicious friend : call a rock a colony, and Colonel BONNTCASTLE will immediately find out a value and a use for it. Hence, the two writers differ very widely, not so much in their facts as in their opinions or judgments. Looking at the nature of particular soils, the general character of the country, and the in- formation he received from practical farmers, with probably some lurking home-comparison, the Professor of Geology scarcely deems it necessary to speak of the agricultural capabilities of the Southern and Eastern parts of the island. Colonel BONNYCASTLE, not able to deny the unpromising appearance of the land, declares that the general opinion of the barrenness of the colony of New- foundland is an error. It may not always, he says, grow wheat ; but it will grow potatoes, barley, oats, and turnips, and rear sheep and kine, whilst the agriculturist has plenty of capital manure in the fish-offal. All which opinions are probably true, but the question is not about the growth, but the cost of the growing. Both authors agree as to the superiority of the Western coast ; but Mr. JUKES thinks settlement forbidden by treaty, and there leaves it. Colonel BONNYCASTLE admits the practice, but doubts whether the treaty forbids settlement, provided we leave territory enough for the French to cure their fish upon the shore ; and we suspect the gallant Knight would be nothing loth to go to war upon the point. Mr. JUKES discovered veins of coal in the remoter parts of the island, but doubts whether at present, or in any definite foreseen period, they can be turned to much profitable account. The Colonel declares they are of infinite value ; points to the Nova Scotian and American mines ; conjures up a vision of collieries and steam- communication ; and settles all the settleable parts of the islandupon paper. Our engineering officer also expatiates on the effects of the French bounty on fish in encouraging their marine : Mr. JUKES intimates, that when the bank fishery fails or falls short, the French deep-fishing vessels purchase of the English in-shore fisher- men fish enough to make up a cargo, which they cure themselves : so that, if bounties be a good thing to encourage fisheries, the French bounties are doubly excellent—they operate upon their own people and ours too. Our last week's reader may remember the picture drawn by Mr. JUKES of the internal communications in Newfoundland, and the labour and hardships undergone in a walk of exploration : Colonel BONNYCASTLE, who was in the island during the time of Mr. &MRS'S geological surveys, admits the diffi- culties that gentleman laboured under, in the want of means through the legislative squabbles; but he intimates, as politely as possible, that the Professor might have got on better had he been accus- tomed to a hard day's exploration and a nightly bivouac in " the back-woods." The only point on which they fully agree, is the universality of fish, the rough but hearty hospitality of the people, and the severe toil they undergo as a daily matter of course ; though Colonel BONNYCASTLE more fully intimates the distress in- dividuals suffer from accidental failures in the fisheries, and dwells with greater zest on the military capabilities of the population either for sea or land service.

With the exception of his geological report and some notices of natural history, Mr. JUKES'S publication consisted of personal narratives of exploration : Colonel BONNYCASTLE'S is of a more ex- tended and elaborate nature. It commences with a history of the island, from its first discovery to the present time ; in which the older writers are largely, and sonic may think too largely, drawn upon. The natural and physical history are then treated of: em- bracing a slight sketch of the geology of the island ; an account of its animal and vegetable kingdom,—sometimes verging upon the manner of' a catalogue rather than a description; together with a more masterly view of its climate and meteorology. These are followed by the Agricultural Resources, the tendency of which chapter we have already indicated; and by a general sketch of the value of the island as a colony and military port ; together with a view of its government, and the moral and social character of the people. The fishing, trade, shipping, and revenue of Newfound- land, with its geography and topography, complete the text : a variety of antiquarian, bibliographical, and practical information, forms an appendix.

Speaking of the effect of the whole, these various topics are treated in a pleasant and readable manner, and if somewhat super- ficially, never drily ; whilst single parts frequently exhibit that force of description which results from closeness of matter, and a style strong through conveying a strong impression. The author, like Mr. JUKES, also derives some advantage from the untouched character of his subject. The class of topics may be the common stock of encyclopxdias, but the almost terra incognita of New- foundland gives them a particular newness and interest. In commencing his section on Geology, Colonel BONNYCASTLB observes, that if the reader does not obtain "all the information which it was in the power of the author to give or to collect, he turns away from it with disdain, and observes that more might have been done, considering the time and opportunities of the writer,' "—a remark attributed by the Colonel to a leading paper in Canada in reviewing The Canadas in 1841, but which was pre- viously made by the Spectator, and probably copied by the leading Canada paper, as often happens without acknowledgment. The more, however, desiderated at feast by us, does not consist in handling an infinite variety of topics, on some of which the writer will most likely be ignorant, but in observing the life and nature before him, and selecting from his observations such points as em- brace the whole of the subject intended to be illustrated. For example, the dinner-question, "Will you take salmon or fish" shows the importance attached to cod in Newfoundland, better than a return of all the dinners in the island, or even than the statistics of the exports ; though these last are valuable in their way, but procurable without going to Newfoundland. At the same time, although Colonel BONNTCASTLE has perhaps been induced by a mistaken theory to aim at embracing too much in his volumes, his statistics are everywhere animated or explained by actual knowledge—he has seen the field as well as copied a re- turn of its produce ; whilst a great part of his book is the result of actual observation—it could only have been written by a person who had been on the spot. Of course it will be from such pas- sages that we shall take our extracts.

HORSES, ROADS, AND DOGS, IN NEWFOUNDLAND.

The great drawback to agricultural pursuits is, however, the want of ade- quate manure and of roads. If there were roads, of course the miserable, half-starved dogs which now draw the small farmer's supplies of wood would give way to horses, and horse-manure would be attainable.

As soon as Sir Thomas Cochrane had opened communications by land with Conception Bay, by Portugal Cove and Topsail, before which time a horse had been an object of great novelty even at the capital, and could only be sup- ported at great expense by the imported Lay and oats, fields soon were cleared and sown, and every merchant, and many of the fishermen, supplied themselves with horses for pleasure, for their agricultural pursuits, or for more easy com- munication with the capital of the colony.

It is no uncommon thing now to see the gradual advance in comfort which

these few roads have produced. One can ride or drive nine or ten miles in a carriage, in summer in two directions; the pack-horse, that old-fashioned English traveller, is seen trudging to St. John's from Torbay or Petty Bar- bour; the fisherman and his wife are observed seated on a pad ; and the dog becomes every year of less use and less value as a beast of draught.

It is well for the poor, spurious descendant of the famed Newfoundland dog,

that he is so rapidly yielding in utility ; for of all the ill-used animals in crea- tion, none are worse treated by capricious man than these patient and forbear- ing creatures, which, in winter, may be seen toiling harnessed in pairs, or with two and a leader, to low sledges called catamarans, from before daybreak until the evening sets in, hauling firewood and fence-pickets, at the mercy of boys and the very lowest class of the population, beaten, jaded, ill-fed, and occa- sionally wounded and killed when their over-exerted strength forbids their further progress. In summer, they swarm at every poor man's door, lying idle, listless, and basking in the sun, feeding on the offal of the fishery, hunting manure-heaps for the garbage of the seal, and becoming perfect adepts in the art of breaking fences to get access at night to the yards of houses in order to carry off bones.

NEWFOUNDLAND HOSPITALITY.

The great difference between a small farmer's kitchen at home and here, con- sists in the absence of strings of onions, hams, and bacon, depending from the ceiling-joists. Here you see sealing-guns, fishing-apparatus, a fresh herring, or some other fish just caught, supplying their place. But still the good things of this world are not wanting. I never walked into one of these kind-hearted people's dwellings (and I very often did so during my rambles last summer) without immediate and silent preparations for the stranger ; for they do the same to all respectable persons, amid in my instance, very frequently, at first they did not know me. The good wife pots some tea in the pot, spreads a clean cloth if she has one at hand or time admits, boils some eggs, produces a pat of fresh butter and a large jug of milk, with a loaf of home-made bread, or if that is wanting, white biscuit ; and, without saying a word during the preparation, expects her visiter, whether he is hungry or not, to fall to; being perfectly satis- fied if you drink three or four cups of tea (luckily the cups are usually small) and eat a good deal of bread and butter and two or three eggs, which she always takes good care shall not hurt your digestion by their hardness. They never offer fish ; of which I dare say, from experience, they think you have daily enough ; and of course fresh meat is seldom seen but on rare festive occasions, when the fatted calf or the household lamb graces the board. They have usually, however, a store of dour and of salt beef or pork; which, with their poultry, would afford at all times a good table, were it not that the latter are too profitably employed in producing eggs for the market, and the former too dear to eat much of.

COLONEL BONNYCASTLE'S ACCOUNT OF WALKS IN NEWFOUNDLAND.

The want of beach fur sea-bathing is very sensibly felt by those who are accustomed to that source of health and enjoyment ; and unless a strang r is fond of walking in the woods and across the country, and musing, as he goes, on man and nature, he soon gets tired of the monotonous drives and rides along the few roads, which are rarely pleasantly practicable for equestrian exercise in summer to a greater extent than ten miles in two directions, or for a carriage for more than that distance on one alone. A walk along the frowning and beetling margin of the ocean, from Outer Cove to Torbay, is one of the best relaxations; for there the sea in all its grandeur incessantly wages war with the land, and gains great and permanent victories among the slate-cliffs. There, too, late in summer, you sometimes see the solitary and splendid iceberg at a distance, looking like a crystal monument of nature, warning us that the season is short ere winter again is to wrap the land and water in its mantle of white. There you may see, now and then, the whale and the porpoise gambolling; and there man, busy man, is toiling on the broad waters, in a boat reduced by distance to a speck, for the means of supporting his existence, whilst the angry waves, climbing up and bellowing on the precipices under your feet, give ample evidence that his occupation is precarious.

EMS PRESS.

It will scarcely be believed that so small a population as that of St. John's and its neighbourhood, about 26,000, supports seven newspapers, and where the readers hitherto have not been numerous, and where the chief source of returning profits for the outlay in press, paper, types, and labour, arises from mercantile advertisements. There are also two in Conception Bay.

The reason has been obvious—there is no tax upon them ; and the state of party and religious feeling since the opening of the first Assembly of the people for legislatorial purposes has necessarily given existence to several.

VMS SILVER THAW.

Another phenomenon, seldom seen in Canada, is the silver thaw, as it is called in Newfoundland. Rain in heavy torrents in February, accompanied by a low state of the thermometer near the earth, causes a regular deposition of ice round all the branches and twigs of the plants and trees, and every sub- stance capable of receiving it. This goes on increasing until a layer of ice en- velops the smallest twigs till it attains a diameter of half an inch, and some- times more. The leafless trees droop and bend their strongest boughs towards the earth ; to which, if they reach it without breaking from the enormous weight they have to sustain, they become frozen. I have seen willows whose. branches were as thick as a man's thigh break off under this pressure. The wind generally rises soon afterwards, and then the clatter and destruction may be conceived.

I can compare the appearance of a tree thus unwelcomely adorned to nothing in man's art nearer than to a vast chandelier of the purest crystal ; and the play of the light is fully equal to that from myriads of prisms when the sun shines.

CLASSES IN NEWFOUNDLAND.

There is no other distinction in persons and ranks here, than those usual in all the provinces of the British empire, arising from official station or wealth. The upper class, which at home would almost without exception be the middle class, consists of the clergy, yudges, councillors, and officers of the state, with the oldest and most wealthy of the merchants bolding office.

The middle class—that class so well named in England as the "shield of society "—consists here of the newer merchants, the conductors of the busi- ness of the extensive firms at home, and a growing, most important, and ra- pidly-increasing number of the sons and daughters of those respectable men who have chosen Neafoundland as the country of their children. It is only necessary to attend at a public charitable ball to see these excellent people in their real character : it strikes every unaccustomed beholder with admiration, for a finer, healthier, or better dressed and behaved colonial "gentry" there does not exist. Professional men, lawyers, and medical men, belong, as in every other colony, to both these classes.

The third class I have no name for, as neither that of labourer nor that of peasantry is applicable.

The third class in Newfoundland are small farmers, small shopkeepers, and fishermen, or fishermen exclusively. They are well-clothed, and usually wear a distinctive habit, which is a blue jacket and trousers of good cloth, and a low- crowned glazed hat. To see these people in a public procession, one is tempted to observe, with the Emperor of R1199Il when he first saw the English in mass, on the occasion of the visit of the Allied Monarchs, "Where are the poor ? " I have seen them in every possible situation, and have uniformly observed them quiet, orderly, and respectable : even hi the pit of the theatre, which is fre- quently during abater filled with them, not a word nor an indication of row or noise occurs.

In the towns, of course, there is a still lower class, which is engaged, as else- where, in domestic or in menial offices, or employed in hewing wood and draw- ing water, or as carters, farm-servants, etc.

Colonel BONNYCASTLE'S book contains, what that of Mr. JUKES wanted, a large and elaborate map; deriving part of its value from the official report presented by Mr. JUKES to the House of Assem- bly. We imagine it to be the best accessible map of Newfound- land : but its distinctness would have been increased by colour or slight shading, so as to separate the land and water ; which, in so embayed a coast and so thickly set by islands, the eye does not readily perceive.