Paisley, Aberdeen, Dundee, &c.) have probably increafed to the amount of 210,000 the total increafe in Scotland, in less than 40 years, will be about 400,000, and the total population about 1,700,000 fouls." A curious mode of courtship, and as curious a mode of terminating the nuptial rejoicings, prevail in the neighbourhood of Galfton, in Ayrfhire. "When a young man wishes to pay his addrefles to his fweet-heart, instead of going to her father's, and profefling his paffion, he goes to a public-houfe; and, having let the land-lady into the fecret of his attachment, the object of his wishes is immediately fent for, who never almoft refufes to come. She is entertained with ale and whisky, or brandy; and the marriage is concluded on. The fecond day after the marriage, a creeling, as it is called, takes place. The young wedd d pair, with their friends, affemble in a convenient spot. A fmall creel or basket is prepared for the occafion, into which they put fome ftones: The young men carry it alternately, and allow themselves to be caught by the maidens, who have a kifs when they fucceed. After a great deal of innocent mirth and pleafantry, the creel falls at length to the young husband's fhare, who is obliged to carry it generally for a long time, none of the women having compaffion upon him. At laft, his fair mate kindly relieves him from his burden; and her complai fance, in this particular, is confidered as a proof of her fatisfaction with the choice fhe has made. The creel goes round again; more merriment fucceeds, and all the company dine together, and talk over the feats of the field *.” The minifter of the parish of Fortingal, in Perthshire, draws a ftriking comparison between the ftate of that part of the country in 1754, and its prefent fituation. "In the year 1754, the country was almoft impafiable. There were no roads, nor bridges. Now, by the ftatute-labour, we have got excellent roads, and 12 bridges. In a few years, we fhall have other two, which is all that could be defired. The people contribute chearfully and liberally to build them, and this preferves many lives. "At the above period, the bulk of the tenants in Rannoch had no fuch thing as beds. They lay on the ground, with a little heather, or forn, under them. One fingle bianketwas all their bed-cloaths, excepting their body-cloaths. Now they have ftanding-up beds, and abundance of blankets. At that time, the houfes in Rannoch were huts of, what they called, "Stake and Rife.” One could not enter but on all fours; and after entering, it was impofiible to ftand upright. Now there are comfortable houfes built of ftone. Then the people were miferably dirty, and foul-skinned. Now they are as cleanly, and are clothed as well, as their circumftances will admit of. The rents of the parish, at that period, were not much above 1500l. and the people were ftarving. Now they pay 46601. per annum, and upwards, and the people have fulness of bread. * Perhaps the French phrafe," Adieu paniers, vendanges font faites," may` allude to a fimilar cuftom, " It "It is hardly poffible to believe, on how little the Highlanders formerly lived. They bled their cows feveral times in the year, boiled the blood, eat a little of it like bread, and a moft lafting meal it was. The prefent incumbent has known a pcor man, who had a small farm hard by him, by this means, with a boll of meal for every mouth in his family, pafs the whole year. "The circumitances, which have occafioned the greater wealth and abundance of the prefent times, are, the planting of fo many potatoes, the advance in the price of cattle and fheep, the greater industry of the people, the top that has been put to the depredations of thieves, and the people, inftead of rearing black cattle, having turned their farms into fheep-walks, which they find much more profitable. Thefe are likewife the caufes of the great rife of rent. In 1754, the tenants planted perhaps one lippie or two of potatoes. Now they plant a boll, two bolls, or more. They keep the potatoe ground very clean. The general increafe is 12 bolls or more. Few fowed any lintfeed at that time. Perhaps there were not two hogsheads fown in the parish. Now there are perhaps 24 hogfheads fown yearly, every tenant and crofter having from one to four lippies. The increafe is about one ftone from the lippie. The wives and maids fpin the flax; the yarn is purchafed by dealers, who travel over the country for that purpose, and by whom it is fent to Perth or Glasgow." As a whimfical compound of oddity, libertinism, and philanthropy, perhaps nothing can exceed the following letter from Sir Hew Dalrymple to Sir Lawrence Dundas, written to folicit a living in the Orkneys for a Mr. Difhington: "Dear Sir, "Having spent a long life, in purfuit of pleasure and health, I am now retired from the world in po verty, and with the gout; fe, joining with Solomon, that “all is vanity and vexation of fpirit," I go to church, and fay my prayers. "I affure you, that most of us relgious people reap fome little fatisfaction, in hoping, that you wealthy voluptuaries have a fair chance of being damn'd to all eternity; and that Dives fhall call out for a drop of water to Lazarus, one drop of which he feldom tafted, when he had the twelve Apostles, (elve hogfheads of claret) in his cellar. Now, Sir, that doctrine being laid down, I wish to give you, my friend, a loop-hole to creep through. Going to church laft Sunday, as ufual, I faw an unknown face in the pulpit, and rifing up to prayers, as others do upon like occafions, I began to look around the church, to find out if there were any pretty girls there; when my attention was attracted by the foreign accent of the parfon. I gave him my attention, and had my devotion awakened, by the most pathetic prayer I ever heard. This made me all attention to the fermon: a finer difcourfe never came from the lips of a man. I returned in the afternoon, and heard the fame preacher exceed his morning work, by the finest chain of reafoning, conveyed by the most eloquent expreffions. I immediately thought of what Agrippa faid to Paul, Almost thou perfuadeft me to be a Chriftian." I fent to ask the man of God to honour my roof, and dine with me. I afked him of his country, and what not: I even afked him, if his fermons were his own compofition, which he affirmed they were. I affured him, I believed it, for never man had fpoke or wrote fo well. My name is Dithington," faid he. "I am an "afitant to an old minister in the Orkneys, who enjoys a fruitful benefice of 50l. a year, out " of which I am allowed 201. for preaching and inftructing 1200 people, who live in two feparate "lands; out of which I pay 11. 5s. "to the boatman who tranfports me from the one to the other. I fhould be happy, could I continue in that terrestrial paradife; but we have a great Lord, who has many "little people foliciting him, for "many little things, that he can do 66 66 66 and that he cannot do; and if my minifter dies, his fucceflion is too great a prize, not to raife up many powerful rivals, to baulk my hopes of preferment." "I asked him, if he poffeffed any other wealth. "Yes," fays he, I married the prettiest girl in the "ifland; she has bleffed me with "three children, and as we are both young, we may expect "more. Befides, I am fo beloved "in the inland, that I have all my "peats brought home carriage. "free." "This is my story,-now to the prayer of my petition. 1 never be fore envied you the poffeffion of the Orkneys, which I now do, only to provide for this eloquent, innocent apoftle. The fun has refufed your barren ifles his kindly influence; do not deprive them of so pleasant a preacher-let not fo great a treafure be for ever loft to that damn'd inhofpitable country; for I affure you, were the archbishop of Canterbury to hear him, or hear of him, he would not do less than make him an archdeacon. The man has but one weakness, that of preferring the Orkneys to all the earth. This way, and no other, you have a chance for falvation.-Do this man good, and he will pray for you. This will be a better purchase, than your Irish eftate, or the Orkneys. I think it will help me forward too, fince I am the man, who told you of the man fo worthy and deferving; fo pious, fo eloquent, and whofe prayers may do fo much good, Till I hear from you on this head, "Your's, in all meekness, "Love, and benevolence, "H. D." "P.S. Think what an unfpeakable pleasure it will be, to look down from heaven, and fee Rigby, Masterton, all the Campbells and Nabobs, fwimming in fire and brimflone, while you are fiting with Whitefield, and his old women, locking beautiful, frifking, and finging; all which you may have by fettling this man, after the death of the prefent incumbent." Sir John Sinclair concludes his fecond volume with fome reflections of importance to the community, the candour of which is only exceeded by their justice. "The conftitution of the borough of Newton upon Ayr is certainly, in theory, the pureft and beft republican fyftem, any where to be met with. Nothing, at first fight, can yield more fatisfaction, to a mind capable of feeling for the happiness of the fpecies, than to find, that a commu community actually exifls, whofe government is founded on the generous principles of equality and independence. In the whole courfe of this inveligation, nothing gava me more fatisfaction, than the ac count of this district, as returned by the minifter. Upon farther inquiry, from various quarters in the neighbourhood, I learnt, however, with regret, that beautiful theories do in particular, that no beneficial confequences could be traced from this conftitution; that the freemen were, in no refpect, fuperior to the inhabitants of other little boroughs; that, in general, little attention was paid to their education, and that fome of them could not read;-that no funds were allotted for the main... tenance of the poor brethren;-that the place was reckoned almott a century behind other towns in point of improvement. In regard to their property, that a confiderable tract of ground, belonging to them, remained in common;-and, that no favourable prefage could be drawn, from the manner in which their {mall pofleflions were cultivated;-for, that in a much incloted country, their acres remained open, were kept conilantly in tillage, and confequently, in a itate greatly inferior to the lands of thofe who held a larger extent of ground in their poffeffion, and whote rights were 'not liable to the fame fyftem of reftrictions. "Thefe curfory obfervations are thrown out on a fubject of great political importance, which will afterwards be more fully inquired into, and, which the fatitical furvey of Scotland will probably be the means of afcertaining, namely, "What is "the beit mode of holding the i nd "ed property of a nation, and of "cultivating it to the beit advan"tage?" Sacontala, or the Fatal Ring: an Indian Drama; by Calidas. Tranflated from the original Sanferit and Pracrit. E have received too much Whave from the too mu of this fplendid production of Oriental genius, to pafs it by unnoticed. Sir William Jones, the reputed tranflator of the work, gives in the preface the following account of the manner in which he first became acquainted with this dramatic curiolity. "In one of the letters which bear the title of EDIFYING, though moft of them fwarm with ridiculous errors, and all must be confulted with extreme diffidence, I met, fome years ago, with the following pallage: "In the north of India "there are many books, called "Nátac, which, as the Brahmens "affert, contain a large portion of "ancient history without any mix"ture of fable;" and having an eager defire to know the real state of this empire before the conquet of it by the favages of the north, I was very folicitous, on my arrival in Bengal, to procure access to thole books, either by the help of tranílations, if they had been tranflated, or by learning the language in which they were originally com pofed, and which I had yet a itronger inducement to learn from its connection with the administration of justice to the Hindus; but when I was able to converse with the Bráhmens, they affured me that the Nátacs were not hiftories, and abounded abounded with fables; that they were extremely popular works, and confifted of converfations in profe and verfe, held before ancient Rájás in their publick affemblies, on an infinite variety of fubjects, and in various dialects of India. This definition gave me no very diftinct idea; but I concluded that they were dialogues on moral or literary topicks; whilft other Europeans, whom I confulted, had understood from the natives that they were difcourfes on dancing, mufick, or poetry. At length a very fenfible Brahmen, named Rádáhcánt, who had long been attentive to English manners, removed all my doubts, and gave me no lefs delight than furprize, by telling me that our nation had compofitions of the fame fort, which were publickly reprefented at Calcutta in the cold feafon, and bore the name, as he had been informed, of plays. Refolving at my leifure to read the best of them, I afked which of their Nátacs was moft univerfally esteemed; and he answered without hefitation, Sacontala, fupporting his opinion, as ufual among the Pandits, by a couplet to this effect: "The Ring of Sacontala, in which the "fourth act, and four ftanzas of that act, are eminently brilliant, difplays all the rich exuberance "of Calidafa's genius." I foon procured a correct copy of it; and, affifted by my teacher Ramalóchan, began with tranflating it verbally into Latin, which bears fo great a refemblance to Sanfcrit, that it is more convenient than any modern language for a fcrupulous interfineary verfion: 1 then turned it word for word into English, and afterwards, without adding or fuppreffing any material fentence, difengaged it from the ftifinefs of a VOL. XXXIII. foreign idiom, and prepared the faithful tranflation of the Indian drama, which I now prefent to the publick, as a moft pleafing and authentick picture of old Hindu manners, and one of the greatest curiofities that the literature of Afia has yet brought to light. "By whomfoever or in whatever age this fpecies of entertainment was invented, it is very certain that it was carried to great perfection in its kind, when Vicramáditya, who reigned in the first century before Chrift, gave encouragement to poets, philologers, and mathematicians, at a time when the Britons were as unlettered and unpolished as the army of Hanumat: nine men of genius, commonly called the nine gems, attended his court, and were fplendidly fupported by his bounty; and Cálidás is unanimously allowed to have been the brightest of them." This pleafing publication cannot fail of affording a delicious treat to thofe who have the leaft relish for Oriental compofition. Although labouring under the great difadvantages of a profe tranflation, it retains the fpirit and brilliance of genuine poetry. The genius of Calidas darts around fo bright a blaze, that, even the denfe medium of profe, through which its rays are conveyed to us, although it may diminith, cannot destroy their fplen'dour. As it would be unreafonable to expect in the Indian drama an attention to the unities of the Grecian theatre, fo would it be not much lefs unreasonable to bring the exuberant graces of Afiatic compofition to the teft of that chafter model of writing which the feverity of European talte approves. We may moft admire the appropriate embellish |