world, (the swiftness of the growth considered,) and propagated it from Cornwall even to Cumberland.' But he names the yew for hedges, as preferable for beauty and a stiff defence to any other plant; and says, without vanity,' he was the first which brought it into fashion, as well for defence as for a succedaneum to cypress, whether in hedges or pyramids, conic-spires, bowls, or what other shapes, adorning the parks or larger avenues with their lofty tops, thirty foot high, and braving all the efforts of the most rigid winter, which cyprus cannot weather. ، That fashion has passed away. It is to be wished that Evelyn had been equally successful in filling the country with fruit trees, according to his wise and benevolent desire. I do only wish,' he says, upon the prospect and meditation of the universal benefit, that every person whatsoever, with ten pounds per annum, within her Majesty's dominions, were by some indispensable statute obliged to plant his hedge-rows with the best and most useful kinds of them." Old Gerrard had expressed a wish to the same effect before him, and he quotes the old man's honest and not ineloquent exhortation 'forward in the name of God, graft, set, plant and nourish up trees in every corner of your ground; the labour is small, the cost is nothing, the commodity is great; yourselves shall have plenty, the poor shall have somewhat in time of want to relieve their necessity, and God shall reward your good minds and diligence.' Surely the time will come when the walnut, the pear and the cherry will take place of those trees, which are of less utility and beauty while they stand, and not of greater value when they are cut down. If that spirit of wanton mischief or more malignant havoc be apprehended, which is now but too prevalent among the populace in many parts of England, it should be remembered that this spirit was once as prevalent in France, and that there is now no country in the world where so little of it is displayed. When the sides of the highways were first planted, under Sully's administration, Evelyn tells us, the rude and mischievous peasants did so hack, steal and destroy what they had begun, that they were forced to desist from the thorough prosecution of the design; so as there is nothing more exposed, wild and less pleasant than the common roads of France, for want of shade, and the decent limits which these sweet and divertissant plantations would have afforded.' The peasant is now as sensible of the comfort which these road-side trees afford him by their shade in summer, and the security which they give him when the ground is covered with snow, as the foreigner is of their stateliness and beauty. Evelyn, whose love for trees and groves was only less than that which he felt for his fellow-creatures, more than once expresses his bitter indignation at the havoc made among them, owing to the barbarous manner in which Louis XIV. wasted 6 the countries in which he made war,-mischiefs, he says not to be repaired in many ages; the truculent and savage marks (among others) of a most Christian King; nomine, non re! Dire and curses,' he exclaims, 'on those inhuman and ambitious tyrants, who, not contented with their own dominions, invade their peaceful neighbours, and send their legions, without distinction, to destroy and level to the ground such venerable and goodly plantations, and noble avenues, irreparable marks of their barbarity.' No man, in modern times, had made war with so barbarous a spirit as Louis XIV., till Buonaparte, the perfect Emperor of the British liberales, and the most remorseless and destructive tyrant that ever trampled upon the rights and feelings of humanity. The greater part of the woods, which were raised in consequence. of Evelyn's writings, have been cut down: the oaks have borne the British flag to seas and countries which were undiscovered when they were planted, and generation after generation has been coffined in the elms. The trees of his age, which may yet be standing, are verging fast toward their decay and dissolution; but his name is fresh in the land, and his reputation, like the trees of an Indian Paradise, exists and will continue to exist in full strength and beauty, uninjured by the course of time. Thrones fall and dynasties are changed: Beneath their own unwieldy weight; Survives all meaner things. No change of fashion, no alteration of taste, no revolutions of science have impaired or can impair his celebrity. Satire, from which nothing is sacred, scarcely attempted to touch him while living; and the acrimony of political and religious hatred, though it spares not even the dead, has never assailed his memory. How then has he attained this enviable inheritance of fame? Not by surpassing genius; not by pre-eminent powers of mind; not by any great action, nor by any splendid accident of fortune, but by his virtue and his wisdom; by the proper use of his talents, and of the means which God had intrusted into his hands; by his principles and his practice. The Abbé Boileau, in that far-fetched strain of flattery for which the French are remarkable, proposed once to the Academy that the word bonheur should be proscribed from all panegyrics upon Louis XIV., parce que son bonheur étoit son propre ouvrage, son application au travail, son génie qui prévoit tout, qui pourvoit à tout, &c.: it was disparaging a prince, he said, whose success was owing to himself, to speak of his good fortune. More truly might this be said of Evelyn. The circumstances in which he was placed were all fortunate; but how many men in every generation are placed in circumstances equally propitious and with equal talents, who yet for want of the same prudence and the same principles have gone through the world without being either useful to others or happy in themselves, with no other respectability than mere wealth, and talents unemployed or misemployed could command; and sometimes perverting both, so as to be the pests, the fire-brands, and the disgrace of their country! And this has happened even to men who have set out in life with generous feelings and good intentions; for evil principles end in corrupting both, and like diseased and putrid humours, carry with them the curse of assimilating to their own nature the subject into which they are introduced. The youth who looks forward to an inheritance which he is under no temptation to increase, will do well to bear the example of Evelyn in his mind, as containing nothing but what is imitable and nothing but what is good. All persons, indeed, may find in his character something for imitation; but for an English gentleman be is the perfect model. Neither to solicit public offices, nor to shun them, but when they are conferred to execute their duties diligently, conscientiously and fearlessly; to have no amusements but such as being laudable as well as innocent, are healthful alike for the mind and for the body, and in which, while the passing hour is beguiled, a store of delightful recollection is laid up; to be the liberal encourager of literature and the arts; to seek for true and permanent enjoyment by the practice of the household virtues-the only course by which it can be found; to enlarge the sphere of existence backward by means of learning through all time, and forward by means of faith through all eternity, behold the fair ideal of human happiness! And this was realized in the life of Evelyn. ART. II. Notes on a Journey in America, from the Coast of Virginia to the Territory of Illinois. of Notes on a Tour in France.' By Morris Birkbeck, Author THIS little volume, printed with an ordinary type on coarse paper, and ushered into the world under the unassuming title of Notes,' is no more to be held as a proof of its author's modesty, than the plain drab coat and broad-brimmed hat, which he once wore, were of his humility-for Mr. Morris Birkbeck was at one time numbered, as we understand, among the people called Quakers. From his manual, however, it would appear that he is now happily relieved from all manner of 'prejudices' on the score of religion and civil polity, except indeed a vehement one against all religions, and all governments, the one yielding, in his view, no better fruit than fanaticism and hypocrisy, the other nothing but rents, taxes, restraints, and oppression. It is of little importance to the reader to know what were the circumstances which brought about so hopeful a change in our traveller's sentiments, except in so far as they may tend to explain the source of his discontent, and of those hostile feelings which every where manifest themselves against the land of his forefathers. The change, however, was not without a cause. Patriots and expatriates are alike the children of circumstances, and generally, we believe, of adverse circumstances. With regard to Friend Morris we understand that, during the late war, he held the lease of a farm at a rent of about five hundred pounds, which was worth three times that sum; that on its expiring, he had it renewed at a rent more nearly approaching its value, when, the sudden change from war to peace having reduced the demand for produce, and consequently the value of land, to rid himself of his engagements and his country at the same time, he threw up his farm un beau matin, and, laughing in his sleeve at the humorous trick which he had played his unsuspecting landlord, set out on a land speculation into the back settlements of North America. Mr. Morris Birkbeck was not without a compagnon de voyage; he prevailed, it seems, on a young man of the name of Flower to accompany him as a sort of squire. This Flower bloomed freely in the kindly soil of Hertfordshire, in possession of a fine flock of Merino sheep, and with them of every comfort of life; but in an unlucky moment he was persuaded by his guide, philosopher, and friend,' that to be happy and contented under such a government as that of Great Britain, was contrary to all sound reason, and that for his credit's sake he must be transplanted into a more philosophical soil; accordingly the ill-starred Corydon sold off his sheep, and consented to seek an abode in a country where sheep cannot thrive. The two farmers had previously made a hasty tour through France, where, 'thanks to the Revolution,' every thing was right. The speculators in land,' however, had been before them. The property, of which the rich had been plundered, Mr. Morris Birkbeck saw with infinite pleasure partitioned out among the plunderers, or, as he delicately expresses it, among those who stood in need of it, 'thanks to the Revolution!' and they were too well acquainted with the value of their acquisitions to admit our friend to any share of them. Wonderful is the prosperity, boundless the affluence of France!-there, the peasantry have their six bottles of wine daily, and a change of linen amounting to twelve or fifteen shirts apiece and in the Pyrennees (where money is nearly as plentiful as on the Himmaleyan mountains) Mr. Birkbeck found the common labourers earning six and thirty shillings a week. And for all this they have to thank the Revolution!" 6 Our two expatriated farmers first land in Hampton Roads, and proceed to Norfolk in Virginia; a large town, with spacious streets, well paved causeways, and clean and good-looking houses. Here Mr.. Birkbeck went into the market-house, where, says he, I observed the negroes selling for their masters the worst meat I ever saw, and dearer than the best in England; veal, such as never was exposed in an English market, at 10 d. per lb. ; lamb of similar quality and price. Most wretched horses waiting, without food or shelter, to drag home the carts which had brought in the provisions-but, worst of all, the multitudes of negroes, many of them miserable creatures, others cheerful enough; but on the whole, this first glimpse of a slave population is extremely distressing-and is it, thought I, to be a member of such a society that I have quitted England!' Friend Morris, in spite of the determination with which he set out, to be pleased with every thing in America, cannot reconcilė his feelings towards the negroes, whether in a state of slavery or freedom. In proceeding up James's river he passes Little Guinea, a tract of land given by a planter to his negroes, whom he had liberated; their enclosures were but indifferently cultivated, and the negroes had a character for thieving-deservedly, I dare say,' he subjoins, for slavery is a school of depravity, and their equivocal or degraded station among whites is unfavourable to their moral improvement.' He arrives at Petersburgh at the time of the races, and is introduced to a large assemblage of planters. A Virginian tavern resembles a French one with its table d'hôte, (though not in the excellence of the cookery) but somewhat exceeds it in filth, as it does an English one in charges. The usual number of guests at the ordinary in this tavern (and there is several large taverns in Petersburgh) is fifty, consisting of travellers, store-keepers, lawyers, and doctors. A Virginian planter is a republican in politics, and exhibits the high-spirited independence of that character. But he is a slave-master, irascible, and too often lax in morals. A dirk is said to be a common appendage to the dress of a planter in this part of Virginia. I never saw in England an assemblage of countrymen who would average so well as to dress and manners; none of them reached any thing like style; and very few descended to the shabby. y to the As it rained heavily, every body was confined the whole day tavern, after the race, which took place in the forenoon. The conversation which this afforded me an opportunity of hearing, gave me a high opinion of the intellectual cultivation of these Virginian farmers. Negro slavery was the prevailing topic-the middle and the endan evil uppermost in every man's thoughts; which all deplored, many were anxious to fly, but for which no man can devise a remedy. One |