and English vessels are carried by scores into the ports of Amcrica and of France. Here they appeal to the law of nations; but are told, at Paris, that this law admits of modifications, and that the French courts must be bound by the decrees of the Tuilleries; at New York, that American courts take the law of nations from Washington; and, in both tribunals, that it is impossible, without extreme indecency,' to suppose the case of any public act of state being done, which shall be an infringement on the law of nations. The argument may be long, and its windings intricate and subtle; but the result is short, plain, and savouring of matter of fact, rather than matter of law: All the English vessels carried into either country would be condemned as good and lawful prize to the captors. Let us not inquire how short a time the spirit of our nation would endure such a state of public law, and how speedily the supposed case would cease to apply, by our flag ceasing to be neutral. But let us, on this account, learn to have some patience with a free and powerful people, quite independent of us, when we find them somewhat sore under the application of these new doctrines--these recent innovations on Sir William Scott's sound principles of law; and let us the more steadily bear in mind that great Judge's remark on another part of the subject. If it were fit that such a state should be introduced, it is at least necessary that it should be introduced in an avowed and intelligible manner, and not in a way which, professing gravely to adhere to that system which has for centuries prevailed among civilized states, and urging at the same time a pretension utterly inconsistent with all its known principles, delivers over the whole matter at once to eternal controversy and conflict, at the expense of the constant hazard of the harmony of states, and of the lives and safeties of innocent individuals. 6 ART. III. Lachesis Lapponica; or, a Tour in Lapland. Now first published from the original Manuscript Journal of the celebrated Linnæus; by JAMES EDWARD SMITH, M. D. F. R. S. &c. President of the Linnæcan Society. 2 vol. 8vo. London, 1811. TH HE name of Lapland first occurs in the writings of SaxoGrammaticus, who composed his History of Denmark about the close of the twelfth century. At the distance of three hundred years, it is again slightly mentioned by Eric of Upsala; and the meagre description of the country by Ziegler is sup pesed posed to have first made it known beyond the limits of northern Europe. * Charles the Ninth, King of Swedland' (to use the language of Scheffer, as rendered by his Oxonian translator, in the year 1600), being desirous to know the truth of that country, sent two famous mathematicians, M. Aron. Forsius, a Swedish professour, and Hieronymus Birkholten, a German, with instruments, and all necessaries, to make what discoveries they could of Lapland; who, at their return, did certify, and make it out, that beyond the elevation of the pole 73 degrees, there was no continent towards the north but the great frozen sea; and that the farthest point was Norcum, or Norcap, not far from the castle of Wardhorise.' John Scheffer himself was born at Strasburg, in 1621, and was, by Christina of Sweden, appointed professor of Law and Rhetoric in the University of Upsala. Of his erudite tomes, his Lapponia, which was printed at Frankfort in 1673, is still the most popular. It consists of thirty-five short chapters, which are distributed with little regard to method, and exhibit a greater display of learning than of philosophical discernment. In the arrangement of his materials, he was avowedly assisted by the Chancellor of Sweden; and appears not only to have had access to such manuscript and printed documents as could then be procured, and to have frequently availed himself of oral communications with native Laplanders, but, though the circumstance is noticed only incidentally, and as of no moment, to have actually travelled through part of the country which he describes. In 1681, three rambling young Frenchmen, Corberon, Fercourt, and Regnard the dramatist, undertook a wild expedition to Holland, Denmark, and Sweden. At the suggestion of the King of the last mentioned country, they suddenly resolved to pay their respects to Lapland, and actually penetrated to Torotresk, a lake forty leagues in length, and the source of the ri ver *There is a brief description of Lapland, in that great mass of obscure history, entitled, Hispania Illustrata, published at Frankfort in 1603. At p. 1314 of the 2d vol., there is a pathetic piece, called Deploratio Gentis Lappiance, which is followed up by a short Lappia Descriptio,-both addressed to the Pope, by a learned person who takes the name of Damianus à Goes, under date of 1540. Mention is here made of their poverty, their rein-deer, and their incantations; upon which last subject there is the following edifying intelligence. Incantamentis sie pollent ut naves in medio cursu retineant, sic ut nulla vi ventorum ainoveri possint. Quod maluin solo virginum excremento, foris navium ac traustris illitis, curatur; a que, sat ab incolis accepi, spiritus illi natura abhorrent. ver Tornea. On the summit of an adjacent mountain, they erected a monument of their excursive wanderings, and graced it with the following Latin inscription, for the perusal of the bears, and other country gentlemen of Lapland. Gallia nos genuit, vidit nos Africa, Gangem Hausimus, Europamque oculis lustravimus omnem ; DE FERCOURT, DE CORBERON, REGNARD. A lively and entertaining account of this expedition was afterwards published by Regnard; though not, as might be imagined, very remarkable for scientific accuracy. The celebrated Maupertuis, one of the French academicians, who were commissioned to measure a degree of the meridian under the polar circle, has made a well-known report of their scientific operations; but his collateral descriptions and remarks refer chiefly to the neighbourhood of Tornea. A narrative of the same expedition, by the Abbé Outhier, though it did not appear till 1744, is nevertheless very inferior to that of Maupertuis, both in respect of sprightliness of expression, and correctness of style: yet, as it comprises several additional particulars, it may be regarded as a useful supplement. Nearly about the same period, Pehr Högström, pastor of Gelliwhare, in the province of Lulea, published his account of Swedish Lapland; a work which abounds in valuable remarks, but in which, also, the prejudices of the Lutheran divine are laughably blended with chimerical projects for the conversion of these hyperborean deserts into fertile pastures and flowery meadows. The more rational and sedate statements of this good and well-meaning parson, may be profitably perused in conjunction with the agricultural and statistical observations of Ehrenmalm, who visited Asehele Lapland, or, as he terms it, West Nordland, in the summer of 1741, and whose principal defect is an overstrained sentimentality in favour of the savage condition of mankind. Knud Leem, or Leemius, professor of the Lapland language at Drontheim, and who resided ten years in Lapland in the capacity of a Danish missionary, is the author of a treatise which, by the command of Christian VII, was published at Copenhagen in 1767, under the title of De Lapponibus Finmarchiæ Commentatio; and which we regret that we have not been able to procure, since its character for accuracy is understood to stand very high with the literati of the North. From this source, Mr Joseph Acerbi, a native of Italy, who, in in 1798 and 1799, took a cooling jaunt through Sweden, Finland, and Lapland, to the North Cape, is reported to have drawn many of his observations on the character and customs of the Laplanders. His work, which was published in London, and in the English language, has obviously received embellishments from the hand of its manufacturer; but contains, nevertheless, much authentic and entertaining information, and is suitably illustrated by engravings and a large sheet map, copied from Baron Hermelin's collection. Mr Consett would scarcely pardon us, perhaps, if we overlooked his seemly quarto. This gentleman accompanied Sir H. G. Liddell, Bart. and Mr Bowes on a trip to Tornea, occasioned by a wager. The gallant trio, in the course of about fifty days, measured over a space of three thousand seven hundred and eighty-four miles, and returned, in the same nimble style, with five rein-deer and two Lapland shepherdesses in their train! There are several judicious remarks upon cookery in the course of this volume ;-but the sum of the author's philo sophy is reserved for the conclusion, where he modestly announces this important and consoling truth, that nobody can describe the comfort arising from a good dinner and a bottle of honest port, so well as he who has been in want of both. In regard to the volumes now before us,-a very infatuated disciple of the Linnæan school, or a very enduring member of our own fraternity, may perhaps achieve their perusal in their original and disjointed form; but the bulk of our readers, we are persuaded, will thank us for selecting from the motley mass the substance of the more important statements, and distributing it under a few general heads. Before we proceed, however, to the discharge of this part of our duty, it may be proper to advert to some of those circumstances which have a more pointed reference to the journalist himself, and which, from their individuality, if we may be allowed the expression, are calculated to excite a certain degree of interest, independently of the local information which his notices are intended to convey. From the short abstract inserted in the Appendix, we learn, that Linnæus had presented to the Royal Academy of Sciences of Upsala, a memorial relative to his projected tour; and that, in consequence of this application, he was commissioned by that Society to make a progress through Lapland, for the purpose of investigating its natural history. Having procured his instructions and passport, he accordingly sallied forth from Upsala, on the 12th of May 1732, at eleven o'clock, being at that time within half a day of twenty-five years of age.' The graphic style of his equipment and costume, would make no despicable figure in the writings of Cervantes. • My My clothes consisted of a light coat of Westgothland linseywoolsey cloth without folds, lined with red shalloon, having small cuffs, and collar of shag; leather breeches; a round wig; a green leather cap, and a pair of half boots. I carried a small leather bag, half an ell in length, but somewhat less in breadth, furnished on one side with hooks and eyes, so that it could be opened and shut at pleasure. This bag contained one shirt; two pair of false sleeves; two half shirts; an inkstand, pencase, microscope and spyingglass; a gauze cap to protect me occasionally from the gnats; a comb; my journal, and a parcel of paper stitched together for drying plants, both in folio; my manuscript Ornithology, Flora Uplandica, and Characteres generici. I wore a hanger at my side, and carried a small fowlingpiece, as well as an octangular stick, graduated for the purpose of measuring." As our chivalrous naturalist, thus accoutred, traversed, in the short space of five months, a route of six hundred and thirtythree Swedish, or three thousand seven hundred and ninetyeight English miles, through the wilds of the extreme North, we may reasonably suppose, that he would encounter divers mishaps, and cultivate an acquaintance with fatigue and peril. We find him, accordingly, commencing his noviciate, by sliding down a hill of ice, on the seat of honour, and at the risk of meeting with a loose fragment of rock, or a precipice, either of which would have dubbed him with the honours of scientific martyrdom. A repetition of the same critical mode of conveyance, among the Lapland Alps, threatened, as he slid along with the rapidity of an arrow from a bow,' to entomb him in an avalanche. On another occasion, in defiance of the remonstrances of the sober-minded natives, he boldly determined to explore a cavern in the mountain of Skirla. With much difficulty,' says he, I prevailed on two men to show me the way. We climbed the rocks, creeping on our hands and knees, and often slipping back again. We had no sooner advanced a little, than all our labour was lost by a retrograde motion. Sometimes we caught hold of bushes, sometinies of small projecting stones. Had they failed us, which was very likely to have been the case, our lives might have paid for it. 1 was following one of the men in climbing a steep rock; but seeing the other had better success, I endeavoured to overtake him. I had but just left my former situation, when a large 'mass of rock broke loose from a spot which my late guide had 'just passed, and fell exactly where I had been, with such force that it struck fire as it went. If I had not providentially changed my route, nobody would ever have heard of me more. Shortly afterwards, another fragment came tumbling down. • I am not sure that the man did not roll it down on purpose. At |