By this we see that the South American commerce has gone on progress ing at the rate of 32-43-58, for these three years, the only years that it can be said to have freely existed. It would not amaze me if the ratio proceeded, and that it should be seven millions and a half next year. They talk, to be sure, of a glut just now, but I doubt whether it can be to a great extent. I agree with Sir W. in trusting that there will be a still greater field opening every successive year, and agree also in his views when he tells us,

"No one can be ignorant of the fact, that from our national power and influence, consequent upon our political institutions, as well as from the extent and superiority of our commerce and manufactures, that a great degree of jealousy is felt towards Great Britain by her Continental neighbours; and it is as little to be doubted, that the Holy Alliance Potentates would readily avail themselves of any favourable opportunity of permanently lessening our political influence and commercial prosperity. Buonaparte, upon whose system of commercial policy towards us the Continental powers are now acting, had nearly succeeded in his attempt to effect this, but his ambition defeated his grand effort, and amidst the general wreck of his fortunes, he himself fell a victim. Still, however, Buonaparte demonstrated the practicability of uniting a very large proportion of the civilized world against our manufacturing interests, which had well nigh driven our manufacturing population into a state of rebellion. How important, then, is it to our very political existence, as well as to the interest of the weaker powers of Europe, that Great Britain should be placed in future beyond the reach of such a political combination; and, standing secure in her independence and power, be enabled to pursue the honest dictates of her own natural policy, without being fettered or diverted from it, either by continental engagements, foreign to her best interests, or by the inability duly to assert and maintain those sound maxims of international law, which cannot be impugned by any principle of reason or justice, and can therefore be only successfully combated at the point of the bayonet. The independence and prosperity of the new world places Great Britain in this enviable state; for, happily protected by our insular situation from invasion, and possessing, as we shall do, the command of the vast commerce which the New States will afford, in addition to what our

continental neighbours (let them do their worst) cannot deprive us of, we shall be, to all intents and purposes, free and independent of continental politics, continental dictation, or continental interference of any kind. Being thus situated, let us look at the political power and influence which this commercial independence of Europe will afford us. We have already proved our capability of preventing improper interference and hostile col lision between the continental powers and the New States of America. By as sisting these states, in early eliciting their

vast natural wealth and resources, we not only, as I have shown, proportionally benefit ourselves, but we also thereby establish a salutary balance of power between them and the United States; and this balance established, it is obvious, that the influence of Great Britain, thrown into either scale, will make it preponderate; which influence, when similarly exerted, it can scarcely be doubted, would produce similar effects in any dissensions which may hereafter arise among the continental powers of Europe.

"Hence we have before us the proud and gratifying prospect, to every rightminded Englishman, of Great Britain's establishing herself the Arbitress of Nations, holding the Balance of Power in her own hands; and fortunately for the interests of humanity and freedom that it should be so, because it cannot be denied that there naturally exists in the councils of this country, a high-minded sense of honour and moral integrity, which is not to be found elsewhere; while, as Englishmen, it is impossible that we can ever, in our hearts, wish to see others deprived of those blessings of freedom of thought and action which we so dearly value ourselves, and which, we all feel, have so much conduced to make us what we are in the scale of nations."

With respect to our interference with the ci-devant Spanish colonies, there is one argument I do not remember to have seen urged. The French ultra-royalist papers accuse us, who have quelled the jacobins, of jacobinism, and I know not what else, in consequence of our acknowledg ment of the existence of powers which were de facto independant, and as much out of the dominion of Spain as the kingdom of the Netherlands. Now this has always struck me to be the very quintessence of impudence. The Bourbons deprived us of our colonies in North America, by direct interference; and, by my word, I don't see why we are to inconvenience ourselves

to bring back theirs, which we have not interfered, directly or indirectly, to aid in their insurrection.

I see among my papers a pamphlet on the necessity of simplifying, consolidating, rewriting, and codifying our English law, by a Mr Crofton Uniack, late a Nova Scotia Admiralty Judge. It betrays the civil-law lawyer evidently, but there is a great deal of good sense in it. I shall, perhaps, hereafter scribble down my own opinions on it and some dozen others of the same tendency. I am too tired today to do any more. The weather for these few days has been almost the hottest I ever felt-the tropics cannot be warmer. Indeed, a friend of mine, who lived for a long time in Ceylon, assures me of the fact.

May 10.-A_new Atlas by Arrowsmith. A handsomely executed, and, I presume, from the great reputation of its author, an accurate work. Aaron Arrowsmith, whose picture, well engraved, is prefixed to the Atlas, was a man of the first-rate ability in his science. In hydrography he was perhaps unequalled. There was always, besides, a beauty and clearness of engraving about his productions which was to me always highly agreeable. In the maps before me this is very discernible. Pinkerton and many other map-drawers make their maps quite illegible by the intense depth of shading, and an attempt, which must always be a vain and inadequate one, of representing the mountains strongly, according to their elevation. The new features which strike me in this little Atlas, are the insertion of the late discoveries by Parry, &c. in the North of America-the bringing up the geography of Africa to the last intelligence-the exhibition of the states of Europe as they are, leaving out the nonsense of giving Poland and other obsolete divisions (I wish we had a separate map, however, of Austria), and the maps of Punjab, Ceylon, the inha bited parts of New South Wales, Van Dieman's Land, the Cape of Good Hope, Mexico, and Darien. Map-drawing is greatly improved among us. The Mercator's projection, in this Atlas, is a perfect picture.

I wish that in all our atlasses, great or small, they would give us three maps of India, i. e. maps of Bengal,

Madras, and Bombay, instead of one general one, in which everything is so much huddled that it is of little use. Yet what country after our own is of so much importance to us? There is hardly a family in the kingdom that is not interested in the movements of regiments, the appointments of writers, the situations of judges, &c. These little maps, besides, in which we have two hundred miles on an inch, deceive as to the real importance of India. I venture to say that it would astonish most people to hear that we possess a territory in length as great as the distance from Gibraltar to Copenhagen, and in average breadth, from Paris to Constantinople.

I feel a sort of pleasure in seeing in these maps Baffin's Bay restored. It was the most miserable ignorance and quackery that made its existence ever doubted, and I do not know a greater piece of geographical charlatanerie than Pinkerton's, in leaving it out of his map. Everything tends to impress me with the opinion, that we are soon destined to have the northern coast of America accurately traced, thereby wiping off a geographical disgrace. In no other point of view can the northern expeditions be of any use but that is, nevertheless, a point of view worthy of being regarded by a great maritime nation. I confess I expect more from Franklin than from Parry.

Shenstone I think it is who remarks, that he never looked over a map without a sensation of regret, when he reflected that there was not a name written upon its surface that did not belong to a place where social, friendly, virtuous, or brilliant people were not to be found, whose company, of course, he could not hope to enjoy. It was a kindly, though a morbid feeling. The impression looking over an atlas leaves on me, is a disposition to speculate on the future state of the world-on the nations and empires yet to arise in quarters now barbarous and desert. It is impossible to put it out of one's head that New Holland, the country which latest of all has received the elements of civilization, is destined to play a great part in future ages. If there be no obstacle to its population, it appears to labour under the defect of want of rivers, but it is