not overcharged. But in no respect, perhaps, has the present age surpassed that which preceded it in the progress of improvement, more than in its emancipation from the barbarous and brutal custom of compulsory drinking. The importation of smuggled foreign spirits into Lewis is much counteracted by the vessels belonging to the Revenue Service, which cruise constantly along the coast, These and are very active in procuring information. vessels are dreaded by the traders, who are obliged to come to, and to submit to be searched, often losing their passage by the detention, or by being compelled to postpone their entrance into the harbour to another tide. Serious altercations perpetually occur between them. The evils of this system seem to justify the preference of that of the Preventive Service as introduced now along the southern English coast. The importation of foreign spirits into Lewis is almost entirely carried on by vessels of other nations, particularly the Norwegian, which procure them in France, and being permitted to land them under bond for exportation, contrive to sell them to the inhabitants. The foreign spirit chiefly imported is gin, but whisky is the favourite beverage; and, as there has been hitherto no legal distillery, it is principally the produce of illicit distillation.

The Excise is utterly inefficient. The officers now and then set out upon an excursion, and do by chance, sometimes, stumble upon a still, when they meet with no opposition; as the islanders imagine, that the ill treatment of an Excise-officer would probably lead to the quartering amongst them of a detachment of troops. So openly do the people admit the practice of illicit distillation in their festal hours, that they ask their guests, and my informer was an officer of the Navy, belonging to the Revenue Service, to whom the question had been often put, whether they prefer Coll or Grace; whisky of those farms having been celebrated. A more numerous and vigorous excise is indispensable, and a cheap legal supply of spirits a needful preliminary to coercive measures. For this purpose, Mr. Stewart Mackenzie has adopted the plan which has been successfully pursued by the Duke of Sutherland, by some of the proprietors in the Orkneys, by Mr. Campbell of Isla, and others, of erecting a distillery.

The morality and expediency of this method of extirpating the illicit distillation have been questioned. Its efficacy, notwithstanding the preference of the people to the illegal whisky, which being made in smaller worms is of finer quality, has been proved by experience. Those who push the principle adopted, and most beneficially, by the Temperance Societies to an extent further than the very regulations of those admirable institutions will warrant*, may denounce any compromise with spirits as unjustifiable, and insist upon the total disuse of them.

Experience, the result whether of choice or of necessity, has invariably ratified the opinion of medical practitioners, respecting the mischievous effects of drinking ardent spirits, both physical and social, and has strengthened the conclusion that a total abstinence from them, except medicinally, occasionally in sickness or decrepitude, or even after severe labour or exposure, promotes the health, as well as the comfort and happiness of a people. We must be careful, however, not to argue against the use of God's good gifts from the abuse to which they are liable. Our very Temperance Societies provide a salvo for the moderate use of spirits upon this principle. A legal supply of this beverage is therefore not intrinsically immoral or irreligious; and experience has proved its tendency to supersede the illicit supply, whether by distillation or importation, and therefore to extirpate all those evils, indolence, crime, profligacy, and disregard of constitutional authorities, involved in the infraction of the laws. The confirmed habits of smuggling which the people of Lewis have acquired, inclined them to predict the failure of the distillery at Stornaway. Yet it has been so successful that another has been since erected on the opposite coast of the island. How far the legal supply of spirits, coupled with the reduction of duty on the spirits brought to charge, have tended to supersede smuggled spirits, may be inferred from the statement made by Lord Althorp, in the House of Commons last year.

as a

As a specimen of some of the ultra manifestoes put forth under the implied sanction of the Society referred to, in defiance of its own avowed principle, it has been declared that the success of the Institution cannot be expected till spirits are prohibited, even medicine. "Defend me from my friends," is a petition which cannot be too frequently on the lips of the supporters of those magnificent philanthropic and religious institutions which form a distinguishing feature of this age and of this country.

In 1831 ....Ditto raised to....3 4
In 1832 ....Ditto
In 1833

Ditto

ditto....5,992,421

....Ditto

............

Ditto Ditto

ditto....5,691,000 ditto....5,401,000

In 1834....Number of Gallons increasing t. The usual arguments which I have heard strenuously urged in Lewis, and other parts of Scotland, in behalf of illicit distillation, and more especially addressed to the landlords, is that it ensures to them the payment of their rent, and that without the means which it affords to the tenant, that payment would not be effected. This statement has been made to me, coupled with a general and entire negation of the existence of the practice in question. The motives which prompted it were more intelligible than the logic. The shadow of reason, which attaches to the statement itself, is borrowed from an earlier state of things, before roads were made, and when, consequently, the landlords could not send the produce of their lands, in a bulky shape, to market. Their connivance at the illicit distillation of spirits by the tenants, receiving compensation in the higher ratio of rent, might be therefore apparently expedient in an economical point of view. This practice, it may be observed, contributed to rivet in the breasts of the Highlanders, that aversion to roads which characterized them almost up to the period of the Statistical Survey. The improved access to markets, and generally and principally the erection of distilleries in the immediate neighbourhood of the land where the grain is raised, have now realized, in a mode far more efficacious, in an economical, and far less pernicious, in a moral point of view, all the benefits imputed to the ancient illegal system. But a mistake more erroneous and more prejudicial than that on which the statement we are considering is founded, could not be well imagined. The share of the profits of illegal distillation, which accrued to the landlord, was in fact more than counterbalanced by the losses which he sustained, from the failures and plunder resulting from the profligate habits induced by it. The benefit of reform to the landlord, as well as to the tenant, may be illustrated by a single instance, which was communicated to me by a leading minister of the Kirk, near Elgin, on the eastern coast of Scotland. A neighbouring parish had been long notorious for illicit distillation, and always equally so for extreme and most degrading poverty. Its inhabitants happily underwent a reformation, abandoned their lawless habits, and were then in possession of the sum of at least £3000, To the legal provision of spirits by means of regular distilleries must be attributed in a great measure the progressive diminution of crime, and all the concomitant vices and evils of smuggling and illicit distillation. Still the very legal provision may become in itself a bane, by facilitating and encouraging the consumption of spirits. The conscientious landlord must experience a painful struggle between considerations of personal interest and those which regard the moral welfare of his people, when he calculates the success of a distillery, and exercise some little self-denial in employing, as he is in duty bound, all his influence in counteracting the practice of drinking spirits, and substituting a less ardent and pernicious beverage. Notwithstanding the flagrant mischief produced by beer-drinking, as now exemplified in England, (the consequence of the multiplication of beer-shops, at a low rate of license,) there can be no question that it is far preferable to spirit-drinking; and the substitution of beer for whisky in Scotland would prove a most important benefit to that country. Nor could the most rigorous stickler for ancient customs object to it as an innovation, since ale, as General Stewart informs us, on the testimony of tradition, formed the universal national beverage of the people till the middle of the last century; French wines and brandy being drunk by the gentry. Whisky-house," he states, "is a term unknown in the Gaelic. Public-houses are called Tai-Leanne, that

+ Since the preceding observations were originally written, the alteration in the mode of levying the duty, together with the legal supply, have nearly put an end to the illicit traffic in Scotland. One lady, possessed of immense property, has prohibited the use of spirits altogether on her estates. The success of the experiment is matter of national interest.

is, ale-houses. Had whisky been the favourite beverage of the Highlanders, as many people believe, would not their songs, their tales, and names of houses allotted for convivial meetings, bear some allusion to the propensity, which has no reality in fact, and is one of those numerous instances of the remarkable ignorance of the true character of the Highlanders on the part of their Lowland friends and neighbours ?" He might have added, that there was a law of the old Scotch Parliament, "anent" (against) auld wives brewing evil ale."

Dr. Macculloch disputes the fact of ale having been much drunk by the Scotch, as their poverty prevented any but the landed proprietors from brewing. But as under the ancient system, the landlords, whether chief or subordinate, were numerous, and their labourers and other dependants lived much more in their houses, or depended more upon their bounty in compensation for service, they probably received ale or beer as part of it. He also doubts whether the brewing the superfluous barley instead of distilling it would be profitable, as even now the quantity consumed in the shape of spirits is small. But if the profits derived from it in England are so enormous and universal, would they not in some degree correspond in Scotland, provided the practice of spirit-drinking be much discontinued?

LEWIS; MORAL AND RELIGIOUS IMPROVEMENT.

THE moral and religious improvement of the natives of Lewis has been retarded by the inadequacy of ministerial superintendence. One pastor only, except a missionary on the western coast, supported by the Royal bounty, is appointed to each of its four extensive parishes, containing a total population of 14,000 persons; and besides this, there are physical impediments which oppose great difficulties to intercourse between the clergy and their parishioners. The deficiency has been partly supplied by catechists and readers, who instruct the people in the forms appointed by the Established Church, in the most neglected districts, by schools, and by the excellent custom adhered to by the people here, as in other parts of Scotland, of meeting together at each other's houses, for the purpose of reading and expounding the Scriptures. To this practice, eminently beneficial, though abused, more direct reference will be hereafter made.

In no part of Scotland have the Gaelic schools proved more salutary than in Lewis, where, except in the town of Stornaway, the Gaelic language is exclusively spoken; yet the inadequacy of the funds of the Society has compelled them to limit the advantage to a period, and thus the schools formerly established in the wild parish of Lochs have been withdrawn. The British and Foreign Bible Society has distributed a considerable number of copies of the Scriptures in Lewis.

A recent Sacrament in the parish of Uig, in Lewis, exhibited a scene of much interest. A considerable number of persons had assembled, as usual, on the occasion; and

the minister, who had been recently appointed, a man of much piety and zeal, received the sudden and unexpected aid of an eminent Gaelic preacher, Mr. Macdonald, minister of the parish of Farintosh in Ross-shire, who had been blown to the island by a contrary wind, whilst shaping his course to St. Kilda on a voluntary mission, for a purpose which has since proved successful, of providing that island with a minister and place of worship. The addresses of Mr. Macdonald produced a sensation which has spread through the island: he was now employed in preaching to the Irish in the Gaelic, which they well understood, in the north of Ireland.

To all the plans for the moral and religious improvement of the people of Lewis, the proprietor and his lady have contributed their zealous assistance, and their temporary residence in the island has consequently proved very beneficial*. P. S. Q. R.

The late Lord Seaforth, father of Mrs. Stewart Mackenzie, the last male representative of the Seaforth line," high chief of Kintail," was one of the most accomplished and princely characters of whom Scotland could boast. His acquirements, classical taste and crudithe delight of every society in which he appeared, the pride of tion, powers of conversation, urbanity and liberality, rendered him his clansmen and the ornament of his country. The infirmity of deafness debarred him to a great degree from that free intercourse with mankind for which the enlargement of his mind and the deep fund of his resources pre-eminently qualified him; and Mr. Fox is reputed to have said of him, that it was in compassion to the rest of mankind that Providence by means of this defect deprived him of that transcendent superiority to which he would otherwise have Castle in the eastern part of Ross-shire: here he acted the part and attained. The principal residence of Lord Seaforth was Brahan supported the hospitality of a chieftain. His visits to Lewis were unfrequent, but the authority which he exercised was almost feudal: he raised in person the 78th regiment among the natives of this island, and in some instances, forced into the service able-bodied young men, who were reluctant to obey the call of their chief, the same flame of enthusiasm wherever it blazed along. The followwhich spread generally, like the beacon of former days, kindling ing amusing anecdote is related of the late Lord Seaforth. The women in Lewis are compelled to submit to much drudgery, from which they are elsewhere exempted. It was formerly, I know not whether it is still, the practice in this island for the men to ride the women across the fords. Lord Seaforth arrived at a stream on horseback, while a peasant so mounted was very contentedly crossing. He rode up to the man just as his fair pad had reached mid-channel, and then laid his whip about his back and shoulders till he dismounted, clad as he was, into the water.

Of the toil to which the women are subjected in this island, Dr. the neighbourhood, trudging into the town from the moors, with Macculloch says: "Droves of these animals were collected in loads of peat on their backs. The men dig the peat, and the women supply the place of horses, being regularly trained to it. I was also informed that they did actually draw the harrows, but this I did not witness." Yet it must be said in behalf of the natives of and highly-cultivated Belgium are not a whit behind them. I have Lewis, that in defect of gallantry the civilized inhabitants of opulent seen a woman dragging a boat along a canal in that country containing two stout fellows contentedly smoking their pipes, whilst crowds of passengers swept by without noticing the circumstance, as in any degree strange.

accomplishments, died before their father; thus fulfilling a part of the The sons of the late Lord Seaforth, men of high promise and mournful prophecy which is current in Scotland respecting this family.

THE CITY OF COLOGNE,

IN GERMANY.

COLOGNE, or, as it is called in German, Köln, is a large city, built in the form of a crescent, on the left bank of the Rhine. Its antiquity is very great, its origin being referred to the earliest days of the Roman empire. The first name which it bore was Oppidum, or Colonia, Ubiorum,- (The town or colony of the Ubii,) and this it derived from the circumstance of being founded by that people, a native race of Germany, who passed the Rhine in the reign of Augustus, and established themselves on its left bank, under the protection of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, the celebrated general, and son-in-law of that peror. Some years afterwards it gave birth to Agrippina, so well known as the mother of Nero, and this circumstance materially conduced to its progress. Soon after her marriage with Claudius, that empress was seized with a desire of imparting celebrity to the place of her nativity; with this view she caused the circuit of the city to be enlarged, and then established in it a colony of veterans. Henceforward it is spoken of by the Latin writers under the name of Colonia Agrippinensis.

em

Until the middle of the fifth century, Cologne continued to be the capital of the district which Augustus had styled Germania; but about the year 462 it was wrested from the Romans, and subjected to the dominion of the Franks. In the tenth century, Otho the Great annexed it to the German empire, and, after bestowing a variety of privileges upon its inhabitants, placed over them his brother, who was their archbishop. Under the protection of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, the increase of the city was rapid. About 1260 it entered the Hanseatic league, and became the capital of one of the four classes of the Hanse Towns, having under it all those which existed in Cleves, Gueldres, and Westphalia. In 1364 it had arisen to such importance as to be the place where a formal act of alliance was executed between the different members of the Confederation, which had for its object to protect merchandise from pirates and robbers, and to ensure the honour and safety of merchants abroad, and to extend the foreign trade of the allied towns, and, as far as possible, to obtain a monopoly, or to exclude all other towns from a share in it; to maintain justice and order in every market, and to prevent fraudulence by means of properly-constituted officers and courts of arbitration.

Cologne continued to form a part of the Germanic empire until the changes occasioned by the French Revolution; but, in 1794, it was taken by General Jourdan. Till 1814 it was retained by France, and, upon the general peace of that year, it passed into the hands of Prussia. It is now the capital of the Prussian district of the same name, in the province of Cleves-Berg; it is the residence of many functionaries, including an archbishop and a high-president, and is the seat of government and of the Court of Appeal for the Rhenish provinces. Its condition at the present day is far inferior to that which it enjoyed in former times, when it was enriched by an extensive and lucrative trade; it has lost also the advantages, or, at least, the honour, of its independent political position. Under the old constitution of the German empire it was a free city; its archbishop and elector (for both offices centred in the same person), who possessed a moderate share of authority over it, was a sovereign prince, and one the most important members of the empire.

The present appearance of Cologne is not very prepossessing. In Moreri's Grand Dictionnaire it is

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spoken of in very flattering terms; it is styled "one of the strongest, largest, and most beautiful cities in Germany," and is said to be remarkable not only for the cleanliness of its streets, and the magnificence of its edifices, both sacred and secular, but also for the "sweet humour and civility" of its inhabitants, who count among them a great many men of letters. Modern travellers concur in representing Cologne as one of the dirtiest cities in Europe; the streets are narrow and lonely, and contain few buildings distinguished for beauty. Cologne," says the author of An Autumn near the Rhine, once the Holy City, now the dirty focus of decaying Catholicism, loses all its grandeur, and much of its interest, on a nearer survey; it is, beyond question, the dirtiest and most gloomy city of its size in Europe. It runs along the Rhine, about a league from one wall to the other; its depth is about half a league; but its streets are all shabby, narrow lanes, and its places irregular open spaces, overgrown with weeds, whose dreary chasms and mouldering tenements are only now and then varied by a solitary spacious mansion,-a gloomy vestige of old-fashioned splendour. The people you meet are as motley and miserable as the buildings. It is difficult to give you an idea of the squalid wretchedness of the savage-looking, bustling crowds, who flew upon us when we landed on the quay. Porters, commissioners, guides, valets-de-place, and voituriers, assailed us with a clamouring activity, doubly striking after the phlegmatic and decorous respectability we had experienced in Germany."

The Cathedral of Cologne is one of the most famous in Germany; we shall speak of it on another occasion, and also of the other ecclesiastical edifices of the city. The town-house is a large building of a curious kind of architecture; it has a lofty tower, from which is obtained a delightful prospect of the city and the surrounding country. The Arsenal and the building belonging to the Central School, formerly the University, are also worthy of notice.

The trade which Cologne possesses at the present day is of considerable importance, though, of course, not to be compared with that which it enjoyed in former times; its situation is advantageous, as an intermediate point between Germany and Holland. The Rhenish wine forms a principal article of its commerce; and the exports of its own manufactures, of linen, lace, cotton, silk, and earthenware, are also considerable. Among these also we must not omit to class the produce of the distillation of Cologne water, or the famous Eau de Cologne, which is in such high repute throughout Europe; there are fifteen manufactories of it in the city, and several millions of bottles are annually exported. Only a small portion, however, of what is sold under the name is genuine; one of the best ways," says the German Conversations-Lexicon, "of distinguishing the genuine from the spurious, is to rub a few drops on the hand, when the good Eau de Cologne must not smell of any spirituous liquor, or of musk, or of any foreign substance, but only of the ethereal odour proper to the water."

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The population of Cologne is large, though very variously stated; it amounts probably to somewhere about 50,000 without the garrison. The character of the great mass of its inhabitants is not very favourably spoken of; they are said to be both lazy and superstitious in an excessive degree. The city has always been remarkable for its large number of beggars; under the old order of things full one-third of its population were professed mendicants, having their appropriate stations, which used to pass, in the way of inheritance, from father to son. It was said

that "the propensity to idleness, gluttony and begging, which prevailed through the city and adjacent country, was sanctioned and encouraged by the example of the different orders of monks, whose chief object was to keep the people,-who, with the exception of a few families, were Roman Catholics, in a state of ignorance and superstition." The city has, indeed, always been remarkable for its superstition,—or, as it used to be called in the Catholic countries, its sanctity; and it is in a great measure to the prevalence of this feeling that we are to attribute its decline as a commercial and manufacturing town. The expulsion of the Jews in 1425 gave a powerful blow to its prosperity; and then the banishment of the Protestants in 1618 sufficed to complete its ruin. Upon this latter occasion upwards of 1400 of the most opulent families were driven away; a portion of them settled in our own city of London, and the rest established themselves in different German towns, where they soon became powerful rivals to Cologne.

Cologne disputes with Antwerp the honour of giving birth to the celebrated painter Rubens. The story says that his father sought refuge in it after having fled from Holland, to escape the troubles which attended the struggles of that country for freedom; and the house in which the son is supposed to have been born in 1577, is, we believe, still in existence, and contains a monument erected at the expense of the city, in commemoration of the event from which it derives so much interest.

ANTS.

THE different modes in which Ants, when they happen to meet during their excursions, mutually touch one another with their antennæ, appears to constitute a kind of natural language, understood by the whole tribe. This contact of the antennæ evidently admits of a great variety of modifications, and seems capable of supplying all the kinds of information which these insects have occasion to impart. It would seem impossible, indeed, for all the individuals composing these extensive societies, to cooperate effectually in the execution of many works, calculated for the general benefit of the community, unless some such means of communication existed. There is no evidence that sound is the medium of this intercourse; for none, audible to us at least, was ever known to be emitted by these insects. Their mode of communication appears to be simply by touching one another in different ways, with the antennæ. Huber's observations on this subject are exceedingly curious. He remarks that the signal denoting the apprehension of danger, is made by the ant striking its head against the corselet of every ant which it chances to meet. Each ant, on receiving this intimation, immediately sets about repeating the same signal to the next ant which comes in its way; and the alarm is thus disseminated with astonishing rapidity throughout the whole society. Sentinels are at all times stationed on the outside of the nests, for the purpose of apprizing the inhabitants of any danger that may be at hand. On the attack of an enemy, these guardians quickly enter into the nest, and spread the intelligence on every side: the whole swarm is soon in motion, and while the greater number of ants rush forwards with desperate fury, to repel the attack, others, who are intrusted with the office of guarding the eggs and the larvæ, hasten to remove their charge to places of greater security.-DR. ROGET'S Bridge

water Treatise.

We remember a circumstance strongly corroborative

of Dr. Roget s description of the method by which ants hold communications with each other.

During the autumn of 1834, the writer, accompanied by a few friends, took an excursion into the country, on the borders of the New Forest, Hampshire, where a few preliminary arrangements, seconded by the kindness of a neighbouring cottager, enabled us to partake of a most refreshing meal, seated on the ground, in the centre of a wood of several acres' extent. Our wants being satisfied, the best means of disposing of the fragments next claimed our attention. That duty, as respected our own species, being satisfactorily performed, we began to look about for some deserving objects, on whom to bestow sundry rations of shrimp-shells, crumbs of bread, and of plum-cake.

At the edge of a path within the wood, we discovered part of a colony of large, black ants, in full march, chiefly in one direction, but whether the greatest number were going from home, or returning thither, we could not satisfactorily ascertain; both ends of the track in which they were moving terminating among the plants, brushwood, and dead leaves, with which the surrounding space was thickly covered. Our fragments were voted as a fitting largess for these industrious and provident insects; and being deposited at three different places, near to the line in which the Ants were moving, we attentively observed their conduct. The important discovery was soon made, that a supply of food had arrived; but, contrary to our expectations, we noticed that the savoury morsels seemed for a time to attract but very little attention. That some new arrangement had taken place among the ants was manifest, by the hurried manner in which they appeared to move. gered near to the food thus placed within their reach; they seemed, however, to perform the duty of sentinels, as we could not observe that any one individual was engaged in eating. Meanwhile, scouts were evidently. busy in communicating intelligence, and there is every reason to believe that it was done in the way mentioned by Dr. Roget; namely, by touching those they met with their antennæ, that is, the horns or Some of those feelers, projecting from their heads. to whom, as we supposed, the intelligence was imparted, pursued their journey with increased alacrity; whilst others turned back, and with equal haste seemed to be carrying the good news to headquarters.

A few lin

The effects of these communications soon became

apparent. Reinforcements were momentarily seen making their way with every symptom of haste, towards the spot whither, as we may imagine, they had been directed to repair. Some of these newlyarrived ants stopped at the first heap of food they reached, as if the precise duty allotted to them had been accurately denoted; others, passing on to the next heap, began to work with the same energy as their companions whom they had left a short distance behind them; and it was not long before the ground was literally covered with the hosts which had thus simultaneously assembled to carry off the spoils. The small pieces of food were disposed of without confusion or difficulty; the larger portions required the exercise of strength, combined with considerable skill, to effect their removal. Deeply interested in the proceedings of these little creatures, we continued to watch them until the gathering We left shadows admonished us to hasten home. the ants still at work; storing up against the day of need, the food which had thus so opportunely for them been placed in the vicinity of their abode.

O. N