must prevent cultivation; so far I apprehend it will be found pernicious, but probably not in a greater degree than any other luxuriant and deeply rooted species of grass, absorbing the moisture, and exhausting the strength of the soil which covers the roots of small trees." The 13th chapter of this work is devoted to experiments on orchards, in which our author is practical anu original, and we believe will be found highly useful. Mr. C. appears by these experiments to have been for 24 years past devoted to the rearing apple trees, and his knowledge may consequently be considered well founded in experience. The deductions from his experiments are well worthy of attention. The result of the second experiment is, that thinning the branches of young and vigorous trees is preferable to topping them. Constant cultivation of the soil of orchards improves them as deduced from the third experiment. From the seventh, we may conclude that stable dung is bad manure for orchards; and the eleventh and part of the first prove that the site of an old orchard is improper for a new one. After these experiments our author concludes: "The preceding experiments were undertaken with a view to ascertain the best inode of planting and cultivating orchards. If my judgment does not deceive me, I think they will be found satisfactorily to prove the utili. ty of cultivation to the promotion of the growth of an orchard; that by the aid of good Cultivation, and the application of proper manure, orchards will flourish in any soil sufficiently dry; and that what is usually denominated the quinquennial rotation of crops, and is now practised almost universally by good farmers in the middle states, affords a degree of cultivation, sufficient to ensure the due degree of vigour and productiveness to apple trees." The fourteenth chapter contains valuable information on the properties and management of cider; and on the concentration of cider, by frost, he observes: "If by freezing cider, and separating the concentrated liquor from the aqueous parts, you can double its strength, you will obtain a wholesome, high flavoured, mild liquor, of the strength of Madeira wine. This experiment I made satisfactorily the last winter; I racked off two hogsheads of good, sound, well flavoured cider, into two other hogs. heads, containing about eighty gallons each these I exposed, with the bungs out, to the severest cold of January, on the north side of a building; (it is necessary that the casks should be only part full to prevent their bursting,) after a fortnight's exposure to unremitted cold, I found the cider surrounded by a mass of ice of moderate hardness--this I perforated at the end near to the bottom and drew out the concentrated liquor, about a barrel from each hogshead; the residuum, The cultivation of apples for cider, and families, the supply of vinegar, as an an- The An account of the trees and fruit of133 varieties of apples is contained in the 23d chapter. So far our author appears to be original, his information being drawn from his own experience in the rearing and management of apple trees. remainder of the work treats of pears, peaches, plums, and cherries, and contains one hundred more cuts of these fruits; but as Mr. Coxe does not appear to have devoted himself so sedulously to the rearing of these fruits, we look upon this part of the work rather as a compilation, but nevertheless containing some useful remarks. An error in relation to the rearing of pear trees is corrected. "An erroneous practice prevails too much among our nursery men in America, of using suckers from old trees for pear stocks; trees produced from suckers are always disposed to generate suckers, which are injurious and inconvenient in fruit grounds: it is probable that the disposition to blight, may be promoted by using the suckers of old worn out varieties, instead of raising new ones from the seed, as is practised in apples." Our author also offers "a selection of "1. Green Chissel. 2. Early Catharine. S leuse. 19. Muscat Allemand. 20. Ambrette." On the subject of plums we make no remarks, hoping that better information may hereafter be obtained from the ample experience of Mr. Dennison, near Albany, in the cultivation of the varieties of these fruits. We also consider that Mr. Coxe is deficient on the subject of the peach; and on the cherry, he merely gives a list of a few varieties, though his concluding remarks are very good. "The cherry is propagated by budding and ingrafting-from its disposition to throw the out gum from wounds in the vessels of bark, the former mode is most generally adopted. The heart cherries do not succeed well on any but the black Mazard stocks, but round or duke cherries do as well on Morello stocks, which are often preferred from their being less liable to the cracks in the bark, from frost and sun on the south-west side; this injury may be almost effectually prevented by planting on the east side of board fences or buildings, or by fixing an upright board on the south-west side of each tree in open situations. "The best stocks are raised from stones planted in the nursery. Stocks raised from suckers of old trees will always generate suckers, which are injurious and very troublesome in gardens: diseases of old or wornout varieties are likewise perpetuated by the use of suckers for stocks." We are not inclined to be censorious with Mr. Coxe's work, as we consider every publication of the kind useful, and well meant; and whether original or compiled, such tracts certainly conduce to the welfare and prosperity of our country. The expression, however, (page 111) of pale indeed, is uncouth and should be altered. The 12th chapter, occupying part of the 44th page, on the subject of the caterpillar, is very deficient. The natural history of insects Mr. C. does not appear to be acquainted with, otherwise we might have had a very useful and valuable chapdeed is divested of all science, and on ter on the subject. The whole work inthat account perhaps may be more acceptable to general readers, though we are not so well pleased with it ourselves. But, notwithstanding this baldness, the public will be gratified, and the practical man will reap advantage by following the directions contained in the work before us. We accordingly recommend it, and give Mr. Coxe due credit for what he has done, recommending it to others, with the hope that some one or more will take up the subject of those fruit trees, particularly that delicious Persian fruit the peach, upon which he is deficient. With the full assurance of our belief that the work will be useful to its author and the country we conclude our remarks. K. ART. 5. Journal of the Proceedings of the late Embassy to China; comprising a correct Narrative of the public transactions of the Embassy, of the Voyage to and from China, and of the Journey from the North of the Peiho to the return to Canton. Interspersed with observations upon the face of the country, the polity, moral character, and manners, of the Chinese nation. Illustrated by a large map. By Henry Ellis, Third Commissioner of the Embassy. Philadelphia, 1818. 8vo. pp. 382. IT is, we think, peculiar to China, that notwithstanding its immemorial existence as a civilized country, the interest attached to its history, antiquities, laws, manners, and customs-its religion and philosophy--is incalculably less impulsive than the same feeling as it respects nations comparatively new. Whence is it that this apathy derives its origin?What are the causes of this incurious disposition of the mind toward a region whose inhabitants constitute, according to the most modest statement, a fourth part of humankind, and whose political and social institutions entitled them to the honours of civilization at a period when the rest of the world was immersed in barbarism. How is it that the records of a people whose history, commencing at an epoch when the plains and vallies of Greece were tenanted by the naked and wandering savage, has preserved its calm but continuous course through the revolutions of time, should appeal so faintly to the spirit of libera! research ?-By what process of ratiocination shall the fact be accounted for, that the vivid emotion and curiosity we experience regarding the achievements and fortunes of our species, should so totally languish and expire, when China is named as a worthy and legitimate object of moral and political investigation ?-Is it the result of our own insensibility to the claims of a refined and powerful nationthis singular indifference to so large a portion of Asia and her people? Or is it in the character and genius of the Chinese themselves that we are to seek its real and proximate causes? A few observations seem to be demanded upon this question, the decision of which will, we think, relieve the liberality or sensitiveness of polished society from the imputation either of a causeless frigidity, or deficient acuteness. And first, let us examine the extent and variety of that historical field over which we still wander with unabated gratification, and where our eyes are unceasingly enchanted with scenes of moral magnificence and beauty, or fixed with potent, though painful, anxiety on the baleful and unhallowed triumphs of exulting crime;-a soil rich and exuberant in in all that can invite and detain our delighted steps;--a theatre perpetually enJarging upon our contemplation-of which the scenery is of the utmost conceivable grandeur and diversity, where the dramatis persona appear as the animated and impressive, because actual representatives of that general character of which we are the common sharers;-a stage, in fine, where the reason and the passions the intellectual and constitutional attributes of our universal nature are embodied in forms which we recognise as kindred shapes-of surpassing glory indeed, and exhibiting in their port and demeanour a grace and loftiness to which inferior beings scarcely presume to lift the gaze of a humble veneration. But, nevertheless, performers with ourselves in the same mighty and complicated drama of an existence, which, with regard to our kind, may be denominated eternal:the individual perishes, but the species is immortal-and while, in perusing that portion of the history of the world which is past, we meet with enough to make our hearts leap and throb with the glowing consciousness of belonging to the same species with the objects of our reverence, not only is the whole soul stirred and stimulated to a noble and magnanimous emulation with the illustrious of former ages, but, living along the line of our posterity, and observing the progress of humankind, from the first faint dawnings of civilization to its present state of knowledge and refinement, we anticipate a proportionate advance by our descendants, and the brilliancy with which our enthusiasm illuminates those distant periods can scarcely be called imaginary. Our benevolence or sympathy luxuriates amid the golden promises of hopenew vistas of felicity open themselves to our perception-the ways of vice are narrowed, the paths of virtue are enlarged-and we are pleased with supposing that the proceedings of those remote ge nerations will be gilded by the gleams of a diviner radiance than illustrated the annals of their fathers. Assuredly, our sensibility to the worth and achievements of ancient or modern times, is neither feeble nor transitory. The study of history is one in which we become early initiated. What are the sources whence are derived our first sterling impressions, of virtue and of vice-of justice, generosity, patriotism, valour, continence, and in general, all those qualities which may be considered as the adamantine foundations of human dignity? The fiery scorn of a wrongous or unworthy deed-the lofty disregard of self-that devotion to country which immortalized an Aristomenes and a Decius, and whose operation appears to impress on every other virtue the features of a superior attribute-the hardihood of soul that nerves the frame with steel-and that governance of the looser impulses of our nature which, in Africanus seems to have antedated the institutions of chivalry-from what pure and sacred springs has the dew arisen which wakened in our bosoms the first blossoms of these glorious feelings? Is it not to the records of Greece, "immortal, though no more," and the annals of her Italian offspring and successors in art and empire, that we are indebted for sentiments that triple the value of our existence? Tracing from their fountain-heads the deep and powerful streams of Greek and Roman dominion, we wind along between banks of vernal bloom and fragrance-temples, palaces, and sculptured marbles gleam through the solemn shades of the sacred groves, and gods and god-like heroes are the august society with whom we hold high converse: we become, so to speak, identified with the scenes that have taken such strong possession of our imagination-and are moved and agitated with all the fervour of an actual and strenuous participation in the lofty enterprises which gained for their promoters the palms of a deathless renown. The trophies of Thermopyle and Marathon---of Salamis and Mycale---arise before us in all their pristine brightness, and the stern conflict of a free and enlightened nation with the armed slaves of Asia, arrays all our sympathies on the side of liberty and her champions. We accompany the Athenian people in their voluntary exile from their country---we share the indignant grief---and exult in the final triumph---of a nation that first exhibited the invincibility of a people animated by the determination to perish rather than yield to foreign domination:-and lenic and Roman greatness, and assemble when, from being themselves environed in fond worship over the scene and sewith all the perils of invasion, we follow pulchre of their glory,-the curiositythe footsteps of the conquering Greeks to the interest they kindled within us dethe plains of Ionia, and behold them plant mands an ampler range-and is not conthe standards of freedom and glory on tented till it embraces a circuit wide as the delightful coast of the Lesser Asia-- the world, and co-extensive with human restoring to their eastern brethren the in- nature. With an eager curiosity we draw dependence that had been destroyed by aside the veil that conceals the mysteries the successors of Cyrus-we rejoice in a of Egyptian lore, and as the fathers of victory that rescued those fair shores learning and science glide before us in from the sway of the stranger and bar- dim and distant review, the venerable barian. In every period of their history, forms appear as the abstract and intellecevery aspect of their fate, we deeply sym- tual representatives of a nobler race, and pathise with the fortunes of an illustrious we acknowledge the justice of that anpeople, and in the blaze of glory which cient saying, which applied to the subcrowned their triumphs in the fields of jects of Sesostris and the Pharaohs the art and war, we lose sight of the darker epithet of "Wise."-Entering the boundspots in the sun of Grecian renown.— less and splendid field of Asiatic history, With unabated interest we trace the an- our imagination is dazzled and delighted nals of Greece and Rome from the earli- by the gorgeous brilliancy of the scene; est dawn of their history; and the high the wonders of Nineveh-and Babylon— and inviting theme continually reveals to and Persepolis-arise, for a moment, and our contemplation new and captivating like exhalations of the soil, on the sites of exhibitions of the human character. But their former grandeur-peopled with reare our sensibilities limited within these gal shapes and forms of female loveliness. magnificent, but contracted, confines? Among the royal crowd we distinguish The emotions that ought to agitate our some of loftier port, and more august bosoms for the whole species, and make aspect;-the founder of the Persian'emus anxious for the prosperity of nations pire was a hero before he was a king, and separated from ourselves by the distance the deliverance of his country from a foof half the globe-are they excited only reign yoke has immortalized the name of by the exploits, wonderful and glorious Cyrus,--the fathers of the Arsacian and and instructive as they are, of classic an- Sassanian dynasties might assert the title tiquity?-No-the feelings that had their of genius to the throne,-the Chosroes', birth in the plains of Greece and Latium the Bahrams, and the Sapours, contendwere not awakened within us to be re- ed with the Cæsars for the prize of unistricted within such narrow boundaries, versal empire-and the laws of Nushirand, though our liveliest sympathies will wan reflect a purer lustre on the characever wait round the ruins, even, of * Hel- ter of that energetic monarch than his proudest achievements in arms. But the fame, perhaps, of these illustrious princes is eclipsed by the renown of a female, who, during the minority of her son, governed the Assyrian empire with manly vigour. Beauty is the prescriptive right of a woman and a queen, and the obedience of the subject is quickened by the personal charms of the sovereign. Her reign was long and glorious; and though it may be doubted whether the feminine character is seen in its best and most bewitching light amid the splendours of a throne, the masculine energy displayed in so fair and fragile a form demands our admiration, while it excites our surprise, and, somewhat coldly, we subscribe our "The latest of our bards, a personage conspicuously brilliant in the ranks of nobility, has produced impressions incomparably sweet and solemn, by summoning before our eyes the lovely skies and glorious landscapes-the august ruins, and mournfully enchanting solitudes-of modern Greece; and excited in our bosoms sensations overpoweringly exquisite by the living interest he has breathed into his compositions, and the searching pathos which distinguishes his contrast of the Greek subjects of the Ottoman with their illustrious and free ancestors. He calls forth with equal skill the deepest and lightest tones of the "sacred shell." Strength, dignity, delicacy, are his, in a degree that defies competition. In the sudden and sustained excitation of powerful ambition, he is without a rival. His local scenery is correct, and glows with a soft and mellow warmth, in perfect unison with the sad themes on which he loves to dwell. Would he trust more confidently to such an imagination as he must possess, and take some grand event, upon VOL, 11.---No. vi. 55 testimony to the grandeur of Semiramis! In this rapid view of ancient history we have omitted much upon which, did our limits permit the indulgence of our wishes, we should have expatiated with pleasure.--It seems proper to observe, that in commenting upon Asia, we did not think it necessary to speak of her people, since in the east, the people have never been permitted to speak or think for themselves.-To resume: The feelings with which we trace the revolutions of the ancient world, agitate us with equal liveliness while perusing the records of the modern. In the declining ages of Grecian and Roman greatness, few are the events and characters that kindle in the mind those exalting sympathies with which we regard their earlier periods. But we experience a mournful pleasure in following the path from splendour to decay--the last epochas of those celebrated states are brightened by the gleams of departing glory--and their decline-their fall-are more illustrious than the prosperity of their conquerors. As we pursue the march of events, history loses a portion of its dignity, but its variety is increased. Slender are the materials afforded to the historian by the annals of barbarous tribes; but civilization is the parent of incident, and with the progress of refinement among the nations of the West, the narrative of their achievements assumes a proportional interest. Regions that in the times of ancient renown were the seats either of solitude or savages, become the abodes of learning and politeness--the forests of GERMANY gradually disappear, and are replaced by a hundred cities, each including a population superior in numbers and civilization to the former inhabitants of a whole province of that vast and multifarious country. In the palace of Wien or Vienna, the name and majesty of the Western Cæsars is still supported by a succession of imperial chiefs, and in the persons of the Great Frederick, (not Prusia's Royal Machiavel,) Rodolph of Hapsburgh, and the splendid Maximilian, we discern some traces of the dignity of a Roman Imperator.-The smiling plains of FRANCE are cultivated by a gay and chivalric people, who to the practice of the hardier virtues which won the affections of Julian, add the exercise of those bland and fascinating qualities which sweeten "the bitter draft of life," and shed a grace over the sterner attributes of humanity, something like the lovely and luxuriant light of evening sleeping on the lofty and sequestered heights of the Alp or Appenine. The fasti of this high-spirited and enterprising people are bright with illustrious names and exploits,-and Dagobert and Charles Martel, or the Iron-handed, and Pepin, and Charlemagne, and the Condés, and the Colignys, and the Montmorencys,Henry the Fourth, and his minister Sully the whole period, in fine, from Clovis down to the magnificent NAPOLEONis richly-abundant in characters and actions of the most splendid and attractive nature:--ITALY, starting from her trance of centuries, and " trimming her withered bays," begins a new career of glory and renown;-Commerce and Learning, and War, bring their gifts to decorate the wreath that glitters round her brow; the sceptre of the Cæsars, no longer wielded by the hands of heroes and warriors, is held in a holier, but not less ambitious grasp the dominion of Rome over the subject earth is still vindicated by her haughty sovereigns; and the nations and kings of the West, listen with mute reverence to the decrees of a Gregory and a Julius. Venice--and Florence and Pisa-and Genoa-and Lucca--and Amalphi---become the carriers of the world;---the entrepots of trade and taste---of merchandise and the muses.--Modern Science gathers her first and freshest wreaths in a soil---a clime---consecrated by the feelings and affections and memory of ages,---and Padua---Salerno---Tarentum---and Mantua----pour forth her earliest---perhaps her most ardent---adorers. Nominally a dukedom, Apulia assumes the importance and splendour of a powerful kingdom; and her contests with the Eastern Empire exhibit the superiority of a people of freemen over a nation of slaves. The southern shores of the peninsula have been, in every age, the favourite abodes of Luxury ---the delicious softness of the atmosphere is dangerous to manly virtue---and every artificial incentive is supplied by the voluptuous genius of the people,--yet even Naples is not without distinction in the list of Italian capitals, and so high was her rank, that after his conquest of Sicily, the sovereign of Apulia consented to derive his regal title from the Neapolitan territory.---SPAIN, with its kindred realm of PORTUGAL, Moorish and Christian, presents a long succession of splendid scenes and magnificent charaeters,--the wealth and sumptuousness of Asia is blended with the taste and elegance of Europe,---the Cross and the Crescent are mingled in a war of eight centuries---and though we may rejoice in the final restoration of that interesting |