If we were to draw any conclusion from the experiments contained in these communications to the Royal Society, we should say, that they tend to establish no other kind of motion in the sap of vegetables than might be inferred from the microscopic observations of Mirbel. The tubes discovered by Mirbel, denomi-. nated vessels by Mr. Knight, extend through the whole length of the roots, trunk, branches, &c. without making in general any circuit. They are variously perforated or cleft, thus admitting a free course to the sap. But these tubes themselves, as demonstrated by Mirbel*, are only modifications of the cellular texture, having no resemblance whatever to the vessels of an mals. It appears then that insensible transpiration, the motion of the sap, its various combinations and decompositions, and its situation with respect to the surface of the vegetable, whence results the more or less direct action of heat, light, and air; and lastly, the passage of this fluid through the membranous tissue, transforming water and air into oil, mucilage, and vegetable acids, are all performed without the aid of any particular organic apparatus, for the purposes of respiration, digestion, circulation, and secretion. Fluids pass through every part of the structure of vegetables, but their motion cannot with certainty be attributed either to external or internal causes. We cannot conclude this article without noticing the opinions which the learned president of the Linnæan Society has given of these papers. He thinks that they establish "no less than an entirely new theory of vegetation, by which the real use and functions of the principal organs of plants are now for the first time satisfactorily explainedt." In his Introduction to Botany he adopts all Mr. Knight's opinions, including those which were retracted 1808, previous to the publication of the second edition, in which, notwithstanding, they appear without any alteration. He not only thus "out-herods Herod," but absolutely praises the perspicuous mode in which the subject has been treated throughout. Our perceptive powers are probably less acute than those of the learned president; for we have seldom had more reason to complain of the want of perspicuity in any writer than during our perusal of Mr. Knight's communications to the Royal Society. He does not even stop here, but takes infinite pains to shew that Mr. Knight was thoroughly acquainted with the spiral coat of those vessels which he has named central; although every * Exposition de la Theorie de l'organization vegetale.—Paris, 1809. expression of that gentleman's upon the subject proves that he had not the least conception of such a structure. On the contrary, he supposed that the spiral tubes were every where appendages to those vessels, and always speaks of them in this manner. Why this bold and vain attempt was made to defend Mr. Knight's errors we know not, but we can readily pardon mistakes concerning the physiology of vegetables in one whose labours have been so successful in another department of botany. ART. XIX. Cottage Dialogues among the Irish Peasantry. By Mary Leadbeater.-With Notes and a Preface, by Maria Edgeworth, author of Castle Rackrent, &c. ONE of our oldest statistical writers gives the following compendious but expressive description of the Irish. They are, says he, "Gens in omnes affectus vehementissima; quorum malis nusquam pejores, et bonis meliores vix reperias." (A nation always in extremes; you will hardly find any thing worse than their bad men, or better than their good ones.) Now nothing can be more dangerous than these superlative degrees of character. Considering the constitution of poor human nature, it is easy to see which extreme will predominate, unless the utmost care and attention are bestowed to give the vehement tempers a right direction. But as the reverse of this has unfortunately been the lot of Ireland for some centuries, as a melancholy course of neglect for ages, (to use no stronger term,) has, till within these few years, obscured her glorious destinies, we cannot be surprised at the pictures which successive writers, who have had opportunities of judging from personal observation, have drawn of her degraded state. In 1566 a countryman and contemporary gives the following account of the Irish of his time. He describes them as warlike, patient of fatigue and hunger, but preferring indolence and liberty to every thing else; ignorant, credulous, and superstitious in the highest degree, remarkably fond of music, feasting, and merriment. He particularly notices a class of men very numerous at that time, who travelled over the country at night for the purpose of committing robberies, whose depredations were attended with cruelty, and whose occupation was not considered dishonourable. Whenever they set out on an expedition, they prayed to God that they might be successful in obtaining plunder; and when obtained, they considered it as a gift from him. Another Irish writer in 1584, states that something like the feudal system existed there at that time: that they were constantly harassed by the number of quarrels in which they were engaged; that robberies were committed every night; the laws were extremely defective, and ill executed; the people very fond of whiskey, extraordinarily hospitable, good-natured and generous, their credulity great, and their reverence towards their priests extreme. Two centuries afterwards, although in the interval mankind in other parts of Europe had made more rapid strides than were ever witnessed in arts, civilization, and commerce, the situation of the Irish peasantry was found but little improved. A countryman and eyewitness thus describes their state as he found it in 1780-90. At this period a considerable degree of improvement indeed had taken place in the cultivation and the manufactures of many parts of Ireland; but no corresponding amelioration had reached the peasantry. In no part of Ireland were the people so vicious as in those counties which were supposed to have been most civilized, in places which abounded with land speculators, rich graziers, and tythe-jobbers; for no pains having been taken to improve the moral condition of the people, they retained all the vices of their more barbarous state, but had lost its simplicity, and had engrafted the depravity of civilization on the ferocity of savage life. The Irish legislature, until the octennial bill which passed about this time, scarcely attended at all to the state of their peasantry. No community of interests, nor reciprocity of benefits, no kind of confidence or good-will existed between them. "To legislate for the dregs of the people, to render palatable the measures adopted against them,”—to endeavour to convince them that such measures were intended for their real benefit, was a condescension to which the parliament of Ireland, (where seats were held for life,) seldom stooped. It has been the policy of every wise government to improve the condition of the mass of the people, that they might have an interest in the defence and preservation of the state. A principle directly the contrary always prevailed in Ireland; and the effects which it produced can easily be traced to the cause. Much of the old system of manners still continued in 1780-90, particularly in the interior and mountainous parts of the country. At a wedding feast they would sing and listen to the most plaintive ditties, and if they had drunk any whiskey would whine and weep over some woeful story: but at a wake (i. e. an assemblage of men and women round the corpse of a deceased neighbour,) although they went for the avowed purpose of weeping over the dead body; yet in the very room where it was laid out they would spend the night in boisterous mirth, coarse jests, and all kinds of sports and gambols that were calculated to excite laughter; with intervals of five or six minutes every hour of a dreadful howl under pretence of joining in a general lamentation. Whenever whiskey was introduced into any of their meetings, intoxication and quarrels were the inevitable consequence. They were credulous in the highest degree, believed that old women could charm all the butter out of the milk of a neighbouring cow, and add it to their own; bought as sacred relics, possessed of great virtue, bits of old wood, &c. which itinerant mendicants. carried about. They were implicitly obedient to their priests both in matters civil and religious, and placed no less implicit faith in every thing they said, however absurd and monstrous. In taking an oath, they considered it sacred if taken on a piece of iron. They knew nothing of the bible, and were equally unacquainted with the principles of moral rectitude. Their moral character therefore of course depended upon the circumstances under which they lived. In some places simple, harmless, generous, and benevolent; in others selfish and depraved:-but being universally ignorant, they were consequently universally indolent. Such was their state described between the years 1780 and 1790. In order to bring the account down to the present time, we shall make a short extract or two from a work written about four years ago by an Irish gentleman, whose style, no less than his matter, proves his perfect acquaintance with the writings of Tacitus. "The peasantry of Ireland are generally not exclusively of the Roman Catholic religion, but utterly and disgracefully ignorant. Of four millions-the probable population, one million perhaps can write and read; of this million three-fourths are Protestant and Protestant-dissenters; there remains a solid mass of dangerous and obstinate ignorance; the laws of God they take on trust; those of the land on guess; and despise or insult both. In agricultural pursuits they are neither active nor expert. It is often more easy to induce them to take arms, for their country or against it, than to cultivate the earth and wait upon the seasons. Fighting is a pastime which they seldom assemble without enjoying; not indeed with iron wea pons, but with clubs, which they always carry and frequently and skilfully use. When not driven by necessity to labour, they willingly consume whole days in sloth, or as willingly employ them in riot. Strange diversity of nature to love indolence and hate quiet; to be reduced to slavery, but not yet to obedience." For ourselves, however, we cannot but exult in this diversity. If they were quiet and obedient slaves, they would probably continue for as many more centuries in their present degraded state. But providentially for them their impetuosity is a little inconvenient, and as every method but their moral improvement has been ineffectually tried to restrain it, it is probable that we shall at length be constrained to do our duty. But to return to our author. "The peasant thinks not of independence, dreams not of property unless in dreams of insurrection. His wishes have no scope; he is habituated to derive from his land and his labour only his daily potatoe. Whoever assembles the Irish disturbs them; disturbance soon coalesces with treason; and the suicide avarice that drives the peasantry to combine, precipitates them to rebel." Yet notwithstanding these accounts, we are persuaded that the vices of the people do not lie on their own shoulders;destructive as they are, they spring out of passions that might have been the source of so many virtues. Why the current took a contrary direction it is not our present intention to inquire. Too much has already been written in that strain, and time and talents wasted in mutual recrimination, as to the cause, which had it been employed in mutual emulation to find a remedy, would long since have cured the evil. Like the couple, who, when their house was on fire, disputed so long as to the cause, that it was burnt to the ground before they had leisure to run for the engines. Lamenting then as we have long done the deplorable state of a country whose people we love, and the fertility and apt disposition of whose territory we have long contemplated with admiration and hope, it was not merely with pleasure, it was with perfect delight, that we perused the entertaining little work now before us, of the merits of which we purpose to give our readers some account, though we fear necessarily a very imperfect one. It is the joint production of two Irish ladies, one of whom deservedly stands high in favour with the English public, and we are persuaded that it will not be diminished by the part which she has taken in the present publication. The body of the work consists of fifty-four short dialogues, between two couples of Irish peasants, and exhibits their adventures, habits, and manner of being" more naturally, and as Miss Edgworth assures us, more to the life than any studied narrative could accomplish. She also warrants Mrs. Leadbeater's Dialogue to be a literal transcript of the language of the Irish peasantry; and of the tamer part of them perhaps it may. But Miss Edgworth's friendly solicitude for the credit of her protegée must excuse us for thinking, that there is a raciness about the short extracts of Hibernian dialogue to be found in her notes, which sounds more national to an English car. The dialogues are evidently written with the philanthropic view of raising the tone of manners and morals, and of diffusing a taste for the comforts of life, and for the honest mode of acquiring them, among the lower orders of the Irish. They are probably intended to be printed in a cheap h |