with red and others with white tentacula, cover the rocks. that are left dry as the tide recedes. There is likewise found in the little pools, formed in the cavities of these rocks, a species of the limax marinus. It appears like a lump of coagulated blood; and, on being gently pressed, emits a beautiful purple liquor of some durability, and which does not seem to be very readily effaced by the usual chymical agents. This marine animal, if put into a basin of sea water, soon exhibits itself as a kind of enormous slug, having on each side a large membrane like a wing, covering half its body, and which it moves like a fin as it glides along, but which is not displayed unless the creature is in full vigour. There not being any running streams that can be termed rivers in Jersey, and but few ponds, there is very little fresh-water fish.

LANGUAGE.

The vernacular language is French. Divine service, and preaching, the pleadings at court, and the public acts, are all in good French; though, in legal documents, some obsolete forensic terms are still retained. The upper ranks understand and occasionally speak it; but, in

compliance with custom, and to avoid the appearance of an affected superiority, over the lower classes, they, too frequently, converse in the provincial tongue, or, as it is called, Jersey French.* This is a heterogeneous compound of antiquated French, intermixed with modern expressions and gallicised English words, so that it may be termed a kind of lingua franca: and it is pronounced, especially in the country districts, with a most abominable patois. The different parishes even vary in these respects, so that there are more dialects in the language of Jersey than in the ancient Greek. This medley is really disgraceful to the island, and it is extraordinary that no efforts have yet been made to remedy the defect. English is, however, becoming daily more and more prevalent; the necessity of comprehending the soldiery has made it understood, even by the market women: it would indeed be soon equally spoken throughout the island, as the present jargon, were it particularly encouraged. Political considerations seem to render this highly desirable. The author of the present work was so fully impressed with a sense of its importance, that he once formed a plan for more generally disseminating the English language in

* In this respect the Jersey gentry are more condescending than the higher inhabitants of Hamburgh. At the latter place, a master speaks to his servant in High German, and the other answers him in Low German: both understand each other: but de heer cannot pollute his lips with the vulgar dialect, and would feel it as a presumption, were his inferiour to use the polite one.

the island. He reasoned then, and he still reasons, thus: Jersey is situated on the very shore of France: in the vortex, as it were, of our, too frequently, most formidable and enterprising foe*; every mode of defence becomes, therefore, an object of moment. A regular military force will, doubtless, effect much; but the integral-the natural— strength of every country, is that intellectual band by which the inhabitants are united in sentiment;-in cordial and personal loyalty;-the results of animated affection.† Loyal indeed, and in an eminent degree, the islanders have always been but from their former comparatively trifling intercourse with Great Britain, and from the dissimilitude of language, their attachment to the mother country, and to the sovereign, seems in those days to have sprung chiefly from hereditary impression; scarcely from any genuine sympathy of heart towards the English themselves, in preference to the natives of other countries, or from any real congeniality, or approximation of character. It could not be otherwise; the greater part of the inha

* Strange it would appear to tell, were it not so glaring a truth, that

"Lands, intersected by a narrow frith,

"Abhor each other. Mountains interposed,

"Make enemies of nations, that had else,

"Like kindred drops, been mingled into one,"

COWPER.

+ See note towards the end of CIVIL AND MILITARY HISTORY.

bitants, living much within themselves, and farming their own small paternal inheritances. The annals of history sufficiently evince, that national uniformity, of every kind, has a centripetal force and tendency; like the blood, which, while it circulates through all the finest ramifications of the body, returns again to the heart. Noncon formity, on the contrary, generates a sort of public schism;-breaks a link in the national chain;-disorders the body politic. To allude only to modern times, and to British records: Why was the Highland dress forbidden to be worn in Scotland, after the rebellion of 1745? and why, in Ireland, were the names of White Boys, formerly, and of United Irishmen, of later date, so pointedly the objects of ministerial vigilance, even after the seditious phalanxes were broken; but lest the dress in one country, and the appellations in the other, should prove bonds of union ;-sources of compact ;-rallying points?

The internal communication throughout the island has been of late much promoted, and the intercourse with Great Britain considerably increased. These causes, together with the number of British troops, stationed in Jersey, during the war, have materially contributed to the diffusion of the English language. But a more direct encouragement would, in a few years, render Jersey, in

évery point, as it already is, in most respects, completely an English* island.

ANTIQUITIES.

This article may be comprised under three heads: these are, Druidical monuments; Gaulish and Roman coins, together with the remains of Roman fortifications; and Christian religious edifices.†

Of Druidical monuments,+ few remain at the present period; but it is conjectured that, formerly, there were many more, that have been removed to make room for the plough, or broken in pieces for the double purpose of erecting dwellings and enclosing fields.

Those of a decided character, now remaining, are, one at Anne Ville; one at Le Couperon; one supposed to be such, nearly covered with earth, at Plemont; and the remains of one, in a field named from it blanche pierre, a little to the N. of Le Mont Patibulaire. This last has been destroyed within thirty years from the present time,

• The term English is, in regard to Jersey, more consistent with the island constitution, than British would be.

+They will be found more particularly noticed in the descriptions that accompany the views.

See Note (I).