more partially developed than their physical character. They are remarkably curious and inquisitive; and, compared with other Polynesian nations, may be said to possess considerable ingenuity, mechanical invention, and imitation. Totally unacquainted with the use of etters, their minds could not be improved by any regular, continued culture, yet the distinguishing features of their civil polity-their imposing nature-numerous observances and diversified ramifications of their mythology-the legends of their gods-the historical songs of their bards-the beautiful, figurative, and impassioned eloquence sometimes displayed in their national assemblies; and, above all, the copiousness, variety, precision, and purity of their language, with their extensive use of numbers, warrant the conclusion, that they possess no contemptible mental capabilities. This conclusion is supported by a variety of circumstances connected with their former state. Though unacquainted with the compass, they have names for the cardinal points. In their genealogical traditions, they extend backwards to early one hundred generations. They have names for each day and month of the moon-they do not, however, reckon time by days, but by nights. They are now gradually adopting the British mode of computing time. Their acquaintance with, and use of numbers, is very complete; and, considering their condition, surprising. Their mode of reckoning is by tens, or decimal numbers. The precision, regularity, and extent of their numbers is very astonishing-they reckon up to a million. Many of their numerals are precisely the same as those used by the people of several of the Asiatic islands, and in the remote and populous island of Madagascar. In counting, they usually employ a piece of the stalk of the cocoa-nut leaf, putting one aside for every ten, and gathering them up, and putting a larger one aside, for every hundred. The natives of most of the islands are remarkably fond of, and learn with great facility, the elements of arithmetic. That their mental powers are not inferior to those of the generality of mankind, has been more fully shown since the establishment of schools, and the introduction of letters. Not only have the children and young persons learned to read, write, cipher, and commit their lessons to memory with a facility not exceeded by individuals of the same age in any country; but the education of adults, and even persons advanced in years, which in England, with every advantage, is so difficult an undertaking, that nothing but the use of the best means and untiring application ever accomplish it, has been effected here with comparative ease. Multitudes who were upwards of 40 or 50 years of age when they commenced with the alphabet, have, in the course of twelve months, learned to read distinctly in the New Testament, large portions, and even whole books of which, some of them have in a short period committed to memory. They certainly appear to possess an aptness for learning, though the volatile disposition of the savage, and the indolence engendered by the climate, are great obstacles to steady advancement. The moral character of this people, though more fully developed than their intellectual capacity, often presents the most striking contradictions. Their hospitality has, ever since their discovery, been proverbial, yet this, like all savage virtues, is more mat

ter of custom and form than real benevolence, and along with it is mixed a selfish expectation of benefits in return. They are cheerful and good-natured-not inclined to give offence to each other-they live in amity in social life, free from domestic broils, yet not enjoying that more elegant state of domestic endearments which is only to be found in a state of advanced civilization. With all this, their moral habits are stained with the most brutal licentiousness, nor have they that salutary command over their passions and inclinations that befits a moral and accountable agent. They engage in various labours with great spirit for a time, but soon tire and give them up, from a deficiency of perseverance. Like most savages, they eat a great deal of food, though this is not of the most nutritious kind. They can also endure great occasional fatigue and abstinence. It is difficult to ascertain the average duration of their life, from the absence of all records; the presumption however, appears to be that they are equal in longevity to the inhabitants of temperate climates. The effect of intemperance and diseases introduced by Europeans, has tended no doubt to shorten the lives of many. In general, the mode of living is temperate, they retire early to rest, rise by break of day, and take that degree of exercise necessary for healthy existence. They are extremely clean in their habits, and bathe frequently. The original dress of the natives was composed of the bark of certain trees, beat into a fine soft texture, chiefly by the labour of the females. It was disposed in loose flowing folds around the waist-with the mano or girdle worn by the men. The head was usually uncovered, and in the females ornamented with natural flowers. The houses are constructed of wood and the leaves of trees-they have canoes, fishing boats, hooks, war clubs and spears. There are three ranks in the community at Tahiti:-the Eries or nobles who possess land-the Totous or cultivators of the soil, who are vassals to the former-and a third class who possess and cultivate portions of land of their own. In many of the islands Captain Cook discovered that the practice of eating human flesh was not unknown. In New Zealand they still continue cannibals. The Tahitians had a practice of sacrificing human victims to their deities. They believe in the existence of invisible beings of different orders, and call their gods Eatooas. They believe that Tapapa or the wife of their principal god gives origin to all the others. And from two of these Eatooas sprang originally all mankind. They believe that the soul has a separate existence after death-that for a time it takes up its abode in certain wooden images, and afterwards ascends to heaven.

Like all other nations on the earth they have a distant tradition of the deluge, modified of course according to their local situations and superstitions. They believe that the fate of the soul after death has no dependance on the conduct of the individual-the souls of good and bad men faring alike, yet they have an idea that the gods watch over human actions, and punish the wicked with an immediate and temporal affliction. The dead bodies are first laid in houses constructed for the purpose till the flesh rots from the bones, when the lat ter are burned in their maraes, which are also used for places of worship.

From whence these numerous islands of the Pacific were originally peopled is a matter not now easily to be conjectured. That they derived their inhabitants from some of the continents is highly probable, but which of these or by what chains of communication, whether in one direction or through several channels, is now a matter of pure speculation. Mr Ellis remarks, that a tabular view of a number of words in the Malayan, Asiatic or the Madagasse, the American and the Polynesian language, would probably show that at some remote period either the inhabitants of those distant parts of the world maintained frequent intercourse with each other, or that colonies from some one of these originally peopled in part or altogether the others. The striking analogy between the numerals and other parts of the language, and several of the customs of the original inhabitants of Madagascar and those of the Malays who inhabit the Asiatic islands, many thousands of miles distant in one direction, and of the Polynesians more remote in the other, shows that they were originally one people, or that they had emigrated from the same source. Many words in the language and several of the traditions, customs, &c. of the Americans so strongly resemble those of Asia, as to warrant the inference that they originally came from that part of the world. Whether some of the tribes who originally passed from Asia along the Kurih or Aleutian islands, across Behring's Straits to America left part of their number who were the progenitors of the present race inhabiting those islands, and that they at some subsequent period either attempting to follow the tide of emigration to the east or steering to the south, were by the north-east trade winds driven to the Sandwich Islands, whence they proceeded to the southern groups, or whether those who had traversed the north-west coast of America, sailed either from California or Mexico across the Pacific, under the favouring influence of the regular easterly winds, peopled Easter Island, and continued under the steady easterly or trade winds, advancing westward till they met the tide of emigration flowing from the larger groups of islands in which the Malays form the majority of the populationit is not now easy to determine.

But a variety of facts connected with the past and present circumstances of the inhabitants of these countries authorise the conclusion that either part of the present inhabitants of the South Sea islands came originally from America, or that tribes of the Polynesians have at some remote period found their way to the continent. The difficulties in the passage of the first inhabitants from the American continent to the most eastern islands of the Pacific are not greater than must have attended the passage of the same tribe between the Society and Sandwich Islands, and yet the identity of the inhabitants of these is unequivocal. It is difficult to say which group was first peopled. Evidence of great antiquity compared with the peopling of smaller islands may be adduced in favour of each. Mr Ellis is disposed to think the northern islands were first settled. Their genealogies extend much farther back. If it be supposed that any part of the American continent was settled by a maritime people, whether Malayan or Japanese, a portion of the same tribe who settled in Nootka, or whose remains are discovered in North America,

might, in vessels corresponding with those in which they passed the straits, proceed southwards to the Sandwich Islands, and thence spread over eastern Polynesia. The nations at present inhabiting the islands of the Pacific have undoubtedly been more extensively spread than they now are. In the most remote and solitary islands, occasionally discovered in recent years, such as Pitcairn's, on which the mutineers of the Bounty settled, and on Farming's island, near Christmas island, midway between the Society and Sandwich isles, although now desolate, relics of former inhabitants have been found. Pavements of floors, foundations of houses, and stone entrances have been discovered, and stone adzes or hatchets have been found at some distance from the surface, exactly resembling those in use among the people of the north and south Pacific at the time of their discovery. These facts prove that the nations now inhabiting these and other islands have been in former times more widely extended than they are at present. The monuments or vestiges of former population found in these islands are all exceedingly rude, and therefore warrant the inference that the people to whom they belonged were rude and uncivilized, and must have emigrated from a nation but little removed from a state of barbarism-a nation less civilized than those must have been who could have constructed vessels and traversed this ocean six or seven thousand miles against the regularly prevailing winds, which must have been the fact, if we con clude they were peopled only by the Malays.

On the other hand, it is easy to imagine how they could have proceeded from the east. The winds would favour their passage, and the incipient stages of civilization in which they were found would resemble the condition of the aborigines of America far more than that of the Asiatics. There are many well authenticated ac counts of long voyages performed in native vessels by the inhabitants of both the north and south Pacific. In 1696, two canoes were driven from Ancarso to one of the Philippine islands, a distance of 800 miles. They had run before the wind for 70 days together, sailing from east to west. Thirty-five had embarked, but five had died from the effects of privation and fatigue during the voyage, and one shortly after their arrival. In 1720, two canoes were drifted from a remote distance to one of the Marian islands. Captain Cook found in the islands of Wateo Artiu inhabitants of Tahiti, who had been drifted by contrary winds in a canoe from some islands to the eastward unknown to the natives. Several parties have within the last few years reached the Tahitian shores, from islands to the eastward, of which the Society islanders had never before heard. In 1820, a canoe arrived at Maurua, about 30 miles west of Borabora, which had come from Rurutu, one of the Austral islands. This vessel had been at sea between a fortnight and three weeks, and considering its route must have sailed seven or eight hundred miles. A more recent instance occurred in 1824. A boat belong ing to Mr Williams of Raiatea left that island with a westerly wind for Tahiti. The wind changed after the boat was out of sight of land. They were driven to the island of Atiu, a distance of nearly 800 miles in a southwesterly direction, where they were discovered several months afterwards. The traditions of the inhabitants

of Rarotonga, one of the Hervey Islands, preserve the most satisfactory accounts not only of single parties at different periods, for many generations back, having arrived there from the Society Islands, but also derive the origin of the population from Raiatea.

It is gratifying to find that the labours of the missionaries, notwithstanding many obstructions and difficulties, have in a great measure succeeded in establishing Christianity in many of these interesting islands-schools are also extensively established and the natives taught o read and write in considerable numbers. It is a work of great time to fix the volatile attention, and bring in the licentious morals of savages, yet few scenes are more full of cheering hope to the philanthropist than the anticipations of the final civilization of this extensive mass of the wanderers of mankind.

In Pitcairn's Island are the descendants of the mutineers of the Bounty, a race of half Britons and half Tahitians-this interesting colony under the tuition of

MEMOIR OF JOHN

THIS memoir, prefixed to a posthumous work of the author, and written with much simple pathos, by Mrs Loudon, affords one of those instructive examples of how much may be achieved even under many difficulties, by unremitting habits of industry. It is on this account, as affording wholesome instruction, that we here give it somewhat in detail.

JOHN CLAUDIUS LOUDON was born on the 8th of April, 1783, at Cambuslang, in Lanarkshire, the residence of his mother's only sister, herself the mother of Dr Claudius Buchanan (the author of a work entitled Christian Researches in Asia,) whose labours in India, in attempting to convert and instruct the Hindoos, have made his name celebrated in the religious world. Mr Loudon was the eldest of a large family; and his father, who was a farmer, residing at Kerse Hall, near Gogar, about five miles from Edinburgh, being a man of enlightened mind and superior information, was very anxious that he should have every possible advantage in his education. Strange to say, however, Mr Loudon, when a boy, though fond of books, had an insuperable aversion from learning languages, and no persuasion could induce him to study Latin and French, though his father had a master from Edinburgh purposely to teach him the latter language. At this early period, however, a taste for landscape-gardening began to show itself, as his principal pleasure was in making walks and beds in a little garden his father had given him; and so eager was he to obtain seeds to sow in it, that, when a jar of tamarinds arrived from an uncle in the West Indies, he gave the other children his share of the fruit, on condition of his having all the seeds. While yet quite a child, he was sent to live with an uncle in Edinburgh, that he might attend the classes at the public schools. Here he overcame his dislike to Latin, and made extraordinary progress in drawing and arithmetic. He also attended classes of botany and chemistry, making copious notes, illustrated with very clever pen-and-ink sketches. Still he could not make up his mind to learn French, till one day, when he was about fourteen, his uncle, showing a fine French engraving to a friend, asked his nephew to translate the title. This he could not do; and the deep shame and mortification which he felt, and which he never afterwards forgot, made him determine to acquire the language. Pride, however, and a love of independence, which was ever one of his strongest feelings, prevented him from applying to his father to defray the expense; and he actually paid his master himself, by the sale of a translation which he afterwards made for the editor of a periodical then * Self-Instruction for Young Gardeners.

their veteran father Adams, appear from Captain Beechy's account to be trained up in a most moral and Christian manner, and exhibit all the amiable simplicity of beings uncontaminated with many of the vices of the world. Even from the multiplication and diffusion of this race, much future benefit to the islands may be anticipated.

The late seizure of Tahiti by the French-the dispersion of the English missionaries, and the state of suspense and warfare in which the poor unoffending inhabitants have been kept for the last two years, has no doubt tended to the retardation of civilization in all the South Sea islands-but a beneficial work of the kind was never yet accomplished without many drawbacks and difficulties-and the time may yet arrive when the voice of peace and the humanizing sounds of Christianity may give place to wanton and unprovoked aggression and all the horrors of war.

CLAUDIUS LOUDON.

publishing in Edinburgh. He subsequently studied Italian, and paid his master in the same manner. He also kept a journal from the time he was thirteen, and continued it for nearly thirty years; writing it for many years in French, in order to familiarise himself with the language.

Among all the studies which Mr Loudon pursued while in Edinburgh, those he preferred were writing and drawing. The first he learned from Mr Paton, afterwards father to the celebrated singer of that name. Drawing was, however, his favourite pursuit; and in this he made such proficiency, that, when his father at last consented to his being brought up as a landscape-gardener, he was competent to take the situation of draughtsman to Mr John Mayer, at Easter Dalry, near Edinburgh; and, while with him, Mr Loudon learned a good deal of gardening generally, particularly of the management of hothouses. Unfortunately, Mr Mayer died before his pupil was sixteen; and for three or four years afterwards Mr Loudon resided with Mr Dickson, a nurseryman and planner in Leith Walk, where he acquired an excellent knowledge of plants. There he boarded in Mr Dickson's house; and, though remarkable for the nicety of his dress, and the general refinement of his habits, his desire of improvement was so great, that he regularly sat up two nights in every week, to study, drinking strong green tea to keep himself awake; and this practice of sitting up two nights in every week he continued for many years. While at Mr Dickson's, he attended classes of botany, chemistry, and agriculture; the last under Dr Coventry, who was then Professor of Agriculture in the University of Edinburgh, and he was considered by that gentleman to be his most promising pupil.

In 1803 he first arrived in London. The following day he called on Mr Sowerby, Mead Place, Lambeth, who was the first gentleman he visited in England; and he was exceedingly delighted with the models and mineralogical specimens, which were so admirably arranged, as to give him the greatest satisfaction from his innate love of order; and he afterwards devised a plan for his own books and papers, partly founded on that of Mr Sowerby, but much more complete.

As he brought a great number of letters of recommendation to different noblemen and gentlemen of landed property, many of them being from Dr Coventry, with whom he was a great favourite, he was soon extensively employed as a landscape-gardener; and his journal is filled with accounts of his tours in various parts of England. It is curious, in turning over his memoranda, to

find how many improvements suggested themselves to his active mind, which he was unable, from various cireumstances, to carry into effect at the time, but which, many years afterwards, were executed either by himself or by other persons, who, however, were unaware that he had previously suggested them.

When Mr Loudon first arrived in London, he was much struck with the gloomy appearance of the gardens in the centre of the publie squares, which were then planted almost entirely with evergreens, particularly with Scotch pines, yews, and spruce firs; and before the close of the year 1803, he published an article in a work called The Literary Journal, which he entitled, " Observations on laying out the Public Squares of London." In this article he blamed freely the taste which then prevailed, and suggested the great improvement that would result from banishing the yews and firs (which always looked gloomy from the effect of the smoke on their leaves,) and mingling deciduous trees with the other evergreens. He particularly named the Oriental and Occidental plane trees, the sycamore, and the almond, as ornamental trees that would bear the smoke of the city; and it is curious to observe how exactly his suggestions have been adopted, as these trees are now to be found in almost every square in London.

About this time he appears to have become a member of the Linnean Society, probably through the interest of Sir Joseph Banks, to whom he had brought a letter of introduction, and who, till his death in 1820, continued his warm friend. At the house of Sir Joseph Banks, Mr Loudon met most of the eminent scientific men of that day, and the effect produced by their conversation on his active mind may be traced in his Journal. Among many other interesting memoranda of new ideas that struck him about this period, is one as to the expediency of trying the effects of charcoal on vegetation, from having observed the beautiful verdure of the grass on a spot where charcoal had been burnt. He appears, however, to have thought no more at that time on the subject, or to have forgotten it, as, when he afterwards wrote on charcoal, he made no allusion to this fact.

In 1804, having been employed by the Earl of Mansfield to make some plans for altering the palace gardens at Scone in Perthshire, he returned to Scotland and remained there several months, laying out grounds for many noblemen and gentlemen. While thus engaged, and while giving directions for planting and managing woods, and on the best mode of draining and otherwise improving estates, several ideas struck him, which he afterwards embodied in a book published in Edinburgh by Constable and Co., and by Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, in London. This, then, was the first work of Mr Loudon's presented to the public through the Messrs Longman, with whom he continued to transact business of the same nature for nearly forty years.

Before Mr Loudon left Edinburgh, he published another work, entitled A short Treatise on some Improvements lately made in Hothouses. This was in 1805; and the same year he returned to England. On this second voyage to London, he was compelled by stress of weather to land at Lowestoffe; and he took such a disgust at the sea, that he never afterwards travelled by it if it was possible to go by land. He now resumed his labours as a landscape-gardener; and his Journal is filled with the observations he made, and the ideas that suggested themselves of improvements on all he saw. Among other things, he made some remarks on the best mode of harmonising colours in flower-gardens, which accord, in a very striking manner, with the principles afterwards laid down by M. Chevreul in his celebrated work entitled De la Loi du Contraste simultane des Couleurs, published in Paris in 1839. Mr Loudon states that he had observed that flower-gardens looked best when the flowers were so arranged as to have a compound colour next the simple one, which was not contained in it. Thus, as there are only three simple colours, blue, red, and yellow, he ad

vises that purple flowers, which are composed of blue and red, should have yellow next them; that orange flow. ers, which are composed of red and yellow, should be contrasted with blue; and that green flowers, which are composed of blue and yellow, should be relieved by red. He accounts for this on the principle that three parts are required to make a perfect whole; and he compares the union of the three primitive colours formed in this manner with the common chord in music; an idea, which has since been worked out by several able writers." He had also formed the plan of a Pictorial Dictionary, which was to embrace every kind of subject, and to be. illustrated by finished woodcuts printed with the type.

During the greater part of the year 1806 Mr Loudou was actively engaged in landscape-gardening; and towards the close of that year, when returning from TreMadoc, in Caernarvonshire, the seat of W. A. Madocks, Esq., he caught a violent cold by travelling on the outside of a coach all night in the rain, and neglecting to change his clothes when he reached the end of his journey. The cold brought on a rheumatic fever, which settled finally in his left knee, and, from improper medical treatment, terminated in a stiff joint-a circumstance which was of great annoyance to him, not only at the time when it occurred, but during the whole of the remainder of his life. This will not appear surprising when it is considered that he was at that period in the prime of his days, and not only remarkably healthy and vigorous in constitution, but equally active and independent in mind. While suffering from the effects of the complaint in his knee, he took lodgings at a farm-house at Pinner, near Harrow; and, while there, the activity of his mind made him anxiously inquire into the state of English farming. He also amused himself by painting several landscapes, some of which were exhibited at the Royal Academy, and by learning German, paying his expenses, as he had done before when he learned French, by selling for publication a pamphlet which he had translated by way of exercise. In this case, the translation being of a popular work, it was sold to Mr Cadell for L.15. He also took lessons in Greek and Hebrew. The following extract from his journal in 1806 will give some idea of his feelings at this period:--" Alas! how have I neglected the important task of improving myself! How much I have seen, what new ideas have developed themselves, and what different views of life I have acquired since I came to London three years ago! I am now twenty-three years of age, and perhaps onethird of my life has passed away, and yet what have I done to benefit my fellow-men?"

Mr Loudon, during the length of time he was compelled to remain at Pinner, became so interested respecting English farming, and so anxious that the faults he observed in it should be corrected, that he wrote to his father, stating the capability of the soil, and the imperfect state of the husbandry, and urging him to come to England. It happened that at this period the farm called Wood Hall, where he had been staying so long, was to be let, and Mr Loudon, senior, in consequence of the recommendation of his son, took it, and removed to it in 1807. The following year Mr Loudon, who was then residing with his father at Wood Hall, wrote a pamphlet on the improvement of agriculture. This pamphlet excited a great deal of attention; and General Stratton, a gentleman possessing a large landed estate, called Tew Park, in Oxfordshire, having read it, was so much interested in the matter it contained, that he offered him a portion of his property at a low rate, in order that he might undertake the management of the rest, and thus introduce Scotch farming into Oxfordshire.

The farm which Mr Loudon took from General Stratton, and which was called Great Tew, was nearly eighteen miles from the city of Oxford, and it contained upwards of 1500 acres. "The surface," as he describes it," was diversified by bold undulations, hills, and steeps, * See notice of Mr Hay on Colouring, in Torch No. 8.

and the soil contained considerable variety of loam, clay, and light earth, on limestone and red rock. It was, however, subdivided in a manner the most unsuitable for arable husbandry, and totally destitute of carriage roads. In every other respect it was equally unfit for northern agriculture, having very indifferent buildings, and being greatly in want of draining and levelling." At this place he established a kind of agricultural college for the instruction of young men in rural pursuits; some of these, being the sons of landed proprietors, were under his own immediate superintendence; and others who were placed in a second class, were instructed by his bailiff, and intended for land-stewards and farm-bailiffs. A description of this college, and of the improvements effected at Great Tew, was given to the public in 1809. Mr Loudon's farming operations proved so successful that he realized upwards of L.15,000; and he now determined to relax his labours, and gratify his taste by a visit to the Continent, which he did in 1813. He landed at Gottenburgh, and passed through Sweden and Fomerania to Berlin.

He remained at Berlin from the 14th of May to the 1st of June, and then proceeded to Frankfort on the Oder. Here, at the table d'hote, he dined with several Prussian officers, who, supposing him to be a Frenchman, sat for some time in perfect silence; but, on hearing him speak German, one said to the other, "He must be English;" and when he told them that he came from London, they all rose, one springing over the table in his haste, and crowded round him, shaking hands, kissing him, and overwhelming him with compliments, as he was the first Englishman they had ever seen. He then proceeded through Posen to Warsaw, where he arrived on the 6th of June.

Afterwards he travelled towards Russia, but was stopped at the little town of Tykocyn, and detained there three months, from some informality in his passport. When this difficulty was overcome, he proceeded by Grodno to Wilna, through a country covered with the remains of the French army, horses and men lying dead by the road-side, and bands of wild-looking Cossacks scouring the country. On entering Kosnow three Cossacks attacked his carriage, and endeavoured to carry off the horses, but they were beaten back by the whips of the driver and servants. At Mitton he was obliged to sleep in his britzska, as every house was full of the wounded; and he was awakened in the night by the cows and other animals, of which the inn yard was full, eating the hay which had been put over his feet to keep them warm. He reached Riga on the 30th of September, and found the town completely surrounded by a barricade of waggons, which had been taken from the French. Between this town and St Petersburg, while making a drawing of a picturesque old fort, he was taken up as a spy; and, on his examination before the prefect, he was nuch amused at hearing the comments made on his notebook, which was full of unconnected memoranda, and which puzzled the magistrates and their officers excessively when they heard it translated into Russ.

Mr Loudon reached St Petersburg on the 30th of October, just before the breaking up of the bridge, and he remained there three or four months; after which he proceeded to Moscow, where he arrived on the 4th of March 1814, after having encountered various difficulties on the road. Once, in particular, the horses in his carriage being unable to drag it through a snow-drift, the postillions very coolly unharnessed them and trotted off, telling him that they would bring fresh horses in the morning, and that he would be in no danger from the wolves, if he would keep the windows of his carriage close, and the leather curtains down. There was no remedy but to submit; and few men were better fitted by nature for bearing the horrors of such a night than Mr Loudon, from his natural calmness and patient endurance of difficulties. He often, however, spoke of the situation he was in, particularly when he heard the howl

ing of the wolves, and once when a herd of them rushed across the road close to his carriage. He had also some doubts whether the postillions would be able to recollect where they had left the carriage, as the wind had been very high during the night, and had blown the snow through the crevices in the curtains. The morning. however, brought the postulions with fresh horses, and the remainder of the journey was passed without any difficulty.

When he reached Moscow, he found the houses yet black from the recent fire, and the streets filled with the ruins of churches and noble mansions. Soon after his arrival, news was received of the capture of Paris, and the entrance of the allied sovereigns into that city; but the Russians took this intelligence so coolly, that though it reached Moscow on the 25th of April, the illuminations in honour of it did not take place till the 5th of May. He left Moscow on the 2d of June, and reached Kiov on the 15th. Here he had an interview with General Rapp, on account of some informality in his passport. He then proceeded to Cracow, and thence to Vienna; after which he visited Prague, Dresden, and Leipsic, passing through Magdeburg to Hamburg, where he embarked for England, and reached Yarmouth on the 27th of September 1814.

After his return to England, it would appear that Mr Loudon embarked largely in some mercantile concerns, by which he lost nearly the whole of his property, and he was again thrown on the resources of his indefatigable industry. He now devoted his time principally to nis pen, and began to collect materials for his Encyclopaedia of Gardening, and other works, and in order to procure information for these works, he again visited France and Italy in 1819.

As soon as he reached home, he began the Encyclopædia of Gardening, at which he worked with little intermission till it was finished, though he was suffering severely at the time from chronic rheumatism in his right arm; the pain from which became at length so intolerable, that in 1820 he was compelled to call in medical aid; and being recommended to try Mahomed's vapour baths, he went down to Brighton for that purpose. Here, notwithstanding the extreme torture he suffered from the shampooing and stretching, he submitted to both with so much patience, that they were continued by the operators till they actually broke his right arm so close to the shoulder as to render it impossible to have it set in the usual manner, and consequently it never united properly, though he continued to use his hand to write with for several years.

During the whole of the year 1823, he suffered most excruciating pain, not only from his right arm, the bone of which had never properly united, and to retain which in its place he was compelled to wear an iron case night and day, but from the rheumatism which had settled in his left hand, and which contracted two of his fingers and his thumb, so as to render them useless. It is, however, worthy of remark, and quite characteristic of Mr Loudon, that, at the very time he was suffering such acute bodily pain, he formed the plan of his houses in Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, and superintended the building of them himself, rising at four o'clock every morning, that he might be on the spot when the workmen came to their work.

In 1824 a second edition was published of the Encyclopædia of Gardening, in which the work was nearly all rewritten, and very considerable additions were made to it. In the following year, 1825, the Encyclopædia of Agriculture was written and published. These extensive and laborious works following closely upon each other, in Mr Loudon's state of health, speak strongly as to his unparalleled energy of mind. When, shortly after, his right arm was broken a second time, and he was obliged to submit to amputation, though he gave up landscapegardening, it was only to devote himself more assiduously to his pen. He was, however, now no longer able