"One of the principal arguments, if such it can be called, by which some have sought to prove their incapacity for civilization, is the circumstance of their having so rapidly melted away before the encroachments of the whites, and having so seldom become incorporated with their invaders. But any other result must have been almost miraculous. Let it be recollected that the whites, not contented with destroying themselves as many as they could, took every opportunity of artfully instigating war between one tribe and another; and that on every occasion on which the various European settlers themselves fell out and fought, each party collected to its aid multitudes of Indian warriors, to be food for the weapons of their destructive warfare. In the contests between the French and British colonists, in the revolutionary war, and in the recent unhappy renewal of hostilities,

without reason or pity, involved in contests in which they were no wans were,

interested,

and crushed between the two contending powers, like grain between the millstones. Rancorous hatred to the whites and to each other, has been promoted in every possible way; spirituous liquors copiously administered for the basest of purposes; immorality of every kind eagerly promoted, loathsome and hitherto unknown diseases propagated; instruction of every kind withheld from them; and yet in the face of all this, we are called upon to hold up our hands like simpletons, and wonder that the Indians have disappeared!" shrotjesmon li

Let us, however, hear both sides: Mr. Duncan quotes from a leading American the most foreible condensation of the line of argument which he controverts:

"It is tolerably well ascertained,' says the journalist, that they (the Indians) cannot support the neighbourhood of civilization. Foreign and ignorant judges may sneer at this, but it is a simple fact ascertained by experience. To take measures to preserve the Indians, is to measures to preserve so much barbarity, helplessness, and want, to the exclusion of so much industry and thriftiness.-The object of true humanity is, not blindly to better the condition of a given individual whether he will be bettered or not, but to put a happier individual in the place of a less happy one! If it can be done by changing the nature of the latter, it is well; if it cannot, leave him to the operation of his character and habits, do not resist the order of Providence which is carrying him away, and when he is gone, a civilized man will step into his place and your end is attained.'”y ton and tadi dari su itsek bap sn't z{$$6%!! ་་་་་ སྟེ bin speaking of the original peopling of America, Mr. Duncan comes to a conclusion, that the various remnants of antiquity in the State of the Ohio, and elsewhere, are not of Indian origin. The human bones found in some of these tumuli, and the fragments of armour composed of copper, overlaid with silver, bespeak a different people; for until the arrival of the Europeans, the Indians were entirely unacquainted with metals, and the bones which have been excavated denote quite a different race of men; nor have the Indians any sort of tradition concerning these relics. The following account of three distinct Indian languages is curious:

"Among the Indians who formerly peopled that part of the continent which lies east of the Mississippi, three languages appear to have been spoken, radically different from each other. At least all the dialects, of which any vestiges survive, have been satisfactorily traced to one or other of three great sources; among which as yet no affinity has been detected, except that of a somewhat similar grammatical structure. We should probably err, however, were we to decide that these nations were not originally of a common origin. They were unacquainted with letters, and their languages were therefore liable to perpetual change; and as it is but lately that these supposed primitive tongues have been reduced to so small aj number,siti seems not improbable that farther investigation may limit them yet more ho to These languages have been called the Iroquois, the Lenape, and the Floridian. The first is the origin of the dialects spoken by the Six Nations, to which Phave already alluded, and other tribes formerly existing north of the St. Lawrence. second was spoken by the Delawares and others, once occupying the greater part of the interior of the United States! The third is spoken by the Creeks, and others in the southern States, and Floridazol eginbobet jantinas somin vitusupsedca saad jave The Lenapé tongue appears to have prevailed much more extensively than either of the others, and was, so far as we yet know, much more copious and systematic.”

THE LITERARY EXAMINER.
BIKIMAZA YŁASHTLI SHT

355

Its grammatical system is highly artificial, and disappoints completely every a priori idea which we can have of an unwritten language spoken by roving hunters. In place of the division of nouns into the genders, it recognises only the distinctions of animate and inanimate, and this classification passes also into verbs. It possesses a singular, dual, and two plurals, a particular and a general. In the verb, the variety of moods and tenses appears to have exceeded that of the Greek; and its flexion is modified not only by pronominal prefixes and affixes, as in the Hebrew, but also by others having an adverbial and conjunctive power. The verb enters besides into combination with nouns, adjectives, and prepositions, with a facility unknown in European languages, so that a very complicated idea which in modern languages would require a circumlocution, is intelligibly condensed in the Lenapé into a single word, expressive of person, action, time, place, and circumstance. From this characteristic of the Indian languages, for it extends throughout them all, an American writer has given them the very appropriate epithet of polysynthetic. "The language of the Iroquois is thought to exist in its purest state in the Mohawk dialect. The other five nations readily understand what is written in the Mohawk, although each individually has a different tongue. The Iroquois seems not to have been so critically analyzed as the Lenapé, but so far as has been yet ascertained, it corresponds in most of its grammatical peculiarities, particularly that of being polysynthetic. It recognizes, however, the distinction of masculine and feminine to agil ods le con.

no

is less known than either of the others, and with regar certain

dialects prevalent to the westward of the Mississippi, there seems to exist no information." godt ted? ' „Jellanmnot

The comparison drawn by Mr. Duncan between the inhabitants of the two banks of the river St. Lawrence is very amusing, and the difference is pleasantly illustrated by the following passagegrad "Were a canal cut from Montreal to La Chine, a distance of only nine miles, those troublesome rapids which intervene would be avoided, and the necessity superseded which at present exists of transporting so far, by land, all the merchandise which goes up the country. Such a canal has been talked of for about twenty years, and some time ago 25,000l. was voted for it, by the provincial legislature. Farther than this it has not yet advanced. In the meantime these fidgetty Yan kees are pushing vigorously forward their canal of 364 miles between lake Erie and the Hudson, and the other of 60, between the Hudson and lake Champlain; and possibly when they have the whole finished, they may take a fancy to cross the St. Lawrence, and in a mere frolic turn up the nine miles between Montreal and La Chine; it will hardly be a fortnight's work for them."

The ascertainment of the scientific line agreed upon for the boun dary between the United States and Canada, it seems, has produced unexpected results to both sides :

"About eleven miles from Isle aux Noix we pass Rousse's Point, upon the western bank, where a very fine semicircular stone fort has been erected since last war by the American Government. This in the event of future hostilities would have been, in the hands of the Americans, a complete safeguard against the advance of any hos Commis

tile squadron from Canada; but it has lately been whispered that the between

sioners for ascertaining the forty-fifth parallel of latitude, the boundary line the two countries, have discovered that this fine fort stands on British ground, and will of course become an unintentional present from the United States to his majesty. The chief astronomer employed on behalf of Britain was a passenger with me in the steam boat, but he preserved a very prudent silence, and declined answering any questions on the subject."

The following account of the commemoration of St. Andrew's day a New York is very characteristic, both of Mr. Duncan and of the mixture of old and new sentiment which necessarily prevails among the various classes of emigrants from the old world: adt to this edt ei temi sah

900stwal je sdy to ditod advice vitamnet exdiaredto bãs babulle yheaths This report was eventually confirmed, and excited not a little exultation on the one side, and mortification on the other. The theodolites of the astronomers how ever have subsequently made another discovery, less to the faste of the Canadians, which is, that the only navigable channel of the Long Sault rapid is on the American side of the line, and of course that our boats must ask leave to navigate itin abo

Nov. 30th. St. Andrew's day. A broad blue banner is flying from one of the windows of the City Hotel, blent with the silver cross, to Scotia dear, and at half past four I go like a true Scotsman to dine with the St. Andrew's Society of NewYork. My heart throbbed high as I passed along Broadway, after breakfast, and saw the national banner waving over the democratic heads of the New YorkersScotland for ever! o integ9,204 ni tole » 1912 (anoor data that i

"Dec. 1st. I was sadly mortified last night;-a miserably insipid mixture of Yankeeism and Land-of-Cakeism; neither one nor other, but both spoiled.

"At four I repaired with Mr. to the hotel; paid five dollars for a ticket, and was introduced in due form to the president pro tempore of the Society.* He and the other office-bearers received their brither Scots in the large dancing hall of the hotel; they were conspicuous among the men of the north countrie, by broad blue and white collars, from which hung a large medallion of the patron of Scotland.

"While dinner was serving in the adjoining room, our national feelings were roused by a brawny limbed son of the mountains, who with the drone of a pair of immense bagpipes under his arm, strutted up and down the hall, braying Scottish airs with all his might. By and by the dinner bell rang, the ample portal was thrown open, and the northern tide flowed in The Campbells are coming aho! aho!' The president took post at the convex extremity of a large horse-shoe table, the vice-presidents at either end, and when all had arranged themselves in due order, the chaplain of the society, Dr. -,was called upon to officiate. The gillies of the hotel, however, had neglected to give the signal in the antichamber, and while the reverend clergyman was raising his voice within, the pipes were still vociferating without, so that the sounds drowned each other and we lost the benefit of both.

"As soon as the covers were removed, my eyes ran over the ample board in quest of the barley kail, the smoking sheep's head and trotters, the sonsy haggis, Wha's pin wad help to mend a mill, ao antes de In time o' needs baseidetzo no sta

But alas! these national luxuries found no place in the bill of fare; even a solitary fragment of oatmeal cake was not to be seen. A sumptuous dinner was before us, but not a solitary dish that was characteristic of our native land.* The toasts how, ever I expected would be more commemorative of auld langsyne, and the music exclusively national-presently some scrapers of catgut, perched in the orchestra, twisted Yankee Doodle out of their asthmatic instruments, and scarcely was a Scottish tune given us during the whole of the evening, whose effect was not immediately neutralized by an American one.

"By and by the cloth was removed, and the president gave the word, The day, and all that honour it; which was repeated at right and left by the croupiers, and swallowed with enthusiasm. Scotland the land of our nativity,' America the country of our adoption,' followed in due course. The President of the United States; rather too soon, thought I. 'The King of Great Britain and all friendly powers;'-The King of Great Britain and all friendly powers!—and is it only because he is one of the friendly powers, that Scotsmen at a national anniversary drink their good old king's health! It needed the king's anthem, which followed this toast, and would have needed more, to make it palatable. The Vice President of the United States, elevated by the voice of a free and intelligent people, to the second situation in the only representative government upon earth.'. Och-hon a-ree! Och-hon a-ree! and are Scotsmen in America so utterly regardless of their country's renown, that they thus at a St. Andrew's dinner slight the sovereign of the land, and slander its free constitution-the envy and the admiration of the whole world?-and all because the Vice President of the United States, and the Mayor of New York, had honoured the Society with their company? Truly such Scotsmen should abjure the name."

The President was at that time in England.

On remonstrating afterwards with one of the office-bearers of the society on the inconsistency of such a St. Andrew's dinner, he told me that the cook had tried on one occasion to manufacture a haggis, but that the appetites of the Americo-Scotsmen had become too refined to relish such fare. They sipped a morsel or from the point of a tea spoon, and then hollowed out" Waiter, take away this" Į heard in another quarter that into the said haggis a few raisins had been introduced, as an American improvement; but this I could hardly think possible.

Under the head of New York, which concludes these very able and instructive volumes, is comprehended much of the general observation and characteristic remark which form no mean part of their value,the remarks of Mr. Duncan upon that slavery, the existence of which forms so great and inconsistent a blot in the otherwise fair social and political pretensions of the United States. It is not, however, by a blind attention to American delinquency alone, in this particular, that our author distinguishes himself; on the contrary, he admits that the introduction of slavery in America was against the wishes of the early colonists a point also ably set forward in the recent publication of Mr. Barham, who shows that both in the West Indies and the Anglo-American states, Great Britain at once both established and protected the nefarious trade and system of Slavery, the consequences of which are now becoming so great a source of perplexity in all three. Mr. Duncan observes, that when the United States became indepen dent, they should have done away with slavery; and then proceeds to remark, that some of the them have done so, but that others hold fast to the system with the utmost tenacity. True, with precisely the s the same sort of tenacity which characterises the West Indian proprietor; and what argument can be used against the consequent procrastination in the federal government, which is not equally applicable to our own in regard to the West Indian colonies? The silly boast that a slave cannot exist on British ground where they are not wanted, while they are an established property where they can be made useful, is not á whit less inconsistent than the correspondent vaunts in regard to the only land of freedom, so frequent in the mouths of the Americans. In point of fact, the struggles of property and self-interest are very similar in both countries, and if the faultless are to throw the first stone, a stone will never be thrown. This, in regard to the main question;-in reference to many of the incidental iniquities growing out of the system of slavery in the United States, Mr. Duncan is more successful; and he mentions one or two in relation to the kidnapping of free negroes, which are of the very essence of shameful oppression and injustice.*

Mr. Duncan is very amusing upon the newspaper press of America, which, with certain exceptions, seems to be planned upon the model of our Irish journals, and to exhibit in point of party hostility, and personal attack, a very close resemblance. They however fall short of England, Ireland, and Scotland, in one particular, the con struction of journals under the protection of party, with a view to malignant attack, slander, and annoyance alone. They have neither Blackwoods, Bulls, Beacons, nor Antidotes at present; for, although their inferior prints can scold coarsely enough, they display little of that concentrated and quintessential rancour and malignity, a small portion of which, like the newly discovered acetate of morphine, can poison with safety, and assassinate without redress.

With respect to American literature, the sentiments of Mr. Duncan seem to us to be eminently sound-the observations upon the operation of periodical criticism especially. That it may now and then operate to alarm and repress peculiar genius, we allow, but that it tends to

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