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Monthly Review of Literature, 



and to promote the improvement of the 

 natives: and these are, -to dispense justice; 

 to distribute lands and prevent encroach, 

 inents; to protect trade; to keep up politi- 

 cal intercourse ; to support the well-disposed 

 colonists ; to encourage the well-disposed 

 natives ; to impart instruction, civil and 

 religious ; and expend money, not in making 

 war, but in maintaining peace. Under each 

 of these heads the indefatigable and earnest 

 writer has collected a vast deal of informa- 

 tion calculated to show the weakness and the 

 wickedness of the old system, and the indis- 

 putable grounds that should urge us to 

 enforce a new one. The acquisitions that 

 have been made by usurpation have cost, 

 within these few years, sums treble their 

 worth in military expeditions to secure them. 

 Some of the money thus uselessly spent 

 might be usefully employed in sending 

 agents beyond the frontiers. " The very 

 least advantage to be gained from such 

 persons would be that we should know 

 what our neighbours are doing. In- 

 stead of adopting this advice, the old state 

 of ignorance is allowed to exist ; and the na- 

 tural consequences are, that in 1827, large 

 districts were stript of the inhabitants to be 

 sent, for weeks together, to the frontier, in 

 search of an enemy never seen. In 1828, a 

 far greater disturbance of our domestic 

 affairs takes place (pressing most heavily 

 upon the neediest class, the Hottentots); and 

 we attack a people who would have joined 

 us against the enemy we were seeking, and 

 whose great sufferings we ought to have 

 alleviated instead of aggravating. In 1829, 

 the same unacquaintedness with much nearer 

 neighbours, the Caffres, again fills the 

 whole colony with alarm and disturbance, 

 accompanied by the usual array of armed 

 men, and expensive military arrangements." 



Two things at moderate expense may, the writer 

 thinks, be proposed with advantage to promote a 

 better course. First, the adoption of the settlement 

 at Port Natal; and, secondly, the appointment of 

 a single commissioner for the interior. His usual 

 residence might be at the head of the river Key, 

 near the Moravian station in the Klippart branch ; 

 but he should visit the great chiefs, and be the organ 

 of communication with all the tribes from Natal to 

 Lattakoo. It is believed that 600,000 souls would 

 come within the immediate influence of his duties; 

 and that an impression would be made through 

 such an appointment, calculated to lead these 

 Africans, eager as they are well known to be for 

 improvement, to high civilization in a very few 

 years. The special duties of this commissioner 

 may be proposed in a few words. He should repre- 

 sent the king to the tribes subject to the governor 

 at the Cape. He should negotiate treaties with the 

 chiefs ; assist them in advancing the civilization of 

 their people; report all their complaints; reduce 

 their customs to writing; organize common laws 

 between them and us on all points, subject to the 

 approval of the Cape government; promote the 

 union of tribe after tribe with us; acquire their 

 language, and print annual reports concerning the 

 interior, in addition to making reports to the go- 

 vernor of the Cape every week upon all points con- 

 cerning his post, and upon the state of the tribes. 



If his yearly reports were published -in the Caps 

 newspapers, it would be the best guarantee for his 

 efficiency ; and, every year, ten-fold his salary 

 would be saved in the improvement which his in- 

 fluence must extend among the tribes, and also the 

 colonial border authorities. 



The Family Cabinet Atlas, Parti. The 

 numerous publications of maps of all sizes 

 indicate the general feeling of their import- 

 ance, not only as aids in the education of 

 youth, but for the use of all ages. Maps 

 have been too much neglected. They are 

 potent helps in presenting historical and 

 geographical relations clearly to the under- 

 standing, and fixing them in the memory. 

 By far the greater part of people read hi- 

 stories and travels with little or no reference 

 to maps; and the consequences are general 

 confusion, and a fast fading away, for the 

 want of that binding quality which they pe- 

 culiarly possess : they are the mordents of 

 literature, and of equal virtue with chrono- 

 logical tables and biographical charts. The 

 Family Atlas is destined by its size to ac- 

 company the many periodical works on all 

 sorts of subjects now publishing, and which 

 show better than any thing else how rapidly 

 and extensively the demand for books is 

 spreading. The scale of these maps is of 

 course very small, but the engraving is di- 

 stinct and neat. To avoid the crowding of 

 names, the principal places only are inserted 

 in the plates, and the less important are 

 thrown into alphabetical tables on the oppo- 

 site pages with latitudes and longitudes 

 affixed, by which their relative positions in 

 the maps may be readily ascertained. The 

 first portion has two plates, with the relative 

 lengths and heights of the principal rivers 

 and mountains in the globe. 



The Fortunes of Francesco Novella da 

 Carrara, Lord of Padna, an Historical 

 Tale (not a Novel) of the 14th Century, 

 from the Chronicles of Gataro, by David 

 Si/me, Esq. The house of Carrara is iden- 

 tified with the story of Padua throughout 

 the fourteenth century, and the fortunes of 

 FranscescoNovello, the last lord of the name, 

 have all the variety and interest of a ro- 

 mance. , The Carraras were Guelfs, and of 

 course in political conflict with their oppo- 

 nents, the predominant faction. In 1389 

 Francesco Vecchio, by the treacheries of his 

 counsellors corrupted by Galeazzo, the Lord 

 of Milan, was induced to resign and with- 

 draw toTreviso. The family, however, had 

 friends still stanch to their interests ; and his 

 son, Francesco Novello, was immediately re- 

 cognised chief of the state. Novello was 

 then about forty, and a man of considerable 

 experience ; active and resolute besides, and 

 not of a disposition to abandon readily his 

 rights. They were, however, soon lost, and 

 won and lost again. 



The story is circumstantially told by 

 Gataro, a name distinguished among the 

 chroniclers of Italy, and whose work consti- 

 tutes a portion of Muratoii's invaluable col- 



