1831.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



453 



besides, are to be instructed in various 

 mechanical employments, and brought 

 to turn their hands to any thing useful 

 to the works of the mason, the car- 

 penter, the smith, &c knitting, knot- 

 ting, tailoring, &c. The friends of the 

 children will be invited to lend their as- 

 sistance in teaching their several trades, 

 and receive a compensation, in little 

 jobs of their own, done by the children, 

 washing, mending, &c., or a share in the 

 produce of the land. The scheme is 

 full of benevolence, and only requires 

 zealous agents to be productive of most 

 admirable results. Here and there the 

 proprietors of villages will meet with a 

 person ready to give up soul and body 

 to the realization of such a plan, and 

 then it will succeed, with only common 

 encouragement on their parts. But to 

 set mere mercenaries about such an oc- 

 cupation, will entail nothing but disap- 

 pointment upon the kind-hearted indi- 

 viduals who attempt to carry the scheme 

 into effect. 



Encyclopaedia Britanmca. Parts XI. 

 and XII. The new edition of the 

 Encyclopaedia Britannica, which inter- 

 weaves the whole of the well-known and 

 well-approved Supplement, and under- 

 takes to work up every article to the 

 period of publication, goes on steadily 

 fulfilling with great zeal and excellent 

 effect all its engagements. The exten- 

 sive subject of Anatomy, comprising 

 that of man, animals, and vegetables, 

 fills up almost the whole of the fasci- 

 culi before us. The Treatise is a very 

 competent epitome, and will, with the 

 illustrative plates, furnish all the infor- 

 mation that any unprofessional person 

 is likely to have occasion for. We know 

 of no volume of anatomy whatever 

 may be its professions of adaptation to 

 popular utility that will so completely 

 answer the general reader's purpose. 

 The ornamental part of the work is very 

 superior to that of the best of the ante- 

 cedent editions. 



Recollections of a Seven Years' Residence 

 in the Mauritius, or Isle of France. By 

 a Lady. The lady represents herself as 

 having quitted the West Indies with 

 her husband, and accompanied him to 

 the Mauritius, whither he went in the 

 fond hope of getting some official ap- 

 pointment of importance from the go- 

 vernor of the island. The situation he 

 obtained fell far short of his expecta- 

 tions, and what was worse, his duties 

 detained him in the town during the 

 unhealthy season, and he soon left his 

 wife a widow, and his children orphans. 

 The Recollections of the poor lady are 

 addressed to the surviving children, and 

 are, of course, tinged witn a lugubrious 

 colouring; but apart from the sad cir- 

 cumstances of her tale, the volume con- 



tains a very lively account of a region 

 but rarely the subject of description. 

 The French ladies, though devoted very 

 much to dress and gaiety, and but little 

 informed, she found universally ami- 

 able, and vastly improved by the nu- 

 merous intermarriages that have been 

 contracted with English officers and 

 English merchants. The Mauritius is 

 looked upon as the Montpellier of the 

 East many repair thither from India 

 for the recovery of their health, and are 

 often benefited. The lady seems to 

 think less favourably of it 



Contrary to the usual opinion in small islands, 

 the sea-breeze (she says) is considered highly in- 

 jurious by the inhabitants of Port-Louis, and is as 

 much dreaded by them as the malaria of Italy. 

 I thought at first this was a mere fanciful notion, 

 but when 1 had been some little time a resident 

 there, I found that the wind from the sea inva- 

 riably affected me with head-ache, and frequently 

 gave me cold. Most persons, I believe, experi- 

 enced the same effects from it, and it was conse- 

 quently generally excluded from the apartments 

 when it prevailed. 



It is not generally known that Hin- 

 doo convicts are sent to the Mauritius 

 from the Presidencies. 



Amongst the objects that arrested my attention 

 in passing through the country, I remember be- 

 ing struck with the appearance of the Hindoo 

 convicts at work on the roads. These are men 

 who have committed various offences in India, 

 and have been sent to the Mauritius (at the re- 

 quest, I believe, of Governor Farquhar) to be em- 

 ployed in this way. They were dispersed about 

 "the country in parties, under the command of an 

 English Serjeant, and had each a small ring 

 round one ancle, merely as a mark, for it is too 

 slight to be a punishment. They had a most 

 scowling aspect, and some particularly seemed to 

 me to be suited to the study of a painter in Salva- 

 tor Rosa's style the dark malignant glance, the 

 bent brow, the turban of dirty white, or dusky 

 red ; the loose drapery, only half clothing the 

 body, gave them a wild, picturesque appearance, 

 to which mountain scenery added still greater 

 effect. 



At Pamplemousses the most beauti- 

 ful spot in the island are the tombs of 

 Paul and Virginia still visited, it seems, 

 by all the young lieutenants and mid- 

 dies the moment they land upon the 

 island. The lady has no mercy upon 

 the illusion 



The fact is (she says) these tombs have been 

 built to gratify the eager desire which the Eng- 

 lish have always evinced to behold such interest- 

 ing mementos. Formerly only one was erected, 

 but the proprietor of the place finding that all the 

 English visitors', on being conducted to this, as 

 the tomb of Virginia, always asked to see that of 

 Paul also, determined on building a similar one, 

 to which he gave that appellation. Many have 

 been the visitors who have been gratified, conse- 

 quently, by the conviction that they had looked on 

 the actual burial-place of that unfortunate pair. 



