CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 105 



When it is considered how much the intercourse, the civilization, 

 and the happiness of mankind depend upon navigation, and that the 

 peril of the ship lies chiefly within the range of the shore tide, we 

 must admit that of all subjects, this is one of the most general in- 

 terest ; and yet it is one which not only the public, but many of 

 those whose lives are spent on the sea, incredible as it may appear, 

 understand very imperfectly. In this investigation some new ex- 

 planations of the actual tides are given, and some of their most im- 

 portant results, which have been hitherto overlooked, are stated 

 with great clearness and precision. 



We have thus given a few of the leading features of this vo- 

 lume ; and, could we have afforded space, we should have been 

 well disposed to have considerably extended them. It is a work 

 (we speak of the four volumes) which ought to be on the library- 

 table of the middle-aged and the young of all classes ; for the infor- 

 mation contained in each volume is valuable to every thinking per- 

 son, most instructive to those whose attention has not hitherto been 

 devoted to such subjects, and most amusing to those to whom the 

 knowledge is familiar, as a refresher on topics with which no man 

 can be too well impressed. 



Baxter's oil-colour printing is in this volume, as in its compani- 

 ons, a most charming illustration. The " Evening on the Sea" is 

 a beautiful specimen of the art, which cannot fail to elicit admira- 

 tion wheresoever a taste for such exquisite embellishments is culti- 

 vated. 



Observations upon the Instinct of Animals. By Sir John Sebright, 

 Bart. London : Gossling and Egley, New Bond-street. 1836. 



It is evident that the author had the capability, if he had pos- 

 sessed the inclination, to have extended these Observations to at 

 least a moderate-sized volume ; but having limited them to a pam- 

 phlet of sixteen pages only, they are, in their present shape, a mere 

 epitome of his thoughts and experience. Sir John Sebright has 

 always been a practical man — ever aiming at bringing to perfection 

 either his own speculations or the speculations of others, if he 

 thought them capable of advancing knowledge and proving useful 

 to mankind. In the breeding of cattle, in improving the state of 

 husbandry, and bettering the condition of the farm labourer, no 

 man — not excepting even the great Holkham agriculturist — has 

 persevered so steadily, or with such unexampled success. His ex- 

 periments have been numerous : in some of them he has been emi- 

 nently fortunate — in others he has sown the seed, and future gene- 

 rations will reap the harvest. If we do not err, Sir John Sebright 

 was one of the earliest promoters of the allotment system, now so 

 beneficially operating in many counties, to the advantage and com- 

 fort of the farming labourer ; and he set that excellent example of 

 gratuitously furnishing strips of waste land from his estates, verg- 

 ing on the public roads, for the purpose of building suitable houses 



