1825.] 
Arr. V.—Travels in South America, 
during the years 1819-20-21; containing 
an Account of the present State of Brazil, 
Buenos Ayres and Chile, by Avex. Catp- 
cLEuGH, Ese., 2 vols., is awell executed 
_ article—equally entertaining and instruc- 
tiye: If our business were to compile a 
magazine of quotations, we might find, 
in the twenty-eight pages devoted to 
this subject, a fund of interesting ma- 
terials. But we cannot entirely resist 
the temptation of referring to some pas- 
sages in pp. 129—142, that refer to that 
vital question of humanity and civiliza- 
tion, the toleration of slavery. The for- 
mer of these presents a striking, and to 
us a disgraceful contrast, between the 
condition of the slaves in our islands, 
and those of the Brazils, where “ the 
negroes are at least not driven to labour 
with the cart-whip,” and where, if it be 
nét absolutely “ to be inferred that they 
lead an enviable life, nobody can affirm, 
on seeing them singing and dancing in 
the streets, that they are wretched.” 
The second refers to the progress of 
their emancipation, in Buenos Ayres. 
** Inthe first years of the revolution 
several thousand negroes were purchased 
by the state from their owners, to fill up 
the ranks; and the practice continued to 
1822, when it was ordered to be suspended, 
the stock, by these means, having nearly 
been exhausted. And as the General 
Congress, assembled in January 1813,'de- 
ereed that all children born of slave pa- 
rents after that time should be free; the 
number has so far decreased that, accord- 
ing to Mr. Caldcleugh’s information, the 
proportion is now not greater than one 
slave to nine freemen.” 
In mentioning any circumstance con- 
nected with that revolution, it seems 
an act of injustice to omit the opportu- 
nity of recording the obligations, civil, 
moral and intellectual, due to the se- 
cretary, Don Bernardino Rivadavia. 
But we must haste to the concluding 
paragraph, on the happy effects of the 
revolution itself, which it is no small 
degree of triumph to have the oppor- 
tunity of quoting from such an authority. 
“ Tt was to be expected that the change 
they have undergone could only be accom- 
plished at the expense of much bloodshed 
and misery—the result of conflicting opi- 
nions, of clashing interests, and ancient 
attachments. ‘Time and misfortune, how- 
ever, have soothed down the rancour and 
asperity of party-spirit, and almost all 
classes begin to feel the benefits arising 
from a free and unfettered commerce, and 
a system: of equal justice impartially ad- 
minigfered.. It may require time to shake 
Brazil and Buenos Ayres.—State of England. 
431. 
off the inveterate habits of indolence in- 
variably induced by a slave population, and. 
to make the free inhabitants industrious 
and active ; a change, however, which can- 
not fail of being accelerated by a commercial 
intercourse with Great Britain, and the 
influx and example of British settlers in 
the several states of the South American 
continent.” 
Art. VI. executes justice without 
mercy upon the Rev. T. F. Dibdin’s 
Library Companion; or, Young Man’s 
Guide, and Old Man’s Comfort : upon 
the wretched affectation of his style 
—his false facts and his false gram- 
mar—his omissions—his perverted par- 
tialities (some of them, at least)—his in- 
judicious selections and exclusions—his 
multifarious defects, and his infidelities : 
the infidelities of an Oxford Rev. and 
an F.R.S.,A.S.//!/ But we have 
handled Mr. D. and his misguide and 
discomforter sufficiently heretofore; 
and cannot spare, to this bigotted and 
bulky book-maker, even another half- 
column: and seeing how he has been 
commented upon by all parties and from 
all quarters, we have some hope that he 
will give up the trade, and call our atten- 
tion to no more of his orthodox and 
bibliomanic lucubrations. 
In Art. VII. on the Past and Present 
State of the Country (or, according to 
the title of the book that should have 
been reviewed, “ The Present State of 
England, in regard to Agriculture, Trade, 
and Finance ; with a Comparison of the 
Prospects of England and France’) 
there are many statements worth quot- 
ing in a statistical point of view. We 
select the following for the curious 
illustration, it seemsto present, of an 
unexpected fact—that, notwithstanding 
the rapid expansion of the metropolis, 
the increase of buildings does not quite 
keep pace with the increase of the po- 
pulation. 
“London, including the out-parishes, 
contained in 1801, 121,229 houses, and 
864,845 inhabitants ; and in 1821, 164,681 
houses, and 1,225,694 inhabitants ; so that 
it would have required no less than twelve 
thousand additional houses to haye brought 
the proportions between the number of 
persons and of the houses to the same state 
at the end as at the beginning of the twenty 
years.” 
With the inductions, however, of the 
vindicator of all things as they ave, we 
are not always as well satisfied, as 
with his facts; on the subject of that 
great blessing, for example, the National 
Debt. 
“ As 
