338 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



intercourse is impeded by storms, and sand-banks, and floating 1 fields of ice, 

 are ennobled by those civil institutions and mental energies, which will be 

 sought after in vain among the islands of that ocean, on which the name of 

 "the Pacific" has 'been appropriately bestowed. 



The slender influence derivable from climate will become still more appa- 

 rent, when it is recollected, that nations which have abandoned their native 

 soil, and sought a home under stranger skies, have undergone no change 

 whatever in their character. Among the colonists who have settled in the 

 interior of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope, there is no difficulty in 

 recognising the Dutchman; yet his dwelling stands upon an elevated plain, 

 which is celebrated for the dryness of its soil and atmosphere, whilst his 

 ancestors toiled in a land, damp as it was flat and low, and enveloped in a 

 dense atmosphere 6f fog. In India we shall find as little difficulty in detect- 

 ing the Englishman, as the Spaniard in South America, or the descendant of 

 the Gaul and Briton in the Canadas or United States; whilst the Jews, dis- 

 persed over the face of every nation, and scattered beneath every various 

 sky, afford an interesting proof, that the peculiar characteristics of an indi- 

 vidual race may be faithfully retained under the most striking dissimilarities 

 of physical circumstances. , 



The lapse of time will be frequently marked by a deterioration in the 

 natioual character, though soil and climate remain unchanged. In vain 

 should we seek to discover, among the Greeks of the present day, those 

 traits of character and expressions of intellectual greatnesswhich distinguish- 

 ed their forefathers in the hour of their noblest splendour; and yet the 

 Grecian sky is not less translucent, nor its atmosphere less kindly than they 

 were in former ages ; and if ever this unfortunate race should succeed in 

 raising themselves from sheir present low estate, one circumstance, at least, 

 is placed beyond a doubt, — they will not owe their elevation to any revolu- 

 tion of their climate. The Scandinavian sky has undergone little or no 

 alteration, yet the Scandinavian himself has risen from the deeps of bar- 

 barism to a state of civilized prosperity. 



Let it not be imagined that we are inclined altogether to deny the influ- 

 ence of climate, and other physical causes. There are regions where these 

 operate with so sinister an effect, that the inhabitants, though incessantly 

 contending against them, are incapacitated from attaining any eminent 

 degree of mental refinement : and such must be the event, where the cli- 

 mate is overcharged with cold or heat, or where the atmosphere is loaded 

 with unwholesome vapours. The Icelanders afford, however, a signal in- 

 stance of the extent to which the inward powers of man are capable of over- 

 coming such obstacles as these. 



The effects of what are termed "moral causes" on national character are 

 beyond the limits of the present discourse : yet we cannot refrain from ob- 

 serving, that in this particular, also, too great a stress has been laid upon 

 isolated appearances. One party will profess to resolve such effects into the 

 influence of legislation and political institutions ; another will refer them to 

 that of education ; and a third, to the impulses of religion. All these causes 

 are undoubtedly co-operative; nav, they are far more influential than any 

 physical impulses ; yet are they of trivial moment, when placed by the side 

 of those powerful agents which exist in the innate qualities of the human 

 mind: for what are called "moral causes" are usually the immediate results 

 of national character ; and on this principle, despotism is the consequence 

 of popular depravity and servility. 



Under every view of the subject, we are warranted, therefore, in assuming-, 

 that God has "endued every nation, as well as every single individual, with 

 a peculiar character, the expansion of which is favoured or retarded by ex- 

 ternal circumstances, though it can never become the subject of direct and 

 unerring calculation.— [An oration pronounced by Professor Schouu; at the 

 .•solemn opening of the n inter Session, 1828-29, of the University of Copen- 

 hagen] 



Papulation of the Netherlands.— T\\e population on the 1st of January, 

 ls-27, was, according to the Jaarboekjc, 6,116,935; and its rate of progres- 

 sion is worthy of much attention, on which account we insert, as the first 

 illustration of it, the following Table, extracted from the official Returns 

 printed at the Hague in 1827. 



