had better means and opportunities for investigation than those of previous travellers, and he submitted this paper in the hope of once more inviting attention to a curious and interesting subject. There could be no doubt that the sound arises from the movement of the surface-sand, and is intimately connected with the siliceous character of the sand and its extreme dryness, but the author was not aware that any exact explanation of the phenomenon had as yet been elicited from scientific men. Notes on British Gurhwal. By Capt. A. PULLAN. The Saskatchewan Valley. By Dr. RAE. On the Volcan de Agua, near Guatemala. By W. B. RICHARDSON. A Journey through Mekran. By Major E. C. Ross. On the Topography of Ancient Jerusalem. By GEORGE ST. CLAIR. On the Himalayas and Central Asia. By TRELAWNEY Saunders. On Trade Routes between Burmah and China. By Major SLADEN. The author explained that the object in view in all explorations undertaken in Burmah had been a desire on the part of our Government and mercantile classes to ascertain the practicability of establishing an overland route from the Bay of Bengal to Central and South-Western China. Major Sladen referred to the expedition which he conducted up the Irawadi a few years ago, and pointed out the practicability of navigating this river nearly, if not quite, up to the Chinese frontier. At Bhamo, 900 miles from the sea, and probably 1000 miles from its source, the Irawadi, when full between its natural banks, is four miles in breadth, and during a third of the year or more it might be navigated with the greatest ease as far as Bhamo, by vessels as large as any that have ever ascended the Yangtsze, from Shanghai to Hankow. By selecting the Irawadi as a means of transit for produce from South-Western China, and Rangoon as a port of export for such produce, the voyage to Europe, both in distance and duration, would be reduced in a correspoding degree, the expenses of navigation would be reduced, the risks and dangers attending difficult navigation through the straits of Malacca and the China seas avoided, and the heavy insurances at present in force by reason of such difficult navigation would be altogether done away with, On the Proposed Ship-Canal between Ceylon and India. This officer, having given much attention to the study of Indian hydrography, devoted a portion of his paper to an historical sketch of the discussion which has been going on more or less during the whole of the present century regarding the practicability of forming a navigable passage between the Gulf of Menaar and the Bay of Bengal. The project of deepening the Paumben Passage for the navigation of large ships did not commend itself to Commander Taylor's approval. Sir James Elphinstone, as a practical seaman, had personally investigated this channel, but had come to the conclusion that it would never do for large ships. But during his examination of the neighbourhood in concert with Captain Dorman, MasterAttendant of Colombo, Sir James discovered a well-sheltered area of anchorage, with soundings of five or six fathoms, extending over five square miles, and thence gradually decreasing to four fathoms about half a mile from the Indian shore, where the canal's mouth is proposed to be. This harbour lies between Mostapetta Point and Moosel islet, lengthways on the plan; whilst its north and south limits are respectively at Poonamudum town and Moolee islet, the entrance, in which there is now a depth of three fathoms at high water, being about a mile and a half to the east of the last-named islet. The anchorage is well protected against the southerly swell of the monsoon by the coral islets and connecting reefs, extending from Valinookam Point to Rameswaram. On the American Arctic Expedition. By Capt. WARD, R.N. Exploration of the Headwaters of the Marañon. Captain Garnier's Expedition up the Camboja. In this paper the author described the progress of the French Expedition up the Camboja river, which was sanctioned in the end of 1865 by M. ChasseloupLaubat, then Minister of Marine, and also President of the Geographical Society of Paris. The object of this Expedition was to discover the nature and resources of the region in which the French had planted a colony, and also to extend French influence in that direction. But few Europeans had previously ascended the river, so that the Expedition had practically a virgin field for exploration. The party started from Saigon on the 5th of June, 1866, and included Capt. De la Grée, the chief, Lieut. Garnier, second in command and geographer, Thorel and Joubert, navy surgeons and naturalists, Delaporte, a young naval officer, as artist, and De Carné, a young civilian. There were also four European soldiers and sailors, but they were all eventually sent back, and natives employed in their stead. Proceeding first to the neighourhood of Udong, near the Great Lake, as it is called, they then directed their course to Cratieh in 12° 28', distant 300 miles from the mouth of the river. Here they took to canoes for the ascent, which was at first favourable, but was afterwards rendered difficult by rapids and cataracts, the river being also broken by a vast number of islands. Above the cataracts the channel became narrower, and the islands gradually ceased. Difficulties with regard to passports were also felt, and a variety of causes rendered travelling backwards and forwards several times imperative. Instruments also that were necessary to success, and that had been promised them, had not arrived, and now, to add to their troubles, an insurrection broke out which closed the river below. Lieut. Garnier volunteered to make his way by land to the Delta, where it was expected that both passports and instruments would be found. He started on the 10th of January, 1867, and, after a perilous journey, reached the French gunboat stationed on the frontier. The passports were found, though the instruments were still missing; and on the 8th of February Garnier once more started for the upper country. On the 10th of March he rejoined his party at a place called Huten, in the province of Khemarat, having travelled something like 1100 miles since quitting them. This fatiguing journey has added a large and before quite unexplored tract to the surveys resulting from the Expedition. On quitting Huten, the river turns more and more westward and forms the first immense elbow, hitherto quite unsuspected (running east and west for nearly 4° of longitude), in about the latitude of 180° north. As far as Vienchang, the country traversed by the river is an immense plain, rarely broken by a few mountain-ridges. A short distance above Vienchang, the Mekong is found definitively shut in between two ranges of hills, and instead of its breadth being measured by miles, it is contained in a channel of 500 or 600 yards wide. Having got on the borders of the Ava territory, the party found that their most serious difficulties commenced. The Burmese officials offered obstructions, and the rainy season added severely to the fatigues of the way, while the extortions of the natives caused them additional trouble. But at last they reached Kiang Hung, where new efforts were made to stop their further advance. In October, however, they were enabled to start once more for Tsemas, the first stage in China, that country to which they had so long looked forward as the Promised Land. The Mekong was here finally quitted. The Expedition had to deviate eastward, and came upon the Yuen Kiang, or River of Tonking. Garnier explored this river as far as the Anamite frontier, and rejoined his party at Linggan. From Linngan-fu the Expedition proceeded direct towards Yunnan-fu, traversing a lake-region of great interest. On quitting the valley of the Tonking river they commenced ascending a plateau of 5000 to 5600 feet in height, on which they found growing most of the fruits and other vegetable products of Europe. They arrived at Yunnan-fu on the 23rd of December, 1867. Thence they set off by a devious course (the country between being ravaged by hostile armies) for Tali; but Capt. De la Grée falling sick, the leadership of the expedition was given to Lieut. Garnier, Dr. Joubert being left in charge of the chief. Through a difficult country, by the aid of some missionaries, the party at length reached Tali, but were soon compelled to leave again owing to the Sultan's unfriendliness. By consummate generálship and great presence of mind Lieut. Garnier conducted his party once more across the frontier, where rumours of the death of their chief reached them, causing them intense anxiety. At length a letter from Dr. Joubert confirmed the rumours, and plunged them all into the deepest distress. Finally, in May 1868, they embarked on the great Kiang at Sin-chan-fu, and reached Hankau in the beginning of June, just two years from their departure from Saigon. Here they found once more countrymen of their own, a European settlement, and means of transport to carry them back to their native land. The whole distance over which they travelled between Cratieh, at the head of the Mekong Delta, and Sinchan on the Upper Yangtsé, amounted to 2460 miles, of which about 1650 were performed on foot. To this must be added about 2000 more in excursions and digressions by separate members of the Expedition; and they have surveyed an extent of actual itinerary of over 4000 miles in all, besides an immense number of astronomical determinations. ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS. Address by LORD NEAVES, one of the Lords of Session, President of the Section. In A DISTINGUISHED predecessor in the occupancy of this chair commenced its business by declaring it to have been the custom that the proceedings of the Section should be opened by an address, and that that address should be a brief one. complying with the first of these rules, I shall endeavour, if I can, not to forget the second; but the subjects falling within the jurisdiction of the Section are extensive, and compression is always difficult, particularly to one who like myself am rather a novice in the matters of which I am to treat. Economic science is sometimes spoken of as having a very modern date; but I think that this is an error. More or less the subject has entered into all the codes or systems of law that have been established from the earliest times. Alongside of political philosophy, which may be considered as peculiarly the science of Government, great attention has always been bestowed upon matters which form an important part of political economy, or economic science-such as taxation, trade, commerce, wealth, and population. Those writers also who have presented us with ideal or imaginary States, or Utopias, are full of discussions and speculations of the same kind. The rival Republics' of Plato and Aristotle afford abundant illustrations of this statement. It is peculiarly interesting to see this fact brought out so vividly in the admirable introduction to the Republic' of Plato, prefixed to that treatise in Professor Jowett's translation of that great philosopher; and if we had a similar translation and exposition of Aristotle's kindred work, which I think we might have from the hand of one of our own Vice-presidents, to whom we owe so excellent an exposition of the "Ethics," we should see in a remarkable manner how many of the inost interesting questions of the present day were considered and dealt with by those two wonderful men according to the varying lights and tendencies which characterized their several minds. It is true that in more recent times a great advance has been made in economic science, and one feature and excellency of that change is the tendency to leave things as much as possible to their spontaneous operation, and to the inherent laws of nature and society; though here again there has latterly been a reaction. It is to the credit of Scotland that she has produced the two greatest leaders in this modern movement-David Hume and Adam Smith-who are still high authorities on the whole subject, and whose principles have been made the basis of much of our recent legislation. The subject of Statistics is added to the title of this Section as an auxiliary to the main subject of economic science. Statistics and their Fallacies. The study of statistics, though not entirely of modern origin, has assumed a special prominence in recent times. Statistics are certainly more of the nature of a means than an end, and their great use and object I take to be to establish, by showing the proportions or averages of results as they actually occur, the existence of certain natural laws possessing the character of absolute or general uniformity. But statistics are liable to hazards, which it is most important to attend to and guard against. It is a common jest that there is nothing so fallacious as figures, except facts; and, as generally happens, this jocular reproach has enough of partial truth in it to preserve it in vitality. Two qualities of mind are employed in statistics of very different kinds-namely, accuracy in observing and recording facts, and wisdom in deducing inferences from them. These two different faculties must act in harmony together; and if they do not do so, fallacious conclusions will inevitably be the result. Let me give some easy and familiar instances of the fallacies that may thus be caused. In the course of my duties as a judge of the Supreme Criminal Court, I have occasion from time to time to find at circuit towns very light or even altogether empty calendars; and when there is no case to try at all, this is naturally a matter of rejoicing for all concerned, of which the judge has the double benefit in having nothing to do, and in carrying off a pair of white gloves. Latterly, however, I have been led in such cases to make the remark to the local authorities, that a light calendar was not an unequivocal sign of a satisfactory state of things in a district, for that result might arise in two ways-either from no crime being committed in the locality, which is a just subject of congratulation, or from few or no crimes being detected and brought to justice, though many may have been committed, which is a very deplorable condition of affairs. This consideration, I am glad to say, was not called forth by any thing in the state of our criminal police in Scotland, but was suggested and illustrated by the condition of matters in another part of the United Kingdom, where there was no want of crime, but it often led to no prosecutions, from the inability of the law to lay hold of the perpetrators, or to find evidence to prove their guilt. Nay, a deeper fallacy may sometimes lurk under judicial statistics of this kind. It has been said, I fear with truth, that in certain parts of the kingdom the very absence of some delinquencies of a special description is the result of a complete subversion of legal authority. Agrarian crimes are perpetrated there in order to punish or deter those who exercise their legal rights as to land; and when this system of terrorism is complete, the crimes cease to be committed, because the evil organization has attained its object, and does not need to be practically exercised, as no one dares to disobey its lawless mandates. The reign of terror is thus established by paralyzing the exercise of any freedom of action which might incur its penal denunciations. A worse state of society than this can scarcely be imagined, where lawlessness is enthroned and wholly supersedes the law. Another example of fallacious inference from judicial statistics may be derived from the history of our penal legislation. Until the middle or latter half of last century, the proprietary feelings of the country, and specially, perhaps, of the urban trading classes, incited Parliament to pass severe laws for their protection, which often affixed to slight violations of property a capital punishment. The number not only of robberies but of thefts, which were then capitally punishable, is almost incredible to us of the present generation; and can now excite only our horror and amazement. I would refer you here to an admirable paper on this subject by Johnson, being No. 114 of the 'Rambler,' which gives an account of the feelings that then prevailed and the system that was followed. The paper, which is most powerfully written, deserves peculiar praise, as being the commencement of those humane and wise efforts for the amelioration of the penal law that were afterwards renewed and brought to a successful issue by the perseverance of Romilly and the practical sagacity of Peel. Dr. Johnson says:-"It has always been the practice, when any particular species of robbery becomes prevalent and common, to endeavour its suppression by capital denunciation. Thus one generation of malefactors is commonly cut off, and their successors are frightened into new expedients. The art of thieving is augmented with greater variety of fraud, and subtlised to higher degrees of dexterity and more occult methods of conveyance. The law then renews the pursuit in the heat of anger, and overtakes the offender again with death. By this practice, capital inflictions are multiplied, and crimes, very different in their degrees of enormity, are equally subjected to the severest punishment that man has the power of exercising upon man.' Now, in this state of things, there is little doubt that after every new application of capital punishment to a crime that did not previously infer it, there might be a diminution of prosecutions on that head, and the public were thus, perhaps, led to think that theft and rapine had in this way received a check. But experience and reflection soon suggested another explanation, which is thus pointed out in the paper I refer to:-"All laws against wickedness are ineffectual unless some will inform and some will prosecute; but till we mitigate the penalties for mere violations of property, information will always be hated and prosecution dreaded. The heart of a good man cannot but recoil at the thought of punishing a slight injury with death, especially when he remembers that the thief might have procured safety by another crime from which he was restrained only by his remaining virtue." In connexion with this last consideration, Dr. Johnson had previously urged that the terror of death "should be reserved as the last resort of authority, as the strongest and most operative of prohibitory sanctions, and placed before the treasure of life to guard from invasion what cannot be restored. To equal robbery with murder, is to reduce murder to robbery, to confound in common minds the gradations of iniquity, and incite the commission of a greater crime to prevent the detection of a less. If only murder were punished by death, very few robbers would stain their hands with blood; but when by the last act of cruelty no new danger is incurred, and greater security may be obtained, upon what principle shall we bid them forbear?" This remarkable paper, written, be it observed, in the year 1751, concludes with the following characteristic sentences:-"This scheme of invigorating the laws by relaxation, and extirpating wickedness by lenity, is so remote from common practice, that I might reasonably fear to expose it to the public, could it be supported only by my own observations. I shall therefore, by ascribing it to the author, Sir Thomas More, endeavour to procure it that attention which I wish always paid to prudence, to justice, and to mercy.' We may thus see how mere numerical statistics in such questions may speak an ambiguous language, and that the paucity of prosecutions may be a proof, not of the wisdom, but of the inefficacy of our legislation; for while it is doubtful how far criminals, or at least habitual criminals, are deterred by capital punishment, which they come to look upon as the fortune of war, there is no doubt that undue severity disinclines injured parties from taking steps to bring down on the delinquent what is considered as an exorbitant penalty. I may here, perhaps, suggest a question whether our country of Scotland was not saved from such evils partly by the institution of a public prosecutor, and partly by the anomalous, but convenient power which he possessed of restricting the pains of law, when they were capital, to an arbitrary punishmenta resource which was likely to render juries less unwilling to convict than they might otherwise have been. I should mention that a protest against the severity of the penal laws as to property was uttered by an earlier opponent of the system, though one not so disinterested as Dr. Johnson: I mean the widow of the freebooter 1871. 13 |