power'; that he has now acquired a dominion | swine, and jungle-fowl, affording them a long over the material world, and a consequent faci- truce for the undisturbed rearing of numerous lity of increase, so as to render it probable that litters and broods? It is evident enough, that the whole surface of the earth may soon be over- not many wild races of animals are likely to run by this engrossing anomaly, to the annihila- become extinct until wars shall have utterly tion of every wonderful and beautiful variety of ceased; and when that is likely to happen, we animated existence which does not administer may learn by private inquiry of various European to his wants." They apprehend that the multi-potentates, with a further reference to the powers plication and spread of the human race will have of the western hemisphere. the effect of exterminating whole species and genera of wild animals, and perhaps of plants. It may so turn out, to some extent. The bustard and the wild turkey may, perhaps, one day be laid low in the same grave of extinction which has swallowed up the dodo. With railways invading Africa and Asia, it is not difficult to hear in imagination the funeral knell of the last wild elephant, rhinoceros, giraffe. Insular animals are exposed to extermination by the increase of population and agriculture, as happened with the wolves of England, the capercali of Scotland, the Nestor parrot of Norfolk Island, the aboriginal black man of Van Diemen's Land; but for continental faunæ a source of safety and a door of escape exist in the instincts and propensities of man himself. Man's power of increase and the exercise of his tyranny over the wide-spread earth, are greatly checked by his gregarious tendencies. The crowds who continually stream into great cities and die there childless, are so many petty tyrants, who abdicate their share of territory in the land in favour of its natural brute occupants. If the entire populations of Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and every other great European city, were uniformly dispersed over Europe, each family located on an equal area, and living on the produce of the culture of that area-which might be the case, if men were solitary instead of gregarious in their habits-in twenty years only there must take place a perceptible diminution in the numbers of wild animals, birds, and even insects. But the great surplus of the rural population is drawn off by the temptations of town, leaving the field clear for the occupancy of brutes in default of the occupancy of men. TAKING PIRATE JUNKS. WHERE is that large vessel going, steaming so cautiously up that calm and peaceful strait, whose transparent waters are only disturbed by the floats of her powerful paddles? It is Her Majesty's paddle-wheel steam-frigate Sampson (so to call her), groping for some of the pirates that infest the bays and creeks all along the coast of China, some dozens of whom she has lately destroyed, and she is now expecting to do standing on the bridge, with his first lieutenant a little more in the same way. The captain is and the master, who, chart in hand, is carefully conning the ship, as she pursues her way through the comparatively unknown waters. There is a low neck of land running half way across the sound, about half a mile ahead, over which are to be seen what the shrewd gentlemen above named very much suspect to be the mastheads of some piratical junks, and which junks they intend to favour with a shot or shell, as the circumstances of the case may seem to require. But hark to the cry of the leadsman in the chains, "By the deep, four!" The water is fast shoaling, and, as the steamer draws eighteen feet, the master tells the captain that we must come to anchor. The captain speaks to his first lieutenant: "Stand by the best bower anchor for'ard !" "All ready for letting go, sir," answers the boatswain from the nightheads; and, in compliance with another order, gives the necessary "One, two, three-let go!" with the subsequent accompaniment of his shrill pipe. There is a heavy splash, a rattle at the hawse-holes, and the anchor is down. "Call the boatswain," hails the first lieutenant from the quarter-deck; "hands, man aud arm boats." War is a more efficient institution for the preservation of the feræ naturæ than at first sight appears. The chase may be the best In a moment what a rush! But all with the school for war; but war both gives full employment to the sportsman, and also diminishes greatest order; in an inconceivably short space his numbers. While the cat is away, the mice out, and their guns in; cutters and gigs are of time, paddle-box boats and pinnace are got will play, and increase and multiply. Our lowered and manned, laying alongside, all awaitbattles, whether on a grand scale or in single ing the order to shove off; every officer and combat, ought to be hailed, by our four-footed man is in the anticipation of a good day's work, and our winged game and vermin, as most aus- the thought of failure or repulse never entering picious events. When hostile armies prepare the heads of sailors when about to prosecute to meet in deadly shock, the crows and ravens any undertaking. The wished-for word is at overhead caw and croak their approval; the rat length given, when we all shove off and give in the hedgerow squeaks his congratulations to way for the point, with a will: discipline alone the fox in the brake; the bear in the pine-wood suppressing a cheer. The cutters are round growls his deep satisfaction to the exulting cha- first, when the pirates, quite prepared, salute mois on the Alpine cliff. Can it be doubted them with a dozen or two of shot, which come that the Indian mutiny and its suppression, rattling about their ears, but do no damage berespited the lives of sundry tigers, lions, wildyond the breaking of an occasional oar or so. At this display, our men are so delighted that they can no longer resist the impulse, and, one and all, give a regular thrilling British cheer: a sound that has, before now, struck terror to stouter hearts than those of Chinamen. The other boats are round the point, and the first lieutenant, who commands the expedition, suddenly finds himself opposed to about twenty piratical junks, besides several captured merchant junks, which have been armed, and whose guns are beginning to be worked with unaccustomed energy, loaded up to their muzzles with iron nails and fragments of every description, but, fortunately, too near to take much effect. Almost everything passes over the heads of our fearless little band, who find much difficulty in getting to work, though the guns in the paddlebox boats and pinnace answer right well with grape and cannister. The junks are high and dry on the mud, where they have been left by the receding tide. Out of their boats, our people now leap, without hesitation (for delay were death), to wade their way to the sides of their antagonists' vessels, which, amidst showers of missiles of every description, they soon reach. Despite their disadvantages, they swarm upon the decks, and quickly clear them of their lawful (or rather lawless) occupants, who jump over the sides, right and left: the blue-jackets after them, who pursue them up the beach, knocking over those who are slowest in the race, and fast gaining upon the rest. But who can that large body of men be, in red turbans and sashes, all dressed alike, who are coming down the mountain at double-quick time, from the town? Not friends, certainly; so our people think, for the handful of marines, with their officer at their head, are ordered to the front to form and receive them: though from their numbers it would seem of little use. Suddenly, a thundering report, and a mass of white smoke from the ship, show that those left on board are neither idle nor asleep while a ten-inch shell (or, as the Chinese call it, "twiceeye shot") drops into the midst of our new acquaintances, greatly astonishing them, and causing them to waver; another ten-inch shell settles the question; they halt, and begin to jabber (always a sign of turning tail), while our heroic little band advance bravely, and let them have it to the utmost of their power. Presently, they run the ship repeating her dose as fast as the guns can be served by their motley crews, formed of stewards, cooks, &c., who think they are having a fine lark all to themselves, and contributing greatly (as indeed they are) to the success of the day. The Chinamen are pursued up the mountain, until the dangerous proximity of the shell to our own men renders it prudent to proceed no farther, particularly as there is more for them to do at the scene of their late captures. : The prizes have to be inspected when we get there, and (it seems almost a pity) burned; for the first lieutenant's orders from the captain are “to sink, burn, and destroy ;" and as naval commands are as the laws of the Medes and Per sians, which alter not, he now proceeds to carry them out. As volumes of smoke rise up from several of the lately piratical craft, half a dozen Celestials are seen to approach, with signs of great respect, and speak to the great man in command, explaining to him that they are captives, taken with their vessels, which they point out, and begging that those junks may be saved from the general destruction. The request is presently granted, much to their satisfaction. All this time our sailors and marines are not idle, and the piratical town, from which the inhabitants have all "mizzled," is made to blaze as high and fiercely as the junks. The work of destruction is at length complete, and late in the evening all hands prepare for a speedy return to the boats: every officer and man being pretty well tired out with his day's work, and each congratulating himself that there is a good dinner and a comfortable hammock on board. But what are those objects which merry knots of sailors and marines are hustling down towards the boats? Not some of their foes, surely? Certainly not, for Chinese men would not have half the trouble taken about them; they are some very comfortable-looking well-fed Chinese pigs, which our people intend for their own particular digestion, and have no idea of allowing to escape. They all at length return on board, and, an hour later, after they have satisfied the cravings of hunger, they may be seen congregated about the forecastle, pipe in mouth, each relating his adventures during the day, and his own private opinion of the affair. But though they have done their work, there are others on board who are only beginning theirs, namely, the surgeon, the assistant ditto (or, as he is more commonly called, the doctor's mate), and an individual called the "sick Bayman," who would be better known to the uninitiated as a chemist's assistant. In a dark cockpit, is a strong deal board, known as the amputation-table, and now lighted by a few flaring "purser's dips," through the medium of which we are enabled to see the three aforesaid personages with shirt-sleeves tucked up, feeling the edges of certain sharplooking saws, knives, &c., while before them lies stretched a little China girl of about twelve years of age, dressed in costly garments, from whom escapes, every now and then, a low subdued wail of agony, caused apparently by a wound in the right arm, which is bound up, and from which the doctors are about to remove the bandages: while the mother, a "small-foot lady,” is bending over her daughter in deep sorrow. They are both rescued prisoners who were taken by the pirates, while passengers in one of the merchant junks journeying from one place to another; the poor little girl has unfortunately been hit in the arm twice, by rifle bullets, each of which lodged there, breaking the bone. The doctor proceeds to examine it, and decides that the fractured portion of the arm must come off; in a few minutes, the grinding of a saw is heard, and the operation is done, thanks to chloroform, without pain to the poor little patient. Her mother is inconsolable, nevertheless: declaring that now, should it be necessary, she cannot work for her living, and must consequently beg. Next morning, our steam is up, we get under weigh, and leave the scene of the late destruction: having in tow the recaptured trading junks. On the first attack of yesterday, a hoary-headed pirate was seen to fire a gun right in the faces of our men: the recoil of the gun (which had no breeching) sending him flying down the hatchway, breaking his legs, and Heaven knows what more of him. Now it so happens that the reinstated Chinese crew of this junk (which is one of those in tow), while cruizing about on board of her, to see what is left to them, come across this old fellow, groaning away fearfully, and they, thoroughly terrified at the presence of one disabled pirate, set up a yell, such as those acquainted with the Chinese will be able to imagine, which, it being pitch dark, rather startles those on board the steamer, causing them to "stop her," and lower a quarterboat, to send on board and see what is the matter. The general impression is, that there are some fifty men concealed, who have suddenly broken forth to recapture the vessel. The disgust of the boat's crew is inexpressible when they discover that they have had all the trouble for a single powerless old man, more dead than alive. A few days later, after a run along the coast, we find another of Her Majesty's ships anchored at Amoy, with a full cargo of piratical prisoners, taken out of the many captures which she has made during her crujze along the coast. Notice having been given to the "Laouti," or governor of that place, a party of mandarins and their soldiers proceed on board to take charge of the criminals. After tightly binding them with cords, this party convey them to a prison on shore, in the yard of which (which answers the purpose of an execution ground) they were all beheaded, after the mock ceremony of a trial, in which they are allowed to have nothing to say for themselves. TOO LATE. HUSH! speak low-tread softly- With that smile she died. Ah, they would have given Wealth, and name, and pride, To see her looking happy Once before she died. They strove hard to please her, But, when death is near, All you know is deadenedHope, and joy, and fear. And, besides, one sorrowDeeper still, one painWas beyond them healing Came to-day in vain. If she had but lingered Just a few hours more; Or had this letter reached her Just one day before! I can almost pity Even him to-day, Yet she never blamed him. It was long ago. I have read his letter: Many a weary year There are thousands here! Could but understand! See, I put the letter In her cold white hand. Even these words, so longed for, Do not stir her rest. Well, I should not murmur, For God judges best. She needs no more pity; But I mourn his fate, When he hears his letter Came a day too late. VERY COMMON LAW. As it is not to be expected that Mr. Blank should get through life without a certain amount of railway travelling, we will furnish him with a few fragments of railway law. And first, as to the liability of railway companies for statements made in their timetables. A gentleman, whom we will assume was our illustrative man himself, having important business to transact in Peterboro' and Hull, fell to a consultation of the Great Northern Railway time-bills. From one of these documents, which he found hanging in the offices of the company, he discovered that a train was advertised to leave London at 5 P.M., arrive at Peterboro' at 7.20 P.M., and proceed subsequently to Hull. On a further investigation of the document, he came upon this supplementary notification: "The company make every exertion that the trains shall be punctual, but their arrival or departure at the times stated will not be guaranteed, nor will the company hold themselves responsible for delay, or any consequences arising therefrom." Undeterred by this announcement, Mr. Blank started upon his journey to Hull, and, having transacted his business at Peterboro', presented himself to the station-clerk at that place and demanded a deposited a dressing-case beneath the seat of ticket. Couldn't have it, this official informed him. "Why not?" Mr. Blank demanded. "Great Northern train goes no further than Milford Junction," responded the clerk. But the time-tables say otherwise," suggested Mr. Blank. "Hull train ceased running since they were printed," replied the clerk. 66 'Change published?" asked Mr. B. Clerk.-"No." The clerk's statement was correct; but Mr. Blank (who did not reach Hull as he intended) having brought an action against the company for his detention at Milford Junction, recovered damages. The limitation in the time-tables as to the arrival of the trains, was construed by the court as referring to inevitable accident, and was not deemed sufficient to exonerate the company. The more especially, my Lord Campbell said, as "the time-tables contain what the law calls a false and fraudulent representation." For all this, however, we cannot undertake to say that railway companies can, in all cases, be held responsible for the unpunctuality of their trains, even when accident is out of the question. True, there have been instances in which County Court Judges have decided for their responsibility, and occasionally the Sheriffs' Courts of Scotland have laid down the like principle. On this side of the Border, however, the question is one of such uncertainty that we would not recommend our illustrative man to raise it. Let us discreetly pass over it with this transient glance, and endeavour to find matter of which we may speak with more confidence. Transferring our attention, then, from the passenger himself, let us treat of his "impedimenta." Clearly, to our thinking, all railway companies are responsible for this. Very great pains are taken by the companies themselves to persuade the public to the contrary, but without materially affecting our opinion. Large-typed placards, which assert boldly that every passenger may carry so many pounds of luggage, but that the company will not be responsible for the care of the same unless booked and paid for accordingly," | have no weight with us. Does not the following incident of travel, casually selected from the Reports, tend to alleviate any anxiety we may experience for the safety of our portmanteau? And if the lady there referred to, recovered the value of her dressingcase, why should we be intimidated by the largetyped placards? Why should we be disturbed by fears for our humble carpet-bag? The lady, from whose experience we derive our comfort, was, with her maid, a first-class passenger on the London and Brighton Railway. Before entering the train, her luggage was weighed, and the excess paid for. Whilst it was being placed upon the train, the driver of the conveyance who had brought them to the station their carriage. The lady, on arrival at the London-bridge station, was assisted from the carriage, as she was an invalid, and her maid looked after the luggage. Proceeding to do this, she was told by the porters not to trouble herself, as they would see to it. They saw to it, however, so ineffectually, that the dressing-case was lost, and the lady, having brought an action against the company for its value, recovered damages. "The company," said Mr. Justice Cresswell, "could not be said to have fulfilled their contract for delivery, and if it was their usual custom to deliver the luggage of the passengers at a particular part of the platform, that was the sort of delivery the company took upon themselves to make." Before proceeding any further, however, it may be as well to mention of what "luggage," in the legal acceptation of the term, is supposed to consist. "It comprises," according to Mr. Baron Parke, “clothing, and such articles as a traveller usually carries for his personal convenience, perhaps even a small present, or a book for a journey, but certainly not merchandise, or materials bought for the purpose of being manufactured and sold at a profit." A traveller, for example, having packed a quantity of ivory knifehandles amongst his luggage, and lost them, could not recover damages: because he was a cutler, and they were ruled to be merchandise. One more point, and this for the special edification of Mrs. Blank. Sixty pounds' weight of luggage being allowed to any individual passenger, it has been decided that a passenger and his wife may carry between them one hundred and twelve pounds, and this, although the lady's share (a terribly unlikely circumstance) may amount only to the weight of three pounds. So far we have been speaking of the luggage with which Mr. Blank is compelled to encumber himself whilst travelling; let us say one word of that which he is in the habit of receiving and despatching per rail. Not to involve ourselves in the meshes of the Railway and Canal Traffic Act, we will assume that Mr. Blank is the humble recipient of an occasional parcel, rather than a merchant whose business is with tons. Are railway companies responsible for parcels received by them to be carried beyond the limits of their line? "It would be most inconvenient," said Mr. Baron Watson, in a case where this question was discussed, "if, when a parcel is sent from London to Glasgow (when it is carried on four different railways), the owner were obliged to find out at what particular part of the journey it was lost. It is said," he continued, in allusion to that particular case, "that the companies did not profess to carry the whole distance, but if a person deliver to a railway company a parcel directed to a certain place, one sum being charged for the whole carriage, that is holding out by these, to the person who brought the parcel, that they would carry it as directed, and it is no answer to say they have never carried to that place before." was absolutely nothing upon which a policy could be opened that was not employed as the opportunity of gambling." As might be expected, A Lancashire stonemason having gone into these good old times were too good to last (there Derbyshire to look out for work, left his box of were few analytical chemists in those days, and tools to be sent after him. Soon afterwards, his the insured life may have occasionally come to a mother took the box to the Lancaster station, somewhat premature termination). In the early addressed to the mason, and to be left at some part of George the Third's reign the attention place in Derbyshire. She offered to pay the car- of Parliament was directed to the law of life inriage, but the clerk informed her that it would be surance; and, from that time, any insurance on better for the person receiving the box to do so. the life of any person, wherein the insurer The line of the company which received the box has any kind of gaming 'or wagering interest, in the first instance, extended no further than is void. Further, it was then laid down "that Preston, where it was joined by the line of another it should not be lawful to make policies on company, which line was joined by another, to the life of any person, or any other event, complete the route into Derbyshire. The box, without inserting the name of the person for after leaving the limits of the Lancaster and whose benefit the policy was made," and (as the Preston line, was lost, and that company disputed | last clause with which we feel called upon to their liability to make it good, because they had deal) "that no one should recover on his policy contracted to carry it, they said, no further than more than the value of his interest." Preston. The courts ruled otherwise. Lord Cranworth (then Mr. Baron Rolfe), whose direction to the jury had been objected to, but which direction the Court of Exchequer held to be correct, said, "What I told the jury was only this-that if a party brings a parcel to a railway station, which in this respect is just the same as a coach-office, knowing at the time that the company only carry to a particular place, and if the railway company receive it and book it to another place to which it is directed, primâ facie, they undertake to carry it to that other place. That was my view at the trial," said his lordship, "and nothing has occurred to alter my opinion;" adding, "any other construction would open the door to incalculable inconvenience." Of course it would. If a common carrier is, under any circumstances whatever, liable for the safe delivery of the goods with which you entrust him, it is sufficient for you to know that the goods have been lost, without being called upon to point out the particular part of the route where they were lost. There are yet a few more points of railway law which we will speak of, as concisely as possible: It is generally supposed that a person travelling without a ticket can be made to pay for the greatest distance over which the train in which he is travelling has passed. This is not the case: the law only compelling him to pay for the distance he has actually travelled. Railway travelling unhappily suggesting the desirability of "Life Insurance," let us briefly glance at the common law aspect of this excellent precaution. Mr. Francis, in his Annals of Life Insurance, informs us that thousands of pounds were insured upon the life of Sir Robert Walpole, that policies were taken up on the life of the Pretender, that the sporting gentlemen of the period speculated upon the lives of his adherents, the rebel lords; that the escape of Lord Nithsdale from the Tower threw many policy-holders, rejoicing at the prospect of that nobleman's speedy decapitation, into dismay; that "there The "interest" here spoken of has been decided to mean a pecuniary interest. Such an interest, for example, as Mr. Blank's tailor may feel in him previous to the payment of his little account, or, to speak more largely, such an interest as any of Mr. Blank's creditors may entertain towards that gentleman. It is not a sentimental quality, in fact, to which the act alludes, and, although it permits Mrs. Blank to have an insurable interest in her husband, it will not allow that Mr. Blank has such an interest in his son. The question has been tried in one instance, and, although it was ingeniously argued that the father had an interest in his son's life, because he might reasonably expect to be reimbursed by him for his maintenance and education, yet the courts would not admit the construction. "It has been said," Mr. Justice Bayley remarked, in allusion to this point, "that there are numerous instances in which a father has affected an insurance on the life of his son. If a father, wishing to give his son some property to dispose of, make an assurance on the son's life in his (the son's) name, not for his (the father's) own benefit, but for the benefit of his son, there is no law to prevent his doing so : but that is a transaction quite different from the present, and if a notion prevails that such an assurance as this one in question is valid, the sooner it is corrected the better." As to the clause which enacts that the name of the person interested shall be inserted in the policy, we may say that a compliance with this is essential, and not to be dispensed with on any account. A person once, the Reports inform us, insured the life of a lady in his own name, but in reality for her benefit. After the death of the lady, the policy was disputed, and subsequently declared void, Mr. Justice Wightman saying "it seemed to him that the act required that the name of the person really interested must appear, whether the policy be really wagering or not." To come to the last clause. It was formerly held that when a creditor insured the life of his debtor for any sum, he could only, in the event of the debtor's death, recover the value of his in |