one Person to every 2000 acres, who shall meet to carry out the objects of the measure as far as relates to their Districts, and to see that the directions of the Commissioner be fulfilled.

That the appointment of the Trustees, &c., be similiar to the New Poor Law management.

That it shall not be compulsory on the Occupiers of Land to underdrain, but if they drain the Lands at all, they must be drained according to the Order prescribed by the Commissioner.

That in all cases of Neglect or Evasion of the Orders of the Commissioner it shall be lawful for the said Commissioner to enter upon the Lands of such Person neglecting or evading his Orders, and to execute the necessary Works at the expense of such Person.

That Compensation be made to all Owners and Occupiers of existing Mills for Injury done in carrying this Measure into execution.

That all Benefit derived from the Application of the surplus Waters towards Irrigation, Ornamental Water, erecting of new Mills, increasing the Streams of those in existence, and other Purposes, be paid for according to the Advantage derived.

That the Expense of making the Main Drains, and other works ordered by the Commissioner to be made, be paid by Rate on all the Occupiers of Land drained, or which, in the estimation of the Commissioner, it is desirable should be drained.

That the share of such outlay be apportioned between Landlord and Tenant, according to their respective interests in the Lands benefited by the making of such Main Drains.

That the Labour employed be derived from each Parish in proportion to the Work required to be done in such Parish.

That the Commissioner be necessarily independent of local Drainage Acts and Speculations.

That the Salary of the Commissioner be paid from the County Rates, as it is believed that the Benefit to be derived generally by the Community by the drawing off of stagnant Water from the Surface of the Country will be ample Compensation for such Payment.

OBSERVATIONS.

The above suggestions are offered at the present time, for three reasons. First, That a more general and compulsory measure, having for its object both a general system of Drainage, and the beneficial distribution of the waters to be obtained from Drainage, may supersede the Bill of Mr. Handley and Sir Robert Heron. Secondly, Because at this time much interest is felt in the success of Lord Normanby's Bill for the Effectual Drainage of Towns and Villages: and it is felt that it would be judicious, and of advantage to the Country, were it so arranged, that a general measure for the effectual drainage of lands, should progress simultaneously with Lord Normanby's Bill, and that the interests of each should be combined, so that the proceeds of the one should be beneficial to the other. Thirdly, Because, at this present time, the country is in such a state of inundation, owing to the late excess of rain, and a want of attention to main outfalls, that all agriculturists will at once be alive to the importance of the project.

A more extensive measure than any at present in force, or any yet contemplated, is urged upon the attention of landowners, with a view to employ the cause of the greatest evil the farmer experiences, as a means of effecting a great benefit; there being no doubt that by the application of the surplus waters from the higher lands, obtained and concentrated by drainage, and thereby rendered disposable for irrigating the lower lands, the rich and vegetable matter which is now lost to the farmer by periodical floods, would not only be returned to the land in the shape of alluvial deposit, but the water conveying it might be also used (in its passage from the higher to the lower ground) as a natural motive power for turning mills, &c.

It is admitted that arable lands are improved to the extent of one bushel (at least), of wheat an acre, by good drainage; and it is admitted also that on all well-drained meadows which are irrigated, a benefit is effected to the extent of two, if not three, tons of hay an acre. In addition to these advantages to arable and grass lands resulting from a measure based on the foregoing principles, there would be another of considerable importance to the agriculturist, viz.: The occupier of an upland farm would be enabled to increase the number, and improve the quality, of his stock, by the conversion of high and dry pastures into water meadows.

These suggestions are further and earnestly urged upon the attention of landowners, in order if possible to exhibit the advantages which would accrue to the country by the drainage of lands and the sewerage of towns being made uniform to one system. It is unnecessary here to refer to the loss agriculture suffers from the non-application of the refuse of towns as a manure for the increased fertility of the soil. The best authorities agree that vegetation would be greatly increased by management such as is here recommended. It therefore appears as just as it is feasible that in providing for the better sewerage of towns, such outfalls should be used as will secure the proceeds for farming purposes, while, by due regard to the levels and contour of the surrounding ground, a supply of rain water (which is considered best for domestic purposes) might be conveyed to those towns which are so situated as to allow of such an arrangement.

ART. IX.-Blackwood's Standard Novels. Vols. I. and II. Edinburgh and London: Blackwood.

In accordance with the fashion of the time, the Messrs. Blackwood have published two volumes of a cheap and uniform edition of the novels and tales that have issued from their house during the last twenty years; for, at least during that space, as our vivid recollections well can testify, have standard works of the class notified been accumulating upon their hands; and when a judicious selection from the series is completed, a more valuable and characteristic library of fiction will nowhere else be found. Not more valuable in regard to originality of thought, truth and healthiness of feeling, and power of diction; not more characteristic of the land which

claims their authors for her sons. Was it said "that a novel, or work of fiction, entirely Scottish, could not take?" Let the "Annals of the Parish," and the "Ayrshire Legatees," which are reprinted in the first of these volumes, give the answer. We defy Scotchman or foreigner to name creations that have more in them of what is really indigenous, genial, and genuine-of what addresses itself in the garb of fiction with more gratifying unction to intelligent, right-minded, and strong-hearted persons. Nor could a better and more fitting beginning be made of Blackwood's classics than with these two works. But they must not at this time be mentioned in our pages, without some account of their author.

Prefixed to the first volume before us is a Memoir of Galt by Delta, who knew him well, and who has performed the part of biographer with judgment and chaste earnestness. Mr. Moir naturally cherishes warm recollections of his contemporary and gifted countryman, but not without candour and discrimination. He appears to us to have done the utmost that could be accomplished for his subject, and yet not to have offended by any extravagance of sentiment, and certainly not by any rhapsody of style.

Irvine was the birth-place of the author of the Aryshire Legatees ; 1779, the year in which he first saw the light. "In his early childhood he was of a feeble and delicate, or rather sensitive constitution, although his complaints never assumed any serious form." His first lessons in reading were received at home. He was afterwards placed at school in Greenock. When very young he was fond of flowers, and also of lounging on his bed and reading storybooks—a devourer of legends. For many years, indeed, he appears to have had unsettled or very diversified tastes. His activity was remarkable, his temper sanguine, his enterprise unwearied, but frequently at random. His early attempts in poetry were not few; he affected antiquarianism; tried his hand at mathematics, mechanics, music, and even politics a little in the revolutionary fashion. In the way of business he was for a short time in the Custom House, and also in a merchant's office. In 1804 he came to push his fortunes in London. Here his partnership with a Mr. M'Lachlan was unsuccessful; and he then entered himself of Lincoln's Inn, where his law-studies lasted only a few months. The next distinct period of his life was devoted to travel; in the course of which he visited Italy, Greece, Turkey, &c., literature during that time, as it had previously done, occupying him, as well as mercantile schemes and projections. In his travels he formed an intimacy with Byron, passages of which he afterwards recorded in a "Life" of the poet, which drew down upon the biographer sundry bitter attacks. His "Life and Administration of Wolsey ;" "Voyages and Travels ;" and "Letters from the Levant," had, by the period at which we have arrived, been written by him. We now quote more closely, after

premising that he had a grand speculation in his head of a mercantile description, that was to be connected with the Mediter

ranean :

From the time of entering himself of Lincoln's Inn, before going abroad, until this period, he had indulged in something like bibliomania, and had been a picker up of rare and curious books to a considerable extent. He now resolved to sell off his collection, which had been made abroad as well as at home, and to quench for ever the expensive taste which prompted it. The disappointment of many cherished hopes had, by this time, damped his sanguine temperament, and sobered down much of his natural enthusiasm. Youth had lost something of its irritability along with its golden colouring: and he determined not only to fret less against the bars of the fate that encaged him, but to demean himself henceforward with something more akin to philosophical submission, if not indifference. In this chastened frame of mind, he paid a farewell visit to his native place before setting out for Gibraltar, going to every spot with which his boyhood had been familiar, and even to the churchyard, with the old familiar faces of whose mossy tombstones he claimed acquaintance. "The journey," he himself says, was, in one respect, not pleasant. I found myself prodigiously changed, and I saw many persons altered by time-changed too, I thought, in character. But the great transmutation of which I was sensible was in my own hopes. I remembered well how buoyant, even fantastical, they once had been, how luxuriant and blossomy; but I saw that a blight had settled on them, and that my career must in future be circumscribed and very sober." The unforeseen accidents which had hitherto thwarted many of his best-laid schemes and most fondly cherished expectations, did not, however, cease here. The success of the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsula, and his triumphant entry into Madrid, blasted all hopes of success in the Gibraltar speculation. In the leisure which his situation afforded, Mr. Galt applied himself to the attainment of the Spanish language; and having free access to the garrison and town libraries, his thirst for reading was amply gratified. Some months were thus pleasingly enough spent; but it was clear that the plan of the intended establishment could not now succeed; and his health had become so affected, that a return to London for surgical assistance was imperative. He considered his taking this step as in some degree humiliating, and for some time he hesitated; but the love of life at length assumed the ascendancy. Mr. Galt had for many years enjoyed the friendship and advice of Dr. Tilloch, the editor of the "Philosophical Magazine," and proprietor of the "Star" newspaper; and, under his roof, had revised the proof-sheets of his "Voyages and Travels." Miss Tilloch now became his wife, and afterwards the mother of his three sons, John, Thomas, and Alexander.

Henceforward Galt's life is to be found chiefly in the number and variety of his literary works, with one important exception that will be noticed by us. These literary labours, however, for a time did not earn for him any very distinguished repute. They were not only too multifarious, but none of them were in a field which

he could call his own; nor does he appear to have been conscious of any peculiar cast of genius. Says Mr. Moir,

He employed his pen in the form of dissertation and biography, of tale and critique. In these off-hand effusions, much, doubtless, is of unequal merit. In the shape of first thoughts many things were poured forth which would have been cancelled on sober review; but throughout them all are observable the traces of a searching and vigorous intellect; of a mind original in its speculations and copious in its resources, and conveying its developments to the world in modes of expression, which, whether acknowledged or not to be always graceful, are assuredly always characteristic.

This is upon the whole a fair criticism and estimate; and especially do we approve of the following observations, which come after those we have just quoted :-" His subjects might be occasionally unhappy, sometimes they were so; but whatever they were, his mode of treating them was peculiarly his own. Imitation was a meanness to which, as an author, he could never stoop; and all his works, whatever be their comparative merits, have this in common, that they bear upon them the impress of John Galt." But it was left to others, to the public, to discover his true spirit; the conductors of "Blackwood's Magazine," and, we believe, Mr. Blackwood chiefly himself, very nicely perceiving and accurately gauging his genius-very luckily discerning his forte-when upon the "Ayrshire Legatees" the publisher was called to pronounce judgment. And yet the Annals of the Parish," which appears to us to be Galt's master-piece, although given to the public after the Legatees, had been written long before.

It is somewhat singular (remarks Mr. Moir) that Mr. Galt should have advanced to middle life, should have written so much, and been so long absent from his native country, before he fell on that vein so peculiarly his own, and from the workings of which his posthumous fame will chiefly depend. We now know, however, that the " Annals of the Parish," that exquisite picture of Scottish character, manners, and feelings, was composed in the leisure of the author's supposed more momentous concerns, some ten or twelve years before the date of its publication; and consequently anterior to the appearance of " Waverley" and "Guy Mannering," to which-so much for imitation-some would fain attribute its origin. Indeed it was, at the time, offered to the publishers of these celebrated works, and was returned to Mr. Galt with the assurance that a novel, or work of fiction, entirely Scottish, would not take.

It is not necessary that we should accompany Mr. Moir further into the literary career of Galt, or note the biographer's particular comments upon any of the Scottish fictions which the lamented author threw off with almost unprecedented speed. We therefore pass on to the most important episode in his history, and which was destined to colour all that was future to him on earth; and concern