Slug, the Sea-hare, and other gasteropoda. The lower jaw, again, of man with its muscles, has pretty obviously its prototype in the bony frame-work of the Sea-hedgehog, the horny jaw of the Snail, the beak of the Cuttle, and the jaws of the Cray-fish, as well as of the Scorpion, and Spider, and of the larvæ of insects in general; and his teeth-not that these are mentioned as any part of the skeleton-are merely repetitions of those of the Sea-hedgehog, the Snail, the Cray-fish, the Spider, and numerous other invertebrate animals. But it is principally between the individual bones and muscles of the other vertebrate animals and man that analogies are striking; and it is indeed to this point that the doctrine of a unity of organic structure has been chiefly applied, and from this that it has derived its principal illustrations. Into this subject it would be out of place, at present, to enter at any length; suffice it to say, that the correspondence is found to be perfect in every particular; and the structural elements, or essential parts of each bone in man, however differently combined, and to whatever degree developed, are always met with, while, again, none but these are met with in all other vertebrate animals. Of the different combination of these elements we have a good example in the hyoid bone, which, simple as it is in man, becomes so only by giving two of its elements to the temporal bones, under the name of the styloid processes, and others to other contiguous parts, so as to lose at length all appearance of the complicated pharyngeal bone of fishes and reptiles; and of the different degrees of development, equally good examples in the small bones within the tympanum, and the coracoid processes of the scapula, which, insignificant as they are in the human skeleton, are, nevertheless, all that remains respectively of the large opercular bones, and the large coracoid arch of fishes, the latter becoming the furcula of reptiles and birds. On the other hand, the individual bones of man as often borrow elements from the neighbouring parts as impart such elements to them-witness, for example, the lower jaw, which in man associates with itself the distinct intermaxillary bone of so many of the lower tribes-and are as frequently more developed than the corresponding bones of other vertebrate animals, as less so; witness again the several bones composing his skull; so that a kind of balance, as it were, is everywhere struck between the sum of them all; and what any individual tribe wants in the evolution of one bone is always made up to it in that of others. It is to the hyoid bone and sternum, which is immediately continued from behind its centre, that in fishes the thoracic ribs with their muscles are attached, so that these animals appear to carry their chests, as it were, in their mouths; but this constitutes no essential difference between these parts of fishes and the corresponding parts of man; nor is the entire want of ribs in the adult Batrachian reptiles-since they disappear only with the gills, which, in the larva, had been attached to them their amalgamation with the hardened corpus mucosum into the dorsal shield, like that of the sternum into the ventral shield of the Chelonian reptiles, or the prodigious number of ribs, without any apparent sternum at all, in the Ophidian reptiles, any other than an accidental difference. Of the general correspondence of the vertebræ with their muscles in all vertebrate animals, it is superfluous to speak; and the bones of the skull, also, unlike as is its general aspect in the different tribes, are essentially the same in all; the differences consisting only in the various associations

or degrees of development of the same structural elements, or points, as they are called, of original ossification: even the large lateral hollows over the proper skull of the Chelonian and some Saurian reptiles, which appear at first sight entirely sui generis, are merely arches stretching outwards and downwards towards the zygomata from the spine of the parietal bones, in general so prominent in the inferior vertebrate tribes, and bearing nearly the same relation to these bones, as the dorsal and ventral shields bear, in the former of these animals, to the bones of the spine and sternum. The bones of the face, again, and the lower jaw with their muscles, are in all fundamentally the same; and from the rudimental scapulæ and clavicles of fishes, on the one hand, and bones of the pelvis on the other, as well as from the bones of their pectoral and ventral fins, with their several muscles, the transition is easy and almost insensible-keeping in mind that the prototype of all these bones is a rib.”

We have not room to prolong our remarks on, or increase our extracts from this valuable course of lectures, but shall most probably return to the subject generally, when the next part of them appears before us.

ART. XVI.-The Paper Duty and its Influence on Literature. 8vo. pp. 47. London. 1836.

TAXES, in the existing state of society, are like the majority of servants-"necessary evils"-and require to be so chosen, that they may principally fall on those who are best able to pay, and consequently least likely to feel the burden; that the poor man who has the greatest difficulty imaginable in providing the absolute necessaries of life for himself and family, may be as slightly as possible touched upon, if uot entirely exempt, while those who roll in riches, and whose chief employment is considering how they may squander them, should be the personages from whom the funds ought to be principally drawn. Also that they should not be in the least detrimental to civilization and improvement, and that pleasures and superfluities should chiefly be aimed at, while necessaries and incentives to good, ought to be as much as possible untouched.

We have chosen the present time, as most appropriate for introducing our subject-the Paper Duty-as its reduction, in part, is now under consideration.

The baneful effects arising from the tax must be known to almost all-the serious drawback which it is on literature-the drag which it places on cheap, useful, and entertaining knowledge-the bar which it presents to those who embark in the means of improving and civilizing their fellow creatures-and therefore its impolicy must be too apparent to render comment from us necessary; but what surprises us is that a tax calculated to produce such incalculable mischief, should ever have been adopted, and continued so long and now when the subject is broached, to consider of still upholding it—even though in a reduced degree-does certainly appear to us ridiculously inconsistent. Let us now enquire what is the chief motive and reason given for altering it? The answer is, that it is a burden on literature and useful knowledge.

Good. It is allowed to be injurious to literature of every kind, and therefore a serious hindrance to civilization and the diffusion of cheap and entertaining information, by which means we may hope to see the dark cloud dispelled which now shrouds the majority of our lower classes, who are in a state of barbarous ignorance, discraceful to any civilized country, (the results of which we almost every day see in the numberless instances of drunkenness, depravity, and vice, which almost every where meet the eye,) and which ought to be the aim of every government to remedy, instead of allowing taxes to exist which have a direct tendency to shackle the principal means for doing so. And it is also their interest to assist to the utmost of their ability in enlightening the many thousands who, through their very want of knowledge, might easily be made the instruments, in designing hands, of bringing ruin on their country; while, by the diffusion of information, they may be taught the necessity and justice of those laws which they now cannot comprehend; and become (instead of a wild and turbulent rabble) useful members of society.

With publishers, paper forms the chief item in their expenses, and government adds to this a duty of about 30 per cent. We give the following as an example:-A monthly periodical (having for its object the innocent entertainment and improvement of mankind), the circulation of which is 10,000, will consume 20 reams of paper per month, weighing, we will suppose, 40 lbs. per ream; the duty on which amounts to ten pounds; which, if repealed, would allow higher talent to be employed and more adequately remunerated; a great reduction in price to the public, chiefly on account of the increased circulation which would follow; and, instead of bringing ruin on its proprietors, as the majority of periodicals now do, it would, if properly conducted, be the means of rewarding them according to their merits. And who are more deserving of reward than those who direct their principal attention to the advancement of their fellow creatures-who endeavour to instil into their minds a love of virtue and an abhorrence of vice, withdrawing them from drunkenness and its attendants, by awakening them to a just sense of their fallen and degraded state. But, apologising for our partial digression, we return to where the government truly allows the tax to be inimical to literature, and that that is their chief motive in reducing it. But why reduce it? as almost every one must say, why not entirely abolish it? Why! because they plead inability, and that the revenue of the country will not allow it. We will now shew what amount of the revenue is produced from first class papers only. The utmost gross amount is 700,000l. per annum, which includes the duty on brown or second class paper, paste-boards, &c. &c. (which duty may still be maintained, as it does not materially interfere with literature), without deducting drawbacks for exportation, the immense cost of collection, and various other incidental expenses. The duty on second class paper, &c. will amount to about 200,000l., and the extra number of officers required in the collection of the whole duty, drawbacks, losses, &c. will make the amount to be deducted full 300,0007., thus leaving the amount of duty derived from first class paper under 400,000l. And this amount they now propose to divide by reducing the duty on first class paper from 3d. to 1d.; though taking into consideration the increased quantity of paper which would be used, partly on account of the proposed

reduction, and partly on account of the alteration in the newspaper stamp (which we consider to be an object far less calling for change than the paper duty), the amount that government would have the use of would be about 300,000l. per annum on first class papers. And for such a sum, paltry in comparison with the mischiefs arising from it, is Great Britainthat country in which arts and sciences have made the greatest progressthat country whose commerce is extended to almost every part of the habitable world, whose name is feared and honoured by nearly every known nation throughout the universe, whose navy is the most triumphant of any that does or ever did exist, whose people have made silent wastes populous and successful cities (overcoming by their invincible perseverance objects apparently the most insurmountable), whose country has ever been a refuge for the destitute, whose assistance has ever been tendered to the oppressed, whose power was recently the principal instrument in saving all Europe from the grasping hands of an ambitious tyrant, whose history displays talent and ability unequalled by any nation's annals, whose literature is the most varied and extensive in existence, and whose institutions are the wonder and admiration of all beholders :-and is such a country, we ask, to continue burthened with the most barbarous tax that ever was imposed, a tax which appears expressly framed for the hindrance of intellectual improvement, and which, having been allowed to exist so long, is a disgrace to any civilized nation? The measure proposed by government we entirely disapprove of. It is the equalization of the duty, that is, 14d. per cent. on every kind of paper, and which alteration they propose making in October next, without allowing any drawback on the stamped reams through. out the country. This proposition, as it now stands, if carried into effect, will be fraught with ruin and injustice to many, as nearly one half of the poorer paper makers (and by far the majority of them will come under that term) will be broken by the almost entire stagnation which will take place in their business until the question is settled. If government only takes off half the duty (though we hope it will, and know it ought to be all), as is now proposed, they will, by at once declaring their willingness to allow the drawback, save sufficient by the duty on paper to pay the same in October; as, in the event of the drawback not being allowed, stationers and consumers will not purchase; therefore government will be far more than the drawback out of pocket (as scarcely any first class paper, comparatively speaking, will be changed), while, if it is allowed, trade will resume its usual briskness, and the ruin and beggary of many hundredswho are now gaining by their industry an honest livelihood-will be prevented. And we cannot help acknowledging that wholesale stationers will have very just cause to complain of injustice in the event of the drawback being refused them; as in the reign of Queen Anne, when the barbarous and impolitic tax was first imposed, all paper in the hands of merchants and stationers, was made to pay the duty, therefore government, on its present repeal, ought, in common justice, to allow the drawback on all stamped reams-which may easily be done without fear of imposition or any great trouble-by all small houses sending their stock of unbroken reams, by a certain time, to the wholesale dealers who supply them, and the exciseman defacing the stamp of every ream as he takes it into ac

count.

They may also speak as to the many times they have contributed towards allowing the drawback on articles by which government could be and were defrauded, while they may truly say that their kind of stocks prevents almost the possibility of imposition. And as to time (less than six months) being allowed to empty their warehouses, that is next to useless, as we have ascertained that the majority of them have two or three years' stock of many articles, and must also either keep sufficient of most other kinds to supply their connexion, or have their business ruined by disappointing, and obliging them to go elsewhere.

Independent of the flagrant injustice which will be committed by not allowing the drawback, we must say that it is very bad policy in any government to destroy the confidence which their former acts may have commanded. For instance, a large and respectable body of the community have laid out their capital, and materially benefitted the revenue, by purchasing an article on which government has placed a very considerable duty (amounting on an average to 30 per cent.); and they have done this without the slightest suspicion of its being altered, when suddenly the government reduces the value of their goods by one half, if not the whole amount of the duty, without giving any equivalent whatever for the money they have received; which is precisely the same thing as being paid beforehand for an article, and when the person who has paid the money comes to demand it, he finds the article has been so used as to render it worthless, and is left without the least means of redress; which is very close upon the state in which all who hold large stocks of stamped first class paper now are.

In our opinion (and we do not give it without full consideration), by far the most just and politic way would be to abolish the entire duty on first class paper, at the approaching duty day in July; and as government pleads want of present funds as one and the principal reason for refusing the drawback, let them discharge the amount (which stationers have paid to them, as they are now going to reduce the value of that in which they have invested their money) by bills at such dates as they may find most convenient; and if the revenue should not be in a sufficiently flourishing state to allow the whole repeal, then let the deficiency be raised by taxing those extravagances and superfluities, the enjoyment of which really benefits none.

At any rate, let it no longer be said that England is so miserably deficient in her resources to support her government, as to be obliged longer to continue a tax which is allowed to be injurious to civilization, and to our fairest flower-literature.

ART. XVI.-Narrative of a Journey to the Zoolu Country, in South Africa. By Captain ALLEN F. GARDINER, R.N. London: Crofts. 1836. FROM many causes, no part of the world is more attractive to enterprising travellers than Africa; and the few who have ventured to explore its deserts have given details to their countrymen which are valuable, not merely for their scientific importance, but for the