Fleetwood's, a comfortable coat of capacious dimensions, into one of the pockets of which Charley might with ease introduce his shrivelled body; summer and winter his old-fashioned shoes are surmounted by a pair of huge silver buckles; which may have been manufactured in the days of William the Norman; polished with the most exact care, and brilliant enough to reflect the rays of the sun. He is, moreover, afflicted with that gentlemanly complaint, the luxurious gout. A few minutes before the Chief Baron, slowly, but authoritatively, the crier ascends the steps of the Court, and, in an instant, quells any squabbles for places, which may have arisen; then, entering his commodious box, placed exactly opposite to Charley Fleetwood's, these two luminaries of the Court of Exchequer appear in astronomical conjunction. The chief arrives,-the trial begins, the crowd gathers, the passages are choked up,-the barristers impeded: then begins the crier to exert his authority in a voice, which would have silenced his celebrated predecessor of the Roman forum, and which sometimes discomposes the gravity even of Charley Fleetwood himself," Make way there for the gentlemen of the bar, make way, I say, for king's counsel; so, you'll not make way?-tipstaff, where are you? do your duty, call the sheriffs,-bailiffs, take them scheming fellows into custody:" mean time the progress of the trial is arrested; as it is utterly impossible that even Daniel O'Connell could be heard while this storm lasts. The Chief Baron sits most composedly; never interrupting or correcting his crier, for whose invectives he has a most peculiar relish. The crier, if not promptly obeyed, rises in his wrath, and rather unceremoniously accosting the doubtful characters by whom he is surrounded, vociferates, "Go home, you loungers, you idle scheming, skulking rascals, have you nothing to do? Have you no business to mind? What brings you here? What do you want with law, or what do you know about it? Gentlemen of the law, take care of your pockets." After this burst subsides, the trial is resumed, and, our friend, the crier, turns round to chat with any respectable gentlemen who may be near him: but, it is to be observed, he never condescends so far as to allow of familiarities from pert attornies clerks. When in a loquacious mood, he will recount many old stories of the bench and of the bar of forty years ago, particularly of his patron, Lord Avonmore; and how one day, in a violent fit of passion, he took off his wig, all powdered as it was, and flung it in his adversaries face and of the fine ould times before the Union, when so many of the counsellors were in parliament-and what a fine speaker ould Curran was—and how like him his son Mr. William Henry Curran is, to whom he wishes all success, because he hears he is a great scholar and an author, and whom he hopes will one day be a judge, because he is his father's son. In the midst of all this olio, some forward, troublesome fellow, catches his eye; in an instant he shouts him down, crying out for the tipstaff, whom he commands "to take that suspicious-looking fellow into custody, that fellow with his mouth open, with the black beard and no cravat," interrupting the Chief by leaning over the form. The characters and duties of the crier, the court keeper, and the tipstaff, have been well and happily described by the present Chief Justice Bushe, when Solicitor-General, in whose words it may not be unamusing to conclude this article. "That high officer, the crier, is the first, according to Lord Coke; the Court

and the Chief Judge are deeply interested that he should well and truly cry, when he calls the witnesses to the book, the jurors to the box, and the plaintiff to be nonsuited; then follows the tipstaff, an important personage who beareth a black rod, surmounted with silver, and chaseth away the idle boys; and last appears the Court Keeper, a comely matron, belonging by the statute of Westminster, exclusively, to the Chief Baron, and to whom no junior Baron can lay claim; unless when my lord is out of town. And she too is appointed by reasonableness of the common law, because, as Lord Coke says, 'The law doth ever appoint those that have the greatest skill and knowledge to perform that which is to be done.'"

[8]

A NEW SYSTEM OF COMMUNICATING SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION IN A TABULAR FORM.

ALL our knowledge of things, consists in the ideas we have of them. All the ideas we have, proceed from the comparisons we make of impressions on our senses.

Our knowledge, therefore, consists in the remembered judgments past upon the comparison of our ideas.

The limit, of our powers of judgment, is, the declaring our ideas equal or unequal in the single impressions, which they make upon one of our senses, or, in the compound impressions, which they make upon several of our senses.

The limit, of our powers of comparison, is, the attempt to find whether one, or more of our senses, is impressed in the same manner by ideas, between which we are conscious of an interval; that is, by two distinct ideas. That we cannot compare more than two ideas without first passing a judgment as to the agreement of, or difference between the two, is manifest from this.

Let x, y, z, be three ideas, i. e. the symbols of three ideas, and let x equal y in every quality, i. e. in its effect on our senses. We cannot

say

that equals both of them, at once, i. e. at a first glance; for, unless we compare it with one of them, we do not know whether it equals either. In order to decide, whether it does equal one of them, we must make a comparison, and pronounce a judgment between the two, before we can bring into comparison, what hypothesis we have formed regarding the qualities of the first two.

Much less, where we have x, y, and z ideas, can we compare them all, at once, and pronounce a judgment on their agreement or relation to one another, when we have no given relation between any two of them.

Such, then, is the mode, in which we acquire our knowledge of all things; and, the strictest application of this mode of investigation is the object of what is called SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH.

It will be easily seen, how, if two persons compare the same two ideas together, and arrive at a different judgment upon their separate compa

risons, and proceed to compare these judgments with some third idea, the judgments of the two on the second comparison may not agree, we may even say, can scarcely agree.

One, then, of these individuals has not compared, in the same mode, as the other. For had both (supposing them to be healthy individuals) considered the things to be compared, in the same manner, under the same conditions, and by the same qualities, that is by their whole effect upon their senses, and, expressed the result of their judgments on the same qualities; since the bodies or ideas are the same, their judgments must have been the same :-must have been the same, because, experience tells all men, that where circumstances are precisely similar, the results will be similar. It is indeed the belief of this, and, that the mental powers of all men, when their bodies are healthy, and their powers are similarly used, are the same,* alone, that enables them to decide, which of two differing judgments, made upon the comparison of two similar things, by two different men, are consistent with the real state of the ideas compared. And, this consistency, they ascertain by procuring several to make the same comparison, with care. Thus, they decide the judgment, which, of the two, agrees most with that of the greater part of the examiners, to be that, which is consistent with the real state of the compared ideas. This consistency is termed TRUTH, or RIGHT; as opposed to the judgment differing from that of most of the examiners, which, by way of distinction, is termed UNTRUTH, error, or wronG. To find out what ideas being compared are sure to produce, when similarly considered, by men in general, in good health, the same judgments, is the object of scientific research, and is called the investigation of truth; while those, who engage with zeal and ardour in this research, are styled philosophers.

After thus exhibiting the nature of truth, and the mode in which it is obtained, we need scarcely trouble ourselves to dwell long upon the utility of any plan, which tends to bring more speedily before the eye of the examiner, the various ideas, which he requires successively to pass in review previously to arriving at any important, or rather at any correct conclusion. Every effort, whether made by the writer, or the printer, whether by the generalizer, the logician, the mathematician, or the naturalist, has invariably been founded upon this principle; and, hence, we find all men endeavouring, whether in domestic life, or in the literary world, to arrange their thoughts, or the facts, upon which they are to be founded, according to some given system.

To point out and investigate, how far each of these classes of characters have succeeded, in their various efforts at simplicity of arrangement or facility in communicating the results of their experience; though an object, not only of interest, but importance; would force us into an extended disquisition, and prevent us from attaining our present object. We shall, therefore, content ourselves with calling up to the memories of our readers the long-established practice of dividing the various objects of natural history into species, genera, orders, and classes. Each of these

*For the souls of ideots are of the same piece with those of statesmen, but, now and then, nature is at fault, and, this good guest of our's takes soil in an imperfect body, and so is slackened from showing her wonders; like an excellent musician, which cannot utter himself upon a defective instrument."-BACON's Essay on Death.

is the name for a conventional unit, consisting of a considerable number of ideas, common to every one of the individuals, to which the name applies: but, even, after we have arrived at making a certain number of conventional units, either as species, genera, orders, or classes, we find considerable difficulty; for, where these units are numerous, it becomes excessively tedious to read over every one of the descriptions, one after the other, till we find the one that we require; yet, in species, (and for illustration, we confine ourselves to this kind of unit,) we must either do this, or we must introduce a multitude of subdivisions of the genus, to which they belong, and thus increase, to an alarming extent, the multitude of names. We know that the ablest promoters of science have, of la;e, not only in France, but, through the rest of Europe, advocated the use of this subdividing system; yet, we are also aware, that most men, who consult their works, find these subdivisions tiresome, and inconducive to the desired result. Feeling, then, as we did, to its fullest extent, the difficulties, into which science was thus thrown, and anxious, as we were, in commencing a work, whose main object is to unmask science, to render every facility to those, who wish to consult nature for themselves,—it was not without pleasure that we received from the son of one of our Professors a plan for exhibiting natural, historical, and other information in a tabular form: we cannot avoid this opportunity of returning our sincere thanks to this gentleman for the kind manner, in which he has rendered us every assistance in his power.

them ac

He had formed the opinion, that the best manner of comparing objects would be that followed by the mind; namely, to compare cording to their separate modes or qualities; and has, in illustration of this opinion, constructed many tables on various subjects, in which the first column consists of the qualities of all the species contained in any given genus, or of all the genera, in any given class. The head line in these tables is made up of the individual names of the species or genera, arranged alphabetically, for the sake of easy and expeditious reference. On a line with every one of the qualities, a check, or dash of the pen, is placed under the names of such species, as possess the quality in question; the absence of the dash, of course, indicating the absence of the quality. The whole of these qualities being so marked, there, of course, results a table, in which, from what we have said, it will be seen, that, upon looking in the first column for any quality, which we find in the object we are examining, and the name of which we desire to know, we may at once find out all the species, in which this quality occurs. One of these species our object must be. If now we look up or down, according to circumstances, we shall find dashes under several; say, for instance, half of these species; opposite to some quality which, if our specimen possess, we at once reject the other half of the first set of species: by proceeding in a similar manner, we arrive finally at a name, in which only one dash represents some quality of our object, and then we have attained its name, which is, the name found at the head of the column, in which this last dash occurs. By this process then, in our opinion, much simpler, and, certainly, less tedious than the old one, we may readily acquire the name of any object we possess. It may, however, be urged, that in systematic works on natural history, we have not only the oppor

General form of Shell.

Synonymes.

References to Plates.

in a Tabular Form.

53

tunity of finding out the names of the various objects, but, also, of refreshing our memories as to all the separate characters of any individual, which we may not happen to remember. This is an advantage, however, which is doubly secured by the nature of these tables; for, the alphabetical arrangement of the names materially facilitates the refreshing of memory, and, under the name, when found, every dash in the subjacent column indicates some individual character of the species, and, all the characters, so indicated, taken together, make up its history. As a specimen of this mode of communicating knowledge, we here present the reader with a table, exhibiting the characters of the English species of a genus of fossils, called Productus. It will readily occur to our readers, that this form of tables is applicable to ALL Subjects, and, wherever we can succeed in forming, on this plan, useful compilations of matter, we shall unhesitatingly print them for the use of our readers.

We are indebted for all the facts contained in the following table to Dr. Fleming's able work on the Zoology of Great Britain.