valued infinitely more-a smile of happiness and contentment: and, when I beheld their healthy countenances and their robust active frames, I could not help feeling how astonished people in England would be if they could but behold, and study, a state of human existence in which every item in the long list of artificial luxuries which they have been taught to venerate is utterly unknown, and, if described, would be listened to with calm inoffensive indifference, or with a smile approaching very nearly to the confines of contempt; but the truth is, that between what we term the civilized portion of mankind, and what we call "the savage," there is a moral gulf which neither party can cross, or, in other words, on the subject of happiness they have no ideas with us in common. For instance, if I could have suddenly transported one of the ruddy squaws before me to any of the principal bed-rooms in Grosvenor Square, her first feeling on entering the apartment would have been that of suffocation from heat and impure air; but if, gently drawing aside the thick damask curtains of a fourpost bed, I had shown her its young aristocratic inmates fast asleep, protected from every breath of air by glass windows, wooden shutters, holland blinds, window-curtains, hot bed-clothes, and beautiful fringed night-caps,—as soon as her smile had subsided, her simple heart would have yearned to return to the clean rocks and pure air of Lake Huron; and so it would have been if I could suddenly have transported any of the young men before me to the narrow contracted hunting-grounds of any of our English country gentlemen; indeed, an Indian would laugh outright at the very idea of rearing and feeding game for the sake of afterwards shooting it; and the whole system of living, house fed, in gaiters, and drinking port-wine, would to his mind appear to be an inferior state of happiness to that which it had pleased “the Great Spirit" to allow him to enjoy. During the whole evening, and again early the next morning, I was occupied in attending to claims on the consideration of the British government which were urged by several of the tribes, and in making arrangements with some of our ministers of relig ion of various sects, who, at their own expense, and at much inconvenience, had come to the island. At noon I proceeded to a point at which it had been arranged that I should hold a council with the chiefs of all the tribes, who, according to appointment, had congregated to meet me; and on my arrival there I found them all assembled, standing in groups, dressed in their finest costumes, with feathers waving on their heads, with their faces painted, half-painted, quarter-painted, or one eye painted, according to the customs of their respective tribes, while on the breast and arms of most of the oldest of them there shone resplendent the silver gorgets and armlets which in former years had been given to them by their ally-the British sovereign. After a few salutations it was proposed that our council should commence; and accordingly, while I took possession of a chair which the chief superintendent of Indian affairs had been good enough to bring for me, the chiefs sat down opposite to me in about eighteen or twenty lines parallel to each other. For a considerable time we indoiently gazed at each other in dead silence. Passions of all sorts had time to subside; and the judgment, divested of its enemy, was thus enabled calmly to consider and prepare the subjects of the approaching discourse; and, as if still further to facilitate this arrangement, "the pipe of peace" was introduced, slowly lighted, slowly smoked by one chief after another, and then sedately handed to me to smoke it too. The whole assemblage having, in this simple manner, been solemnly linked together in a chain of friendship, and as it had been intimated to them by the Superintendent that I was ready to consider whatever observations any of them might desire to offer, one of the oldest chiefs arose; and, after standing for some seconds erect, yet in a position in which he was evidently perfectly at his ease, he commenced his speech-translated to me by an interpreter at my side-by a slow, calm expression of thanksgiving to the Great Spirit for having safely conducted so many of his race to the point on which they had been requested to assemble. He then, in very appropriate terms, expressed the feelings of attachment which had so long connected the red man with his Great Parent across the Salt Lake; and after this exordium, which in composition and mode of utterance would have done credit to any legislative assembly in the civilized world, he proceeded, with great calmness, by very beautiful metaphors, and by a narration of facts it was impossible to deny, to explain to me how gradually and-since their acquaintance with their white brethren-how continuously the race of red men had melted, and were still melting, like snow before the sun. As I did not take notes of this speech or of those of several other chiefs who afterwards addressed the council, I could only very inaccurately repeat them. Besides which, a considerable portion of them related to details of no public importance: I will therefore, in general terms, only observe, that nothing can be more interesting, or offer to the civilized world a more useful lesson, than the manner in which the red aborigines of America, without ever interrupting each other, conduct their councils. The calm high-bred dignity of their demeanor-the scientific manner in which they progressively construct the framework of whatever subject they undertake to explain-the sound arguments by which they connect as well as support it-and the beautiful wild flowers of eloquence with which, as they proceed, they adorn every portion of the moral architecture they are constructing, form altogether an exhibition of grave interest; and yet is it not astonishing to reflect that the orators in these councils are men whose lips and gums are-while they are speaking-black from the wild berries on which they have been subsisting-who have never heard of education-never seen a town-but who, born in the secluded recesses of an almost interminable forest, have spent their lives in either following zigzaggedly the game on which they subsist through a labyrinth of trees, or in paddling their canoes across lakes, and among a congregation of such islands as I have described! They hear more distinctly-see farther-smell clearer-can bear more fatigue-can subsist on less food-and have altogether fewer wants than their white brethren; and yet while from morning till night we stand gazing at ourselves in the looking-glass of self-adneration, we consider the red Indians of America as "outside barbarians." But I have quite forgotten to be the Hansard of my own speech at the council, which was an attempt to explain to the tribes assembled the reasons which had induced their late "Great Father" to recommend some of them to sell their lands to the Provincia. Government, and to remove to the innumerable islands in the waters before us. I assured them that their titles to their present hunting-grounds remained, and ever would remain, respected and undisputed; but that, inasmuch as their white brethren had an equal right to occupy and cultivate the forest that surrounded them, the consequence inevitably would be to cut off their supply of wild game, as I have already described. In short, I stated the case as fairly as I could, and, after a long debate, succeeded in prevailing on the tribe to whom I had particularly been addressing myself to dispose of their lands on the terms I had proposed; and whether the bargain was for their weal or woe, it was, and, so long as I live, will be, a great satisfaction to me to feel that it was openly discussed and agreed to in presence of every Indian tribe with whom Her Majesty is allied; for be it always kept in mind, that while the white inhabitants of our North American colonies are the queen's subjects, the red Indian is by solemn treaty Her Majesty's ally. 327.-SONGS. [We have devoted several 'Half-Hours' to our song writers. Many other songs, especially of the greatest of song-writers, Burns, will be found scattered through these volumes, in articles which are grouped from various authors. We leave this branch of composition with extracts from a Scotch and an English poet, who have added many fresh flowers to our lyric wreath. The 'Poems and Songs' of ALLAN CUNNINGHAM have been collected into a pretty pocket volume by his accomplished son, Mr. Peter Cunningham. In a modest and graceful introduction—a fitting tribute to the memory of such a father-Mr. P. Cunningham gives the following interesting account of the circumstances that called forth the genius of the young stonemason to attempt some of the best imitations of the border minstrelsy that have been produced. Scott justly called some of these "beautiful." The 'Wet Sheet and a flowing Sea' is amongst the most perfect of our national lyrics. "Mr. R. H. CROMEK, by profession an engraver, visited Dumfries, in the summer of 1809, accompanied by Mr. J. Stothard, the celebrated painter. The object of their joint visit was the collection of materials and drawings for an enlarged and illustrated edition of the works of Burns. Mr. Cromek had published, a few years before, a supplemental volume to Currie's Edition of the Works, ap 1, pleased with the success of the 'Reliques' (so the volume was entitled), was preparing for publication at the same time, a Select Collection of Scottish Songs, with the notes and memoranda of Burns, and such additional materials as his own industry could bring together. "Mr. Cromek brought a letter of introduction to my father from Mrs. Fletcher, of Edinburgh, herself a poetess, and the friend of Sir Walter Scott and Campbell. A similarity of pursuits strengthened their acquaintance; their talk was all about Burns, the old Border Ballads, and the Jacobite Songs of the '15 and '45. Cromek found his young friend, then a stonemason earning eighteen shillings a-week, well versed in the poetry of his country, with a taste naturally good, and an extent of reading, for one in his condition, really surprising. Stothard, who had a fine feeling for poetry, was equally astonished. "In one of their conversations on modern Scottish song, Cromek made the discovery that the Dumfries mason, on eighteen shillings a-week, was himsel! a poet. Mrs. Fletcher may have told him as much, but I never heard that she did; this, however, is immaterial. Cromek, in consequence of this discovery, asked to see some of his effusions.' They were shown to him; and at their next meeting he observed, as I have heard my father tell with great good humor, imitating Cromek's manner all the while,-'Why, sir, your verses are well, very well; but no one should try to write songs after Robert Burns unless he could either write like him or some of the old minstrels.' The disappointed poet nodded assent, changed the subject of conversation, and talked about the old songs and fragments of songs still to be picked up among the peasantry of Nithsdale. Gad, sir!' said Cromek; if we could but make a volume. Gad, sir! see what Percy has done, and Ritson, and Mr. Scott more recently with his Border Minstrelsy.' The idea of a volume of imitations, passed upon Cromek as genuine remains, flashed across the poet's mind in a moment, and he undertook at once to put down what he knew, and set about collecting all that could be picked up in Nithsdale and Galloway."] THOU HAST SWORN BY THY GOD, MY JEANIE. Thou hast sworn by thy God, my Jeanie, By that pretty white hand o' thine, And I hae sworn by my God, my Jeanie, Then foul fa' the hands that wad loose sic bands, |