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In the Medical Section one of the most elaborate papers pers was read by Professor Owen on the " Structure of Teeth, and the resemblance of Ivory to Bone, as illustrated by microscopical examination of the teeth of man, and of various existing and extinct animals." Among the communications produced in the same department are contained "Remarks on the skull of Eugene Aram." Proofs bearing upon its identity were first brought forward, and the paper stated that the development of the mental faculties as indicated by the relic, agreed in a remarkable manner with the recorded character of Aram. A long and an inconclusive conversation ensued, not only on the subject of identity, but the phrenological features of the skull. The merits of the science of phrenology were freely handled.

Under Statistics we shall quote the account as given in the Athenæum of the Changes in the Population of New Zealand," communicated by Saxe Bannister, late Attorney General for New South Wales, because it presents matter that may very properly be accepted by our readers as an appendix to a preceding article in our present number of the Review.

"It was stated that British emigration during the first five years after the peace averaged 5,000 annually, but during the last seven years, the average had risen to 70,000 and a portion of this stream having been recently directed to New Zealand, had given interest and importance to the statistics of that country. The New Zealand group consist of the Northern and Southern islands, Stewart's island, and some smaller islands; the extent of these is 95,000 square miles, or sixty millions of acres. The population was classed under the following heads:-natives, white residents, white visitors, and mixed races. The number of natives has been variously stated, but the most probable amount was said to be 130,000, or five natives to every three square miles. The white residents amount to about two thousand. In the Northern island, whites most commonly visit the Bay of Islands, and so many as 1,000 British and American sailors have been seen there at one time. In 1836 the following ships visited the Bay:

"There was no estimate of the mixed race, but it was stated to be greatly on the increase: the total population, however, decreasing, from a variety of causes, but chiefly from the introduction of European diseases. Mr. Bannister described at length the laws and usages of New Zealand, especially those relating to the tenure of land, which was said to be the property of the tribe, the chief possessing only the suzeraineté. The New Zealanders were described as a noble race of men, capable of attaining a high degree of civilization; but Mr. Bannister said, there was no doubt of

their being addicted to cannibalism. They have learned to use many Enropean implements, and to form plantations, farms, &c.; one native, who has taken the English name of Bailey, is chief mate of a vessel of 300 tons; and would have been captain, but for the Navigation Laws. The amount of trade in New Zealand was estimated at 4,500,000l. annually! The Church Mission of twenty-five persons, after fifteen years, has only 100 communicants; the Wesleyans, with only six missionaries, in ten years, were said to have 700 communicants: the difference was ascribed to the fact of the Church Missionaries having become landed proprietors. Wars are not so frequent as they were previous to the introduction of gunpowder, which has rendered warfare more expensive, and the Missionaries have frequently exerted themselves to reconcile feuds between hostile tribes with considerable success. But, Mr. Bannister observed, that the number of Europeans, both residents and visitors, is now so great, that some means must be immediately devised for organizing an administration of justice there.

"The discussion on this paper turned on the possibility of civilizing barbarous tribes.-Dr. Bowring said, that there was already a government agent in New Zealand, Mr. James Busby, an intelligent and philanthropic man. He had lately received a letter from Mr. Busby, who stated that civilization was making progress among the natives, many of whom were settling down to agricultural pursuits. Mr. Busby had effected great good in Australia, in a most unobstrusive manner, and owed his present appointment to no other influence than that of his high character. It was the opinion of this gentleman, that knowledge and civilization would gradually make their way in New Zealand. Dr. Bowring also stated that the Arabs on the frontiers of Egypt were beginning to lay aside their nomade habits. He had recently met with Bedouin Arabs, who had taken land, and were settling upon it as cultivators of the soil. On entering into conversation with these children of the desert, they informed him that they perceived the time for their abandonment of savage life had come, and it was their opinion that it would be more to their interest and comfort to live as farmers than as robbers.—Mr. Rawson said, that with respect to Mr. Busby, he had no power, beyond the moral weight of his character; and he had written home to state his conviction that it was desirable to invest him with power. It was also observed, that the nearer approach of the Pacific Islanders to the Caucasian race might account for their being more easily civilized than the Indians of North America."

The Mechanical Section, the Model department, and many scientific matters under each of the heads before mentioned, must be left to the particular inquiries of those who desire to keep up with the advancing knowledge and light of the times, and with the exertions of the British Association, which we hope will yet make its influence be felt in every portion of the empire, and throughout the entire globe.

A few of the observations that, at a concluding meeting, fell from the Marquis of Northampton, one of the Vice-Presidents for the next Meeting, which is to take place at Birmingham, will aptly close our paper.

"After stating its connexion with so many objects of art and manufacture, he said he was not surprised that an association whose sole objectura was to give that support so necessary for the advancement of these things, n should be received in the manner it had been. He had heard, and heard with pain, certain reports, which he was sure could not exist there, that \/ human knowledge was opposed to knowledge of a more sacred description. They had heard this stated with regard to the only science to which he could have any pretensions-the science of geology. But they had come to a place where there were practical geologists long before the formation of the British Association, and before the term geology was known; for what were miners but practical geologists? and when he looked around 13 and saw the number of churches and the number of beautiful buildings 51 erected to the glory of God, he could not imagine that such circumstances 10 were opposed to the belief of religion; but he could imagine it was a study that would lead them to the contemplation of the great works of ed nature. He could not help regretting the absence of the President; and he begged the gentlemen of the Association to put the best construction they could upon the conduct of the officers elected, for their duties were very arduous for himself, he knew how weak his ability was, but he would serve them to the best of his power. It would be his pride to act under such a President as Mr. Harcourt, who, along with Sir David Brewster, might be considered the originator of the Association.”

ART. VIII.-A Dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon Language. By the REV. 1 J. BOSWORTH. London: Longman. 1838.

AMONG those who have written upon and illustrated the Anglo-03 Saxon tongue, none will be found to have been so successful or satisfactory as certain recent authors and scholars, who, besides having the benefit of the works of ancient or previous cultivators, have conducted their own independent pursuits with extraordinary ability. But even among this modern class no one has done more to facilitate the study in question than the author of the present Dictionary. Others have approached the fountain, and by translation and dissertation have laid open some of the most copious streams of that strong and simple language, a knowledge and appreciation of which is so advantageous to him who would make himself master of modern English, and have a free use of its idiomatic beau- # ties and purity; but no one has gone in the direct and complete manner which Dr. Bosworth has done to the undefiled well, or shown so happily how to create or how to assauge the hopeful thirsting after its waters.

The title of the work in full, will best-for assuredly it does fairly -indicate its various contents and excellences. It calls itself "A Dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon Language, containing the Accentuation; the Grammatical inflections; the Irregular Words referred

to their Themes; the Parallel Terms from the other Gothic Languages; the Meaning of the Anglo-Saxon in English and Latin; and copious English and Latin Indexes, serving as a Dictionary of English and Anglo-Saxon, as well as of Latin and Anglo-Saxon. With a Preface on the Germanic Tongues; a Map of Languages, and the Essentials of Anglo-Saxon Grammar." We do not wonder that such a work occupied Dr. Bosworth for more than seven years, -learned, persevering, and zealous though he be. The Preface alone, in which a sketch of the Teutonic and Scandinavian languages is given, is such a performance as would alone earn for its author a name for eminent erudition and patient research. It throws amis broad and fine light over the whole field which he has traversed.

Among the other modern English labourers and scholars who have edited or translated with uncommon ability Anglo-Saxond books, Conybeare, Cardale, Kemble, and Thorpe, take a prominent stand; and to certain facts and features which these Saxonists have d brought to light, explained, and rendered interesting, we now direct attention.

The Anglo-Saxon language was spoken, there is little doubt, by our forefathers for centuries throughout the Lowlands of Great Britain, that is, both in the South and North; or, in other words, the Dano-Saxon, though it came to be spoken in the north of England and south of Scotland, was merely a dialect of the Anglo-Saxon which prevailed in the south and west of England, until after the Norman Conquest, when the language was overlaid by other importations, and became Norman-Saxon or Semi-Saxon; continuing more or less thus infused till about the middle of the thirteenth century, by which time the nation had arrived at a point and adopted a form of language and style of speech which we now call English, the model, of course, being subject to many striking or nice alterations and improvements.

Some Saxonists, and Hickes in particular, in the Anglo-Saxon Grammar, which his Thesaurus contains, are held by more modern and more satisfactory authorities to have needlessly and erroneously confounded the subject, by insisting that there were three living dialects of the Saxon tongue, distinguishable from the pure and regular language of which he treats, viz. that found in the authors who flourished in the southern and western parts of Britain. Mr. Cardale's account of Hickes's system, and his correction of it, may be advantageously introduced here.

"These dialects he arranges, according to certain periods of history, as follows; 1.The Britanno-Saxon, which, he says, was spoken by our ancestors, from their original invasion of Britain till the entrance of the Danes, being about 337 years.-2. The Dano-Saxon, which, he says, was used from the entrance of the Danes till the Norman invasion, being 274 years, and more especially in the northern parts of England and the south of Scotland.3. The Normanno-Dano-Saxon, spoken from the invasion by the Normans

till the time of Hen. II., which towards the end of that time, he s says, might be termed Semi-Saxon.-Writers of considerable eminence appear to have considered this arrangement of the dialects as a complete history of the language, without adverting to the circumstance of Hickes distinguishing them all from the pure and regular language,' which is the primary subject of his work. From this partial view, a notion has become current, that the Dano-Saxon dialect, previously to or during the reigns of the Canutes, became the general language of this country, and that our present language was formed by gradual alterations superinduced upon the Dano-Saxon. This being taken for granted, it has appeared easy to decide upon the antiquity of some of the existing remains. Poems written in Dano-Saxon have been of course ascribed to the Dano-Saxon period;' and Beowulf, and the poems of Cadmon, have been deprived of that high antiquity which a perusal of the writings themselves inclines us to attribute to them, and referred to a comparatively modern era.

"With all due respect for the learning of the author of the Thesaurus, it may be said, that he has introduced an unnecessary degree of complexity on the subject of the dialects. His first dialect, the Britanno-Saxon, may be fairly laid out of the question. The only indisputable specimen of it, according to his account, is what he calls, a fragment of the true Cædmon,' preserved in Alfred's version of Bede,- -a poem which has nothing in language or style to distinguish it from the admitted productions of Alfred. Dismissing the supposed Britanno-Saxon, as unworthy of consideration, the principal remains of the Saxon language may be arranged in two classes, viz. those which are written in pure Anglo-Saxon, and those which are written in Dano-Saxon. These, in fact, were the two great dialects of the language. The former was used (as Hickes observes) in the southern and western parts of England; and the latter in the northern parts of England and the south of Scotland. It is entirely a gratuitous supposition to imagine, that either of these dialects commenced at a much later period than the other. Each was probably as old as the beginning of the heptarchy. We know, that, among the various nations which composed it, the Saxons became predominant in the southern and western parts, and the Angles in the northern. As these nations were distinct in their original seats on the continent, so they arrived at different times, and brought with them different dialects. This variety of speech continued till the Norman conquest, and even afterwards. It is not af firmed that the dialects were absolutely invariable. Each would be more or less changed by time, and by intercourse with foreigners. The mutual connexion, also, which subsisted between the different nations of the heptarchy would necessarily lead to some intermixture. But we may with safety assert, that the two great dialects of the Saxon language continued substantially distinct as long as the language itself was in use,-that the Dano-Saxon, in short, never superseded the Anglo-Saxon. In a formal dissertation on this subject, citations might be made from the Saxon laws from Ethelbert to Canute, from the Saxon Chronicle, from charters, from works confessedly written after the Norman conquest, to show, that, whatever changes took place in the dialect of the southern and western parts of Britain, it never lost its distinctive character, or became what can

and

with any propriety be termed Dano-Saxon. After the Norman conquest, both the dialects were gradually corrupted, till they terminated in modern