not only valueless in themselves, but by their unhealthiness contribute to reduce the value of the adjacent lands. The climate of this region, the soil, the water, and the conformation of the country, are salubrious; the causes which produced bilious and febrile diseases, formerly, are mostly removed in all the dense settlements; the river bottoms alone, and the surrounding country, remaining a melancholy exception to the general and rapid improvement in this particular. If the government would give away such tracts, to any who would reclaim them, it would gain in the enhanced value of the adjacent lands, and the inhabitants be incalculably benefited in the removal of serious nuisances. As to the other class of unsaleable lands, the sterile-it is to be remarked, that a large portion of it is poor only in comparison with the fine lands of this region. Things which are offered for sale, are valued by comparison with other things of the same kind, and in reference to the eagerness of one party to sell, and of the other to buy. Thus valued, this land is worth nothing. No man will have it at the price demanded, when he can have better land for the same money. By comparison with other property of the same kind, it sinks into utter nothingness; it cannot acquire an adventitious value, from the eagerness to buy of a purchaser who has a boundless region before him, and it will only be brought into market by the anxiety of the owner of it, evinced in a reduction of the price so liberal as to tempt the cupidity of the buyer.

Another view of this question is not unworthy of consideration. Referring again, for example, to the state of Illinois, it will be seen that this state contains a little over thirty-five millions of acres of land, and that thirty millions of acres remain unsold in the hands of the United States; the balance of five millions including the whole amount of sales and grants, whether to the state or to individuals. The people of Illinois own oneseventh of the whole quantity, and the United States the other six-sevenths; yet the people of that state alone defray the expenses of their own government, while its benefits are enjoyed by the general government, to an extent, in some degree, proportional to the size of their domain. Every new county that is established, every court-house that is built, every road that is opened, every bridge that is erected, enhances the value of real estate; and of the land thus enhanced in value, the United States own six acres where one acre is owned by the state, or by the individuals who pay for the making of such public improvements. That the general government is daily receiving substantial benefits, resulting from the expenditure of the money and labour of the Western people, is evident; and it is worthy of inquiry, whether it be not bound, in justice, to discharge a debt thus created, and what should be the extent and character

of such remuneration. It is said that Congress has been wearied out by appeals to its generosity, on the part of the Western people. Is it not probable, that those appeals have rather been made to the justice of that body, and that there has been, in fact, an interchange of benefits, which have been mutually advantageous? The inquiry lies within a narrow compass. In all the Western states, (Kentucky excepted,) the general government owns land; to none of those states does it pay taxes. It has its ample share of all the benefits resulting from the local governments: the civil protection afforded by the latter, and the public improvements made by them, invite population, and by converting a wilderness into a civilized country, render those lands saleable, which otherwise would remain unproductive. Does not this state of things impose an obligation on the Union to aid in the carrying on of that process, by which, as the largest proprietary, it is the greatest gainer? And if the Western people ask for the discharge of that obligation by a reduction in the price of the lands sold to them, is not this a fair claim?

If we had room, we would be glad to speak of the lands owned by the Indians, beyond the limits of the several states and territories, and to inquire, whether it is not time to fix some boundary beyond which the white population shall not pass. Are the red people to be for ever driven to the west? Is their total annihilation solemnly decreed? We trust not. We think that a period has arrived, when a pause might be advantageously made in the extension of our frontier. In the States and Territories already organized, there is ample room for any increase of population that can be anticipated for a century to come; and while those states would rapidly improve under such an arrangement, a happy change might be produced in the condition of the Indian tribes, by suffering them to remain stationary long enough to acquire local attachments, and encouraging them to make permanent improvements, and adopt civil institutions.

Two propositions have emanated from the Atlantic states, which we shall briefly notice. The first was an application to Congress to make donations of land for the support of public schools, to all the states who have not received land from the government for that object, founded on the allegation, that all the new states had received such grants. The application was unadvised, and promptly refused. The fact is, as we have shown, that the school lands of the Western states were purchased, and the equivalents given for them ample. The other proposal was, to distribute the nett proceeds of the sales of the public lands among the states respectively, in proportion to their population. This subject was referred to a committee of the lower house, the title of whose report we have placed at the head of this article; it embraces a valuable collection of facts

and documents, of the most prominent of which we have availed ourselves. That committee adopts the conclusion, that the title of the United States to the public domain is indisputable-that the proceeds of the sale of that domain are pledged to the discharge of the public debt of the Union-and that upon the payment of that debt, which is nearly extinguished, the nett proceeds of the sales ought to be annually distributed among the states.

We do not admit that this subject is one of local character, or that it ought ever to be agitated with a view to sectional interests or prejudices. If the Western states are ambitious to gain population and power, that population will come from the older states, and the power be exercised over those who have heretofore held it. We cannot believe that power, thus derived and exercised, would be abused. The new and the old states are connected by the ties of blood, language, religion, patriotism, and interest; and are too closely united to be separated by any imaginary distinction of character. In reviewing the whole ground which we have passed over, it is gratifying to observe the enlarged views, and the dignified temper, which have pervaded the whole policy of our government, and of the several states, in relation to the subject.

ART. II.-The Arabian Nights Entertainments, carefully revised, and occasionally corrected from the Arabic. Το which is added a Selection of New Tales, now first translated from the Arabic Originals. Also, an Introduction and Notes, illustrative of the Religion, Manners, and Customs of the Mohammedans. By JONATHAN SCOTT, LL. D., late Oriental Professor of the Royal Military and East India Colleges, &c. &c. In 6 vols.

TRAVELLERS through Asiatic countries relate the wonderful effects produced on the inhabitants by the recital of tales. Even the least civilized Arabs, after toiling all day in the heat of a torrid sun, forget their sufferings as they gather round some one, whose memory or imagination supplies him with wild legends of former ages. This passion for romance, is found equally in the desert and in the city; beneath the solitary tent, pitched on an island of verdure in a sea of sand, and amidst the splendid minarets, and cool shaded gardens of Damascus, or Isfahan. The delight produced in oriental minds by these narrations, arises partly from their literary merit, but still more from the character of the people. Without doubting that many of the

most distinguished Eastern tales, when they flow from the rapid lips of an Arab story-teller, are invested with eloquence and poetry but faintly shadowed forth in our translations, we notwithstanding feel assured, that the causes of their celebrity are to be found, rather in the constitutional excitability of the auditors, than in the surpassing genius of the author. It is not an improper incredulity, if, in a degree, we disbelieve the glowing terms in which some Europeans, deeply skilled in Oriental languages, have borne witness to the delicate beauty, the sublimity, or the power, of Arabic, Persic, and Hindustanee compositions. The pride of having subjected a province of literature, to which many of their learned associates were strangers, would insensibly lead them to overrate their acquisitions. Add to this, that many of them read these works, or heard them recited, in the country where the scenes are laid, surrounded by the customs they describe. Comparing them with the relics of Greek and Roman literature, they were naturally more impressed with the force of writings describing what they saw, than with those which referred to objects, distant in time and place. Yet it is certain that Asiatic literature possesses great and peculiar merit; and is worthy of more attention than the literati of Europe or America have hitherto paid to it. We trust that it will not be an altogether useless exercise, if we make a few remarks on one of the most celebrated of all the Eastern works, and on some portions of the literature, character, and religion, of the people to whom it belongs.

The "Arabian Nights Entertainments" are, and deserve to be, better known and appreciated, than any other Asiatic book of fiction. The general character of these tales is, that they are well conceived in their outlines, deeply interesting in their details, and supported throughout. They exhibit the state of society as it existed where they were composed, and there is reason to believe that, in this respect, they are very faithful; as also in their delineation of the religion, laws, superstitions, science, and philosophy of the times. As regards history and geography, they are occasionally inaccurate. They are rich in imagination, but this is not so very large an ingredient in their composition as is generally supposed. Besides these characteristics, belonging to the texture of the work, there are adventitious circumstances which increase its value. Many of the tales allude frequently to Haroun al Rashid, and his reputation lends interest to the record of his habits. The same is the case with his great minister, Giaffer, of whom they often speak, as also of other individuals of the princely race of the Barmecides. The allusion to these persons is incontestable proof that the Arabian Nights were written at least as late as the year 800; and it is argued by Mr. Hole, in his interesting volume on the

voyages of Sindbad the Sailor, that they could not have been written in modern times, otherwise they would have noticed the visit of Gama and Albuquerque to Asia, about the 15th century, and the fire arms, or other European inventions, introduced by them.

It is probable that the tales were written at various times and by different authors, for they are very unequally executed. The best, being two hundred and eighty nights, out of the thousand and one, were translated into French by M. Galland; they were afterwards translated from French into English, and since from the Arabic into English. These two hundred and eighty nights, seem to have been the original work, of which the remaining eight hundred and twenty-one are continuations by later hands. The edition, of which the title is prefixed to this article, contains forty-one additional tales, translated by Dr. Scott. We shall have something to say hereafter upon the comparative merits of the earlier set of tales, and this latter collection, which was translated from the Arabic manuscripts of Edward Wortley Montague, Esq.

Whatever doubts might once have existed, it is now unquestioned that the Arabian Nights are genuine Arabic productions. They are received as authentic throughout the East; though the copies do not seem to be very numerous there. In his notes, Dr. Scott refers to a letter published by Dr. Patrick Russell in the Gentleman's Magazine for February, 1799, in which it is said that the Arabian Nights is a scarce book in Aleppo. After much inquiry, Dr. Russell could find only two volumes containing two or three hundred nights. There are several Arabic copies in the European libraries, some of which are probably transcripts made in Europe.

There is a mode of considering the merits and demerits of a literary work, by analyzing it and presenting its disjointed members for separate examination until the whole is understood. We will not pursue this course at present, because there would never be an end to our labours if we attempted the minute examination of a work so extensive and so rich in incident and information as the Arabian Nights; besides, we would be forced to repeat the particulars of tales which every one has read. A better plan will be to wander rapidly over the work, alighting on the characteristics most deserving of attention, and passing by the rest to consider these, together with the general character of the Arabs and their literature.

We are told that the Arabian Nights are a combination of almost every species of writing, but that most of the morality, poetry, and eloquence, of the original, has been destroyed by the unskilful touch of the English and French translators. Enough has been given to show the nature of what is omitted. No one