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    CRITICAL, NOTICES.

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    288

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    India , its Slate and Prospects . By E . Thornton . A very useful and well-timed volume , intended to do something towards dispelling the apathy which prevails in this country on Indian affairs , and to present , in comparatively small compass , such information as is most requisite for those who are interested in the facilities , recently

    opened , for projects of commerce or colonization . The chapters on agriculture , manufactures , and foreign trade , and also those on the condition of society , particularly deserve attention . The changes effected by the late Act are now first brought before the public in a permanent form ; and the work , notwithstanding its limited extent , may be regarded as containing a digest of the most important parts of the vast body of evidence submitted to Parliament previously to the passing of that Act . '

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    A Tour on the Prairies . By the Author of * The Sketch Book . ' The writings of Washington Irving are ever pleasant , graceful , and graphic . The reader may be tolerably sure of seldom being excited , of never being disgusted , and of almost always being amused . He is the drawing-room pattern of a republican gentleman . Yet he has the American love of the Forest and the Prairie , and writes descriptions of their scenery with an evident and hearty enjoyment of the reality . The

    excursion which forms the subject of this volume was made in company with a party of mounted rangers or riflemen , sent on an Exploring tour from the Arkansas to the Red River , including a part of the Pawnee hunting grounds , where no party of white men had as yet penetrated . ' The Bee Hunt , * The Crossing the Arkansas , ' ' The Wild Horse Chase , ' and several other incidents , are amongst the author ' s pieasantest sketches . The following remarks on the Indian character are a warning

    to romancers : ' The Indians that I have had an opportunity of seeing in real life , are quite different from those described in poetry . They a * e by no means the stoics that they are represented—taciturn , unbending , without a tear or smile . Taciturn they are , it is true , when in company with white men , whose goodwill they distrust , and whose language they do not understand ; but the white man is equally taciturn under like circumstances . When the Indians are among themselves , however , there cannot be greater gossips . Half their

    time is taken up in talking over their adventures in war and hunting , and in telling whimsical stories . They are great mimics and buffoons , also , and entertain themselves excessivel y at the expense of the white men with whom they have associated , and who have supposed them impressed with profound respect for their grandeur and dignity . They are curious observers , noting everything in silence , but with a keen and watchful eye , occasionally exchanging a glance or a grunt with each other , when anything particularly strikes them ; but reserving all comment until they are alone . Then it is that they give full scope to cr iticism , satire , and mirth . 4

    In the course of my journey along the frontier , I have bad repeated opportunities of noticing their excitability and boisterous merriment at their games ; and have occasionally noticed a group of Osages sitting round afire , until a late hour ojf ^ e nigUt , engaged in the most animated afid lively conversation , and at ^ imas wik ^ ng the woods resound with pealg of laughter . * As to tears , they nave them in abundance , both real and affected ; for at

    Critical, Notices.

    CRITICAL , NOTICES .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1835, page 288, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2644/page/64/