And this reminds us of a circumstance illustrative of the King of Bavaria's gallantry, which well deserves to be commemorated. In his chivalrous zeal for the honour of Bavarian beauty, he has founded a gallery for portraits of all the handsome women of all ranks his painters can get to sit to them, and we are assured that numbers have already yielded to the wishes of royalty thus flatteringly expressed, although apprehensions are entertained that their reputations will not fare the better with posterity. They probably encounter the risk in much the same spirit of philosophy in which a beautiful Englishwoman of rank answered the objection of a prudish friend, who begged her not to sit to Sir Thomas Lawrence, because he was apt to paint women with a certain impropriety of expression, a kind of Sir Peter Lely look about the eyes. And if he does, my dear, what can that signify, so long as he makes one look so handsome?' Pauline's retort on the subject of her sitting to Canova for her statue is well known. When a lady asked her how she could bear to sit to him in the requisite state of nudity? she replied, Oh, I did'nt feel at all cold: there was always a fire in the room.' 6 Of all the minor states of Germany in which a constitution has been conferred, Baden has shown herself most worthy of one, by the talent displayed in her House of Commons, and the number of useful reforms that have been set on foot. The debates in the second chamber (as it is termed) are conducted with a high degree of order and ability, and we have heard extempore speeches there which would do no discredit to a Stanley or a Peel. The Grand Duke's fiddling, the chief point of attraction at Darmstadt, has ceased; the Brunnen of Nassau have been completely dried up by Sir Francis Head; the fame of Westphalia still rests upon her hams, which cut a much better figure on a table than in a book: Hesse Cassel is too near Prussia to be worth considering apart-and Weimar, since Goethe's death, has dropped into insignificance, and lives only in recollections of the past. Hanover, as our readers are aware, has been undertaken by Mr. Theodore Hook, who promises a complete history of the reigning family, with ample and accurate accounts of the constitution, revenue, agriculture, commerce, manufactures, institutions, manners, customs, habits, &c. &c. of the electorate. In such hands we are quite satisfied to leave it ;-and here for the present the subject of Germany and the Germans may be dropped, ART. ART. II.-A History of British Fishes. By William Yarrell, F.L.S. Illustrated by nearly four hundred wood-cuts. 2 vols. 8vo. London. 1836. In ZOOLOGY, we have always thought, will never be satisfac torily unveiled till every country contributes its Fauna to the general fund, and till we shall be enabled, by a series of monographs, to ascertain, not only the number of actually existing species, but their geographical distribution. As long ago as the establishment of the Zoological Club of the Linnæan Society, it was a favourite suggestion of some, that its members should turn their attention to the animal productions of our own country, and publish detached works, each treating of a particular branch of the subject and accessible to the general reader, which, when completed, might form as perfect a catalogue of British species as the nature of things would permit, and be at the same time a useful and agreeable text-book of the zoology of these islands. The proposition was received by men according to their tempers. The sanguine hoped; the cautiousnot to say the timorous-began by suggesting difficulties which soon led them towards Doubting Castle, and at last conducted them into the safe custody of Giant Despair; and there is some reason for believing that more than one Mr. Pliable found his way into the Slough of Despond. The proposition slumbered the Zoological Society of London sprang up; the proceedings and transactions of that society rose from the ashes of the Zoological Journal, whose office was done when those interesting publications were called into existence. A vast field was opened; new materials poured rapidly in from every quarter of the globe, and afforded such temptations to the naturalist that it was impossible to keep pen off them. But in the midst of this dazzling collection of foreign zoological riches, some good men and true did not think that there is nothing in this island worth studying for,'-as some did in worthy Michael Drayton's time, whereat he expresses his wrath, -and quietly buckled to the work. The first of these hand-books-books that we may take to the fire with us,' and within the power of almost every reader's purse-is now finished; and we have in Mr. Yarrell's Natural History of British Fishes' an earnest of the able execution of the series, and of the elegant and reasonable form in which they are to be presented to the public. We hail the appearance of this book as the dawn of a new era in the Natural History of England, and we are satisfied that no better department of the subject could have been selected to lead the van. Every one is interested about fishes, the political economist, the epicure, the merchant, the man man of science, the angler, the poor, the rich. But it is not for the sake of the grandes rhombi patinæque,' or on account of the plentiful table which the Giver of Good has provided in the ocean depths, that this branch of natural history is so particularly interesting to Britons. There is no better nursery for the hearts of oak than our fisheries. While the crew of a fishing-boat are plying their lines or nets, they are also learning to be seamen, nay, more, to become pilots; for an accurate knowledge of the nature of the ground-surface, of the situation of banks and channels, and of the particular direction and force of tides and currents, is absolutely necessary to their success. Our neighbours, the French, are well aware of this, and watch their fishinggrounds with the greatest jealousy; their local authorities are ever on the watch for an English trespasser; but we fear that there is no such anxious solicitude on the alert in behalf of the British fishermen, and they complain, too often with good reason, of the aggression of the French. It behoves those in authority to look to this. We have long been accustomed to assert our title to the sovereignty of the seas, nor would we even hint that the title may ever be disputed with success, but in the event of another French war, we should have to struggle with as fine a body of hardy seamen as ever stepped the deck. As a class of men, they are-no, not superior-but their boats are larger than those of the English, as well found and better manned, and the men are confident and intelligent in proportion. We understand that, in these days, the complement of a French fishing crew, compared with an English one, is as eight to five. But, to take a more narrow view of the matter, we think we shall be able, with Mr. Yarrell's help, to convince the reader that a great addition might be made to the quantity and quality of our food by taking advantage of a knowledge of the physiology of fishes, and that our rivers, lakes, and ponds might become the source of considerable emolument by a proper attention to this neglected branch of domestic economy. The Romish ritual made it a point of discipline that certain days, and the whole of Lent, should be marked by an abstinence from flesh. To that observance we probably owe the introduction of some of our fresh-water species* and the cultivation of all. With reference to this view of the subject, to say nothing of the public health, the late Dr. M'Culloch's remark, that it would have been well if, at the Reformation, the fast days had not been entirely abolished, has often occurred to us. It is a common saying, that the keep of a good horse costs just as much as that of a bad one, and, The Vendace or Vendis (Coregonus Willughbei) of the lochs near Lochmaben❜ for example-introduced, there can be little doubt, by means of spawn. therefore, therefore, that he who has a bad horse in his stable, is a fool for his pains. There is a fallacy lurking about this proposition, in which, as in some other such smart dicta, truth is sacrificed to point. Many a man who finds it absolutely necessary to keep a horse, does not find it exactly convenient to pay the price of a good one; but, in the case of fish, we will venture to say that there is no more reason why a man should have bad fish in his ponds, than that he should have bad fruit in his gardens. The goramy of the continent of India, a delicious fresh-water fish, has been introduced with the greatest success by the French into the Mauritius; and the late General Hardwicke, who was an eye-witness of that success, was clearly of opinion-and he was a competent judge-that it might be naturalized in this country. We think this a subject of some importance, and therefore subjoin the most material part of General Hardwicke's state ment. ८ In the tanks and fresh-water preserves,' says the General, speaking of the Isle of France, the proprietors breed a fine fish, long since imported from China and Batavia; it is known under the name of goramy, and is the Osphronemus olfar of Commerson. It is completely naturalized in the island, and having multiplied to a vast extent, is considered by the inhabitants an important acquisition, and is esteemed by every one who has eaten of it as one of the best fishes of the country. The largest I met with was in length nineteen inches, and in transverse diameter seven and a half. I was told that few were taken of a larger size, and none exceeding it more than a few inches. The late Marquess of Hastings, when Governor-General of India, caused some pairs to be imported and placed in the fine fresh-water preserves in the park at Barrackpore, near Calcutta, but the issue was unsuccessful; the voracious fish which infest most of the tanks in Bengal, it is supposed, destroyed them. We may hope, however, that the attempt to give to our Indian settlements so desirable an acquisition will be repeated, and that not only the naturalization of these fishes may be effected in India, but the transmission of them be secured in favour of Great Britain. 'We have sufficient evidence of the practicability of such a measure in the existence of the gold and silver fish of China, which have been naturalized both in England and in many parts of the continent of Europe. The efforts now making in this country to promote the natural sciences, will, it is to be hoped, stimulate some naturalist to new exertions, to procure the addition of so fine a fish as the goramy to the edible fishes of our own country. Originally inhabitants of the fresh waters of China, they are also plentiful in those of Java, where they constitute an important article of provision, which is sold in the markets. They were first imported into the Isle of France by the commandant of the troops of that colony, M. de Séré; and the first individuals are stated to have exhibited little shyness, and to have appeared almost domesticated, if such such a term may be applied to a fish. So early as 1770, when Commerson visited the island, they had already become abundant, having spread from the tanks in which they were at first kept, into the rivers, where they multiplied with great facility, and preserved all their good qualities. Lacepède, who first described and figured them from the materials collected by Commerson, was struck with the advantages to be derived from the naturalization in Europe of so valuable a fish, and he expressed a fervent hope that pains might be taken to secure for France 'une nouriture peu chère, exquise, salubre, et très abondante.' I am not aware whether any attempts were made, in consequence of this suggestion, but, at a more recent period, the transmission of living goramies has been effected to the French West India islands, and the experiment affords the most flattering hopes of permanent success. It is recorded that one hundred specimens of this fish, in a young state, were embarked on board a French vessel, at the Isle of France, in April, 1819, out of which number twenty-three only died during a long voyage, and the remainder were distributed between Cayenne and the islands of Guadaloupe and Martinique. In these colonies, they not only multiplied beyond expectation, but they gave early evidence of their fitness to fulfil the purpose of creation, to the astonishment of those naturalists who witnessed the experiments made on the spot. M. Le Grand, director of the botanical garden of the colony, and M. Guidon, surgeon to the hospital, were present, and bore testimony to a fact, not perhaps known in the history and physiology of osseous fishes, i. e. that the goramy is viviparous, the young being formed in the egg previous to its exclusion from the abdomen.' We here see, from the peculiar mode of re-production of the goramy, that the introduction of the fish itself is a necessary step towards its naturalization, and that even in that form, the importation of useful species is quite feasible; but we are convinced that, in the great majority of instances, new species might be brought into this country in a much more portable form—and we appeal to Mr. Yarrell for the proof. 'Dr. Walker of Edinburgh,' writes our author, in an essay on the natural history of the salmon, published in the Transactions of the Highland Society, quoting the experiments of Jacobi of Berlin, says, he found that when the spawn of both sexes were extracted from dead fishes, the ova by mixture can be fecundated by the milt; and when placed under water in a proper situation can be brought forth into life. He further discovered that this artificial fecundation can be accomplished with the roe and milt of fishes which have been dead two and even three days. This appears to point out the mode of obtaining the fishes of neighbouring countries by the transportation, as far as possible, of the living gravid fishes, afterwards for a time while dead, and finally by the mixture and further transportation of the mixed roes. 'But there appear to be other and still greater facilities. Colonel Sykes and other observers who have lived long in India, state to me that |