two, and may be entered independently; if, however, you wish to know the scale of contributions, you must study the society's tables. I shall only here mention a single case by way of example. In order, then, that a member's heirs shall be entitled to draw L.10 at his death, he pays in one sum, when 25 years of age, L.3, 4s. 74d, or, instead of one sum, 3s. 94d. annually, or 1s. Ožd. the first month, and 3d. every other month-contributions to cease at 65. Payments beginning at other ages are in proportion. I need say no more of this class of societies, except that I wish they were extended to every large town in the empire. From what I have stated, you will observe that operatives as well as others may now insure their lives on safe principles. And surely it would be delightful to hear of such persons regularly spending a pound or two per annum, or a few pence weekly, in securing to their widows and children what would place them above everything like immediate want.

Thomson.-Would you prefer seeing men effecting an insurance to laying aside money in a bank?

Jones. I do not think the two things should be brought into comparison, because each is right in its way. I would, however, repeat, that the first duty of every man is to provide to the best of his ability for his wife and family in the event of his death, and the most convenient way of doing so is to effect an insurance on his life. At the same time, I do not imagine that this is incompatible with other economical practices. Let every man save as much as he can by all means-the operative resorting to his savings' bank, and those with larger means at disposal seeking all proper investments for the surplus gains of their labour. In point of fact, I believe it will be found that the man who insures his life is the first to save otherwise. The very easy way in which insurance can be effected enables a person to economise. Instead of struggling to lay past a large sum, small instalments at distant intervals suffice, thus enabling him to put aside whatever other sums he may chance to have at his disposal.

Thomson.-Well, I believe that life-insurance does not necessarily prevent other means of economising, even as regards working-men in good employment; and shall recommend some artisans whom I happen to know to join either an insurance, office, or a friendly society such as you mention.

Jones.-Do so; but do not confine your advices to them. Try to influence every person to insure, whatever be his station. Indeed, till this practice becomes the rule amongst men of all classes, instead of being, as now, the rare exception, I cannot believe that we have attained such a point in civilisation as we have any title to boast of. For what is the predicament of that man who, for the gratification of his affections, surrounds himself with a wife and children, and peaceably lives in the enjoyment of these precious blessings, with the knowledge that, ere three moments at any time shall have

passed, the cessation of his existence may throw wife and children together into a state of destitution? I hold it to be the duty of every man to provide, while he yet lives, for his own: I would say that it is not more his duty to provide for their daily bread during his life, than it is to provide, as far as he can, against their being left penniless in the event of his death. Indeed, between these two duties there is no essential distinction, for life-assurance makes the one as much a matter of current expenditure as the other. One part of his income can now be devoted by a head of a family to the necessities of the present; another may be stored up, by means of life-assurance, to provide against the future. And thus he may be said to do the whole of his duty towards his family, instead of, as is generally the case, only doing the half of it. Men are only comparatively indifferent on this subject, because there has as yet been but a brief experience of a system for redeeming widows and orphans from poverty. When life-assurance is as universally understood and practised as it ought to be, he who has not made such a provision, or something equivalent, for the possibility of his death, will, I verily trust, be looked on as a not less detestable wretch than he who will not work for his children's bread; and his memory after death will be held in not less contempt.

[Jones and Thomson bid each other good-by, and separate, Thomson resolving not to go home till he has called at an office to fill up a proposal for an assurance upon his life.]

NOTE.

The assurance principle has within the last few years been applied, with the prospect of success, to the guaranteeing of fidelity in persons holding situations of trust. In this case the calculation is, that out of a large range of instances where individuals of good moral character are intrusted with sums belonging to their employers, a nearly regular amount of defalcation will take place annually, or within some other larger space of time. This may give an unpleasant view of human nature, but it is found to be a true one, and the question which arises with men of business is, by what means may the defalcation be best guarded against. The choice is between a guarantee from one or two persons, and from a trading company. By the former plan, the risk is concentrated upon one or two, who may be deeply injured in consequence: by the other plan, the risk is not merely diffused, it is extinguished, for the premiums paid by the insuring parties stand for the losses, besides affording a profit upon the business. Nor have we only thus a protection for private parties against the dangers of security; but individuals, who have the offer of situations on the condition of giving a sufficient guarantee, may now be able to take, where formerly they would have had to decline them, seeing that they might have failed to induce any friend to venture so far in their behalf. Practically, it has also been found that, so far from parties being more ready to give way to temptation when they know that the loss will fall upon a company, they are less so, seeing that the company exercises a more rigid supervision, and presents a sterner front to delinquents, than is the case with private securities in general. Guarantee companies are now established in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and other large cities; and as they serve a useful purpose, and rather support than deteriorate individual morality, we cordially trust that they will go on and prosper.—ED.

HE continent of North America is about three thousand miles across, from the Atlantic on the east to the Pacific on the west; and, after an interval of three centuries since the discovery and settlement of the country, the civilised races, who are chiefly of English origin, have not generally penetrated with their possessions above a third of the entire breadth. The progress of encroachment in the western wilderness, however, is now exceedingly rapid. Since the deliverance of the New England and other states from British control, the Anglo-Americans have evinced a singularly energetic spirit of migration towards what was, seventy years ago, an almost unknown land. Crossing the Alleghany range of mountains, from the Atlantic or old settled states, they have taken possession of the valley of the Mississippi, a tract as large as all Europe; and approaching the head waters of the Missouri and other tributaries of the Mississippi, appear prepared to cross the Rocky Mountains-" the Great Backbone of America," as they have not unaptly been called-and take possession of the Oregon country, lying on the shores of the Pacific. This extension of the boundaries of civilisation over a country hitherto abandoned to roaming tribes of Indians, and herds of wild animals, is at present one of the most remarkable facts in social history. Since the beginning of the present century, the population of the United States has increased from four millions to twenty millions; and following the same rate of increase, in less than a century hence the population will have increased to upwards of a hundred and fifty millions-all speaking the Eng

lish language, and possessing institutions resembling our own. Yet, although the extension of the Anglo-American settlements be comparatively rapid, it is not effected without numerous difficulties. Those who first penetrate into the wilderness are usually parties of fur traders; and by these hardy pioneers, and the volunteer travellers who accompany them, the way may be said to be in some measure paved for the more formal visits of surveyors, and the new occupants of the country. The journeys of these pioneering parties are attended with many dangers. The setting out of an expedition resembles a caravan of pilgrims sallying forth across the African deserts; civilisation is for months, perhaps for years, left behind; no vestige of house or road is seen on the apparently interminable wastes; journeying is performed only on horseback during the day, while repose is enjoyed in tents pitched for the night; a constant outlook must be kept for prowling wild beasts, or the not less stealthy steps of the Pawnee Loup Indian: in short, all is wild nature, romantic enough perhaps to untamed minds, but as we can imagine altogether unendurable by persons accustomed to the quiet and orderly life of cities. Strange as it seems, however, there are highly cultivated individuals who, inspired by a love of science, or for the mere sake of sport, voluntarily make part of the fur-trading bands, and consent to remain for years from home, friends, and the world of refinement.

Believing that the account of one of these romantic expeditions cannot but be acceptable to our readers, we offer in the present sheet the history of an excursion performed a few years ago by Mr Townsend, an enthusiastic ornithologist, and his friend Professor Nuttall, of Howard university, an equally zealous botanist.* Being desirous of increasing the existing stock of knowledge in the departments of science to which they were respectively attached, these gentlemen agreed to accompany a body of traders, commanded by a Captain Wyeth, to the Columbia river and adjacent parts. The traders belonged to an association called the Columbia River Fishing and Trading Company, and on this occasion they designed to fix a permanent branchestablishment in the west.

On the evening of the 24th of March 1834, the two friends arrived in a steamboat at St Louis, on the Missouri, from Pittsburg. At St Louis, which is the last great town within the settlements, they furnished themselves with several pairs of leathern pantaloons, enormous overcoats, and white wool hats with round crowns, fitting tightly to the head, and almost hard enough to resist a musket ball. Leaving their baggage to come on with the steamer, about three hundred miles farther up the

*We draw the materials for our account from "An Excursion to the Rocky Mountains, by J. K. Townsend ;" a work published at Philadelphia in 1839.

Missouri, Mr Townsend and his friend set off to amuse themselves by walking and hunting leisurely through that distance, which is composed chiefly of wide flat prairies, with few and remotely situated habitations of the frontier settlers.

One of the first indications of their approach to a wild country was the spectacle of a band of Indians of the Saque tribe, who were removing to new settlements. The men were fantastically painted, and the chief was distinguished by a profuse display of rinkets, and a huge necklace made of the claws of the grizzly bear. The decorations of one of the women amused the two travellers. She was an old squaw, to whom was presented a broken umbrella. The only use she made of this prize was to wrench the plated ends from the whalebones, string them on a piece of wire, take her knife from her belt, with which she deliberately cut a slit of an inch in length along the upper rim of her ear, and insert them in it. The sight was as shocking to the feelings as it was grotesque; for the cheeks of the vain being were covered with blood as she stood with fancied dignity in the midst of twenty others, who evidently envied her the possession of the worthless baubles.

While pushing forward on the borders of the wilderness, the travellers one day arrived at the house of a kind of gentlemansettler, who, with his three daughters, vied in showing kindness to their visitors. "The girls," says Mr Townsend, 66 were very superior to most that I had seen in Missouri, although somewhat touched with the awkward bashfulness and prudery which generally characterise the prairie maidens. They had lost their mother when young, and having no companions out of the domestic circle, and consequently no opportunity of aping the manners of the world, were perfect children of nature. Their father, however, had given them a good plain education, and they had made some proficiency in needlework, as was evinced by numerous neatly-worked samplers hanging in wooden frames round the room.' Some little curiosity and astonishment was excited in the minds of the unsophisticated girls when they were informed that their two guests were undertaking a long and difficult journey across the prairies-one of them for the purpose of shooting and stuffing birds, the other for the purpose of obtaining plants to preserve between leaves of paper; but at last they began to perceive that probably there was some hidden utility in these seemingly idle pursuits; and the last words of the eldest Miss P- to our ornithologist at parting were, "Do come again, and come in May or June, for then there are plenty of prairie-hens, and you can shoot as many as you want, and you must stay a long while with us, and we'll have nice times. Good-by; I'm so sorry you're going." Miss P—, in promising an abundance of prairie-hens, evidently did not perceive in what respect an ornithologist differed from a sportsman; but her invitation was kindly meant; and Mr