greatness.  The possessors of wealth can scarcely be indifferent to processes which nearly or remotely have been the fertile source of their possessions.  Those who enjoy leisure can scarcely find a more interesting and instructive pursuit than the examination of the workshops of their own country, which contain within them a rich mine of knowledge, too generally neglected by the wealthier classes.”  This complaint is we fear but too well grounded; and it is to such indifference, not to say ignorance, that we must attribute the perversion of wealth from the encouragement of art and science to objects less worthy of patronage.  Unhappily for all states of mankind, enjoyment too often drives from the mind of the possessor, the bare remembrance of the means of acquisition:  luxury forgets the innumerable ingenuities that minister to its cravings, and wealth, once obtained, unfits the mind for future self-exertion or sympathy for others.  Many an upstart voluptuary surveys the elegancies of his well-furnished mansion in comparative ignorance of the means employed for their perfection; and, as regards his stock of knowledge conducive to happiness, he is in a more “parlous state” than the poor shepherd who had not been at court.  How many of the prodigals that cross in the steam-boat from Dover to Calais are acquainted with the first principles of the mighty power by which they are impelled, or have any feeling beyond vulgar wonder at its advantages!  Again, what account can such persons furnish of the curious processes employed in workshops, which they have witnessed—­as the manufacture of a musket at Birmingham, a razor at Sheffield, a piece of cotton at Manchester, a pair of stockings at Nottingham, a tea-cup at Worcester, a piece of ribbon at Coventry, an anchor or a ship at Portsmouth, &c.  Yet these labours involve triumphs of ingenuity which once witnessed ought never to pass from the memory.

We intend to devote a future page or two to exemplars from Mr. Babbage’s volume; but, as our extracts can be but solitary specimens we recommend the reader who wishes fully to appreciate its worth to purchase the work.

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STATISTICAL SKETCHES OF UPPER CANADA.

This eighteenpenny pamphlet—­“for the use of emigrants, by a Backwoodsman,” is one of the pleasantest and most sensible little books of the day.  It is worth all the “great big books” upon the same subject, and, strange to say, has scarcely a spice of the leaven of party wickedness in its pages.  The information is in a facete but earnest vein, and we cheerfully miss in its tone the dull preachment, the cold calculation, and matter-of-fact obstinacy of a work professing to be statistical.  After a just censure upon the swarm of books on emigration, and their insufficiencies, (from which we are glad to perceive Mr. Gourlay’s “really valuable and statistical account” is exempt,) the writer observes: