ment
into a vigorous anathema. Accurate in fact, naturally easy in delivery,
bitter in irony, and ingenuous in argument, few are ready to meet him on
the floor of the Commons. He is a fair specimen of what we hear called
'the fine old English gentleman,' without the ignorance, the bigotry,
the awkwardness, and the peevishness, which go to make up the characters
of a large proportion of the country baronets and gentry; that is, he is
hearty, cordial, and merry, entering with enthusiasm into whatever he
proposes to do, and determined to leave no stone unturned to accomplish
it. If he should live to see the day when his countrymen shall adopt the
views of which he is the foremost champion, no honor of the state will
be denied him, and his name will rank with those of William of Orange,
and Lord Grey, as the regenerators of the British Constitution; and if
he does not, he can not but be respected, as Milton and Sidney are, by
future generations, for his honesty, his patriotism under difficulty,
and his fearless spirit.
* * * * *
THE ANTE-NORSE DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA.
(CONCLUDED.)
THE CHINESE IN MEXICO IN THE FIFTH CENTURY.
The reader who would ascertain by the map whether it was likely that at
an early period intercourse could have taken place between Eastern Asia
and Western America, will have no difficulty in deciding on the
geographical possibility of such transit. At Behring's Straits only
forty miles of water intervene between the two continents, while routes
by the Aleutian Islands, or through the Sea of Ochotsk, present no great
difficulties, even to a timid navigator. And the Chinese and Japanese of
earlier ages were by no means timid in their voyages. It is only within
two centuries that their governments, alarmed by the growing power of
the Western world, and desirous of keeping their subjects at home,
prohibited the construction of strictly sea-worthy and sea-faring
vessels. Even within the memory of man, Japanese junks have been driven
to the California coasts.
Impressed by the probability of such intercommunication, Johann
Friedrich Neumann, a learned German Orientalist, while residing in
China, during the years 1829-30, for the purpose of collecting Chinese
works, after investigating the subject, published its results in a work,
subsequently translated by me, under his supervision. Among the first
results of his inquiries, was the fact that 'during the course of ma
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