all mystified by what seemed a most authentic
account of the sudden subsidence of the falls of Niagara. The wall of
rock over which the waters rush had been worn away, and, contrary to
the expectations of geologists, the bed of the river, immediately
behind it, had proved to be of a soft soil that could not resist the
torrent. The river had therefore formed for itself an inclined plane,
and the great fall had been converted into a _rapid_ of equally
astonishing character. If we do not mistake, the true and particular
account of certain animals which Herschel discovered in the moon at
the time he moved his great telescope, we believe, to the Cape of Good
Hope, came to us from the same quarter. It is a pity that _Gulliver's
Travels_ are already in existence. It is a book the Americans should
have written; they have been unjustly forestalled and defrauded by
that work. No doubt, other peculiar and national traits, and of a
higher order, would suggest themselves to any one who made it a
subject of examination.

[14] The following summing-up by a judge on a trial for murder gives
us a singular specimen (if it can be depended on) of the dignity of
the ermine as sustained in South Carolina some half century ago. A
murder had been committed on one Major Spencer; the details, natural
and supernatural, we have no space for; suffice it to say, that the
evidence against the accused left no doubt of his guilt. The judge (an
Irishman by birth,) "who it must be understood was a real existence,
and who had no small reputation in his day in the south," thus charged
the jury. "'Fore God," said the judge, "the prisoner may be a very
innocent man, after all, as, by my faith, I do think there have been
many murderers before him; but he ought nevertheless to be hung as an
example to all other persons who suffer such strong proofs of guilt to
follow their innocent misdoings. Gentlemen of the jury, if this person
Macleod, or Macnab, didn't murder Major Spencer, either you or I did;
and you must now decide which of us it is! I say, gentlemen of the
jury, either you, or I, or the prisoner at the bar, murdered this man;
and if you have any doubts which of us it was, it is but justice and
mercy that you should give the prisoner the benefit of your doubts;
and so find your verdict. But, before God, should you find him not
guilty, Mr Attorney there can scarcely do any thing wiser than to put
us all upon trial for the deed." (P. 31.)

UNITS: