of Ariftides and Phocion. The numerous difinterested marks of approbation, given him from every part of this kingdom, demonftrate the refolution and ability of the public to fupport that Minifter, as long as he pursued his upright plan of conduct with undeviating firmnels. Natural Hiftory of the HARE, with a finely engraved Figure of that Animal. in THE hare is called, in Greek, Mays; Latin, lepus, quali levipes; in French, lievre; in Italian, lepre; in Spanish, liebre; in Portuguese, lebre; in German, hafe; in Swedish, hare; in Polith, fajonz; in Sclavonian, faiz; in Russian, Zaitza; in Arabian, errab, harneb, arneph; in Turkish, taufan; in Perfian, kargos; in Brafilian, thabiti; in North American, foutanda. The most numerous fpecies of animals are not the most useful; nothing is more hurt ful than that multitude of rats, field-mice, locufts, caterpillars, and fo many other infects, which, it feems, nature permits and tuffers, rather than ordains, their too nume rous multiplication. But the fpecies of hare, and that of the rabbit, have for us the double advantage of number and utility. Hares are univerfally, and very abundantly, difperfed in all climates of the earth: Rabbits, tho' originally from particular climates, multiply fo prodigiously in almost all the places they are transported to, that it is not poffible fo destroy them, and even great art is required for diminishing their quantity, when it becomes troublesome. When we reflect on that boundlefs fecundity granted to each fpecies, on the innumerable productions likely to refult from it, on the prompt and prodigious multiplication of certain animals that suddenly pulitilate, and come by millions to lay wafte the fields, and ravage the earth, we are aftonished that they do not fweep away nature; we are in dread of their oppreffing her by numbers, and, after having devoured her fubftance, that they do not themfelves perish with her. We fee, in fact, with confternation, arriye thofe thick clouds, thofe winged phaLinx's of hungry infects, which feem to threaten the intire globe, and, lighting up on the fruitful plains of Egypt, Poland, or India, deftroy in an inftant the labours and hopes of the husbandman, fparing neither corn, nor fruits, nor grafs, nor roots, nor leaves; ftripping the earth of its verdure, and changing the face of the richeft countries into an arid defart. Rats, in innumerable multitudes, are feen to defcend from the mountains of the North, and, as a deluge, or rather an overflowing of living fubfance, to rush headlong into the plains, and overspread the provinces of the South, and, after deftroying, in their pailage, every thing with life or vegetation, to finish by infecting the earth and air with their carcafes. Myriads of ants, in fouthern countries, are feen to make a fudden irruption from the defarts, and, as a torrent, whofe fource is inexhausted, to arrive in close columns, to fucceed each other, to be conftantly renewed, to feize upon all inhabited places, to expel animals and men, and to retire after a general devaftation. And, in the time when man, ftill halffavage, was, as animals, fubject to all the laws, and even to the exceffes of nature, have not Normans, Alans, Huns, Goths, colonies, or rather fwarms of animals with human faces, without habitation and without name, been foen to faily forth all of a fudden from their caves, to rush on like unruly flocks or herds, to opprefs all without other force than numbers, to ravage cities, overthrow empires, and, after having deftroyed nations and laid waste the earth, to end by rt-peopling it with men as new and more barbarous than themselves. Thofe great events, thofe fignal epochas in the hiftory of mankind, are, however, but flight viciffitudes in the ordinary courfe of living nature, which courfe, in general, is always conftant, always the fame; and its movement, always regular, turns upon unfhaken pivots; the one being the unlimited fecundity granted to every fpecies; the other, the obitacles without number that reduce the product of that fecundity to a determinate meafure, and leave at all times nearly the Lame number of individuals in each fpecies. And, as thefe animals, in numberless multitudes, which fuddenly appear, difappear likewife in the fame manner, and as the fund of thefe fpecies is not increased, that of the human fpecies remains also always the fame; the variations are only a little slower, because, the life of man being longer than that of these little animals, it is neceffary that the alternatives of augmentation and dininution be prepared further off, and be accom plished in a longer time; and even this time is but an inftant in duration, a moment in the fucceffion of ages, which strikes us more than others, because it has been accompanied with horror and defauction: For, in compre K k hending once in two years; caterpillars, May-bugs, field-mice, and several other animals, which in certain years multiply to an excefs, appear but few in number the year following. What should become of all the fruits of the earth, all useful animals, and man himself, if in thofe exceffive years each of thefe infects reproduced itself, for the following year, by a generation proportional to their number? But this does not happen; the causes of deftruction, annihilation, and fterility follow immediately thofe of too great a multiplication; and, independently of contagion, the neceffary confequence of too great a collection of living matter in the fame place, there are, in each fpecies, particular causes of death and deftruction, which alone are sufficient to compenfate the excess of preceding genera tions. Still this must not be taken in an absolute, nor even ftrict fenfe, especially in regard to the fpecies which are not intirely abandoned to nature alone: Thofe that man takes care of, beginning with his own, are more abundant than they would be without his care; but, as these cares are limited, the augmentation refulting from them is likewife limited and fixed for a long time by immutable bounds; and though in policed countries the fpecies of man and thofe of all useful animals are more numerous than in other climates, they are never fo to an excess, because the fame power that gives them birth deftroys them, when they become troublesome. hending the intire earth and the human fpecies in general, the number of men muft, as that of animals, be at all times nearly the fame, because it depends on the equilibrium of phyfical caufes. To this equilibrium all have come for a long time; the efforts of men, together with all moral circumftances, cannot break through it, thefe circumftances depending themfelves on thofe phyfical caufes of which they are but the particular effects. Whatever care man may take of his fpecies, he will never make it more abundant in one place, without its deftruction or diminution in another. When a portion of the earth is incumbered with men, they difperfe, or feek mutual destruction, and then laws and cuftoms take place, which often prevent but too much the excefs of multiplication. In climates exceffively fruitful, as in China, Egypt, and Guinea, they expofe, mutilate, fell, or drown children; in Popish countries they condemn them to a perpetual celibabacy. Those who exift arrogate to themfelves a right over thofe who do not exift; as neceffary beings, they annihilate contingent beings, and fupprefs at difcretion, for their conveniency, future generations. Men, without perceiving it, are acted upon as animals; they are taken care of, multiplied, neglected, or destroyed, as occafion may ferve, and according to the advantages, inconveniency, and difagreeablenefs that may refult from them; and, as all thofe moral effects depend themselves on phyfical causes, which, fince the earth has affumed its confiftence, In parts preferved for the pleasure of are in a fixed state, and permanent equili- hunting, fometimes four or five hundred brium, it appears, that, equally in regard to hares are killed in one only beating about the men and animals, the number of individuals bufhes. Thele animals multiply greatly, and in the fpecies is quite conftant. Yet this fix- are in a state of ingendering at all times, from ed state and conftant number are not abfolute the first year of their life. The females go quantities; all the phyfical and moral caules, with young but thirty or thirty-one days; all the effects refulting from them, are com- they produce three or four little ones, and, prehended and balanced between certain more as foon as they have kindled, they receive the or lefs extended limits, but never great e- male; they receive them alfo when they are nough for breaking the equilibrium. As pregnant, and, by the particular conformaall is in motion in the universe, and as all tion of their genital parts, there is often a futhe forces of matter act against and counter- perfotation; for the vagina and the body of balance each other, every thing is conducted the matrix are continued, and there is no and performed by a fort of ofcillation, where- rifice, nor neck of the matrix, as in other of the middle points are thofe to which we animals; but the homs of the matrix have refer the ordinary courfe of nature, and the each an orifice that gives into the vagina, extreme points are the moft diftant periods. and becomes dilated in bringing forth; and In fact, as well in animals as vegetables, the thus thefe two horns are two diftinct and excess of multiplication is commonly follow- feparate matrices, which may act independed by fterility; abundance and scarcity pre-ently of each other; fo that the females of fent themfelves in their turns, and often follow fo close upon each other, that one may judge of the production of one year by the product of the preceding. Apple and plum trees, oak, beech, and the greater part of fruit and forest trees, bear abundantly but this fpecies may conceive and bring forth at different times by each of thefe matrices; and, confequently, the fuperfoetations in thefe animals must be as frequent, as they are rare in thofe that have not that double organ. The Thefe females may be therefore in heat and pregnant at all times, and what proves fufficiently that they are as lafcivious as fruitful is another fingularity in their conformation. The gland of their clitoris is prominent, and almost as large as the gland of the male's yard; and, as the vulva fcarce appears, and the males have no tefticles externally in their youth-age, it is often pretty difficult to diftinguish the male from the female. This alfo gave occafion to its being faid that among hares there were many hermaphrodites, that the males produced fometimes young as the females, that fome of them were by turns male and female, performing alternately the functions, becaufe, in fact, these females, often more hot than the males, cover them before being covered, and, besides, refemble them to much externally, that, unless clofely inspected, the female would be taken for the male, and the male for the female. The young are born with their eyes open; the mother fuckles them twenty days, after which time they separate and go in quest of food. They do not remove to any confiderable diftance from one another, nor from the place of their birth; yet they live folitarily, and make themselves a form at a small diftance, as fixty or fourfcore paces off; fo that, when a leveret is found in a place, one is almost fure to find one or two others in the environs. They feed rather in the night than day-time, and their food confifts of grafs, roots, leaves, fruits, and grain. They prefer the plants whofe fap is milky; they even gnaw the bark of trees in winter, and there is fcarce any ført but that of the alder and linden-tree, which they do not touch. When reared tame, they are fed with lettuce and pulfe, but the flesh of thefe hares is always ill-tafted. They fleep or reft themselves in their form in the day, and live only, as it were, by night; it is in the night-time that they scout about, eat, and copulate. By moon-light they are feen to play together, to jump, and to run after one another; but the leait motion, the noife of a leaf falling, is fufficient to throw them into confternation; they fly, and each flies a different way. Some authors have affured that hares chew the cud; but this opinion does not feem wellgrounded, because they have but one ftomach, and the conformation of ftomachs and the other inteftines is quite different in ruminating animals. The cœcum of these animals is fmall, that of the hare is very ample, and, if to the capacioufnels of its ftomach be added that of the great coecum, it will be eafily conceived that, being able to take in a great bulk of a liments, this animal can live upon grafs alone, as the horse and afs, which have also a great coecum, have likewife but one stomach, and confequently cannot chew the cud. Hares fleep a great deal, and with their eyes open; their eye-lids have no lashes, and they feem to have bad eyes; but, by way of indemnification, their hearing is very acute, and their ear of a prodigious fize, relatively to that of their body. They move about thefe long cars with extreme facility, and ufe them as a helm for directing their course, which is fo rapid, that they eafily get the ftart of all other animals. As their fore are much shorter than their hind legs, it is more commodious to them to run up than down; fo that, when pursued, they strive to get to a mountain: Their motion in running is a kind of gallop, a feries af nimble and quick jumps; they walk without making any noite, their feet being covered and furnifhed with hair, even underneath; they are alfo, perhaps, the only animals that have hair within their mouth. Hares live at moft but feven or eight years, and the duration of their life is, as in other animals, proportionable to the time of the intire expanfion of their body; they affume almoft their whole growth in a year, and live about feven times one year; only it is pretended that the males live longer than the fe males, but I doubt of any certainty in this obfervation. They spend their life in folitude and filence, and their voice is not heard but when forcibly seized, or tormented, or wounded: Then the cry is not fhrill, but a pretty strong voice, whose tone is almost like that of the human. They are not fo wild as their habits and manner feem to indicate; they are mild, and fufceptible of a fort of education; they are easily tamed, and even become fond; but their attachment is never enough to mould them into domestic animals; for thole even, which have been taken quite little and brought up in a houfe, as foon as they find an opportunity, fet themselves at liberty and fly into the country. By having a fine ear, and fitting of their own accord on their hind legs, and using their fore as arms, fome have been trained to beat the drum, to gefticulate in cadence, &c. In general, the hare does not want instinct for his own prefervation, nor fagacity for ef caping from his enemies. He makes himself a form; he chufes, in winter, places expofed to the South, and, in fummer, his lodge is Northward; he hides himself, in order not to be feen, between clots of earth of the fame colour with his hair. I have feen, fays Fouilloux, in his Venerie, pages 64 and 65, a hare fo malicious, that, as foon as ever he Kka heard heard the horn, he fcampered away from his is very ill-tafted, and, in general, the flesh of all hares inhabiting low plains or vallies is infipid and whitith; whereas, on high lands or mountain plains, where wild thyme and other fine herbs abound, the leverets, and even the old hares, have an excellent tafte. It is obferved only, that thofe inhabiting the recefies of woods in the fame country are much inferior to the inhabitants of the out-fkirts, or that keep themselves in the fields; and that the flesh of the females is always more delicate than that of the males. The nature of the foil has an influence over thefe animals as over all others. Moun tain hares are larger than thofe of the plain, and also of a different colour; they are more brown on the body, and have more white under the neck than those of the plain, which are almoft red. In the high mountains and regions of the North, they become white in winter, and refume, in fummer, their usual colour; there are fome, and thefe are, perhaps, the oldeft, that remain always white; for all of them become fo more or lefs, as they grow old. The hares of warm countries, of Italy, Spain, Barbary, are smaller than thofe of France and other more northern countries: According to Ariftotle, they were fmaller in Egypt than Greece. They are equally difperfed over all climates: There are a great many in Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Mufcovy; a great many in England, France, Germany; a great many in Barba ry, Egypt, the Iles of the Archipelago, especially Delos, now Idilis, which was called by the ancient Greeks Lagia, upon account of its great number of hares. In fine, there are a great many alfo in Lapland, where they are white during ten months of the year, and do not refume their fallow colour but in the two hottest months of fummer. It therefore appears that they equally thrive in most climates; yet it is remarked, that there are fewer hares in the East than in Europe, and few or none in South America, though there are fome in Virginia, Canada, and in the lands bordering upon Hudfon's-bay and the Streights of Ma ellan; but thefe hares of North America are, perhaps, of a different fpecies from that of our hares; for travellers fay, that not only they are much larger, but that their flesh is white, and of a quite different talte from that of our hues; they add that the hair of thefe North-American hares never fails, and that excellent furs are made of it. In exceffively hot countries, as at Senegal, Gambia, in Guinea, and efpecially in the diftricts of Fida, Apam, Acra, and in fome other countries fituate under toe torrid zone in Africa and America, as in New Holland and the lands of the Ifthmus of Pa nama, nama, animals are found which travellers have likewife taken for hares; but these are rather a fpecies of rabbits; for the rabbit is originally from hot countries, and is not found in Hyperborean climates, whereas the hare is ftronger and larger by inhabiting a colder climate. This animal, fo much in request for the table in Europe, cannot be fail to fuit the tafte of the Orientals. It is true that the law of Mahomet, and more anciently the law of the Jews, have prohibited the ufe of the hare's flesh as well as that of the hog; but the Greeks and Romans prized it as a dainty as much as we do: Inter quadrupedes gloria prima lepus,' fays Martial. In fact, its flesh is excellent, its blood likewife is very good for eating, and is the fweetest of all blood; fat has no fhare in the delicaof the flesh, for the hare never becomes fat, as long as he remains at liberty in the fields; and yet he often dies from too much fat, when fed in a houfe. cy The hunting of the hare is the amusement, and often the only occupation of idle people In the country. Being performed without any great apparatus and expence, and being alfo ufeful, it fuits every one. They go in the morning and evening to the outlets of woods, to wait the hare on his going in or coming out; in the day-time, he is fought after in the parts where he has his form. When there is a freshness in the air by bright fun-fhine, and the hare takes to his form after running, the vapour of his body forms a finall mift, which the hunters perceive at a good diftance, especially if their eyes are well exercised in this fort of obfervation. Some have been known who, by this fign, have gone upwards of a mile to kill a hare in its form. He commonly lets one come very near him, especially if he does not seem to look at him, and if, inftead of going directly, he turns obliquely to approach him. He dreads dogs more than men, and, when he fcents or hears a dog, he runs to a good diftance. Tho' he runs fafter than the dogs, as he makes no ftraight route, but turns and returns about the place where he was started, the greyhounds, that hunt him by fight rather than fmell, cut fhort his way, lay hold of, and kill him. In fummer-time, he keeps in the fields; in autumn, in fhrus; and, in winter, in clofe hedges or woods; and one may, at all times, without fhooting him, force him to be hunted by a pack of hounds: He may alfo be taken by birds of prey: Owls, buzzards, eagles, foxes, wolves, men, all equally make war against him: He has fo many enemies, that it is by chance he efcapes them, and it feldom happens they let him enjoy the few years nature has permitted him to live. Account of the PROCEEDINGS in the laft Seffion of Parliament. HIS feffion was opened the 9th of TJanuary, 177, by his Majesty's most gracious fpeech from the throne. [See this peech in our Magazine for the fame month.] And it was refolved, that an humble addrefs be prefented to his Majefty, to return his Majefty the thanks of the House, for his molt gracious fpeech: To exprefs to his Majefty their ferious concern, that, notwithstanding every precaution which could be used for preventing the communication of the infectious diforder among the horned cattle from foreign parts, that most alarming diftemper appears to have again broke out in fome parts of the kingdom; and at the fame time to declare, that they are truly fenfible of his Majefty's paternal care and vigilance for the fecurity of his people, in having given the earliest directions for every measure to be purfued, that might be most likely to give an immediate check to the firft fpreading of the infection; and that they will not fail to take this most important matter into their immediate confideration, and to make fuch provifions as fhall appear beft calculated to carry into effectual and complete execution his Majelly salutary tentions; and thereby, as far as by human means can be accomplished, to guard against the danger of fo great a calamity be coming general. To affure his Majefty, that his faithful Commons have too juft a fenfe of the bleffings of peace, and feel, with his Majesty, too tender a concern for the eafe of their fellowfubjects, not to rejoice at the profpect which the affurances given by the other Great Powers of Europe afford to his Majefty, that the prefent difturbances will not extend to any part where the fecurity, honour, or intereft of this nation may make it neceflary for his Majesty to become a party; that they have the fulleft confidence that his Majesty will never be unmindful of thofe important objects; and that they obferve with great fatisfaction his Majefty's wife attention to the general interefts of Europe, in his determination not to acknowled be any claims of any of the other Powers of Europe, contrary to the limitations of the late treaties of peace. Το |