Ali, schemes may be approaching maturity undertakings of both descriptions. In all which, if executed, will leave their traces not three countries capital and enterprise have only on Ordnance maps of six inches to the been attracted by preference to the railroad. mile, but on Mercator's projection, and the school atlases of rudimental geography. Cadets now studying at Addiscombe may live to lock down into the Red Sea on their way to Calcutta, and the steamer from Hong Kong may bring our despatches through Panama; but with our present degree of information the discussion of such projects would be premature.

If the repu

In Mr. Tanner's summary of the canals and railroads of the United States, published in 1840, we find a list of proposed railroads for the State of New York alone to the number of eighty-four, with an authorized capital of 26,000,000 dollars. We find no mention of any new canal company, as bread to this intolerable quantity of sack. In 1837, Mr. Chevalier estimated the number of miles of railroad and canal in the United States at 7350. In 1840, by Mr. Tanner's summary, they would approach 9000, of which water claims for its share about 4300. If, how ever, North America claim the superiority natural to youth in respect of activity of enteiprise, the luxuriance of her virgin soil has in many instances been rank and deceptive, and many of her schemes have doubtless lacked the solidity which in the main has characterized the proceedings of England and the Con

The mention of the name of Mehemet Ali makes it impossible to pass without notice the achievements in hydraulics of that remarkable man, who has summoned European science to co-operate with the physical force of numbers, marshalled under a more than Oriental despotism. The Canal of Mahmoudieh, connecting Alexandria with the Nile, is but one of forty-five works in pari materia constructed under his auspices. According to Clot Bey's description, it is twenty-five leagues in length, and was completed in ten months tinent. Mr. Tanner writes:by the labor of 313,000 men. 'With regard to the abstract question of revetation of sovereigns could be measured by the nue, it is obvious that a large portion of the imnumber of cubic feet of earth removed in their mense sums invested in canals and railroads in respective reigns, Mehemet Ali's name will be tolerably conspicuous on the record. In the article of canals alone, exclusive of bridg ́es, dams, and other enormous works of construction and excavation, the account in 1840 stood at nearly 105,000,000 of cubic metres. Taking one of these as the average day's work of an Egyptian laborer, and considering that, except in special cases, these works only proceed during four months of the year, Clot Bey calculates that, for some years past, the number of individuals annually employed on hydraulic works in Egypt has been 355,

000.

the United States will fail in producing the anticipated results. Visionary enterprises of all sorts are the distinguishing characteristics of the times, and the almost infinite variety of schemes which of late have been pressed upon tion, have in some instances resulted in the diverpublic attention, and adopted without due causion of funds from objects of undoubted utility and advantage to schemes of an opposite character. The mode of improvement, and its fitness for the purposes to which it is designed, are considerations to which little regard has been the public works in the United States. Hence paid in deciding upon the location of some of the numerous failures, and the consequent withdrawal of public confidence in such investments generally.—p. 23.

In an article of our April Number for 1837, on Mr. Michel Chevalier's Letters on North America,' will be found some no- It is sufficiently notorious that certain tice of the then comparative state of inter- other considerations, besides the choice of nal intercourse in France, England, and the location,' have been overlooked in the pubUnited States. The condition of these three lic works of North America, the neglect of countries, both relative and positive, with re- which would considerably impede the further spect to railroads, has doubtless been much march of improvement in any other commualtered in the years which have since elaps-nity. We leave, however, this topic in the ed, while inland navigation has probably abler hands to which of right it belongs. We more nearly preserved its proportions. Additions to the latter have been perhaps little called for in England. In France, as Mr. Chevalier then observed, the want of works to make her existing canals available by improving the access to them from her rivers, as in the signal case of the Canal de Languedoc and the Garonne, was more pressing than that of new lines of navigation, though to say to usthere is doubtless room for remunerative

of the Quarterly have no money to invest in foreign stocks. Our indignation would be tame, and our satire pointless, in comparison with that of others. We content ourselves with saying to our insolvent relations on the other side of the Atlantic what, in virtue of the length and discursiveness of this article, our readers will ere now have been tempted

'Claudite jam rivos, pueri, sat prata biberunt.'

THE COMIC BLACKSTONE.

From the Charivari.

have him; and at twenty-one he may dispose of his property, so that he may throw himself away seven years sooner than he can throw away his money. By the law of England a girl may be given in marriage at seven, but surely this must mean the hour of the day at which she may be married, and not A GUARDIAN is a sort of temporary parent to a the age at which the ceremony may be performed. minor,—a kind of tarpaulin thrown over the orphan teen, but as they could not be expected to have a Formerly, children might make their wills at fourto shield him from the storms of life during his in-will of their own, it has been enacted that no will fancy—or, if we may use an humbler illustration, a guardian is a kind of umbrella, put up by the law over the ward, to keep off the pelting of the pitiless storm till the years of discretion are arrived at. There are various kinds of guardians, such as guardians by nature, and guardians for nurture, who are of course the parents of the child; for if an estate be left to an infant, the father is guardian, and must account for the profits; but as the father can control the child's arithmetical studies, it is

made by a person under twenty-one shall be valid. Among the Greeks and Romans, women were never of age, and if they had their way in this This law must have been the civil law, for its concountry, a good many of them never would be.' sideration towards the fair sex on a matter of so much delicacy as a question of age betokens exlaw was so civil as to regard them as infants till treme civility. When this wore away, the Roman the ladies half-way by treating them as little innothey were five-and-twenty-which was meeting cents for the first quarter of a century of their pre

cious existences.

easy for the latter to be brought up in blessed ignorance of accounts, and thus the parent may easily mystify the child when the profits of the estate are to be accounted for. The mother is the guardian for nurture; that is to say, she is expected to nurse Infants have various privileges, such as the comthe infant, and the law being very fond of children, mon law privilege of jumping over the posts at the requires the mother to look to the infantine ward-rounders in retired neighborhoods. Another infancorners of the streets, and playing at hop-scotch or robe. It also invests her with absolute power over tine privilege is the juvenile amusement of going the milk and water, and the bread and butter, to law, which a child may do by his guardian or making her a competent authority-from which his prochein amy, or next friend-though, by the there is no appeal-on all points of nursery prac-bye, he must be a pretty friend who would help an

tice.

Next comes the guardian in socage- -so called, perhaps, from the quaint notion that guardianship generally extends to those who wear socs or socks-which is further borne out by the fact that guardianship in socage ceases when the child is fourteen years old-which is about the age when socks are relinquished in favor of stockings. These guardians in socage are such as cannot inherit an estate to which a child is entitled, for Coke says that to commit the custody of an infant to him who is next in succession, is "quasi agnum committere lupo," to hand over the lamb to the wolf, and thus says Fortescue, in one of those rascally' puns for which the old jurists were infamous, "the law, wishing the child to escape from the lupo has left a loop-hole to enable him to do so." Selden has cleared this pun of a good deal of its ambiguity by changing the word lupo into loop-ho, but Chitty and all the later writers are utterly silent regarding it.

By the 12th of Charles II. confirmed by 1st Victoria, any father may appoint, by will, a guardian to his child till the latter is twenty-one; but it is twenty to one whether such a guardian-called a testamentary guardian-will be able to exercise proper control over the infant.

Guardians in chivalry have been abolished, and so have the guardians of the night, who on the lucus a non lucendo principle, were called watchmen, from the fact of their never watching.

The Lord Chancellor is the general guardian of all infants, and especially of idiots aud lunatics, for as Chancery drives people mad, it is only right that Chancery should take care of those who are afflicted with insanity, and who may be called the natural offspring of equity.

Having disposed of the guardians, let us come to the wards, or, as Coke would say, " having got rid of the wolf, let us discuss the lamb in an amicable spirit." A male at twelve years of age may take the oath of allegiance; but this does not apply to all males, for the Hounslow mail can take nothing but two insides and the letters. At fourteen a boy may marry, if he can find any one fool enough to

other into a law-suit. A child may certainly be hanged at seven, but the intermediate period is one hanged at fourteen, and certainly may not be of doubt whether the infant culprit is hangable. Hale gives two instances of juvenile executions in which two infant prodigies were the principal

characters.

burned for killing her mistress; and the other a One was a girl of thirteen, who was boy still younger, who, after murdering one of his companions by a severe hiding, proceeded to hide himself, and was declared in legal language, doli capax-up to snuff-or, to follow the Norman jurists, en haut du tabac, and hanged accordingly. It is not lose by laches, or, in other words, that the a fine maxim of the English law, that an infant shall stern old doctrine of no askee no havee does not

apply to a child who is entitled to something which he neglects asking for.

An infant cannot bind himself, but he may be "stitched in a neat wrapper"-that is to say, a Tweedish wrapper-at his own cost, if he thinks Proper to go and pay ready money for it. An infant cannot convey away his own estate, but he may run has a field he may run across it-in at one end and through his own property as fast as he likes, for if he An infant trustee may convey an estate that he out at the other-whenever he feels disposed for it. holds in trust for another person, though he may not be a party in a conveyance on his own account, yet he may, nevertheless, join a party in a public present a clerk to the bishop, but if the bishop don't such as an omnibus. An infant may like the clerk, he may turn upon his heel; but still the presentation does not fall by lapse into the laps of the bishop. An infant may bind himself for necessaries, such as food and physic; thus, if he gives a draft to pay for a pill, or contracts with a butcher to supply what is requisite and meet, he will be clearly liable.

conveyance,

fants, we come to the conclusion, that, to every six In weighing the disabilities and privileges of inof one, there will be about half-a-dozen of the other.

Suetonius (in his Life of Domitian) mentions that this emperor sent some amanuenses to Alexandria, for the purpose of copying a quanThe first of the Ptolemies, Lagus, not only tity of books that were wanting in his library; endeavored to render Alexandria one of the most consequently a library existed in Alexandria a beautiful and most commercial of cities he like-long while after Cæsar. Besides, we know that wise wished her to become the cradle of science and philosophy. By the advice of an Athenian

partly existed is beyond a doubt, according to the testimony of Oroses, who, twenty-four years later, made a voyage to Alexandria, and assures us that he "saw, in several temples, presses full of books," the remains of ancient libraries. It is worthy of remark, that this author, as well as Seneca, (De Tranquillitate Animi, cap. ix.), estimates the number of volumes burnt by Cæsar at 400,000; and, as it appears that the total number of hooks of the two libraries amounted to 700,000, there remains, together with the portion saved from the conflagration of the former library, a residue of from 3 to 400,000 volumes, which composed the second library. The trustworthy Oroses, in 415, is the last witness we have of the existence of a library at Alexandria. The numerous Christian writers of the fifth and sixth centuries, who have handed down to us so many trifling facts, have not said a word upon this important subject.

We, therefore, have no certain documents upon the fate of our library from 415 to 636, or, according to others, 640, when the Arabs took possession of Alexandria, a period of ignorance and barbarism, of war and revolutions, and vain disputes between a hundred different sects,

II. THE LIBRARY BURNT BY THE SARACENS.-
WHAT GAVE RISE TO THIS VULGAR ERROR.

Now, towards A. D. 636, or 640, the troops of the caliph, Omar, headed by his lieutenant, Amrou, took possession of Alexandria. For more than six centuries nobody in Europe took the trouble of ascertaining what had become of the library of Alexandria.

At length, in the year 1660, a learned Oxford scholar. Edward Pococke, who had been twice to the East, and had brought back a number of Arabian manuscripts, first introduced the Oriental history of the physician Abulfarage to the learned world, in a Latin translation. In it we read the following passage:—

God's holy book, and then God's book is all-sufficient without them; or they disagree with God's book, in which case they ought not to be preserved.' And, in consequence, Amrou Ebno 'l-As caused them to be distributed amongst the dif ferent baths of the city, to serve as fuel. In this manner they were consumed in half-a-year."

When this account of Abulfarage's was made known in Europe, it was at once admitted as a fact, without the least question: it soon gained ground, and with the multitude it had the honor of passing for incontestable truth.

Since Pococke, another Arab historian, likewise a physician, was discovered, who gave pretty nearly the same account. This was Abdollatif, who wrote towards 1200, and consequently prior to Abulfarage. The publication of his work is owing to M. Paulus, a professor, who translated it from an Arabian manuscript in the library at Boldei. The passage in question runs as follows:

"I also saw the portico which, after Aristotle and his pupils, became the academical college; and likewise the college, which Alexander the Great caused to be built at the same time as the town, and which contained the splendid library that Amrou Ebno 'l-As committed to the flames, with the consent of the great Omar, to whom God be merciful."

As this anecdote agreed perfectly with the ferocious and barbarous character ascribed to the Saracens, nobody thought of questioning its authenticity for a considerable length of time. We will endeavor, however, to clear the caliph and his lieutenant, Amrou, of this imputation,not for love of the Saracens, but for the love of truth.

III. A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE AC-
COUNTS

LATIF.

GIVEN BY ABULFARAGE AND ABDOL

who tells us that he has actually seen what could no longer have been in existence in his time? "I have seen," says he, "the portico and the college that Alexander the Great caused to be built, and which contained the splendid library," &c. Now, these buildings were situated within the Bruchion; and since the reign of Aurelian, who had destroyed it.-that is to say, at least nine hundred years before Abdollatifthe Bruchion was a deserted spot, covered with ruins and rubbish.

We may reasonably suppose, as Abdollatif "In those days flourished John of Alexandria, is the most ancient writer of the two, that Abulwhom we have surnamed the Grammarian, and farage was acquainted with the above-mentioned who adopted the tenets of the Christian Jacobites. passage in his history, and commented upon it, ... He lived to the time when Amrou Ebno and embellished it according to his own taste. 1-As took Alexandria. He went to visit the Abdollatif does not relate any of the circumconqueror; and Amrou, who was aware of the stances accessory to the destruction of the liheight of learning and science that John had at-brary. But what faith can we put in a writer tained, treated him with every distinction, and listened eagerly to his lectures on philosophy. which were quite new to the Arabians. Amrou was himself a man of intellect and discernment. and very clear-headed. He retained the learned man about his person. John one day said to him, 'You have visited all the stores of Alexandria, and you have put your seal on all the different things found there. I say nothing about those treasures which have any value for you; but, in good sooth, you might leave us those of which you make no use. What, then. Abulfarage, on the other hand, places the is it that you want?' interrupted Amrou. The library in the Royal Treasury; and the anabooks of philosophy that are to be found in the chronism is just as bad. The royal edifices royal treasury,' answered John. I can dispose were all contained within the walls of the Bruof nothing. Amrou then said, 'without the per-chion; and not one of them could be left. Bemission of the lord of all true believers, Omar Ebno 'l-Chatrab.' He therefore wrote to Omar. informing him of John's request. He received an answer from Omar in these words: As to the books you mention, either they agree with

6

sides, what meaning could be implied by the words Royal Treasury, in a country that had long ago ceased to be governed by kings, and was subject to the emperors of the East?

Moreover, as a fact is not necessarily incon

testable because advanced as such by one or even two historians, several persons of learning and research have doubted the truth of this assertion. Renaudot (Hist. des Patriarches d'Alexundrie) had already questioned its authenticity, by observing: "This account is rather suspi- Elmacin in turn gives us Amrou's letter nearcious, as is frequently the case with the Arabi-ly in the same terms, and not one word of the ans." And, lastly, Querci, the two Assemani,library. Villoison, and Gibbon, completely declared themselves against it.

then could he have forgotten the library, he who, according to Abulfarage, was a friend to the fine arts and philosophy? Did he think that so celebrated and ancient a monument was not worthy to be mentioned?

It may be objected that the letter was, perhaps, never written by Amrou, and that the two historians have falsely attributed it to him. So much the more reason for the library to have been mentioned in the supposed letter. Could they both have overlooked a feature so important in the estimation of two learned inhabitants of Alexandria? Would they have taken a pride in seeming better informed on the subject of baths and kitchen-gardens than about the li|brary?

Gibbon at once expresses his astonishment that two historians, both of Egypt, should not have said a word about so remarkable an event. The first of these is Eutychius, patriarch of Alexandria, who lived in that city 500 years after it was taken by the Saracens, and who gives a long and detailed account, in his Annals, both of the siege and the succeeding events; the second is Elmacin, a most veracious writer, the author of a History of the Saracens, and If, however, the letter be authentic, as its exwho especially relates the life of Omar, and the istence tends to make us believe, then let us taking of Alexandria, with its minutest circum-pay attention to the caliph's answer, who comstances. Is it conceivable or to be believed that mands his troops to respect every thing the city these two historians should have been ignorant contains. of so important a circumstance? That two learned men who would have been deeply interested in such a loss should have made no mention of it, though living and writing in Alexandria-Eutychius, too, at no distant period from the event? and that we should learn it for the first time from a stranger, who wrote, six centuries after, on the frontiers of Media?

We, therefore, run no great risk in drawing the conclusion, from all these premises, that the library of the Ptolemies no longer existed in 640 at the taking of Alexandria by the Saracens.

We may add fresh proofs on the authority of two writers, nearly contemporary with Omar. One of these, John Philoponos, (who has been erroneously confounded by Gibbon and others Besides, as Gibbon observes, why should the with John the Grammarian mentioned by AbulCaliph Omar, who was no enemy to science, farage) says, in his commentaries on Aristotle's have acted, in this one instance, in direct oppo-Analytica, that the ancient libraries contained sition to his character, when he might have dis- [ forty different books of this Analytica. He does pensed with such an act of barbarism, by shield- not, it is true, expressly mention the library of ing himself behind the opinion of the casuists of Alexandria, but he lived and wrote in that city the Mahometan law? These, namely, declare where, doubtless, they were always designated (see Dissertations de Réland sur le Droit Mili-as the libraries, and he, therefore, could refer to taire des Mahometans, tom. iii.) "that it is not no other in this passage. Besides, we know that right to burn the books of Christians, out of re- Aristotle's writings had been carefully collected spect for the name of God that is to be met within the library of the Ptolemies. (See Athenæus, in them, and that every true believer is allowed Strabo, and Plutarch's Life of Sylla.) to make a proper use of profane books of history, But were any doubts remaining we may poetry, natural history, and philosophy." This consult Philoponos's master, Ammonius Herdecision does not savor much of destroying li-meas, in his observations on Aristotle's Catebraries.

gories. He lived in Alexandria prior to the inTo these reasons may be added the remark of vasion of the Saracens. "It is reported of a German writer, M. Reinhard. who observes Ptolemy Philadelphos," says he, "that he took that Eutychius (Annals of Eutychius, vol. ii. p. great pains to collect together the writings of Aris316) transcribes the very words of the letter totle, liberally rewarding those who brought in which Amrou gives the Caliph Omar an ac-him such; which was the cause that many percount of the taking of Alexandria after a long sons presented him manuscripts falsely attributed and obstinate siege. "I have carried the town to Aristotle; consequently, no less than forty difby storm" says he, "and without any preced-ferent books of the Analytica were to be met with ing offer of capitulation. I cannot describe all in the great library." the treasures it contains; suffice it to say, that It is clear that Ammonius here adverts to the it numbers 4000 palaces, 4000 baths, 40 000 taxable Jews, 400 theatres. 12 000 gardeners who sell vegetables. Your Mussulmans demand the privilege of pillaging the city, and sharing the booty." Omar, in his reply, disapproves of the request, and expressly forbids all pillage or dilapidation

library of Alexandria; therefore Philoponos alludes to it likewise. What he designates as the ancient libraries is the same as Ammonius calls the great library. They both speak of it as of a thing past and gone, and no longer in existence, and do doubt can be entertained on this head. We may even imagine that he alludes It is plain that, in his official report, Amrou to the library of the Serapeum; for Philadelseeks to exaggerate the value of his conquest phos, who took so much pains to gather toand to magnify its importance, like the diplo-gether the writings of Aristotle, would doubtmatists of our times. He does not overlook alessly have placed them in a collection that was single hovel, nor a Jew, nor a gardener. How his own work, and which he valued especially.