From The Press. had commenced that enterprising career SYRIA, PAST AND PRESENT. which led them as traders or settlers to SYRIA, like India, is one of those regions Greece, Carthage, Marseilles, and the disof the earth where frequent invasions and tant shores of Britain. At the same time the geographical character of the country Syria began to witness the inroads of the have produced an extraordinary mingling of rival armies of Egypt and Assyria; until at races, customs, and religions. Successive length, about seven centuries before our era, waves of conquest have rolled over the land, the Assyrian monarchs rose to the height of submerging the plains, but only breaking in their power, and dominated ruthlessly over casual spray over the mountains. The cen- the whole of Syria. Conquest made radical tral isthmus of the Old World, its invaders changes in those days. The greater portion have come from all points of the compass. of the Jewish nation was carried away into The Assyrian and Persian from the east, servitude, never to return, other settlers the Greek and Roman from the west,-the being imported in their room,-and the popArab from the south,-the Mongol and Turk ulation of Syria underwent its second great from the north. And now has begun once change, although the new settlers probably more the influx of foreign influence and pop- sprang from the same old stem from whence ulation. During the last twenty years, Bey- Abraham had branched off. Next came the root, the maritime capital of the country, noble Persians, ruling Syria as a satrapy, has half lost its Orientalism by the peaceful but making little change in the customs or influx of European commerce and trading religions of the country. Alexander and his settlers. And whatever be the immediate Greeks followed, giving rise to the great diplomatic result of the present dire and dynasty of the Seleucida, who had their horrible dissensions, it may safely be pre- capital at Antioch, and leavened with their dicted that these calamities, joined to the influence the whole northern half of Syria. moribund condition of the Turkish sway, Alexander had dealt a mortal blow to proud will accelerate in a remarkable manner the Tyre, but a hundred other towns started into development of European influence in Syria; existence, or at least into new and higher so that ten years hence the fortunes of that life, under the Grecian rule; and Grecian fallen and stagnant country will have under- art and civilization dominated in the country gone a complete change, and one that can- even during all the subsequent rule of the not fail to be for the better. conquering Romans. For ages before Pompey led the Roman legions into Syria, great highways of commerce, traversing the country, connected Tyre and Sidon and the shores of the Levant with Babylon and the countries of the east. Upon one of these, running through the Syrian desert, arose queenly Palmyra, graceful and beautiful as the palmtrees from which it took its name, and whose extensive ruins, standing now amidst perfect solitude, still enchant the traveller who is sufficiently daring to journey through the sandy wastes and lawless Bedouins to visit them. Baalbek, too, the halfway stage between Damascus and the coast, arose with its magnificent Temple of the Sun, whose superb columns and architraves are deemed to have been the work of genii by the starying tribes who now drive their flocks over the waste but surpassingly prolific plain of the Bekaa.

It is a land whose history presents a most striking series of vicissitudes,-one violent change of dominion and of religion following hard upon another. It is the advent of a wanderer from the uplands of the Tigris and Euphrates that first dispels from the Syrian land the darkness of pre-historic time. We see an Aramæan suddenly, on divine impulse, striking his tent by the Euphrates, near Ur of the Chaldees, and journeying with his family and flocks westward, round the northern edges of the Syrian desert, till he comes upon another region of fertility and a new civilization-if such it may be called, -and beholds the Syrian hills and towns, Damascus and the cities of the Plain. Full five centuries afterwards, the descendants of that patriarch, now become a nation, re-issuing from Egypt, accomplish the first invasion and partial conquest of Syria of which we have record. At that time Syria had Judaism, ever an isolated religion, had not a few walled towns, the vine was culti- passed away from the hills of Palestine, and vated, and still more, if not the art, at least Christianity had not only supplanted it, but the usages of war. The whole interior of had triumphed also over the worship of Bel the country was occupied by tribes which and Ashtarte and the other forms of paganwarred with one another, but which never-ism which of old existed along the coast and theless spread population and cultivation over all the northern half of Syria-Antiover many districts (especially those east of och, afterwards the "Eye of the Christian the Jordan and Dead Sea) which are now Churches," certainly not excepted. But a desert. And on the coast the Phoenician new religion and a new power suddenly arose race-skilled in manufactures, trading in in the barren peninsula to the south; and ships, and warring in chariots and mail-the Arabs, under the successors of Mahomet,

From The Athenæum.

Travels in Canada and the States of New York and Pennsylvania-[Reisen in Canada, etc.]. By J. G. Kohl. Cotta, Stuttgart.

But besides the pleasant emotion of selfON no colonial possession of the empire approval with which the mother-country may can the eye rest more rejoicingly than on regard her American possessions, she canCanada, to which the state visit of the Prince not but rejoice, for the sake of humanity, of Wales attracts so much attention. Tow- that so wide a portion of the American conards Canada England has been truly a tinent should be secure from the bitter and mother-country-not seeking to use it for blighting curse of slavery, and exist as a her own advantage, but governing it almost harbor of refuge to the unfortunate negro always with a view to its own welfare. If when afflicted beyond endurance-a harbor we set aside some acts of severity-or, we not to be reached, however, without such may even admit, of injustice-in the earliest serious risks as make it unlikely to be sought period of her possession, when the encour- in any but extreme cases. Even for the sake agement afforded by the French to the Amer- of the slave-owners themselves, as it apican revolt had naturally awakened a feeling peared to the sagacious traveller before us, of suspicion towards our new French sub- it is desirable such a safety-valve should rejects, the affairs of Canada have been ad- main open. ministered almost invariably on just, humane, and conciliatory principles. After the insurrectionary movements of 1837 and 1838, the government, to its great honor, though completely victorious in the struggle, far from riveting the chains on the vanquished Forever roaming with a hungry heart;" (if such a phrase be not too violent a figure of speech for the negative grievances of the -and his writings are nearly as well known habitans), suffered the occurrence to open in England and America as in his own counits eyes to abuses of which it had not before try. In many respects we regard him as a been aware, and of which it immediately commenced the needful reform.

66

Mr. Kohl has now traversed-not without profit to himself and his readers-a considerable portion of the earth's surface. He may almost say with Ulysses

"I am become a name

model traveller. He possesses the observant and reflective faculties in due proportions,-is thoughtful enough to know what use to make of the facts that present themselves, yet never so possessed by theory as to have his observations confused;-not at all given (according to the well-worn joke) to evolving a camel out of the depths of his consciousness, yet able to infer a good deal concerning the structure of the beast from the study of small portions of its anatomy.

Quoique nous étions battus," said an old Canadian to our traveller, "ça nous a fait du bien." The French colonists were by degrees placed on the same footing as those of British descent; they obtained the same political rights, and care was taken that in public appointments no regard should be paid to nationality. Many of the highest offices in the country are now filled by French Canadians, the public revenue is entirely at Mr. Kohl's tour in America was a very the disposal of the Canadian Parliament, and extensive one, and some of its records have to the whole population, French and British, been already noticed in this journal. The an ever-increasing liberty of local self-gov-present volume relates chiefly to his Canaernment is permitted.

dian journey by Albany, Burlington, and The result of this wise and liberal course Lake Champlain to Montreal, Quebec, the is shown in the perfect reconciliation of the settlements on the Ottawa, the "Lake of two races, and the assurance that instead of the Thousand Islands," Lake Ontario, Torfinding in the former a secret enemy, ready onto, Lake Simcoe, and back by Niagara to to conspire with foreigners on the first op- New York. He had proposed commencing portunity, our sovereign has in the French it by a steamboat passage up the Hudson, Canadians the most important counterpoise but as it was the month of October he found to foreign influence. There does, indeed, it that only night-boats were running; the is said, exist among the more juvenile mem- pleasure travellers had almost ceased, and bers of the community a small party which the men of business, who still came in goes by the name of the Rouges, and they crowds, preferred passing those lovely and may possibly look with some longing tow-picturesque shores in the dark, by way of ards the more dashing and obstreperous in- saving time. He decided, therefore, to make dependence of their republican neighbors; the trip by rail; and as the line runs close but the majority of the French habitans are to the river-side he did not lose much by

the change of plan. His quick eye caught immediately on starting an indication of American acuteness.

gentleman is accustomed to observe." He also kept a vigilant eye on the movements of his troops of attendant maidens, who were The newsmen or newsboys, instead of distributing tea, coffee, tongue, ham, mutworrying the passenger with their wares ton-chops, etc., with the celerity of practised when he is intent only on his place and his players dealing cards. A similar phenomticket, and other cares that crowd on him at enon of an army of fair waiters, under a starting and leave him little leisure to think negro officer, was seen at Burlington, and of newspapers, take a passage on the train here the Yankee master of the hotel prowith the rest, being pretty sure that it will fessed the utmost esteem for his black aspay to do so. After a while ennui always sistant, as well as for another of the same creates an appetite for the intellectual prov-race in his service, declaring him to be "a ender they have to dispose of:real Uncle Tom."

"When I saw Montreal on a dull day, I thought this epithet a little exaggerated, but, afterwards, when I saw these tin-covered houses and churches glittering in the last rays of the setting sun, and seeming sometimes to glow with internal fire, I became of quite a different opinion."

Mr. Kohl first touched Canadian soil at "The little newsboys had their stock of polit- the northern end of Lake Champlain; and ical, commercial, serious, and humoristic literaeven to him, rushing through the country ture carefully stored up in some corner, and as soon as everybody was comfortably seated, and on the wings of steam, the change of nationthe train in motion, undertook from time to time ality was immediately perceptible in a ceran excursion through the flying community, and tain quiet, old-world aspect of things, as rewhenever they saw anybody yawn immediately mote as possible from that of the brilliantly presented their enticing wares, and apparently wide-awake citizens of the great republic. did a good stroke of business. They very often But he had little time for philosophizing, bring with them, also, a selection of the newest before he came in sight of the "Silver books, and afford thus no trifling assistance in Town," as Montreal is called, from the plates the diffusion of the most recent literary produc- of bright tin with which the roofs of houses tions. The American books are all calculated and churches are covered, and which in the for quick and convenient use on railroads, and in other situations where the reader is likely to dry climate of Canada retain their brightness be helpless. They are all neatly bound and a long time. ready cut; not like our German books, which we buy in the most inconvenient form possible, namely, in loose sheets, and then have to wait a fortnight for the binder. Once there came hurrying past our carriage a little fellow, with flying hair, and a quantity of printed quarto sheets hanging over his arm, who threw them, right and left, into the lap of every passenger. I read the paper, and found it contained a collection of notices and praises of the book of a certain wellknown traveller in Africa, taken from many newspapers and periodicals. I had scarcely got through the many variations on the one theme, namely, that there could be no more interesting employment in the whole world than to read this gentleman's book all through, when the little Literary Ganymede aforesaid made his appearance at the opposite door to the one where he had formerly presented himself, but moving with rather less freedom and celerity than before, for he was carrying a whole pile of volumes, radiant in new gilding, and presenting them as he had before done his criticisms, right and left. What is that?' I asked. The "African Travels," sir, that you have just read the praises of-costs only half a dollar the copy.'"

At the colossal hotel at Albany it struck the traveller, as it does us, as rather surprising that the vast tables were served by troops of white republican damsels, all under the command of a gentleman of the unfashionable complexion. This sable superintendent "received every guest at the door with decorum, and even dignity of manner -just the medium between too great devotion and too great self-assertion, which a

Many of the social arrangements of Canada are, of course, copied from those of America, and the hotels retain the same republican character,-according to which society is all, and the individual nothing. The guests, en masse, are magnificently served; and if you let yourself be drummed into the banqueting room with the multitude to the sound of the gong, you are fed and waited upon by a whole army of attendants, with the most energetic attention. But if, as an individual, you wish for so much as a cup of broth, you may wish for it a long time. While, as one of the crowd of guests, suites of apartments fitted up with princely splendor are at your disposal, when withdraw you your own personality into a little cell with four white walls, you may ring, and call, and sigh in vain for the assistance of one of the throng of servants of the great public.

While passing along the forty-fifth parallel of latitude, which forms the boundary line between Lower Canada on one side, and New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire on the other, Mr. Kohl gleaned a good deal of information illustrative of the early history of colonization in these districts. Here

to act.

I

a barn. Sometimes the settler will move off

is "The History of a Piece of Land:" ous, industrious men, of good character. Shortly after the period of the American don't care whether they have capital or not, and Revolution, a Mr. Macomb undertook, with according to these instructions my agents have a few companions, a hunting and canal voyI leave my settlers time to look about age on the St. Lawrence, and made himself them a bit, to make themselves a home in the wilderness, and to put by a little towards the acquainted with the previously almost unknown districts now constituting the north-when the payment is to be made, I leave enpayment of the purchase-money. How and ern part of the State of New York. They tirely to them. I require no interest for arrears, stood in very ill repute at the time, having for I consider the labor they expend on the land formed part of the country of the Iroquois, is so much rent that they pay me; and as long and never been entirely subjected either by as the purchase money is not paid, it remains, French or English, but having remained as of course, my property, which they are thus a kind of desolate battle-field between them. constantly improving. They are overlooked by At the time of this canal voyage there my agents, and if they do not seem very ready lived upon it only a few scattered Indians, with their work, we require them to clear a bit the poor remains of the once numerous and of forest, or make a few little bridges, or put up valiant tribes; and on the maps of the time after having lived on the land for ten years, it figures as a completely white spot, adorned without having paid me a penny; but he has by a sort of fancy painting of the sources left me meadows for marshes, corn-fields for of the Hudson, of which no one knew any forests, and houses and farm-buildings, where thing. Mr. Macomb, however, discovered before there were only thick woods, so that I (about the year 1796) that it contained mag- find my account in the transaction, and can sell nificent forests, a fertile soil, and many fine the land for a much higher price the next time." sites for future villages and towns. He associated himself, therefore, with a partner, who got together a capital of about 200,000 dollars, and proceeded to the execution of his project. The financial condition of the state of New York, as, indeed, of all the other states of the Union at the time, was deplorable, and the offer of Mr. Macomb to purchase three millions of acres of its waste land was gladly accepted. An agreement was drawn up, by which he became the purchaser of a tract of nearly five thousand square miles, between Lake Ontario and Montreal, at the not very exorbitant rate of about 44d. per acre. The original document was shown to Mr. Kohl,-it was on parchment, with a great waxen seal of the arms of New York (of that period), on one side a sun rising among mountains, and on the other a rock, against which the waves were dashing, with the motto "Frustra."

Mr. Kohl bears on many occasions pleasing witness to the virtues of the old French Canadians. They are, he says truly, generally regarded in the world as a horribly superstitious, stupid, and idle people, mere hinderances to the march of progress,-mere dark spots on the bright intelligence of the community by which they are surrounded, The traveller is, therefore, agreeably surprised when he enters one of those "seats of darkness," a French Canadian village :—

"It was Sunday when we entered the Côte de Neige (a little French village, not far from Montreal), and as the Canadians in their observation of the day adopt the view that God has appointed it both for prayer and recreation, it is chosen as the special day for visiting friends and relations. The roads were covered with pretty little onehorse chaises, going to and returning from the fore the doors we saw everywhere groups of the different villages; and in the cottages and be The associates now commenced a land villagers engaged in friendly gossip. We ventured to enter one of the cottages, one of the speculation on a grand scale. They wrote humblest in appearance, and were immediately and diffused as widely as they could a de- understood and welcomed. An ancient dame, scription of their new acquisition; they the mother or grandmother of the house, obtravelled to Europe to find colonists and served, as she placed a chair near the fire for purchasers, and they formed companies in the stranger, "Eh bien, je comprend Monsieur England, France, and Holland, of which one est voyageur, et il veut voir comme on vit en took from them half a million of acres, and Conodo," for this, not Canada, is the appellation another a hundred thousand, while smaller of their country among them. Many other words have undergone a similar transformation; parcels were sold to private individuals. and voir, savoir, and croire, have become voir, The descendants of one of the partners, savoar, and croâre. The present Canadian peas whose family is one of the first in New York, antry are, as is well known, the descendants of is still in possession of no less than two hun-soldiers, fur-traders, and all kinds of adventurdred thousand acres. He explained to Mr. Kohl the principles on which he proceeded in the administration of his estate.

ers; and that such simple, modest, upright people should be the issue of such a parentage, is a strong proof that human nature has, under some circumstances just as strong a tendency to purify "I sell my land usually under very easy and and improve itself, as, under others, to become deinviting conditions. I desire only to find vigor-moralized and degenerate. There was a numer