the policy of the Pasha, and denounced the tyranny which has accompanied its progress. The striking incidents in Mohammed's early career have been often told, and with greater effect than by Dr. Yates; whilst the account of the Syrian war is curt and jejune, telling nothing but what every body knew, and not always that correctly. One striking point of the affair was the conclusion. The unauthorized convention of Napier-its rejection by the Syrian officers and Byzantine intriguers-the eager clutching at it by the Four Powers, frightened at an European war-and the return of the lucky old Commodore to ratify his rejected convention, are quite a diplomatic denouement: but if Dr. Yates knows all these, he does not tell them. In his narrative it looks a regular jog-trot sort of thing.

was delivered of a still-born infant; and symptoms of inflammation arising after a lapse of three days, the physician advised that she should be and so much at variance with established usage, bled. The proposal being, however, so novel, (for it is thought presumption to spill the blood of a princess.) the wishes of the H'akkim were resisted to the last, and the royal patient sunk into the grave, another victim to the hydra of superstition.

EGYPTIAN DONKEY-BOYS.

There is not a more useful set of people in the country, especially in Cairo and Alexandria. Whatever we do, wherever we go, they are in request; we could not get on at all without them. They are sure to find out the residence of a Frank, and as sure to be at hand when needed. They watch his motions, and, like the secret pobe found, which are his favorite haunts, and at lice of Austria, can generally tell where he is to what hour he reached his home the previous night. They are to be seen lurking about the corners of the streets in parties, with their ragged, jaded, scraggy-looking animals, waiting for a job. They are themselves as ragged, wretchthey are able to support the fatigue which they ed, and emaciated; and it is truly wonderful how are destined to go through. They live but sparingly, and are at the call of every one, whether Infidel, Turk, or Jew. They are constantly on the Of medical remarks Dr. Yates is unfortu- alert; watch the looks of every passer by; and nately sparing, seeming to think them too at the smallest indication of assent, drag their professional; but the few he introduces are all the way, abusing each other, scrambling to armeagre-looking beasts to the spot, vociferating good and brief, for, understanding his sub-rive first, and sounding the praise of these most ject, he can see the essential points. Here

These remarks refer to the matter of the book. Its literary defect is diffuseness. The author rarely leaves any thing in full bloom, but is not satisfied without running it to seed; a failing that often mars the effect of descriptions that have intrinsic interest, besides introducing much encumbering or needless writing.

is a sketch of

ORIENTAL BARBER-SURGEONS.

Barbers in the East, as in Europe in the olden time, generally understand the arts of cupping, bleeding, and tooth-drawing; some of them pretend to set bones, and they are not unfrequently applied to for "nostrums;" they are also expect ed to dress wounds and extract balls. Their manner of cupping is very simple; rude, but efficacious. They first apply a buffalo's horn to the skin by its broad end; the narrow end remaining open, the air is sucked out by the mouth. Atmospheric pressure causes the skin to rise; the lips being withdrawn, the horn is removed, and the parts beneath are scarified by means of a razor; the horn is instantly applied, and a second vacuum being created by aid of the lips, the bloo flows. Cupping, and counter irritation, especially by the "moxa," or the actual cautery, are had recourse to by these people on almost every occasion; and they often do a great deal of good. In Persia and China, blood-letting is highly objected to, especially among the great, chiefly on superstitious grounds; and the same prejudice is believed to have facilitated, if it did not cause the death of the late Princess Mirhmah, a daughter of the Sultan Mahmoud. She was the wife of Sayeed Pascha, who held the office of Seraskier, and so great a favorite, that when she died, a roy al firman was issued, interdicting all singing and music, and every other demonstration of joy, for several days to come. It seems that the princess VOL. I. No. III. 35

unfortunate of all the brute creation-animals which, to judge by appearances, would hardly have strength to transport themselves into the adjoining street, and therefore little calculated to bear the burden of a full-grown Turk, to say nothing of a saddle and trappings weighing twentyfive pounds. It is easy to perceive that neither man nor beast has more rest or more to eat than he knows what to do with. Some bread, a few dates, a piece of gourd or melon, some "youart," (curd,) and a little rice occasionally, constitute the food of the one, and a bundle of chopped straw and a few beans the support of the other. Both sleep in the open air, or in a miserable shed surrounded by filth and rubbish. I have already described the manner of their proceeding, the hurried uncertain course of their existence, and the singular vivacity with which they wriggle their way along the crowded streets, threading the busy multitude, apparently without fatigue to either party. These boys must run several miles in the course of a few hours; and their very looks betray the nature of their avocation. The countenance is always haggard, pale, and anxious, their breathing hurried, their whole visage and demeanor sharp and restless. As we might expect, they shorten their days, and very many of them die of diseased heart. They are not predisposed to consumption, for this is a disease that is seldom to be met with in Egypt; nor is asthma so frequent in its occurrence as we might imagine à priori that it would be: still it occurs, and I have no doubt, is brought on in these youths by violent exercise, and frequent exposure to the

heavy dews of the night. But "use is second nature," and if they lived better, they would probably not only be unable to perform their work, but they would be rendered more susceptible of disease. They are generally satisfied with three or four piastres a day, and think themselves well paid. Many do not give them half that sum, and others take their donkies by force, especially the soldiers and "jacks in office," and give them no-pyramid. This is believed to be of the same dething, except, perhaps, a severe beating. No wonder, then, that they prefer the service of a Frank, and particularly of an Englishman, who still preserves his character for liberality even in Egypt.

THE BEARD IN THE EAST.

or cloak of that material. It is either black or white, with or without broad stripes; it consists of a square piece, with holes for the arms, and has no seam. The Druses of Lebanon, and the people of Mesopotamia, not only wear a coat which is "without seam," but "of many colors," having variegated stripes proceeding to a point downwards from the shoulders, like a reversed scription as that bestowed by Jacob on his favorite child. We are informed that our Saviour also wore "a coat without seam, woven from the top throughout ;" and that, in the wilderness, St. John "had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins." The "sackcloth" Poor Burckhardt, who was better known in of the roughest and coarsest kind, like that which of the Scriptures was a similar manufacture, but Egypt as "Sheikh Ibrahim," found his beard a great protection to him; and those who have read is worn by dervishes and reputed saints. It is still used for sacks and tent-covers. We can eahis travels will remember, that on one occasion, a certain chief, doubting that he was a Mussul-sily understand the necessity of a girdle; no perman, insulted him by pulling his beard, which sons with loose flowing robes can engage in acwas instantly resented by a blow: no further tive occupations without first "girding up the doubts were then entertained. To stroke the loins"—that is, taking up a portion of their dress beard, or gently touch the end of it, is regarded out of their way. Some lay aside their outer as a compliment; and it is a common practice, garment for the time; others prepare to put forth among the Arabs, thus to lay hold of it, admire, the waist, and by laying bare the arms to the their strength by fastening a belt or girdle round and smooth down the beard, when endeavoring to coax and flatter, or make a bargain. It throws shoulders. Thus Elijah "girded up his loins, and a man off his guard, and opens his heart. An ran before Ahab to Jezreel ;" and the sacred wriArab would almost as soon be deprived of a limb tings abound in passages which, like this, illusas shorn of his beard; for independently of the trate the habits of those who wear the Oriental disgrace which the sons of Islam attach to such an operation, he feels that he is severed from an object to which he is bound by the strongest ties of affection. It is his constant friend and companion, let his circumstances alter as they may. He confers with it in difficulties and doubt; he imparts to it all his secrets; it affords him diversion in solitude; and in the hour of adversity and trial it becomes his solace and resource. When thoughtful, he grasps it; when pleased, he strokes it; when vexed and excited, he pulls it. It is held sacred by every class, and it is referred to as a token of fidelity and honor. To swear by the beard, the beard of one's father, and the beard of the Prophet, is at all times sufficiently binding: and he who possesses a fine beard is invariably a person of commanding exterior, and an object of res pect, for he cannot be very young, and he is therefore supposed to have some wisdom, and a certain degree of experience in human affairs.

costume.

AMOR PATRIE-BY AN EMIGRANT.

From Tait's Edinburgh Magazine.

LAND of our Fathers! when afar from thee
The cottage in the glen, the moss-grown tree,

We think of all that we have left behind;

Its dark boughs waving in the summer wind;

The wimpling stream that softly rolls along,

Meandering down the rugged mountain's side; The briery bush; the blackbird's well-known song, Pouring its rapture in a trilling tide;

The eagle, wheeling high in circle wide;

The red-deer, bounding in the glades below;
The salmon, leaping in the silvery tide;
The humming bee; the cattle's well-known low;

The time-worn tower, whose venerable form
In stilly grandeur breaks upon the view,-
Its gray head towering o'er the howling storm,-
Is it not fixed in Memory's tablets too?

In most parts of the East, those men who are by nature beardless, are considered insignificant; and in Persia, where this graceful appendage is so highly esteemed, they become objects of ridicule, and are quaintly denominated "Birish," "No beards." It may well be supposed, then, that any slight offered to the beard in such coun-Borne on the wind, the well-known Sabbath bell tries, is an unpardonable offence; and various epithets are applied by individuals in token of their contempt or regard according as the case may be. Thus, to "laugh at his beard," and to "make play with another man's beard," signify to mock or cajole, and are a direct insult to

manhood.

SCRIPTURAL ILLUSTRATIONS.

The Arabs of the Desert commonly clothe themselves also in manufactures of camel's hair; and the article most prized by them is the "haik,"

Chimes its soft music to our straining ear,
Entrancing all our senses like a spell :
Ah! sad illusion, never more to hear.

How vivid in our mind the eventful day

The lessening hills in distance rising gray,
Which saw us sailing from our native land,

We gazed thereon—a melancholy band.
But though far distant from our native shore,
Old Scotland ne'er shall hang her head in shame;
For we, though severed by Atlantic's roar,
Will aye uphold our country's well-won fame.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

From Tait's Edinburgh Magazine.

obstruction lurked within. They had got all they wanted, and nothing more was ne cessary save to keep what they had obtained. The means of doing so they strangely miscalculated, and so lost all.

SEVERAL months have elapsed since we have offered the few remarks which we have long been in the habit of making on These are things of the past; and now public affairs. There was indeed much to looking forward to the coming Session of think about, much to grieve over, but little Parliament, which, whether for weal or wo, to talk about, while waiting for the results must be one of the most eventful that has of the new Tariff and the new Sliding Scale, yet been witnessed, we start afresh from the -seeing distress spreading on every hand, point at which we left off when we last and lamentable divisions among those whose spoke of public matters, and inquire whether union was the surest foundation of the hope Sir Robert Peel considers the present disof better times. To have given expression tress merely one in the series of periods of to discontent and complaint had at best been temporary difficulty which arise from time idle: those from whom we had hoped better to time in every great commercial country, things than riot and outrage, of which they from ruinous wars, bad seasons, and a vamust always be themselves the surest vic- riety of causes, and are again surmounted; tims, had been sufficiently punished by the or whether, as is now generally held by revengeance of the laws which they had vio- flecting men, he considers it the most alarmlated, and were more the subjects of com- ing symptom that has yet been apparent of miseration than rebuke; and in the present the decidedly downward tendency of Engawful state of the country, we hold merely land in every one of her great interests. The factious party recrimination as worse than agriculturists begin at length to perceive idle-as morally reprehensible. Party that all the unjust protection that can be nick-names, and party tactics we have long cunningly devised for them, cannot long upsince left to party jobbers; and having hold them, if the other leading interests of thrown all the badges overboard, we are not the country suffer. The present distress, disposed to fish them up again. From the arising from the same causes, and partaking first hint of Sir Robert Peel's Tariff, small as of the general character of previous periods was the actual advantage that could be an- of suffering, is seen to be more broadly basticipated from a measure that was, perhaps, ed, and more inveterate in its nature; and underrated by one party, and viewed with in- the disease has seized upon a previously deordinate alarm by another, Liberals were bilitated frame, no longer able to repel such bound to be in charity with the Tory Minis- attacks. National decay has been coming ter, who, with however timid a hand, had on, now with stealthy pace, now with an acfairly, though certainly not far, opened the celerated movement, but ever gaining sluices, and let in the waters which are now ground; and the only possible issue has been swelling around us. It is not less true, that foreseen and foretold for a quarter of a cenSir Robert Peel's predecessors in office had tury. We are not, however, disposed to left but few of those grateful reminiscences exult in the fulfilment of prophecies of evil, and feelings which make this duty of charity but rather to rejoice in the indications, that difficult to practise towards their rival. A the warning lessons of the justice which is Session of Parliament was got through by wisdom, are at length beginning to be lis Sir Robert, in which, one way or another, a tened to. Experience, it is said, teaches good deal of useful business was accom- fools. Falling corn-markets, on the one plished, when its doings are compared with hand, in spite of a lately adopted magical the latter years of the Whig administration; protecting scale; and, on the other, the enbut of which the weightiest business was ergetic action of the Anti-corn-law League, paving the way for those great commercial and the increasing phalanx of Free-traders, and fiscal changes which are now inevitable. at the head of an unemployed and starving Let us not be understood to impute the population, speak in a tone that must penedallying with important measures, and the trate the most obtuse brains. There is little disappointment of the reasonable hopes of doubt that Sir Robert Peel, on questions of the Reformers, altogether to Whig hollow- political economy, holds, at least in the abness or disinclination. The late ministry stract, the same opinions as the late Mr. Huswere often obstructed by the contumacy and kisson. But there is no longer place for thefactious opposition of the party whom their ories and abstractions. Something must be supineness and want of confidence in the done, and that quickly and effectually; if people had allowed to rally into formidable universal, and, it may be, irreparable ruin strength; though their greatest cause of is to be averted; and if a last fair chance is

The changed tone of the late great agricultural meetings is, if possible, a more heart-felt cause of congratulation than the formidable attitude, the elastic energy, and rapidly-growing strength of the Anti-cornlaw League. Those convictions must long have been working in secret which found such strong expression at these farmer assemblies, where things have not been minced or said by halves. The death-warrant of those foolish and iniquitous laws-for they are not more iniquitous than foolish-has been signed by the agriculturists themselves; which leaves no chance for a rescue, and little encouragement for the attempt. There is another advantage. Having surrendered

to be given to the country to right itself. the same kind of tacit delusion. He indubiThe Corn Laws must go in the first place; tably allowed the Reformers to indulge in -and they are doomed, and are scarcely fond fancies of what the Whig administraworth longer consideration from their option was to do; and, when the time came, ponents; since some of their supporters turned round and taunted them with their have themselves magnanimously spoken credulity-He never had meant any such their sentence. They remain but a question thing! If Sir Robert Peel should bubble of time, and surely of very brief time,-as the farmers in the same style, there is yet we cannot believe that Sir Robert Peel, who this great difference in the result of the dehas, on former occasions, had the manly hu- ception, that his is for their ultimate salvamility, and true wisdom and patriotism to tion, and for the more immediate relief of adopt whatever was commendable in the the nation. Let us only find that Sir Robert policy of his rivals, will pertinaciously cling proves himself an arch-deceiver to the hopes to a measure proved to be worthless, even of selfishness and injustice; and long may to those for whom it was devised, merely the monopolists be so deceived! The more because it is not quite a year old, and was of intelligent of the agricultural party do not his own contrivance. It has surely been seem to fancy that they have been betrayed. tried quite long enough, the moment that its futility is demonstrated. We would hope that the Minister will as frankly throw his useless Sliding Scale overboard, as adopt the Whig modifications of the Sugar Duties, and, if he please, out-bid the liberality of the Whigs. His difficulties are easily foreseen; and therefore on these, and any liberal measure, or measure of liberal tendency which he may propose, it is the duty of every man who wishes well to the country, and hopes to prosper in the general prosperity, to support a Minister-Tory though he be denominated-who has already done the state some small service, and obtained credit for an inclination to do more, if he is permitted; if he is, in other words, supported by the country against the selfish imbeciles of his own party. Whatever may be the tactics, or, rather, the tempers of the wilder portion of Sir Robert's friends, the duty of Reformers is clear enough. A clamor has been raised by the Whig partisan press, because Sir Robert Peel seems inclined to delude the agricultural interest, has, in fact, deceived the farmers, though Mr. Estcott and others seem to think this system of delusion will really serve the agriculturists; and no one doubts that, if Sir Robert means free trade in spirit, while restriction is maintained only in words, that this is a kind of delusion which must promote the interests of the whole people, and therefore merits a better name. What shall be said of another kind of delusion, dexterously practised, for a series of years, by another statesman who deluded the Reformers into the expectation that something great was to be done, and ended by telling the people, in plain terms, that even "The Bill" was intended to strengthen the landed interest in the House of Commons! Let us no longer be duped by party names, and made the tools of factio is interests. Lord John Russell practised

ا.

* Among their other efforts, the active and indefatigable National Anti-corn-law League some time since offered prizes for the three best Essays on Agriculture and the Corn Law." From those offered the three to which the prizes were awarded bave been published; and they will, we trust, be speedily circulated far and wide, among the tenant farmers and farm laborers of Great Britain and Ireadvocate the same principles, and use the sanie land, whom they are intended to enlighten. They strain of argument to which our readers have long been familiar in our pages, and especially in the Political Register of Tait's Magazine for the eight or nine years during which the Political Register was under the superintendence of the late James Johnston Darling, W.S. with whom agricultural science was a favorite pursuit, and who understood the subject well, both practically and theoretically The opinions advanced in these Essays, and those beginning to be avowed at the agricultural meetings, were unceasingly inculcated by Mr. Darling; and his words have not been as water spilt upon the Repealer, from a sincere conviction, common to ground. Mr. Darling was from the outset a Total him with some of the most intelligent Scottish farmers, that the deprivation of the so-named protection must be for the advantage of the farmers themhas, under all circumstances, given a lavish proterselves, and ultimately of the landlords also. Nature tion to British farmers in the distances from which the corn supplies of the country must be drawn ; and from the superior skill, capital, and improved processes of husbandry that must be forced into play by the withdrawal of the enervating protective duties, Mr. Darling always expressed the utmost con

their own monopoly, the landed interest will speedy relief. Regarded merely as a show no mercy to any other. Free trade Tariff, and not in its remote though weightin corn is free trade in every thing. iest results-as the hopeful entering of the The main foundation of the hope on which wedge, in the process of overthrowing all we now rest is, that the deep-seated evils of monopolies-the Peel code promises but our condition being better understood, there slender aid to the manufacturers when comis more chance of unanimity as to the na-pared with their necessities; while another ture of the remedy to be administered. and another hostile Tariff bristles up in the There is, so far as we can ascertain, no face of our commerce; nor dare we well abatement of the symptoms. Trade be- complain of receiving back from foreign comes every day worse and worse. Whole nations the measure we have meted. The communities are nearly unemployed, starv- total repeal of the Corn Laws, however just ing, and despairing; and a fearful relaxation and necessary, cannot at once, nor yet, it of morals, and letting go of the decencies is to be feared, of itself, renovate healthful and proprieties of the humblest life that is production, and restore the manufacturing sustained by regular industry, must be the system to soundness and prosperity. More consequence of those habits of idleness and is required, much more-the abrogation of vagrancy to which so many of the young many burdens, and the removal of many and of the rising generation are at present impediments, which Sir Robert Peel has left condemned:-Nor do we see any chance of untouched; nay, the total emancipation of fidence in the farmers successfully competing with manufacturing industry. And how is this foreigners, if not in one kind of produce, then in mighty change to be effected By a others equally profitable. We rejoice to find such more sweeping reduction of duties? That doctrines making rapid way. These Prize Essays the insatiable demands of the State Reveform a valuable compendium of them. nue forbid. The nation, which is almost above measure impatient of the Income-tax in its present form, would absolutely revolt at the amount of direct taxation which might justify Sir Robert Peel in relaxing some of the duties that press the hardest upon the great manufactures of the country. Hostility to this obnoxious impost-the Income-tax, is, we fear, even more general than hostility to monopolies and restrictions on trade; and so determined will the attack already begun be, that unless the Minister has some tempting equivalent with which he can bribe the acquiescence of the country, his Income-tax must go, or he must go; however necessary both may in the meanwhile be to the public welfare. The Tariff is found to be no money equivalent for the Income-tax, though the repeal of the Corn Laws and the reduction of the Sugar Duties might help to fulfil the promise held out by Sir Robert when the tax was imposed; and nothing can compensate to private feeling for the attendant mischiefs of that measure as it at present exists. But were its inquisitorial, unequal, and irritating character corrected, and some great and substantial equivalent offered, in the shape of relieving and stimulating industry, with the farther hope of gradual approximation to a thoroughly sound fiscal system-to, in short, direct taxation-even the hateful Income-tax might find and deserve advocates as a step in advance. But we are not so near the political millennium as we dream of; and he must be a very enlightened man, and a very good patriot in

The galvanic throes of the Quarterly Review are to us another cheering symptom. The poor gentle man who writes about the League in that publica tion is evidently crazed; though there is no little malignity in his madness. Had he had a few more weeks for consideration, his very extraordinary demonstration might probably have been changed into a decent adjustment of the mantle preparatory to the inevitable fall. The desperate and curious piece of rigmarole to which we allude is of great length. It revives the stale and self-refuting calum ny of the manufacturers having incited the formida ble outrages of last autumn. It deals hugely in CAPITAL and Italic letters, a mode of printing, ac cording to the same Quarterly, (page 79,) which may be defined as designating what especially demands skipping." There is, consequently, a great deal of that raw-head-and-bloody-bones article that "especially demands skipping." Its sting lies mainly in its tail, though its spines bristle all over. It would put down the League with the strong hand, Jarobinical-raising-money, organized and affiliated;" and finally endangering THE SAFETY OF THE STATE. Thus thirty years ago, or less, the saine parties-probably the same individual writer for one-would have put down the Anti-slavery Society, which also raised money, was affiliated, and sent forth lecturers who, in Bristol and Liverpool, were even more roughly handled than the lecturers of the League have been. But the Quarterly's scribe, not contented with attacking the members of the League, also denounces the ladies who have

co-operated, (as English women. to their honor have often before done in works of charity and mercy,) as political agitators, wheedling the workmen by styling them gentlemen" in the circulars addressed to them-and who are, moreover, "the femelles de ces mâles" who head the League; a mode of designation sufficiently brutal in the origi nal idiom, and not much improved in the delicate use of an English "gentleman." The article, how ever, places many pithy quotations from speeches and letters before the Quarterly's readers; and cannot fail to do good, especially when viewed in con. nection with what has been accomplished, and the lowered tone of the Monopolists.