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terms of contempt for those who disgrace, as we do, our Christian profession, than for those who live in the practical fear of God, though they avow the Christian covenant. Such a man is brave, courteous, not impatient, dignified, sober, and is a character that would do honour to any people.

"Judging from the history of the Turkish and Christian wars, the same materials of character may be traced in them, urged on by the enthusiastic Moslem spirit, which met with a corresponding antagonist in the devotion of the Christian knighthood. Such was certainly the character of the first century of their European career; for the government of the sultaun allied itself to the faith of the people, and Christendom felt the scourge sent upon it for want of faith. The first sultauns were warriors and subsisted by conquest, and the religious enthusiasm of the people was fed and kept alive by religious war; they fought for their faith, and maintained and extended it.' Pp. 73, 74.

Whence, then, do we draw the corresponding decline in the Mohametan empire, which the last two centuries has so plainly exhibited? Is it not partly due to the nature and constitution of the book to which they look for their religion and their daily life? In the Koran is the creed of a conquering nation, but no element of permanence or duration. It has nothing to prevent the gradual inroad of infidelity, nay, the unitarianism of its system leads towards infidelity, and it is this that has sapped the vitals of the Ottoman empire. It is the spirit of ridiculing the ways and thoughts of those ancestors by whom the empire was erected, the endeavouring to pare down the faith of Mahomet to the standard of European infidelity. On Mahometanism alone does the empire of the Ottoman rest; every European application, every attempt to humanize and Europeanize the Turkish government is to break the national respect and devotion to that faith, and to drive out the exaggeration of a good feeling, without providing any other in its room.

Among the islands by which our traveller sailed in his passage from Constantinople to his quarantine at Jaffa, none is more interesting than Patmos, the scene of St. John's banishment, one of the few spots, according to professor Schubert, which the Christian religion does yet possess, unknown to the world, and not as yet blown upon by its treacherous commendation. The following account of this isle, to which we add a sketch from Mr. Formby's work, of the grotto assigned by old tradition to St. John, cannot fail of interesting every Christian reader:

"The island is full of little chapels scattered all over the island, and possesses a population little exceeding four thousand, of whom more than three parts are females. As the island is a complete rock, this industrious people live principally by petty trade at sea; and it is no uncommon thing for the mother and daughters to occupy the paternal cottage, while the father and sons are seeking, elsewhere, on the Asiatic coast, a subsistence for their family by trade and labour. Domestic peace, virtue, happiness, and simple arts of life, all centre round a deep attachment to their church, founded by the apostle who was banished there; and most justly do these men boast that not one of their number, during the convulsions that ensued among the islanders, during the great Greek rebellion against the Turks, became

a pirate, or was known to commit a single act of violence. Their chief characteristic is the simple retirement of their lives, without ostentation,

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living up to the faith they profess in word and deed, and bringing up their children to better things than the knowledge of the nineteenth centuryas the apostle directs, in the fear and admonition of the Lord."

This grotto, where tradition reports that the Revelation was vouchsafed to St. John in his exile, is carefully preserved by the inhabitants of the isle; and the school of the Apostle, which adjoins it, has been well known in modern Greece as educating more useful clergymen and good scholars than almost any other place of education in that kingdom.

In the next chapter we find our traveller, how or why he is not pleased to tell us, making for the mouth of the Nile in a rather perilous open boat. He entered by the Damietta branch, and proceeded, with his companions, to engage a country boat to take the whole party to Cairo. The scenery on the banks of the Nile is far from interesting, and, to use Mr. Formby's words, often subjects the visiter to ocular impalement, from the tall, meagre forms of the bordering palms. The captain of their boat was a surly fellow, evidently in his own mind disgraced by the society of Giaours, and only quieted by the prospect of his two hundred piastres. After various preparatory grumblings, he broke out into open rebellion, and actually cut off their morning's supply of fresh milk. To what extent the captain might have pushed his obstinacy, our travellers were not forced to experience, after a chance reception of them by the Bey of Messourah Abdul Hamet, who was too glad to show his respect for Europeans to care for either the dirt or the holes and tatters of their travelling costume. The protection of the second in rank to the pasha himself worked wonders in their favour. How this was obtained is worth reading

"At last we came into a large ante-room, where was assembled a large miscellaneous crowd of dependents and different persons, waiting for audience, or possibly for justice. After remaining here for a short time, that the announcement of our being come might take effect, we were ushered into the hall of audience, and found the bey in full divan. We were

made to sit down by the side of his excellency, close to him, and he commenced a discourse concerning the latest news from the head-quarters of Ibrahim's army, the countries we had passed through, and many other such matters; and, amongst others, the project of navigating the Nile by steam, and the success of the pasha's attempt. Pipes were now served round with most splendid amber mouth-pieces, set with diamonds, together with coffee; and B- -, observing the bey's eye to be inflamed, asked him about it. I ventured to recommend a lotion, with a little warm milk and water—a simple remedy which they seemed to despise from its very simplicity. B however, going much more nobly to work, rose from his seat, and, to my great astonishment, took hold of the bey's hand, felt his pulse, looked grave, asked his patient several questions, with the most perfect medical propriety, and concluded by saying how much he regretted not having more medicines with him than he had brought on this journey; but that if the bey would trust to him, he would send him some pills that he had no doubt would do him a great deal of service. The bey gratefully and with perfect submission accepted the offer, and, accordingly, the dragoman was directed to accompany us to the boat, in order to bring away the medicinal treasure. As we pursued our way to the boat, we took occasion to inform the dragoman quietly respecting the conduct of the captain, and requested him to give him a few intimations from head-quarters, as to the ultimate issue of such incivility towards the intimate friends of his highness the bey, if they should have any further reason to complain; and forthwith I was commissioned to pack up a dozen common pills in a packet of writing paper, tied up with a little brownish thread, and labelled in English, for the sake of a more mysterious appearance, and when this was done, we parted with our friend the dragoman with mutual obeisances, but from that time we had not one word of complaint against the captain."-Pp. 92, 93.

We heard once of an English traveller in Egypt who had to complain of a native for the dilatoriness with which he performed his stated carrying of the party across the desert. The village sheikh said he could not interfere, but that the Frank might thrash the fellow if he offended again. Next day the offence was repeated, and, finding remonstrance useless, the traveller leaped from his horse, horsewhip in hand, and pursued the fellow through the sand, gave him a sound thrashing, according to the sheikh's advice, and never had occasion afterwards to do more than hold up his weapon to enforce obedience.

As far as we have been permitted to judge, partly from the specimens preserved in the museums of this country, and partly from the elaborate drawings with which so many of the English and French travels in Egypt have been illustrated, we cannot feel that contempt for the massive architecture and colossal sculpture of that country, which is too evident in the disparaging remarks of Mr. Formby. We cannot realize the author's mixed feelings of respect and levity when regarding the two wondrous statues of Memnon, the only remains of the great city, on whose site they look down in solemn majesty. The ruined halls of Karnac and Philoe, seem to us, the latter we may judge from Mr. Roberts's picture in this year's exhibition,-to impress too powerful respect to render the "harlequin adjustment" of the hieroglyphics, or "the queer attributes and dresses of the

figures," a source of unseemly mirth. The Temple of Denderah,

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the work of the later Ptolemys, before the images of which the Hindoo troops of our Indian army bowed down, as recognising the pictures of gods similar to those of their own mythology, surely deserves some little more praise than as giving "the best impression of the capabilities of the Egyptian style."

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The pasha is too well known to us, from late events, not to make any remarks on the success or failure of his schemes other than interesting to the general reader. He, too, would be the regenerator of his country, by engrafting European innovations upon a stock where they will never grow, save at the expense of

old habits and it may be better feelings: he regards the arts and sciences as the end, not as the means-as civilization itself, not as mere indexes of it; and it is under this idea that he is surrounding himself with symptoms of the art and science of the Frank, to the daily oppression of his people, and the exaltation of his and his satellites' dominion. The hollowness of this state will be shown on the death of its originator. "But see what he has done!" is the universal cry. "Has he not put down all robbers?" Certainly, except himself. "Has he not a camelpost from one end of his kingdom to the other? has he not imported workmen, physicians, philosophers, and mechanics, raised a great fleet, and a greater army, built palaces and mosques, made a board of agriculture, put down all civil commotions, and made his name a passport over what was once a lawless country?" Doubtless; and for whose glory and benefit? That of the pasha, and the pasha alone: he has raised Mehemet Ali, not Egypt, in the eyes of the world. His manufactures entail a loss; his schools educate hundreds, to send out a dozen fit for the pasha's service, and to return the rest as useless to their friends; his hospitals are for his soldiers, so are his physicians and surgeons. The poor Arab fellah may still seek the Arab doctor, though in the next village lives a refined garrison surgeon. Agriculture is improved at the expense of the peasant and the farmer; his imported artizans come, do the work, go away, and the people learn not. The revenue is raised by violence; the revenues of the mosques, the sources of constant charity, absorbed into the state, and the oolemas made state pensioners.

"Not a peasant in the land can call his rough wool-shirt his own for two days. As an instance of what daily happens, a boatman, in the crew of a friend's boat, had earned 70 piastres, 14s. while in service at Cairo. He asked leave, on passing the village where his parents lived, to land and see them, as they had not seen each other for years, and the son wished to give his earnings to his parents. The captain warned him of his danger, but he was determined to go; he knew his parents were poor, and they had not met for some time. He was accordingly allowed to go, under a promise to rejoin his boat, higher up, at a certain village fixed on; but, when the boat came to the village, the man was missing; nor was he there on the return of the boat, some weeks afterwards. At last, at a village lower down, they found him, and took him on board. He had hardly gone to sleep at all, from keeping watch, lest the boat should pass him in the night; and the story he told was, that, on entering the village, he was seized by the sheikh, put in prison, bastinadoed, his money taken from him, and compelled to leave the village, without seeing either his father or mother. There was no redress: the money was wanted for the Pasha's service."-P. 119.

So much is levied on the district, for which the sheikh is answerable, ergo he must bastinadoe, to save his own heels and his own coffers. Again, the pasha is lord of the soil, and his Committee of Agriculture are his farming stewards. They put their heads together, and order how much cotton, sugar, and

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