President of the nation? Do we want him to be less modest and distrustful of himself than he appears? Do we want a vindictive party chief in the Presidential of fice, rather than one who has "no enemies to punish-nothing to serve but his country?" Is it not enough that he has "great cardinal principles which will regulate his political life," and those principles held in exact accordance with our own? Must we exact in the way of pledges from our candidate, be he who he may, "impressions upon matters of policy, which may be right today and wrong to-morrow ?" Do we want a President who will go into office armed with the imperial power of the veto, and resolved to exercise it as a part of the ordinary legislative authority of the Government; or are we content to have one who regards the veto as "a high conservative power," to be employed only on high and extraordinary occasions? Can we not be satisfied with a President who proposes to allow Congress to do its own work, in its own way, without the exercise of any "undue and injurious influence" from him? What can we ask more than that "the will of the people, as expressed through their representatives in Congress," on the subjects of the Tariff, the Currency, and the improvement of our great highways, rivers, lakes, and harbors," shall "be respected and carried out by the Executive ?" Can we ask for a better man of peace than Gen. Taylor, who, soldier though he be, 'looks upon war, at all times, and under all circumstances, as a national calamity, to be avoided if compatible with national honor ?" And if we are "opposed to the subjugation of other nations, and the dismemberment of other countries by conquest," if we are opposed to the policy which would teach us to "quit our own soil to stand on foreign ground," can we have a better or safer man to stand at the helm of government than Gen. Taylor?

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Beyond all reasonable doubt, either General Taylor or General Cass must be our next President. And those who have looked carefully over the whole field cannot fail to see, that the proper Whig strength of the country is abundantly suf ficient to secure General Taylor's election over his "Democratic" competitor, at least since the irreconcilable division which has

taken place in the ranks of the "Democratic" party. Of this there does not remain a doubt. The only question is whether the proper Whig strength of the country is to be given to General Taylor, or whether a portion of it--any considerable portion of it--is to be withheld from him, and carried over to what is called the "Free Soil party." The Free Soil party of 1844 secured the election of Mr. Polk, the annexation of Texas, the war with Mexico, and the acquisition by conquest of other vast regions, much of which slavery now claims for her own. The Free Soil party, under its new auspices, may render another like service to the country by the election of General Cass, if it can find Whigs enough to help them. We can understand and entertain some respect for those quondam "Democrats" who, professing to plant themselves on a new issue, in which Hunkerism is their strongest and worst enemy, make up a third party, and present a third candidate, with a present, specific, practical design in view-namely, the certain defeat of the regular or Hunker candidate, not through their own success, (of which they have not the most distant idea,) but through the success of the Whigs. But what shall we say of Whigs who join themselves to this movement at this time, with the absolute certainty staring them in the face, that every vote given by them to this third party is just so much done towards securing the election, not of the third party candidate, but of General Cass? We suppose we may say without offence, that Whigs who prefer General Cass for President to General Taylor, for any reason whatever, are certainly no Whigs at all. Their associates in the third party, the "Barnburners," and perhaps all the rest, prefer General Taylor, and go expressly for the defeat of Cass. And certainly they are right, if "Free Soil" is really what they are after. It is Congress that is to be looked to to keep slavery out of the new territories, in the provisions it shall make on the subject of Territorial Government. General Cass will veto any law of Congress which provides for the authoritative exclusion of slavery from these territories. To this he is committed. General Taylor, by the express terms of his letter to Captain Allison, is pledged not to interpose objections-if he should

have any-to deliberate acts of legislation, "where questions of constitutional power have been settled by the various departments of Government and acquiesced in by the people." And And precedents are scattered through the whole history of the Government, of legislation by Congress on the subject of slavery in the territories, with the acquiescence of every department of the Government and of the people. We may conclude, unless all present indications are delusive, that no enactment will be made by the American Congress for establishing governments in the new territories, which are now free, without some express provision to keep them free. It is probable that these territories will be sooner left to take care of themselves, in their own way, until ready to knock at our doors for admission into our Union as free States. Every indication shows this to be the resolution of the North. General Taylor as President cannot and will not stand in the way of this policy. He will have nothing to do with it, because it is one of those subjects that belong exclusively to the legislative department, and he will exercise no "undue and injurious influence" on that department. Oregon has been taking care of itself, and we suppose that New Mexico and California may take care of themselves in like manner. At any rate, Congress will look after the territories if anybody, and not General Taylor, if he is President. What do Whigswhat do Northern Whigs want more than this? What will they gain, those of them who are wedded to this one idea of Free Soil, by aiding to elect General Cass? for that is the effect of their adherence to the Free Soil party, in preference to their own. On all this subject of slavery, and especially in reference to the new territories, the Whigs of the North have only to stand by the compromises of the Constitution, and stand on just national ground, and the Whigs of the South will meet them fairly and generously. Southern Whigs in both houses of Congress, with a single exception in each, went with Northern Whigs to a man, against the policy of acquiring another inch of territory from Mexico. And whatever Whigs of the South may feel compelled to do, on their part, now that such territory has been acquired in spite

of them, in regard to the admission of slavery into it, at least they will expect every Northern Whig to stand up stoutly against it, and they will honor him for doing so. Let the great national party of Whigs have the sway in this country, and the Nroth will have nothing to fear from the encroachments of slavery.

North and South, it is a common sentiment with Whigs that slavery is a great evil, political and moral: they have never done, and never will do, anything to extend and perpetuate it. They endure slavery where the Constitution endures it; but they do not nourish and nurse it as a benefit and a blessing. Zachary Taylor is a slaveholder, and so was Washington; but Washington had no love for slavery, and Taylor has as little. And we believe religiously, that the powers of this Government are as little likely to be employed, or perverted, to extend or favor slavery in the hands of Gen. Taylor, as they were in the hands of the father of his country. We believe Gen. Taylor will do all things well in the presidential office. His character is that of a sensible, just, honest, and humane man. The elements of his composition are all good; he has good instincts and a solid judgment. There is nothing in his nature or in his disposition to make him go wrong; neither envy, nor malice, nor revenge, nor meanness, nor low cunning, nor a spirit of intrigue, nor a wicked ambition. He is a man very difficult to deceive or to mislead. He is apt to be right, he knows when he is right, and he is as iron-willed when he is right as Gen. Jackson was when he was wrong. Such are all accounts of his character. We look to see him supported, not by Whigs only, but by sober men on all sides, irrespective of party. We did not advise his nomination, but now that he is nominated, we advocate his election. We believe his election will prove a blessing to the country, and to the whole country; and it will be a double blessing, for it will keep out Gen. Cass, whose policy is that of Spoils at home, and War, Conquest, and extended Dominion abroad. It will stanch the bleeding wounds, and heal the putrefying sores and bruises of this battered Republic, and bring back to us peace, repose, a good name, and an honest prosderity. D. D. B.

THE distance between Damascus and Ba'albek is eighteen hours, or forty-five miles, and is generally accomplished in two days. The road winds through the valleys and plateaus of Jebel-Zebdany, the northern part of the Anti-Lebanon, a country more fertile and interesting than that through which the traveller passes on the caravan route by Demas. The morning of the 24th of May was cool and agreeable. We left the Italian hotel at an early hour, and following the road through the suburbs and gardens, we, on the height of Salahieh, took our last farewell of the happy plain of Damascus. The ascent above Salahieh is rough and deeply furrowed through the limestone rock. On our left was the pass of Rabah, through which the foaming Burradá forces its passage towards the Ghutah. A frightful precipice, several hundred feet high, here overhangs the glen, to which we descended by a circuitous road; and in an hour we arrived at the large village of Dummar, where we crossed the river on a stone bridge. The abundance of water which is led off through the gardens by numberless channels, the rich, loamy soil, and the deep indenture of the valley, protected on the north and west by ridges of the Anti-Lebanon, give a tropical luxuriance to the vegetation. Immense plantains, poplars, and fig, walnut, and chestnut trees, interlaced with vines, overhang the banks of the river, and continue for miles to form a dense and beautiful grove along the road. But instead of following the sinuosities of Wady-Burrada, we once more crossed the stream, and ascended to the barren and dreary table-land el-Jedid. The wind blew freshly down from the snow-topped Mount Hermon, and we again experienced one of

VOL. II. NO. III. NEW SERIES.

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those astonishing transitions in temperature from the Egyptian heat of the valley, to the Alpine chilliness of the plateau. We were surrounded by distant mountains. North-west the high ruddy peaks of NebyAbel gradually rose on our sight, as we in four hours approached the village el-Huseiniyeh, lying on the steep offset of the mountain, in an elevated position above the valley of the Burradá. On its opposite bank, amidst groves of fruit-trees, appeared the convent el-Kanun and several villages. This place is celebrated in Arab tradition. Cain, say the Arabs, having slain his brother, at the altar of Kashioun, in the Ghutah, north of Damascus, where the first parents then dwelt, took the corpse on his shoulders, and not knowing what to do with his brother, whose profound sleep did not yield to his exertions to awaken him, he wandered lamenting along the banks of the river. There he saw a raven scraping, with his beak, a hole in the earth, in which he buried one of his own species; and this suggested to Cain the idea, that the rigid sleep of his brother required a different couch from usual. He then dug a grave on the mountain as a resting-place for the dead. A monument on the top of the mountain was supposed to be the tomb of Abel.

After an hour's delay at the mill of elHuseiniyeh, we continued our route between the mountain and the steep bank of the river, and soon arrived at the highly romantic pass of Suk-Wady-Burradá. In the very mouth of the defile are situated two villages in an elevated position above the river, which runs between them. The houses on both sides stand grouped on terraces descending rapidly to the channel of the boiling and foaming river below.

Through a dark and narrow street, the only passage, we turned to the left and arrived at the strait of the pass Suk-Burradá, where an arched stone bridge crosses over to the left bank. Bare and cleft rocks of an immense altitude inclosed us on all sides, and only a narrow path on the river side, where a few resolute men might stop a whole army, led northward through the defile to the open plain of Zebdany. On the precipitous flanks of the mountains are many sepulchral chambers excavated in the rock, which seem inaccessible without the application of ropes and scaling ladders. The portals of these sepulchres or Troglodytic dwellings are ornamented with columns and mutilated statues in relief. Near the bridge is a staircase cut in the rock, and many fragments of columns and square blocks are scattered about. This appears to have been the necropolis or cemetery of the ancient city of Abila, which in antiquity defended the pass of the Chrysorrhoas. It was the residence of the tetrarchs or princes of Abilene, a principality extending over the Anti-Lebanon, and the north-eastern parts of Palestine, together with the Auranitis (Hauran) and the plain of Damascus. Herod the Great afterwards took possession of the southern districts of Abilene, while Lysanias, the tetrarch, was circumscribed to the northern part of the Anti-Lebanon. Abila was a strong fortress in a nearly impregnable position.* Interesting ruins of the castle, of an ancient temple, and other large structures, are still to be seen on the summit of the mountain above the pass, and have, no doubt, given rise to the Arabian name and tradition of Neby-Abel.

It was a pleasant afternoon. The deep shadows of the barren, reddish-brown precipices in the depth of the defile, and the brilliantly illuminated heights, rearing their peaks in strange and fantastic forms against the azure sky above, rendered the Suk-Burradá the most sombre and wildlooking, but at the same time the most picturesque spot we had yet seen in the whole range of the Anti-Lebanon; and we would have been glad to stop in the village, if we had not expected to find still

*St. Luke iii. 1; Joseph. Antiq. Jud. xx. 7; xvii. 11; xix. 5. The city was called Abila of Lysanias, to distinguish it from another of the same name,

situated on the banks of the Hieromax in Peræa.

better quarters among the hospitable Christians of the pretty little town of Zebdany further on in the plain.

We now arrived at the northern opening of the pass; the mountains at once receded, and a verdant, well-cultivated plain extended before us. Here the Burradá, flowing in a broad and quiet bed from the upper plain, forms a beautiful waterfall, and rushes chafing and roaring into the deep, rocky channel of the glen.

The

We now left the muleteers with the luggage behind, and pressed on at full speed on a broad, level road, which appeared to be in as good a condition as any on the continent of Europe. It runs among fields of maize, dhurra, and wheat, inclosed with hedges of briar-roses, hawthorn, or sycamores, often interspersed with poplars and fruit-trees. This sight is so rare in the East, and so contrary to the usages of its indolent inhabitants, that I almost fancied myself transported back to the rural scenery of England or Germany. landscape became more and more cheerful and animated; herds of cattle and sheep were grazing on the banks of the Burrada; Mudaya, Ba'a-ain, and other hamlets were here and there situated on the distant heights of Jebel-Zebdany. Nowhere in the Anti-Lebanon does the traveller meet with so much industry and prosperity as in this happy plain, which forms, as it were, an oasis of verdure among its bleak and desert regions. The inhabitants till their fields by oxen; they stable their cattle during winter, and irrigate their orchards by artificial ditches, which they lead across the fields with much labor and ex

pense.

The gardens now thickened to a forest, and beneath a canopy of pear and walnut trees, we entered es-Zebdany, the principal town of the plain. It has a delightful situation on the banks of the small river Zebdany, which a few miles below unites with the Burradá. Our Arabs told us that there was no caravan-serai in the village. Since the destruction of Ba'albek, there is but little communication between Damascus and the northern coast of Syria, by the valley of Zebdany. We therefore stopped at the house of the Sheik HebyTall, a kind-looking old man, with a snowwhite beard floating over his bosom. He received us with the courteous "Marashba-bik, Hawadjes!"-Welcome to you, gen

tlemen!—and presently offered us a small, dark, but clean room, opening on the court and garden in the rear of the house. Our drivers soon came up with the sumpters, and all was now bustle and activity in the quiet house of the old sheik. According to my custom, I ordered my own tent to be pitched beneath the peach-trees in the garden, because I always preferred to spend the cool and fragrant nights á la belle étoile. The sheik's house stood near the bank of the rivulet, which winds through the village, and is led off through the gardens around. In front of the house the stream forms a small cove, overhung by immense knotty and far-spreading plantains, where a wooden platform, covered with carpets and cushions in the Oriental style, has been raised in the river on piles fixed in its bed. This is a charming place, where the worthy sheik would often pass the sultry hours of the day, smoking his nargilés, and enjoying the refreshing coolness and pleasant murmurs of the brook. Here, too, we received the visits of the well-dressed and good-natured villagers, who were as inquisitive as the Maronites of Mount Lebanon, but less ignorant and troublesome.

Heby-Tall was an intelligent and talkative man. He told me that his family for many years had ruled this village, containing six hundred souls, and some other districts of the plain. He bitterly complained of the exactions of the Turkish Governor of Damascus, though he appeared to have suffered still more during the military occupation of Ibrahim-Pasha, by the continual forays of his troops, quartered in the neighboring plain of Ba'albek. The morning of the 25th of May was fresh and lovely. The atmosphere was filled with the perfume of the small yellow flowers of the oleaster or zizyphia, as the Greeks call it, which fences the gardens all around the village. The sheik took me to the terrace of the house where the silk-worms are kept, the raw silk of which is a principal source of revenue to the inhabitants of Zebdany. The view over the plain and distant mountain was most delightful. The sun had just risen above the steep and rugged Kurun-es-Zebdany, or "the horns," and skirting the broad valley on the east, glowed on the huge snowcapped crest of the majestic Hermon, soaring high above all the nearer ridges

on the south. On our return, Mustapha had served our excellent breakfast, consisting of coffee, fresh milk, eggs, and hot cakes, beneath the fruit-trees of the garden, while the muleteers were preparing for departure.

Taking leave of our hospitable landlord, we continued our route in a northern direction towards the last ridge of the AntiLebanon and the valley of Ba'albek. We followed the banks of the Zebdany river, which we at the time supposed to be the Burradá; but we learned on the road that this river has its head-source in the western mountains, at a distance of three miles from the village. We then approached the rugged Kurun-es-Zebdany, where a stream forms a fine waterfall, descends foaming and splashing into the valley below, drives several water-mills, and joins its more quiet companion in the plain. In an hour we ascended to the high tableland of el-Sorgheia, and passed another well-built village, surrounded, like Zebdany, by mulberry groves, orchards, and cultivated fields. It lies on the water-shed of the Anti-Lebanon, four thousand feet above the level of the Mediterranean, though according to appearance, several ridges seem to divide it from the plain of Ba'albek. Before us on the north lay the blooming valley of Yafufeh, to which we now descended through a steep and romantic pass. Another copious brook here forms a cascade; and following the sinuosities of the mountains, it forces its passage through a gap in the western ridge, and discharges itself in the Litany, (Leontes,) near elMerdj, on the caravan route to Beirut. The Wady-Yafufeh soon straitened to a narrow dell, encompassed by precipitous, dark-colored rocks. The river flowed through a thicket of plantains, willows, and poplars, which often blocked up our passage, and forced us in many places to ford the stream. In an hour and a half, we at last emerged from the forest on a small and verdant plain, in front of the last high and rocky barrier of the Anti-Lebanon, overhanging the plain of Ba'albek. This last mountain-belt burst upon us quite unexpectedly, as we had anticipated an easy descent to the Buka'a, but now, to our astonishment, found another barren and rugged ridge before us. The sun was extremely hot in this cul-de-sac, and our