of the young accipiters takes the bit of proffered mest from the master, with just the same matter-offact complacency it might have shown if offered by the hawk mamma. I ask the price. "Eighteenpence each.” “Exactly, and a very fair profit too," say I to myself. "Perhaps you gave sixpence for the whole nest of hawks; and if they all grow up, the birds now eighteen-pence each will be about three-and-sixpence each." A very fair profit, my man, think. I to myself; but I don't consider more than you deserve, taking all things into consideration. Pigeons and turtle doves are there by dozens, all in good condition. A gay-plumaged starling is a veritable merry-andrew in his way, jumping over his cross-bar, crawling under it, hanging by the feet, going through all sorts of gymnastical feats and exercises. Squirrels there sre, by dozens too: I wonder people don't make pets of squirrels more frequently. To be successfal with these little animals, and tame them completely, they should be procured very young-directly from the nest, when possible. Once, when a boy, I had a squirrel so very tame that it would rum after me and caper about me, never more happy than when on my shoulder. In cold weather it would like to creep between my boot and the trouser, and there go to sleep. A felonious cat killed my pet at last. Here, indeed, lies one difficulty with uncaged squirrels-they fall a prey to cats. I have had many squirrel pets since, but never one quite so tame; and when they bite, they do it with a purpose. Their teeth, like those of other rodent or gnawing animals, are chisel-like. Through the thickest leather they go with a clean cut, so that gloves are no protection. Nay, it is surprising to see how easily a squirrel can bite through a thick plank of wood, or even a thin piece of metal, if only it can get a small edge into its mouth to begin upon. That is an indispensable condition; a squirrel cannot gnaw on a perfectly flat surface: hence the philosophy of binding the edges of a squirrel-cage with metal.

I once had two squirrels, Dick and Peter by name. They had a round-about cage, into which they might go for their amusement when they pleased, but in which they were never confined. On the contrary, they used to run about my bedroom, just wherever they pleased; so what I am going to relate must have been done for sheer amusement. One morning, waking from my night's rest, I heard a strange grating noise, like that of a rat working on timber. Directing my eyes to the eage of Dick and Peter, I saw the table on which it rested covered with small wood chips, and a hole established in the wooden side of the cage, through which the two squirrels were briskly skipping. Having found out a rough surface on the timber, convenient to begin working upon, they had improved on the occasion, and perforated a hole. Here I may remark, that to be gnawing away hard substances is occasionally more than amusement or mischief either to a rodent animal. Unlike the teeth of you or me, their teeth are continually growing, and if not proportionately worn away by contact with hard bodies, the consequences would be injurious to the animal, perhaps fatal. In the

anatomical museum of the Royal College of Surgeons there is a curious specimen, illustrative of what I write. The skull of a rodent animal is seen, in which, owing to the loss of an upper tooth, the corresponding lower tooth has grown, out of all proportion, long, having turned circularly over the animal's upper lip, and (if I truly remember) even begun to perforate the skull. Moral. Let your pet squirrels crack their own unts, my young squirrel fanciers, and don't, out of any presumed kindness, offer them the kernels. Nut-cracking does them good: their teeth would grow too long else. Give them a fig or a date now and then; they like that sort of food; but what is strange, they don't like any of the out-of-the-way sort of kernels, such as those of Brazil nuts, almonds, and so forth. Tea leaves they have a great partiality to. My poor Dick was clever enough to lift up the lid of a tea-pot with his paws, and help himself.

Next to the squirrels I see a cage of guinea-pigs, clean and well-conditioned enough for London and a cage; but the guinea-pig is an animal which likes to be always nibbling, and that of the very freshest provender. Wherefore, though usually caged, they thrive far better if allowed to run loose on a bit of lawn, which they will save you the trouble of mowing. Attached to the small lawn spot of my back garden I have a guinea-pig, very fat, very industrious, and I should think, as far as a guineapig is susceptible of happiness, very happy. Its great delight is to hide away amongst the stalks of my raspberries, emerging now and then to nibble a blade or two of grass, then popping away again. When the weather is hot and dry, my guinea-pig never thinks of going under a roof, but it is funny to notice the trepidation a shower causes in his little heart. These little animals come from South America. They can neither stand cold nor wet. No sooner does my pig feel the first rain-drops than up he starts, and, uttering a plaintive, unquiet noise, he hastens away to the shelter of the coal, cellar-a place, by the way, which, being of very cleanly habits, he does not much affect. A curious thing in relation to my guinea-pig is the attachment he manifests to one particular spot in the garden. He never wanders farther from the raspberries than is absolutely necessary to the end of finding a meal. Hence it happens that if, instead of being allowed to wander at large, he were, like a Guernsey cow, tethered by a rope, he could not eat away the grassblades more evenly. To his credit, also, I must aver that, notwithstanding all I read in books concerning his fruit-eating propensities, I never yet discovered him to have appropriated to himself as much as a single strawberry.

Next to the guinea-pigs I recognise some very old acquaintances of mine, hedgehogs. Rough-looking fellows as they seem, hedgehogs have far more. intelligence than guinea-pigs. They are capable of forming friendships, which the others are not. Their black-beetle eating habit is well known, and has led to their being domiciled occasionally in kitchens; they are terrible snail-eaters, moreover, and would be admirable fellows to have in a garden, were it not for some little drawbacks. They are decidedly fond of strawberries; I would look over

Cape Viscardo. In the following century, Richard I of England visited Corfu, on his return from the Holy Land. He is supposed to have been driven to its shores by storms; but, from the fact of his having a boy with him who spoke German-a rare accomplishment among the English and Normans -it may be inferred that, from the first, the king intended his homeward route to lie through the Adriatic and Germany. At this time the island formed part of the Greek empire; but in the thirteenth century it became, by conquest, Neapolitan. After a short subsequent term of independence, with a republican constitution, the inhabitants formally proclaimed their incapacity for self-government and defence by inviting the Venetians to come in and take possession.

This was an act of political suicide. By ambassadors to Venice, a bargain was concluded on the 28th of May, 1386, according to which the great maritime republic agreed to garrison the island, defend it against every enemy, and never surrender it to any foreign power. But the stipulations were exacted, that the governor appointed by the doge and senate should have supreme control in all civil and military affairs; that the Venetian code of laws should supersede the native; and that the

island should be ready at all times to furnish a contingent number of troops for the service of Venice, whenever called for. By consenting voluntarily to these terms, the people surrendered themselves, bound hand and foot, a prey to the lion of St. Mark, who truly took a lion's share of spoil, for having occasionally to show his teeth, deliver an angry roar, or do battle on behalf of the dependency. Nearly the whole population assembled to greet the first governor, Marino Malapierre, on his arrival, and conduct him with loud shouts to the palace prepared for his reception. At different intervals the other islands submitted to the power of the modern Carthage; and also some towns on the coast of the mainland, with strips of territory round them, as Previsa, Vonitza, Butrinto, and Parga. Finally, for a short time, the whole of the Morea, or Southern Greece, was Venetian.

Tyranny, corruption, and fraud prominently distinguished the government. It was administered by a governor-general, with the style of Provveditore Generale, seated at Corfu, who commonly obtained the post by influence, and whose sole object, like that of the Roman proconsuls, was to repair an impoverished fortune at the expense of those under his rule. Then there were equally needy

and rapacious sub-governors, or provveditori, in the other islands, at the head of executives, composed entirely of natives of Venice. The income of these functionaries was divided into two branches: the first was the nominal pay, denominated certi; the second, called incerti, consisted of whatever the individual could collect in the shape of fees, perquisites, bribes, or actual peculation. It was the general rule for the fluctuating returns to exceed ten times over, at least, the nominal salary. When Marshal Schulemberg visited the depôts of Corfu, he was surprised at the great confidence reposed in a certain storekeeper, and asked him what his salary was? On being informed that it was only six zechins a month, he tapped him on the shoulder, saying, "But, my friend, do you not steal at least fifty more?” The marshal well knew how affairs were managed, and guessed rightly, for the ill-paid storekeeper had accumulated great wealth. Under the Venetian regime, the national language was superseded by the Italian in official documents, and it became also the speech of the upper classes, while the peasantry clung to their native Greek. On a recent occasion, Mr. Gladstone addressed the senate in Italian, as a mode of communication familiar to both parties; for down to the year 1851 it continued to be the official language of the government and of the courts of law. The Venetians also declared the Roman Catholic the dominant Church, though it numbered few adherents in the islands beside themselves; and it remained so to the year 1817, when the first Anglo-Ionian constitution was proclaimed, which gave the post of distinction to the Greek Church as the national communion.

Upon the firm establishment of the Turks on the mainland, it sorely tried the temper of the sultans to have insular dependencies of their own territory beyond their grasp, though so close in shore that the flag of Venice might be seen from the strand flying and flaunting to the breeze, as if defiant of their arms. Soliman the Magnificent proposed the conquest of Corfu, and despatched an expedition against it in 1537, under the command of the celebrated Barbarossa, first a pirate, then the capitan pasha, famous for his nautical skill and daring enterprise. The troops effected a landing, laid siege to the town, and obtained some successes over the garrison, but were eventually compelled to retire, owing to the havoc made by plague and famine in their ranks. But soon afterwards, in another direction, the Turks triumphed over the Venetians, and drove them out of Cyprus, which so alarmed the Christian states of the Mediterranean, that they combined their fleets for a grand attempt to crush the navy of the infidels. Don John of Austria took the command of the united Venetian, Genoese, and Spanish squadrons. He was a son of the emperor Charles V, younger than Alexander when he overrun the East, and younger than Napoleon when he achieved the conquest of Italy. The prince made for himself an imperishable name, and became the most famous commander in Europe, by nearly annihilating for the time the naval power of Turkey, October 7, 1571, on the waters of the Ionian isles. Though commonly called the Battle

of Lepanto, the action was not fought in the' gulf of that name, but to the north of the entrance, within sight of Ithaca. In this engagement Cervantes, the author of "Don Quixote," was severely wounded.

On

Corfu sustained a memorable siege in the year 1716, remarkable as the last attempt made by the Turks to conquer any part of Christendom. Haying wrested the Morea from the Venetians, sultan Achmet III resolved on the conquest of their great insular stronghold, and despatched against it a fleet of sixty ships, with many smaller vessels, and a total force of 80,000 men. This imposing armament was commanded by the seraskier and the capitan pasha, respectively the commander-in-chief and the lord high admiral of the empire. the other side, the garrison consisted of only 5000 effective troops. But they were eminently fortunate in having for their general Marshal Schulemberg, who strengthened the fortifications and prepared for a vigorous defence. He was an experienced soldier, having served in the campaigns of Prince Eugene and under the King of Saxony against Charles XII. It was the frank admission of the latter, "Schulemberg has conquered us to-day," on his extricating some troops by a skilful manœuvre from an apparently hopeless position. Early in July the approach of the enemy was observed, when most of the peasantry took refuge within the walls of the town, which was soon closely invested. The besieged were driven from their advanced works, the suburbs were taken, and a hand-tohand fight was maintained for several days on the ramparts and in the trenches, in which the citizens, priests, and even women aided the garrison. A night attack on the 19th of August was nearly successful. But after obtaining possession of part of the fortifications, Schulemberg in person, with a number of picked men, made a counter sally, and drove the assailants back with immense loss. was in this critical contest that Mouchtar Bey fell, the grandsire of the terrible Ali Pasha of Yanina. He was slain just as he had scaled the ramparts, and his sword was preserved in the armoury at Corfu until its occupation by the French. Dispirited by this failure, the Turks raised the siege, abandoning their artillery and baggage, and soon afterwards, by order of the exasperated sultan, the luckless commanders were decapitated in the audience hall of the seraglio. A statue of Schulemberg, erected by the senate of Venice, is on the esplanade at Corfu, in front of the gate of the citadel.

It

After a political connection of more than four centuries, the submission of Venice to the arms of Napoleon, in 1797, brought Corfu and its neighbours into subjection to a new master; and they were formally recognised by the treaty of Campo Formio as possessions of the French republic. But in little more than two years the small French garrisons were expelled by a combined Russian and Turkish expedition; and, by an agreement between the two powers, March 21, 1800, the islands were erected into a separate state, dignified with the title of the Septinsular Republic, to be under the suzerainty of the sultan, by reason of their proxi mity to his dominions. Their condition was soon horrible in the extreme, when thus invested with