in the changes which have been spreading of late years among the seminaries of the country. We believe, that, to a certain extent, this has really been the case; but there are yet numberless other schools in Britain which pursue the old plan in all its pristine defectiveness.

It is common to call a certain space of enclosed ground a

park, but, properly speaking, this is wrong. An enclosure of ordinary dimensions, and possessing no royal privileges, is only a field. The words park and field are therefore as different in signification as village and city. The best explanation we can give of the true or legal meaning of the word park, is embraced in the following extract from Mr Wade's "Cabinet Lawyer." (Johnson, London, 1840.) "Beside the absolute property, which the owner of the land possesses in right of the soil, a person may also have a qualified property in wild animals by grant of privilege; that is, he may have the privilege of taking or killing them in exclusion of other persons, in virtue of a franchise to have a forest, chase, warren, or park.

A forest is a royal domain for the preservation of the queen's beasts and fowls of forest, and is subject to its own laws, courts, and officers. Before the Charta de Foresta, the sovereign could make a forest of any extent over the lands of his subjects. It is the highest franchise relating to game; a free chase is the next in degree; a park the next; and the last a free warren. of forests is sixty-nine, of which the four principal are, New Forest on the Lea, Sherwood Forest on the Trent, Dean Forest on the Severn, and Windsor Forest on the Thames.

A chase is of a middle nature, between a forest and a park; it differs from the former in that it may be held by a subject, and is governed by the common, not the forest law; and from the latter, in that it is not enclosed. A man may have a chase over another's ground, with the owner of the land. It is said there are thirteen privilege to keep royal game therein, protected even from chases in England.

A park is an enclosed chase, extending only over a man's own land, privileged for wild beasts. There are only seven hundred and eighty parks; for it is not every field or common which a gentleman pleases to surround with a wall or paling, and to stock with a herd of deer, that is thereby made a legal park. To constitute it, three things are requisite. 1. A royal grant thereof. 2. Enclosure by pale, wall, or hedge. 3. Beasts of a park, such as the buck, doe, &c. And when all the deer are de stroyed, it can no more be accounted a park: for a park consists of vert, venison, and enclosure; and if it is determined in any of them, it is a total disparking.

Free warren is a place privileged, by prescription or grant from the queen, for the keeping of beasts and fowls of the warren, which are hares and coneys, partridges, pheasants, and some add quails, woodcocks, and waterfowl. Twenty years undisturbed exercise of a claim of a warren or park, will afford presumptive evidence of right in the party so enjoying it. The owner of a warren may lawfully kill any dog which is used to hurt the warren.

The rights of any forest, chase, or warren, are not affected by the game act. All the franchises of the description mentioned above, having their origin in the crown, may be destroyed by a reversion to the crown, or by surrender, or forfeiture, in consequence of a breach of the trust upon which they were granted."

Here again we find a little Geography on Friday to be really the only rational portion of instruction given to the pupils. Surely, this time-honoured folly must soon come to a close. Mankind have been so long blinded by habit, that they seem to have forgotten entirely for what end children are really sent to school, otherwise they never could suffer the instruction given to them to consist almost exclusively of things having no conceivable relation to the business of after-life, and conducing in not the slightest degree to their worldly success or happiness. In reality, however, light is now breaking in upon the subject, and we may ere long hope to see education assume universally a more rational character. The classical writings will take their due place as a branch, merely, of elegant education, and knowledge, truly practical" From my earliest youth.' and useful, be established in the position which they have so long been allowed to occupy.

As the account from which we have made the preceding extracts refers to the year 1831, the educational system of the school alluded to may have participated

DINBURGA

-hour 3 to 4. Musa Græca (Greek verse), 40 or 50 lines, according to author chosen; examination in a portion of Greek history which the boys have prepared -hour 5 to 6. THURSDAY.-Repetition of Monday's Horace, odes, 60 or 70 lines. Theme of Monday looked over-hour half past 7. Thucydides-hour 11 to 12. Modern history-hour half-past 12 to 1. FRIDAY.Repetition of Wednesday's Virgil, 50 lines. English essay looked over-hour half-past 7. Demosthenes, alternating with Philosophia Graca-hour 11 to 12. Greek play, 50 lines-hour 3 to 4. Horace, Epistles or Satires. Examination in Greek history, as on Wednesday-hour 5 to 6. SATURDAY.-Part of a Gospel or Acts of Apostles. Beausobre on New Testament. General Scripture History-hour half-past 7. Thucydides, alternating with Roman history-hour 11 to 12." This is the routine business of the school. Exercises are also set each day, and they are thus described in the work before us. "MONDAY.-Latin Theme or Greek Prose exercise. TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY. -Translation from Greek or Latin prose into English, alternating with an English Essay. THURSDAY.-Latin Lyrics, alternating with Greek verse. FRIDAY.-Latin verses, hexameter, or hexameter and pentameter. SATURDAY,

Thus, in the instructions given to the highest class in one of the most famous schools of Britain, we find but one half hour (Thursday) given to modern history! "One halfpenny worth of bread to all this intolerable deal of sack!" With the exception of a sprinkling of mathematics, all the rest is Latin and Greek, Greek and Latin, over and over again, without pause or change; for this one week, it must be remembered, is a fair specimen of the whole session. The religious reading included in the list has little other object than to teach the Latin and Greek scriptures. If an enlightened being from another sphere, with a mind totally unaffected by our historical partialities, were to step in amongst us, and examine the education given to the highest youth in the first country of the world, at an age the most improved in its annals, what would be his first feeling on observing the perpetual occupation of the pupils with Greek and Latin? Most certainly he would exclaim, "Ah! these languages must be very important in after-life, since so much time is expended in acquiring them. The power to talk them must be the great mean to honour and success in the world. There must be some great nations, with whom you have commercial intercourse, that speak these tongues?" "No," would be the reply; "the languages are disused at the present day; they are spoken by no people on the earth." "Indeed! then these tongues must contain immense stores of useful knowledge, accessible only by learning them." "No; all the knowledge they contain is of little or no value at this day, and, at all events, may be readily got at by translations. Besides, it is the poetry of these languages that is almost exclusively attended to at schools." "Poetry! all this time spent upon poetry! It at least must be of a very high order must be full of fine morality, and inspire into the young mind such pure religious sentiments as will permanently improve the character, and so benefit society at large." "No; the poetry alluded to is filled with idolatrous absurdities, and stories of a most licentious character," &c.

This sort of questioning might go on to a great length, and we believe that the questioner would be foiled in every attempt to hit on any thing like a rational motive for the system of instruction pursued in our most approved seminaries for youth. We shall not, however, pursue the matter farther, but, in order to satisfy the reader that the specimen given of the routine business of the school in question is a fair one, we shall exhibit another form's weekly proceedings. "MONDAY.-Repetition of Greek and Latin

in the changes which have been spreading of late
years among the seminaries of the country. We
believe, that, to a certain extent, this has really been
the case; but there are yet numberless other schools
in Britain which pursue the old plan in all its pristine
defectiveness.

PARKS-FIELDS.

Ir is common to call a certain space of enclosed ground a
park, but, properly speaking, this is wrong. An enclosure
of ordinary dimensions, and possessing no royal privileges,
is only a field. The words park and field are therefore
as different in signification as village and city. The best
explanation we can give of the true or legal meaning of
the word park, is embraced in the following extract from
Mr Wade's "Cabinet Lawyer." (Johnson, London, 1840.)
"Beside the absolute property, which the owner of the
land possesses in right of the soil, a person may also have
a qualified property in wild animals by grant of privilege;
that is, he may have the privilege of taking or killing
them in exclusion of other persons, in virtue of a fran-
chise to have a forest, chase, warren, or park.

A forest is a royal domain for the preservation of the
queen's beasts and fowls of forest, and is subject to its
own laws, courts, and officers. Before the Charta de
Foresta, the sovereign could make a forest of any extent
over the lands of his subjects. It is the highest franchise
relating to game; a free chase is the next in degree; a
park the next; and the last a free warren. The number
of forests is sixty-nine, of which the four principal are,
New Forest on the Lea, Sherwood Forest on the Trent,
Dean Forest on the Severn, and Windsor Forest on the
Thames.

A chase is of a middle nature, between a forest and a

park; it differs from the former in that it may be held
by a subject, and is governed by the common, not the
A man may have a chase over another's ground, with
forest law; and from the latter, in that it is not enclosed.
privilege to keep royal game therein, protected even from
the owner of the land. It is said there are thirteen
chases in England.

A park is an enclosed chase, extending only over a
man's own land, privileged for wild beasts. There are
only seven hundred and eighty parks; for it is not every
field or common which a gentleman pleases to surround
with a wall or paling, and to stock with a herd of deer,
that is thereby made a legal park. To constitute it, three
things are requisite. 1. A royal grant thereof. 2. En-
closure by pale, wall, or hedge. 3. Beasts of a park, such
as the buck, doe, &c. And when all the deer are de
stroyed, it can no more be accounted a park: for a park
consists of vert, venison, and enclosure, and if it is deter-
mined in any of them, it is a total disparking.

Free warren is a place privileged, by prescription or grant from the queen, for the keeping of beasts and fowls of the warren, which are hares and coneys, partridges, pheasants, and some add quails, woodcocks, and water fowl. Twenty years undisturbed exercise of a claim of a warren or park, will afford presumptive evidence of right in the party so enjoying it. The owner of a warren may lawfully kill any dog which is used to hurt the warren.

The rights of any forest, chase, or warren, are not affected by the game act. All the franchises of the description mentioned above, having their origin in the

crown, may be destroyed by a reversion to the crown, or

by surrender, or forfeiture, in consequence of a breach of

the trust upon which they were granted."

SPEAKING AND WRITING.

It frequently happens that what is a fault in a speaker, is a merit in a writer. If a speaker hesitates, and stops, and changes his constructions, and in the middle of a sentence breaks off to begin it again, because he sees a more forcible or happy mode of expression; or if he finds that the whole sentence is unnecessary, and that the meaning and force may be given better by a single word introduced in the former period, and therefore returns and repeats what he has just said, in order to interweave the additional word, Verse. Horace's Odes. he is condemned at once as a bad and repulsive speaker. Homer's Iliad. Roman In a writer, on the other hand, these qualities are WEDNESDAY.-Repetition. History. TUESDAY, -Verses looked over. Virgil's Æneid. Greek Verse. equally valuable and rare. The celebrated German historian of Rome, Niebuhr, seldom attempted to Cornelius Nepos. THURSDAY.-Repetition. Theme looked over. Xenophon's Anabasis. FRIDAY.-Repe- speak extempore in public without breaking down in tition and Translation looked over. Geography. every other clause, and hesitating and repeating, as Geography or Retranslation of Anabasis into Greek. has been described. He rarely finished a sentence as Horace, Epistles or Satires. SATURDAY.-Repetition he began it; he had no sooner uttered a clause, than and Lyrics looked over. Greek Testament." The he saw some better way of wording it, and this perexercises for the same period are stated to be, "Latin plexed both himself and his hearers. The students Theme for Monday; English Translation from Latin would frequently laugh at him, and mock him for this for Wednesday; Latin Lyrics for Thursday; and peculiarity. Still he was eloquent: he excelled in the Latin Verses, hexameters or elegiacs, for Friday." eloquence of particular words, of happy expressions, which were full of meaning. His style had all the pregnancy of Tacitus without his affectation. Although he restored antiquated words and forms of His speech, he used them in their ordinary sense. very words are sententious. It is said that he seldom sent a sentence to the press, which he had not altered three or four times.

BEING TAKEN UNAWARES.

Here again we find a little Geography on Friday to be really the only rational portion of instruction given to the pupils. Surely, this time-honoured folly must soon come to a close. Mankind have been so long blinded by habit, that they seem to have forgotten entirely for what end children are really sent to school, otherwise they never could suffer the instruction given to them to consist almost exclusively of things having no conceivable relation to the business A beggar who had tried many ways for increasing of after-life, and conducing in not the slightest degree his finances, at last hit on the plan of pretending to to their worldly success or happiness. In reality, be dumb. A gentleman who was passing by knew however, light is now breaking in upon the subject, the beggar by sight, and going up to him, asked him and we may ere long hope to see education assume promptly, "Pray, how long have you been dumb?" universally a more rational character. The classical The beggar was taken unawares, and had no time writings will take their due place as a branch, merely, to decide on not speaking, and answered quickly, of elegant education, and knowledge, truly practical" From my earliest youth." So, sudden or startling and useful, be established in the position which they events seem to give the mind, as it were, a good shakhave so long been allowed to occupy. ing, and the truth comes out in spite of ourselves. We often say on the sudden a thing which, though perfectly true, nay, because of its truth perhaps, we should keep back, if we were at ease and not taken by surprise.

As the account from which we have made the preceding extracts refers to the year 1831, the educational system of the school alluded to may have participated

QUEBEC AND MONTREAL.

The signs of progression and of stationary habits are nowhere more strikingly conspicuous than at Quebec and Montreal; and nowhere, perhaps, are domestic contrasts of almost every kind exhibited in more varied shapes. Side by side are seen the modern commercial store and the ancient secluded convent. Here appears the harbour, enlivened by an array of British shipping; there, the lingering remnants of primitive inactive life. Jostling each other on the narrow causeway, or grouped in the wider square or market-place, are the red-coated soldier of England, and the cowled priest of France; the antiquated habitant of the country in his homespun suit of grey, and the spruce denizen of the town attired in the latest European fashion; the swarthy aborigine of the soil enveloped in his blanket, with his squaw carrying her papoose at her back (the little creature not always exhibiting in lineament a purity of race), and the British artisan or labourer in his peculiar garb; while, to crown the whole, the alternate sound of two conflicting languages breaking on your ear at every step you take, leaves you momentarily undecided as to whether you be not in some provincial town of France or England; the first impression, more over, being strengthened by the general appearance of the streets and houses, and the last by the British desig. nation of many of the thoroughfares, and the preponderance of British names along their line of frontage.Preston's Three Years in Canada.

EARLY MARRIAGES.

Great as may be the inconveniences attending early marriages, they are not to be compared to those attending long engagements. The position of both parties is, in a manner, the reverse of that which they will respectively occupy in after-life. The lady commands, the gentleman obeys; and when this state of things has lasted for any length of time, it is no easy matter to restore them again to their natural state; for although self, will ever wish to domineer, and no man of spirit no woman of sense, who respects her husband and herwould submit to it, yet the precise limits to which authority may fairly be extended on the one hand, and obedience expected on the other, are so ill-defined, that it requires very often great tact and management to adjust the balance; and this difficulty is naturally increased, when the parties have been for a long time playing directly contrary parts. Lovers, too, are naturally living in a state of complete deception and hypocrisy, in most cases probably quite unintentionally; but where there exists a strong desire to please, there must also necessarily exist a strong anxiety to keep one's faults in the background, and exhibit only the most pleasing part of one's character. Half the unhappiness that exists in married life is, I believe, to be attributed to the discoveries that are constantly making of the great difference of

dispositions before and after marriage. Then come accusations of deception-very unfairly, for, as I before said, the fraud was an involuntary one, and inherent in human nature; accusations are followed by recriminations, and all the misery and bitterness of married strife, merely because the lovers expected to marry angels, and find out that they are united to human beings like themselves." Arundel," by Sir Francis Vincent.

ROBBERY BY A BIRD.

A respectable sheep-farmer near Fort Augustus, has sent to us a communication, of which the following is the substance. After a walk over his farm, at the beginning of this year's lambing season, and on a very warm morning, he had fallen asleep on a high hill. On awakening, he found that his broad blue bonnet, and a yellow silk handkerchief which he had placed beside him, were both amissing. At first he suspected that they had been taken away in sport by some person on the farm; but, on inquiry, every individual on the farm and neighbourhood, who could possibly have approached the spot, denied all knowledge of the missing articles. Some weeks thereafter, our correspondent and a party ascended a very steep and dangerous rock on the farm, to destroy the nest of a glede. Great was his amazement when the first article taken out of the nest was the missing yellow silk handkerchief; then the broad blue bonnet, with three eggs most comfortably ensconced in it; next appeared an old tartan waistcoat, with tobacco in one pocket, and Orr's Almanac for 1839 in the other (the almanac having the words, barely legible, "J. Fraser" written upon it); then came a flannel nightcap, marked with red worsted, "D. C. J."; a pair of old white mittens; a piece of a letter with green wax, and the Inverness post-mark; an old red and white cravat; and a miscellaneous assortment of remnants of cotton, paper, rope, &c. This bird must have been carrying on its larcenies on a large and miscellaneous scale. The affair rivals the maid and magpie of dramatic celebrity, and may be taken by some Sir Malachi Malagrowther as a link in the chain of evidence to prove the increase of crime in the Highlands, "consequent on the passing of the Reform Act." We may guard against depredators on foot; but how are we to protect ourselves against those on wing? We commit this delinquent and his species to the vigilant surveillance of the proposed new police constabulary force.—Inverness Courier.

A SOUND ADVICE.

It is certainly a great disparagement to virtue, and learning itself, that those very things which only make men useful in the world, should incline them to leave it. This ought never to be allowed to good men, unless the bad had the same moderation, and were willing to follow them into the wilderness. But if one shall contend to get out of employment, while the other strives to get into it, the affairs of mankind are like to be in so ill a posture, that even the good men themselves will hardly be able to enjoy their very retreat in security.—Life of Cowley.

LONDON: Published, with permission of the proprietors, by W.S.

ORR, Paternoster Row; and sold by all booksellers and newsmen.-Printed by Bradbury and Evans, Whitefriars.

senger of intelligence. Its capabilities have indeed been fully tested in a practical manner on the line of the Great Western Railway, to a distance, I believe, of fifteen miles; the apparatus employed being somewhat different from that which I have already described. Last September, when the wires of this electric telegraph were carried as far as West Drayton, the following account was given of it in one of the London papers :—

"The space occupied by the case containing the machinery (which simply stands upon a table, and can be removed at pleasure to any part of the room) is little more than that required for a gentleman's hatbox. The telegraph is worked by merely pressing small brass keys (similar to those of a keyed bugle), which, acting by means of galvanic power upon various hands placed upon a dial-plate at the other end of the telegraphic line, as far as now opened, point not only to each letter of the alphabet (as each key may be struck or pressed), but the numerals are indicated by the same means, as well as the various points, from a comma to a colon, with notes of admiration and interjection. There is likewise a cross (+) upon the dial, which indicates that where this key is struck, a mistake has been committed in some part of the sentence telegraphed, and that an erasure is intended. To a question-such, for instance, as the following: How many passengers started from Drayton by the ten o'clock train ?-the answer could be transmitted

from the terminus to Drayton and back in less than two minutes. This was proved on Saturday. This mode of communication is only completed as far as West Drayton station, which is about 13 miles from Paddington. There are wires (as may be imagined) communicating with each end, thus far completed, passing through a hollow iron tube, not more than an inch and a half in diameter, whieh is fixed about six inches above the ground parallel with the railway, and about two or three feet distant from it. It is the intention of the Great Western Railway Company to carry the tube along the line as fast as the completion of the rails takes place, and ultimately throughout the whole distance to Bristol. The machinery, and the mode of working it, are so exceedingly simple, that a child who could read would, after an hour or two's instruction, be enabled efficiently to transmit and receive information."

and north of England, wish to possess the news of
London as speedily as the people of London them-
selves, here is a means of indulging their wish ready
to their hands. They have only to organise a very
small establishment of officials, and expend a few
thousands of pounds, and the matter is effectually
accomplished.

Here I leave this extraordinary invention to the
speculations of the reader. What may be its influence
in aiding the progress of social improvement, uniting
different nations in one common brotherhood, and
extending the boundaries of knowledge, involves an in-
quiry too vast and intricate for solution in these pages.

none in the east, excepting possibly their neighbours the Persians; no one at a glance can better detect the weak points' of a customer." The different trades have separate bazaars. The most opulent in Bagdat is that of the clothier, where are to be found the costliest dresses of Surat muslin, shawls from Cashmere, sabres from Damascus, and carpets from Persia, all of magnificent appearance. Otto of roses, also, forms in the perfume bazaar, and often at five guineas an one of the most common articles of trade, being sold

ounce.

As a whole, the city of Bagdat has an unpleasant appearance to the visiter residing in it, the streets being narrow, dirty, dark, and damp. But the uninimagine that the inhabitants are poor or distressed. viting aspect of the houses must not lead travellers to "It is with a despotic government a part of their system THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS.* to avoid outward show. Within, the houses are not THE work to which is prefixed the title of the "City walls are inlaid with mirrors, and fancifully decorated unfrequently furnished with much costliness. The of the Caliphs," one captivating to the imagination with mother-of-pearl." from its association with youthful readings and recol- cushions of crimson velvet, beautiful carpets, and Carved wood-work, rich lections, is from the pen of the author of Travels in furs, are common additions to these internal ornaArabia, published not long ago. The traveller, how-ments. The inhabitants of Bagdat are all ostensibly ever, whose observations are chiefly recorded in the industrious, either as tradesmen, merchants, or gonew volumes before us, was not Mr Wellsted, but his friend Lieutenant Ormsby of the Indian navy, man" is unknown. vernment officials. Such a thing as an idle “gentlewho spent three years in various parts of the east. enough in disposition. The most trifling amusements Yet the people are indolent The former of these gentlemen had only the task of please them; coffee, pipes, drafts, chess, and the sight arranging and editing the materials given to him, verof professional dancing, are their favourite recreawork of much interest, from which we propose to bally and otherwise, by his friend. The result is a tions in private. Though abstemious in company, select a few extracts, descriptive of the present con- they are also fond of opium, and of the seed of in their solitary moments they indulge in wine, and dition of the old capital of Haroun Alraschid. a species of hemp which has an inebriating effect. Robes of purple or scarlet silk, turbans of fine white muslin, and loose drawers, with socks of bright yellow leather, form the dress of the higher orders; while girdle. This light dress is no disadvantage at times, the poor wear merely a sort of shirt, confined by a for the desert winds frequently raise the thermometer to 124 degrees, and the people think it absolute bliss to get into underground chambers, where the thermometer is only at 90 degrees!

The city of Bagdat is situated on a low plain watered by the Tigris, at the distance of about four hundred divides the city into two portions, the larger being on miles from its influx into the Persian Gulf. The river the north-eastern bank. Founded in the eighth century, Bagdat became the capital of the Saracenic empire, and continued so for about five hundred years. It is now the metropolis of a pachalic or province of the Ottoman Porte, and the richest one, with the exception of Egypt, under its sway, being the most considerable place of trade in this portion of Asia, and the frontier of the Turkish empire against Persia. The pachalie includes the whole country from Busrah, north, and from Kurdistan and Persia on the east to or the Persian Gulf, on the south, to Morden on the Syria and Palestine on the west; but the Arabs, who constitute a large part of the population within these bounds, are nothing more than nominal subjects of the pacha of Bagdat. The city is walled and fortified, and is provided with lofty arched gates, some of them of great antiquity. Its appearance from a distance is thus described in the work before us :-"The sun rose, and Bagdat, although so many miles distant, was susIt being thus ascertained, by practical working, pended as it were in mid-air before us; the rosy tints that the electric telegraph can perform all that its of morn illumined its gilded domes, its minarets, and designers have proposed, it only remains that it should other gorgeous signs of eastern dominion and magnificence. It was indeed a scene delightful to the eye." be spread in different directions over the country, or Mosques, caravanserais, colleges, baths, and the palace at the least laid in communication from London along of the governors, form the chief public buildings in the great lines of thoroughfare. The railways already the city. The mosques, like the other houses, are of formed and in course of construction, offer peculiarly brick, and, in the year 1830, were numbered at a huneligible channels for the lines of wires. It is not to be dred; but none of them are very magnificent. A square building, surmounted by a dome, with a tank expected, however, that any telegraph of this descrip- of water in a court in front, for ablutions after prayer, tion is to be constructed at the public expense. It will constitutes the usual style of the mosques. All of require to be the private undertaking of a joint-stock them are surmounted, however, by graceful spires or company, and its services given at a price which would minarets, on the tops of which are placed small galmore than repay the outlay. The expense of tube, leries, whence the muezzin sends forth the Moslem wires, and apparatus for a distance of four hundred supported by voluntary contributions, there is a school, "Attached to each of the mosques, and miles, as from London to Edinburgh-provided a rail- in which boys are instructed, free of expense, in readway line were employed-would probably amount to ing, writing, and in a knowledge of divinity and the L.25,000; and, once put in operation, the outlay is at Koran-the only education a Moslem cares to impart an end, for the fresh supply of material for the bat-mind the principle upon which the immediate sucto his offspring." "This last sentence recalls to one's teries is almost too inconsiderable to be worthy of cessors of Mahomet destroyed the splendid ancient notice. library of Alexandria. "If it contained any thing in opposition to the Koran," said they, "it deserved to be burned; if its contents were all in concurrence with preserving." By this fanatical decision, we need the Koran, they were a superfluity, and not worth scarcely remark, the world sustained an incalculable and irremediable loss.

The method of working the apparatus will be readily understood. At each extremity of the line of rope-for it would work both ways there would be an office for receiving and communicating intelligence, at a price conformable to the extent of the message. Being dispatched from one end, the communication would be instantaneously received at the other by an officiating clerk, and forthwith made known by a note to the party concerned. Thus, intelligence of the rise and fall of stocks, foreign news, orders for goods, or any other species of communication of an urgent nature, might, with the utmost facility, and at a trifling cost, be transmitted to any imaginable distance. To all merchants, capitalists, and, in particular, newspaper publishers, such a means of procuring intelligence would prove invaluable, and of course the benefit would be reflected on the public at large. The principle being placed beyond the reach of cavil, any attempt to put it in practice would depend exclusively on the question of expense and the necessity for its services. If it be reckoned of importance to possess speedy and correct intelligence on any given subject, here is the engine by which it can be attained. Do the people of Manchester, Liverpool, and other great seats of manufacture and commerce in the west

call to prayer.

Neither the governor's palace, nor the caravanserais, are worthy of notice as specimens of architecture. most interesting feature in an eastern city. Narrow "The bazaars," says our author, "form to me the streets are either arched over with brick, or a roof of grass, dried leaves, and battered canvass is supported by transverse beams extending from roof to roof." The heats of day keep the people within doors, but "at night the blaze of a hundred lights, either gaiety. The shops on either side are small rooms, of lamps or torches, exchanged all into life and about eight feet square, the front of which is open, and the owner seats himself, usually with a fan in his above the level of the street. Unless the arrangement hand, on the floor, which is raised about three feet is of great importance, or very lengthened, it is concluded without the purchaser leaving the street; but should it prove otherwise, he seats himself alongside the merchant, pipes and coffee are called for, and the weighty matter discussed in all its bearings. Perhaps the tradesmen at Bagdat are surpassed in address by

About

Bagdat of 1840, as well as to the city in 1830, the
This description applies in a great measure to the
year of Lieutenant Ormsby's first visit. But in other
respects the city is greatly, lamentably changed. In
1830, Bagdat contained about 120,000 inhabitants.*
fixed race of Persians, Turks, and Arabs.
Of these, two-thirds were composed of a mixed and
7000 of the remainder were Jews, and the rest Chris-
tians, chiefly of the Armenian persuasion. Toleration
so far existed, and yet exists here, that both Jews and
Christians frequently rise to seats in the divan, and
to the highest offices of the state. The divan is a de-
liberative council, composed of selected inhabitants,
who meet every Friday to consult on affairs of mo-
ment. The Pacha, however, who has been for cen-
turies a member of the important body of the Mame-
lukes, has the real power in his hands. The trade of
Bagdat consists chiefly in importations of sugar, mus-
lin, coarse and fine cloths, and other articles from
India, &c., which are brought up the Tigris in track-
boats, and are extensively sold to the mere inland
people. The principal articles in return from Busrah
(once called Balsora) are galls, copper, raw silks, and
salt from the desert.

work before us, a part-view of the modern state of
Having now given our readers, with the help of the
things in the city of the Caliphs, we turn to a point
which will probably prove more interesting to the
reader, and which will explain the observation made
Bagdat, and made it in some respects very different
respecting the lamentable change which has befallen
from what it was ten years ago. When Lieutenant
Ormsby was at Bagdat, in April 1831, the plague vi-
sited the city. Before it arrived, the people were in
a state of strange apathy. They heard of the terrible
disease stalking from village to village in the vicinity,
in the direction of their abode, yet they seemed eager
to stifle the horrid conviction of danger." But this
could not last long; a feeling of alarm suddenly arose,
and appeared as unaccountable and extraordinary as
as awakening from a fearful dream. They must fly:
their former apathetic indifference. They now stared

but whither? To the desert? The Bedouin was with their valuables, attempted to quit the city. By lurking at every avenue, to rob and spoil those who, the river? Every boat was crowded, and the disease and Armenian Christians shut themselves up in their followed them in their flight." The British residents houses, barred the doors and windows, and hoisted up by ropes any necessaries which had from time to time to be added to their stores. The majority of the Moslem population, with the apathy of fatalism, resigned themselves indolently to their fate. Very soon the in extent. ravages made by the plague in the city were dreadful "All distinctions of society, friends, or relations, had ceased; the finger of God seemed pointed to this devoted place. A thousand died a-day; the dead, which at first had incessantly filled the air, the seats of justice were unoccupied; the wailing for was now hushed to a silence and a calm more frightful; the dead lay unburied in every avenue. Then arose a number of ruffians, who, with a courage growing out of their fearful position, formed themselves into bands, under leaders more demoniac than them

*In one place, the work before us states the population of 1830 at * Travels to the City of the Caliphs, &c. By J. R. Wellsted, 120,000, and in another at 150,000. We believe the first compuEsq. London: Henry Colburn. 1840. Two vols. tation to approach nearest to the truth.