regard as a great national calamity; for the danger has originated in the things which Russia has been permitted to dopermitted solely by our misappreciation of consequences, by our want of knowledge of present circumstances, by our miscalculation of Russia, and by our ignorance of Turkey.

In the absence of a writer of a more reflective mind, we consider it no small piece of good fortune that a man, with so vivid an imagination and so keen a perception of moral and natural beauty as belongs to M. De Lamartine, should have travelled into the East; and we conceive that not only was he calculated, by his peculiar frame of mind, to throw new light upon the domestic and social state of this poetic people, but that his early preference of the simple tales and inspired strains of the Hebrew poets to those other writers of antiquity who have generally been the models of European literature, prepared him to enter with enthusiasm into this particular field of nature.

It was indeed with peculiar satisfaction that we learned that a work proceeding from such a distinguished pen was published in the early part of this year. We were not ignorant that M. De Lamartine had left Turkey with opinions the most extravagant; for, besides our personal acquaintance with the author, we had read the celebrated

respectable quartos of travels, enriched with classic lore and picturesque descriptions. For instance, Hobhouse, Hughes, Kerr Porter, &c.; but of recent years even this class has disappeared, and flimsy paltry repetitions of trashy tales, and disproved opinions, presented in wide-lettered octavo and duodecimo, is all that has been supplied to the craving appetite of the public. The lowness of the standard, inexplicable in itself, is rendered more apparent by the rapid progress of events, which in fact has given observers from a distance the advantage over those who, though near, were destitute of the means of close examination. From this sweeping condemnation, there is scarcely an exception to be made; but if any, Mr. Slade deserves the distinction. We are indebted to him for much positive and valuable information; but while rendering him this justice, we must do Turkey the justice of attributing to him a pre-eminence over his compeers in singular misconception of his subject, and misuse of his information. We touch not on works purporting to enter into the graver field of political and philosophical inquiry-d'Hosson stands alone a singular monument of profoundness, exactitude, and inutility, the lexicographer of Turkey, not its painter-Eton and Thornton are spoken of, and sometimes read, because there is nothing worth reading, and people are anxious to learn.

speech he delivered from the tribune on his return to France, which was so conclusive, as to shut for ever on M. De Lamartine the door to political consideration. But we thought that the very reception of these opinions by France, so deservedly proud of his talents, would have led him to reconsider them. We conceived that the voice of Germany, speaking through the organ of the Augsburgh Gazette, would, if it did not convince him, send him back, in the silence of the closet, to review the notes which he had compiled in the East; which, although we did not conceive them to be so ample or so conclusive as they really are, we hoped would be sufficient to show him that every one of the positions he has taken up is liable to refutation from his own evidence. We did not conceive that M. De Lamartine was deficient in the courage required to put forward opinions, opposed to the prejudices prevalent in his day or nation; indeed he has exhibited, in the present work, a sufficiency of courage, although not of the best character, and has boldly attacked every principle of national faith, honour, and justice, whilst he ever has in his mouth virtue, humanity, and civilisation.

It is with regret that we find ourselves obliged to speak in such terms of a man for whom we entertain so high a personal respect. We are urged to do so, in defence of those interests which he calls upon civilised Europe to sacrifice; and to warn unreflecting minds against confounding the aberrations of the sentimentalist with the opinions of the observer.

After this preface, we will select various passages which convey the impressions made on the mind of our author by the country in which he travelled, where those vivid, poetic, and not incorrect, impressions are conveyed to him, as he says himself, "by his two eyes"-a country which he has demonstrated to be the true land of poetry and real beauty, whilst he has vindicated it from being one of fable and romance.

The first point to which he directed his steps was Syria,for several months he fixed his head quarters at Beyrout, during which time he made his pilgrimage to the holy land. This pilgrimage occupied him less than a month; but the people whose character he had the most opportunities of studying, were the inhabitants of those ranges of Lebanus

and Anti-Lebanus, which stand forth so pre-eminently in his descriptions-descriptions approaching, as near as art can approach to nature, to the grandeur and picturesque beauty of the mountains themselves.

"Those," says he, describing the Maronites, "who would contemplate in actual existence all that the imagination pictures of the season of infant and pure christianity-who would see the simplicity and fervour of the primitive faith, purity of morals, disinterestedness in the ministers of charity, sacerdotal influence without abuse, authority without domination, poverty without mendicity, dignity without pride, prayer, vigils, sobriety, chastity, manual labour-those who would contemplate all this, must visit the Maronites. The most rigid philosopher would find no reform requisite in the public or private life of these priests, who are alike the example, the counsellors, and the servants of the people.”— (Vol. II., p. 157.)

"The information of the people, though limited to reading, writing, arithmetic, and the catechism, is so far universal.—I can compare them only to the peasants of Saxony and Scotland."-(p. 182.)

"Yesterday I descended again from the summits of these Alps, and became the guest of the Scheik of Eden, an Arabian Maronite village suspended beneath the highest peak of these mountains, on the very limits of vegetation, and only habitable during summer. The noble and venerable old man, accompanied by his son and some servants, had come out to meet me as far as the neighbourhood of Syrian Tripoli, and had received me in his house at Eden with a kindliness, a dignity, and an elegance of manner which one would imagine to be possessed by one of the old lords of the court of Louis XIV. Whole trees were burning on the wide hearths: sheep, kids, and stags, lay heaped up in the vast halls: and the old wines of Lebanon, brought from the cellar by his servants, were poured out abundantly, both for ourselves and our attendants. After having spent some days in studying these delightful manners, reminding one of the descriptions of Homer, and as full of poetic associations as the places in which we found them, the son of the Scheik, and a certain number of Arabian horsemen, were commissioned to conduct me to the Cedars of Solomon, which yet consecrate the highest ridge of Lebanon, and have been venerated for ages as the last testimony of his glory.

"The most admirable police (the result rather of religion and morals than of legislation) reigns throughout the whole extent of territory inhabited by the Maronites. The traveller may there pursue his journey alone, and unguarded by day or by night, without fear of theft or violence; crime is almost unknown.”— (p. 160.)

"The Jesuits," he tells us, "after having attempted to erect establishments in these mountains, and in the midst of the Maronites who were catholics, have never yet succeeded, and have little prospect of success, for a very simple reason there are no politics in the religion of the East; perfectly distinct from the civil power, it confers neither influence nor state employment.”—(Vol. II., p. 175.)

We suppose he means all the territory under the domination of the Enai Beshir, including the Druses and Metuales.

This latter observation we think may startle some, who had regarded Turkey under some mystic name, doomed in the prophecies. But when we find in Turkey the absence of any organization, militating against religious freedom, and the impossibility of such an organization gaining ground in these countries we may doubt whether the term anti-christian may not be with more justice applied to any, the most christian government of Europe, than to the Ottoman Porte, which while it does not itself persecute, affords a refuge to the victims of persecution elsewhere-where no man contributes from his substance to the ministers of a faith to which he does not belong, and where Christianity is quite as much a state religion as Mahometanism*.

Of the Druses (to whom every thing that he says concerning the Maronites is equally applicable, excepting what is grounded on a difference of religion) he speaks thus:

"The schools for children are numerous, under the direction of the Akkals, and they are taught to read the Koran. Scmetimes, when there are but few Druses in a village, and a school is wanting, they suffer their children to be instructed with those of Christians, and content themselves with erasing the traces of Christianity from their minds, when, at more mature years, they are initiated into their own mysterious rites. Women, as well as men, are admitted to the sacerdotal office; divorce is frequent, and impunity for adultery purchased. Hospitality is sacred, and neither bribe nor menace, whatever its nature, could induce a Druse to betray, even to his prince, the guest who had confided himself to the sanctuary of his threshold. At the time of the battle of Navarino, the European inhabitants of the Syrian towns, dreading the vengeance of the Turks, retired for several months among the Druses, and there lived in perfect security. Their maxim, like that of the Gospel, is, that all men are brothers; but they observe it better than we do; our dogmas are evangelical, our laws pagan.”— (Vol. 11., p. 167.)

The rest of his observations on the Druses is worth nothing, for he speaks about what he himself says he knows nothing— their religion. He calls them idolaters; they are no more

The chief of the Christians possesses civil power, because he is their chief priest. The Sultan owes his authority to the hereditary rights established before the title of Calif was added to that of Han. The Christian church possesses in Turkey prerogatives not possessed by the church of Islamism. The Mahometan. Imaun, or parish priest (Islamism has no higher religious functions), has no civil or judicial character. The priesthood of the Greek church have both. This originates not in a legislative preference for Christianity, but in the absence, among the Turks, of an organised priesthood. The Ulema are no more priests than the Peers of Great Britain.

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idolaters than the rest of the Mahometan population. He says he has a firm belief that the religion of the Druses is still a mystery whereas their books have been procured, and interpreted by his learned countryman De Sacy; and it is therein shown that they participate in a belief common to many parts of Syria, namely, the expectation of the future advent of a Messiah, among the descendants of Mahomet.

Here then we find in their character-industry, as shown by the cultivation of their mountains-repose-freedom from crime -education among the lower orders, as extended as in the most advanced countries of Europe-extreme vivacity and intelligence-hospitality-high sense of honour-and simplicity in religious matters.

We regret that he had so few opportunities of coming in contact with the Mahometans of Syria. During his pilgrimage to Jerusalem, his mind was necessarily too much taken up, with the observation of sites which were hallowed to him by every association, to permit him to direct his attention much to an examination into the character of that people; and subsequently his visit to Damascus, where its type is to be found, was so hurried, as to prevent him from being able to obtain much of the information he might have derived. It would have been interesting to have observed the impression that the character of its inhabitants, but especially of the Mahometans, would have made upon him: our slight acquaintance with them has led us to consider them as the most enlightened, decidedly the most interesting, of all the populations that inhabit Syria. Here he would have had the best opportunity of studying the character of the Mahometan Arab, and of judging of the materials that once composed the brilliant empire of the caliphs. He would have soon seen through the absurdity of those fabulous tales, which mediocrity has so sedulously propagated respecting the fanaticism of the Damascenes-in fact, those same powers of mind which led him to appreciate the characters of the Osmanlis so justly, and to depict that character in such vivid colours, would have been devoted to vindicating their co-religionists in Syria, from the various charges that have been preferred against them. We do not think that we can better fill up the hiatus, than by giving an account of a popular tumult which occurred