AND Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, etc. This Journal is supplied Weekly, or Monthly, by the principal Booksellers and Newsmen throughout the Kingdom; but to those who may desire No. 80. REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS. SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 1818. Letters from Illinois. By Morris Birbeck. 8vo. pp. 114. on a selfish principle, that they may increase their mere animal enjoyments by transporting themselves from the social ties and obligations of the place of their Mr. Birbeck is pretty generally known birth, to devote themselves entirely to to the community of readers, as a farmer supply their own peculiar wants, where in competent circumstances, who has the claims of kindred and country are taken upon himself the task of enlight-snapt by the same act which removes ening the minds of the British people them from all the noblest sympathies of on the subject of emigration, and diour nature refined by civilization. In recting the migratory tide by his exshort, they have courage to desert their ample. After publishing "Notes on a duties, and impudence to boast of their Tour through France," and "Notes on selfish pursuit, as if it were a virtue to a Journey in America," we are how presacrifice all the world for their own gratification. sented with these Letters from Illinois, where this restless person has finally Not that we would demand of man, on pitched his tent, and whither he is sedu- the other hand, to devote himself on the lously employed in inviting, or rather altar of any imaginary idol, and consent seducing his countrymen to follow him. to be miserable for all his life in order The general question, of establishing to exemplify some inferior quality colonies from a superabundant popula- which adorns humanity. The oppressed tion, is one of great extent and difficulty; and the wretched; those whom the and the individual question, of exchange world (in its limited sense, meaning that of country, is as various in its aspects as portion of it where fate has thrown there are various considerations and cir- them) befriends not; those whom laws cumstances in individual condition. The protect not, and tyranny tramples onformer seems not yet to have been have a natural right to seek elsewhere clearly decided upon by our government, that safety, repose, and liberty, which is which has from time to time wavered denied to them on their original soil. in its policy on that point, now offering But he must be a bold reasoner who encouragement for, and now discouraging will undertake to shew that such causes emigration to the Colonies; now fitting operate as inducements to abandon out ships and giving facilities for reach- Great Britain, and still less to seek an ing the North American provinces, and asylum in the uncultivated and horrid now opposing the egress of those who back woods of Kentucky. He must be that returning were desirous of quitting Britain for prepared to demonstrate, those distant shores. Meanwhile, pri- to the savage state is preferable to envate enterprise takes up the game, during the burthens of old civilization, and with a promptitude which would as the price of all its conveniences and be very desirable on the great scale, is comforts, all its habits which are second diverting that strength into hostile nature, all its feelings which are essential quarters, which ought to be so directed to cultivated man, all its social enjoyments and endearments, all its glorious as to augment and not diminish the national force. It is indeed astonishing institutions matured by ages of wisdom. that while not only the Canadas, but the fertile Cape of Good Hope, and the delightful islands of Greece, present their attractions for adventures of this kind, they are all neglected for the savage wilds and pathless forests of America. There may be men whose object it is to fly into the solitude of the new world, from the observation of the old; there are many of those dissatisfied spirits who cannot rest any where, and who dream that by planting themselves in these remote deserts they are "settling;" and there are even some who love change for the sake of change, or are persuaded, VOL. II. PRICE 8d. paint his prairie, darkened and cheerless from the surrounding and air-excluding shade of primeval woods; his soil untouched by the plough; his log shed; his trackless waste, scarce printed by the foot of man, far less roaded for his intercourse; his wretched circle of neighbours and friends, outcasts like himself, whose distant habitations hardly redeem the face of the earth from utter desolateness; his pastoral slumbers on the ground, with huge fires to keep off the tormenting insects of the climate; his medicine chest, to relieve the diseases incident to the change; his blessedness in being freed from religious observance and worship; his gildings of the present, and his visions of the future-these he may endeavour to palm upon us as constituting an El Dorado on the Wabash, but reason and a moment's reflection declare that they form nothing but a state of comfortless exile and solitary wretchedness. Neither must it be lost sight of, that the blandishments of these enjoyments are not held out to the beggar and needy. Such have not the means of travelling five thousand miles to the Illinoisian paradise. It is the capitalist, the excellent mechanic with some money in his purse, the agriculturist who has wherewithal to purchase land, that are invited to clear and people Mr. Birbeck's speculation in woody acres: to make his job profitable to him. One fact they say is worth a hundred arguments-Mr. Birbeck's own son, who is in decent, or rather_better_circumstances, will not leave England to join his enthusiastic progenitor, whom even the American Republicans laugh at, and call an Ultra-whig. these epistles, it is slovenly in the exWith regard to the composition of treme. There is an endless repetition of the same things to the different persons addressed, which is quite tiresome in a published collection. There are contradictions too, not only of his prewhich go far to destoy the whole value ceding, but present American views, of his testimony. Thus in accounting for his migrating from the territory of Ohio, which he so lavishly eulogized before, further west into Illinois, he says, We cannot do more than glance at Had we remained in the state of Ohio, per acre for land which is technically called we must have paid from 20 to 50 dollars improved," but is in fact deteriorated; have purchased, at an advance of 1000 Now it is evident that what the policy of the United States is in Ohio will be identically pursued in Illinois the moment it is begun to be settled. In no part will Congress permit distinct societies to be formed in any considerable numbers, for Congress has refused Mr. Birbeck's petition to this effect. In every part, as Mr. B. himself tells us afterwards, will the land-jobbers become proprietors of the territory surrounding a new and prosperous plantation, and raise it at the monstrous rate of 1000 to 1500 In Illinois per cent to the next comers. as in Ohio what is called "improvement" will be found deterioration; and the advantage of purchasing land at 50 dollars per acre in a region where there is no market for its produce, will be the sole reward for transporting oneself and family through the perils of the ocean, and the heavy expense and toil of a prodigious overland journey, into banishment among the savages of Indiana. The state of society offers no better inducement: it is abominable, if Mr. Birbeck does not exaggerate. Read his partial description: The interest I feel in every person and thing that surrounds me is naturally very great, not only from the novelty of the situation, but because it is that in which I hope and believe I am to pass the remainder of my days. We have just had our assizes: the circuit court, similar to our court of assize, was held last week, the second time since our arrival. I wish I could introduce you to his honour" the judge, to the gentlemen of the jury, to the learned brethren, who fill the parts both of solicitor and counsel, to the assemblage of spectators, all males, for women never attend the courts except on business, and even to the accomplished villains who are here exposed to public indignation, far more terrific than the vengeance of the law. In this early stage of society, where the country is savage, and many of the people but just emerging from that condition, much intrepidity of mind and hardihood of body are indispensable requisites in the administration of justice. Brass for the face will not suffice, they must be steel from head to foot. circuit the judge swam his horse, I think, seven times in one day, how often in the whole circuit is not in the record. What would our English lawyers say to seven such ablutions in one November day? and then to dry their clothes on their back, by turning round and round before a blazing fire, preparatory to a night's lodging on a cabin floor, wrapped in their blankets, which by the bye are the only robes used by the profession here. I have an anecdote of a judge with whom I am well acquainted, and therefore I believe it. I give it you as an instance of intrepidity as well as of that ferocious violence which occurs but too frequently; by no means however as a specimen of the judicial character. A few years ago, before he was advanced to his present dignity, the foreman of a grand jury insulted him outrageously: out of court, of course. The man had a large knife in his hand, such as hunters always carry about them, and well know the use of; but the enraged barrister, with a handwhip, or cow-hide, as they are called, laid on so keenly, that he actually cut his jacket to ribbons, in defiance of the knife, and when the beaten and bleeding juryman made his piteous case known to his brethren, they fined him a dozen of wine for his cowardice. Another anecdote. A notorious offender had escaped from confinement, and mounted on a capital horse, paraded the town where the judge resided, with a brace of loaded pistols, calling at the stores and grog shops, and declaring he would shoot any man who should attempt to molest him. The judge hearing of it, loaded a pistol, walked deliberately up to the man to apprehend him, and on his inaking show of resistance, shot him immediately. The ball entered the breast, and came out behind, but did not prove mortal. He fell, was reconducted to gaol, escaped a second time, and was drowned in crossing the Ohio. Judges are appointed by the legislature for the term of seven years. Salary seven hundred dollars per annum, a sum which is certainly inadequate, even in this cheap country. It will however be increased as wealth and population increase; the office is honourable to a man of talents and integrity, and may open the road to more lucrative appointments. My personal knowledge of the gentlemen of the law is not, I fear, a fair criterion of their general character. have seen many proofs of candour, high principle, and correct judgment. There are lawyers here whom no sum would bribe to undertake a mean business. But I hear of chicanery in some, and have perceived strong symptoms of vice and dissipation in Your military or fox-hunting experience others. The tendency of the profession has, 1 dare say, furnished adventures similar here, as in England, and I suppose everyto those which are constantly occurring here where, is to increase the baseness of little, to the gentlemen of the long robe, on their cunning, and avaricious minds; and the progress from court to court. The judge pestilent example and society of the idle and the bar are now working their way to the * What must be the sufferings of the lower next county seat, through almost trackless orders, where the highest are exposed to such woods, over snow and ice, with the ther-hardships as would drive the poorest British hind mometer about Zero. In the last November into rebellion? and corrupt have the same baneful influence over inexperienced young men who are exposed to it. This is all very pleasant in the land of patriarchal manners and primitive simplicity! Perhaps Mr. Birbeck had better move a little further among the wild Indians; assuredly they are not such barbarous ruffians as these judges, jurymen, lawyers, and criminals. These, however, it may be said, are but individual atrocities, and such occur in all countries, without impeaching the national character. Hearken to Mr. Birbeck the American panegyrist's story of the general practice: The first settlers, unprotected and unassisted amid dangers and difficulties, have been accustomed from early youth to rely with reluctance, and only by halves, their on their own powers, and they surrender right of defence against every aggression, even to the laws which themselves have constituted. They have been anxiously these laws, and when in practice they studious of mildness in the forming of seem inefficient, they too frequently proceed, with Indian perseverance, to acts of vengeance inconsistent with the duty of forbearance essential to social man. Hence deeds of savage and even ferocious violence are too common to be viewed with the ab horrence due to them. This disposition is evinced continually, and acted on without any feeling of private or personal animosity. If a man whom the public voice has proclaimed a thief or a swindler escapes from justice for want of a legal proof of his guilt, though the law and a jury of his fellow citizens have acquitted him, ten to one but he is met with before he can quit the neighbourhood, and, tied up to a sapling, receives a scourging that marks him for the rest of his life." (Merciful Heaven!!) Such are the American civilized neighbours of our new settlers on the one hand: we shall conclude with a chararteristic sketch of their uncivilized neighbours, the Indians, on the other. A gentleman with whom I am in habits of frequent intercourse, a respectable neighbour of ours, has just returned from a trading expedition up the Red River, about seven hundred miles south-west of this place, among the Iotans, Cados, and Choctaws. He relates an event, which occurred about Christmas last at a place he visited, highly illustrative of the virtues and the vices of this untameable variety of the human family. Their simple necessaries of food and clothing are supplied, as heretofore, by the chace; but the skins of the various animals they kill have acquired, since their intercourse with the whites, a new value: and they have acquired a taste for one fatal luxury-ardent spirits. For these they barter their skins and furs. They indulge in them to dreadful excess, and thousands on thousands perish through intoxication, and the frantic broils which it continually occasions. In one of these The Choctaw could not sustain the disgrace when yengeance was practicable. He immediately sold his whole property, his beaver-traps, his rifle, and his horse; for these he obtained forty bottles of whiskey. Thirty-nine bottles he consumed with his friends, Iotans, Cados, and Choctaws, indifferently, in a grand debauch, which lasted a week, but reserved one bottle, secreted for a special purpose. After this, when again sufficiently sober, he joined a party, among whom was his devoted foe fell Something which nei Lettres inédites de Madame la Marquise | M. du Chatelet. The above anecdote is, we believe, related in Lady Morgan's' France.' the man who obtains it, and leads him to The Editor of this correspondence enters from him lessons to which she attached so one of his own tribe, a friend of his own Some time after, they were talking over the melancholy affair, and the friend declared he was glad to shoot him, for he was not his friend in reality. The spirit of savage justice was roused again: one of his companions immediately fired at him, but missed thanks to the whiskey both for the danger and the escape. However, they confined the false friend one whole week, whilst they sat in council on the case. At length he was acquitted of murder and liberated, as he had only taken a devoted life, though with the heart of a traitor to his friend. We conclude with recommending our last page to the serious perusal of those who feel inclined to accept Mr. Birbeck's invitation to settle in America. despise all other means of pleasing. It is therefore very natural that Saint Lambert, since he yielded to his rivals the first place in our libraries, should have held that place in the heart of a woman. Franklin's Memoirs. 3d and last Vol. 4to. In our last we designated the contents and character of this excellent work; and have now little more to do than fulfil our promise with regard to the extracts. We can say nothing more in praise of the publication, but every line for which we make ourselves indebted to it, will add to our eulogy. Mingling again light moral instruction with philosophy, we select papers on each of these subjects, at once pleasing, original, and instructive : THE ART OF PROCURING PLEASANT DREAMS. INSCRIBED TO MISS ****. (Being written at her request.)` As a great part of our life is spent in sleep, during which we have sometimes pleasing, and sometimes painful dreams, it becomes of some consequence to obtain the one kind, and avoid the other; for, whether real or imaginary, pain is pain, and pleasure is pleasure. If we can sleep without dreaming, it is well that painful dreams are avoided. If, while we sleep, we can have any pleasing dreams, it is, as the French say, autant de gagné, so much added to the pleasure of life. The warmest attachment seems invariably to have existed between Madame du Chatelet and Voltaire. For the space of twenty years Voltaire followed his fair To this end it is, in the first place, necesfriend wherever she went, and in his letters he constantly speaks of her affection for him sary to be careful in preserving health, by as constituting the sole happiness of his due exercise and great temperance; for, in life. In 1749 Madame du Chatelet died sickness, the imagination is disturbed, and at the court of King Stanislaus, where disagreeable, sometimes terrible, ideas are Voltaire was likewise residing. A few apt to present themselves. Exercise should days after the death of his wife, M. du Cha- precede meals, not immediately follow telet set about collecting her jewels, in order them; the first promotes, the latter, unless to lay them by. Voltaire, who assisted him, moderate, obstructs digestion. If, after was eager to gain possession of a ring con- exercise, we feed sparingly, the digestion taining his portrait, which he had formerly will be easy and good, the body lightsome, presented to his belle Emilie. He found the temper cheerful, and all the animal it, and turning aside to touch the spring, he functions performed agreeably. Sleep, beheld the portrait of Saint Lambert. when it follows, will be natural and undis"What have you got there?" inquired | turbed; while indolence, with full feeding, : per Those who do not love trouble, and can afford to have two beds, will find great luxury in rising, when they wake in a hot bed, and going into the cool one. Such shifting of beds would also be of great service to persons ill of a fever, as it refreshes and frequently procures sleep. A very large bed, that will admit a removal so distant from the first situation as to be cool and sweet, may in a degree answer the same end. occasions night-mares and horrors inex-spirable matter,* will not receive more; and 3. When you are awakened by this uneapressible we fall from precipices, are as- that matter must remain in our bodies, and siness, and find you cannot easily sleep saulted by wild beasts, murderers, and de- occasion diseases: but it gives some pre- again, get out of bed, beat up and turn your mons, and experience every variety of dis-vious notice of its being about to be hurt- pillow, shake the bed-clothes well, with at tress. Observe, however, that the quanti-ful, by producing certain uneasiness, slight least twenty shakes, then throw the bed ties of food and exercise are relative things: indeed at first, such as with regard to the open, and leave it to cool; in the mean those who move much may, and indeed lungs is a trifling sensation, and to the pores while, continuing undrest, walk about your ought, to eat more; those who use little of the skin a kind of restlessness, which is chamber till your skin has had time to disexercise, should eat little. In general, difficult to describe, and few that feel it know charge its load, which it will do sooner as mankind, since the improvement of cookery, the cause of it. But we may recollect that the air may be dried and colder. When you eat about twice as much as nature requires. sometimes on waking in the night, we have, begin to feel the cold air unpleasant, then Suppers are not bad, if we have not dined; if warmly covered, found it difficult to get return to your bed, and you will soon fall but restless nights naturally follow hearty asleep again. We turn often, without find- asleep, and your sleep will be sweet and suppers after full dinners. Indeed, as there ing repose in any position. This fidgetti-pleasant. All the scenes presented to your is a difference in constitutions, some rest ness (to use a vulgar expression, for want of fancy will be too of the pleasing kind. Í am well after these meals; it costs them only a a better) is occasioned wholly by an unea- often as agreeably entertained with them as frightful dream and an apoplexy, after which siness in the skin, owing to the retention of by the scenery of an opera. If you happen they sleep till doomsday. Nothing is more the perspirable matter-the bed-clothes to be too indolent to get out of bed, you common in the newspapers, than instances having received their quantity, and, being may, instead of it, lift up your bed-clothes of people who, after eating a hearty sup-saturated, refusing to take any more. To with one arm and leg, so as to draw in a per, are found dead abed in the morning. become sensible of this by an experiment, good deal of fresh air, and by letting them Another means of preserving health, to let a person keep his position in the bed, fall force it out again. This, repeated be attended to, is the having a constant but throw off the bed-clothes, and suffer twenty times, will so clear them of the persupply of fresh air in your bed-chamber. fresh air to approach the part uncovered of spirable matter they have imbibed, as to It has been a great mistake, the sleeping in his body; he will then feel that part sud- permit your sleeping well for some time rooms exactly closed, and in beds surround- denly refreshed; for the air will imme- afterwards. But this latter method is not ed by curtains. No outward air that may diately relieve the skin, by receiving, lick- equal to the former. come in to you is so unwholesome as the un- ing up, and carrying off, the load of changed air, often breathed, of a close spirable matter that incommoded it. For chamber. As boiling water does not grow every portion of cool air that approaches hotter by longer boiling, if the particles the warm skin, in receiving its part of that that receive greater heat can escape; so vapour, receives therewith a degree of heat living bodies do not putrefy if the particles, that rarefies and renders it lighter, when it so fast as they become putrid, can be will be pushed away with its burthen, by thrown off. Nature expels them by the cooler and therefore heavier fresh air, pores of the skin and the lungs, and in a free which for a moment supplies its place, and open air they are carried off; but in a close then, being likewise changed and warmed, room we receive them again and again, gives way to a succeeding quantity. This though they become more and more cor- is the order of nature, to prevent animals rupt. A number of persons crowded into being infected by their own perspiration. a small room thus spoil the air in a few mi- He will now be sensible of the difference nutes, and even render it mortal, as in the between the part exposed to the air, and Black Hole at Calcutta. A single person is that which, remaining sunk in the bed, desaid to spoil only a gallon of air per nies the air access; for this part now maniminute, and therefore requires a longer fests its uneasiness more distinctly by the time to spoil a chamber full; but it is done, comparison, and the seat of the uneasiness however, in proportion, and many putrid is more plainly perceived than when the disorders hence have their origin. It is re- whole surface of the body was affected corded of Methusalem, who being the long- by it. est liver, may be supposed to have best preserved his health, that he slept always in the open air; for, when he had lived five hundred years, an angel said to him, "Arise, Methusalem, and build thee an house, for thou shalt live yet five hundred years longer." But Methusalem answered and said, If I am to live but five hundred years longer, it is not worth while to build me an house; I will sleep in the air, as I have been used to do.' Physicians, after having for ages contended that the sick should not be indulged with fresh air, have at length discovered that it may do them good. It is therefore to be hoped, that they may in time discover likewise, that it is not hurtful to those who are in health, and that we may be then cured of the aerophobia that at present distresses weak minds, and makes them choose to be stifled and poisoned, rather than leave open the window of a bed-chamber, or put down the glass of a coach. Confined air, when saturated with per Here, then, is one great and general cause of unpleasing dreams. For when the body is uneasy, the mind will be disturbed by it, and disagreeable ideas of various kinds will in sleep be the natural consequences. The remedies, preventive and curative, follow: 1. By eating moderately (as before advised for health's sake) less perspirable matter is produced in a given time; hence the bed-clothes receive it longer before they are saturated, and we may therefore sleep longer before we are made uneasy by their refusing to receive any more. 2. By using thinner and more porous bed-clothes, which will suffer the perspirable matter more easily to pass through them, we are less incommoded, such being longer tolerable. One or two observations more will conclude this little piece. Care must be taken when you lie down, to dispose your pillow so as to suit your manner of placing your head, and to be perfectly easy; then place your limbs so as not to bear inconveniently hard upon one another, as, for instance, the joints of your ancles: for though a bad position may at first give but little pain and be hardly noticed, yet a continuance will render it less tolerable, and the uneasiness may come on while you are asleep, and disturb your imagination. These are the rules of the art. But though they will generally prove effectual in producing the end intended, there is a case in which the most punctual observance of them will be totally fruitless. I need not mention the case to you, my dear friend, but my account of the art would be imperfect without it. The case is, when the person who desires to have pleasant dreams has not taken care to preserve, what is necessary above all things, A GOOD CONSCIENCE, ON THE EARTH'S MAGNETISM, ETC. DEAR SIR, is that vapour which passes off from our bodies, something philosophical in it. As you are Our much regretted friend Winthrop once | had not been a mere shell supported by a made me the compliment, that I was good heavier fluid? Would not such a supposed at starting game for philosophers. Let me internal fluid globe be immediately sensitry if I can start a little for you. ble of a change in the situation of the earth's axis, alter its form, and thereby burst the shell, and throw up parts of it above the rest; as if we could alter the position of the fluid contained in the shell of an egg, and place its longest diameter where the shortest now is, the shell must break; but would be much harder to break if the whole internal substance were as solid and hard as the shell? Has the question, How came the earth by its magnetism, ever been considered? Is it likely that iron ore immediately existed when this globe was first formed, or may it not rather be supposed a gradual production of time? If the earth is at present magnetical in virtue of the masses of iron ore contained in it, might not some ages pass before it had magnetic polarity? cause? Might not a wave by any means raised in this supposed internal ocean of extremely Since iron ore may exist without the polarity, and by being placed in certain cir- dense fluid, raise in some degree as it cumstances, may obtain it from an external passes the present shell of incumbent cause; is it not possible that the earth re-earth, and break it in some places, as in ceived its magnetism from some such earthquakes? And may not the progress of such wave, and the disorders it occasions among the solids of the shell, account for the rumbling sound being first heard at a distance, augmenting as it approaches, and gradually dying away as it proceeds? a circumstance observed by the inhabitants of South America in their last great earthquake, that noise coming from a place some degrees north of Lima, and being traced by inquiry quite down to Buenos Ayres, proceeding regularly from north to south, at the rate of -leagues per minute, as I was informed by a very ingenious Peruvian whom I met with at Paris. In short, may not a magnetic power exist throughout our system, perhaps through all systems, so that if men could make a voyage in the starry regions, a compass might be of use? And may not such universal magnetism, with its uniform direction, be serviceable in keeping the diurnal revolution of a planet more steady to the same axis ? Lastly, as the poles of magnets may be changed bythe presence of stronger magnets, might not in ancient times the near passing of some large comet of greater magnetic power than this globe of ours, have been a means of changing its poles, and thereby wracking and deranging its surface, placing in different regions the effect of centrifugal force, so as to raise the waters of the sea in some, while they were depressed in others? Let me add another question or two, not relating indeed to magnetism, but, however, to the theory of the earth. Is not the finding of great quantities of shells and bones of animals (natural to hot climates) in the cold ones of our present world, some proof that its poles have been changed? Is not the supposition, that the poles have been changed, the easiest way of accounting for the deluge, by getting rid of the old difficulty how to dispose of its waters after it was over? since if the poles were again to be changed, and placed in the present equator, the sea would fall there about 15 miles in height, and rise as much in the present polar regions: and the effect would be proportionable if the new poles were placed any where between the present and the equator. Does not the apparent wrack of the surface of this globe, thrown up into long ridges of mountains with strata in various positions, make it probable, that its internal mass is a fluid, but a fluid so dense as to float the heaviest of our substances? Do we know the limit of condensation air is capable of? Supposing it to grow denser within the surface, in the same proportion nearly as we find it does without, at what depth may it be equal in density with gold? Can we easily conceive how the strata of the earth could have been so deranged, if it I am ever, my very dear Friend, Yours most affectionately, B. FRANKLIN. Lieut. Col. Johnson's Journey overland from India. 4to. Colonel Johnson and his party, of whose journey we have already twice spoken,* left Ispahan on the 21st of May, and travelled by Kaushoon and Koom to Teheran. In his route the author gives lively descriptions of the Persian costume, mode of travelling, tombs, &c.; but we shall hasten over this part of the volume, and that which succeeds relative to Persia, in order to devote a larger portion of our notice to ground not so frequently trodden, nor so well treated; for though Colonel J. travelled rapidly, he observed accurately, and enjoyed favourable opportunities for remarks on matters of peculiar interest to English readers. At Teheran, the baths and an audience of the King engaged the travellers: on being presented to his Majesty, Colonel J. thinks the address of the Charged'affaires rather too submissive and degrading. It was as follows: These Gentlemen, King of Kings, have all their lives been anxious to touch the dust of your Majesty's feet, and this day forms a new beginning of their lives; they look on all their past days as nothing, and • See Literary Gazette, Nos. 77, 78. glory in the honour conferred on them by Your Majesty, King of Kings. Perhaps Father of kings would be a more applicable title, for it is generally agreed that his Majesty has sixty boys and sixty girls living, and about the same number deceased. Twelve of his daughters are already married, and twenty-five of his sons are governors of the principal provinces and cities of the empire! As Persia is of considerable political consequence in the existing relations of Europe, we shall annex a list of their leading stations, according to their primogeniture : Mahomed Ally Meerza, governor of Kermaundshah. Abbas Meerza, of Aberbyejaun, resident at Tabriz. Abdoolah Meerza, of Zunjaun. Mahomed Kooly Meerza, of Khorassaun. Mahomed Tuckey Meerza, of Booroojierd. Hyder Cooly Meerza. And, tenth, Ally Shah Meerza, who is twenty-six years old, and has already a progeny. The present monarch is about 45, and has reigned twenty years. On their way from Teheran to the Russian frontier, many things occurred worthy of observation. Near Casween they saw the Zenjeed, or flowering silver willow, in full blow, the smell of which is held by the natives to have The effect of greatly increasing the passions of females, and on this account men of character are careful to preserve their wives and daughters from its influence. It is lamentable to think that the Poet of Lalla Rookh was unacquainted with the virtues of a plant so admirably calculated to have adorned his song, and that Colonel J. should have had so little patriotism as not to import a few seeds of the Zenzeed. Any of our Horticultural Societies would have received the phenomenon with delight, and not one Adam among all our gardeners would have misdoubted his Eve one jot the more for snuffing the fragrance of its blossoms. But the Colonel only tells us what like the shrub is, and then sets himself like a military philosopher to account for its effects. The smell of the flower seemed not un like that of ripe fruit kept in a store-room, sweet and mellow, having withal, when near at hand, a soft scent like that of the henna. The fruit of the tree is like the bear, or olive of India; it is full of farina, and in the midst there is a hard stone, resembling that of the date. The trees have a profusion of scarlet blossoms; and their leaves of a silvery white hue; the flowers |