the praise of having done that little "state some service." In our next number we shall lay before our readers a lively narrative, from his own pen, of his first adventures in the island. THE PRINTING-PRESS IN TURKEY. MR. MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE, in his very interesting Account of the Kingdom of Caubul (a country near the higher waters of the Indus, between India and Persia), and of the scattered Afghan tribes dependant thereon, gives the following anecdote of the Naikpeekhail, who, like the rest, profess the Mahometan religion, but are so barbarous that even reading is looked down on as an unmanly accomplishment among them. Some men of the Naikpeekhail found a Mollah, or doctor of the Mahometan faith, copying the Khoran, or their Bible, and not well understanding the case, they struck his head off, saying, 'You tell us these books come from God, and here are you making them yourself.' The Turks are not quite so ignorant as this, but even they, not many years ago, when Sultan Selim introduced the art of printing, were led to believe that it was sinful to print the Khoran-that nothing but the pen and hand-writing could, without impiety, multiply the copies of their Scriptures. Other works might go through the press, but unfortunately, at the time, the Turks read no book except the Khoran, and so the inestimable benefit of printing was to be thrown away upon them! This absurd prejudice originated in, or was kept alive by, the Turkish copyists who gained a livelihood by transcribing the Khoran, each copy of which cost the people a hundred times as much as the copy the press could have afforded, and the printed copy, besides, would have been infinitely the more distinct and legible of the two. The present Sultan, among his many reforms and improvements, has succeeded to set the press to work in earnest. Many elementary works have been printed, some three or four of a higher character, on History and general Geography, and now a newspaper (that novelty for the Turks!) comes regularly from the Sultan's printing-offices, and is circulated through the vast empire. We are informed by a friend, who writes from Constantinople, that it is a very interesting sight to see the effects that have already sprung from these salutary measures. Instead of every coffee-house being crowded as it used to be, by idle, silent, stupified loungers, doing nothing but smoking their pipes, you find them now (in less numbers indeed, which is also a good thing,) occupied by men attentively reading the newspaper, or conning over "the last new work" neatly printed, and sold at a very cheap price. Before this, and almost up to last year, they were in the condition that all Europe was in four hundred years ago, or previously to the invention of printing, when only the comparatively rich could afford to buy a book or anything to read. Even on the quays of the port, and in the bazaars of Constantinople, you now see Turks occupying their leisure moments with the productions of the press, which is thus becoming day by day more and more active. A COMPARISON BETWEEN GOOD HOUSE- Ill huswifery lieth Till nine of the clock: Good huswifery trieth To rise with the cock. Ill huswifery trusteth To him and to her: Good huswifery lusteth Herself for to stir. Til huswifery careth For this nor for that: Good huswifery spareth For fear ye wot what. Ill huswifery pricketh Herself up in pride: Good huswifery tricketh Her house as a bride. Ill huswifery one thing Ill huswifery bringeth Good huswifery singethHer coffers full fraught. Ill huswifery rendeth, And casteth aside : Good huswifery mendeth, Else would it go wide. Ill huswifery craveth Good huswifery setteth WE never yet knew a man disposed to scorn the humble who was not himself a fair object of scorn to the humblest. A man of a liberal mind has a reverence for the little pride that seasons every condition, and would deem it sacrilege to of the adventitious aids, and solely by the observance of the affront, or abate, the respect which is maintained with none honesties.-Examiner. cated a throne, and retired to the monastery of St. Juste, Charles the Fifth, Emperor of Germany, when he abdiamused himself with the mechanical arts, and particularly with that of a watchmaker. He one day exclaimed, "What an egregious fool must I have been to have squandered sc much blood and treasure, in an absurd attempt to make all men think alike, when I cannot even make a few watches keep time together." The Penny Magazine will, in most cases, be delivered weekly in the Towns of the United Kingdom, by Booksellers and Newsbe sent by Post as a Newspaper is, being unstamped. For the venders, to whom Subscribers should address their Orders. It cannot convenience of those, who, residing in country places, cannot obtain the Publication at regular weekly intervals, the Numbers published during each Month will be stitched together to form a Monthly Part. That this Part may be sold at a convenient and uniform price, a MONTHLY SUPPLEMENT, consisting chiefly of Notices of such New Books as we think right to give a place to in "the Library," will appear with the regular Number on the last Saturday in the Month. The price of the Part, whether consisting of five or of six Numbers, will be SixPENCE; each Part will be neatly and strongly done up, in a wrapper. Thus, the annual Expense of Twelve Parts will be Six Shillings, viz.: Monthly Supplement of THE PENNY MAGAZINE OF THE Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. March 31 to April 30, 1832. The Penny Magazine will, in most cases, be delivered weekly in the Towns of the United Kingdom, by Booksellers and Newsvenders, to whom Subscribers should address their Orders. It cannot be sent by Post as a Newspaper is, being unstamped. For the convenience of those, who, residing in country places, cannot obtain the Publication at regular weekly intervals, the Numbers published during each Month will be stitched together to form a Monthly Part. That this Part may be sold at a convenient and uniform price, a MONTHLY SUPPLEMENT, consisting, for the most part, of Accounts of New Public Works, Abstracts of important Reports of Public Institutions, and of Notices of such New Books as we think right to give a place to in the Library," will appear with the regular Number on the last Saturday in the Month. The price of the Part, whether consisting of five or of six Numbers, will be SIXPENCE; each Part will be neatly and strongly done up, in a wrapper. Thus, the annual Expense of Twelve Parts will be Six Shillings, viz.: Fifty-two Regular Numbers, 4s. 4d.; Twelve Supplements, 1s.; Twelve Wrappers, 8d.-Total 6s. OLD London Bridgethe most ancient memorial of English civilization--is nearly pulled down. The Thames now sweeps, "strong without rage," through the five broad arches of the new bridge; and the massive piers and buttresses of the old bridge have been carried away, to form, perhaps, a mimic ruin in some citizen's pleasure ground; or to build into the foundations of some humbler structure, of which history will never make mention. Old London Bridge had well done its duty. It had stood for six centuries, the principal means of communication between the city and Southwark. It had been patched and propped, from time to time, as the growing commerce of the great mart of the world required new facilities. Its nineteen narrow arches, not much broader than the windows of some Gothic aisle, had been widened; LONDON BRIDGE. the chapel, which stood upon one of its piers, had been pulled down; the shops, which ranged on each side of the whole structure, had given way to a modern parapet; and the Southwark gate, upon which the head of many a wretched conspirator had been exposed, no longer frowned upon the multitude who passed across. As these improvements were successively effected, the stories of past ages were gradually deprived of some of their most interesting associations. The processions of kings, the penances of martyrs, the fierce contests of civil warfare, the gorgeous pageantry of the old citizens, were deprived of their most striking memorials. At last the very bridge itself, which used to attract wonders by its patchwork antiquity, was swept away, water-works and all; and in its place stands a magnificent bridge, costing, with the apVOL. I. proaches, nearly two millions sterling, which allows free passage, above and below, to the mighty rush of London commerce. The engraving, which we have here given, represents the dry arch of the new bridge, which passes over Thamesstreet. We proceed to offer a few particulars of the entire structure. The new bridge is built 180 feet higher up the river than the old bridge, by which the steep approach from Fish-street-hill is avoided. The piers were built in coffer-dams, and the first pile was driven on the 15th of March, 1824. A coffer-dam is a space enclosed in a river by driving piles, of two or three rows, the spaces between the rows being filled up with earth to prevent the admission of the water, when that in the inner enclosure is pumped out. In this coffer-dam the foundations of a pier are laid on the solid ground. The first coffer-dam of London Bridge having been completed, the first stone was laid on the 27th of April, 1825. The construction of the piers proceeded with great rapidity; and the first arch was keyed in on the 4th of August, 1827. The arches of this bridge being very flat elliptics, it was necessary that the centres (upon which the stones and other materials of an arch are supported during the progress of the work) should be particularly strong. Each centre of this bridge consisted of nearly eight hundred tons of timber and iron. The bridge was finally completed on the 31st of July, 1831, having occupied about seven years and a half in its construction. It was opened by the King on the 1st of August. Waterloo Bridge was built in six years; Westminster and Blackfriars in eleven years each. G London Bridge consists, as may be seen in the above elevation, of five semi-elliptic arches. The least of these is larger than any other stone arch of this form ever erected. The centre arch is 152 feet span, with a rise above high water mark of 29 feet 6 inches ;-the two arches next the centre are 140 feet in span; the abutments are each 130 feet in span. The roadway is 53 feet wide between the parapets, the footways occupying 9 feet each; the rise in the road is only 1 in 132. The length of the bridge, from the extremities of the abut-proaches to the new bridge than any description. ments, is 928 feet; within the abutments, 782 feet. The whole of the bridge is built of granite, and the total quantity of stone employed amounts to about 120,000 tons. The new bridge is, like the old one, free of toll. The expense has been paid, partly by the Corporation and partly by the Government ;-the Corporation are allowed to levy a tax (which is to last for twenty-six years) of 10d. per chaldron on all coals entering the port of London. The following plan will give a better idea of the ap City side. THIS is in the first place a cheap book. According to the way in which it has been usual to bring out such works, the present would have appeared in the shape of probably a two-guinea quarto. Instead of printing it in this expensive form, however, which would have confined it to large collections and the more wealthy description of book-buyers, the publisher has chosen to offer it at once to the public in three duodecimos, really a much more convenient size of volume, and at the moderate price of fifteen shillings. This brings it within the means of the most economically conducted subscription libraries, and makes it, in one important respect at least, reading for the people. But on other accounts too, this is a book well calculated and eminently deserving to be popular. It is the production of two Englishmen of humble birth and limited education, who record their own successful exer- | tions in a path of adventure, full of interest from the difficulties with which it is encompassed and the new and strange views of life and manners which it discloses. But there is a further interest arising out of the long period during which the discovery that has now been made has excited the curiosity of the civilized world, and the number of daring and accomplished individuals, most of them likewise our own countrymen, who, within the last half century, have risked, and in most instances lost, their lives in the vain attempt to effect it. The object of the expedition, of which these volumes contain an account, was to trace the course of the famous African river which has been so long known in geography under the name of the Niger, but of which scarcely anything more than the name was really known till about thirty-five years ago, when the lamented Park first reached its banks. Yet even that great traveller succeeded only in discovering the direction in which a small part of it flowed. Before his time the different accounts were directly opposed even as to this matter, some making it flow to the east, others to the west. Park ascertained that its true course was in the latter direction; nor had much more been learned respecting it since his time till the present travellers only last year explored it, actually sailing down the stream, almost from its source to its junction with the sea. Park went out again in 1805, and reached the Niger as before, but never returned to England. It was again seen by Captain Clapperton in 1826, but he also perished before he could do anything to determine the long-contested question as to its course. Richard Lander, the elder of the two brothers, whose work is now before us, attended Clapperton in the capacity of his servant on that expedition; and after the death of the Captain and his two associates, Captain Pearce and Dr. Morrison, made an attempt, evincing great intrepidity of character, to prosecute alone the enterprise, which had thus already, in its mere commencement, been attended with such fatal results. He failed on that occasion in consequence of being opposed and compelled to turn back by the natives; but he fortunately effected his return to England in safety, having arrived in London about the end of April, 1828. Some time after it was determined by Government to send out him and his brother John on a new mission to the scene of his former toils and hazards. The two accordingly left England together on the 9th of January, 1830, and having reached Badagry on the coast of Africa on the 22nd of March, proceeded a few days after on their journey into the interior. They completely suc-] ceeded, as we have just mentioned, in their difficult and perilous undertaking, and again reached England on the 9th of June, last year. The present publication is a transcript from the journals of the two adventurers, written from day to day as the events related occurred; and such a transcript is unquestionably much more interesting than any more elaborately prepared narrative would have been. But even as a literary composition, the work, all the circumstances considered, is, we have no hesitation in saying, highly creditable to the authors. The inconveniences, difficulties, anxiety, and almost constant illness in a greater or less degree, in the midst of which they wrote, might well have excused much greater negligence of style than is anywhere to be found in these volumes. Richard, the elder brother, is declared not "even to possess the advantages of a common-place education;" and John too, although stated to have in this respect the advantage of his brother, makes no pretensions to anything like learning or scientific acquirements. The narrative, nevertheless, is written in an easy, perspicuous, and flowing style, and betrays very little inaccurate phraseology. We would just mention, however, the constant habit of saying "acquaintance of" instead of with, and the occasional use of the vulgarism "to lay" for to lie, as faults of diction which might easily be weeded out. It appears also (if we understand aright the statement of the editor) that about the first half of the narrative, although given in the name of the elder brother, is really taken from the journal of the younger, certain expressions only being changed here and there, to make what was actually written by John seem to have proceeded from Richard. We see no force in the reasons given for this strange arrangement, which seems, by the bye, to have been adopted after a considerable part of the first volume had been printed. It is productive of a very disagreeable effect on the mind of a reader, who likes to make himself acquainted, as he goes along, with the characters and tastes of the two writers, as well as with their adventures; and we would therefore recommend that in a future edition, the parts of the journal written by each should be restored to their proper authors. by famine and disease, how degraded by superstition, how ground to the dust by despotism, how pursued and devoured by incessant wars,-in short, in all respects, how grovelling, worthless, and miserable. The spectacle of savage life which these African communities exhibit is, we may also remark, in one respect particularly curious; inasmuch as they have all received a sprinkling of something like civilization from the commercial intercourse which has long been established between them and the Moorish states on the coast of the Mediterranean, and the general diffusion, in consequence, among many of them, of the Mahometan religion. Although they have in this way, however, obtained the knowledge of some new arts, and at the same time perhaps of some new wants and new vices, their radically savage charac ter cannot be considered as having been thereby at all diminished. The Journal of the travellers is preceded by a short but very clearly drawn up sketch of the previous history of African discovery from the pen of the Editor, Lieutenant Becher, of the Royal Navy, which will be found very useful to those readers to whom the subject is new. We may also take the present opportunity of recommending, as containing a very good compendium of the travels of former explorers of this part of Africa, the volume entitled, 'Narrative of Discovery and Adventure in Africa,' in the Edinburgh Cabinet Library. Although that publication does not present so ample an account as it would have been desirable that it should of the southern portion of the great continent to which it relates, the general description which it gives, both of the natural aspect of Africa and of the manners of the tribes by whom it is inhabited, is very ably and interestingly written; and altogether it will be found to be a very useful introduction to larger and more elaborate works on the same subject. We can only afford room for one extract, which is descriptive of our travellers' first embarkation on the Niger, in the neighbourhood of Boossa: about the canoe. "In the course of the forenoon we repaired to the side of the river, which is about twenty or thirty paces from the town, for the purpose of endeavouring to encourage and hurry the workmen in their labour object, but the men would neither be coaxed nor intimidated,they Promises and threats were employed to effect this would not overwork themselves, they said, for all the riches in our possession; so that we were obliged to leave them, and exercise our patience. The branch of the Niger, which flows by Kagogie, is about that, except in one very narrow place, a child might wade across it a mile in width; but it is rendered so shallow by large sand-banks without difficulty. Mr. Park chose a deeper and safer branch, though it led to the same dangers. "Our horses were conveyed across from here to the opposite side of the river, from whence they will be taken to Yãoorie by land, because the canoes of the natives would be too frail a conveyance for them. These canoes are of great length, but the workmanship employed in making and fashioning them is exceedingly rude and careless. Owing, perhaps, to the want of proper trees of sufficient magnitude, they are made of two blocks of wood, which are sewn together side and out, to prevent the admission of water; but the whole is altoby a thick cord, under which a quantity of straw is placed, both ingether so clumsily executed, that every canoe in the country is always leaky. The Messrs. Lander, as we have said, do not profess to be in any sense men of learning or of science; and therefore the reader of the present volumes must not expect to meet in their pages with any elaborate historical or antiquarian disquisitions, any speculations on the languages of Africa, any precise information respecting its geology, its mineralogy, its botany, or other branches of its natural history, or even any accurate account of the geography of the countries which were passed through. But to make up for the want of every thing of this kind, the work is, we think, as rich as any book of travels we ever opened, in all those details by which common readers are more interested; in such, we mean, as help to picture forth to us that state of society and those aspects of "many-coloured life" which met "About mid-day, the workmen having finished our canoe, the lugthe observation of the travellers. Almost every page barked with our people, and were launched out into the river. The gage was presently put into it, and between twelve and one we empresents some incident illustrative of the manners or direction of this branch was nearly east and west; and we proceeded modes of thinking, so strange and fantastic according to some distance down the stream for the purpose of getting into the car notions, which prevail in that peculiar form of the main branch of the Niger, where there is deeper water. This object savage state which is exhibited by the Negro monarchies was soon attained, and we found it flowing from north to south of Africa; and so entertaining is the narrative rendered through a rich and charming country, which seemed to improve in appearance the further we advanced. We were propelled at a good by these delineations, and by the history of the toils, and rate up a channel, which, from half a mile in breadth, gradually perils, and escapes of the bold and persevering adven-widened to rather better than a mile. Beautiful, spreading, and spiry turers, that we are sure no one who may begin the peru- trees adorned the country on each side of the river, like a park; sal of the book will lay it down till he has finished it. appeared every half-hour; and herds of spotted cattle were observed corn, nearly ripe, waved over the water's edge; large, open villages Such reading is in the highest degree instructive as grazing and enjoying the cool of the shade. The appearance of the well as amusing. We see here what man is without river, for several miles, was no less enchanting than its borders; it civilization, how weak, how destitute, how unable to was as smooth as a lake; canoes, laden with sheep and goats, were protect himself against the most common accidents, how paddled by women down its almost imperceptible current; swallows, much the victim of the bad passions of himself and and a variety of aquatic birds, were sporting over its glassy surface, which was ornamented by a number of pretty little islands. those around him, how continually subject to be destroyed "The heat of the weather distressed us greatly till the approach of evening, when large sand-banks and shallows engaged our attention. A little after eight, P.M., we landed on the eastern bank of the river, not far from a small village, where we fixed our tent on a plot of rising corn, and, having nothing to eat, went supperless to rest." DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS. observations which have been made on the different qualities of these animals are interesting: it is expected that by crossing with the common ass, a very useful stock of hardy and more powerful beasts of draft may be procured." A VERY interesting report has just been circulated How important it would be if a stock from the swift amongst the Fellows of the Zoological Society. It re- and strong zebra of the African deserts, as beautiful as lates to the farm of that Society, at Kingston Hill. he has been hitherto untameable, could be applied in While the popular knowledge of Zoology is advanced this country to those numerous purposes for which the by the interesting exhibition at the Gardens at the Re-ass is too slow, and the horse too costly. What an gent's Park, the more scientific experiments of the accession to the power of many a poor man would it be Society are carried on at the farm at Kingston. When to possess a creature that would subsist upon the scanwe consider what an important power is possessed by tiest fare, and yet in strength and speed be able to enter man in his ability to render the inferior animals subser- into contest with the expensive and delicate horse. The vient to his use, it is evident that the direction of this following cut shews the zebra of the deserts. power had better be confided to science than to chance. Some of the most important vegetable productions which we possess have been naturalized amongst us by the experiments of horticulture; and in the same way it is natural to conclude that great improvements in the races of our domestic animals may be effected. At the Zoological Society's farm at Kingston, a considerable number of quadrupeds and fowls are kept for the purpose of rearing stock; and already some very useful facts have been ascertained, which promise an increase of the number of animals which can be applied to the service of man, as well as an improvement upon those which we have already domesticated. For instance, it is expected that the breed from the zebra and the common ass may give us a more hardy and powerful beast of draught than we already possess. Upon this particular the Report says: "ZEBRAS. The collection of the different species of these animals is so nearly complete as to induce a hope that much, both of interest and utility, may be done with them. The Society possesses the original species, Burchell's zebra, and the true quagga. The Burchell's zebras have bred successfully; a pair, male and female, were foaled last year, and are now in good health, although the male (which was born at the Park), from the deficiency of its mother's milk, and the necessary confinement in regard to space, is very small. The Again: the Zoological Society possesses a remarkably beautiful species of bull, called the Brahmin Bull. In India this animal is useless, wandering about at his will amidst the rice fields and gardens, and caressed by the natives with religious veneration. The Committee of the Zoological Society are anxious that there should be some stock from this noble animal, the only specimen in England. It is possible that this gentle and beautiful creature might become the founder of a race superior in docility to the common ox. The following is his portrait : With regard to birds domesticated for the use of man, | years be domesticated amongst us; and it is not improwhen it is considered that the wild turkey of America bable that the splendid pheasant of China (called is now commonly reared throughout England, and that Reeves' Pheasant) and the rare jungle fowls of the East, our barn-door fowl brings his glossy and brilliant plu-may, at no very remote period, be common amongst us. mage from the " gorgeous East," it is matter of satis- In this way the domestic fowls of Europe-the goose, the faction that experiments are being constantly made by duck, and other species-have been introduced into the Zoological Society, which may lead to the naturaliza- America and the West Indies;-and though they at first tion of new species of poultry. The curassow, a bird in multiplied slowly, they have now become familiarized size between the fowl and turkey, will possibly in a few to the climate. |