ticles of the royal treasure. From this short description, it may be seen that the value of single articles is immense; but I must confess that, upon the whole, there was no appearance of that Asiatic magnificence which has been so highly extolled by European travellers.

'At the conclusion of the audience, the prime minister was allowed to come into the tent, where he stood next to the members of the embassy. The king, in a loud voice, said much to him in praise of the ambassador, and particularly mentioned his excellency's delicacy in rising from his seat every time that he addressed him. This convinced his majesty, that if his excellency knew how to assert his rights, he also showed much good taste in the exercise of them.

The king dismissed us very graciously, and commanded the prime minister to see that the embassy were provided with every thing which they could want. We returned as we had come, making three bows in the court, where the adjutant-general resumed his slippers, at the place where he had left them. Mahmud-Chan accompanied us home, where the ambassador justly expatiated on the noble qualities of the Shah, respecting whom, we learnt that he was also the first poet of his nation.'

We cannot dismiss Mr. Kotzebue until we have accompanied him to the tent, where the presents from his imperial master were laid out for the inspection of the king of Persia.

His majesty now came, and, perhaps, for the first time in his life, saw a full length reflection of his own figure. "These mirrors," said he, "are dearer to me than all my treasures." Continual exclamations of Pach! pach! and Whoop! whoop! again resounded throughout the tent, whenever he touched any article. The service of cut glass pleased him exceedingly. He desired almost every article to be presented to him separately, inquired where each had been made, and always said that it pleased him more than all his treasures." The ambassador observed, that the Petreasures of Persia were too well known in Europe to render it possible to surprise his majesty by the magnificence of the imperial present; but these articles were all the produce of Russian manufactories, with which, by these specimens, the emperor was desirous of making his majesty acquainted. "They are far dearer to me than all my treasures!" he again exclaimed.

'He spoke with much graceful ease, and showed that he knew how to appreciate each article. He took up a beautiful goblet of cut glass, and said to his excellency, "truly this glass is so fine that it might seduce me to drink wine!"

"The superintendant of the presents, was allowed to present every article into his own hands; an honour which is never extended to any person but the prime minister,which affords another proof that the king is proud only when the customs of his country require that he should be so.

'The sable furs excited his admiration to such a degree, that he doubted at first whether they were not dyed; a hesitation which created no surprise, since those worn even by the most opulent chans were reddish. When the ambassador had convinced him that the colour was natural, adding, that the emperor had selected them himself, he suddenly laid his hand on the furs, and, resting it there, said, "I wish that my hand may happen to touch the place where that of the emperor has rested; my friendship is sincere, and lasts for ever.

'He took a pleasure in looking frequently in the mirrors, and at last said, smilingly, "These will make me vain of my person. He desired that the machinery of the elephant might be put in motion, and admired its mechanism. He praised the costume of the Russian ladies, and was in such good spirits, and so lively, that he sent orders to his principal officers throughout the camp, to come and admire the presents which the great emperor had sent to his friend the great Shah;" and he commanded the minister instantly to despatch a courier to Teheran, with orders to build a saloon expressly for the reception of the presents; adding, "He who shall be the first to bring intelligence of their safe arrival, shall receive a reward of one thousand tumanes; but he who disregards my commands, shall be answerable for his neglect with his head."

ART. IV-Views of Society and Manners in the North of Ireland, in a Series of Letters, written in the year 1818. By John Gamble, Esq. author of Irish Sketches," Sarsfield,' 'Northern Irish Tales,' &c. 8vo.

[From the Gentleman's Magazine.]

IN N the present age of tours and journeys, when the liberation of the continent has opened so wild a field for investigation, Ireland seems to be sinking into provincial obscurity, and is likely to be more than ever neglected. But its claims to notice, though superseded for a time, by those of more distant countries, which have the attraction of novelty to recommend them, are not intrinsically diminished, and can never be regarded with indifference. These claims continue to be deeply felt, but they are of such a nature, that the acknowledgment of them is no gratifying duty; indeed, the very mention of Ireland conjures up a host of painful recollections and forebodings, from which the mind, rather than combat them, would willingly escape, seeking refuge from the trouble of devising a present remedy, in the passive hope that fu ture events may, somehow or other, avert the threatened evil. Thus, to vary the similitude, that once distracted country appears on our political horizon like a slumbering volcano, which, at any moment, in a season of seeming tranquillity, may again vomit forth its devastating fires. Impressed with an apprehension that some terrible explosion is preparing, we stand aloof, in still but unquiet

apprehension, half ashamed of our inertness, and ready to applaud the first adventurous spirit who shall explore the penetralia of the dreaded region, and bring back truth either to confirm or dispel our fears, and at all events to relieve us from suspense. Nor were there wanting men of sufficient nerve to accomplish that desirable aim, if firmness and perseverance were the only requisites; but Ireland is not a country to be explored by a mere stranger; and he who, on making the attempt, had to depend only on the common and obvious means of information, would return, very little the wiser from his expedition. It is only by a native, that such a country can be worthily described, and that native must devest himself of many cherished and deep-rooted partialities, before he ventures upon the task.

To the credit of possessing these qualifications, the present writer, if we may judge from his own avowal, which is corroborated by circumstantial evidence, has a fair and just title. Ireland is his birth place, and the abode of his youth; but he has passed a season of his maturer years in other countries, and has thus enabled himself to appreciate her condition, by comparing it with theirs. He returns with his amor patriæ undiminished, though regulated by a wider survey of the world; he reviews the scenes of his early days with the calm eye of experience, and he observes changes which (setting aside all the sanguine anticipations of juvenile enthusiasm,) indicate retrogradation rather than improvement, and mournfully disappoint the hopes which he had formed. He records his observations in a series of letters to a friend, and this mode of communication, while it relieves him from the restraint which might have been imposed upon him by the idea that he was delivering his testimony at the bar of the public, is perfectly consistent with the design of his work. He identifies himself with his countrymen, and concludes that he cannot better describe them, than by a frank and unreserved display of his own feelings. The following is a portion of the letter which he writes, after having taken up his residence in his native town.

I have now been better than a week in Strabane, and it is time, therefore, that I should write. Yet little have I to tell, except that I have seen a few old acquaintances, visited my old walks, and that I have found every thing changed, and changed for the worse. Since I was last here, this town and neighbourhood have been visited by two almost of the heaviest calamities which can befal human beings. Fever and famine have been let loose, and it is hard to say which has destroyed the most...

'It would be too much to assert that the latter caused the former; but it undoubtedly was the cause of its wide diffusion. Hordes of wandering beggars, impelled by the cravings of hunger, carried the distemper from door to door; and, from their wretched habili ments, wafted contagion far and wide. Almost the entire mountain population, literally speaking, took up their beds and walked;

and, with their diseased blankets wrapped round them, sought, in the low lands, the succour which charity could not give, but at the hazard of life.

6

Irish usages have always opened a ready way to the beggar. The most holy men, says one of their laws, were remarkable for hospitality; and the gospel commands us to receive the sojourner, to entertain him, and to relieve his wants. Even in ordinary times, the poor claim charity claim charity as a matter less of favour than of right; and approach the rich man's door, almost with the freedom of an inmate; but they now, in frightful' numbers, besieged every house, and forced their way into kitchens, parlours, and even rooms the

most remote.

'Those who condemn the English system of poor laws, would have here found reason to change their opinion; and have beheld the evils inseparable from leaving our fellow men to seek in infirmity and old age, that bread, which, were society constructed as it ought to be, should be wanting to none. The immediate evil was the rapid propagation of the fever, which, almost at the same instant, showed itself in the town and country, the hill and valley, the lord's castle,-the tradesman's house, and the poor man's cabin. I do not understand, however, that its malignity was much greater than on former occasions; though its diffusion so out-baffled all calculation, and could only be paralleled in those barbarous times, when battle and murder spread havoc over the land, and pestilence gathered the gleanings of those whom they had spared.'

He gives an alarming account of the state of things in the North of Ireland, a district which he declares to be so much changed in the course of ten years, than he can scarcely recognize it to be the same land.

'The late war, while it aided party and increased taxes, increased wealth; and the natural consequences of wealth, refinement in manner of living, improvement in dressing, and a taste for luxuries followed. Of a social disposition as the people are, and captivated by unaccustomed enjoyment, it is possible that even then this prosperity was more apparent than real, and though something was gained, that little was saved. Besides, unconnected as landlords and tenants unfortunately now are, by those ties which bound them together formerly so closely, rents were raised to an enormous pitch, and even in those days paid with difficulty and murmuring, are now scarcely paid at all. With the stoppage of the war, trade seemed likewise to stop, and like a bow too forcibly bent, society, with hideous recoil, flew back to the opposite extreme; for, as if prosperity, which is not very natural to any land, should be particularly unnatural to Ireland, the terrible harvest of the year before last, succeeded to the peace, heaped misery on misery, disease on poverty, and generated the fever and famine of which I have already spoken.

The northern farmer, who in general cultivates only a few acres of land, scarcely able to feed his family, and totally unable to relieve the hundredth part of the misery which daily and hourly knocked at his door, fell unavoidably into arrears. Humane landlords spared their tenants, and though the motives which dictated such conduct were in the highest degree praiseworthy, there were occasions in which it rather did harm than good; for from the supineness incident to our nature, many, because they could not pay all, relaxed in their efforts, and paid none at all.

'But there is little danger that humanity in the excess should ever be very injurious to mankind, and the great suffering sprung from the opposite cause. Selfish landlords and agents, filled the pounds with cattle, seized and auctioned grain, household furniture, beds, bedding, and whatever else they could lay hands on; and by this cruel, as well as foolish policy, while they gained transient payment, incalculably added to the aggregate of suffering, and irreparably injured their struggling, and to their further shame, I must add, meritorious tenantry. The linen-trade felt the general depression; money became so scarce, that numbers could not purchase even the flax-seed that was necessary to sow their ground, and thousands of hogsheads, after being in vain offered for sale here, were shipped for England and Scotland, and sold at an immense loss, to make oil of.

By the combination of these causes, and many others, this country, a short while ago, presented not so much a melancholy, as a frightful spectacle; the abode once of comfort, it seemed now a huge arena of misery; and law-suits, ejectments, distresses, imprisonments, assailed those whom the fever had spared.

'But violence has, in its own nature, a period at which it must cease, and the disease, in a measure, has wrought its own cure. There are few law-suits; for of what avail to go to law, where there are so little means of payment? and besides, many to whom large sums are owing, actually cannot command the trifle necessary to go to law. In many places, society is transported back to the practice of the ruder ages, and payments in kind, are becoming the commonest of any. A few weeks ago, a relation of mine, disposed of a field of corn, which was ready for cutting, for which, according to the valuation of two men who viewed it, she is, in December, to get an equivalent quantity of oatmeal. A poor man who has a few acres of land from her, and is now nearly three years in arrears, expects, as the harvest is so favourable a one, shortly to pay a part of it, but not in money, but by giving her potatoes and turf. I know not that this has ever occurred to lawyers on circuit, as has been reported, but I am sure that surgeons and apothecaries, (physicians are here pretty much out of the question,) have oftentimes been paid in a similar manner.'

Continuing his enumeration of these distresses, he adds,

'It is sad to contemplate this fertile land, deserted or neglected by its gentry, its natural guardians and protectors, and leaving their