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last by sea, through the Pillars of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar) at Britain. In the course of the work, the mode in which the ancient patriarchal religions, as well as those of Greece and Italy were founded, will be pointed out; and the author flatters himself that he shall have much strengthened the foundation of rational Christianity. He will show that all the languages of the Western world were the same; and that one system of letters, that of the ancient Irish Druids, pervaded the whole-was common to the British Isles and to Gaul-to the inhabitants of Italy, Greece, Syria, Arabia, Persia and Hindostan and that one of the two alphabets of the same system, in which the ancient Irish manuscripts are written, namely, the Beth-luis-nion came by Gaul through Britain to Ireland; and the Bobeloth came through the Straits of Gibraltar. (XCVI.)

Such is the system propounded in the present work. The reader will now perceive that it is a continuation of the controversy that began with M. Bailly, and that our preliminary remarks were necessary to a full understanding of the whole ground of contest. Mr. Higgins' theory in favour of the Celts, is in direct opposition to Mr. Pinkerton's, which holds that ancient people in great contempt. Mr. Higgins takes very little notice of Pinkerton's theory, his arguments or authorities; referring to Mr. Huddlestone's edition of Toland, as having placed Pinkerton hors de combat. We are not yet in possession of Huddlestone's book. Such publications are not of ready access with us. We must, therefore, get on without it.

ART. VIII.-Narrative of a Journey from Constantinople to Eng land. By the Rev. R. WALSH. London, printed-Philadelphia, reprinted. 1828. 1 Vol. 12mo. pp. 270.

THIS Small work contains the narrative of a rapid journey in the fall of 1827, from Constantinople through Romelia, Bulgaria, Wallachia, Transylvania, Hungary, to Vienna, and onwards to England. It presents a clear, concise and graphic delineation of the country over which the author travelled, and the people whom he encountered and derives an additional interest from the circumstance that his route lay directly across VOL. III.-No. 5,

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that region which has been so often the theatre of war, whose soil is again stained by the embittered and sanguinary conflicts of the Russian and the Turk, and to which the attention of the civilized world is now turned with anxious, if not intense expectation.

Mr. Walsh resided many years at Constantinople as Chaplain to the British Ambassador, Lord Strangford. He appears to be an intelligent and impartial observer. His remarks upon the Turkish Empire-its laws, religion and policy are probably reserved for a more elaborate work; for the information he has given us in this journal, in relation to the great transactions of Turkey, has all been incidental as if brought out by casual associations, rather than as forming a part of his original design; and he merely notices the peculiarities of the country and its inhabitants, as the occurrences of his journey recals them to his recollection.

The country from Constantinople to the Danube is an immense plain, open, dry and level, which would oppose no obstacle to an invading army, were it not intersected by the lofty ridges of the Balkan. In fact, says Mr. Walsh, "it appears as if the country from the Danube to the Propontis, was originally a dead, flat surface, when, by some convulsions of nature, this ridge of mountains was thrown up, which divided the country like a vast wall, running from the Black Sea to the Adriatic." The part of the plain lying to the south of this chain of mountains was the ancient Thrace, and is now Romelia; the part to the north, the ancient Mæsia, is the modern Bulgaria.

Before we turn to the more important topics alluded to in this work, we will notice some of the arrangements and comforts of Turkish travelling, and accompany our author over some part of his rude but romantic road :

"The ideas of travelling, which you have formed from experience, are associated closely with smooth roads, easy carriages, neat inns, comfortable suppers, and warm beds; and where these are to be found, all seasons of the year are pretty much alike to the traveller: but conceive travelling through a country in winter, where, generally speaking, there are no roads, no carriages, no inns, no suppers, and no beds! the only roads are beaten pathways, made by one horseman and followed by another, and every man may make one for himself if he pleases. The only carriages are wooden planks, laid upon rough wheels, called arubas, drawn with cords by buffaloes, which are seldom used except for burthens. The only inns are large stables, where nothing is to be had but chopped straw. The only suppers are what you may pick up on the road, if you are so fortunate, and bring it to where you stop for the night; and the only beds are the chopped straw in the stable, or a deal board in the cock-loft over it; and even this, in many places, is not to

be had. There are, doubtless, exceptions to this general picture, as I myself experienced; but, in the main, it is true: and such is the actual state of travelling at this day, in most parts of the Turkish empire through which I have passed, both in Asia and Europe.

"The companion I proposed to take with me was my old friend Mustapha, a Tartar janissary attached to the English palace. He had been originally a native of Switzerland, and was placed in the service of a merchant at Leghorn when very young. In making a voyage with him in the Mediterranean, he was taken by an African corsair, and sold at Cairo. After passing through the hands of several masters, he turned Turk; and so was redeemed from a state of slavery, and enjoyed all the immunities and privileges of a follower of the Prophet. Unlike the usual character of renegadoes, he was not a hater and persecutor of his former sect; on the contrary, he was more attached to them than ever, and well pleased with every opportunity of serving them. He spoke some English, and was the medium through which I have obtained much local information. I put myself entirely in his hands, and found him, on all occasions, not only an essentially useful but an attached and faithful fellow. As he had traversed Turkey in all directions as a Tartar courier, he was quite expert at every arrangement necessary for our journey; and on the morning we set out, I found the following preparations:

"A janissary cloak, which was to serve for every thing. This most useful of all coverings is made of goat's and camel's hair, and is of a texture as thick and rigid as a deal board. When you get into it, it stands about you like a centry box, and protects you against wind and weather. The Tartar Janissaries, in passing the chains of mountains in Asia, covered with snow, are frequently out with despatches for fifteen or twenty days, travelling with all their speed day and night on horseback. Nature cannot endure so long a suspension from sleep, so they acquire the habit of sleeping as they ride. Covered under this stiff cloak, as in a canopy-bed, they jog on at night in profound repose, trusting to the instinct of the horse that carries them. Next, a canister of Mocha coffee. The greater part of the coffee used in Turkey is sent from our West-India plantations, and Mocha coffee is as great a rarity in Constantinople as in London. A cargo had been accidentally brought just before from Arabia by an English ship, and so I obtained an unexpected luxury. But, above all, he produced a bag of Schiras tobacco. I do not wonder at the general use of this most indispensable of Turkish luxuries; it is always the companion of coffee, and there is something so exceedingly congenial in the properties of both, that nature seems to have intended them for inseparable associates. We do not know how to use tobacco in this country, but defile and deteriorate it with malt liquor. When used with coffee, and after the Turkish fashion, it is singularly grateful to the taste, and refreshing to the spirits; counteracting the effects of fatigue and cold, and appeasing the cravings of hunger, as I have often experienced. It [coffee] is always used in the East without cream or sugar. A small saucepan, about the size of an egg-cup, is placed on the fire till the water boils, a tea-spoonful of powdered coffee is put into it, and it is suffered to make

a few ebullitions; it is then poured, grounds and all, into a cup just as large as the saucepan, and in this state, as black, as thick, and as bitter as soot, it is taken with tobacco. It is certainly not easy to conceive how man was first induced to use substances so exceedingly bitter and nauseous as coffee and tobacco in their simple state; yet there are no two substances that are in more universal use among mankind, and they have come from the opposite extremities of the earth to meet each other. The people of the East had no tobacco till after the discovery of America, nor the American's coffee till it was introduced from Turkey. As I had not learned, however, to take coffee altogether in the Turkish fashion, I begged of Mustapha to add a bag of sugar to his stock of good things. I found, beside, at the gate four horses, one for a surrogee, or armed guide, another for luggage, the other two for Mustapha and myself. For these I paid about two-pence per mile for each horse. I fortunately procured an old English saddle which was lying in the palace, and so avoided the intolerable uneasiness of a Turkish one, which I had experienced in Asia; and set out at nine in the morning, on the 28th of October." pp. 2–5.

"We now entered the plain that surrounds Constantinople, and the eye could command an extensive view of the country on all sides. The first and most striking impression was the exceeding solitude that reigned every where around. We were within a few hundred yards of the walls of an immense metropolis, where 700,000 people lived together; but if we were at the same distance only from the ruins of Palmyra, we could not have witnessed more silence and desolation. The usual villas which are scattered near the suburbs of a large city were not to be seen, and the crowds which generally throng the entrance, no where to be met with. A single team of buffaloes, dragging an aruba, or a solitary horseman scarcely visible on the horizon, were the only objects that indicated the existence of social life close by the great city. Nothing, perhaps, marks the indolence and inactivity of the Turkish character more than this circumstance. The shores of the Bosphorus are very populous, and from Constantinople to near the Black Sea is one continued village. The intercourse is proportionably great, and the surface of the water is a moving picture of boats passing and repassing. This mode of motion is peculiarly adapted to oriental indolence. The Turk reclines on a cushion, smoking his pipe, and is carried the distance he wants to go without exertion or discomposure. If he had a residence in this quarter, he could only walk or ride to it, as there are, generally speaking, no carriages or proper roads on which they could run; the vicinity of the city, therefore, on this side, is abandoned; and with the exception of a very few scattered farms, it is a perfect desert.' p. 54.

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'Nothing can exceed the beauty of those downs which we now entered upon, and their apparent fertility; but they are utterly solitary and neglected. In a few places, where the ground had been turned up, the fallow left behind indicated a rich soil and abundant harvest; but these spots were very rare, and of past years. The land is portioned out into chifliks, or estates, of Turks of consequence residing at Con

stantinople. These lords of the soil become implicated in the constant troubles and changes which take place, and are frequently strangled or banished. On the first rumour of their misfortunes, all their tenants who occupied the soil immediately take flight with whatever property they can lay their hands on, from the well-grounded apprehension of being involved in the fate of their landlord; and from this state of utter insecurity, the whole country is now abandoned and depopulated.

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"The road which leads through these plains is nothing more than a beaten path over the grass, every one pursuing that which he prefers. In summer, it is of a limited breadth, but in winter, when the rain sets in, the usual path is impassable, and every traveller seeks a new one beside the former; so that in some places the road is three or four hundred yards wide. The traveller, however, is directed by certain marks. At long intervals, he sees two little tumuli, not quite so large as hayricks, between which the way passes; these are called Sandjâk Sherif Tepé, or the Hillocks of the Sacred Standard. On all expeditions against the infidels in Europe, wherever the army encamped for the night, two mounds were raised, on one of which was planted the standard of Mahomet, which formed the centre of the encampment. There are no tumuli of a larger size or more ancient date in this neighbourhood. As those, however, are at very distant intervals, other directions were necessary. In January and February, a cold Scythian wind passes over these plains, carrying with it immense drifts of snow, which soon obliterate all appearance of former tracks. Travellers then miss their way, and numbers are every year found dead in the drift. About ten years ago, a salictar, bearing important news from Shumla to Constantinople, missed his way in the snow for several days, and nearly perished, with all his suite. He, therefore, at his own expense, erected stone posts at convenient intervals along the whole line. Some few of these remain, but the greater number are broken or fallen; nor is it likely they will ever be restored by the Turks. They were the only resemblance of mile-stones in the Turkish empire.

"The only thing that had life which we met in those fertile plains, was detachments of soldiers returning from Ipsara, as one of them informed the surrogee; they were landed near Enos, from the Captain Pacha's fleet, and were returning by land to Constantinople. Some of these parties had horses with baskets on each side; these were filled with little children, boys and girls, whom they had carried off as plunder, and were now bringing to the Yesèr Bazar, or slave market of Constantinople, to sell; the unfortunate beings resembled lambs in a market car; they were from three or four to nine or ten years of age." pp. 67-69.

"As we approached the town of Burghaz, we found remnants of paved roads formed of large flat stones. The Roman and Turkish roads are so similar, that it is not easy to distinguish the old from the new; both seem equally inconvenient and dangerous. Part of this causeway, which stands out of the present line, and elevated above it, is grass-grown and moss-covered, and evidently of an ancient date ; but the rest, which forms part of the actual road, is the work of the

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