scenery, machinery, dresses, and decorations of this country! What a crowd of incidents! what an array of character! The bold, warlike clansman of the mountains; the chief and his dependents; the rival houses; the intriguing Maronite of the palace; and the secluded herb-eating monk of the hill-tops. The Motualy chieftain, gallant and gaudy, bristling with arms and prouder of his Arab charger than himself the haughty slothfnl Osmanli. The sleek fanatic Mussulman of Damascus, and his timid cunning Christian fellow-citizen. Then come the gentlemen of the road-the Bedawee chief, the cateran of the East; the deserter from the Nizam turned highwayman; and lastly, the wretched Nowar, who in Syria has all the traits of his brother gipsy of the Pusta, of the Bunat, of Temeswar-half thief, half hawker. His wife leaves him: days, weeks, months elapse, at last she returns, and he asks not, "Where have you been?" but "What have you brought?"

We strongly advise Mr. Cooper to try his hand on Gebel Druse, to leave the far West, to come to the East, and cast a furtive glance on the mysterions ritual of this singular people. Never mind rigorous accuracy of drawing, that would require years of study. There lies the palette of brilliant colours awaiting the hand of a master.

Just as in feudal ages in Europe, the church now asserts her superiority in temporal as well as in spiritual matters in Lebanon. The proudest member of the most warlike hill-tribe trembles before the high blue turban and long beard of the priest. The "men of the book" are lawyers as well as theologians, and every man considers his temporal as well as his spiritual interests most likely to prosper by blind submission to the priestly will. The confessional is, moreover, used as a political engine to the fullest possible extent. Nothing escapes this searching tribunal; for it is a greater crime in the eyes of.the people to omit confession of a fault than to commit the fault itself. The power, therefore, which France might have wielded from her protection of the convents and the clergy, had M. Thiers pursued an honest, consequent, and common sense policy, may be more easily imagined than described.

The majority of the clergy are, however, the reverse of Jesuitical, they are mostly simple people, very poor, very charitable, as far as their means go, and very ignorant; their knowledge extending only to an acquaintance with the Nahoo. Much time is also wasted on the Syriac language to the exclusion of more useful attainments. Even those who know the Nahoo well, are ignorant of Arab science and literature from the expense attending the purchase of manuscripts.

I visited a convent of some reputation in Kesrouan, and the first question asked me was, whether the English believed the sun to move round the earth, or the earth to move round the sun. Having answered that we considered the sun as the centre of the solar system, he rejoined that that was impossible, and cited the history of Joshua. I was then asked if the English believed hell to be in the centre of the globe? To this I answered, that the precise situation of hell or heaven in the universe were mysteries which man on this side of time was not permitted to know, as a great deal of the Scripture was evidently allegorical. He, however, shook his head, and said that the existence of hell in the centre of the globe was a dogma of the catholic church, and

that when Christ went down into hell after his crucifixion, he passed through the surface of the earth to the interior.

The few who know Italian, or are magistrates as well as priests, are of course better informed.

One day I made an excursion to Dair Mohallas, a Maronite convent, which occupies a very lofty situation on Mount Afs. A small space had been artificially levelled between the convent and the church, and a few forest-trees planted here, gave additional coolness to the situation which was open on all sides but one. On approaching, I perceived the superior and two other priests seated on a carpet laid out on the grass, occupied in reading, and a finer spot for study could scarcely be conceived; with verdure in the immediate neighbourhood, an immense sea-view below, and the fantastic forms of the mountains around, some approaching a perfect cone, others sloping, and granite ribbed like a huge animal in repose.

The superior is a magistrate, learned in the law as well as in the Nahoo, and instructs young priests who follow his footsteps. The code in Mount Lebanon, except in affairs of the church, and offences cognizable by the ecclesiastical courts, is precisely the same as in the Mussulman provinces of the empire, and the law-books studied are those most in vogue in Damascus.

The superior, after stating that a son inherited the same amount of property as two daughters, asked me regarding the laws of Europe in this respect. When I had given him the broad features of the laws of various European countries regarding the division of inheritance, he expressed great surprise at the law of entail, and thought it very unjust.

There is now no organized government in Lebanon, but while the Druse and Motualy districts are the scenes of murder and rapine, every part of the Maronite country is perfectly safe, this is attributable to the immense moral power of the clergy.

There is a curious mixture of religion and superstition among the people. When a man passes a church, he takes off his tarbouche, which according to Oriental custom he never doffs, either without or within doors, not even in the palace of the Emir Beshir, and having kissed the side of the door, crosses himself.

I sometimes sit for half an hour before sunset in the high airy garden of a sheikh, and enjoy the breeze that plays through the lemongrove. The company is occasionally numerous, and the jest and laugh go gaily round, but as the solemn hour of evening approaches, and the sun sinks behind the Mediterranean, the Moghreb bell of Mar Antonius faintly tolls across the valley, the laughers look grave, the talkers are silent, the children fall on their knees, the old men bare their bald heads, the stout soldier drops his sword, and all are absorbed in prayer for several minutes.

Heaven preserve these beautiful mountains from being drenched in the blood of a counter-revolution. No man can have a more sincere desire than the writer of these remarks to see France in her true position and in close alliance and amity with England; but it makes one's blood boil to see Frenchmen straining every nerve to replunge this country into a civil war for no other reason in the world than because England proved herself to be a "friend in need," and "a friend indeed."

WANTED A FATHER, A MOTHER, AND A FEW

SISTERS.

BY LAMAN BLANCHARD, ESQ.

ANY family in easy circumstances, and of habits by no means strict, that may be disposed to adopt a young man of a gay turn of mind, and of tastes not over-particular, would find the advertiser an acquisition. I offer myself without the smallest reservation to any sensible couple, out of the "genteel" circles, who may be desirous of possessing an affectionate son full-grown, and beg leave to rush into their arms at the shortest notice, and without further ceremony. I am perfectly ready to give my unknown sisters a fraternal embrace all round, on the spur of the moment; and am prepared to escort every one of them to the play, to see the pantomime, on the first night of my introduction to the domestic circle.

The fact is for I'm candid to a fault, and hate all circumlocution— I have just, like Norval, left my father's house, and don't mean to return to it. I arrived at man's estate, the only one I'm entitled to, several hours ago; and intend to exhibit considerable discretion for my years, in living upon seven-and-sixpence while I can. It is all I have-and the waiter's bill is not brought in yet. fore me plenty of "ways," but no " means."

The world is all be

street,

However, go back to the Grampian Hills, in street, Portman-square, I never will. Old Norval (with all reverence be it spoken) wants to be Lord Randolph, and can't. I have the profoundest love and veneration for the family, root and branch ;—no son was ever more filially framed ;—but the poet tells us of notes by distance made more sweet, and these are the notes that must pass current between us. All parties will be comfortable apart, but that continual struggle of theirs to hold up their heads would have throttled me. I have been unnaturally "genteel" all my days. I have been playing the part of young Master Somebody from childhood, and never dared to be myself until this very hour. I have been brought up in fetters, crippled past endurance in moral belts and social back-boards. victim to gentility.

I'm a

I hardly know where to look for a lodging. All the apartments for single gentlemen that meet my eye-whatever the district may be, Pimlico or Spitalfields-are "genteelly" furnished. Catch me in such quarters!

Now I say, my fine reader, don't start off with the idea, that because I have run away from the paternal domicile, I must necessarily be a bit of a vagabond. It is possible, I hope, to be the possessor of three half-crowns only, without being a scamp; and a young fellow at my time of life may abandon the "bosom of his family," without becoming a proselyte to vagabondism; making of tradesmen's books a flight of steps to a position in society that commands a distinct view of the Insolvent Court in the foreground, with Brixton Mill in perspective. And mind-you will make a grand mistake if you assume that, because I'm a rather off-hand performer with my pen, and don't call you

"candid" or "gentle," or anything of that sort, I'm either rude in speech or vulgar in my taste. Refinement has its flash dictionary as well as coarseness; and to my thinking, the slang of gentility is quite as stupid and disagreeable as any other. With those who are of opinion that

Starch makes the man, and want of it the savage,

I stand no chance; and if they should agree that plain English is a language never to be spoken to ears polite-why, I'm dumb, that's

all.

The leopard cannot change his spots, and if he could, he would only make himself uglier. What a finikin-minikin would my affectionate sisters have made of me by this time if I had but let them. I should have cut a figure rather more quizzical than Moses Primrose did, when his darling sisters fitted him out for the fair, trimming his hair, brushing his buckles, and cocking his hat with pins-dressing him up, in short, for the Jenkinsonian sacrifice beyond all probability of escape. How I used to laugh, to be sure, even though a little scrap of a boy, when the dear prim creatures, just two or three years older than myself, turned up their pretty genteel-looking eyes at certain indications of a genius for the gutter, which at that period I manifested. How they used to warn me that I was never upon any pretence to put my hands in my pockets, and laboured to convince me that there were no such things as breeches. How the refined and sensitive young things would preach against marbles and hardbake; insisting, with a genteel shudder, that bounce-about was vulgar, and eating bulls'-eyes an ungentlemanly practice.

But as I have my way to make in the world, and appearances are against me, it may be wise to set out with a distinct picture of the grievance I have had to endure in street, near the square. Six words will describe it. It is imaged to the life in a trivial incident that happened but yesterday.

A nice plump specimen of a natural country cousin, the daughter of a plebeian farming relation of ours, had come up to town to find out for the first time what was meant by a Christmas in London; and in upon us she burst (her maiden morning-call in the metropolis), with cheeks horribly rosy, eyes shockingly inclined to sparkle, and a mouth so vulgar as to smile without the smallest disguise as she spoke. There sat my three sisters in buckram-more than a match for Falstaff's four men in ditto. (Haven't I caught it though, often enough, for being so fond of those coarse low plays of Shakspere! Oh, no, not at all!)

Well; the buckram didn't frighten Lucy Farmer; she began, and she went on-so naturally, that it was quite dreadful-about where she was going, and what she was going to see, all agog to inspect every curiosity in London, Aldgate-pump, and St. Paul's among the

rest.

"Of course my sisters had seen St. Paul's? Of course they hadoften and often? Been up to the top! Ah! how delightful to live in London, and be able to see such wonderful sights every day in the year!"

"No," remarked the eldest of my sisters, with great dignity,

(6 we

have never seen St. Paul's, Miss Farmer;" adding, "but of course we have seen engravings of it."

Miss F. opened her eyes, looked incredulous and amazed.

"Never seen St. Paul's! only pictures of it! and you living all your life within a short walk of it! Ah, come now, you are taking me for a simpleton."

My sister doubtless felt disgusted beyond expression; but the gentility of her nature prevailed. There was no touch of scorn, but merely a consciousness of superiority, in the low and quiet tone, and the easy condescending dignity with which she explained,

"No, we have never been to St. Paul's-it is too far east!"

Lucy Farmer's stare diminished at this; and her face assumed an expression equivalent to the meaning that used to be conveyed by the word "anan;" but I laughed-outright-in the very faces of the trio in buckram. Yet I ought not to have laughed; for they only told the truth. They had always lived within three miles of St. Paul's, and never had been in it;-it was too far east! Well, upon second thoughts, I think I ought to have cried; but somehow that Lu, though I hadn't seen her since I was a boy, had put me into such spirits!

It strikes me that the feeling so naively expressed by my fair sisters must be the same, ridiculous as it seems, that influences the whole family of fashionables, who rise almost at midday. They are shocked at the idea of seeing the sun in the east. They would not behold the daybreak for the world-it is so far east! Do they select vulgar people only to represent her Majesty at Constantinople? This is a point that requires consideration in the polite circles.

sume.

But to re

That horrid haw-haw of mine will never be forgiven while the world stands-never. I could have committed no offence more heinous. I was always from a child forbidden to laugh-it was only low people, they said, who laughed in that loud manner-but somehow I had a natural turn for this vulgarity, and often have I, after a lecture, stolen away, clapped my hands to my sides, and had my fit out. They once took me to see a pantomime, and scolded me for three weeks afterwards, because by my laughter I attracted the notice of the party in the next box.

Of course we rarely went to the play-indeed never; the genteeler theatres were expensive, in the boxes; and when, in the innocence of my heart, I once proposed that we should all go into the pit, where we should get capital places by starting before the doors opened, there was such a convulsion- I think the "medical attendant," as he was called, was sent for. Henrietta fainted, I know; and poor dear mamma wept bitterly at this fresh symptom of the innate depravity of my spirits. Such degeneracy they were wholly at a loss to account for, but each in turn undertook to lecture me on this infamous project for disgracing my family; until, my patience exhausted, I couldn't help singing out," What a row about nothing at all!" and amidst a general scream was sent off to bed, with the awful intimation that my greatuncle, the general, should be written to on the subject, and he would talk to me. My father said afterwards that he should not object to my being taken to the theatre, if they would dramatise" Lord Chesterfield's Advice to his Son."