alliance less likely to involve us in German | our Court has seconded the policy of the squabbles and continental difficulties? And nation. How greatly has the good feeling why should the adverse disposition of the of France towards us been enhanced and present King prevent us from welcoming the confirmed by the womanly tact and princely prospect of an intimate and cordial alliance courtesy of the Queen against whom these with his successor? We conceive that the suspicions- unworthy alike of the Sovereign very ground taken by the objectors to the and the nation-are directed. But at home, proposed union affords the strongest evidence foreign influence brought to bear upon the of its advisability. The present King of Court could have but little weight in the Prussia is said to be hostile to England under councils of a Sovereign, “qui regne et ne the influence of his family connection with gouverne pas." No Ministers would dare the house of Romanoff. Is not this the for an hour to attempt to guide the foreign clearest possible proof how much England policy of England in obedience to the permay hope to gain by exercising a corres-sonal will of the Monarch. They are watched ponding influence during the succeeding by an ambitious and often unscrupulous reign? Whatever the value we attach to the Opposition, ready to demand and scrutinize enmity of the present Monarch, the same in no friendly spirit their reasons for every must of necessity belong to the friendship of step. They are, in a word, under a control his successor. In Prussia, the personal in- which may at any moment be strictly exerfluence of the King may decide the policy of cised-which would call them to account the country. That this influence, exercised the moment they ventured to sacrifice their by an unfriendly Monarch, has deprived us political duty to Court influence or to a misof a valuable ally, is surely the very worst taken idea of personal loyalty-if, indeed, possible reason for our doing all in our English Ministers could be found weak or power to ensure that it shall continue, in a wicked enough to contemplate such a profuture reign, to be exercised in the same ceeding. spirit of hostility to England. Who can fail to perceive that. in proportion as we suffer by the alienation or imbecility of King Frederick William, we should be anxious to secure the cordial friendship of the more liberal branch of the Royal Family of Prussia?

We deprecate, in the name of prudence, of decency, of justice, the idea that Royal marriages are to be made mere matters of State convenience. We regret the intemperate and unseemly language in which the leading journal thought fit to lecture our Nor can there be any reason to apprehend gracious Sovereign on her domestic as well as that this alliance will exercise any injurious her political duties. But we say confidently, effect upon our own policy. Abroad, the that it would be difficult for the objectors to influence of the English Court is the influ- select, on grounds of policy, a fitter union ence of England. Insinuations to the con- for the Princess-Royal than that which they trary come with a singularly bad grace from have assailed in terms so violent and inthose who cannot but have seen how heartily decorous.

THE EQUIPAGE IN REGENT STREET.-Look at dead-black harness, the modest crest upon the these equipages and their appointments! Mark panel, the delicate picking out of white in the the exquisite balance of that claret-bodied chariot wheels, and, if you would venture upon a freeupon its springs-the fine sway of its sump-dom in manners, look in through the window of tuous hammercloth, in which the unsmiling rose-tinted glass, and see the splendid cushions coachman sits buried to the middle the exact and the costly and splendid adaptation of the fit of the saddles, setting into the curves of the interior. The twin-mated footmen fly to the horses' backs so as not to break, to the most care- carriage-door, and the pomatumed clerk who less eye, the fine lines which exhibit action and has enjoyed a tête-à-tête for which a prince-royal grace! See how they stand together-alert, might sigh, and an ambassador might negotiate fiery, yet obedient to the weight of a silken in vain, hands in his parcel. The small foot thread; and as the coachman sees you studying presses on the carpeted step, the airy vehicle his turn-out, observe the imperceptible feel of yields lightly and recovers from the slight weight the reins and the just visible motion of his lips, of the descending form, the coachman inclines conveying to the quick ears of his horses the his ear for the half-suppressed order from the premonitory, and, to us, inaudible sound, to footman, and off whirls the admirable structure, which, without drawing a hair's-breadth upon compact, true, steady, but magically free and the traces, they paw their fine hoofs and expand fast as if horses, footmen, and chariot were their nostrils impatiently! Come nearer, and but the parts of some complicated centaur-some find a speck or a raised hair, if you can, on these swift-moving monster upon legs and wheels. glossy coats! Observe the nice fitness of the Willis' Famous Persons and Famous Places.

LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 607.-12 JANUARY, 1856.

From Tait's Magazine.

WHO ARE THE KINGS OF THE EAST? “And the Sixth Angel poured out his phial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the Kings of the East might be prepared.”

but previous to its fulfilment. The rise of the Turkish power on the Euphrates may be properly placed towards the middle of the eleventh century, and the date of the prophecy was towards the close of the first cenTHE way of the Kings of the East is to be tury. A long interval elapsed between the prepared by the drying up of the waters of residence of the apostle John at Patmos, and the Euphrates; according to the twelfth the sovereignty of Togrhul Bey at Bagdad. verse of the sixteenth chapter of Revela- Desolating changes occurred in many quar tions. Like many other unfulfilled predicters of the world during that millennium, tions, this announcement has occasioned and from the apostles' banishment to the various conjectures and criticisms. Some appearance of the celebrated Turkish chiefpersons indeed hold that the prophecy has tain; but during these eleven centuries, the long been fulfilled, but their opinion is enter-power of the Euphratean population had not tained by few commentators of weight in this apparently decayed, or been obviously wasted department of criticism. Nearly all parties away. The first century of the Christian agree that the river Euphrates denotes, in era is long posterior to the desolations of the this place, the resident population on its Euphratean cities and empires. Subsequent banks. No exception is now taken to that to the decay of the Roman Empire the review, and it seems to be the only part of the gions in question rather rose in importance. prophecy which has hitherto received a clear The tide flowed; the eastern empire was interpretation. But some persons allege that weakened at the heart, and became unable to the decadence of this population, or the hold its distant dominions in a firm grasp. drying up of the Euphrates, occurred at a The grand preparation for the way of the distant period, when the tribes of northern Kings of the East had not apparently comAsia acquired supremacy, in the great central menced. valley of the world, and began their migrations westward, to the East of Europe. In that case the prophecy cannot be applicable to the Saracens, who are Arabians in blood, and therefore, in reality, belong to the very people whose weakness is predicted. The only other supposition on this view points to the Turks as the Kings of the East," and the period of their appearance in the west of Asia, as the drying up of the Euphratean flood. This interpretation has no valid support in facts, but is a fanciful delusion, which might very probably originate in the mind of a superficial reader. Events must invariably coincide with predictions, and all prophecy must relate to the future, and not to the past. Whenever we have statements that refer to past events, we have history or narrative, but not predictions. The falling of the Euphratean tide must relate to a period when the power of the people inhabiting the regions which the river intersects will become more contracted than at the date of the prophecy, or than at some period posterior to its date, LIVING AGE. VOL. XII. 5

DCVII.

It is by no means evident that the Turks ever were far removed from these countries. They seem to have been a Euphratean tribe from a very distant date; for the title very fairly embraces all the districts east of that river towards the Indus, and from its mouth upwards to its sources in the Armenian mountains. The opinion which we have thus noticed scarcely deserves attention, is deficient in every requisite, and is not held by many persons, because it not only fails in important points of recognition, but is in chronological disorder with other events foretold in this wonderful book.

The decadence of the states on the Euphrates, preparatory to the way of the Eastern Kings, is therefore an event not yet explained; but nearly all the commentators refer it to the decay of the Turkish Empire. The boundaries of that empire include the Euphrates, and its power has waned and wasted for many years. Its frontiers have been gradually contracted on all sides. Africa has been almost entirely wrested from the Turks; for the

assistance now afforded to the Sultan by for the restoration of the Jews to Palestine ;

Egypt, and the smaller states of the African continent, resembles the voluntary aid of an ally more than the necessary support of a subject.

but they will not enter Palestine from the east; for they are nearly all located to the west of that interesting land. At any time, for many years past, they might have fixed The Russians have seized very large pro- their homes in Palestine without any hinvinces in the Turkish Empire towards the drance or persecution from the Turks. They north during the century. Moldavia, Wal- had to dread the enmity of the Greek Chrislachia, Servia, and Montenegro, are indepen- tians; and they have been frequently comdent, with the exception of small annual pay-pelled to seek shelter from individual Turks ments. The kingdom of Greece, small in in Judea, when insulted, oppressed, and perterritory but valuable by its geographical secuted by their nominally Christian neighposition, has been formed out of European bors. The substitution, therefore, of Greek Turkey within a quarter of a century. No or Russian rule for Turkish supremacy in European power has so visibly declined as Syria would be remarkably inconvenient and that of the Ottoman empire during the memory of men now engaged in public life. In this respect, the identification is complete. The Euphrates is dried up.

unacceptable to them. The expulsion of the small Jewish population now resident in their own land might follow in the ordinary course of persecuting policy; but the Greek Cross, while it symbolizes despotism, could never add to the natural attractions of the mountains round Jerusalem, in the opinion of their banished people.

Turkey is not the only empire to which the term may be applicable. Without stretching the geographical meaning of the title "Euphratean," the Persian empire may be included within its limits. Events within The term "Kings" implies power, rule, Persia attract less inquiry in Europe than and strength. The employment of the plural those in Turkey, but that state also has infers the fair grammatical construction, decreased in influence and power contem- either that more than one state is implied, or poraneously with the recession of Turkey. a single state governed on popular principles. Russia has gained Georgia and other provin- The Jews are the solution of professional ces from Persia during the currency of this theologians, who do not support their views century, but the court of Teheran has lost more in moral than in territorial influence. A map will show that Persia and Turkey are essentially Euphratean powers, and while Arabia may be almost politically independent, from its position, yet its fanaticism unites the population closely with the empire of the Turks.

by any argument whatever, but who concede the propriety of applying the phrase to a single nation. Judea is eastward of Patmos, and its inhabitants might be described as of the East, in reference to the locality of the vision, but not in respect to its grand subject and symbol, the Euphrates, for, as already stated, Judea is west of the Euphrates, and The next, and the more important, because the Jews are scattered among nations to the the more doubtful inquiry, respects the iden- west of Judea, with few exceptions. Even tification of the Kings of the East, whose when contrasted with Patmos, the land of way is to be prepared by the drying up Palestine would not, in ordinary language, be of the Persian and the Turkish monarchies. styled "the East" by a writer dealing with English theologians, almost without exception, the geography of the globe. We do not say assign to the Jews this oriental pre-eminence. in Britain that Belgium, France, or Holland The opinion proceeds more upon sentimental is "the East," although all these counthan sound criticism. The Jews have scarcely tries are eastward from England. The a vestige of title to the name of kings, or phrase has always implied the distant east, rulers, of the East. They have at present no and not a country on the oriental frontier earthly possession, and they probably never of the state where the language was emwill have any territorial property out of Syria; ployed. which is not east but west from the Euphrates.

The idea proceeds from the hope that the decadence of Turkey will prepare the way

We must also remember the date of the prediction. John was banished to Patmos after the Jews had been driven out of their own land; and the majority of the people

had been carried or had fled to the north or | The present position of any purely Oriental the west, both of Judea and of Patmos, into the lands where their posterity reside to the present day.

nation would not induce us to expect a fulfilmcnt of the latter probabilities; and, nevertheless, the waters of the Euphrates rapidly recede. Who then are the Kings of the East?

The phraseology employed is extremely re markable and simple. It is not eastern rulers, but rulers of the East. They may be resident in, but it does not follow that they must belong to, the East. If the question were put in plain language, without any Scriptural reference, to an intelligent merchant, to a European politician, or to any person acquainted with geography and history, "Who are the rulers of the East?" the answer would be immediate. Neither difficulty, nor doubt, nor hesitation, would be expressed in this case; and we do not see any good reason for setting aside the reply of reason or common sense in reference to a Scriptural subject.

The Jews, at no moment of their history, could with propriety be designated "rulers of the East." Their dominions never extended beyond the Euphrates, and they never occupied even the right banks of that river over a large portion of country, or through any considerable period. But the commentators usually coerce the phrase "Kings "into "Priests" of the East. This violence to the text is entirely unnecessary, except to reconcile difficulties arising from the original misconception. The Jews are not now, and are never likely to become, preachers or teachers to the East, until they have regained their land; and that event will not probably precede their conversion. This solution has so little support in the passage that very few considerations are requisite to The Kings or rulers of the East, therefore, show its inadequacy and yet it is the favor- according to this view, are the British people, ite and almost the only meaning now attached or their representatives who govern India, the to the term. Although in no sense consistent Anglo-Indians; and we are to mention sumwith the just and ordinary meaning of lan-marily a few of the arguments which support guage do the Jews meet the requirements of this opinion. The text does not imply the the prophecy, yet they have been almost uni- people of the East, but absolutely their rulers; versally pressed into this verse by those who, in and it is a singular fact than the Anglo-Inlatter times, have endeavored to solve its pur- dians have never yet been colonists of the port. We have still however to look for a con- East. Hindostan has not been their home. federacy of kings, or a single nation, ruling in They have not settled on its plains, and become the East and likely to occupy the vacuum left in large numbers the cultivators of the soil. by the subsidence of the Mahometan tide; Various impediments, in addition to the ordifor the full scope of the phraseology, "waters nary obstacles of tropical climates, have interof the Euphrates," infers rather the disciples fered with British Colonization of India to of Mahomet than any single power among the present date. The East India Company them, however pre-eminent. opposed conolization. They regarded British planters as dangerous subjects in India; and while the Saxon race have become acclimated in tropical America, and even in some parts of Africa, they are still only strangers in, but rulers of, the East. The expressive force of the term "Kings of the East," applied to the Anglo-Indians, is peculiarly obvious; for they hold the position of rulers, and that position alone, more apparently than any other body of men do now, or ever did, at any period of history, or in any part of the world. the phrase employed had been Eastern nations, cultivators of the East, or inhabitants of the East, it would not have precisely identified them; but as they are rulers or kings of the East, and belong to the East in no other capacity, the exact application of the prophecy is transparent. We do not say that they are

The Afghans, the Burmese, or the Chinese would meet the geographical requirements of the verse; but the Affghans, in the meaning suggested in the last sentence, are a Euphratean people, and in the meantime we have no reason to expect a migration westward of Burmese or Chinese emigrants. Both nations are the subjects of despotism, and cannot be regarded as kings or rulers. In that particular, and in all others, with the single geographical exception, they fail to meet the case. We may remark that the progress westward of the Kings of the East seems to be a desirable event. A way is to be prepared for them. Very probably they might come forward as instruments of judgment; but from the context we should rather regard them as messengers of mercy, and vindicators of right.

If

the persons intended, but we say that they alone at present meet the description given.

The permanent settlement of the Saxon race in Hindostan is now only opposed by the climate; and upon the highlands of the Punjaub they will gradually locate themselves, becoming thus settlers, and therefore subjects, citizens of the regions where now they are known only as rulers; but the drying up of the waters of the Euphrates progresses rapidly; and the prediction will most probably be fulfilled before any ostensible change occurs in the position of the Anglo-Indians, within their dominions.

whom the great struggle for the possession of Asia, and the enfranchisement or the oppression of its people, has commenced.

British statesmen almost invariably assume the dutics and responsibilities of governing India with the determination not to increase the extent of their country, and they are as invariably compelled to pursue in practice that policy which they denounced in theory, and add kingdoms to their territory. The passage of the Sutlej by the Sikhs led to the absorption of the Punjaub. Other circumstances, and the political necessity of squaring off the territory then held, induced the Anglo-Indian Government to annex Scinde. The Indus nearly now holds to British India on the west the relation of the Ganges in the east. The Kingdom of Berar, with a population equal to that of Belgium, has fallen into the empire peaceably and by treaty. The province of Pegu forms the maritime frontier of the Burmese empire; but the Anglo-Indians hold

waddy. These accessions and conquests have increased the measurement of the Anglo-Indian empire, within ten years, by territory equal in extent to that of France, and in population by more than thirty milions.

The peculiar constitution of the East India Company, and its varying relations with the general government, support this explanation of a celebrated passage. The sovereign of Great Britain does not exercise the same authority in Hindostan as in the Mauritius, in Africa, or in America. The governing power is shared with the Company, by an anomalous and inconvenient arrangement, which is incon- it, and thus possess the mouth of the Irrasistent with sound principles of political economy. An imperium in imperio has always been opposed and repudiated by great statesmen; and yet that is the system adopted, as if by accident, in Hindostan, and continued there since the birth of British power in that coun- The Chinese empire is in the pangs of a try. The ruling influence in India is shared great revolution which will probably separate therefore by many persons. In addition to its various provinces, and throw them under the control of the British people, the executive a crowd of different rulers. The population is administered by a numerous body of subor- of China cannot be therefore reckoned as under dinate officials, not responsible hitherto to the one but several forms of government; and Company, or to the Crown, or to Parliament their power is wasted by internal struggles and the people alone, but by an injudicious which have occurred at this juncture to leave arrangement, to the joint operation of all the meaning of the phraseology "Kings of the these parties, as if to give force and strength to the term "Kings of the East."

East" clear and distinct, for no other state new possesses even the population, as for half a century no Asiatic nation has possessed the moral power, of the Anglo-Indian empire.

No other nation ever administered in the East those functions now exercised by the British people. The Dutch, the French, and Statesmen never attempt to fulfil prophecy. the Portuguese have owned large and valuable They always act from the supposed or real possessions at different dates, to the east of necessities of the position they occupy; but the great river Euphrates; but the French the statesmen of this country have gone into settlements were all seized by the English, a great Oriental war, with the consent of all and those of Holland and Portugal are reduced parties. This war is correctly considered in to a small compass. The British empire of England essential to the existence of civil and the east is the most powerful state in Asia. religious freedom. The battle in the east of It is the only empire that increases in magni- Europe will be, on our part, defensive of the tude and power. All nations, with the ex-rights of conscience, and of one nation against ception of the British and Russian empires, its neighboring and stronger oppressors. It fade in Asia. Old powers become weak, and is the grand war of opinion foreseen by Canmake space for these modern states, the repre- ning-the war of civilization against savage sentatives of freedom and serfdom, between strength foretold by Napoleon; and it will