municate in consequence of it. His remarks on the present wretched state of Mecca, and the causes of decay in its population from 100,000 souls to 16 or 18,000, are more interesting, because they appear more genuine-to come more immediately from the author himself. The history of the surrounding states is also sketched with considerable acuteness and ability; particularly that of the Wehhabites, whose manners and tenets are very imperfectly known to Europeans. The perils of the deserts, and particularly of such parts as are more peculiarly infested by the warlike tribe we have just mentioned, are vividly set forth, though without being magnified; indeed they require no aid of that kind to make them appalling to the imagination, and the author experienced himself, in a degree which nearly deprived him of life, that horrible thirst, which attacking the unhappy traveller when not one drop of fluid is within his. reach, soon stretches him an arid corse upon the burning sand.

The Mussulman religion acknowledges but two templesthat of Mecca and that of Jerusalem. The former is supposed to stand on the scite of the temple erected by Abraham; the latter, on the scite of that erected by Solomon. Both are equally sanctified by tradition; both are termed, by way of distinction, El Haram, or the House of God; and both are equally prohibited by the law to Christians, Jews, and all who are not Mahometans. Accordingly we are required to lay aside all other accounts with which we have been hitherto amused, and rely implicitly on that of Ali Bey, whose descriptions are accompanied with ground plans, clevations, and views, upon which, until we are assured that they are more accurate than his maps, he must pardon us for not placing much reliance. We will leave his descriptions and measurements for those who may think it worth their while to compare them with those of D'Ohsson and Mèbuhe, from which latter source we suspect he has drawn more than he chooses to acknowledge; and we will atone to our readers for this omission by the following passage:

"Having arrived at a quarter past seven in the morning at Biet-el-Ham, or Bethleham, I met upon the road a band of Christian shepherds, who were going to Jerusalem, to lay a complaint against the Mussulman shepherds of Hhalil, or Hebron, who had carried off a part of their cattle. They had with them two camels, which they had taken from the Mussulmen as reprisals. The principal shepherd related the affair to one of the most respectable Scheriffs of Jerusalem, who accompanied me; and he explained himself in such energetic terms, that my imagination pictured to itself the quarrels of Abraham's shepherds with those of Lot, the war

of the five kings, &c.-They still preserve the same character, manners, and customs, as also the same costume, which consists of a shirt of reddish white wool, bound round the waist by a girdle or leathern belt, a black cloth thrown over the shoulders, and a piece of white cloth round the head."-Vol. II. p. 231.

Our author is sufficiently happy in his delineation of manners; and his means of access to the Mahometans afford him many opportunities of exhibiting the private life of the Moors, Turks, and Arabians. The following picture of a party of pleasure at the country residence of a Moorish minister of state may reconcile some of our own great people to the occasional languor of their parties of a similar nature.

"The following day, we made a party of pleasure to one of Hadj Edri's gardens in the country. As we dared not to play at any game, or drink any liquor, and as music and dancing did not suit the gravity of our characters; and as they had not a sufficient knowledge of sciences to make them the topics of our conversation, and as there was no political news, on account of the want of correspondence, couriers, and public papers, we were at a loss how to pass our time, and were reduced to the necessity of eating five or six times a day, like Heliogabali, and to fill up the remainder of our time with drinking tea, saying prayers, playing like children, electing among us Pashas, Khaliphes, and Kaïds, charged with the command of every dinner, tea, collation, or walk.

"The only game which contained some interest, consisted of placing on a large dish about a dozen of cups, upside down. The company then divides into two bands, and after one of them had put a ring on a piece of coin under one of the cups, the other band is to discover it in the first or last of the cups which they may lift up. If the ring should happen to be in one of the intermediate cups, he that has lifted up the wrong cup is punished with receiving from every member of the opposite band some blows on his hands with a knotted handkerchief. But, if the ring be found in the first or last cup lifted up, the party takes the same revenge. This game is, for want of a better, amusing enough, as it gives rise to many curious scenes in the disputes about lifting up the cups, and the struggle between the weak and the strong produces some droll exhibitions. "Such were the amusements that occupied us for three days and two. nights, which we spent in the garden.”—Vol. I. p. 110.

To such people, a religion of ceremonials may be regarded as a merciful dispensation; and Mahomet was as considerate to them as he was to himself when he framed a code of superstitious practices, which were sufficient to occupy that time which they might otherwise have employed in inquiring into the divine authority of his mission. But the Mahometans, like every other people who go merely by outward signs, are apt to forget the spirit of the precepts on the practice of which they pride themselves. Ali Bey, in his assumed character, thinks it necessary to praise very highly the law among the Mussulmans, which obliges them to feed a certain number

of distressed and maimed poor according to their ability, and which forbids them even to sit down to dinner without inviting those around them, of whatsoever rank or condition, to partake of it. But, according to the account of a recent traveller, the invitations to these charitable refections are not always couched in the most agreeable language. "The maîtres d'hôtel, and their assistants, have, as badges of office and instruments of arrangement, not absolutely white wands, but ponderous white staves, of some six feet in length. With these well employed, the company is, without much further persuasion or ceremony, induced to take their places, and without allowing the meats to cool by unrequisite delay of arrangement; and after a meal of not much protraction or colloquial intercourse, under the like ceremony or discipline (for it will bear two constructions) induced to depart, like Malcolm and Donalblain,

"Not over dainty of leave-taking,

But departing thence with all the speed they may."

We shall now follow the example of those worthy gentlemen, and take our leave of Ali Bey, with the acknowledg ment that, in point of amusement, his book will well reward any reader who is contented to be amused without inquiring into the authenticity of the sources whence his pleasures may be derived. As to ourselves, distrust and somewhat of contempt have mingled with the feelings of interest which his route would otherwise have inspired; for we set it down for an invariable maxim, that he who can deceive in one instance, will do so in all others in which he may find it his interest to do so. It is so easy to give false accounts of countries respecting which little intelligence is ever circulated, and of persons who are never likely to hear in what way their names have been misapplied, that nothing but the strongest reliance on the integrity of the individual can inspire that confidence in the truth of his descriptions of things before undescribed, without which, the more wonder they excite from their novelty, the more unpleasant becomes that state of mind, which, balancing between admiration and suspicion, feels alternately enriched by the acquisition of new ideas, and distracted by the fear of being imposed upon by falsehood.

As a compilation, the work certainly contains some of the best descriptions extant; as an original, we must repeat that they are not places, but their inhabitants, on whom the author's eye has been fixed.-His motto seems to have been,

"The proper study of mankind is man: "

and the result of his political observations is, that he felt sad on entering a peaceful country, where the cultured fields and well-trimmed hedges impressed him with such a sense of individual property, and of that property being respected, that he could not help ejaculating, "all that we gain in peace and tranquillity we lose in energy.

The translation is easy, but neither elegant nor correct. In a work revised by Miss Williams, we should not have expected to meet with a sentence like the following:-"Neither him, nor any body but myself at Fez, knows the days and hours at which the eclipse will take place.".

ART. III.-The Noble STOCK-JOBBER, or Facts unveiled, irrefutably to disprove Lord Cochrane's Affidavits; given as a simple Narrative, minutely detailing every Stage of the Author's Intercourse with the Cochrane Family; exposing the seductive Arts which since have made him their Victim, and most incontrovertibly proving that Lord Coch. rane was previously acquainted with, and deeply interested in, the Events that on the 21st of February, 1814, affected the Stock Exchange. Including, also, a variety of Adven tures, and subsequent Events, unfolded to counteract false Declarations of Innocence, hitherto artfully, sedulously, and designingly employed to ferment Discontent, and offered in Atonement for Error. By C. R. BARON DE BERENGER. 8vo. 10s. 6d. Kirby, 1816.

"WHEN rogues fall out," &c.—the proverb is something musty; but it is often fortunately true, and the evil practice which leads to this desirable result, is as unhappily ever rife among mankind. It is rather late in the day, it must be confessed, for any one of the parties to come forward and claim merit for admitting that these convicts were guilty of what, inventing a new term for an old transaction, namely a swindle, they are pleased to style a Stock Exchange hoax; but it is better late than never, though we owe them small mercies for their generosity.

The subject is odious, and the public are sick of it. Not so the Baron; for in what he calls a pamphlet, containing four hundred and odd pages, he absolutely revels in the infamy. He also threatens to follow up this little tract with another; but we hope that, when we say that we are satisfied,

he will hold his hand. He is evidently without the art of "cramming whole ages into an hour-glass," we therefore wish (for what does it signify how the plunder is disposed of?) that this single but heavy shot may answer his purpose! Lord Cochrane cannot oblige us more than by coming into his conditions, which are (and it is very generous) "to commit his papers to the flames," in the event of experiencing tranquillising treatment," p. 157. His quotations here and there are singularly happy, viz. "Nul ne dit jamais ce qu'il pense, mais ce qu'il lui convient de faire penser à autrui, et le zele apparent de la verité n'est jamais en eux que le masque de l'interêt."-141. Then, from Hamlet, tis a knavish piece of work;" and these words bring us in full front of the conspiracy, which is here detailed at an enormous length, perfectly consistent with the shape of the title-page, quoted above. The object of the publication is to confess the villany, and, fearing (extraordinary apprehension!) that Lord Cochrane may appear innocent, to dip him again. This was a work of supererogation, and none but the Baron de Berenger ever thought otherwise. We shall therefore trespass as little as possible on our readers' patience by a reference to the old worn-out topics, but confine ourselves to some general remarks on a work, which is rather curious, as it shows how

"-Ducis ingenium res

Adversa nudare solent."

We start with an "apology," which was sufficiently necessary, but it is not such a one as we could have dictated. He apologizes for the work being written by himself, and he seems to think that its defects are in a measure to be excused, because he is in the King's Bench; a worse excuse could not have been urged. Our best living dramatist is there, and many of our ablest authors have been and are there, or are on the road to it; and it is unquestionably a situation peculiarly dedicated to sedentary genius, as being, when com pared with the outside of the walls, far less liable to dis agreeable interruptions. In the next place, the apology embraces this "artless tale," p. vi. and informs us why it did not appear before. Now we had an idea that we knew why; but we were wrong, quite wrong. This is the reasonregret at inflicting pain on some branches of Lord Cochrane's family," p. viii. This is the exquisitely figurative manner in which he describes the feelings of his noble heart: "owing