jesty's gracious rejoinder. Her Majesty ought to be, and is, a good judge. Murphy out-so he was in not accepting my offer; but he gave me two reasons for declining it his great timidity was one, and then the obvious necessity of letting out the secret of his science, another. A scribe, by the name of Fox, is belabouring Charles Kean in a morning paper: to judge by his writings, his name should be GOOSE!

[In the third volume, the author labours hard to justify his own speculations by the

success of Mr. Charles Kean's melo-dramatic tragedy, and by abusing certain newspaper critics who entertain very different notions of Mr. Kean's genius from his own: the half dozen pages of rejoinder to the John Bull critique, are a sad waste. Still, it cannot be denied that the professional details contained in these volumes

give them a value beyond mere books of anecdote and adventure; and, to have assembled such minutiae of calculation and comparison, must have been no trifling labour. Their interest to the public is another matter: they look to the end, not to the means. The least amiable as well as the most unprofitable portion of the work, is that which is given up to the abuse of Mr. Macready and his friends; and this runs, as black as Styx, a damning stream throughout each volume. Elsewhere, Mr. Bunn proves himself to possess the high requisites for setting "the table on a roar ;" and to have shewn energies in extremes, such as ought ever to command success. With all his severity upon the conduct of others, the author is, at heart, a right pleasant fellow; and, in this work, has accomplished a labour of extraordinary difficulty and delicacy-that of writing contemporary history, with certain exceptions, fairly. Here is his exit:]

I do not deny that I have striven throughout, with reference to those who have so wilfully or unintentionally misrepresented me, "to work mine end upon their senses;" but, my staff being broken, I shall be perfectly content, without one feeling of disappointment, or one expression of annoyance, should it be the desire of my reader, and the general pleasure of all-potent public opinion, to act upon the conclusion which dissolved the spell of Prospero,

"And deeper than did ever plummet sound,
I'll drown мY BOOK."

NARRATIVE OF A TOUR THROUGH ARMENIA, KURDISTAN, PERSIA, AND MESOPOTAMIA. BY THE REV. HORATIO SOUTHGATE.

[THESE very striking volumes reached our hands at too late an hour to enable us to do justice to their varied and inter

We

esting character in this Number. shall, therefore, for the present, content ourselves with the following quotations, and return to the work in our next.] Royal Poet.

The late shah was, in some respects, a remarkable man. He possessed most of the good and bad qualities of a Persian. He was vain, and fond of flattery, imaginative and devoted to pleasure; yet shrewd, affable, and dignified; capable of the most arbitrary acts, yet not cruel ; excessively proud of his personal appearance; fond of show and regal state, yet not an oppressive or tyrannical ruler. He professed to be a poet, and I remember to the bazaars at Tehran. A Persian related have seen a volume of his productions in to me, one day, the following anecdote, as illustrative of the character of his efforts in this department of literature. He had just completed a new performance in metre, which he flattered himelf possessed peculiar excellence. Calling, therefore, for the court poet, whom, after the manner of the East, he had constantly attached to his person, he read the poem before him, and demanded his opinion. The poet, fearing lest his own emoluments should of the shah to rhyme for himself, and being be endangered by this growing propensity also a man of uncommon honesty, expressed a very unfavourable criticism upon the piece. The shah, enraged at the audacity with which he spoke the truth, ordered his servants to conduct him to the stable, and tie him up with a donkey. The poet remained in this dolorous situation several days, when he was again ordered into the royal presence, and his opinion asked upon another performance, which the shah had perpetrated during his confinement. The poet listened in silence, and, when it was finished, venturing no more to express his opinion openly, he fell upon his knees before the king, and implored that he might be sent back to the

stable.

Persian Dervishes.

is one thing, but the mortality of its various parishes another; some of them being twice, thrice, and even four times that of others.-Quarterly Review.

French Play-bills.-There are certain stations on columns or buildings in various parts of Paris, on which the bills of all the theatres are posted daily, and where the public look regularly for them. Should there be no performance at night, the word RELACHE, is, in large type, conspicuous on the bills. This sometimes appears on two or three play-bills. It was once remarked, knowingly, to Old Barnes, the Pantaloon, that there was a very popular piece being acted at the time, for it was performed at three different theatres, and was called RELACHE. He was advised, if it was printed, to buy it, and send it over to Mr. Moncrieff, to translate for the Coburg theatre.-Bentley's Miscellany.

The newspaper paragraph of a " Present to Her Majesty from the East," of "a magnificent male elephant, docile and good tempered," and christened "Prince Albert,' turns out to be a penny-a-line hoax, no such "oriental stranger" having arrived at the Gardens in the Regent's Park, notwithstanding numerous inquiries, &c.

Death in London.-The statistician, curious in death, notes that every ten minutes some one of the inhabitants of this huge metropolis dies.-Quarterly Review.

Pantheism.-In Europe, Christianity is giving way beneath an invading Pantheism. In Germany, in France, even among educated men in England, whose education has not been carried on in the great schools of the Church, or on the principles of the Church, Pantheism is an avowed creed. Among the dregs of our population, though under no classical name, the same spirit is working: Socialism is a vulgar Pantheism; and that it will gain ground, and prevail to a considerable extent, we cannot doubt, any more than that the seed will thrive in a soil well fitted for its reception.-Ibid.

Smithfield.-The annual value of the sheep, cattle, &c. at Smithfield, is five millions sterling: every year there are brought up 1,200,000 sheep; 150,000 beasts; 22,000 calves; 60,000 pigs; 12 to 15,000 horses.-Mr. Youatt.

Consumption.-Both Gibraltar and Malta are supposed to be very healthy, and to afford a glimpse of hope to those who suffer under that fatal scourge of our race-consumption; but this conclusion, or rather, impression, is oppugned in recent statistical reports. The authors state, that in the United Kingdom 6.6 per 1000 are attacked by this dreadful malady; while in Gibraltar the amount is 8.2; at Malta, 67, and 5.3 in the Ionian Islands. This would seem to prove, that, with the exception of the Ionian Islands, the Mediterranean is not, as is generally supposed, favourable to pulmonary complaints, but rather the reverse.

Vice versa.-We had a Wolverhampton acquaintance, who lived in the Blackfriars-road, who sat near to us in the chapel; and, in a complimentary way, he used to say, "Mrs. Barnes's vice is above all the other females in the chapel." He meant to have pronounced the word voice; but all folks from Staffordshire, and adjacent counties, use vice for voice. Journal of Old Barnes; Bentley.

Epsom Races.- It is curious to cast a look back to 1740, and learn that an act to discourage horseracing occupied the attention of parliament; for the evil had risen to such a height, that during six days at Epsom, six races were run, the utmost prize being forty guineas; and the amount of the six, 180 guineas. To be sure, there was cocking to boot, as usual. Bentley's Miscellany.

Useful Hint.-There is such a thing as "modest assurance," as well as "modest sheepishness," and the two are by no means to be confounded. Compare the effect of "waitorrh," echoing through the vastness of a coffee-house, with the bashful, hesitating, sheepish "weeter" of one to whom a coffee

house audience is awful; and then say which will procure the first refreshment. In like manner, "box-keepor!" so loudly articulated, that it puts Macready out of his part, will get you a seat, which would cost an humble petitioner for places a shilling, at least.-New Monthly Magazine.

Instinct and Friendship.-Mr. Danby says: There is, perhaps, more of instinct in our feelings than we are aware of, even in our esteem of each other: this is one of the many wise remarks of a thoughtful man.-The Doctor.

Love of Nature.-The world is beautiful enough, if we are disposed to see and admire its beauty; but, alas! how many there are who have no leisure to look beyond their own daily cares! Happy are they who can tear themselves from the turmoil of busy life, to see Nature face to face. Intercourse with the world, and an acquaintance with all the petty intrigues and degrading passions of mankind, have a tendency to debase the inind; but every man feels his ideas raised and expanded by a contemplation of the works of Nature.-Times. (Excellent!)

Popular Literature.-The press is pouring out every day a tide of books, which distract the attention, weaken the judgment, corrupt the taste, and defy the criticism of the public by their very multitude. Every one, young or old, man or woman, fool or wise, thinks himself able to say something which may catch the public eye, and raise himself either money or notoriety. The whole world is become a great school, where all the pupils have turned themselves into teachers; and the ravenous appetite of an idle people, always craving for some new excitement or amusement, and ready to swallow the most unwholesome food, is daily stimulating the market. What should we say if a man had the power of so volatilizing a grain of arsenic, that its effluvium should spread over a whole country, entering into every house, and penetrating to the most vital parts of the body?-and yet, until it is shewn that the human mind is good itself, and a source of good,-that it is not, what we know it to be, save only when purified by religion, corrupt itself, and a corrupter of others,-this power, which every man possesses, and so many exercise, of diffusing their thoughts over the world, and insinuating them into the heart of a nation, is, in reality, the power of spreading a pestilential miasma.-Quarterly Review.

Grace after Meat.-An old fat curmudgeon of a Norfolk farmer, always repeated this grace after meat: "Thank God! I have had a good dinner; and I don't care who harn't."

Sunday in London.—It is universally remarked, by foreigners, and as generally admitted by natives, that a Sunday in London is one of the dullest imaginable affairs, more especially out of the season; during which the sun and dust of Hyde Park, or the flirtations of monkeys, and the screamings of cockatoos, in the Zoological Gardens, attract the "world" to either, or both, of these fashionable localities."-New Monthly Magazine.

Female Education. - Ingenuous as girls are naturally, the very spirit and principle of their education, and the formation of their characters, induce hypocrisy and insincerity. By nature, they are the most candid creatures in the world; but art destroys their minds, as much as the freaks of fashion distort their bodies; until, at last, their avowed likings and hidden dislikes, their declared nays and their reserved yeas-all the fruits of a systemrender their thoughts and their words so much at variance, that, to use a very odd simile, they remind one of the waterman, who, when most skilful, looks one way while he pulls the other.-New Monthly Magazine; (from the Editor's racy "Fathers and Sons.")

LONDON: Published by GEORGE BERGER, Holywell Street, Strand. Printed by WHITEHEAD & Co. 76, Fleet Street, where all Communications for the Editor may be addressed.

CHINESE TACTICS.

OUR present hostile position with China renders all information respecting the government of this vast empire of peculiar interest. Our knowledge of its resources has, until recently, been very limited; but, of late years, the more frequent visits of European travellers, upon special missions, have added considerably to the accuracy, as well as to the extent, of our acquaintance with the Chinese empire. among this accession of information, our present purpose is to select a few characteristic details of the Military Tactics of the Chinese, so as to convey to the reader some idea of their relative chances of success in opposition to the superior discipline of British arms.

From

China, in all points of view in which it can be regarded, is much more a civil country than a military one; and although, in many of the provinces, there are numerous soldiers, and some of the cities are altogether military, their military are an inferior class of persons; and thus the warlike force of the empire bears a very low ratio to the number of its inhabitants.* Nevertheless, the military establishments are equally formal with the civil ones: indeed, they are more formal than formidable; and, in like manner, their theory of tactics, although very well defined, falls far short of application to its full extent.

It might reasonably be expected, that a nation claiming the invention of the most formidable aid to war, namely, gunpowder, would, in the lapse of years since this invention, have become adepts in military strategy. Such, however, has not been the result; for, allowing the Chinese to have invented gunpowder, they do not appear to have been aware of its application to warfare. It is stated that gunpowder was used in China as early as the year A. D. 85, and that the knowledge of it was conveyed to us, from the Arabs, on the return of the Crusaders to Europe; that the Arabs made use of it at the siege of Mecca, in 690; and that they derived it from the Indians.t

* The degraded state of the military in China is thus pertinently referred to by Mr. Mudie, in his clever little work, China and its Resources: "It is, no doubt, desirable that every country should, if possible, do without any military array; but it does not appear consistent with human nature that such an array can be dispensed with; and, therefore, the degradation of the military is a means both of weakness and wickedness to every state in which they are regarded as being inferior in rank to the civil authorities. This is well confirmed by the conduct of the Chinese soldiery, who are naturally pusillanimous in battle, but proverbially cruel in all cases when they obtain the mastery; and they are rapacious to such an extent, as that the 'honour of a soldier' is an expression unknown in the Chinese language."- p. 134.

"In support of this surmise, it may be observed, that in no country could saltpetre, and the

Sir George Staunton observes, that "the knowledge of gunpowder in China seems coeval with the most distant historic

events. Among the Chinese, it has at all times been applied to useful purposes, as blasting rocks, &c., and in the making of fire-works; although it has not been directed through strong metallic tubes, as the Europeans did, soon after they had discovered it."

Again, the structure of the Great Wall justifies the conclusion, that the use of fire-arms is comparatively modern in China, however ancient the invention of gunpowder; for the parapet-wall of this boasted" wonder of the world" is only eighteen inches, a thinness but ill calculated to resist cannon. The Great Wall incloses China on the northern boundary, and extends, over mountains and rivers, for about 1,400 miles. It was constructed rather more than 2,000 years since, or about 200 years before the Christian era, by the first universal monarch of China, as a defence against the nomadic tribe of Tartars, who have never ceased to infest the country to the south, as long as it has been subject to a separate dominion. The main substance of the wall is earth or rubbish, retained on each side by a thick casing of stone and brick, and terraced by a platform of square tiles. It bounds the whole north of China, extending along the frontiers of three provinces, a distance of nearly 19° of longitude. From its eastern extremity, there is an extensive stockade of wooden piles, enclosing the country of Mougden; and which, in some European maps, has been erroneously represented as a continuation of the solid barrier. The total height of the wall, as observed by an engineer in Lord Macartney's embassy, is twenty feet, on a basis of stone projecting two feet under the brick-work, and about the same in height. The thickness of the whole wall, at the base, is twenty-five feet, diminishing to twentythree at the platform. The towers are forty feet square at the base, diminishing to about thirty at the top; and they are about thirty-seven feet in height.*

Having thus glanced at the principal military antiquities of the Chinese-the invention of gunpowder, and the structure of the Great Wall,-let us proceed to the present state of their tactics. To maintain despotism at home, and to inspire awe

various purposes to which it may be applied, be more easily discovered than in India, where the soil is so rich in nitrous particles, that little more is necessary than to lixiviate it in order to obtain saltpetre; and where, in fact, this substance is produced in such abundance, that from it is made almost all the gunpowder that is used in Europe."Beckmann.

Penny Cyclopædia, art. China.