in Dec., 1861, by WENDELL PHILLIPS, on "the War for the Union." Numbers 26 and 27 contain the speeches of WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON: "The Abolitionists and their relations to the War;"-of GARRETT DAVIS: "The War not for Emancipation ;" and of ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS: "African Slavery, the Corner-Stone of the Southern Confederacy." In Number 28 there is the speech of MARTIN F. CONWAY, delivered in the House of Representatives, Dec. 12, 1861: "The War: a Slave Union or a Free?" Mr. E. D. Barker of New York is now the publisher. On receipt of 10 cts. he will forward any number of the Magazine by mail, postage pre-paid.

TRAIN'S UNION SPEECHES.-Our readers, we doubt not, are all familiar with the reputation of that most enterprising countryman of ours, Mr. GEORGE FRANCIS TRAIN, of Boston. It will be recollected that, some years ago, he was devoting his energies, with most unexampled enthusiasm and the highest satisfaction to himself, to the important work of helping on the progress of civilization in England; more particularly in the way of convincing the British mind of the innumerable benefits to be derived from the introduction into the cities of the United Kingdom of horse railroads. Since the rebellion broke out, Mr. Train has been employing his rare oratorical powers on its various exciting themes, and in his way, it must be acknowledged, he has done his best to serve his country. Some choice extracts from his Union Speeches, made on different occasions, have reached us in the papers. The last notice of him that we have seen was to the effect that he had had a public dispute in London with some advocate of the rebel cause. Mr. Train, after demolishing the flimsy arguments of his opponent in his usual energetic and fervid manner, ended with a reference to a taunt of his adversary, that "every Southerner can whip three Yankees!" He declared, amid the cheers of the John Bulls present, that he was ready to prove on the spot that this was false, and demanded that boxing-gloves should be immediately sent for, when he would demonstrate the absurdity of the claim, and show them how a Southerner would behave when attacked by one Yankee! But we have devoted too much space to Mr. Train. Messrs. T. B. Peterson, of Philadelphia, have published a complete authorized American edition, in pamphlet form, eighty-eight pages, octavo, price 25 cents. Let all who are troubled with dispepsia or any form of despondency with regard to the future destiny of the American eagle, send on their money to Philadelphia.

PAMPHLETS RECEIVED.

Memorial of the Rev. Royal Robbins, Late Pastor of the Church in Kensington, Ct. Compiled by S. SPRING. Containing a Sermon preached at his Funeral by Rev. E. C. JONES, of Southington, Ct. 8vo. pp. 57.

The English Language in Liberia. The Annual Address before the Citizens of Maryland County, Cape Palmas, Liberia, July 26, 1860, being the Day of National Independence. By the Rev. ALEXANDER CRUMMELL, B. A., Queen's College, Cambridge, Missionary. 8vo. pp. 32.

Official Report of the Niger Valley Exploring Party. By M. R. DELANY, Chief Commissioner to Africa. 8vo. pp. 75.

Mr. John Bright's Speech at Rochdale, Dec. 4, 1861, on the American Crisis. From the Rebellion Record in advance of the Third Volume. G. P. Putnam. 8vo. pp. 14.

The Position of Our Species in the Path of Destiny; or the Comparative Infancy of Man and of Earth as his Home. New York: Charles Scribner. 8vo. pp. 32.

The Birth and Death of Nations. A Thought for the Crisis. New York: G. P. Putnam. 8vo. pp. 33.

The National Weakness.

A Discourse delivered in the First Church, Brookline, Fast Day, Sept. 26, 1861. By Rev. F. H. HEDGE, D. D. Boston: Walker, Wise & Co. 8vo. pp. 19.

Grounds for Gratitude. A Thanksgiving Discourse, Nov. 28, 1861, in the First Congregational Church, Litchfield, Ct. By GEORGE RICHARDS, Pastor. 8vo. pp. 12.

The Spirit and Aim of the Gospel. A Sermon before the American Missionary Association at its Fifteenth Annual Meeting in Norwich, Ct. By Rev. C. B. BOYNTON, D. D., of Cincinnati, Ohio. 8vo. pp. 16.

The Earl's Heirs. A Tale of Domestic Life. By the Author of East Lynne, etc. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson & Bros. 8vo. pp. 200.

War and Emancipation. A Thanksgiving Sermon, Nov. 21, 1861. By Rev. HENRY WARD BEECHER, Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson & Bros. 8vo. pp. 32. Thanksgiving. A Sermon preached in the Arch Street Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, Nov. 28, 1861. By CHARLES WADSWORTH, Pastor. Published by request. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson & Bros. 8vo. pp. 32.

Semi-Centennial of the Litchfield County Foreign Mission Society, celebrated at Litchfield, Oct. 16, 1861. 8vo. pp. 42.

Morning Star Papers. By Rev. SAMUEL C. DAMON.

8vo. pp. 80.

Writ of Habeas Corpus. Ex-parte Merryman. Article, by the Hon. HENRY DUTTON. From the American Law Register, Oct., 1861. 8vo. pp. 13.

The American Tract Society, 150 Nassau Street, New York. We have received from this Society the following publications:-Grandfather's Birthday. pp. 32. The Promised One. pp. 64. Historical Tales for Young Protestants. pp. 224. Kitty King. pp. 80. Story Truths. 4 vols. pp. 140. Life of Havelock, in German. German Soldiers' Hymns. Good Counsel for Soldiers in the Field. Pocket Tracts for Soldiers.

ERRATA.-On page 251, line 3, substitute "is" for "are."

On page 294, for Article VII, read Article VI.

On page 324, 7th line from bottom, for Gen. Samuel Larned, read Gen. Daniel Larned.

Article VIII, in the January No., should be credited to Mrs. Gertrude de Vingut, instead of to P. Santval.

THE

NEW ENGLANDER.

No. LXXX.

JULY, 186 2.

ARTICLE I.—THE PRE-ISLAMIC ARABS.

ONCE in its history, the world came very near being overwhelmed by the Bedouin Arabs. Probably up to the day when the mounted missionaries of Islam first set out, no one looked for world conquerors from that sandy quarter any more than for snow storms, and yet there suddenly appeared from thence a terrible host, which threatened the nations with a subjugation infinitely more momentous than follows a mere military overthrow. The changes that such may effect are, in the great majority of cases, simply political, and therefore transient, but who can measure a religious conquest, or tell when its consequences will be felt no longer? During the life of one unfortunate generation, Islamism actually accomplished the conquest of Asia and Africa, from the borders of China and the Malay peninsula, to the straits of Gibraltar; and gained a foothold in Europe, which seemed, in all likelihood, but a short prelude to making French, English, and Germans bow towards Mecca, and go with shaven heads and simple night-shirts, on pilgrimages to kiss the Caaba. The

issue of one battle, in the heart of France, preserved a Christendom; but with the single exception of Spain, Mohammedanism still retains, after twelve centuries, all that it then grasped, and as a faith is not one whit weaker, or its spirit changed, from the times of Abu Becr and Khaled Ibn el Waleed. The results of what the Arabs then did to the vast countries they seized, are simply tremendous, for, in the language of Gibbon, they have accomplished one of the most memorable of revolutions, and imposed a new and lasting character on the nations of the globe. Christian powers may now attempt to make the Moslem of Algiers, Constantinople, Circassia, Calcutta, or Java, a man of progress, but the tough thistle cannot be made to bear figs, or even to grow with fewer prickles, and a weary experience is yet to teach the world, that the famed triumphs of the Greek and Roman were only victories, while those of the Arab were true conquests.

But how it came to pass, that a race of subdivided tribes, scattered over wastes, which such as Bedouins alone would people, and which never before or since has done anything worth a record, should have come nearer to being the universal nation than any other, has always been one of the problems of history; and an eminent modern philosopher has said that it has never been adequately explained. We have thought this is much owing to the little attention which has been paid to the antecedent condition and progress of the great Arab race. Separated from the rest of mankind both by geography and character, almost as effectually as if they lived in the Moon, the world little suspected that through the lapse of centuries, they had multiplied into countless tribes, who had been insidiously extending their wanderings, until they stood ready at all the gates of the East, awaiting the birth of him who should commission them to spread Unitarianism among the nations. The steps in the gradual rise of the former conquering races, on the other hand, history has recorded so fully, that by the time their empire is set up, we are at no loss to account for it, but with the Saracens it was characteristically the reverse. They came upon the world, just as we happen to know, they fall upon luckless travelers, like a gust of wind, which

no man knoweth whence it cometh or whither it goeth. Issuing from a necessarily unknown land, for in all ages few enter it with much certainty of getting safely out, it is no wonder that the poor monks, upon their appearance, could trace them only to the mouth of the Great Pit, and the same cause has contributed ever since to render their remarkable progress somewhat mysterious. With the hope, therefore, that it may serve, in some degree, to elucidate this interesting question, we have attempted to group some leading features in the history and condition of the Arabian tribes, before the great Mohammedan era.

One of the most striking facts, in connection with the Arabs, is the great antiquity of the race, surpassing even that of the Jews. Unlike their Hebrew cousins also they have never changed manners or abode, but retain to this day, in every essential particular, what characterized them when the pyramids were laid, and when, seventeen centuries before Christ, the Babylonians admitted that an Arab dynasty ruled over their great capital. The Assyrian monarchs of Nineveh, in the tenth and eighth centuries B. C., mention in their inscriptions the names of no less than thirty distinct Arabian tribes, as dwellers along the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris, and who seemed to be no more amenable to discipline at that time than they are now. "I am the son of many grandfathers," is the proud boast of the Arab, nor is he wholly without reason, for none but he can claim an undisturbed possession of his own country since the deluge. While this fact lends no strength to each individual link of the chain, from the poor servant of God Mustapha or 'Ali up to Adam-as they consist of a too ready repetition of the same names-yet the general truth of the line, there is really little reason to doubt. It was the oldest of customs among them to keep pillars at certain cities that were centers of concourse, on which each generation of their leading families inscribed its name, and to these their historic lists appeal. At the same time, however, it appears to have been common to omit in transcribing whole batches of mere alternating Zeids and 'Amrs, and to make one celebrated character' by this means, the immediate progenitor of another, thus spoil