head of the French missionaries at Ispahan a printed report of the defeat of the allies at Denain. He had it at once translated into Persian, and handed it to the vizier, who read it to his lord, Shah Sultan Hussein. From this time forth the Persian court again became civil to the French, and the resolution of sending an embassy to France was formed. It is very probable that the French as well as the Jesuit missionaries suggested the idea: but the object was not to deceive the aged king, but to have the commercial privileges and those of the missionaries renewed, and perhaps to show to Europe that the renown of Louis XIV. was still brilliant in the East. The letters and presents were delivered by the vizier to Father Richard, who forwarded them to the Khan of Erivan, that he might select an envoy. The latter appointed the intendant of Erivan, Mahomet Riza Beg, a Persian by birth.

The Elchi set off on March 15, 1714, and arrived at Smyrna on April 28th with the whole of his suite. He at once secretly informed the French consul, Monsieur de Fontenu, of his mission, and delivered to him his letters of credit and presents, which were put on board a French vessel bound for Marseilles. The Turkish authorities prevented the embarkation of Riza Beg, because they suspected he was a person of importance in disguise. After this he went to Constantinople to place himself under the protection of the Marquis des Alleurs. But he had scarce arrived ere he was arrested and questioned whether he were not proceeding to France as Persian ambassador. Riza Beg steadfastly denied this, and adhered to his statement that he was a zealous Mussulman bound on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Hence he left Constantinople with a caravan of pilgrims. He was, however, followed by the interpreter of the French embassy, who contrived to get him aboard a vessel that conveyed him to Marseilles, where he found that his letters and presents had already arrived.

Flassan, although a most zealous groper into diplomatic matters, was unable to discover whether a commercial treaty was concluded with him, and hence we can attach but little faith to the assertion of the memoir writers that it was so. It is certain, however, that it began to be felt at court that the Shah in the whole mission, and especially in the choice and equipment of the envoy, had displayed no particular regard for the dignity and might of the French court, and that they very soon got tired of the Persian, and most eager to get rid of him. The king had at first ordered that the throne should be left standing in the gallery till the leave-taking audience, but had it removed, as it was thought better to dismiss the ambassador without any particular fuss. His debts were paid as well as his expenditure, which was said to amount to fifteen hundred francs a day. His journey from Marseilles to Paris cost twenty thousand francs, and ten thousand francs were paid for a bath-room which the king ordered to be made for him. The Persian insisted on the mistresses of himself and his suite being paid, and this was eventually acceded to. In this way the expensive ambassador was at length induced to depart.

He took ship at Havre, and is said to have carried off with him a Madame d'Epinay, whom he had made his favourite, in a chest which was declared to contain porcelain. He showed himself at Copenhagen, Hamburg, and Berlin, and is said to have returned to Persia through Russia.

THE ASS ELECTION.

FROM A POSTHUMOUS POEM BY HEINE.

BY EDGAR A. BOWRING, C.B.

BEING tired of freedom for some time past,
The beasts' republic decided
To be with a single ruler at last
As its absolute head provided.

Each kind of beast prepared for the strife,
Electoral billets were written;
Intrigues on every side were rife,
With party zeal all were bitten.

By long-ear'd gentry at its head
The Asses' Committee was aided;

Cockades, whose colours were black, gold, and red,
They boastfully paraded.

A small party there was of friends of the horse,
Who yet were afraid of voting,

So greatly they dreaded the outcry coarse

The long-ear'd party denoting.

But when one of them ventured the horse to name
As a candidate, greater and greater

Wax'd the noise, and an old long-ear, to his shame,
Shouted out, "Thou art only a traitor!"

"A traitor art thou, in thy veins doth not flow
One drop of asses' blood proper;

No ass art thou, and I almost know

That a foreign mare was thy dropper!

"From the zebra perchance thou art sprung, thy striped hide Quite answers the zebra's description;

The nasal twang of thy voice is allied

To the Hebrew as well as Egyptian.

"And if not a stranger, thou art, thou must own,
A dull ass of an intellect paltry;

The depths of ass-nature to thee are unknown,
Thou hear'st not its mystical psaltry.

"But with sweet stupefaction my soul drinks in
That sound which all others surpasses;

An ass am I, and each hair in the skin

Of my tail the hair of an ass is.

"I am not a Papist, I am not a slave,

A German ass am I solely;

The same as my fathers, who all were so brave,
So thoughtful, demure, and so holy.

• The national colours of Germany.

"They were not addicted to doing ill,
Or practising gallantry gaily,

But trotted off with the sack to the mill
In frolicsome fashion daily.

"Our fathers still live. In the tomb only lie
Their skins, their mortal covering;
Their happy spirits high up in the sky
Complacently o'er us are hovering.
"Ye glorified asses, ye need not doubt
That we fain would resemble you ever,
And from the path that duty points out
We'll swerve a finger's breadth never.
"O what a delight an ass to be,

From such long-ear'd worthies descended! From every house-top I'd fain shout with glee: An ass I was born-how splendid!

"The noble jackass who gave me birth
Was of genuine German extraction;
From my mother, a German ass of worth,
My milk suck'd I with great satisfaction.

"An ass am I, and fully intend,

Like my fathers who now are departed,
To stand by the asses-yes, stand to the end
By the asses so dear and true-hearted!

"And since I'm an ass, I advise you all round
To choose your king from the asses;
A mighty ass-kingdom we thus will found,
They being the governing classes.

"We all are asses. Hee-ha! Hee-ha!
As ostlers we will not demean us;
Away with the horses! Long live, hurrah,
The king of the asinine genus!"

Thus spake the patriot. Through the hall
The asses cheer'd him proudly;

They all in fact were national,

And with their hoofs stamp'd loudly.

An oaken wreath on the orator's head

They put as a decoration;

He wagg'd his tail (though nothing he said)
With evident gratification.

A REMOTE CORNER OF WALES.

"To be out of the world" is considered in these days to be distant from a railway or from the metropolis; and if this dictum holds good, three places in Britain are pre-eminently distinguished for remoteness, and these are John o'Groats, the Land's End, and St. David's, three of the four corners, as it were, of the island.

As tourists penetrate to the extreme north of Scotland, and the Land's End has lately attracted more attention than formerly it obtained, the third place of the trio being inaccessible by rail, and en route to nowhere, is, perhaps, the latest visited of all; and, as most parts of our isle, unapproachable by railway, are less known than many parts of the Continent -though often equally worthy of notice-and as this particular spot boasts a noble cathedral, the inhabitants still converse in their primitive tongue, and cling to their ancient costume, a brief sketch of the district and its people may not be altogether uninteresting.

The traveller taking the Great Western at Paddington reaches Swindon, where he changes to the South Wales line, and proceeding on his way passes through fertile Gloucestershire and beautiful Monmouth and Glamorgan-the garden of Wales-and approaches the more unsophisticated counties of Carmarthen and Pembroke. Entrance to this region is distinguishable by the people speaking Welsh only, by the demonstrative warmth of their greetings and farewells, and by the costume of the females, who, innocent of crinoline, are attired in homespun flannel garments, and wear on their heads conical high-crowned hats with broad brims, beneath which appear the full and snow-white voluminous frills of a cap, environing the clear brown complexion, high cheek-bones, and bright black eyes, characteristic of the Welsh.

The tourist having arrived at Haverfordwest, probably hires posthorses for St. David's, which place is situated some sixteen miles distant, and wends his way very much astonished, and possibly somewhat disconcerted, at the speed with which the active little horses of the country descend the precipitous hills.

After he has passed some distance on his road, St. Bride's Bay stretches away on his left, and the broad sea is studded with islands, the chief of which are Grassholme, Skomer, and Skockholm (off the entrance to Milford Haven), whose names smack of Scandinavian origin, and Ramsey, off St. David's Head, together with numerous insular rocks; all of which, in combination with various sounds, or guts-through which the tides rush with great velocity-the dark, rugged, and cavernous cliffs of the shore, and the fearful storms which sweep in unchecked fury across the ocean, and hold their howling revels round the rocks, render this coast terrible to the mariner.

On the right spreads an undulating country, whose remarkable features -which pervade the whole district I am about to describe are the huge banks, not hedges, which enclose the fields, the rugged crests of the trap-rock which occasionally starts abruptly from the expanse, and the absence of any trees whatever-all of which peculiarities invest the landscape with a bleak and blasted aspect.

A short distance from the road, and near the sea, exist the ruins of a small parish church, which-so far as the edifice itself is concernedpresents no remarkable feature, but is singular in one respect, and this is, that the whole parish consists of only one farm.

Presently the tourist reaches the small seaport village of Solva, picturesquely situated on a winding creek of the sea, nestling in the lap of steep heath and gorse-clad hills, where in autumn the purple blossoms of the former plant, mingled with the yellow flowers and bright darkgreen foliage of the latter, present a brilliant and lovely contrast; and when the rosy hues of the setting sun augment the bright colourings, the crests of scarps seem on fire, and stand boldly forth from the background of deep-blue sea, which is studded with white sails, and melt away into the horizon. Notwithstanding the absence of trees, the view is one of great beauty, and at this season the climate is soft and balmy; but little as the quiet repose of the scene predisposes the observer to suppose, or even admit, that this is a land of storms, he cannot fail to discover the fact in the peculiar manner in which every sheltered nook and corner round Solva and elsewhere-and but few exist-are converted into gardens, which are further protected by the banks and walls intersecting the space; and by the circumstance that if the trees rise above these enclosures their twigs are shorn sharply, as if they had been clipped. A remarkable point in this treeless district is, that remains of forests, some of the trees of which are said to retain the marks of the axe, exist below the sand, and are often visible.

Near this place is a picturesque glen, in which a small plantation grows in a sheltered spot, but so unaccustomed to wood are the people, that the dell was described by an inhabitant, in the innocence of his heart, as "a beautifully wooded valley," and the writer frequently drove through it and around Solva in search of the unwonted spectacle.

Solva is, locally considered, a place of great importance, and when the writer first came to reside in the neighbourhood, he, on inquiring what towns existed in the locality, in order that he might supply himself with certain luxuries and necessaries of life, was informed that it boasted "fine shops," at which any and every commodity could be obtained; and too credulous, and forgetting that the requirements of the inhabitants could be but simple and primitive, and relying on the correctness of the description, he neglected to import such from Haverfordwest; but, alas! when he made an excursion to the "town," he found the place a mere village, and the shops inconsiderably and poorly furnished, and he was in consequence reduced to a state bordering on starvation, and almost to a practical knowledge of the proverb, "Fingers were made before forks."

The houses here, as throughout Wales generally, are extremely neat and clean, and in this region one and all exhibit roofs snow-white with limewash; and the second, third, and fourth-rate edifices, here as elsewhere in the district, are generally but one story high, as in the Highlands of Scotland, probably erected thus in order to present to the raging winds as small front as possible.

At length the city of St. David's, that ancient seat of religion and of learning, is reached, and the tourist is surprised to find it little better than Solva, and that it is an inconsiderable village, possessing no signs of animation-a sort of Sleepy Hollow, which, however, does not display the