of the Crimean campaign. Mr. Cleeve, rising far above a mere admiral's secretary, was one of those hard workers in an anxious, critical, laborious period whose influence and hand were among all, whose clear, honest, and capable mind became a constant sort of referee for both difficulties and enterprises, and whose voice, in an unseen manner, came among councils on the heights of Sebastopol, and assisted very often to determine the gravest projects. Devoted to his chief, he was devoted to the Crimean enterprise, and Sir Edmund Lyons knew perfectly well how to use and appreciate the devotion; in fact, he held him in such high regard, that when commander-in-chief, and there rose the question of appointing a captain of the fleet, he preferred the duties being undertaken by Mr. Cleeve to their being placed in the hands of an untried man. So Mr. Cleeve, without any appearance of slavery, slaved at his double duties, throwing the same impulse of regularity in the one department as he had done in the other, saving the country a rear-admiral's pay and appointments, and producing, if only from the additional unity, a more desirable effect. With the war over, and Sir Edmund Lyons gone, the familiar actor has vanished to comparative obscurity. Fame is busy picking up Crimean names; it is to be feared, however-for lack of self-protection -that she will pass over his,

With this staff, then, and the co-operation of every zealous man in the fleet, Sir Edmund Lyons, in four short weeks (and these were crippled by the presence of cholera), completed all the vast apparatus for embarka tion of army and descent upon the enemy's coast, while it was believed that the lukewarm "vice-admiral" confined himself to discussing at Baljik, with a certain congenial amateur of the sister-profession, the innumerable difficulties that were to oppose the expedition, and the amount of co-operation that would be expected on the part of the fleet. Nevertheless, he had sufficient wit to appropriate the programme drawn up by Captain Mends, and, indeed, to the obscurity of its framer, who was not even mentioned in the very despatch that drew credit for its operation. During the early part of the preparations, terrible mortality by cholera ravaged both army and navy, which, while causing some delay, urged additional reason for seeking a healthier shore. Even Mr. Kinglake arrives at this:

"To remain in Bulgaria, or to attempt to operate in the neighbourhood of the Danube, was to linger in the midst of those very atmospheric poisons which had brought the health of the army to its then state; and, on the other hand, the people at home would hardly have borne to see the army sent back to Malta."

The French and English flag-ships suffered especially, the Ville de Paris losing some one hundred and thirty men, and the Britannia within five-and-twenty of the same number. The officers, as is customary with this pest afloat, were usually spared: those of the Britannia, from the captain downwards, became the theme of admiration for the way in which they devoted themselves to their dying men:

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Suddenly the pestilence ceased on board the British ships of war. The dead were overboard, and the survivors returned to their accustomed duties with an alacrity quickened by the delight of looking forward to active operations against the enemy. Instinctively, or else with wise

design, both officers and men dropped all mention of the tragedy through which they had passed."

About the 24th of August embarkation commenced. The French lacked the splendid transport service of the English, and were unable, therefore, to embark their cavalry-were even reduced to allotting four horses to each gun, instead of six. Upon which Mr. Kinglake is seized with the following noble comment:

"It was clear for an invasion of the Crimea a body of cavalry was strictly needed. Therefore, a sagacious interpreter of warlike signs, who saw that the English general was embarking a thousand cavalry horses, and that the French were embarking none, would be led to conjecture that the English were resolved to make the descent, and that the French were not. It will be seen, by-and-by, that such a conjecture would have been sound."

For this "blind" the French, nevertheless, embarked twenty-four thou sand men, sixty-eight field and sixty-five siege-guns, and two thousand nine hundred horses-their total, including sappers, intendance, &c., being about thirty thousand; the same as the English. Besides this force, and without "the elaborate world going back into chaos," six thousand Turkish troops were embarked under French orders.

There could not but be something gratifying to the English eye in the contrast of transport efficiency presented by the French and English preparations. Great superior ships came gliding up from the Bosphorus day after day, the English flag at the peak. They steamed in, or they sailed in, with a superb air of sea sovereignty, whether it was the Himalaya, the Orinoco, the Simla, or some grand Australian clipper, as the Shooting Star, the Harbinger, or Caduceus, to the utter extinction of all other pretenders. On the horizon would have been labouring all day long two little distant sails, that by the evening rose small ignominious hulls. Jeannette à Marseille is probably written across the square stern of one, and upon the other, in severe simplicity, Madeleine. They are brigs of some one hundred and forty, and one hundred and eighty tons each; but their mission is to carry the army of France. They certainly, for their size, managed to stow away a surprising amount of this cargo, but its principal conveyance fell upon the men-of-war, which, impairing their fighting efficiency, surrendered the honourable, though hardly dangerous, duty of convoy to the unencumbered English fleet, which thus charged itself with the united armada.

It is tedious being perpetually checked to notice or rebut Mr. Kinglake's shameful assertions: again and again the pen would run on to recal the bright features of the early campaign when all was glow and success, but this book is put out as history, and each defect that is slurred or hurried over tends to accumulate material for the falsification of history. For this reason, a point we now arrive at must be settled in a very different manner to Mr. Kinglake's version, and if the truth be not so palatable, on the author's shoulders rests the responsibility of eliciting it. An immense and bitter controversy is starting up-busy hands and busy brains at work in France upon the late English and French partnership, which Mr. Kinglake has had the honour to provoke, and it is right England should learn the weak as well as the strong points of her case.

In the ninth chapter, after a little popular terror and error on the subject of the Black Sea, he ridicules Marshal St. Arnaud for impatiently putting to sea on the 5th without the English, and becoming, à la Kinglake, ensconced in his secret soul, finds there "a distressing sense of his isolation," which obliges him to sail back again; adding upon this return (which is an erroneous account, to begin with, for he never came back at all, but, turning the ships' heads round, "hove to"), " Thus happily ceased the impulse which had threatened to sunder the fleets." Now, however much St. Arnaud was to blame for his peevish want of self-control, and for his exhibition of discord between the two forceshowever deserved Lord Raglan's rebuke of the same-the following is the state of the case. The 5th of September had been the day finally settled for the departure of the expedition, and by the evening of that day the British, equally with the French and Turkish, was ready to fulfil the plan. Mr. Kinglake, therefore, wrongly declares that the British armament was only ready on the evening of the 6th. One very important person was not ready to start, however, and this was the naval commander-in-chief, who, against all remonstrance, persisted in considering the weather unpropitious, when nothing could have been more favourable, a fair fresh wind, every hour of which was a loss, and clear weather. The French and Turkish squadrons proceeded more than a hundred miles (actually a third of the way to the Crimea), and were compelled to heave to in this fair wind waiting for the English. Two steamers did Admiral Hamelin send back to Baljik urging his English colleague to put to sea, while by the side of the latter was Sir Edmund Lyons in the same position of entreaty. But Admiras Dundas, for some inexplicable reason, refused to weigh anchor till the morning of the 7th, and thus was lost a day and a half of precious time. Here, indeed, was an impulse threatening to sunder the fleets," and to put the alliance "in jeopardy." By this culpable delay the fine calm weather of the 12th and 13th was lost for landing the army, which would otherwise, including its material, have been on shore by the evening of the latter day. On the morning of the 8th the English at last came up with their allies, and then the wind had chopped round dead foul.

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*The dangerous and mysterious attributes of the Black Sea, which Mr. Kinglake confirms, are completely mythical, even though he speak on the authority of Admiral Dundas. There is not a line of latitude or longitude within it that has not been traversed by the reviewer, in winter as well as in summer, or a coast round the compass which has not been visited by him. The result of his observation is, that there is no sea in the world more easily navigated, nor one with a less number of dangers. The hurricane of the 14th November, 1854, was quite an extraordinary and exceptional event. Barks of the frailest nature sail upon its waters at all seasons. It is no exaggeration to say that a passage across the Black Sea in a Turkish caïque (which the reader may know) would be less hazardous than one made over the really dangerous British Channel in a ship's jolly-boat. What gave rise to foolish reports about the Black Sea was, that next to nothing was known of it; it was a sacred, diplomatically guarded sea, and thus belonging to the unknown became invested with the properties of this power.

"Had the fleet anchored off Old Fort in the order arranged, and but one day sooner, the landing of the army would certainly have been completed in sixteen hours. It was not completed before the 18th, thus occupying four days.”—(A short Description of the Part taken by the Navy in the Expedition to the Crimea. By Captain Mends, R.N.)

MYSTERIES OF THE SERAI.

THE Oriental nations have one great obstacle to contend with in their attempts to appropriate European civilisation, in the position which polygamy imposes on their wives. We purposely allude to the consequences of the institution, and not to the institution itself, for we are perfectly well aware that polygamy only exists in rare instances. Any married reader can suppose that having several wives must be an extremely expensive affair, especially when the ladies, as is the case in Turkey, expect to be waited on from morn till night, and reckon pearls and diamonds as the first of their wants. But it is not the question whether no more than one thousand or fifteen hundred Turks in the whole Osmanli empire have a well-filled harem. The decisive thing is the contemptuous idea of wives which the Muhammadan institution of polygamy has produced. Not regarded as a companion of equal rank and helper, but placed on about the same low footing as the husband's favourite horse and favourite weapon, the wife is no moral factor of Muhammadan life. Various other things, to which we need not more particularly refer, produce the total result that the Turkish woman only too often has a most prejudicial effect on the family and the education of the children. If the Turks were led to lead a happy family life, that reform which is still hanging on thorns and obstacles, would be rapidly effected, because in that case they would have attained a higher moral standard. But such a family life is impossible so long as that contempt for women endures from which polygamy originated.

Since Lady Montagu for the first time entered the seraï of the Padishah at the extremity of the Golden Horn, the thick veil that lay over the Turkish harem system has been considerably raised. Several European ladies have been able to study the marriage life of their Turkish sisters at their leisure, and have not been at all sparing in their communications. A remarkably pretty narrative of this description, valuable also from the fact that it describes the state of affairs in the last days of Abd-ul-Medjid, and the first days of his reigning highness Abd-ul-Aziz, is offered us by a talented and somewhat realistic French lady, Madame Olympia Audouard.* The lady had the good fortune to be introduced into the harems of an ex-Turkish envoy at Naples and of a pasha, and to form some female acquaintances, through whom she obtained access to the imperial seraglio.

Serai means a large building, or castle. Sérail is the French way of writing it, and hence ought not to be used, or, at least, should not be pronounced in the French way. The seraï of the late Sultan Abd-ulMedjid was Dolma Badje, a palace in the Western style, which borders on the old seraï, and communicates with it. It is surrounded by a splendid garden, in which the ladies of the harem can air themselves unseen. On one side this garden is defended by a high wall, on the other by the Bosphorus. The Sultan does not live in the seraï, but has several magnificent reception-rooms there and a throne-room, in which

* Les Mystères du Sérail et des Harems Turcs. Paris: E. Dentu.

he receives the homage of his ladies on New Year's-day, during Bairam, and on other solemn occasions. It was formerly the custom for the ladies of the harem to kiss his feet, as they walked past according to their rank. Abd-ul-Medjid altered this custom, in so far that the ladies laid their hand on a scarf lying in the Sultan's lap, whose end a slave held out to them: this was an equivalent for kissing.

When we say that the number of females in the seraï amounts to five hundred, we reckon in the ladies of honour and the slayes appointed to wait on the six legitimate wives, the four favourites, and the ladies of honour. These slaves are girls whom the Sultan purchases, has carefully educated, and gives away in marriage when they have attained a nubile age. According to their talent and inclination they are instructed in singing, dancing, or acting. There are two music choirs in the seraï. One has the usual instruments of a brass band, and wears the same uniform as the regimental bands, but with richer embroidery. This choir-composed exclusively of girls-forms the orchestra of the opera, and has also a female conductor; the second choir consists of girls who sing and accompany themselves on some instrument, or who play the pianoforte, harp, or violin. These musicians, when ordered to do so, wait on the Sultan's wives and favourites, and enliven them by acting, singing, and dancing. A large hall is set apart in the seraï for theatrical performances, ballet, and opera, arranged like our theatres, and fitted up with unexampled luxury. The performance usually consists of Italian operas or French ballets, and all the musicians, dancers, actors, and singers, are girls. Madame Audouard assures us that the young Turkish girls are first-rate in male parts. Of course no man, save the Sultan, is admitted to this theatre. The audience consists of the ladies of the seraï, the wives of Turkish noblemen, and European ladies.

The Sultan's six wives and four favourites have each a separate residence, consisting of a bedroom, dining-room, and drawing-room. Each of them has her slaves, carriages, coachmen (eunuchs), and a full suite of servants. If she likes, she can shut herself entirely off from the other ladies, but this rarely occurs, save in exceptional cases of jealousy, and the ladies, on the contrary, like to pay each other visits, and send out invitations to dinners and soirées. At the present day, at any rate, there is no such thing as imprisonment in the seraï. When a Sultana or an Odalisque feels inclined-and this happens very often-to take an excursion to the Sweet Waters, or make purchases at a bazaar, she simply orders her carriage, drives off, and remains out as long as she likes. The favourites and maids of honour have also each a separate residence, their own servants, carriages, and horses. The female slaves, who have been instructed in an art, are formed into divisious, at the head of which stands a superintendent. Each has her own room. The pin-money of such a slave is five hundred piastres a month, or five pounds ten shillings of our money. The ordinary slaves, who represent our servant-girls, have bedrooms in common, each containing five-and-twenty beds.

As regards the fitting-up of all the rooms in the seraï, Madame Olympia says that, although she was acquainted with French châteaux, she was utterly astounded at such luxury. The finest thing is the baths, especially the Sultan's. The first room is surrounded by divans, on which the Sultan seats himself in bathing-dress, and smokes sundry pipes, while