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ened; the air became hot and suffocating; a cloud of burning sand blown from the bank stopped our breath, and obliged us to close our eyes and nostrils. Notwithstanding these alarming symptoms and our desire of putting to shore, we were unable to succeed in stopping the vessel, which the wind drove forward with inconceivable swiftness. Passing with the rapidity of lightning we saw another boat, which had been just thrown upon a sand bank, and was in a sinking state; but it was decreed that we should escape as by a miracle this imminent danger; for soon after we landed at Boulak. This wind had so greatly accelerated our voyage, that we found ourselves at the end of our course without suspecting it: we had thus made in two days a voyage which had cost us three weeks after our departure from Cairo."-pp. 169, 170.

From Cairo, our author proceeded to Damietta; this part of her voyage is described in a lively and pleasant manner. At the latter place she was the guest of the well-known Basil Faker, the consular agent of six different powers. Of his family and establishment, the Baroness gives a very minute, and, we have no doubt, a very accurate account. Her description of the costume of the ladies, of their manners, and the mode in which they spend their time, is amusing, and is the more worthy of attention, as few travellers have had such opportunities of observing them as the author before us. Her sex afforded her facilities for that purpose, which are interdicted to us of the ruder part of the creation. We must, however, pass over her description of Faker's family, in order to make room for her visit to the harem of the Aga of Damietta— á privilege again, which is granted only to a lady.

The harem of the Aga was situated nearly opposite to the residence of Mr. Faker, on the other bank of the Nile, in a garden, in the Turkish style, that is to say, a piece of ground without trees. I was accompanied by the lady of the Portuguese physician, who understood a little Italian and Arabic, and who was to act as my interpreter. When we arrived at the entrance of the building, we were received by a black eunuch, richly dressed, who invited us to go into a very cool apartment, with latticed windows, and no furniture except a very broad and low divan. He left us to announce us to his mistress: we soon after saw the two wives of the Aga, accompanied by two of his daughters, one of whom was yet a child, and the other married to one of the superior officers in the army, and about twenty young slaves. The two ladies, as well as the daughters of the Aga, seated themselves next to me, while the slaves ranged themselves in a half circle before us, with their arms crossed on the breast, and preserving a respectful silence. As all these women spoke only Turkish, we needed a second interpreter, who, in her turn, understood only Turkish and Arabic, so that what I said in Italian had to be translated into Arabic, and the Arabic into Turkish; thus, to understand each other, we had need of three languages, and two interpreters.

It may readily be supposed that the conversation could not go on fluently, as we depended on the good will and talents of our interpreters : in fact, the qui pro quo resulting from the bad translations of our questions and answers were truly comic, and excited so much gaiety that loud

and repeated bursts of laughter soon established a good understanding between us. The oldest of the consorts of the Aga, however, maintained a dignified gravity, while the other, who was much younger, and of an animated and interesting countenance, repeated, with extreme volubility, the most insignificant questions, and did not fail to examine the whole arrangement of my toilette. They asked me many questions respecting the women in my country: as for Europe, I believe, they entertained very vague notions of it, and when I told them that our husbands had but one wife and no slaves, they looked at one another, undetermined whether to applaud or laugh at this custom.

They were nearly all natives of Syria, Circassia, and Georgia, and I had thus leisure to survey these beauties who enjoy so much celebrity. They undoubtedly merit their reputation; I can, however, tell my fair countrywomen, to comfort them, and to do justice to truth, that Europe certainly can boast of beauties equal to those of the East. Those whom I had now the pleasure of seeing, had the most agreeable countenances, and delicate and regular features: but what most attracted my admiration was their hair, which fell in waving and natural curls down to their waist. They had each preserved their national costume, which agreeably varied this pretty parterre; nor had they adopted the tresses of the Egyptian women, which rather disfigure than improve the figure. They had exquisitely beautiful teeth, but the clearless and bloom of youth were banished from their complexion; they all had a languid air, and I did not find among them that embonpoint which I had expected to meet.

Refreshments were brought in on a small table of cedar, very low, and ornamented with a pretty Mosaic of ivory and mother-of-pearl; the collation consisted of confectionary, cakes made of honey and fruits, and sherbet. Meantime, some slaves burnt incense in silver censers, and frequently sprinkled us with rose water; two others placed themselves at my side; and every time that I either ate or drank any thing, were ready to hold under my lips a napkin of a coarse quality, yet embroidered with gold. Others, provided with fans, drove away the swarms of insects which the pastry and fruit had attracted around us. In short, each seemed to have a particular function to perform. When the repast was ended, they wished me to pass the night with them and to take the bath; but having already acquainted myself with this kind of amusement at Cairo, I declined their polite invitation. After going over the house, which did not contain any thing remarkable, I took my leave; and on departing, distributed among the slaves some small gold coins, to which they attach a great value.'-pp.

202-210.

Thus we see that, after all, the harem is no very great curiosity. Doubtless, this was only the harem of the Aga of Damietta; but only with the addition of a little more splendour, as to the apartments, and a greater number of more beautiful slaves, the description will equally answer for the seraglio of the sultan.

Upon the subject of the general state of women in Egypt, the present author is peculiarly competent to speak. She informs us from her own observation, as well as from what she was told by several Levantine ladies, that the condition of the sex in that coun

try is by no means an unhappy one. It is true that they are

closely shut up, and this custom, it may be observed, is not confined to the followers of Mahomet. It is in use among the Cophts, the Greeks, and the Armenians, though Christians, as well as among the Levantines, the Jews, and the Turks, who inhabit Egypt.

This privation of liberty is only imaginary, and extends no farther than to prohibit them from appearing in public without a veil, which is a kind of cloak of black silk, which hides their form and their face in a frightful manner, and to exclude them from the society of the men. They are, notwithstanding, perfect mistresses at home, and exclusively command the slaves in their own service, who, in spite of the favours of their master, are no less dependent on the wife than on the latter. As their dwelling is always separated from that of their husband, they have a right to prevent him from entering it, by placing before the door a pair of slippers, which is a sign that they have company. The husband, who dares not appear in the presence of another person's wife, is obliged to respect this indication; and the German proverb, which says, " that a man is under his wife's slipper," may be perfectly applicable in the East. When they wish to visit any of their friends or relations, the husband has not the right of opposing them; and, attended by a faithful slave, they sometimes absent themselves from home for several weeks together.

Under the pretext of these visits, I was assured that they allow themselves incredible liberty; in spite of their veils, and the locks under which they are shut up, they find means to indemnify themselves for this constraint; and it is here that we most see the truth of that maxim, which says: "That virtue protects itself, and that good principles are the best dowry of a female."-pp. 214-216.

It was the intention of the Baron and his party to proceed to Palestine, but the troubles that then happened to break out in Syria, in consequence of the insurrection of the Greeks, prevented them from carrying that intention into effect. They returned to Alexandria, where they were detained a considerable time in consequence of an embargo laid on all the vessels in the harbour by Mahomet Ali, while preparing his expedition for the Morea. They were, however, lodged in the palace of Ibrahim, and treated with great hospitality during their detention. At length they were allowed to take their departure, about the middle of July (1821); and, after a long voyage, interrupted by tedious calms and perilous storms, they landed safely at Trieste, on the 25th of August.

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We do not know that these recollections' have added at all to our stock of knowledge, as to those objects which travellers in Egypt most usually feel interested in exploring. But en revanche the Baroness has given us many traits of manners-particularly of those of the female sex in that country, as well as several little byescenes, which tend very considerably to increase our familiarity with the general character of its people, and the present aspect of its most frequented cities.

ART. IV. The Annual Biography and Obituary for 1827. Vol. XI. pp. 492. 15s. London. Longman and Co. 1827.

FROM the very nature of this work, the editor is, of course, scarcely responsible for the choice of his subjects. These are forced upon him by an inexorable authority; and his only business is to treat them in as judicious and as satisfactory a manner as he can. His materials, too, are often necessarily imperfect and scanty; and the time within which he must prepare them for the press, seldom permits him to extend, or even to authenticate them, by his own inquiries. Allowing, as we are bound to do, for these and other obvious difficulties, which attend an annual biography of distinguished persons, who have died within the year preceding the date of its appearance, still we think we have some right to complain of the manner in which the volume now before us is got

up.

In the first place, it wants a presiding principle. Each of the sketches is a panegyric on the subject of it, instead of a fair and honest estimation of the character of the deceased. Biography, in order to be useful, should present us with both sides of the medal; should set forth the imperfections and errors of the person whose existence it commemorates, as well as his virtues. The history which only gives a partial view of those men that have figured on our stage, and represents them as beings in whom calumny itself has detected no shades, must necessarily be a fiction; and a mischievous fiction, for it misguides where it ought to instruct, and it draws a veil over those vices, which the interests of truth and of posterity require to be exposed.

The strain of universal eulogy which pervades these biographical sketches, evidently arises from the circumstance that they are all, or nearly all, supplied by the friends of the deceased parties. From such sources, the articles are either sent in their original shape to the editor, or they are selected by him from other periodical works, to which they had been furnished in a similar way. We have scarcely any instance of a memoir written from authentic information, which is at all valuable for firmness or impartiality of judgment, or for any thing like a discriminating view of character.

In truth, the whole of the editor's labour seems to have amounted to no more than this:--he has either received and inserted without alteration, the necessarily partial and cautious reports of the friends of his different subjects, or he has, with his scissors, cut out such biographies of them as he could find in the newspapers and magazines; and thus he is in almost every case precluded from pronouncing a bold and upright decision, upon the real merits of those whose examples he sets before us.

Another defect, arising from this wholesale mode of compilation, is this that the industrious vanity of individuals may succeed in

obtaining a prominent place for the biographies of persons, who really have had no title to such a distinction; while, from the absence of that activity in other instances, the memory of men of indisputable worth, and of undoubted claims to public gratitude, is dismissed in a brief and insignificant notice, if not altogether forgotten. While Dr. Bogue, Mr. Michael Kelly, Mr. Lindley Murray, Miss Jane Taylor, and Dr. John Gray, occupy a very great proportion of the volume-Mills, the accomplished historian of chivalry; Dr. Warburton, bishop of Cloyne, whose biography would be, in itself, a book replete with interest and instruction; Christopher Hutchinson, one of the most upright patriots that ever sat in the House of Commons; and that copious writer, and very eccentric man, Pinkerton, are consigned to the obscurity of the Index. We might also mention several names, such as the Marquis of Hastings, the Earl of Winchilsea, Lord Downes, Hay, the unfortunate author of the best history of the insurrection in Ireland; Cradock, the well known gossip; Connor, the comedian, and, indeed, several others, which are wholly omitted; and which, if they be not of the first distinction, are at least fully as deserving of commemoration, as most of those with which the volume before us is incumbered.

First on the list, we find the biography of Sir David Ochterlony, whose gallant career in India, has often been the theme of public praise. Assuredly, his varied and active life, furnishes much better materials for enabling us to appreciate his desert, than those which are here brought together. The sketch is little more than a dry calendar of facts and dates.

Next we have a memoir of a certain Dr. Bogue, a dissenting minister, who we have no doubt was a very worthy good man. But we strongly suspect, that if the editor had not wanted matter for the early part of his work, and if he had not found a whole sheet ready for his use, in the "Christian memorials of the nineteenth century," this same Dr. Bogue would have wholly escaped his notice. There is really nothing whatever in his life, that calls for the attention of a general reader, however deserving it may have been of the admiration of the peculiar sect to which he belonged. It is certainly not much to the praise of Dr. Bogue's prudence or charity, that he was one of the first founders of that society which has sown the seeds of so much discord in Ireland: we mean the Hibernian society; which, under the pretence of diffusing religious knowledge in that country, has only been active in attempting to make proselytes, by the aid of intimidation, corruption, and other objectionable means. Neither can we admire the style in which this memoir is written. It is full of that peculiar phraseology, which has been justly designated as cant.

This memoir is followed by an abridgment of Michael Kelly's history of his own life-which, as we have recently noticed that work at length, need not detain us. From the pages of "the

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