destitution, issued a command that no one should speak in praise of their good qualities, on penalty of condign punishment. Notwithstanding this order, a venerable old man daily repaired to the ruins of the deceased minister's palace, which had been razed to the ground. Seating himself upon a heap of rubbish, he made bitter lamentations, and harangued the passing crowd on the splendid virtues of the unfortunate family. When Haroon was informed of this, his anger was roused, and he ordered the offender to his presence. The old man was instantly dragged before him, when the Caliph ordered him to be put to death. The culprit exclaimed, "For God's sake, per mit me, O Commander of the Faithful, to utter a few words before I die." " Speak," replied the Caliph.

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My name,' ," said the old man, "is Munder of Damascus, and my ancestors ranked among the most respectable of Syria; but the vicissitudes of fortune attacked me, and the dawn of my prosperity was soon clouded by the evening of adversity. Overwhelmed by misfortunes, I left my native city, and repaired with my family, in hopes of obtaining employment, to the capital of Islaam; at the gate of which I left my wives and children in a mosque, while I sought a lodging. I entered the city, and had not advanced far, when I beheld a long train of persons of quality, who, I perceived, were going to a marriage feast; and, as I was pressed by hunger, I joined the procession. We arrived at a magnificent palace, and were admitted by the porter. No questions were asked me, and I sat down among the guests, of one of whom I inquired who owned the mansion? He answered, Fuzzul Bermeki, who was celebrating his nuptials. When the ceremony was concluded, a basin of money was presented to every one present, and to myself among the rest; after which, written grants of houses, lands, and goods, were thrown among us, two of which fortunately fell into my lap. The assembly at length broke up, and I was taking my departure, when a slave plucked me by the sleeve. I supposed he wanted to take from me the money and the deeds; but he led me respectfully to Fuzzul, who mildly said, 'I perceive thou art a stranger, and wish to know thy situation; relate then thy adventures without exaggeration.' I replied, Seek not to know what will give thee pain: it is not right thy present joy should be damped by sorrow. After much importunity, I related my adventures, from my entrance into life till that day. Fuzzul wept at my misfortunes, and asked where

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was my family. Upon my telling him, he said, Be not uneasy, for all will be well: then beckoning to a slave, he whispered something in his ear. After this, a change of rich apparel was brought me, and he insisted upon my staying all night, though I wished to be dismissed, as my mind was uneasy about my family, who would be anxiously expecting me. To this Fuzzul replied, As they are in the house of God, he will be their protector. In short, I remained all night, and in the morning he permitted me to depart, sending a domestic with me; but instead of leading me to the mosque, he conducted me to an elegant house, in which I found my wives and children. They informed me they had been brought thither the evening before by a slave of Fuzzul, and put in possession of the mansion. Need I say more, O Commander of the Faithful, in excuse for my dwelling on the virtues of the liberal Ber mekies? If I should forget them, should I not incur the stigma of ingratitude here, and its merited punishment hereafter ?" Haroon was appeased. He applauded the old man, and presented him with a purse of gold; upon receiving which, the sage said, "This also, O Caliph, comes from the Bermekies."

In the same history are some remarkable particulars of the death of the Caliph Haroon al Rasheed, related by his physician, Gabriel, who constantly attended him. In the year (of the Hegira) 192, says Gabriel, I attended Haroon in camp at Rukha, and one morning early, repairing to the foot of the throne, I found the Caliph very pale and melancholy; upon which I said, "I perceive thee, O Commander of the Faithful, unusually sad and dispirited. If the cause be bodily illness, inform me, that I may administer relief; but if some misfortune of state, trouble not thy mind with reflecting upon it, for the Almighty will destroy thy enemies." Haroon replied, “It is neither; but I have had a horrible dream, for the meaning of which I am alarmed. I beheld a naked arm extended from beneath my throne, the hand of which was filled with red earth, and at the same instant heard a voice saying, Such is the earth, O Haroon, of thy grave. I exclaimed, where? At Toos, returned the voice; after which the hand disappeared, and I awoke."

I said, continues Gabriel, "this dream, my lord, was the effect of indigestion, and can mean nothing: probably you were thinking last night of the affairs of Khorasaun, and the rebellion of Rafee, son of Leshe." "I was so," answered Haroon. I now recommended that he should order

a banquet, and divert his mind; which he did, and the impression of the vision was soon done away. In the course of the year, however, the Caliph moved with a mighty army from Bagdad, against the rebels of Khorasaun, but was taken ill upon his march, in the province of Jirjaun, and, when he arrived at Toos, became daily worse. Here he received intelligence that the rebel Rafee had been defeated, and his brother taken prisoner, by Hersima, who sent him in chains to court. On his arrival, Haroon ordered the unfortunate criminal to be cut to pieces by a butcher in his presence; but the execution was no sooner over, than the Caliph was seized with a fainting-fit. Upon coming to himself, the dream occurred to his mind, and he exclaimed, “This place, Gabriel, is Toos, and here is my grave.' He then ordered the attendant Mesroor to fetch a handful of the soil, which he brought with his sleeve drawn up to the elbow. "By the Almighty," exclaimed Haroon, "this is the very arm, and hand, and soil, which I beheld in my dream!" From that instant his agonies increased, and he expired three days afterwards, in the year of the Hegira one hundred and ninety-two. A. D. 807.

INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER OF THE

AFRICANS.

NOTWITHSTANDING SO great a deficiency, (the absence of a written language among them,) the African must not be imagined as sunk in entire mental apathy. The enterprise of a perilous and changeful life develops energies which slumber amid the general body of the people in a civilized society. Their great public meetings and palavers exhibit a fluent and natural oratory, accompanied often with much good sense and shrewdness. Above all, the passion for poetry is nearly universal. As soon as the evening breeze begins to blow, the song resounds throughout all Africa: it cheers the despondency of the wanderer through the desert; it enlivens the social meeting; it inspires the dance; and even the lamentations of the mourner are poured forth in measured accents. Their poetry does not consist in studied and regular pieces, such as, after previous study, are recited in our schools and theatres; they are extemporary and spontaneous effusions, in which the speaker gives utterance to his hopes and fears, his joys and sorrows. All the sovereigns, are attended by crowds of singing men and singing women, who, whenever any interesting event occurs, celebrate it in songs, which they repeat aloud

and in public. Flattery, of course, must be a standing reproach against this class of bards; yet from this imputation their Euro. pean brethren are not exempt; while, from Major Laing's report, it appears that there is often present a sable Tyrtæus, who re proaches the apathy of the prince and the people, and rouses them to scenes of valour, Specimens are wanting of the African muse; yet, considering that its effusions are numerous, inspired by nature, and animated by national enthusiasm, they seem not unlikely to reward the care of a collector. The few examples actually given, favour this conclusion. How few among our peasantry could have produced the pathetic and affecting lamentation which was uttered in the little Bambarra cottage over the distresses of Park! These songs, besides,! handed down from father to son, contain evidently all that exists among these nations of traditional history. From the songs of the Jillimen of Soolimani, Major Laing was enabled to compile the annals of this small kingdom for more than a century. Edin burgh Cabinet Cyclopædia.

GLOBULES OF BLOOD, AND ANIMALCULES. THE blood which flows in the veins of animals is not, as it seems, an uniformly red liquid. It consists of small red globules, floating in a transparent fluid called serum. In different species these globules differ both in figure and in magnitude. In man, and all animals which suckle their young, they are perfectly round or spherical. In birds and fishes they are of an oblong spheroidal form. In the human species, the diameter of the globules is about the 4000th of an inch. Hence it follows, that in a drop of blood which would remain suspended from the point of a fine needle, there must be about à million of globules.

Animalcules have been discovered, whose magnitude is such, that a million of them does not exceed the bulk of a grain of sand; and yet each of these creatures is composed of members as curiously organised as those of the largest species; they have life and spontaneous motion, and are endued with sense and instinct. In the liquids in which these live they are observed to move with astonishing speed and activity; nor are their motions blind and fortuitous, but evidently governed by choice, and directed to an end. They use food and drink, from which they derive nutrition, aud are therefore furnished with a digestive apparatus. They have great imuscular power, and are furnished with limbs and muscles of strength and flexibility. They are susceptible of the same appetites, and obnoxious to the same passions, the

are registered; and has led to the discovery of innumerable important and curious facts, and disclosed the existence of whole classes of celestial objects, of a nature so wonderful as to give room for unbounded speculation on the extent and construction of the uni

verse.

Among these, perhaps, the most remarkable are the revolving double stars, or stars which, to the naked eye, or to the inferior telescopes, appear single; but, if examined with high magnifying powers, are found to consist of two individuals placed almost close together, and which, when carefully watched, are (many of them) found to revolve in regular elliptic orbits about each other; and, so far as we have yet been able to ascertain, to obey the same laws which regulate the planetary movements. There is nothing calculated to give a grander idea of the scale on which the sidereal heavens are constructed than these beautiful systems. When we see such magnificent bodies united in pairs, undoubtedly by the same bond of mutual gravitation which holds together our own system, and sweeping over their enormous orbits, in periods comprehending many centuries, we admit at once that they must be accomplishing ends in the creation which will remain for ever unknown to man; and that we have here attained a point in science where the human intellect is compelled to acknowledge its weakness, and to feel that no conception the wildest imagination can form, will bear the least comparison with the intrinsic greatness of the subject.Herschel's Discourse on Natural Philo sophy.

NAPOLEON'S SACRIFICE OF HUMAN LIFE. NEVER was there a conqueror who fired more cannon, fought more battles, or overthrew more thrones, than Napoleon. But we cannot appreciate the degree and quality of his glory, without weighing the means he possessed, and the results he accomplished. Enough for our present purpose will be gained, if we set before us the mere resources of flesh and blood which he called into play, from the rupture of the peace of Amiens, in 1804, down to his eventful exit. At that time he had, as he declared to Lord Whitworth, an army on foot of 480,000 men. The decree of the 17 Ventose, an. VIII., in arrear, 30,000; ditto 28 Floreal, an. X., 120,000; ditto, 6 ditto, an. XI., 120,000; ditto 25 Ventose, XIII., 2,000; ditto 3 Germinal, an. XIII., 30,000; ditto 27 Nivose, an. XIII., 60,000; ditto, 3 Aug., 1806, 80,000; ditto, 4 Dec., ditto, 80,000; ditto, 7 April, 1807, 80,000; ditto, 21 Tnuary, 1808, 80,000; ditto, 10 Sep.,

of the same year, 160,000; ditto, 25 April, 1809, 40,000; ditto, 5 October, ditto, 36,000; ditto, 13 Dec., 1810, 160,000; ditto, Holland, Rome, Tuscany, and the Hanseatic Towns, 1808-9-10, 11,065; ditto, 20 Dec. 1811, 120,000; ditto, 18 March, 1812, 100,000; ditto, 1 Sep., ditto, 137,000; ditto, 11 Jan., 1813, 100,000; ditto, 11 Jan., 1814, 150,000; ditto, ditto, (Guards of Honour,) 10,000; ditto, 8 April, 1813, (classes 1807, 1812,) 80,000; ditto, ditto, (National Guard,) 90,000; ditto, 24 Aug., 1813, (Dept. of the South,) 30,000; ditto, 19 Oct., ditto, (remaining Dep.,) 120,000; ditto, ditto, (class 1815,) 160,000; ditto, 15 Nov., 1813, arrears 1804 and 1814,) 300,000. Total of levies, 2,965,965. This detail, which is derived from Napoleon's official journal, the Moni teur, under the several dates, is deficient in the excesses which were raised beyond the levies; but even if we deduct the home casualties, as well as the 300,000 men disbanded in 1815, we shall be much under the mark in affirming, that he slaughtered two millions and a half of human beings, and these all Frenchmen. But we have yet to add the thousands and tens of thousands of Germans, Swiss, Poles, Italians, Neapolitans, and Illyrians, whom he forced under his eagles, and, at a moderate computation, these cannot have fallen short of half a million. It is obviously just to assume, that the number who fell on the side of his adversaries was equal to that against which they were brought. Here, then, are our data for asserting, that the latter years of his glory were purchased at no less a cost than six millions of human lives. This horrible inroad on the fairest portion of the population of Europe ended in the abandonment of every conquered territory, the bringing of foreign enemies twice, within four-and-twenty months, under the walls of Paris, and the erasure of his name from the records of dominion! 0 curas hominum! O quantum est in rebus inane!

KILLED AND WOUNDED IN PARIS DURING

THE REVOLUTION OF JULY, 1830. As no property had been destroyed, and no industry perceptibly interrupted, the only loss to be deplored on the part of the people was the blood which had been shed in the commotion; and, on this subject there has been great exaggeration. Life, indeed, was profusely scattered on the two last days; prodigally thrown away on the part of the people, and mercilessly destroyed by the hands of the guards; but the number of

victims has been ridiculously magnified by wondering ignorance or factious prejudice. Accounts have been published, in which more of the troops are slaughtered than came into action, and in which thousands of the people are represented as killed, who have probably swelled the crowds of subsequent riots. When we hear of grape-shot sweeping the streets in an instant, of cartloads of dead being carried from the field of battle after a discharge, we naturally imagine that the slaughter of forty or fifty hours' fighting must be immense. But this is a wrong view of the case. Except at the Hotel de Ville on Wednesday, and before the colonnade of the Louvre on Thursday, the citizens never presented themselves in a compact body before the troops. They fired from windows or corners, from behind pillars or parapets, but never uselessly exposed themselves to the discharges of the guards. On the other hand, the troops on the Tuesday and Thursday suffered little; because, on the former day, the people were not armed, and on the latter the soldiers were protected by the interposition of large spaces between them and their assailants.

When scattered through the streets on Wednesday, their loss was considerable, but it would, perhaps, be overstated at five hundred men killed and wounded. On this subject, we have fortunately a statement of fact, on which considerable reliance can be placed, from the pen of Dr. Prosper Meniere, surgeon in the hospital of the Hotel Dieu, at Paris, who details the history of what passed in that great infirmary and other hospitals, "pendant et apres les trois grands journées," with apparent good faith and knowledge. He states, that the number of dead bodies deposited at the Morgue amounted to one hundred and twenty-five; the number interred under the colonnade at the Louvre, to eighty-five; the number buried on the other side of the Louvre, at the end of the street Fromenteau, to twenty-five; in the Marché des Innocens, to seventy; in the vaults of St. Eustache, to forty-three; in the vaults of the Quai ́de Gevres, to thirty-four; and in the Hotel Larochefoucault, to eight: making a total of three hundred and ninety. The number of citizens who were wounded, and brought to the different hospitals, or attended to at their own houses, the doctor estimates, from the best authority, at about two thousand. To these he adds three hundred of wounded soldiers in the military hospitals. Of those who were brought to the hospitals, three hundred and four died in the course of a week. The number of deaths, therefore, amounted to about seven hundred; and the 2D. SERIES.NO. 9. VOL. I.

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whole number of killed and wounded, to about three thousand, including soldiers as well as citizens. The number of killed and wounded of the guards, gendarmerie, and other troops, exposed during the three days to the attacks of the people, is stated by official accounts at three hundred and seventy-five, of which the killed are about a fifth part, or about seventy-five. Of these, the Swiss composed about a fourth.-Dr. Lardner's Cabinet Library, Vol. III.; being Vol. 1. of Annual Retrospect of Public Affairs for 1831.

THE MASSACRE OF THE JEWS AND LEPERS,

The Jews, who had been persecuted and banished from France by Philip the Fair, and restored by his successor, as necessary to the existence of the state, once again became the objects of popular hatred, not only on account of their religion, and because their wealth rendered them the ready objects of plunder, but also from a new accusation, to which so ignorant an age alone would have listened. A pestilential or epidemic disease was at this time scourging France, where bad living and dearth of provisions rendered such infectious disorders very fatal. To ac count for the present pestilence, it was said that the Jews had accepted a bribe from the Mahometan princes, and had undertaken to poison all wells, fountains, and rivers. The charge of participation in this crime was extended to a set of unfortunate wretches, who were rather the objects of disgust than of compassion. Those afflicted with the leprosy, who were obliged to live in hospitals apart from the rest of mankind, were stated to have joined with the Jews in the iniquitous project of poisoning the waters of the kingdom. It was an accusation easily understood, and greedily swallowed by the vulgar. The populace, of course, being already in arms, turned them against the Jews and the lepers, considering both as a species of wretched outcasts, whose sufferings ought to interest no healthy Christian, Without any formality, of trial or otherwise, these ignorant fanatics seized upon great numbers both of the Jews and of the lepers. and tore them to pieces, or burnt them alive without scruple. The Jews, though of late years they may be considered as an unwarlike people, have always been remarkable for the obstinacy of their temper, and for their opposing to popular fury a power of endurance which has often struck even their oppressors with horror. Five hundred of these men, upon the present occasion, defended a castle, into which they had thrown themselves, with stones, arrows, javelin 153.-VOL

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