the grievances in Magna Charta), but not others of smaller property, unless the King thought fit for especial purposes to summon particular individuals among them.

"As to the principle of Tenure, or the obligation of the Barouage to attend Parliaments, in the third section of this record, under the head of Summons of the Laity,' we find the following words:

"Every Earl and Baron and their Peers, viz. such as have lands or rents to the value of one entire earldom, or twenty knights' fees, each computed at twenty pounds, which make four hundred pounds, or to the value of an entire bounty, viz. thirteen knights' fees and the third of a knight's fee, which make four hundred marks, ought to be summoned and come to Parliament; and none others of the laity or clergy of lesser possessions ought, at their own costs, to appear on account of their tenures, unless the King should summon his Counsellors, or other wise men, for some necessary

cause, to whom he usually sends, praying

them to come to and remain in Parliament at the charges of the King himself.'

"It is evident from the above, that the feudal parliamentary dignities of Ireland were governed solely by the principle of Tenure, and remained, down to this period, unaffected by any alteration; and that this continued to be recognized by the Crown, and of the Legislature, appears from the record left us by Archbishop Alan, of the Parliament assembled in the reign of Henry the Eighth, wherein he was present, and which record, as to the persons summoned and their qualifications, is nearly a transcript of the above Modus.

"After this exemplification of the Modus,' the principle of Tenure was so strictly observed, that we find many Barons, who were always summoned to Parliament by special writs, and were fined frequently for non-attendance, became completely divested of their privileges in that respect, and were never summoned again to Parliament. This may be attributed to alienations or partitions made of their estates, or to the encroachments made by the natives on the former possessions of such Barons, which so diminished their property, as to leave them far below the standard prescribed by the Modus."-p. 182.

We have had occasion to notice in our review of Sir William Betham's work that, in our judgment, the greatest error has prevailed concerning our ancient Parliamentary history. In the book before us, we have found records which confirm our opinions. Our old Chroniclers do affirm that even in the time of the earliest Norman Kings, a convocation of the Clergy and a House

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of Commons did exist under the term "Clerus et Populus," and that the assemblage of them was imperative when a general taxation was implied. Circumstances prohibit further entrance into the subject. We have therefore only to thank Mr. Lynch for the light which he has thrown upon it, and to say that his work contains other most curious and valuable matters.

Recollections of the Mauritius or Isle of France. By a Lady. 8vo. pp. 208. Cawthorn.

THIS is evidently the production of a ladylike and talented woman; who, besides the respect due to her sex and abilities, claims from us the consideration which is due to misfortune. The volume is a "widow's mite" to literature, and a very acceptable one. The Recollections" are given in the form of notices to her two daughters, and are distinguished by an elegance of thought and correctness of feeling, highly honourable to the authoress.

We extract the following description of a storm in the island of Mauritius, as a specimen of style, and as affording an instance of the tremendous power of the tempest in the middle zone:

"They only who have witnessed such a hurricane, can form an adequate notion of its horrors. The wind had been very high during the preceding night, and the rain poured in a deluge from the clouds. The next morning the storm began to give notice of its approach; the wind roared louder than the loudest thunder, veering perpetually to every point of the compass, and the rain fell in still greater torrents.' "Never shall I forget the terrors I felt during that awful scene! The windows and doors were closely shut; and secured by nails and bars; yet, as the blast roared around, the house shook as if in an earthquake. I never before imagined that it was possible for the wind to produce sounds so appallingly, so tremendously loud; it seemed as if all the elements were at strife, and all nature in commotion and uproar. We could hardly hear each other speak, amid the raging tempest, and every moment dreaded that the roof would be carried off

by the wind, and that we should be crushed

beneath fallen beams and rafters."" The storm continued to rage thus until evening, when it gradually decreased iu fury, and by the dawn of morning, a perfect stillness had succeeded to the tumult of the winds; but what a scene of ruin, of desolation, met our

1831.]

colonial life.

Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Giovanni Finati, native of Ferrara; who, under the assumed name of Mahomet, made the campaigns against the Wahabees for the recovery of Mecca and Medina; and since acted as Interpreter to European Travellers in some of the parts least visited of Asia and Africa. Translated from the Italian, as dictated by himself, and edited by William John Bankes, Esq. 2 vols. 16mo. Murray.

GIOVANNI FINATI was the son of respectable parents, who intended him for the Church, but when he arrived at the age of eighteen, he was impressed for a conscript. He gives

an account of this horrible form of recruiting. A substitute might be provided, but if he deserted the original drawee was obliged to take his place. This misfortune happened to poor Finati, who then secreted himself. Compulsory measures were accordingly taken to induce the family, by persecution, imprisonment, and confiscation of property, to deliver him up. He voluntarily therefore surrendered himself; was marched into the Tyrol, whence he deserted and came home. The consequence was, that the confiscation was renewed, and his younger brother peremptorily required to serve in his room. Concealment in the unfrequented part of the country, lodging in sheepfolds, outhouses with the animals and cattles, and sometimes in ditches and holes in the earth, wretchedness and privation, were all that he gained by his escape. He was at last discovered, and marched handcuffed to Venice. A visit to that city in 1807 by Buonaparte, produced a general amnesty, and saved him from the utmost rigours of military law; but

"after his head had been shaven close, a particular dress, much like those which common convicts wear, was put upon him, and he was loaded not with heavy chains only, but with a great weight also attached to them, which he was compelled to drag behind, as he was goaded in derision by the subaltern officers along the line, from whence he was conducted back, with every mark of contempt and disgrace, to the barracks, and GENT. MAG. March, 1831.

233

directed to be lodged there for two mouths in strict confinement, without being suffered to move out of them; and during all that time, there was no office, the meanest and most laborious, that was not thrown upon

him, as matter of punishment and degrada

tion."-i. 23.

Such was Buonaparte's method of preventing desertion. He was sent to Spalatro in Dalmatia, whence he escaped by another desertion into Turkish Albania; but found that, unless he turned Mahometan (at least nominally) he could not avoid slavery. A general officer took him into his service, and placed such confidence in him as to allow him to enter his harem,

"which included ten females of different countries, all of them young, and all more or less attractive, and the merriest creatures ever seen."-i. 56.

An intrigue with one of these, who proved pregnant, compelled him again, from dread of the consequences, to fly into Egypt. Upon his arrival there he enlisted in the service of Mahomet the adventures which in this work are Ali; and from this period commence recorded in detail. These we shall pass over to notice matters of archæology or curiosity.

We have a vulgar superstition about laying ghosts in the Red Sea. The large bay of Birket Faraoun is, according to tradition, the place where the Israelites crossed the sea. There is almost a continual motion in the water scribed to exposure on three sides to of this bay, which motion may be asthe sea, and sudden gusts of wind from the openings of the vallies. These circumstances, together with the shoals, render it a very dangerous harbour. Hence the Arabs say, that the restless spirits of the Host of Pharaoh still remain at the bottom of the deep, and are continually busied in drawing down mariners to their destruction.-i. 139,

140.

Locusts, after being fried in butter, it seems, are eaten like shrimps (ii. 78). At Girstie he took two dovetails of wood out of a colossal figure, as old as the time of Sesostris (84). He says, concerning the temples of the Ptole maic Dynasty (as Edfou or Apollinopolis) that

"there is not a single historical sculpture to be seen on any one of them, but all purely mythological and dedicatory, whereas in the earlier edifices very few exist that do

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foolish projects of our devotees at home, who act as madly as it would be to plough and harrow the surface of a piece of water, scatter seed upon it, and expect a crop.

Africa is composed of sandy deserts and pestilential marshes; but if, as has been done to a great extent in Egypt,

"The dry country could be irrigated, and the wet one could be drained, this immense continent would gradually become the garden and the granary of Europe, and with its water, wealth would circulate, and civilization flourish."-p. 129.

Such fanatics have not been allowed to propagate all their folly in India, and what has been the result? The explanation may be found in the wisdom of the policy, a policy which is excellently contrasted with its opposite error in the following extract:

"In all countries under the sun, there is most surely one great road which leads directly to every man's heart, namely, his own interest. And in Africa, if we would but resolve to travel on that road, to be a light to lighten the gentiles,' we might then with some reason pride ourselves on being Britons and Christians.' If we were calmly to impart to these ignorant people the valuable information which we possess, if we were to satisfy them that our object is really to do them good, to give them gratis the inestimable benefits which science can bestow upon rude labour; if we were to offer to the poor woman a wheel for her drawwell, to show people who pound their corn in a mortar a more simple method by which they might grind it, if we would by a common filter sweeten for them impure water, and by a herb lull the painful disorder which it creates,-if we would come forward to replace a dislocated limb,-and, on a much larger scale, if we would explain to these people that by a very simple operation immense portions of their vast country might be either irrigated or drained, and that even their climate might thus be purified, if we could show them manure lying unknown before them,-in short, if on great subjects, as well as small, we were chemically and mechanically to assist them, we should undoubtedly find that the value and good qualities of a mind truly civilized, would, rising to its proper level, be in Africa as elsewhere fully appreciated, that our fame would justly extend, and that every tribe and nation would be eager to receive us.

"But if, on the other hand, instead of conferring benefits, we invade these people for narrow, selfish, and suspicious objects, the value of which, as rational beings, they cannot possibly comprehend,-if we tell them that we have come from a most dis

235

taut country to discover the source of their rivers, to carry away a copy of their temples, or to make mysterious notes and observations on their stars,-that we want also specimens of their grubs, insects, and plants,-what can we justly expect, but objects actually brought upon its devothe persecution which the search of these tees even in Eugland, in the century of demonology and witchcraft, which has so lately ended?

"But if, going far beyond all this, we are to give positive as well as negative grounds of offence, if our political travellers, entering a capital dressed in gaiters and round hats, are to cry, 'Down with slavery,' and our missionaries in sable garments, are equally prematurely to exclaim

Down with your religion,' may it not be fairly asked, does our non-intercourse with uncivilized conduct, or our own. Africans proceed from their prejudiced and

"Those who seem still determined to support such desperate theories, ought surely to be desired, like Bruce, to go themselves; for certainly nothing can be more ominous, or smell more rankly of theory, than a large body of men encountering danger by deputy, and shrinking from the execution of a project which each of them so eloquently recommends. Traveller after traveller in Africa, jaded, worn out, and exhausted, yet still leaning against his collar, nobly pushes forward, until death sends to inform us that he can do no more, Et Tartuffe? et Tartuffe? il se porte à

merveille!

Gros et gras, le teint frais, et la bouche vermeille.'"

We shall now give two extracts, which show how indispensable is Oriental archæology or custom to illustration of the Bible. The first relates to the "Horn" of Scripture as an ensign of honour.

"One thing most remarkable in this cavalcade was the head-dress of the Governors of Provinces. A large broad fillet was bound upon their forehead, and tied behind In the middle of this was a their head. horn, or a conical piece of silver gilt, about four inches long, much in the shape of our common candle-extinguisher. It is called kirn or horn, and is only worn in reviews or parades after victory. This is probably taken from the Hebrews, and explains the several allusions which are made to it in Scripture. And the horn of the righteous shall be exalted.' Psalms, &c. &c.'

In crossing the Desert of Nubia, Bruce saw a phenomenon which illustrates the mode by which Providence acted in regard to the "pillar of fire" that preceded the Israelites :

Of this costume there is a wood-cut.

236

"On the 15th, the same moving pillars of sand presented themselves, only they seemed to be more in number and less in size. They began immediately after sun-rise, like a thick wood, and almost darkened the sun. His rays shining through for near an hour, gave them an appearance of pillars of fire." -p. 468.

The patience of the wives of the patriarchs under polygamy and concubinage, is thus elucidated :

"Mothers who stand most in need of protection, naturally look for it to their own offspring; and it is a habit among these women, as among the Galla tribes, to entreat their husbands to entertain a plurality of wives, that by the number of children in the family, the means of safety may be proportionately increased."-p. 146.

The primary Oriental origin of Druidism and the Welsh language is thus exhibited:

"The Shangalla have but one language, which has a very guttural sound. They worship trees, serpents, the moon, planets, and stars, in certain positions. They have of course many superstitions; for instance, a star passing near the horns of the moon, denotes, they conceive, the approach of an enemy."-p. 144.

Why warlike weapons are found in barrows, appears from the following superstition:

"From his bows the old Shangalla selects a favourite one to be buried with him, in order that, when he rises again, he may

not be at a loss to defend himself from his enemies; for these poor people are so accustomed to enemies in this world, that they cannot conceive that even a future existence can be without them."-—p. 145.

The causes of superstition and influence of the Druids are philosophically explained in p. 265:

"The Abyssinians, like all secluded and illiterate people, are highly superstitious. Jerome Lobo says, that the whole country

SO

swarms with churches, that you can hardly sing in one without being heard in another.......There is scarcely a monk in the hot, unwholesome, monastery of Waldubba,-not a hermit, who passes his life shivering on the bleak, solitary mountains, not a priest who has lived sequestered from society, who does not pretend that he is enabled to see and foretell what is to happen in future, from his perfect ignorance of the present and the past.”—p. 265.

Now, if there was not ignorance, there would not be faith; and if there was not faith, there would not be superstition. There are multitudes in Great Britain and Ireland fully as ig

[March,

norant and superstitious as the Abyssinians, and accredit as many follies.

Bruce did not discover the principal nor more remote source of the Nile. That misfortune we regret, because he deserved the reputation of the discovery; but such is the vindication of

Major Head, that now we hope requiescat in pace.

Narrative of Discovery and Adventure in Africa, from the earliest ages to the present time with illustrations of the Geology, Mineralogy, and Zoology. By Professor Jameson, James Wilson, Esq. F. R. S. E. and Hugh Murray, Esq. F.R.S.E. Cuts, &c. 12mo, pp. 492.

WHEN Captain Clapperton, one of the travellers, was making a visit to Sockatoo, he found that

now

"The Sultan had received a letter from the court of Bornou, warning him, that by this very mode of sending embassies and presents, which the English were following towards the states of central Africa, they had made themselves masters of India, and trampled on all its native princes."-p. 243.

Now, if we except Roman military Occupation, and summary civilization thereupon ensuing, an impossibility with regard to any European nation, we know of no mode of conquest so eligible for the advantage both of the invaders and invaded, as that of India; and Africa, politically, is precisely in the same situation. It is divided into petty sovereignties of various degrees of savageness, according to the nature of the soil; for where that is good and productive, agriculture, and of course priand from these germs, law and civilivate property, seem to have ensued; zation naturally spring, because they are manifestly essential to public and private good. To send rash and sanguine individuals to explore the inte rior of Africa, is only to do the same as would be to place them in an Oriental town, when infected with the plague, under the narrow chance of survivorship; and enough is known to show us that the country consists of desert and oasis, of quadrupeds and serpents, who would disappear before European arts; of bipeds, whom property and its natural consequences would soon tame; and of musquitoes, whom nothing can extirpate, but contrivance may disarm. If, as has been done with the Sepoys in India, a handfull of Europeaus could engage in their