ed, the most formidable obstacles to an invading army. It is curious that, although Darius passed the mountains at this point, Herodotus makes no allusion to the event. Shumla is a considerable town, imperfectly but widely fortified; and, when manned by Turks, not likely to fall into the hands of an assailant. The distance from Shumla to Varna, which had hitherto been considered as an impregnable fortress, is about fifty miles. Suppose Shumla to surrender, and the Turks have nothing but the Balkan and the stout hearts beyond them to oppose to the progress of Russia.

The account given by Dr. Walsh of the population of Bulgaria, the large province lying between the Balkan and the Danube, is highly interesting. Distinguished in ancient times for their courage, these once almost ferocious borderers upon the Wolga have now cast aside their belligerent habits, and adopted those of a pastoral life; are kind to strangers, peaceful among themselves, and would seem to be planted by Providence on the borders of Turkey, to display a living proof of the opposite influence of Christianity and Mohammedanism upon the happiness of mankind.

The following extract, giving some account of these people, will be interesting to our readers.

"The Bulgarians speak a language which has not the smallest affinity with either that of the Turks, Greeks, Jews, or Armenians, with whom they mix.

It is the language they brought with them from Sarmatia, and is a dialect of the Sclavonian, having a nearer resemblance to Russian, perhaps, than to any other. When they established themselves in this district, they embraced Christianity; and have ever since continued members of the Greek church, subject to the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople, who appoints their bishops. These are always Greeks, and they have by a natural preference, established their own language, as that of the service of the church, universally on the south side, and generally on the north, of the Balkan. Where it is not in Greek,

it is in the ancient written language; and as the modern Bulgarians understand neither one nor the other, the offices of religion are performed for them in an un

known tongue. Even in the few schools established in towns, the books introduced are exclusively Greek, though that language has made no progress among the people. The consequence of this is, that they are entirely illiterate; the language they use is merely oral, never having been reduced to grammatical rules. A few elementary books have been lately printed in it, but I did not meet with them; those I saw were, Greek for the schools, and Sclavonian for the churches. There is generally villages, who attends and performs the a priest attached to every two or three duties of religion in each occasionally; but unless in a very few places, they have neither churches, nor schools, nor books; and, with the exception of the baccûl, or shopkeeper, who is generally a Greek, it is probable there was not a person, in any of the villages through which I passed, who could read or write;

yet, like the people of the Golden Age, Sponte sua, sinè lege, fidem rectumque colebant.' Crime is unknown among them; and the traveller who passes through their country is not only secure from the effects of vice, but experiences the kindness resulting from the most amiable virtues." pp. 202-204.

This picture was probably sketched under the influence of a blazing fire and a good meal on the spot; and is no doubt of the most favourable colour. Every now and then, some flattering limner gives us this sort of bewitching sketch of a comparatively barbarous people. But he who should set out in the romantic hope of finding any strong predominence of virtuous habits, except where religion is in a decidedly pure and active state, will find that good nature rather than accurate knowledge guided the pencil. Whatever the Bulgarian may be however, he seems to be scarcely a being of the same species with the Turk.

The author soon reaches Rutchuk, a strong town on the Danube, and frequently the object of attack and defence in the last war with Russia. On the banks of this river the Russians were detained for six years; and, although they lately passed that river without serious opposition, and made the conquest of Varna, the events of the campaign of 1810 may lead us to believe that Constantinople will never be reached without an expenditure of human life which it is awful to

contemplate. The passages of the Balkan are very difficult; to say nothing of the formidable mountain Turkish cavalry, called Spahis or Delhis (madmen), and other impedi

ments.

The author now proceeded to cross the Danube, and we cannot resist giving the result of his obser

vations as he sat in the midst of the river.

"When we arrived in the middle of the current, and had a full and distinct view of both sides, I was greatly struck with the contrast. On the south, nothing could be more beautiful and pastoral than the prospect; the hanging banks of the river were clothed with vineyards, which yielded such abundant crops, that they formed the food of the Russians who

were encamped among them during the siege. From hence the ground rose gradually into undulating hills-some covered with green sward, and some with wood; between them were pastures filled with cattle, or cultivated land in fallow, or springing corn. The villages of the peasantry were scattered among these hills; and everywhere, as far as the eye could reach, the view was very lovely and inviting. The country on the north side was dull, naked, and flat, without a tree, a hill, an enclosure, or a village, covered in several places with dense dark mists; and, as far as the eye could reach, appearing to be fenny, foggy, and sterile. That northern tribes should wish to leave this dismal-looking region, and pass over to the other more lovely and inviting shore, seems perfectly natural; and they have attempted to do so from the earliest periods of history. Few have passed from the south, except for a temporary purpose. But the inhabitants of this side have been always engaged in efforts to

repel the tribes of the other, who have, in all ages, crowded over to make perma nent establishments; and hordes of Sarmatians, Scythians, Huns, Vandals, Goths and Russians, have been, and are at this day, deserting their dreary wastes, and swarming across to these more genial shores.' pp. 224-226.

At Rutschuk the author was informed that the plague was raging in the country through which he was to advance; and, at Buchorest, the capital of Wallachia, he found that the report was not unfounded. This city is built on the river Domnitza; and contains about 80,000 inhabitants. The author describes it as exhibiting a singular mixture of Tartar and Turkish ha

bits; and as distinguished (in common, however, with other towns in the same country) from the rest of the world by boarded streets, of which he gives the worst possible report. His description of the moral character of the inhabitants is most painful. Oh, that the northern invaders might be permitted to open a way for the introduction of the Scriptures, into a spot from which they are almost as carefully excluded as from the citadel of Mohammedanism at Constantinople!

At Petesh, our author reaches the base of the Carpathian mountains.

Soon after he passes on to Rimnik, in which district the battle of Drageschan was fought, and mournfully distinguished by the extermination of a band of students, young who there devoted themselves for the liberties of Greece. Under an influence, worthy of the brighter days of their country, these youthful heroes forsook, as by some contemporaneous influence, their schools, colleges, and homes, and ranged themselves under the banner of Ypselantes against an overwhelming army of Turks.

The traveller reached the Carpathian mountains at a pass called Rothentûrn, or Red Tower. And here he was subjected to a species of quarantine which, as he truly says, instead of curing the sick, was likely to infect and destroy the healthy. From thence he passes onward over the plains of Transylvania, now in the occupation of Austria. In this part of his work he gives a somewhat minute and interesting account of that singular people, the Gypsies; called, in that country whence they first proceeded to England, and where they are still collected in large numbers, Czingaries. Their characteristics of body and mind, in Bohemia, are precisely those by which they are distinguished here. In our own country we are not aware that they make the slightest acknowledgment of any religion, In Bohemia, on

the contrary, they appear generally to profess the principles of the Greek church, and practise some of its ceremonies, but with a most painful mixture of ribaldry and profanity. They have no schools: in Moldavia and Wallachia, they are in a servile state; but enjoy, in Transylvania, considerable privileges under the Austrian government.

As the author continues to cross the plains of Transylvania he finds himself on a sudden introduced into a highly cultivated country, covered with neat cottages, fine farms, large manufactories, and a respectable and independent population. On inquiry into the cause of the improvement, he discovers that the inhabitants of these Saxon villages, as they are called, are Protestants of German extraction; and that their civilization and happiness are to be traced to the unrestricted use of the holy Scriptures.

It is delightful to find scattered over the field of human nature these undeniable evidences of the value of a pure faith, and of the free profession of it. Let any person contrast the following picture, with all which he finds in this, or any other volume, with regard to countries where Mohammedanism or even Popery is the established faith.

"Their houses bore the characteristic

;

marks of those of the country from whence they came ;- -the windows were high from the ground, like those in the north of Germany the roofs were tall and narrow, and there was that air of neatness, comfort, and propriety about them, that always marks and distinguishes the progress of the Reformation on the Conti

nent.

The houses looked as if they had been all fresh painted and whitewashed; the windows were glazed with glass, and ornamented inside with snow-white muslin curtains; and over the outside was generally some moral or religious sentence from the Bible, neatly written in gilded or black letters, in the German character. The houses had that uniformity of comfort, and a certain degree of opulence, which marked a happy equality of circum stances. All were neat and roomy, and none were mean or splendid; we did not see a hovel or a palace in the country. The farmers are all proprietors of the soil, and their lands are without enclosures, as if there was a community of goods;

but their properties are distinguished by certain land-marks, which are not visible. It is in the ground about their houses, however, that this sense of property is conspicuous in the rear is a large farmyard filled with stacks of corn and other produce of their farms; and in front, or at the sides, the gardens, orchards, or pleasure grounds, laid out with that taste and variety which people indulge who feel the value of property, and know that their time and money are expended on what is their own. But the object which partichurch: this is always very large, built in cularly distinguishes these towns is the an ornamental style of architecture, with a high steeple, and kept in the most perstands upon an eminence, in the midst of fect state of repair and neatness: it usually the village, and seems the rallying point round which the people thronged, and their houses were built, as if the inhabitants considered it as the most striking them to cherish and keep alive their reliand important object, and placed it before gious impressions." pp. 347-349.

Our traveller next passes on to Deva-then crosses the noble river Marosch into Hungary-then traverses the great steppe or plain of Hungary to Pest, and Buda, upon opposite sides of the Danube. He gives this short account of the religion of these two places.

"The Reformed population of Buda and Pest exceeds the Catholic. The Reformation had made an early and rapid progress in Hungary; and in 1681, in order to give some check to it, the Protestants were restrained to two churches, in the country, each of which was to serve for more than one hundred towns and vil

lages. Happily, those times are gone by, and a perfect toleration is every where allowed. The Reformed churches we saw, as we passed along, were more numerous than the Catholic; and of the be in Hungary, the majority are Protesnine millions of inhabitants supposed to tants." pp. 405, 406.

The judgment of so well-informed an author respecting the Greek population of the various countries in which he has resided, well deserves attention. We have not space to quote it; but it is, upon the whole, highly favourable.

At Buda Dr. Walsh fell into the

track of multitudes of our vagrant countrymen and countrywomen. It is needless for us, therefore, to serve up to our readers the crambe repetita of stale authorship, especially as we have already loaded their

tables with liberal extracts of matter, in a great degree fresh and original. But before we dismiss the volume, we will take the liberty of offering a few remarks suggested by the affecting picture which he presents of every province on his route in which Mohammedanism is the ruling faith.

There was a period in the history of the world, when the eye of every Christian was turned upon Mohammedanism; and when to investigate its principles, and to trace out their practical consequences in the destinies of mankind, was the great business of authors, divines, and statesmen. But of late years the Mohammedan nations have so evidently been declining in power, and have been so little in circumstances to extend their dominion, that few modern writers have given themselves the smallest trouble on the subject. But, whatever statesmen may think, no disciple of Christ ought to contemplate, for a moment, that gross imposition on the credulity of mankind, without the most unmixed horror, and the most settled purpose to discharge his part in the work of extinguishing it. Let the nature of Mohammedanism be considered-its monstrous exhibition of the Divine character-its allurements to the lusts and cruelty of mankind-its unsocial, exclusive, and blood-thirsty temper-its profligate contempt of human life--and its implacable hatred to Christianity. Let also its effects upon the interests and happiness of mankind be considered. Look at Turkey, transformed into a wilderness. Look at depopulated provinces-a starving population-filth, with all its consequent diseases—a state of things in which no man is secure of either his property or his life for a moment-and you have the genuine picture of its practical results. And is not such a system to be contemplated with detestation? and must not every servant of God long and pray for the period when it shall be swept from the earth, and

the throne of love and righteousness be established in its place? This is one of the facts which more especially makes us rejoice in the establishment of the various Missionary societies in the Mediterranean. Although their conductors have been able to accomplish little, they have done something. It is consolatory to hear that Bibles and tracts have been circulated to a considerable extent in Mohammedan countries. And here may we be permitted to express our hopes, that these societies sufficiently call to mind the general circumstances of Mohammedan nations. For if it is an encouragernent to know that they are not in what may be termed an altogether barbarous state; and that they are, therefore, open, at least in some instances, to the mode of argument and operation, which it is most easy and natural for European missionaries to employ; it is of consequence, also, to recollect, that this advance upon the intelligence of savage life demands corresponding attainments in those sent to instruct them. Henry Martyn appears to have been the most successful missionary to Mohammedans in modern times; and, "being dead," we are thankful to say "he yet speaketh" in the works he has bequeathed to us for their use. But all his communications with them serve to convince us that he had to deal, especially in their Muftis, with men completely armed with the objections which infidelity suggests, and to be met only by logical acuteness, as well as real scriptural knowledge. Savages, whose superstition is chiefly that of the fancy or passions, are easily persuaded to admit the truth of miracles; from their " resemblance to the supposed interpositions of their deities; from their ignorance of the force of natural causes; from their instinctive propensity to believe in all that is extraordinary." But it is very difficult to bring the argument from prophecy to bear upon them; as