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to us for support, and threw themselves almost unreservedly on our protection; the knowledge of their weakness became the source of their strength. Not so with their prouder neighbours; hence, most officers, looking only to a disagreeable result, and not to its honourable cause, have lauded the Portuguese, because they disliked the Spaniards.

Lord Londonderry then describes his passage of the frontiers between the two kingdoms:

Having halted at Elvas during the night, we marched next morning soonafter dawn, and, passing through a plain of considerable extent, crossed the Guadiana at Badajoz, the capital of Estremadura. This movement introduced us at once into Spain; and the contrast, both in personal appearance and in manners, between the people of the two nations, which was instantly presented to us, I shall not readily forget. Generally speaking, the natives of frontier districts partake almost as much of the character of one nation as of another; the distinctions between them become, as it were, gradually blended, till they totally disappear. It is not so on the borders of Spain and Portugal. The peasant who cultivates his little field, or tends his flock, on the right hand of the Guadiana, is, in all his habits and notions, a different being from the peasant who pursues similar occupations on its left bank the first is a genuine Portuguese-the last, a genuine Spaniard. Nor are they more like to each other in their amities than in their manners. They cordially detest one another; insomuch, that their common wrongs, and their common enmity to the French, were not sufficient, even at this time, to eradicate the feeling.

It was not, however, by the striking diversity of private character alone which subsisted between them, that we were made sensible, as soon as we had passed the Guadiana, that a new nation was before us. The Spaniards received us with a degree of indifference, to which we had not hitherto been accustomed. They were certainly not uncivil; they poured no execrations upon us; nor did they hoot, or rudely annoy us; but they gave themselves no trouble to evince to us, in any way, their satisfaction at our arrival. Whatever we

required they gave us, in return for our money; but, as to enthusiasm, or a desire to anticipate our wants, there was not the shadow of an appearance of any thing of the kind about them. How different all this from the poor Portuguese, who never failed to rend the air with their vivats, and were at all times full of promises and protestations, no matter how incapable they might be of fulfilling the one, or of authenticating the other! The truth is, that the Spaniard is a proud, independent, and grave personage, possessing many excellent qualities, but quite conscious of their existence, and not unapt to overrate them. On the

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'In the progress of this war, the tenacity of vengeance peculiar to the nation, supplied the want of cool, persevering intrepidity; but it was a poor substitute for that essential quality, and led rather to deeds Now, the abstraction of the Royal family, and the of craft and cruelty, than to daring acts of patriotism. unexpected pretension to the crown, so insultingly put forth by Napoleon, aroused all the Spanish pride. The tumults of Madrid and Aranjuez had agitated the public mind, and prepared it for a violent movement; and the protection afforded by the French to the obnoxious Godoy, increased the ferment of popular feeling: a dearly-cherished vengeance was thus frustrated, at the moment of its expected accomplishment, and the disappointment excited all that fierceness of anger which, with the Spaniards, is, for the moment,

uncontrollable.

'Just then, the tumult of Madrid, swollen and distorted, wrought the people to frensy, and they rose with one accord, not to meet a danger, the extent of which they had calculated, and were prepared, for the sake of independence, to confront, but to gratify the fury of their hearts, and to slake their thirst of blood.'-Napier, pp. 38, 39.

But the space already occupied, reminds us that we must draw to a close; much remains on which we would willingly comment; and, if we consulted our inclination only, we should continue to make Colonel Napier's History a running comment on Lord Londonderry's Narrative; but our unmilitary readers have a claim on us for variety, and we must therefore content ourselves, for the present, with recommending both works to the attentive perusal of our professional readers. In point of type, paper, and margin, the publisher of our quarto has done his duty; but we must hold him responsible for the map, apparently printed in the infancy of lithography, which is prefixed to a volume of which it is utterly unworthy; a more indistinct chart never puzzled an inspector: it does no credit to the English press, and we are almost induced to suspect that it is of foreign origin. The author must take some share of this blame. The map of a campaign should never be crammed by the insertion of secondary places, which are unconnected with the movements of the troops: it is enough that

present occasion, too, they seemed to be more than great cities are marked as points of bearing;

ordinarly self-important, in consequence of their late achievements; they were quick to take offence even where none was intended, and not indisposed to provoke, or engage in broils with our soldiers. Not that any serious disturbance occurred during our stay;

the discipline preserved in our own ranks was too good to permit it; but numberless little incidents were continually taking place, which served sufficiently to make us aware of the spirit which actuated the natives. Yet, with all this, there was much about the air and manner of the Spaniards to deserve and command our regard. The Portuguese are a people that require rousing; they are indolent, lazy, and generally helpless; we may value these our faithful allies, and render them useful; but it is impossible highly to respect them. In the Spanish character, on the contrary, there is mixed up, with a great deal of haughtiness, a sort of manly independence, which you cannot but admire, even though aware that it will render them by many degrees less amenable to your wishes than their neighbours.'Lord Londonderry, pp. 151–153.

Colonel Napier's description is yet more tranchante, and serves as a key to much of his subsequent argument:

The Spanish character, with relation to public affairs, is distinguished by inordinate pride and arrogance. Dilatory and improvident, the individual as well as the mass, all possess an absurd confidence, that every thing is practicable which their heated imagination suggests; once excited, they can see no difficulty in the execution of a project, and the obstacles they

encounter are attributed to treachery; hence the sudden murder of so many virtuous men at the commencement

*

work, that we should not have specially noticed it, but for the palpable omission to which it was necessary to draw attention. We will take the opportunity, however, of advising all military writers to consult compactness in the composition of their works, both as relates to the writing and the printing. Present yourselves to the public in close column-the critics will deploy you.'

We have thus passed Lord Londonderry in review, in quicker time than the regulation prescribes for movements of parade, but yet in that which will best suit his habits and school of study. We heartily wish that there were more of the Tenth who could be trotted out' on similar occasions; perhaps others of this distinguished corps may be encouraged to follow hereafter the example of their gallant colonel; it will be well for them to know, that the studies of a scholar are not inconsistent with the character of a soldier or the habits of a gentleman.

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A word now to commanding officers generally: it has been their habit to neglect, if not to discourage, literary talent in their junior officers. A man who could write has usually been considered, if under the rank of a field-officer, as little better than an incendiary: the ordinary run of lieutenant-colonels dread the presence of a well-informed subaltern, as a reproach on their own want of acquirement. Nor does their objection extend to polite or classical learning only: it is a point of faith with the minor part of our martinets, that military talent is only to be acquired by experience, that nothing is learnt in books but pedantry and impertinence, that the amount of a man's capacity must be measured by the date and nature of his commission. Nor is this feeling confined to those mere soldiers, who, previous to 1810, for the most part, commanded our regiments. There were a few instances of superior officers, who, though themselves possessed of some talent and military learning, yet, from a feeling of jealousy, discouraged in their subalterns those very acquirements, of the value of which they must have been personally conscious. We could name a General, now in very high command in the Mediterranean, in whose practice, and disposition of patronage, this vice was peculiarly conspicuous. By this time, perhaps, he may have seen his error, and may be convinced that it is talent, than to shine by contrast of neighbouring more honourable to a leader to be surrounded by darkness. Real gems require no foils.

part of the instructions of a reviewing General to We hope yet to see the day, when it shall be inquire into the talents of the junior officers; not only to ask whether they have got the books required by regulation, but whether they understand them; to made a return of linguists, draughtsmen, had been reported for proficiency, should be seand mathematicians; and that, from such only as lected the officers for staff appointments. Such would greatly forward the interest and honour of a system might break in upon patronage, but it

the service.

minuteness should be reserved for the lines of march and the champs de bataille, that the eye of the reader may fix upon them at once; and these, again, should be repeated on separate and enlarged scales, whenever the work is intended for military instruction. The Marquis has only afforded us six plans, each of which, or its counterpart, if we are not much mistaken, has been common in the print-shops; but they do not include one which we certainly expected to find in the work of an Adjutant-General. There Even the work before us, strange as it may is no plan of the lines of Torres Vedras, no detail of the forces occupying them, or of their distri- seem, is said to illustrate the neglect of unpatrobution; this, in a work purporting to be in-nised talent in our army; but, as the report is tended for the instruction of young officers, and vague, we will not lightly accuse the noble Marespecially for the information of those lately quis of hoisting false colours. sent to Portugal, is an unpardonable omission. Lord Londonderry was well aware of the importance of this position, and ought to have furnished his readers with the means of estimating and understanding its strength. In lieu of this, we have some twenty or thirty pages of returns of casualties, all of which either have been gazetted, or are of too little importance for special notice. Authors ought not to be encouraged in emptying their portfolios by way of appendix, nor booksellers in enlarging their volumes by this superfluous matter. In the instance before us, the addition bears so small a proportion to the * The work of Colonel Napier has several very

PELHAM.

Pelham, or the Adventures of a Gentleman, 3 Vols.

post 8vo. pp. 366. Colburn. London, 1828. SO MANY are the novels at present issued from the press, that it is not more difficult for an author to find a new plot, than for a reviewer to use Pelham is a very superior novel, but it is of the new expressions in giving their several characters. same class as many scores of others; and its only characteristic difference is, that its author has done that well which those of the others do weakly and badly; that the personages described, seem living instead of fictitions beings, and the dialogue taken from the vivá voce correspondence

Margot. "I will go forthwith," and so saying, he

went to the door.

"Hold, Sir!" said the lady, "it is not by that simple manner that you are to descend-you must go the same way as my glove, out of the window!"

"Out of the window, Madame!" said Monsieur Margot, with astonished solemnity; "that is impossible, because this apartment is three stories high, and consequently I shall be dashed to pieces."

""H-e-m!" said, very slowly, Monsieur Mar-
got, by no means liking the airy voyage imposed upon
him; "but the rope may break, or your hand may
suffer it to slip."

"Feel the rope," cried the lady, "to satisfy you as
to your first doubt; and, as to the second, can you-
can you imagine that my affections would not make
Fie! ungrateful Monsieur Margot! fie!"
me twice as careful of your person as of my own.

ance; I am the victim of a perfidious woman, and ex-
pect every moment to be precipitated to the earth."
""Good heavens!" said I, "surely it is Monsieur
Margot, whom I hear. What are you doing there "
""Shivering with cold," answered Monsieur Mar-
got, in a tone tremulously slow.

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made up out of the boarding-school dreams of
the author or authoress. This difference is a
very important one, of course; and the author
must be commended for having done what it is
undeniably very difficult to do-given a series
of fashionable portraits, and preserved the fa-
shionable air of the originals without, in this
part of the work, degenerating into tameness
or insipidity. With so much liveliness of de-
666 By no means," answered the dame; "in that
scription, and a dialogue which is occasionally
corner of the room there is a basket, to which (already
even brilliant, there is little doubt this novel will
foreseeing your determination) I have affixed a rope;
soon become a favourite of its class. This, how-by that basket you shall descend. See Monsieur,
ever, must not hinder the expression of our re- what expedients a provident love can suggest."
gret, that so many of its pages should be devoted
to several displays of its hero, which are some-
times the very essence of silliness, and might
have been left out without any detriment to the
development of the character. But objections of
this kind, we fear, according to the present style
of such works, will weigh little either with authors
or readers; and the eternal cant words of light
reading,' and 'fashionable display,' seem to have
persuaded some people of even moderate good
sense, that they refer to something else than mock
conversations of people of rank, or descriptions
of scenes, that, if they ever existed, ought never
to have been described. We trust such writers
as the author of Pelham,' will be soon convinced
of the folly of ministering to a taste in the public
which has been created, partly by a bad con-
dition of society, and partly by the labour of
writers, who, not being possessed of sufficient
genius for the composition of works of genuine
Imagination, have endeavoured to write them-
selves into notice, by the use of means which
the passions or inexperience of their readers can
alone render successful. Let a few authors of
real good sense and ability employ themselves
in writing naturally, and describing human cha-
racter, without clothing it either in foppery or
harlotry, and far more than half the novels which
have been circulated through society, as worthy
of praise and attention, will be left to merited
oblivion. But we turn to the work before us, from
which we had selected specimens of the powerful
style in which the author has delineated character,
but the following chapter is so truly humourous,
that we are induced to give it, entire, in pre-
ference to the smaller extracts we had intended
taking. It describes the adventure of Pelham's
French tutor, in Paris, whose portrait may be
gathered from the hints given in the scene.

"But what are you in? for I can see nothing but a dark substance."

"I am in a basket," replied Monsieur Margot, " and I should be very much obliged to you to let me out of it."

""Well-indeed," said Vincent, (for I was too much engaged in laughing to give a ready reply,) "your château-Margot has but a cool cellar. But there are some things in the world easier said than done. How are we to remove you to a more desirable place?"

"Ah," returned Monsieur Margot," how, indeed! There is to be sure a ladder in the porter's lodge long enough to deliver me; but then, think of the gibes and geers of the porter-it will get wind-I shall be ridiculed, gentlemen-I shall be ridiculed→→ and, what is worse, I shall lose my pupils."

"My good friend," said I, "you had better lose your pupils than your life; and the day-light will soon come, and then, instead of being ridiculed by the porter, you will be ridiculed by the whole street!"

"The melancholy chevalier cast a rueful look at the
basket. "Madame," said he, "I own that I am very
averse to the plan you propose: suffer me to go down
stairs in the ordinary way; your glove can be as
easily picked up whether your adorer goes out of the
door or the window. It is only, Madame, when ordi--what could make me such a fool ?"
nary means fail that we should have recourse to the
extra-ordinary."

'We took our way to the street in which Madame Laurent resided. Meanwhile suffer me to get rid of myself, and to introduce you, dear reader, to my friend Monsieur Margot, the whole of whose adventures were subsequently detailed to me by the garrulous Mrs. Green.

At the hour appointed he knocked at the door of my fair countrywoman, and was carefully admitted. He was attired in a dressing-gown of sea-green silk, in which his long, lean, hungry body, looked more like a river pike than any thing human.

""Madame," said he, with a solemn air, "I return you my best thanks for the honour you have done mebehold me at your feet!" and so saying the lean lover gravely knelt down on one knee.

""Rise, Sir," said Mrs. Green, "I confess that you have won my heart; but that is not all-you have yet to show that you are worthy of the opinion I have formed of you. It is not, Monsieur Margot, your person that has won me-no! it is your chivalrous and noble sentiments-prove that these are genuine, and you may command all from admiration." my "In what manner shall I prove it, Madame," said Monsieur Margot, rising, and gracefully drawing his sea-green gown more closely round him.

"By your courage, your devotion, and your gallantry! I ask but one proof-you can give it me on the spot. You remember, Monsieur, that, in the days of romance, a lady threw her glove upou the stage on which a lion was exhibited, and told her lover to pick it up. Monsieur Margot, the trial to which I shall put you is less severe. Look, (and Mrs. Green threw open the window)-look, I throw my glove out

descend for it "

"Begone, Sir!" exclaimed Mrs. Green;
gone! I now perceive that your chivalry was only a
pretence. Fool that I was to love you as I have done-
fool that I was to imagine a hero where I now find

a

'Monsieur Margot groaned. "Go, then, my friend," said he, " procure the ladder! Oh, those she-devils!

'While Monsieur Margot was venting his spleen in a scarcely articulate mutter, we repaired to the lodge "be-knocked up the porter, communicated the accident, and procured the ladder. However, an observant eye had been kept upon our proceedings, and the window above was re-opened, though so silently that I only perceived the action. The porter, a jolly, bluff, hearty-looking fellow, stood grinning below with a lanthorn, while we set the ladder (which only just reached the basket) against the wall.

"Pause, Madame, I will obey you-my heart is firm-see that the rope is

""Gallant Monsieur Margot!" cried the lady;
and, going to her dressing-room, she called her woman
to her assistance. The rope was of the most un-
questionable thickness, the basket of the most capa-
cious dimensions. The former was fastened to a strong
hook-and the latter lowered.

"I go, Madame," said Monsieur Margot, feeling
the rope;
"but it really is a most dangerous exploit."
Go, Monsieur! and the God of St. Louis be-
friend you!"

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"Stop!" said Monsieur Margot, "let me fetch my coat; the night is cold, and my dressing-gown thin."

"Nay, nay, my Chevalier," returned the dame, "I love you in that gown: it gives you an air of grace and dignity, quite enchanting."

"It will give me my death of cold, Madame !" said Monsieur Margot, earnestly.

"Bah!" said the Englishwoman: "what knight
ever feared cold? Besides, you mistake; the night
is warm, and you look so handsome in your gown.'

""Do I?" said the vain Monsieur Margot, with an
iron expression of satisfaction; "if that is the case,
I will mind it less; but may I return by the door?"
"Yes," replied the lady; "you see that I do not re-
quire too much from your devotion-enter."
""Behold me!" said the French master, inserting
his body into the basket, which immediately began to
descend.

'The hour and the police of course made the street
empty; the lady's handkerchief waved in token of
encouragement and triumph. When the basket was
within five yards of the ground, Mrs. Green cried to
her lover, who had hitherto been elevating his serious
countenance towards her, in sober yet gallant sadness-
""Look, look, Monsieur-straight before you."

'The lover turned round, as rapidly as his habits would allow him, and at that instant the window was shut, the light extinguished, and the basket arrested. There stood Monsieur Margot, upright in the basket, and there stopped the basket, motionless in the air.

'What were the exact reflections of Monsieur Margot, in that position, I canuot pretend to determine, because he never favoured me with them; but, about an hour afterwards, Vincent and 1 (who had been delayed on the road) strolling up the street, according to our appointment, perceived, by the dim lamps, some opaque body leaning against the wall of Madame Laurent's house, at about the distance of fifteen feet from the ground.

'The chevalier looked wistfully forth, and then, by the light of the lanthorn, we had a fair view of his ridiculous figure-his teeth chattered woefully, and the united cold without and anxiety within, threw a double sadness and solemnity upon his withered countenance; the night was very windy, and every instant a rapid current seized the unhappy sea-green vesture, whirled it in the air, and threw it, as if in scorn, over the very face of the unhappy professor. The constant recurrence of this sportive irreverence of the gales, the high sides of the basket, and the trembling agitation of the inmate, never too agile, rendered it a work of some time for Monsieur Margot to transfer himself from the basket to the ladder; at length, he had fairly got out one thin, shivering leg.

"Thank God!" said the pions professor-when at that instant the thanksgiving was checked, and, to Monsieur Margot's inexpressible astonishment and dismay, the basket rose five feet from the ladder, leaving its tenant with one leg dangling out, like a flag from a balloon.

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The ascent was too rapid to allow Monsieur Margot even time for an exclamation, and it was not till he had sufficient leisure in his present elevation to perceive all its consequences, that he found words to say, with the most earnest tone of thoughtful lamentation, "One could not have foreseen this!—it is really extremely distressing-would to God that I could get my leg in, or my body out!"

make any comment upon the unlooked-for ascent of While we were yet too convulsed with laughter to the luminous Monsieur Margot, the basket descended with such force as to dash the lanthorn out of the hand of the porter, and to bring the professor so precipitously to the ground, that all the bones in his skin

rattled audibly!

"My God!" said he, "I am done for!-be witness how inhumanly I have been murdered.”

'We pulled him out of the basket, and carried him between us into the porter's lodge; but the woes of Monsieur Margot were not yet at their termination. The room was crowded. There was Madame Laurent,

there was the German count, whom the professor was teaching French;-there was the French viscount, whom he was teaching German;-there were all his fellow-lodgers-the ladies whom he had boasted of— the men he had boasted to-Don Juan, in the infernal regions, could not have met with a more unwelcome set of old acquaintance than Monsieur Margot had the happiness of opening his bewildered eyes upon in the

'We hastened our steps towards it; a measured and porter's lodge. serious voice, which I well knew, accosted us—

"What "" cried they all "Monsieur Mana

the house was attacked; the Russian general is at this very moment loading his pistols; lucky for you that you did not choose to stay longer in that situation. Pray, Monsieur, what could induce you to exhibit yourself so, in your dressing-gown too, and the night so cold? An't you ashamed of yourself?"

All this, and infinitely more, was levelled against the miserable professor, who stood shivering with cold and fright, and turning his eyes first upon one, and then on another, as the exclamation circulated round the room.

"I do assure you," at length he began.
“No, no,” cried one," it is of no use explaining

now!"

"Mais, Messieurs," querulously recommenced the unhappy Margot.

"Hold your tongue," exclaimed Madame Laurent, "you have been disgracing my house."

“Mais, Madame, écoutez-moi—”

""No, no," cried the German, we saw you-we saw you.'

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"Mais, Monsieur Le Comte-"
"Fie, fie," cried the Frenchman.
"Mais, Monsieur Le Viscomte-"

At this every mouth was opened, and, the patience of Monsieur Margot being by this time exhausted, he flew into a violent rage his tormentors pretended an equal indignation, and at length he fought his way out of the room, as fast as his shattered bones would allow

ners of the nomad population of Korasan, under the hospitable tent of the Turcoman of the desert; Duncan describes the frozen tracts of Upper-Canada. Leake, the classic lands of AsiaMinor; Buckingham, that cradle of the creation, the Plains of Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia, which so strongly recal to our recollection the earliest history of mankind. Finally, Proctor, Mathison, Stephenson, Cochrane, Caldeleugh, Miers, Hamilton, Head, Andrews, and Lyon, make us acquainted with the rising and glorious republics of the New Hemisphere.

It is, we must observe, more especially within a few years that publications of this kind have multiplied upon us beyond any former example. The general peace that has prevailed in Europe during the last twelve years, has proved favourable to scientific expeditions; and the recognition of the Republics of South America could not fail to invite numerous visitors to that distant con

tinent. Unfortunately, few of these travellers were men of science; they were, generally speaking, men engrossed by projects of commerce and industry, instigated by the allurements of lucre and the hope of fortune; and their publications display more of the writer of romance than of the publicist, and more of the speculating merchant than of the inquisitive philanthropist. Accordhim, followed by the whole body, screaming, and shout-ingly, their works are frequently full of curious details about men and things; but it will be in vain to look for any of those comprehensive observations which distinguish the philosophic traveller, or those scientific researches which are to be met with in the books of the profound and The mere external contemplative_ observer.

ing, and scolding, and laughing after him.

'The next morning passed without my usual lesson from Monsieur Margot; that was natural enough; but, when the next day, and the next, rolled on, and brought neither Monsieur Margot nor his excuse, I began to be uneasy for the poor man. Accordingly, I sent to Madame Laurent's to inquire after him: judge of my surprise at hearing he had, early the day after his adventure, left his lodgings with his small possession of books and clothes, leaving only a note to Madame Laurent, enclosing the amount of his debt to her,

and that none had since seen or heard of him.

From that day to this I have never once beheld him. The poor professor lost even the little money due to him for his lesson-so true is it, that, in a man of Monsieur Margot's temper, even interest is a subordinate passion to vanity.'

MEXICO IN 1827.

Mexico in 1827. By H. G. Ward, Esq., his Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires in that Country, during the years 1825, 1826, and part of 1827. 2 vols., 8vo. pp. 1321,

with maps and plates. Colburn. London, 1828.

state of these Republics is exhibited to the reader with a sufficient degree of exactness; but, either from carelessness or want of information, the author fails to describe their internal organisation, their hidden resources, their approaching development, and their future magnitude. The late publication of Mr. Ward, though far superior to these productions, nevertheless affords, in some points, a fresh proof of the justice of this criticism.

Yet what country more than South America feels the want of a bold and profound describer, and an accurate, and yet imaginative, surveyor? He that would encounter this task, must combine in himself the spirit of the cosmopolite, with the free and unbiassed mind of the philosopher, totally divested of antiquated prejudices and trite ideas he should possess a profound conception and a vivid imagination, otherwise he will fall below the standard of the object to which he aspires. The decrepitude of Europe is no model for the juvenility of America; every thing is totally different; external nature, both men and governments, and, in traversing the vast extent of 1700 leagues, from Cape de la Vela, in the 11° 50' north latitude, to Cape Horn, its southern extremity, we behold neither brilliant courts, military pomp, nor over-bearing nobility; but we meet with new and frugal governments, the tendency of which is to promote civilisation and happiness amidst a population hitherto ignorant and oppressed. No

ancient Gothic cathedrals are to be seen, no

OWING to its insulated situation from the different states of Europe, and its possession of a naval force, which lays the world under tribute, England, while it is engrossed by industry and commerce, is also indebted to its geographical position, as well as the eager and ardent passion for riches which influences its population, for that strong propensity for distant voyages and travels, which is a uniform characteristic of its inhabitants. There is scarcely a family in the three kingdoms, some of the members of which are not dispersed over the different regions of the globe. An Englishman speaks in the same style about a voyage to India, as a Parisian talks of an excursion to St. Cloud, or a citizen of Rome, of a trip to his villa. Hence arise the numerous publications of voyages, that appear every day, ruined castles, no royal parks and magnificent descriptive of distant and unknown countries. palaces; but nature appears in all her magnitude, Parry and Franklin penetrate to the frozen re-in forests in their primitive majesty, in gigantic gions of the north, while Weddell is engaged in mountains and rivers, in the beds of which gold discovering a new ocean in the other extremity is discovered, in immense plains and valleys, and of the world. Cruise visits the almost unknown in all that mighty extent of territory which, in inhabitants of New Zealand; and Anderson, the the hands of the Spaniards, was uncultivated, uncannibal hordes of the shores of Sumatra. Du- productive and unpeopled, but which now acpuis proceeds to study the savage tribes of the quires vigour from the warm embraces of liberty. Ashantees; Clapperton, Denham, and Laing, explore the still mysterious course of the Niger. Gray pursues his travels on the burning sands of while the Rev. Dr. Philip takes up his abode among the native Hottentots. Finlayson traverses the opulent regions of Southern Asia; the missionary Ellis, conveys the Holy Scriptures to the idolaters of the Sandwich Isles. Frazer inspects the habits and man

Western Africa;

The external features of the New World have derived from nature more bold and striking out

extremity of the southern continent, spread themselves to the farthest limits of the north, and are equally conspicuous for their magnitude and altitude. Chimborazo would exceed the elevations of Mount Etna, if it were placed on the summit of Canigon, or that of St. Gothard, were it placed on the peak of Teneriffe. From these majestic mountains flow down rivers still more majestic, and compared with which, the rivers of the Old World are only paltry rivulets. The river of the Amazons, the Magdalena, the Oronoko, the river de la Plata, and even the Rio Bravo, in Mexico, fill such immense and spacious beds, that, long before they feel the influence of the tide, they resemble rather arms of the sea, than rivers of fresh water. The river Amazon traverses a space of territory of more that 1,050 leagues in extent, and, as well as the river de la Plata, is not less than sixty leagues broad at its mouth. The equatorial regions of America present at once the most towering elevations, the most extensive rivers, and the most boundless plains in the universe. The immense space of ground that is crossed by the Oronoko, and is called the Llanos, has an area of more than 2,000 square leagues; its soil, that is alternately scorched and inundated, at one time like the deserts of Libya, at another overspread with a verdant carpet, like the steppes of Upper which Asia, forms a contrast with the paramos, are placed on the ridges of the Andes at an elevation of 10,000 feet, and likewise with the tablelands of Mexico, the elevation of which is 7,000 feet, where are found smiling valleys, towns built nearly on a level with the peak of Teneriffe, and farms 6,000 feet above the most elevated villages of the Alps.

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We shall not now enlarge on the original discovery of America, nor on the frightful miseries that Mexico, and all South America, have endured under the Spanish yoke; nor shall we describe, with Mr. Ward, the long and sanguinary struggle that the former colony has sustained against the mother-country. We have had occasion to allude to those events in a former Number of The Athenæum,' when we reviewed the work of Don P. Mendibil on the Historia de la Revolucion de los Estados Unidos Mejicanos ;' and, although the able sketch of Mr. Ward is more complete, as it continues the narrative to the year 1824, five years later than M. Mendibil's account, yet we will pass over, without any reluctance, those scenes of bloodshed and violence, fix our attention on the actual state and the however glorious may have been the result, to probable future destinies of the rising Republic.

The Republic of Mexico, which comprises the whole of the vast territory formerly subject to the vice-royalty of New Spain, is bounded on the east and south-east by the Gulph of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea; on the west, by the Pacific; on the south, by Guatemala; and, on the Its length, from north, by the United States. north to south, is 1,876 English statute miles; its greatest breadth, 364 leagues; and its surface, according to Humboldt, 118,478 square leagues of twenty-five to the degree. 36,500 square leagues are within the tropics, or, what is usually denominated, the torrid zone; and 82,000 square leagues are without the tropics, or under the temperate zone.

The whole extent of the re

public is equal to one-fourth of Europe, or to France, Austria, Portugal, and Great Britain put together.

The external physical appearance of Mexico is highly remarkable and picturesque. The Cordillera of the Andes, after traversing the whole of South America, and the Isthmus of Panama, separates into two branches on entering the northern continent, which, diverging to the

lines than are displayed in the ancient hemisphere; the chains of mountains are continued to a greater length than in any other quarter of the globe-platform, or table-land, where Mexico lies, being the Andes, which begin at Cape Horn, the utmost

*The empire of Brazil presents but a slight exception to this general remark.

east and west, leave in the centre an immense intersected by the higher points and ridges of the great mountainous chain by which it is supported, but raised, in the more central parts, to the height of seven thousand feet above the level

of the sea. This table-land is divided by the Natives into three divisions, called: tierra caliente, (the hot country,) a term which implies that portion of the country, which is full of hot and low ravines, sufficiently warm to produce the tropical fruit, and, with them, the diseases of the tropics; tierra fria, (the cold country,) which is applicable to the mountainous districts, that rise above the level of the capital, up to the limits of eternal snow; and tierra templada, (the temperate region,) which embraces all that is not included under one of the other two divisions.

'Nature has bestowed upon Mexico a soil teeming with fertility, and a climate, under which almost every production of the old and the new world finds the exact degree of heat necessary in order to bring it to perfection. But the peculiarity of structure in which this variety of climate originates, neutralises, in some measure, the advantages which the country might otherwise derive from it, by rendering the

occupy the centre of the country, and extend, between the two oceans, towards the northern frontier.

According to Mr. Ward's estimate, the whole population of Mexico, which was, in 1806, six millions and a half, must be, in 1827, eight millions. Of this number one-third is Indian; another belongs to the mixed races; a sixth is nearly composed of Creoles; and the remainder is either free, or slaves, Negroes, or Europeans: the number of the latter amounted, in 1803, to 80,000. Before the revolution, this population was divided into seven distinct castes; and it was the policy of Spain to promote a constant rivalry between them, by creating little imaginary shades of superiority amongst these different classes, which prevented any two from having a common interest. The whiteness of the skin was the general criterion of nobility. The King reserved communication between the table-land and the to himself the power of conferring the honours coast extremely difficult, and confining, within very of whiteness upon any individual, of any class, narrow limits, the intercourse of the states in the in- which was done by a decree comprised in the terior with each other. On the Table-Land there are words, 'Let him be considered as a white;' and no canals (with the exception of that from Chalco to the greatest pains were taken to impress the Mexico, about seven leagues in extent) and no navi- people with the importance of these distinctions. gable rivers; nor does the nature of the roads allow of a general use of wheel-carriage, which, when applied to The form of government adopted by the poputhe more bulky agricultural produce of the country, in-lation of Mexico, was that of a federal republic. creases enormously the price of articles of most general The principles of this system, a fair account of consumption before they can reach the principal marwhich Mr. Ward has given in the first section of kets. Thus, in the capital, which draws its supplies Book iii. of his work, are too generally known to from a circle of perhaps sixty leagues, comprising the require comment; and it will be sufficient to say, valley of Mexico and the fertile plains of Toluca, as well that most of the articles of the federal act are as the great corn-lands of the Baxio and La Puebla, transcripts of the corresponding articles in the wheat, barley, straw, maize, and wood, are not only Constitution of the United States, and that the dear, but the supply is uncertain; while, in the districts Mexican constitutional act displays the most laudable anxiety for the general improvement of the country, by disseminating the blessings of education, opening roads, establishing copyrights, patents, and the liberty of the press; founding colleges, promoting naturalisation, and throwing open the ports to foreign trade; abolishing the torture, arbitrary imprisonment, confiscation of property, special commissions, retractive laws, and all the abuses of absolute power.

immediately beyond this circle, but which, from their ticles are a mere drug, and may be purchased at a fraction of the price.'-Vol. i. p. 16, 17.

distance, are excluded from the market, the same ar

We may easily conclude, from the diversity of temperature which prevails in Mexico, that its vegetable productions must possess a great variety. The most important of these, (and of which Mr. Ward gives the characteristics,) are maize, wheat, and barley, bananas, rice, olives, the vine, sugar, coffee, tobacco, indigo, chocolate, and cotton, besides vanilla and cochineal, of which nature seems to have given to New Spain the almost exclusive possession.

'I do not conceive,' says Mr. Ward, that the exportations of Mexico in corn will ever be considerable; but, in those articles which we term colonial produce, for which there is a constant demand in Europe, and which a large portion of her territory is so admirably qualified to produce, she has a source of wealth as inexhaustible

as her mines themselves. The whole eastern coast of Mexico, extending in length from the river Guasacualco to the northern frontier, and in breadth, from the ocean to that point upon the slope of the Cordilleras, at which tropical fruits cease to thrive, is susceptible of the very highest cultivation; nor can any part of the now exhausted islands sustain a competition with the fertility of its virgin soil. The state of Vera Cruz alone is capable of supplying all Europe with sugar. Humboldt estimates the produce of its richest mould at 2,800 kilogrammes per hectare, while that of Cuba does not exceed 1,400 kilogrammes; so that the balance is as two to one in favour of Vera Cruz. Coffee is produced in a ratio almost equally extraordinary. Indigo and tobacco succeed as well; while, a little to the north, the state of Texas, which enjoys nearly the same climate as Louisiana or South Carolina, is equally well adapted to the growth of cotton, the great staple of the United States. Vol. i. p. 20, 21.

The federal republic of Mexico is distributed into nineteen states. These states commence on the south-east, with the Peninsula of Epicatan or Merida, and, on the south-west, with Tabasco, Las Chiapas, and Oaxaca; which are followed in regular succession, towards the north, by VeraCruz, Tamalipas, San-Luis, Potosi, New-Leon, Cohahuila, and Texas, which comprise the whole territory as far as the frontiers of the United States on the gulph. La Puebla, Mexico, Valladolid, Guadalajara, Sonora, and Cinaloa, the western extremities of which border on the Pacific, and Quesetaro, Guanajuato, Zacatecar, Durango, Chihuahua, and New-Mexico, which

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The Republic of Mexico is divided into eighteen comandancias generales, each under the orders of a military commandant. The army for the present year consists of 58,955 men, of whom 32,161 are actually under arms; the remainder are ready to be called out, should their services be required. In January, 1827, the navy consisted of one ship of the line, two frigates, one corvette, four brig's of war, one schooner, four gun-boats, four large launches, and two pilot-boats. The expenses of the war department, for the year ending June, 1828, were estimated at 9,069,633 dollars, and those of the navy at 1,309,045 dollars -Total, 10,378,678, about four-fifths of the whole annual expenditure of the Republic. Mexico possesses, on the Atlantic side, no harbour of sufficient magnitude to become a fit station for any considerable maritime force; her ports on the Gulf are barely sufficient for the purposes of commerce; most of them are insecure, and some, mere roadsteads. But, on the western coast, the case is different from Acapulco to Guaymas, there is a series of magnificent ports, many of which no vessel has ever yet entered; and Acapulco is, perhaps, the finest harbour in the whole world. Mexico possesses only five fortresses: St. John of Ulloa, Campeche, Perote, Acapulco, and San Blas. In most of them, the works are in a bad state; but, according to Mr. Ward, who strongly and justly contradicts, in this and many other points, the remarks of Mr. Beaufoy, there is little prospect of their being necessary.

Notwithstanding the nominal war with Spain, few countries are so well able as Mexico to dispense with the existence of a large permanent force. There is hardly a single point upon her long-extended line of coast, upon which it would be practicable to disembark an invading army; and, were it even landed, such are the difficulties with which it would have to contend, upon the ascent to the interior, from the want of roads and provisions, and the deadly nature of climate, that its destruction would be alinost inevitable. A month's de

tention in tierra-caliente would be equivalent to the loss of a pitched battle; and, even supposing every natural defence to be successively carried in the shortest possible time, a month would hardly, under any circumstances, suffice to reach the table-land. There the struggle would commence anew; and, such is the horror entertained at present of foreign dominion, that I am convinced that a levy, en masse, of the whole population, would be the consequence of any hostile aggression. Vol. i. pp. 315, 316.

The Republic of Mexico is divided into one archbishopric and nine bishoprics. In 1826, the number of the secular clergy was estimated at 3,473, and, in 1827, at 3,677. The number of those who took orders during each of these years, is not supposed by Mr. Ward to have amounted to one-fourth of those who were ordained in 1808. The regular clergy is divided into fourteen provinces, possessing 150 convents, which contained 1,918 friars. Within the last twenty years, the clergy has diminished one-half, and so of the revenues of the church. In 1805, they amounted to forty-four millions, and in 1826, they did not exceed twenty-millions of dollars. But this is not their only riches; the clergy derive an additional income from the tithes, and fees on baptisms, marriages, and burials, and likewise on many other superstitious but lucrative ceremonies. 'Not a hut or garden,' says Mr. Beaufoy, in his 'Mexican Illustrations,' 'not a pigstye, or a footpath, can be used, until blessed and ornamented with a wooden cross. Each separate working in the mines, each heap of stones, and utensil for amalgamation, must be similarly honoured, with the addition of fresh nosegays, wild flowers, and green branches every morning; and all these bring grist to the mill.' We must acknowledge, that, in no country, is superstition more degrading and more deeply rooted than in New Spain. Religious toleration does not exist there; and the influence of the priesthood exerts a sway unknown in any other American Republic. The causes that Mr. Ward assigns for this propensity are perfectly correct and judicious; but they are not the less disgraceful, and they demand a speedy and effectual reform on the part of the legislative body.

The finances of Mexico, especially at the commencement of a new republic, and at the close of a civil war, cannot be in a very flourishing condition. The receipts in the year 1826, amounted to 13,667,637 dollars, and they have been estimated, for the year 1828, at 13,938,830. The expenditure, which rose in 1825 to 20,096,274 dollars, has been reduced, for the year 1827, to 14,363,098, including the interest of the two loans made in England for a sum of 6,400,000 pounds sterling, or about 30,000,000 of dollars.

"This is a result which ought to afford more satisfaction to those whose interests have been affected by the late want of remittances from Mexico, than the most specious attempt to demonstrate, upon paper, the existence of a surplus revenue, from which no practical benefit can be derived. It proves that the resources of the country are unimpaired; that, with very limited assistance from foreign capitalists, the revenue department has been re-organised, the complicated machinery of former times simplified, and a system established, which has already produced, in ten months, eleven millions and a half of dollars; and that, although the receipts do not yet quite cover the expenditure, there is every prospect that they will do so in 1828, since that expenditure can hardly exceed the estimates of the present year; while a lamentable change, indeed, must take place, in order to prevent the revenue from producing the fourteen millions of dollars, at which, upon the most careful and dispassionate computation, I have estimated it in the preceding pages."

In the next article, in which we shall conclude our account of Mr. Ward's valuable publication, we shall offer some details respecting the actual state of the commerce and the mines of Mexico. NUPTIAL POETICS.

'My friend,' said C., 'you know I marriage hate-
And, to speak truth, unto your wedding fête,
Unwillingly at all I come.'
'Believe me, as a guest, no one's more fit
A-verse to marriage you're most requisite
For an Epithalamium.'

VON HAMMER'S HISTORY OF THE TURKS.

[THE first volume of this work has been recently translated from the German, and received high and deserved commendations from all the Reviewers under whose notice it came at the period of its publication. The second volume of the same work is in a forward state of preparation, and will, from what we have seen of its contents, be not at all inferior in interest or value to its predecessor. From this unpublished work, we have been permitted to make a selection of some striking passages; which, as they will possess all the attractions of novelty and originality for the reader, and, at the same time, give an accurate idea of the general character of the forthcoming volume, and show its claims to public attention, we present without further preface or comment.]

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THERE is a remarkable coincidence between the blindness and presumption which accompanied the fall of the last Byzantian Emperor and the headlong obstinacy with which, perhaps, the last of the Sultans appears, at the present moment, to rush into the jaws of destruction.

Mohammed the second, whose father, Murad, had, from his Adrianopolitan capital, over-run the whole Byzantian dominions, up to the very walls of the seat of the Greek empire, was scarcely one-and-twenty when he ascended the throne of the Sultans, His first act in politics was to close the campaign in Caramania, in order that his ardent and warlike temper might devote itself, unfettered and exclusively, to the execution of his darling project on the European side of the Bosphorus.

It was at so ill-starred a moment as this, that Constantine the elder, as if unconscious of his own debilitated and dismembered power, had the temerity to despatch ambassadors for the purpose of reproaching Mohammed with his want of punctuality in providing the stipulated subsistencemoney for Prince Urchan, and to threaten him with setting up their captive as his rival, if he did not immediately pay down double the amount. To this foolhardy menace Chalil, the Grand Vizier, who was friendly to the Greeks, not only because he was of a kind and lively disposition himself, but was by no means averse to the immense bribes thrust upon him, made the following reply:

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Ye unreasonable and besotted Romanists! I have long seen through your sly and perfidious attempts. I know that our deceased master, a man of integrity and peaceable disposition, looked graciously upon you, but not so our present master, Mohammed. If Constantinople should escape his well-known, daring, and untameable impetuosity, I will then confess that God is still merciful to your intrigues and backslidings. Fools as ye are the ink of the treaty you have signed is scarcely dry, when you make your way into Asia, expecting to terrify us with your usual bombastings. However, you will not find us a race of inexperienced, powerless sucklings; if you can do any thing, pray do it; if you think fit to proclaim Urchan sovereign of Thrace, let him be so proclaimed; if you choose to invite the Hungarians to cross the Danube, let them come; or, if you are inclined to re-conquer the territories you have lost to us, pray make the attempt; only I would have you to remember, that you will fail in each and every one of these undertakings; and, moreover, that even what you fancy you possess will be torn from you. Nevertheless, I shall take care to acquaint my master with what you have represented, and whatever he wills, that shall be

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sadors meet him on his return to Adrianople. The answer he here gave, consisted in laying hold upon the revenues from the towns on the Strymon, which had been reserved for Urchan's subsistence, and expelling their inhabitants en

masse.

Castle of the Bosphorus built.

At the setting in of the winter of 1450, Mohammed issued circular orders throughout the whole of European and Asiatic Turkey, that the chiefs of provinces should supply him with a thousand masons, carpenters, &c., and the usual complement of bricklayers and labourers, as well as the materials requisite for erecting a castle on the European bank of the Bosphorus, on a spot situated at its mouth. Such tidings as these were well calculated to awaken in the breasts of the Greek Emperor and his whole metropolis a painful misgiving of their approaching end. Instead of any longer insisting upon Urchan's subsistencemoney, or on the doubling of its amount, the imperial ambassadors now implored the Sultan to abandon his enterprise, and accept tribute from their sovereign. Mohammed, bursting out into a fit of rage, replied, that the Greeks were a race of traitors; that they had courted an alliance with the Hungarians, (his deadly enemies;) that, before the battle of Warna, they had endeavoured to prevent his father from crossing over into Europe; that the latter, even at that time, had sworn to erect a castle on the European shore; and that, impediments having arisen to prevent his father from fulfilling his vow, he himself had resolved to accomplish it.' And who is to come between me and my right to build upon my own soil?' exclaimed the Sultan. Tell your Emperor, that the Sultan now upon the throne will bear no comparison with his predecessors; what they were incapable of achieving, becomes a work of ease in my hands; and what might never be their will, I choose to will in all the plenitude of my might! Let such an embassy be repeated, and the messenger shall be despatched forthwith.'

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·

By the end of March the various materials were collected; timber was brought from Nicodemia and Heraclea in Pontus, and stone from Anatolia. The Beglerbegs of Europe and Asia, together with other Beys and Subaschi, assembled on the eastern side of the Bosphorus, and the Sultan himself left Adrianople to meet them. The site which he had fixed upon for the erection of his castle was opposite to that where Ildirim Bajazet had built the fort of Güfelhissar;' it was situated at the point where the Bosphorus is narrowest, and is hence called the throat,' in the same way that its extremity is termed the mouth,' where that channel is contracted to a breadth of five stadii between the two opposing promontories, and near to the spot where Androcles, of Samos, had thrown over the bridge on which Darius crossed with the Persian forces on his march to Scythia. Here stands the lofty eminence, in ancient times known by the name of Hermaion, in honour of Hermes, to whom a temple was raised on its summit. From this eminence, Darius watched the passage of his army from Asia into Europe; a fact which was recorded by inscriptions, in the Assyrian character, engraven upon columns erected there in memory of that event. At the foot of this eminence or promontory, Mohammed traced the outline of his castle, of which, with a species of superstitious prejudice, he resolved that the walls should describe the form of the word Mohammed, (his own as well as the Prophet's cognomen,) as written in the Arabie character, and that a tower should be raised wherever the M occurred, this letter having in the Arabic an annular form. Hence the circuit of the edifice, with its three towers, displayed a most incongruous appearance; two of them starting up at the foot of the promontory, and the third being turned towards the

sea.

The construction of the latter was entrusted to Chalil-Pasha, the Grand Vizier, whilst

that of the two former was left to the Vizier Sarganos and Saridsche-Pasha, who had grown grey in the service of the Court and Harem. The Sul tan himself undertook to build the walls which should connect the towers into one structure. A thousand masons, each having two assistants under him, carried on the labour without, and an equal number within, the walls. Not only was Asia tributary of the materials needed, but the dismantled walls and churches of the Bosphorus, nay, even the pillars of the immense and splendid church of Michael the Archangel, on the Sosthenian Sea, were rendered subservient to the purpose in hand. By such means as these was the castle of the Bosphorus completed within a space of three months; its rampart being twentyfive, and the walls of its towers thirty, feet in thickness.

Being erected at the gullet of the canal, and so placed as to be capable of cutting all navigation short, Mohammed conferred upon it the name of Boghafkesen, or Gullet-chopper.' The Greeks, who were accustomed to the process of decapitation, confounding the first two syllables with the word Basch, or head, resolved the name into that of the cutter off of heads.' Its first governor hundred Janissaries under him, to stop every dewas Firufaga, who was ordered, with the four scription of vessels, and compel them to pay trieffectually securing the object contemplated, that bute before they were released. As a means of of commanding the Bosphorus, the tower which lay upon the sea was furnished with Chalil-Pasha's

enormous cannon.

On the 28th of August, 1452, Mohammed quitted the spot, made a reconnaissance round the ditches of Byzantium, and on the 1st of September returned to Adrianople.

First Hostilities between the Turks and Greeks.

peror had had recourse to the mistaken policy of During the preceding summer, the Greek Emendeavouring to attain by unmanly humiliation, what he had failed in obtaining by empty menace. With this view he sent ambassadors to implore safeguards for the villages situated on the Bosphorus, and protection for their corn fields during the approaching autumn. At the same time, he daily supplied the Sultan's table with the choicest viands and beverages. Instead of acceding to the request, or returning the Emperor's civilities, Mohammed issued orders that no one should ven

ture to impede his troops in driving their horses, mules, or beasts of burthen into the corn-fields of the Greeks, and, if resistance were offered, that recourse should be had to force of arms. Now, Isfendiar's son, (who had married the Sultan's sister,) having driven his cattle into the gardens and fields about Epibaton (Bivados), a blow given by a Turkish groom to a Greek, who was abetted by his countrymen, brought on a skirmish, in which several lives were lost on both sides.* A report of this affair being laid before Mohammed by the Kiajabeg (or Minister of the Interior), he was directed to retaliate, by cutting the inhabitants of Epibaton to pieces. The Turkish soldiery consequently fell upon the reapers of the town, as they were going forth to their morning labours; such was the dawn of the last war in which the empire of Byzantium was engaged. Constantine, hereupon, closed the gates of the city, and incarcerated the whole of the Turks who were found within its walls. Amongst these were several young eunuchs belonging to the Sultan's Harem; yielding to their earnest representations, that, if they were not instantly set at liberty, nay, even if released subsequently, their lives would become forfeit, the Emperor bade them go free on the third day, and took the opportunity of sending Greek envoys to Mohammed, by whom he made known to him, that the Emperor relied upon the help of God in all that concerned the fate of the city, of which he had closed the gates only

* Ducas's Hist. Byz., xxxiv. p. 137.

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