writing-master was wont to decorate some of our juvenile performances, and the high complacency with which we regarded his favourite motto, "Vive la plume!" Again and again, too, have we looked most admiringly on the splendid specimens of caligraphy which were suspended for many years on the walls of the old Royal Exchange, with the true commercial notification of the names and addresses of their respective writers. One of the celebrities of these, in that day, named Tomkins, considered penmanship to be one of the fine arts; and Chantrey flattered him by admitting this as a reason for a lower charge for his bust. He bequeathed to the British Museum his opus magnum-a copy of Macklin's Bible, profusely embellished with the most beautiful and varied decorations of his pen, on the express condition, however, of the acceptance of the bust; thus indissolubly uniting for the eye of posterity the artist and his work.

66

There are few of us who are not familiar with the phrase, according to Cocker," but not many of us, probably, are aware that the writing-master and arithmetician, the author of the "Pen's Ascendancy," taught and resided in St. Paul's Churchyard; or that a copy of "Cocker's Arithmetic" is now so rare and invaluable, as to be literally "worth its weight in gold." This is not precisely the place, or we might enlarge on the influence which the pen has exercised over civilisation, morality, and religion, and get enthusiastic over the poet's lines,

""Tis to the pen and press we mortals owe

All we believe, and almost all we know."

But we forbear. Our present business is not so much with the moral and poetic pen, "the gray goose-quill" aforesaid, as with the little steel weapon so well known on every desk and in every counting-house.

As in ordinary use, the friction of a quill pen on the paper, and the softening produced by the ink, tended to wear away the nibs, various plans were projected to obviate this inconvenience. The most successful was one which proposed to increase the durability of quill pens by means of metallic points; but, as what was gained in this respect was lost in clasticity, this method failed to attract great public attention. The combination of the two qualities was, however, still sought. Thus, horn and tortoiseshell were cut into nibs, and softened in boiling water; small pieces of diamond, ruby, and other precious stones were then imbedded into them by pressure; and one manufacturer actually formed his nibs of rubies, set in fine gold! Considerable elasticity was gained in this way; with such pens a fine and beautiful hand could be written, and that with a uniformity otherwise unattainable; and, with due care, they were not affected by the labour of several years. Their elasticity was subsequently increased by a spring, which was made to slide backwards and forwards on the back of such pens; but the drying of the ink upon the spring seriously neutralised its action, and led to its disuse.

Meanwhile, there was a solitary steel pen to be met with, mounted in a bone case, for the convenience of carrying in the pocket, and sold by the stationers as Wise's steel pen." It was sometimes given as a prize for writing at a school, or in a family, and it was chiefly adapted to those who wanted only its occasional use; indeed, its high price would not permit of its extensive adoption. This pen was made by Mr. Wise, of London, so far back as 1803; but for more than twenty years, a good and cheap steel pen remained a desideratum.

It was about the year 1822-when steel pens were only regarded as an humble accessory to the steel-toy trade, from their novelty in a recent adaptation of them to knives and pencil-cases-that Mr. Gillott, of Birmingham, determined on making them articles of commerce. It has been doubted whether this gentleman, or a Mr. Stephens, of London, was the first to bring this useful little article within the means of the million; and, indeed, the fact is of little consequence now. There was, however, much to be done for the realisation of this purpose, but from this the manufacturer did not shrink; and he not only invented the necessary tools and machines,

but fabricated them himself. It was not long before a reward came for his ingenuity and toil; and so great is the demand at the present day, that various scientific men have devoted time and money to the improvement of the steel pen. Albert Smith, in his "Constantinople," tells us that the steel pens of Birmingham are always to be found in the packs and baskets of the Turkish pedlars. In 1828, therefore, there was invented and brought into operation a self-acting pen-machine, to work by steam-power. Since that time the manufacture of steel pens has progressed from year to year; the machinery of modern times, as well as the various ingenious appliances for perfecting tools, have been brought to bear on the steel pen manufacture. The visitors to the Great Exhibition of 1851 will remember the varieties of steel pens shown by the several English manufacturers. The stall of Mr. Gillott consisted of steel pens, indescribably diversified in form, from the magnumbonum, well adapted to the banker's cash-book or the merchant's ledger, to some so extremely minute that they might have been plied by the smallest fingers in Swift's Laputa. As a specimen of the huge, there was a pen, exquisitely finished, one yard in length, and weighing five pounds, with which a Brobdignagian might have inscribed a missive to "his lady love;" while the metal of which it was formed, would have made no fewer than 1,092,397 of the tiny pens, which it required good eyes to see, and a microscope to accurately and fully examine. The various processes by which such results are attained must be regarded as deeply interesting by every intelligent mind; and we shall therefore proceed to answer the questions naturally arising respecting them, calling in to our aid pictorial representation.

Birmingham is the great workshop for steel pens; and as we had recently an opportunity of seeing the various processes of their manufacture in one of the largest pen factories, we shall briefly describe them in the most untechnical manner in our power.

As the interiors of most factories, both at home and abroad, are very similar-large buildings with huge windows, and great rooms filled with workmen and machinery-we need not pause to note any speciality in the factory we visited, but proceed at once to describe the processes employed in the making of steel pens, which are common to all manufacturers. First, we must notice the

ROLLING OF THE STEEL.

In one r the visitor will perceive great sheets of steel, apparently adapted to some vast fabric,-the congeners of the sheets of copper about to be placed on a merchant vessel, or one of her Majesty's frigates. No one, at the moment, thinks as he looks at them of steel pens, and yet these great masses of metal are made at Sheffield for no other purpose than to be converted into pens. Thus is one manufacture dependant on another;-and here the sheets of steel lie in heaps, waiting the first process through which they have to pass. This is their being cut into strips by a machine somewhat like a hand chaff-cutter; the width of the strips being regulated by the size of the pens into which it is intended they shall be manufactured. Other processes speedily follow; for the strips of metal are annealed,-that is, heated in a furnace nearly to fluidity and suffered to cool gradually, so as to lose the hardness and brittleness acquired by hammering in sheets, and to recover their malleability; scoured in sulphuric acid to remove the oxide; and then rolled,-of which latter process we give an illustration. For this purpose two iron cylinders are placed in a strong iron frame; and the distance between them,-which of course is greater or less, according to the thickness required for the future pen - is regulated by two powerful screws placed above. The first rollers to which they are taken are called the "Breakingdown Rollers ;" and, after passing through these, the strips are led on to other rollers which are lighter. Thus the strips are rolled from 17 inches in length and 13 wide, till they are 66 long and 4 in width, when ordinary pens are to be made from them; the large pens, so well known under the name of Magnum-Bonums, and which have a barrel handle

to fit a pencil, &c., require a far greater quantity of steel. Each strip of steel is gauged, and if it is not of the right thickness, it is passed through the rollers till the proper gauge is precisely attained. The gauge, of which there are many, it may be remarked, is simply a small plate of steel, having in it several nicks, and being applied to the strip with the hand. In all the processes of rolling, a stream of water constantly falls on the rollers to keep them cool, and for the same purpose the strips of steel are occasionally dipped in oil. In this way, then, we have a metamorphosis effected, which, if not equal to one of Ovid's, is of no ordinary kind. An ugly black plate of steel is transformed into delicate metallic ribbands, beautifully bright and supple, so as to move about on the hand like nothing we can think of but twining snakes. In our illustration, one boy appears passing the strip of steel between the rollers, which are set in motion by steam-power, while the other is seen drawing it out.

CUTTING OUT THE BLANKS.

The ribbands of steel are now taken up to one of the long rooms above. These rooms are filled with presses, before each one of which a female worker is seated. There is in all steel-pen factories an abundance of light; and warmth, cleanliness, and ventilation are fully attended to. The work is admirably fitted for females, as it is light and wholesome, and requires that delicate attention for which the sex is remarkable. Astonishment at the sight of apparently endless rows of presses is the first sentiment that pervades the mind. The presses are of a similar construction to those used in snoppering, a process we shall presently explain. All the lady workers are employed in the cutting out of "blanks." A glance at the diagram below will render the meaning of the word "blank" intelligible. In the engraving is seen the repre

pieces, a female will cut out 300 gross in a day- that is, 43,200 "blanks;" a remarkable instance of rapid and accurate manipulation. The next processes are

SIDE-SLITTING, PIERCING, STAMPING, AND SNOPPERING. The "blanks" are transferred from the press in which they are thus produced, to another, where, placed on a die, they are side-slit, by the descent of two little cutters. They are then pierced, as will be seen in the diagrams; but, sometimes, the two processes take place at once. At one end of the room for cutting out "blanks," there are two machines, into which long strips of steel are placed, and from which machine the "blanks" come forth both side-slit and pierced. Though the machines are constructed with the greatest accuracy, and though they are kept in the brightest and best possible state for action, they are only used for inferior pens; their products bearing no comparison with those in which the wonderworking fingers of the human hand are successfully employed.

That the embryo pen may be duly prepared for another stage of its course, it is annealed in a furnace, technically called a muffle. A blind man might suppose, on being conducted to the next room, that a platoon-firing was going on, though the sound is not quite so loud. This singular noise is produced by the process of stamping; for each of the semipens already described is brought under a stamp constructed on the same principle as those used in electro-plate works, and only on a smaller scale. The girl who sits at the snopperingmachine places the flat "blank," side-slit, pierced and softened, rightly on the die, her foot raises the weight, and, in a second, out comes the pen, bearing upon it the ornament and inscription proper to each particular kind. Sometimes it is a simple WARRANTED, as in the diagram; at others, there is the Locomotive for the pen bearing that name; but art in the penmanufacture sometimes takes a higher flight, as when a pen is adorned by a portrait of Jenny Lind, or by one of the President, or Queen Victoria, or any other great personage. These adornments are simply for the purposes of trade, and, of course, do not enhance the value of the little instruments by a cent in a gross. Such devices, however, might be reckoned by hundreds; while all ordinary names, such as the Correspondent's Pen, the Commercial Pen, or the Lady's Pen, have been executed by myriads. Even the distinctive marks of one house have been reckoned at 3,000.

sentation of a piece of steel after the "blanks" have been cut out, and three different shapes of "blanks," the largest being intended for a barrel pen. The points will be observed ranged together, a plan which is adopted to prevent waste of material. The ribbands of steel, after being thus completely riddled, are sent back to Sheffield to be recast.

The rapidity with which these "blanks" are cut out from the slip of polished metal is not a little surprising, when the complexity of the process is examined. To produce a perfect "blank," the ribband of steel has to be nicely adjusted on the die; the punch, which is attached to the lower end of the screw, has to be brought down sharply upon it by means of a handle; and, as successive "blanks' are produced, due care has to be taken so as to avoid what is technically called "waste." And yet, though each gross contains 144 separate

ANTE

again to the muffle. For this process they are put into small iron boxes, fifteen of which hold a hundred gross. A few of these pen boxes, in an empty state, will be observed on the floor, in the engraving. A man takes these boxes, in succession, with a long pair of tongs, and one of the doors of the muffle being raised, he puts them in, as is represented in the illustration, where they continue about half an hour. On being withdrawn, the boxes are dexterously emptied into one of the cans of oil, a representation of which may be perceived on the left of the engraving. After remaining in the oil for a short time they are strained, by the inner tin in which they are being drawn out of the outer one. A scouring of the pens follows, which is accomplished with pounded casting-pot and water, and a little quicklime to prevent rusting. The pens are now cleansed by being put into a tin cylinder, with sawdust. A rotatory motion being given to the cylinder, they are shaken about, and the oil is removed. In the illustration a man may be observed sifting the pens, the sawdust falling into one of the tins. As they become very brittle by hardening, so that as before they would readily bend, and would now as readily break, they are tempered-that is, brought to the precise state of hardness that is desirable- in an apparatus also used for colouring, which will presently be described.

The Grinding-room of the factory must now be visited. Here a number of wheels are in rapid gyration, saluting the ear with hissings, like a menagerie of snakes. Each pen is held in a pair of pincers, specially constructed, for a few seconds, against a rotating wheel of birchwood, cut across the grain, and carefully loaded to prevent jarring, which would otherwise arise to a fearful extent, but which now runs as easily as possible, without the slightest noise. The wheels are of various diameters and widths, and are covered with buckleather coated with glue and emery. Here another rapid and dexterous process is observable. A tray of pens being placed most conveniently to the grinder, one of them is caught up with the left hand; it is then fixed in the pincers; a momentary hiss is heard as it is held against the revolving wheel, and with a twit the pen is jerked out among those which have gone through the operation. Every pen, however, has two grindings; one longitudinal, and the other crosswise-as is shown in the diagram-that the nibs may have their due degree of elasticity. The grinding of steel pens, like all other processes in their manufacture which are of light description, requiring celerity of finger movement rather than the exertion of muscular power, is committed to females.

Even now the steel pen is not complete; but we must pass rapidly over its remaining processes. After it is ground, it goes to be coloured. An old man will be seen in the illustration, turning round an iron cylinder, something like a coffee-roasting apparatus, over a fire. This cylinder is filled with pens, which are thus subjected to a very gradual and regular heat. From 100 to 140 gross are put into such a cylinder, and about 5000 gross can be acted on in the course of a day. All the pens, thus far, have a bright steel appearance; many of them are not coloured at all; but those which are, are placed in the cylinder, where, after being exposed to the heat of the fire for five minutes, they assume a bronze colour, and in ten, they are covered with a deep bluish purple-the degree of hardness they possess being denoted by the lightness of the tint, and its diminution by the blueness that

supervenes.

When the pens have attained the hue most desirable, the contents of the cylinder are emptied into a large tray, in which they speedily cool, retaining precisely the tint they have acquired. They are then varnished by a solution of shelllac in spirits of wine. In this solution the pens are immersed, and subsequently exposed to the action of the open air that the spirit may evaporate. The shell-lac now appears in a delicate white incrustation; but carefully subjected to a proper degree of heat, it is melted, flows over the pen, and presents when cool a beautifully enamelled surface. As the pens have a tendency to stick together, the workmen discover no little dexterity when tossing and moving them about at this

stage of the process; for not only are the pens effectually separated and scattered, but not one of them falls to the ground. An inexpert hand could not do this. He would be conscious of a double difficulty; and either allow the pens ot fall, or to become gregarious when they ought to be solitary. The final process is that of

SLITTING.

The late Rev. W. Beloe mentioned to a friend the following incident. Making a purchase in a stationer's shop, he observed a woman buy a quill pen, and ask more than once for it to be exchanged, on the plea that no one given her would write. The stationer somewhat annoyed, inquired at length what fault she could find with the pen. The woman's reply was not a little amusing: "How can a pen write when it has a slit in it?" And yet, gentle reader, despite of the objection, the steel pen manufacturer has the temerity to slit all his pens as the very finale of his manufacture. We give a view of the large room in which this is done; the almost endless row of females, each one seated behind a press, is an extraordinary sight, but only one of many in an extensive and important steel-pen factory.

The proper slitting of a pen will be found on due consideration no easy task. Should it be regarded otherwise, let the person take a pair of scissors, and make a slit in a sheet of tin or lead, and look! what a gaping, wedge-like aperture there will be. Compare this for a moment with a steel pen, which requires to be pressed on the thumb-nail to show that it is slit, and the contrast will be fully apparent. And yet, so sharp and nicely-tempered is the slitting tool, and so accurately is the place of the pen determined by means of a guard, that a girl can hardly put it in the wrong position, and a pen slit on the wrong side is of very rare occurrence. So perfect, indeed, is the slit, that it admits of no improvement; and sometimes there are two, which is said to increase the facility in writing. The constant clicking of the machines is a singular sound, only accompanied by the clatter of women's tongues, relieved occasionally by a buoyant and cheerful laugh.

To secure uniformity of quality, the pens are now tested, by the points of the pens being pressed against a small piece of bone placed on the thumb, and then thrown into heaps, as good, bad, or indifferent. They are now ready to be affixed to cards, or weighed into grosses to be placed in little paper boxes, and firmly sealed with the label that records their quality, and the places whence they go forth. This is the work of a number of little people, whose fingers move with a dexterity and rapidity worthy their associates.

In this, as in various other mechanical manipulations, the finger is quicker than the eye. The education of the hand in various trades is a more important matter than would at first sight appear. If the reader ever watched the type-founder, as he pours the melted metal into the little steel matrix with one hand, and with the other touches a spring, closes the orifice, swings the mould upward in a way of his own, again touches the spring, and releases the newly-made metal letter, he would understand the peculiar readiness which the fingers acquire by virtue of constant practice. The twisting and straightening the cottons for candles, the rolling up of a cigar, the pasting of labels on pen or match-boxes, and the tying of the twine which finally brings the packet of steel pens into a marketable condition, are all operations which, simple as they appear, are not easily acquired.

It is thus by the union of talent, capital, and enterprise, now described, that we have not only good, but cheap steel pens. Eight shillings a gross in 1830, they were sixpence a gross in 1851. Mechanical facilities, meanwhile, have increased the wages of the persons employed twenty-five per cent. The younger girls earn from 5s. to 7s. a week; the elder 12s. to Some of the skilled workmen obtain high wages, especially those who are tool-makers. One manufacturer in Birmingham finds employment for about 1,200 pair of hands, he uses 120 tons of steel in a year, and sends out of his establishment ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY MILLIONS OF PENS annually.

14s.

THE incomparable fertility of the valley of the Nile has ever had peculiar attractions, and ever excited the desire for conquest, in the minds of those whose ambition it has been to extend the bounds of empire, and increase the number of their slaves. The people of Egypt, with their noble country, their abundant harvests, their treasures of mineralogy, their temples and palaces, have ungrudgingly given of their abundance to the world; they love their country, their date forests, their colossal architecture, reared when time was young, their Nile with its annual inundations irrigating their fields, its banks covered with the blue lotus; and the mighty granite structures

to Moslem rulers. Arab viceroys have reigned in the land of the Pharaohs; Turkish independent 'princes have held sway over Egypt; it has been governed by Arab khaleefehs; by a dynasty of Kurds; by Turkish and by Circassian sultans, who in their youth were mamlukes, or slaves; it has been annexed to the Turkish empire, and governed by Turkish pachas, in conjunction with mamlukes-and become a prey to the mamlukes alone. The French lily has conquered the crescent. France has wrested the government from the Turks, and the government has again been wrested by the English from the French, and so restored to the Turks. The history of Egypt

which separated them from the arid sand plains; Egypt, as his fatherland, is dear to the Egyptian.

"The soil of Egypt," the Egyptians were accustomed to say, "for three months in the year is white and sparkling like pearl; for three it is green like an emerald; and for three it is yellow like amber." Such was its fertility that it was regarded as the granary of the world.

But the character of the people is essentially pacific. They have no love for the glory of arms, and their enemies have experienced but little difficulty in overcoming them, so ill able are they to defend themselves from predatory incursions. In the year 640-41, the hardy shepherds of Arabia became masters of Egypt; and since that period it has continued to be subject

is one continued struggle, with which the Egyptians themselves have had very little to do. The conquest of Egypt by the Turks under Sultan Seleem, in the year 1517, rendered the condition of the labouring population much worse than it formerly had been. The Turks had no notion of cultivating the land, and, therefore, treated with extreme rigour the agricultural classes, whom they compelled to labour so unremittingly, that they were reduced to the most abject state of slavery. Egypt was then divided into four-and-twenty provinces, each of which was placed under the military jurisdiction of a mamluke bey; and the four-and-twenty beys were subject to the authority of a Turkish pacha, a general governor, appointed by the sultan. Nearly two centuries after the

conquest of Egypt by the Sultan Seleem, the authority of each successive pacha was, with few exceptions, respected by the boys, but the latter by degrees obtained the ascendancy, and Egypt became subject to a military oligarchy.

The agricultural labourers who had been thus enslaved at the invasion of Sultan Seleem were, for the most part, the inhabitants of one particular district, they were called Fellahs. They are now to be found in every part of the country. They have become united with neighbouring nomade tribes. The traveller cannot fail to observe the general likeness and characteristics which they all possess, and the resemblance which may be traced between the modern and ancient Egyptians. The same soil, the same sky, the same water, the same acts, the same work at certain times, the same alternations of hope and fear, the same sphere of ideas; in a word, the circumstances of life entirely identical, must of necessity exercise a powerful influence over beings modified by the laws of creation according to the country which they inhabit, and which conforms thought, feeling, expression, physiognomy, to the objects by which they are surrounded. Thus it would appear that the Fellahs are the veritable descendants of the ancient Egyptians, rather than from the Copts, to which origin it has sometimes been endeavoured to trace them. The peculiarities of this people, and the peculiarities of the ancient people of Egypt, are totally dissimilar. The Copts were without agriculturists, without artisans, without commerce, without government, and thus continue from generation to generation -an uncultivated nomade tribe; the Egyptians, on the other hand, were celebrated for all those things of which the Copts were entirely destitute.

The Egyptian agriculturist is tall, vigorous, and well-proportioned; his features regular, his eyes dark, deeply sunken in their sockets, but remarkably expressive and full of fire. Their lips are well formed, their teeth clear and beautiful, their faces long, and terminated by a black curly beard. The moustache and eyebrows are thick and full. The Fellahs of Upper Egypt are of a copper colour, and thin and spare in their proportions. In the form and features of the female Fellah may be found a striking and perfect resemblance to the former population of Egypt, as we find their representation sculptured on the most ancient monuments. Such as are the statues of Isis, such are the women of modern Egypt. We are thus brought to two most interesting conclusions; the one, the criterion afforded by art for judging of the ancient state of Egyptian genius; the other, corroborating the evidence of science respecting the influence which the climate of a country has upon its inhabitants. The artists in the court of the Pharaohs drew after nature; nature afforded them models for their divinities; and the people still are the living proofs of the accuracy with which the artists of the old time represented the forms of nature. It is, indeed, in the bare outline in which this is so evidently the case, for some of the principles of their polytheistic faith prevented them from accurately copying the human form; but it is in the general character of the whole that the case is so evident.

The Fellah women are not remarkable for any great beauty; but there is an indescribable charm about them, a grace and elegance which attracts immediate attention. They marry about the age of twenty; and generally in less than five years are worn down by misery and fatigue, the cares of a family whose wants they can ill supply, and the harsh and cruel treatment of their husbands. In many of the Egyptian cities these mothers may be seen, sometimes with a child astride their shoulders, and another in their arms, while they are compelled at the same time to bear a heavy burden on their heads; sometimes, almost destitute of clothing, lying at full length in sunny streets or public squares, with children, perfectly naked, and as filthy as neglect and superstition can make them, playing by their sides.

The food of the Fellahs is almost entirely vegetable. It consists of a piece of bread, badly cocked, dates, and wild fruits, occasionally a morsel of cheese, a small portion of fish, and at very rare intervals a piece of meat. The water of the Nile is their common drink; the sole luxury they possess

being an occasional pipe and cup of coffee. The Fellahs smoke a peculiar species of tobacco common to the soil, which is prepared by a simple process, and affords an agreeable perfume. The coffee is made remarkably strong, and taken without sugar.

The national costume of the Fellahs is a long robe drawn together at the waist by a girdle of red cloth; a pair of full drawers or trousers of blue or white calico. The head is covered with a turban of white cotton. The feet and lower part of the legs are naked. The dress of the Fellah women is a long robe of blue or brown. The head-dress is more complicated than that of the men. A handkerchief of silk and cotton is attached to the hood, and covers the lower part of the face, hanging down upon the bosom in a long peak; this hides the whole of the features with the exception of the eyes, and produces a very extraordinary effect. An under covering of white cotton descends upon the forehead, and the whole of the head-dress is ornamented with pearls, when the Egyptian is fortunate enough to possess any, but usually with pieces of shiny metal. Their wrists are decorated with large beads, and there is an air of coquetry about these women altogether which is strangely inconsistent with their oppressed condition, and the miserable labour to which they are condemned.

In very many cases it is a hard matter for the Fellah to preserve himself and family from starvation. His whole life is a struggle with circumstances for a bare subsistence, though it can hardly be called a struggle, for they are so beaten down that they possess but a small amount of energy; there is in them a stolid indifference, a dogged resignation, a fearful submission to the tyranny of those who govern; a few dates and a pipe, or a cup of coffee and a pipe, appear to soothe them and satisfy their wants. One English traveller, indeed, tells us that a discontented Egyptian vented his discontent, and expressed his idea of liberty, by wishing that the English would come over and subvert the Moslem sway-- they have no hope in themselves, no trust in their own energy and power. The Fellah women are cordial, patient, and affectionate; they are far more industrious than the men, and bear all their trials with tranquil resignation, submitting to the harsh government of the husband with perfect docility. One great distinctive inequality subsists between these companions in misery. The husband is imperious and cruel. He cats his scanty meal alone, his wife waiting on him as a slave. When he has satisfied his wants, she is permitted to partake of what remains. She must not speak with him, without having received authority from her lord. Her obedience and conjugal love are worthy of a better fate. When any change in the government administration takes place, it nearly always produces great imposts; and the people, already taxed and enslaved, are compelled to render more assistance. In this case it sometimes happens that a Fellah is unable to furnish the money required. He strives hard, but cannot accomplish his purpose; the officers of the government pronounce him refractory, he is lodged in the common prison, and punished with the bastinado. The wife of the unhappy man immediately sets about his liberation, and pleads with the officers and magistrates, as a woman only can plead, that her husband may be spared. She exerts not only her eloquence, but her industry, so that if her words are unavailing, she may at last be able to furnish the required sum, and have her lord restored to her.

The wretched people are continually exposed to these shameful outrages. Every article of produce is taxed, and the sum is arbitrarily arranged by the pacha himself. Thus the Fellahs are reduced to abject slavery, and live on, in something worse than the fatalism of the Turk-sonicthing far different from the resignation of the martyr something entirely distinct from the calm which precedes a storm,-in a life which is only a sort of vegetation, which knows no energy, no hope, no clevating principle, and casts them down far lower than the brutes.

On approaching an Egyptian village, the numerous turrets present the appearance of a grand bazaar; but a nearer view shows us that even the houses of the wealthy are but poor and