Between the old Pacha and the new in this country the difference is extreme. The orthodox old chief knew that paradise was for him alone, since he alone professed the true faith. He did not mortify his senses here, and he looked forward for greater powers of enjoyment hereafter. He had a contempt for all Frank knowledge, a hatred for all Frank professors, a proud ignorance of and indifference for all Frank geography. He had occasionally a little passing curiosity in matters of Frank politics, scornfully admired, in spite of himself, Frank firearms, and with cheerful resignation quaffed champagne, -for the same reason that the Newgate ordinary drank punch, because it is a liquor nowhere spoken against in his Scripture. The old Pacha spoke no language but his own, wore no garments but those of the flowing fashion of his forefathers, for many generations, and carried no heart beneath them influenced by milder principles than those which encouraged him in brutality to woman and cruelty to

man.

The new Pacha is altogether of a different quality. He has seen Paris and London; he has heard "La Gazza Ladra," and has nodded to Mario. He is as familiar with French novels as with Eastern odalisques. He can read the English papers with more ease than he can the Arabic of the Koran. He is as tightly buttoned up as any well-clad Frank in Frangistan; and though he has not adopted our hideous head-pieces, he has discarded all that was graceful and useful in his own. In short, a modern Turkish Pacha, between the East and the West, is very like the legendary coffin of the prophet, which hangs between heaven and earth, without precisely belonging to either. He camps in the valley of Nazareth, but believes only in Mahomed; like Cabouli, Pacha of Said, who is poet, scholar, and soldier, " one of those new statesmen of Islam, who play whist and read papers, and aim at being good Moslems in faith and practice, while they are perfect Franks in culture and in speech." Mr. Dixon can only call to mind three Englishmen who may be said to know more about Syria, Persia, and Arabia, than Cabouli knows about England, Germany, and France. These three are "Layard, Rawlinson, and Strangford."

We think that, possibly, this list might be increased; but, generally speaking, we doubt if, in these later days, the Turk is not as well instructed in Western geography and history as an Englishman of corresponding rank is in the geography and history of the East. The well-bred Turk of the present century is not puzzled as to whether London be in England or England in London, and how both stand with regard to Ireland and Scotland, which he does not take for capital cities. He is conversant with maps and the instruction they convey. We do not know how it might be with any dozen educated young Turks questioned on British topography; but we

are certain that, of any score of young Englishmen, taken at chance out of a ball-room and questioned on the topography of a small district of such importance to them as Palestine, not above one, if one, would be able to name the coast cities from Sidon to El Arisch-to answer correctly as to the respective, situations of Acre and Jaffa-to reply promptly and rightly as to which of those cities Mount Carmel is most proximate, or whether it is in the vicinity of either of them. We do not fancy we should come much better off if the young ladies of the two countries and religions were to enter into a competitive examination. Utter ignorance would be found among the Turkish charmers. But how would it be with our own fair beauties, fresh from finishing schools and the last free-and-easy novel, and just recently from confirmation, and that hot-bed of impudent vanity, a stall at a fancy fair? Do you think that any one of them could repeat the names of the few places that lie between Jaffa and Jerusalem? Are you quite easy, in the conviction you would fain enjoy, that your "girls" could tell you the relative positions of Nazareth and Bethlehem? When you have disposed of these two queries think of the "bills" you have paid, and how very little you (and they) have got for the money.

66

Benighted heathens!" Nay, let us be modest, and more civil. Cabouli is not an exceptional individual. The habit of searching into the policy and manners of Western Europe is not confined to a few men of rank and genius in the Ottoman Empire. We are quite assured that Mr. Dixon is good authority for such an assertion. He asks if any man has ever seen a Pasha of Belgrade in the living flesh? Such a dignitary is as unlike the Pasha of other days as that Pasha was unlike his histrionic presentment in the opera which had the siege of Belgrade for a subject. Bright and shrewd intelligence, and a wary outlook into Western arts, are among the characteristics which Mr. Dixon detected in many a Turkish officer of inferior grade. As to pashas and begs, whom he encountered in Turkey, Syria, Egypt, and the Islands, the author's testimony of them is, that in nearly every one, he found a man of gentle manners, of fair information, of unfailing courtesy." Nearly all could converse in French or English; some, in addition, had colloquial practice of Russian and German, and few were ignorant of Greek. All these languages, it is to be remembered, are foreign to them. They all knew Turkish, of course," and most of them read Arabic and Persian, the languages of the Koran and Ferdousi." Mr. Dixon asks, "Do the best men in our service beat them much?" We ask, "Do any similar number of men, in similar service in England, equal them?" It would be difficult to find a score or so of English colonels or generals who are royal lieutenants in distant British possessions, who, even if they could speak French without that exasperating British accent which is so

66

afflicting to every well-tuned ear, are able, moreover, to make themselves understood in two or three other continental languages, and could read Hebrew and British-Saxon, the languages of the Bible and of Cadmon.

With all the changes which have come over the Turkish character, externally and internally, the swarthy Turk is not washed white. Mr. Dixon vouches for the fact that he "has not ceased to be plump and languid and poetical, to smoke overmuch, to love colour and pomp, to hold his head high in the world." But, on the other hand, "he has pretty well ceased to buy slaves and eunuchs, to pride himself on his ignorance, to contemn the rest of mankind as infidels and dogs;" and he adds that "Cabouli Pasha is a Turk of this better school." Such men are as the salt of a nation. It may be beyond their power to restore the nation to young life and vigour, but not beyond their ability to keep it from decay, death, and corruption.

Here we must close Mr. Dixon's attractive volumes. They are far above being merely a book of travels. They tell the old story of the Holy Land on the spot. Under the shadow of Jerusalem the author explains past and present, and paints the probable future. This is so ably effected, that we seem to be rather accompanying the traveller and sharing his experiences, than perusing the details far away from the scene of action. There is, in short, not a class of readers to whom these volumes may not be heartily recommended.

OUR NAV VIES.

It is gratifying to know that so much is being done in these days for the working people. The upper classes, as they are called, are interesting themselves in the lower. The old stupid barriers that separated betwixt the two are being broken down. It is not thought beneath the dignity of wealth and rank to be conscious of the existence of the poor and lowly: and the best in the land are striving to do their duty by their less fortunate and favoured brethren.

Among the honoured names of those who have done much for the social and spiritual amelioration of working men, that of Miss Marsh occupies a prominent and conspicuous place. In her deeply interesting little books, "English Hearts and English Hands," and "Light for the Line," she shows us how much can be achieved by patience and perseverance, by judgment and good sense. The roughest and most reckless of the race can be humanized and Christianized, and from the least promising fields for benevolent exertion, by the grace of God, the richest harvests may be reaped.

In the following little narrative of what has happened within my own experience, I desire to furnish my readers with an account of the efforts made by certain good people among a large number of railway navvies who have been living temporarily among them, the way they set to work, and the result of their labours. I need hardly say that they can confirm all that Miss Marsh and others like her have stated, and that the man or woman who works conscientiously and energetically, even among the most brutalized, shall be well repaid, and shall not "run in vain, neither labour in vain.”

In the spring of 1863, a railway was begun to be made in our neighbourhood-let us call it Lemorskiel, for the sake of distinction. About a hundred men, chiefly Irish, but with a sprinkling of English and Scotch, were imported and set to the works. These were subsequently increased to near three hundred, at which number they have remained, with little alteration, up to the completion of the line.

66

I need hardly say that their advent was not hailed with much delight. The quiet, steady old inhabitants were in a flutter of fear— They are a terrible set," they would say, "these wild navvies. They are utterly lawless. They care for neither God nor man. Shocking stories of what they will dare and do are abroad. We shall have an awful time of it. We shall be assaulted on the roads, rifled of our money, beaten, and perhaps killed. Our houses will be broken into

on dark nights with crowbars and pickaxes, and our goods and chattels carried off before our eyes; while on ‘pay-days' and red-letter days the whole neighbourhood will be disturbed with bacchanalian revelry, and men maddened with drink and ranging the country-side will make decent and honest people quake." The letting loose among them of the inmates of Bedlam or Wombwell's menagerie would have been looked upon as the lesser evil of the two. "What is to be done?" was the excited inquiry. "How shall the lawless and turbulent spirits be kept in order? We must have a tremendous force of police to overawe them with the majesty of law. The great men at the head of affairs must be appealed to to bestir themselves, or none of us by day or night will be safe."

66

All such fears turned out, I may say at once, to be perfectly groundless. Our navvies had no resemblance to wild beasts, either in outward ferocity of look or inward disposition and character. We found them in the long-run a good deal like other men, open to any good influences brought to bear on them, and wonderfully alive to kindness. In reference to the way of dealing with Irish navvies, to keep them in order, from molesting others or fighting among themselves, I would say, in passing, that the very worst that can be conceived is that of an overawing force of police. A sufficiently numerous force to do any good can never be obtained; and what were two or three among as many hundreds? In the case of a row" they would be utterly powerless. But let them muster in a mighty army, our rough friends are not in the least overawed by any number of stiff blue coats and queen-headed batons. So far, indeed, from that being so, the very sight of a policeman, or posse of policemen, irritates and excites them, and becomes the signal for a fierce and sanguinary onslaught. It is analogous to the presenting a red cloth to a turkeycock or a bull. If you want to infuriate the turkey-cock or the bull, out with your red rag and wave it; if you want to infuriate an Irish navvy, especially if he has been applying for a stimulus to the "crather," present before him a "charlie." He hates the very sight of him; not, by the way, that he is ever much troubled with the sight of that gallant officer, even when especially appointed to attend and supervise him. I rather think there is some truth in the widespread belief that when anything is actually required to be done, as in the case of a fight or a row," the majesty of law, in the person of its supporters, is usually seen "skedaddling" in the direction of dignified security, i. e., in a direction the very furthest removed from difficulty and danger. This being so, I should recommend the country to save its money, and limit its army of policemen;-among the class I have come to know, at least, there are better ways of establishing and maintaining order and peace.

66

Our first thoughts were directed to providing our friends in some