particularly severe on two cheesemongers with wings, in St. Paul's, exhibiting a couple of double glos'ters, on which strange drawings of two naval officers have been scratched.' Before leaving Sicily, Mr G.lt gives a general sketch, not destitute of spirit, of the character of the people.

The Sicilians are rather a sly, than a cunning race; perhaps no nation in Europe possesses so much naïveté. Loquacious and ingenious, they make more use of persuasion in their dealings than any other people. It is not enough that a Sicilian objects the high price of what he desires to purchase; he expatiates on the inferiority of the quality; recalls to recollection how long he has been a customcr; enumerates, one by one, counting them on his fingers, the circumstances of unlucky bargains that he has had; flatteringly contrasts the opulence of the English with the poverty of the Sicilians; animadverts on the politics of the Government; magnifies the value of his ready-money; insinuates that he may change his merchant ; and often retires, and returns several times, before he offers his ultimatum. Nor in selling does he practise less address. There is not a single point of his wares that does not possess something extraordinary, or beautiful: no other shop in the town has any thing like them; so cheap, or so excellent. If the price be high, What will you give?-and it is seldom that a 'Sicilian refuses the offer of an Englishman.

The inhabitants of this island are, in the proper sense of the term, highly superstitious; but the dicta of ignorance are so interwoven with the creeds of Popery, that many notions of vulgar superstition are regarded as essentials of religion. The only exception is a belief in the effects of the influence of evil eyes; and even over this, the priesthood have acquired jurisdiction. For they persuade the people to buy bits of blessed rags and paper, which, when worn suspended round the neck, have the effect, as they pretend, of neutralizing the malignancy. The influence of an evil look is instantaneous; and the person who happens to glance it, may be unconscious of what he does: it smites the subject with sudden malady, or impresses his mind with lugubrious images, and unfits him for the prosecution of premeditated intentions. It is useless to speculate on the fantasies of the human mind; but, in this case, the constant flickering of electricity in this climate, and the occasional breathing of pestiferous exhalations, from the vegetable corruption in the bottoms of the valleys, afford a plausible reason for the sudden distempers and dejections which are ascribed to the aspect of ungracious eyes. The same superstition is well known in Scotland; but it is more generally prevalent among the Sicilians than the Scotch. Whether it is, among us, an imported or indigenous belief, cannot now be ascertained. Over all the ancient extent of the papal empire, there is a great similarity in the topics of vulgar.credulity.

The Sicilians have, certainly, a very keen relish of humour;

and, now and then, one may perceive in them a strong trait of peculiarity, not individual but national, which, notwithstanding their ancient proficiency, is an assurance to think that they may yet attain some literary superiority which shall be regarded as original. A description of manners and customs, by a genuine Sicilian, otherwise properly qualified, would equally surprize and delight.' p. 114, 115.

From Sicily our author proceeded to Malta; a place now so well known in this country that we should not stop to notice his details upon it, were they much more copious and interesting. Mr Galt is far from happy, when he attempts any thing light and bumorous. We are favoured with a specimen of this vein, in the observations upon the population of the island. It has reached that point, he is pleased to observe, which to a wrongheaded disciple of Malthus would be apt to afford the most • melancholy subject of reflection.' The reason, it seems, is, that every inch is tilled, and yet the produce has long been inadequate to the maintenance of the inhabitants; notwithstanding which (says this witty man), the very labouring classes of the people are still so inconsiderate as to marry and beget children as merrily as if they all had sinecures.' If it were not ridiculous to reason with such folly, we might observe, that Mr Malthus never maintained such a proposition, as that any given spot of country was in a state of misery, when its population exceeded the numbers which its produce could support. But if he contends, that the multiplication of people beyond the means of subsistence is an evil, we really do not see any answer to the doctine in Mr Galt's statement, nor any possibility of giving it an answer at all: It is indeed a position at all times admitted in the practice, as well as in the reasonings of mankind. However, our sturdy wit goes on in his vocation. Cows,' says he,

were long ago expelled, and the frugal-feeding goat supplied • a competency of milk, till the English came; but these epicures had again recalled those huge vegetable-devouring creatures; and in the year 1809, I was told that there were no fewer than three milch cows in the island of Malta.' Really, if the reader won't laugh, it is his own fault. It is reasonable good wit, we think-and right merry.

The island of Serigo, the ancient Catherá, was the next point to which Mr Galt directed his course; and, as it is very little known in this country, the information communicated will be acceptable, though it is not very full. This spot is about fifty miles in circumference, containing one town and forty villages, and a population of eight thousand, of whom twelve hundred inhabit the chief town. The soil is stony; but whatever is D 2

arable has been brought into tillage. It produces some good oil; but the wine is very bad, apparently from mismanagement. The revenue is about twelve hundred pounds a year, arising from an impost on cattle; and the expenditure eight hundred. There are two indifferent harbours, and very little trade. Among the few remains of antiquity, our author mentions a marble lion. Of the natural productions, he barely names, without any details, some rocks containing animal bones. There is likewise a deep cave, into which he penetrated with some difficulty by torch-light, and found that it contained nothing to reward the labour of the excursion. The scorpions of the island are, it seems, very large, sometimes five inches long; nd a story is told of their battles with mice, in which the latter prevail.

Our author went from Serigo to the Morea, landing in the country of the Maniots, a part of the Spartan territory. They are a people of robbers and pirates, living in perpetual hostility with others, and among themselves. They enjoy a considerable degree of independence, the Turkish government being bound to nominate as their governor, one of their own nation, and to send no Turks into their territory; in return for which exemption, they pay a small tribute. While Mr Galt was there, an attempt had been made to infringe these conditions, and the country was much convulsed in consequence. Perhaps we cannot convey a better idea of the manners of these tribes, than by extracting the account of Mr Galt's reception at the residence of Antonbey, one of their most considerable chiefs. It affords another kind of picture than those which are familiar to Lord Byron's readers.

We were met on the brow of the hill by a scout, who had been sent to inquire what we were; and conducted by him into the castle. In the gateway, a number of retainers were slumbering away the tedium of unoccupied time. The court was dirty with rubbish. offal, and excrements. Hogs were confined in a corner; but the poultry and ducks enjoyed the range of its whole extent. We ascended into the keep by a zigzag stair on the outside, evidently so contrived as to be defended. The landing place was moveable, and served for a drawbridge. The door, narrow, opened into a hall, where a number of long-haired soldiers were sitting. They rose, as we entered, in order to make way for us to ascend the stairs which led to the apartment of the prince. The walls of the presence chamber were hung with bundles of arms, clokes, and petticoats. A bed occupied the farthest corner, under which I perceived a large, antique, carved coffer; but my eye searched in vain for a more common utensil. Along the sides of the room were benches, covered with cushions; and, on a shelf, I saw several inverted coffee-cups. two or three bottles, and other articles of the cupboard. Antonbey, a strong, hale

sure.

carle, was sitting near the bed when we entered, and beside him an old priest. I think he appeared to be about sixty. The first glance of him, with what had been passing in my mind before, suggested the figure of Hardyknute. Opposite sat his lady, with large rings on her fingers, but otherwise slovenly dressed. On her one side was a warlike relation, with a snuff-box in his hand; and, on the other, she had also her ghostly comforter. She was younger than the prince, and still possessed the remains of beauty. They all rose up as we entered; and the old chieftain received us with a kind of honest gladness-that military frankness, which gains at once the esteem of strangers. He expressed himself highly gratified by a visit from British subjects, having only once before enjoyed that pleaLike the governor of Marathonesi, he told us how much all the inhabitants desired the arrival of a Christian power. By the vicinity of Idra, they have learnt the benefits of commerce, and have acquired such a knowledge of the world, as to desire the termination of their predatory practices. Antonbey himself was, in his youth, a courageous and famous pirate. He told us that he had visited Venice, Trieste, and Ancona. When we had conversed with him some time, he took us to see a statue which he had lately found. He said it was generally considered to be the effigy of Lycurgus; but I think it is a Neptune. The worship of that deity, and of Venus, continued in this country five hundred years after they were proscribed in the Roman world. He told us, also, that, if it would be acceptable, he would send it to London, to the King; and was not a little diverted, when we assured him that Neptune was one of his Majesty's favourite gods.

On returning to his room, we found the curtains of the bed down, and perceived, through them, the princess asleep.' p. 154-156.

Mr Galt's contempt and dislike of the Greeks, carries him to the extreme of intolerance in every thing that concerns them. Indeed there is no such thing as pleasing him where a Greek is concerned. If they treat him roughly, he is indignant, and sometimes has recourse to force ;-if they are civil, he is out of all patience with their servility. Thus, on arriving at a Greck house at Mispa, very late at night, he says, that if sycophancy and obsequiousness were meat and drink, we might have supped most heartily.' (p. 161.) If he returned to England through Germany, he probably found many a house where, on arriving but an hour too late, he obtained just as little to eat and drink, with none of the obsequiousness he here complains of. At Argos we have a scene of a different character. The Primate, to whose house they went, again too late, under an order to the Governor, would not admit them; but very civilly (or, as Mr Galt has it, with all the habitual and fraudulent sycophancy of ⚫ his nation') directed them to a house which he said was pre

6

pared for their reception. The inhabitants refused to let them in ; -the Primate, again pressed to admit them, refused also; and, ⚫ in a rude manner, told them to force the door of the other house." -At this they were exceedingly exasperated,' and went to the Governor, to see if a Turk would be more accommodating than this ' execrable Christian.' All the town were asleep; but the Turk sent a file of men, whom our travellers would fain have employed in breaking open the Bishop's palace ;-they had only authority, however, to storm private houses;-and, accordingly, they forced their way into one where there were only women; '—and into this they gallantly entered, like other triumphant heroes, amidst the cries and lamentations of terrified helpless women. They succeeded, partly by apologizing, and partly by their • national name,' in calming the fears of these poor people. At Corinth they again arrived too late; and used nearly the same violent means of obtaining an hospitable reception. They did not actually storm the house, but they forced the inhabitants to quit their beds, and find other lodgings.' And does Mr Galt really wonder at finding an unhappy people deceitful, who are obliged to submit to such treatment as this? But what right has he to speak so vehemently against them, when he so readily joined in such gross and shameful outrages' as he admits the first mentioned adventure to have been? There is a certain coarseness about all this, which is unpleasant. We had much rather that a sense of propriety prevented a person from publishing anecdotes of this kind;-next to the share he had in them, the openly detailing it, is an offensive piece of frankness;-to have suppressed the narrative, would have been some little sacrifice to decorum ;-but perhaps the trifling deviations from good taste that occur here and there in the extracts already given, have prepared the reader for finding a considerable want of delicacy in the author of this book.

The approach to Constantinople is strikingly described-by a far more remarkable characteristic than its magnificent aspect, and the fantastic shapes of its mosques and minarets,-the listless and gloomy stillness of despotism, which forms such a contrast with the bustle of our capitals. The domes (says he) of the chief mosques, were the first things that the eye detached from the mass of objects ;-then the grim castle of the Seven • Towers ;-and, finally, the innumerable minarets, interspersed among shapely cypresses, and other trees of more cheerful foliage. But, unlike the approach to London, where the gay variety of villas and gardens, and the lively emulation of innumerable chariots and horsemen, exhilarate the spirits, the