markable were the next striking remains, those at Moghrawah, some distance in the interior, Mr. Davis's. remarks upon which are well worth quoting : "The ancient remains at Moghrawah are but few, and yet what there is inspires the trayeller with a degree of reverence and awe which other ruins do not always do. A sumptuous triumphal arch, a chaste edifice, a graceful column, elaborate ornaments, or exquisite statuary, call forth our admiration, but they limit or fix the period of their own origin. They are associated with a definite age of Rome or of Greece, which classic writers have made familiar to us. We have literature, we have works of art, and we have medals belonging to the same period. The lapse of centuries which has intervened between the recorded past and our day is annihilated, and we find ourselves quite at home among these ruins, and fancy ourselves in the very company of those worthies, those heroes, those sages, those artists who have paced the very ground on which we stand, and who have graced with their presence the very structure which we admire. But to what period do yonder massive stones, planted in the ground by human hands, belong? For what purpose were those monuments raised? Do those immense, rude, and unhewn stones represent the idols of a religion with the nature of which we are totally unacquainted? Are they the remains of a religious edifice? Or have they been placed there to commemorate some particular event in the history of a nation, the very name of which has not even been handed down to us? (P. 59.) Such silent records of lost nations, more For a moment we imagine such a sight; another moment, and we see only the massive stones, that are enigmas alike in Britain and in Africa. After leaving Moghrawah, the traveller visited Roman ruins at Hammam, the most important of which was a triumphal arch, a not uncommon structure here, and next the interesting remains at Mokhthar, the ancient Tucca Terebinthina, among the most conspicuous of which was a mausoleum, one of those descendants of the wonder of HalicarNorthern Africa. At El-Medad, not far benassus which are especially numerous in yond, were similar remains and some primeval tombs; and at Thala, the city where Jugurtha kept his treasures, other ruins, some of which appeared to belong to its ancient fortifications. All these monuments yield in picturesqueness to the beautiful Arch of Severus at Hydra, which, though partly inclosed in later masonry, puts its modern rivals to shame, if we may wholly depend upon the sketch in the work. In speaking of this last site, Mr. Davis remarks with some surprise on the lack of Christian monuments in Northern Africa. He attributes this to the effect of Muslim rule; we should rather conclude that here, as in Egypt, finding edifices of the former religion, the early Christians appropriated them, contenting themselves with defacing or concealing the idolatrous figures and emblems. These numerous remains of antiquity were all examined on a single route, terminating just with forcibly than any other monuments, picture in the French frontier; and the rest of to the mind the vicissitudes of empires. the journey was as much marked by objects Remembering how utterly Punic Carthage of interest. Of these we can but notice one, has perished, so that its most fortunate ex- the most remarkable of all that the traveller describes. plorer found no remains certainly of its time of independence, one is astonished to find that before the Carthaginians there was an older race, yet one wholly distinct, whose rude civilization was cut off by the Punic supremacy, of which every trace was in its turn destroyed by the Romans. Only a vision of the past, a retrospective prophecy, if we may so speak, could show us this succession of dynasties, like that the prophet saw from the heights of Moab. "In outline dim and vast Their fearful shadows cast The giant forms of empires on their way To ruin one by one They tower and they are gone." At El-Jem, the ancient Thysdrus, is a Roman amphitheatre, third in size of those yet remaining, ranking after the Coliseum of Rome and the Amphitheatre of Verona, and in beauty second alone to the monument of Vespasian and Titus. The extreme length is four hundred and eighty-nine feet seven inches, and the breadth four hundred and three feet three inches. Few as are the monuments of the African Church, here we are reminded of its noblest days, and forced to the unwelcome comparison that must always be suggested by a retrospect of the faith and fortitude that has almost come to be thought ideal. Mr. Davis found the Arabs demol ishing the structure for tombstones, and per- hospitality was tendered everywhere to our suaded them to desist by pointing out that traveller, the Algerine Government having future travellers would be sure to disturb their graves in search of the fragments of the amphitheatre. One modern city seems to have greatly interested our traveller, the sacred Keyrawán, which rejoices in no less a relic than part of the beard of Mohammed, and has, until lately, not been visited by Franks save in disguise. Its mosques are of great beauty, and dating from an early period. The sketch given in this work makes us regret that Sir Gardiner Wilkinson's drawings of these edifices have not been published. We have no doubt that Mr. Davis attaches most importance to his account of the monuments; but to our mind the best portions of the work are the descriptions of the population of the country, more especially the half-free Arabs of the interior. Tunis is under the government of a family who acknowledge the sultan as their suzerain, and its case, therefore, is the same as that of Egypt. The administration is, however, extremely corrupt, the entire power of the government being in the hands of unprincipled Memlooks, who are either white slaves or renegades, instead of native Arabs. But we must observe that Mr. Davis is not strictly accurate when he compares this system with that of Egypt before Mohammed 'Alee. Under the Memlook sultans that country enjoyed the highest prosperity; on their overthrow an aristocracy of Memlooks was allowed to exercise a joint authority with the Turkish Beglerbeg, and this mixed government naturally occasioned innumerable contests, which were only ended by Mohammed 'Alee's grand act of treachery. After the Massacre of the Memlooks the administration of Egypt was in the hands of white slaves as before, only not of the old party, until lately, the wise association of members of the viceregal family, and the moderate views that have rendered Christians eligible for the highest offices, superseded the old system. The consequence, in Tunis, is that every kind of injustice is perpetrated, and the Moorish Arabs, never famous for the higher qualities of their race, have degenerated so far as almost to be worthy of their Turkish rulers. It was only on the French frontier that real very properly given legal encouragement to the Arab national virtue. Hence there is a general wish among the Tunisian Arabs to be under the rule of the French, though their natural repugnance to the race devoid of the dignity and gravity the Arabs most admire, that has conquered their brethren, and the recollection of the Dahra massacre, and the breach of 'Abd-el-Káder's safe conduct (that fatal snare into which the Wahhábee chief, 'Abdallah Ibn-Soo-ood, and so many noble Arabs have fallen), still keep up a smouldering hatred of the French, and many an Arab prefers Turkish misrule to Gallic justice. The writer's knowledge of the spoken Arabic and of Arab character enable him to give some excellent advice to those who may wish to follow him in his interesting journey. On more than one occasion he owed his safety to an exercise of moderate firmness, and he shows how wrong and unwise it is to treat the Arab thief as an assassin. " Anything like an arm of defence in the hands of a European inspires him with respect, and hence a European ought to be very slow in using it. Threaten, and threaten with effect; but, if possible to avoid it, never fire" (p. 76). He might have added that blood once shed, a mortal feud is established, every relation of the man slain, to a remote degree, being bound to take vengeance, unless restrained by accidentally partaking of the culprit's hospitality. After the volumes of sporting or sentimental rubbish that are annually produced on the subject of Africa, making one wish that the oblivion-causing lotus could be regularly administered to each departing tourist, we are refreshed by the work of a real traveller, who is courageous without feeling it his duty to prove the destructiveness of civilization, who has an eye for antiquities and an enthusiasm for the past, and who, without the fanatical love of Mahammedanism that characterizes some Anglo-Turks, can see the good side of Arab character. Mr. Davis is of the brotherhood of Belzoni and Layard, and we give him a hearty welcome. From The Examiner. London Lyrics. By Frederick Locker. Pickering. "One, two, three small steps she'd taken, "Never creep back so despairing- Peggy yet to Fate may utter A CLEVER volume of gossiping verse, wholly without affectation, good-humored, amusing; given to puns that are not seldom as distressing as they ought to be, and to light-hearted comic rhymes, but always unstrained in its cheerfulness, always free from slang, often most happy in the pointing of a couplet or a stanza, and here and there showing glimpses of the poet's earnest sense of truth and beauty. Anybody may take up these Lyrics who desires an hour's idle gues,yet rational amusement by the fireside. Here are two or three pieces that we quote simply because they are the shortest in the book. "" CIRCUMSTANCE.-THE ORANGE. "It ripened by the river banks, Where, mask and moonlight aiding, Dons Blas' and Juan play sad pranks, Dark Donnas serenading. 'By Moorish maiden it was plucked, Who through the grove was stealing, "She could not know in Pimlico, 66 THE WIDOW'S MITE. "The widow had but only one, A puny and decrepit son; Yet, day and night, Though fretful oft, and weak and small, "The widow's might,-yes! so sustained, "I saw her then, and now I see, She has-He gave it tenderly- A SKETCH IN SEVEN DIALS. "Peggy, in her hand a sixpence, Toddled off to buy some butter (Peggy's pinafore was spotless); Back she brought it to the gutter, Gleeful, radiant, as she thus did, Proud to be so largely trusted. The touch of kindly jesting is seldom absent from Mr. Locker's rhyme for, as he ar They cannot be complete in aught Can hardly have a funny bone." For a picture in little of the ins and outs Where childhood loved to ramble? "Whence comes the change? Our li unfold "And senseless, too, for Mistress Fate That mouldy sages thought her; A much-loved friend comes squeaking? "Such talk is stuff-a vile caprice Of rogues who swear our swans are geese: To hacks who "tread the mill," like me, Her sanguine thoughts to borrow; And, need be, share her sorrow! Beloved, lead me gently down To Life's dim strand; the dark waves frown, But weep not for our parting. "Though Life is called a doleful jaunt, We should be glad if there were more volumes of such readable fugitive verse as these pleasant City Lyrics of Mr. Locker. Idol demolished by its own Priests," both written in opposition to the tenets of the Church of Rome.-Examiner. SHAKSPEARE'S SHYLOCK.-We find in the Jewish Record, a journal devoted to the interests of American Israelites, and published in New York, a new version of Shakspeare's "Merchant of Venice." The writer, who is himself a Jew, says the play is founded on fact, with this important difference, that it was the Jew who was to forfeit the pound of flesh if he lost the wager. The circumstance took place not at Venice, but in Rome, during the pontificate of Sixtus the Fifth. The Jew lost; the noble demanded the pound of flesh; the Jew demurred and offered money, which was refused. Sixtus, to whom the matter was at last submitted, decided in favor of the noble, with the provision that he should cut exactly one pound of flesh-not one grain more or less, on pain of being hanged. The noble naturally declined the risk; the pope fined both parties in heavy sums for making such a wager. Thus old Shylock's memory is vindicated at last. We fear, however, notwithstanding "the truth of his story," that Shakspeare's will continue to be the popalar version of the story. SHERIDAN KNOWLES, the dramatist, died at | cal theology, "The Rock of Rome" and "The Torquay on the 30th Nov., in his seventy-ninth year. He was the eldest son of the author of a Dictionary of the English Language," and a man of eminence both for talent and learning. He received his Christian name in consequence of his connection with the Sheridan family. When only twelve years old, his mind began to display its inherent inclination for that sort of literature in which he afterwards became so distinguished, having composed a play for a company of juvenile performers, of whom he was the leader. Soon afterwards he composed the libretto of an opera founded on the history of the Chevalier de Grillon. At fourteen he wrote the ballad of the "Welsh Harper." Mr. Knowles made his first appearance as an actor on the boards of Crow Street Theatre, in Dublin, and he afterwards performed in Waterford, Swansea, and various other places. He subsequently assisted his father at the Belfast Academical Institution. While in that city his first dramatic efforts were submitted to the ordeal of public favor. The first of these pieces was "Brien Boroihme," rather a rifacciamento of a piece by another author than an original play. The next was "Caius Gracchus," first performed in Belfast on the 13th of February, 1815, and acted about eight years afterwards in London with great success. The third of his plays was "Virginius." "William Tell," The Beggar of Bethnal Green," "The Hunchback,' "The Wife," "The Daughter," "The Love Chase," Woman's Wit," "The Maid of Mariendorpt," Love," "Old Maids," "John of Procida," "The Rose of Arragon," and "The Secretary" followed in rapid succession. In several of these plays Knowles himself appeared; in some of them he sustained the leading characters. He also delivered courses of lectures at various places, on elocution and kindred subjects. America he visited twice. Under the ministry of the late Sir Robert Peel a literary pension of £200 per annum was bestowed upon him as an acknowledgment by the crown of his labors in the cause of literature. He also wrote some novels and tales, and two works on subjects of polemi My best presentations of the gospel to you are so incomplete! Sometimes, when I am alone, I have such sweet and rapturous visions of the love of God and the truths of his Word, that I think, if I could speak to you then, I should move your hearts. I am like a child, who, walking forth some sunny summer's morning, sees grass and flowers all shining with drops of dew. Oh," he cries, "I'll carry these beautiful things to my mother." And, eagerly plucking them, the dew drops into his little palm, and all the charm is gone. There is but grass in his hand, and no longer pearls. From The Spectator, 10 Jan. ENGLISH CHRISTIANITY AND SLAVERY. THERE is grave political danger hanging over England. The collapse of the American Constitution and the rottenness which has been revealed at the heart of the Northern political system have, owing partly perhaps to the recent unwise comparisons of Mr. Bright and other panegyrists of the United States, and partly to our inordinate national self-esteem, become mere food for self-gratulation and pride. We thank God that we are not as other nations are, nor even as this Yankee; and while we are doing so, by the very act of doing so, we are approaching the very phase and attitude of national character which have reduced the American nation to its present distressed What with peans over the wreck of Democracy and the comparative stability of our own wiser institutions, we are rapidly forgetting that no political institutions are noble in themselves; that aristocracy and democracy alike are mere media for human action, and that if the higher springs of that action are dried up, nothing can save us from the same rottenness over which, in America, we so ungenerously glory. state. worse than change places, to become apologetic for the principle of Slavery, while theirs never did more than excuse the toleration of it in practice. "Sisters," at that time wrote Lady Palmerston, Lady Buxton, Lady Shaftesbury, and the rest, to the ladies of the United States, "we appeal to you, as sisters, as wives, and as mothers, to raise your voices to your fellow-citizens and your prayers to God, for the removal of this affliction and disgrace [Slavery] from the Christian world." And now, when the only body which has as yet vindicated England from the disgrace of a national sympathy with the cause of Slavery asks, "that in every church and chapel throughout Great Britain an aspiration for their speedy release may rise to a just Heaven," the Saturday Review, the principal organ of our aristocratic opinion, lodges an indignant protest against so unholy a purpose, quotes St. Paul to show how justifiable a thing is Slavery, reminds us, not without force, that Mr. Charles Buxton, and many others always supposed to be English advocates of the rights of the slave, deprecate Mr. Lincoln's proclamation as revolutionary and an incentive to servile war, and in a word contrives to express towards the slaves and The spirit in which the newspapers that the abolitionists with unusual force that are admitted to represent the higher intel- subtle spirit of what we may call Christian ligence of England treat the subject of malignity, with which religious journals Slavery fills us, we must say, with profound generally manage to treat their opponents. consternation. We could not have believed The Times follows its bolder contemporary for a moment, a year ago, that the Times on the same track, modestly suggesting that and Saturday Review would both in the it would be much more Scriptural and Chrissame week devote their ablest pens to an tian in the abolitionists to preach the apology, not merely for Slavery itself, but" amelioration of the negro (we suppose for the Christian character of that institu- the writer means, of his lot), than his emantion. Yet so it is. On Saturday last an cipation. But since no amelioration is pos article appeared in the columns of the jour-sible without interposing the protection of nal which is the boldest pioneer of the pro- the Government between the slave and his slavery reaction in this country, warning the master, and that involves emancipation,clergy against the appeal of the Emancipa- this thoughtful recommendation is, in fact, tion Society; ridiculing as blasphemous the equivalent to asserting that it. would be notion of praying for the liberation of the much more Scriptural and Christian to let slaves from bondage, and boldly asserting, Slavery be where it is, and extend where it on the authority of St. Paul, that Chris- is not. And, amid all this direct assertion tianity repudiates any plan of liberation of the Christianity of Slavery, the half-milwhich is not grounded on the legal consent lion of English women, whose names at the of their masters. On Tuesday the more foot of the address of 1854 to which we cautious Times, after many hesitating feel- have referred filled twenty-six folio volumes, ers in the same direction, followed the lead maintain a profound silence. The graceful of its aristocratic contemporary, and set its leaders of English society cannot serve two foot down on the proposition that Slavery is mistresses; and fashion is now on the side no more at variance with the spirit of the of the Southern aristocracy as, eight years Gospel than "sumptuous fare, purple and ago, it was on the side of the slave. When fine linen." Mrs. Stowe may well ask, in the American ladies were passive and inher very telling reply to the address of the different, the English ladies were gracefully women of England on the subject of Slavery enthusiastic, and prayed in public places sent eight years ago to the United States, that their erring sisters might cut off the how it is that, in that time, our social con- offending limb. Now that the American victions have managed to change places ladies are obeying these injunctions, they with theirs in New England,-nay, far become indifferent, and are even heard to |