walnutwood, handsomely carved and richly ornamented. These were full of books and bundles of manuscripts. These cases, and manuscripts, and books-the Vandal soldiery set on fire. One work only, which proved to be a Koran, was saved by our author, and he was offered two hundred francs for it by a taleb of the chief mosque of Algiers: "for," said this personage, "I do not like so holy a book to be in the hands of a Christian." The Arab soldiers saved some few manuscripts, and preserved them with care-but the great mass of them was destroyed; and who can tell what treasures of antiquity, what translations from lost classic works into the Arabic, thus for ever perished?

The tribe of the Beni-Abbes is said to number forty thousand souls; and at the close of this conflict, their great chief, Hamon Tahar, having, by a flag of truce, signified his desire of submitting to the marshal, was accordingly conducted to his tent.

"Oh, great sheik of the Christians," said the humbled prince, "recall your men of might-sheath again the sword of vengeance: by the rising of to-morrow's sun, the chiefs and elders of the Beni-Abbes shall all bow down before you. You will command that which seemeth good in your eyes, and we will obey."

On the following day, Hamon Tahar, with the remaining leaders of his tribe, were seen wending down their hills, in sad procession; and with mourning pace advanced to make their formal submission to the French. It appeared that they had resisted against the advice of their "wise men." They now bound themselves to pay a tribute of fifty thousand franes, but in consequence of their losses, the payment for the first year was remitted. Mr. Borrer and the French officers thought that they had made a very weak defence; and that had they exhibited only a little inore of skill and steadiness, at least onehalf of the attacking column must have been destroyed.

As we have freely observed upon the ferocity of French warfare in Africa, we conceive ourselves bound to state what Mr. Borrer says in its defence. War, when waged against uncivilized tribes, does, we admit, of

necessity, assume a sterner character than would be at all justified under other circumstances. A barbarous people are usually fanatic, treacherous, cruel, and little impressible by anything but fear. The commander may thus be justified in dealing with them more severely, and his soldiers excused if the atrocities of their opponents have had a degrading influence on them. This is not the language of Mr. Borrer; but it appears to us to be the fair amount of what he puts forward as a true defence for those with whom he marched. There are necessities in war, and harsh deeds, which such considerations may excuse; but who feels that they in the least palliate the foul abuse of victory, the savage butchery of helpless children and unresisting women, which we have only in part detailed? Who? we may ask; for even our author, at the close of what is, perhaps, the only laboured page in his book, says: "The slaughter by wholesale of defenceless women and children, however difficult to restrain, and ill-regulated the troops may be, yet cover the commanding officer with dishonour."

We are not, however, disposed to admit that the Kabyles are the cruel characters which Mr. Borrer and the French describe them to be. There certainly is not in the book before us any evidence of this, no authenticated instance of a single act of atrocity on their part. On the contrary, judging from what is there recorded, the Kabyles must be pronounced a far more amiable people than their European, civilised, and Christian invaders.

There is another argument adduced by Mr. Borrer, in extenuation of the conduct of his friends, and to which we think he attaches more value than it deserves. It is, that the ranks of the French army in Africa are com posed, in a great measure, of the very scum of France. This is only admitting that it is a vile army, and is consequently no defence.

One of the best-marked traits of Arab character is a veneration for religion. It is to this sentiment that Abd-el-Kader appealed with much success in exciting his countrymen to war; and when the Abbé Suchet adventured forth alone to seek the Emir's camp, in the hope of procuring the

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release of fifty-six of his countrymen, who were their prisoners, he found that a regard for his character of priest was his great protection. Arabs can respect Christians, but seeing the prevailing negligence of the French on the subject of religion, they despise and hate them as utter infidels. "Les Arabes," says a French writer cited by Mr. Borrer, "ne peuvent pas comprendre un état sans religion. Quand ils virent que nous ne professons aucune culte, ils en conclurent que nous n'étions pas une société, mais une agglomération de mécréants." There is always the danger, amongst the extremely ignorant, of this feeling for religion degenerating into fanaticism, and Mr. Borrer supplies us with some remarkable illustrations of the fact. We shall refer to one, showing the implicit confidence which the Arabs place in their marabbutts, or priests, and which has the further interest of being connected with a name much before the public. The incident occurred in the July of 1846:

"One of these saints foretold the taking of Tlemcen* from the French, sending word at the same time to Gen. Cavaignac, who held it, that the sooner he returned to France the better, and that if he did not immediately evacuate the city, he should come on such a day and take it. On the day named, eight hundred Arab horse and twelve hundred infantry appeared in the neighbourhood of the town. The chief told them that the town would now be evacuated. His words proved correct to a certain extent, as General Cavaignac sallied forth with his troops to meet the enemy. The expectant Arabs stood their ground in perfect tranquillity, as the French approached, for their marabbutt had said that the earth would presently open and swallow up the French general and his forces. Patiently the infatuated Moslems waited to behold the consummation of the miracle, when suddenly the veil was torn from their eyes. The French trumpet sounded the charge the cavalry came thundering down upon the astonished Arabs, standing like sheep for the slaughter, and they were sabred almost to a man.

Again, a celebrated marabbutt, of the province of Osar, informed his tribe

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that on a certain day the French muskets could not be fired, and that they would then go forth and take possession of a certain fort in the neighbourhood, held by the French. The day arrived; a troop of sixty Arabs were beheld by the sentinels of the garrison approaching the fort, playing the fantasia. Their cries of joy and amity rang on high, mingled with the sound of the 'tam-tam,' and other musical instruments. The admiring sentinels at the gateway of the fort were hailed by them as friends, and considering them as such let them pass into the fort, not discovering their error until the cold yataguns of the cavaliers in the rear cleft through their brains. The French guard hastily turned out. Onward the treacherous Moslems dashed, cutting down a brigadier and several men. musket was aimed at the breast of a cavalier, and the trigger pulled, but it would not go off. The cavaliers cried aloud, Behold, the words of our prophet are true!" and making onwards, had almost taken the fort by surprise, when volley after volley was opened upon them. Horse and man fell beneath the fire; every one of them was slain, and their bodies were cast into the ditch around the walls, within an hour of their entering the fort. Several accidents having taken place, from the carelessness of the French soldiers with their muskets when on guard, the percussion lock having been lately introduced amongst them, orders had been issued that the 'piston' or capsule should not be applied by them, except when danger was at hand. The cunning marabbutt had doubtless found this out by some means, and made the above use of his discovery."—pp. 118, 119.

The country now called Algeria, and which includes the Kabylie, extends from east to west, between two hundred and forty and two hundred and fifty French leagues; and its breadth, north and south, that is, from the sea to the little Sahara, varies from forty to sixty leagues. About two-thirds of this is mountainous, but with fertile valleys. The native population is estimated by Marshal Bugeaud at from three to four millions. This territory is divided by nature into two regions-the upper, between the Great and the Little Atlas; the lower between the latter and the sea.

French.

This last is the European zone, and is called the Tell, a word which implies that it is fit for the production of grain. From the Tell to the Great Sahara is called the Little Desert or Little Sahara. It has received the name of "desert" because it yields no grain, but in other respects it is in many places fruitful and well peopled. The inhabitants of the Tell, and of the desert beyond it, are so linked by intercourse, and by the latter looking to the former for corn, &c., that the desert proverb is" He is our lord, who is lord of our mother, and our mother is the Tell." The climate of this latter zone is, as Mr. Borrer conceives, for the most part healthy. It is protected by the Little Atlas chain from the desert wind, which, from its suffocating heat, as well as from its being impregnated with the fine sand of the Sahara, has a most injurious influence on many constitutions. The atmosphere, too, in this littoral region, is cleared during many months by prevailing storms, and in warm weather it is tempered by the seabreezes. Malaria, engendered by the marshes, or choked-up river-courses, has rendered many parts dangerous, but this evil might be cured by draining; and the Romans, who were well aware of this great source of public health, paid, it is evident, great attention to it in Africa. "Across the vast plain of the Metidja," says Mr. Borrer, "behind Algiers, may be traced the line of a great Roman drain, running from the eastern to the western limits of the plain, which with the aid of numerous tributary drains, served to carry off the stagnant waters of the plain, thus rendering it healthy and fertile."

The present condition of the vast plain we have mentioned the Metidja

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-tells badly for the colonial system of France. When that power first took possession of Algiers, this extensive tract was, to a great extent, under careful tillage; it is now comparatively, a desert, while the price of corn in Algiers is enormous. deed, all the necessaries of life are dearer in Algiers than in Paris. If to this we add, that the natives abhor French government, as well from experience of its injustice as from a feeling of its severity-that the expense of the colony to the mother-country is almost intolerable, and that of this large expenditure a great proportion gets into the hands of the native population, and never returns in any form,* we can hardly come to any other conclusion than this, that their African experiment is not very successful. We speak of it only as a colonial experiment; it may have proved, and be, a good safetyvalve for a turbulent soldiery; it may, like India with us, keep the army in practical discipline; but of all those who are at all acquainted with its condition, we cannot imagine that there is one so sanguine as seriously to entertain the hope of ever seeing it a profitable adjunct to the French empire. We unfeignedly deplore that, from their ignorance of, or inattention to, the first principles of colonisation, the French are thus losing the opportunity of introducing the true blessings of civilised life into regions which have been so long neglected.

Mr. Borrer's book is a single volume, and without any luxury of illustration. We can honestly commend it as presenting much to amuse, much to interest, and very much to instruct a reader, upon the subject of the French in Africa, and the ways and manners of the native tribes.

No more convincing proof of the impossibility of squaring the question of foreign politics by the application of home rules was ever presented, than the case of Italy at this moment. Our journals, admirably edited and well-informed as they are, exhibit this difficulty daily; and while we see Conservatives apologising, on the one hand, for the natural errors of dynastic origin, we find Liberals deploring the casual excesses of those too long withheld from the benefit of free institutions.

The simple truth is, that, not content with fitting every foreign land with a constitution, trial by jury, freedom of the press, and other like privileges, in our thorough-going John Bullism, we must insist on marshalling the political forces into Whig and Tory. We organise the contending factions after home models, and never rest content till we have discovered certain analogies with our Cobdens and O'Connors, as though the very scheme of a free government should necessarily include every adventitious person and occurrence we see among ourselves.

So long as we occupied ourselves with French politics, as they existed under the late reign, the task was tolerably easy. The leading men in the French chamber made no scruple in avowing this imitation of the working of the English constitution, and imperceptibly glided into the forms of party, which in many respects resembled our own; and although the shades of opinion in the Chamber were more varied than in the House of Commons, two great prevailing colours predistinguished themselves in the prism, and the party of the crown and the opposition were as well

marked as ever we saw them at home.

In Italy, however, such an application was impossible. Neither the monarchies nor the people of the peninsula had any analogy with what is observable elsewhere. The great camps of rival parties could not exist without public opinion, and how could there be public opinion without

its exponent, an able and independent press? It is true that for several years back a party professing strong democratic opinions had

spread through every state of the peninsula, exhibiting itself with more or less boldness, according to the freedom permitted in each particular government. This party by degrees assumed the garb of nationality, and on the death of the late Pope, and the acces sion of the present, took the field by an open denunciation of the Austrian rule in Lombardy. Too weak to assail the strongholds of monarchy at once, they began by a movement well calculated to enlist national sympathies, and elicit expressions of opinion favourable to the cause they advocated. A revolt in Piedmont, or in Naples, in Tuscany, or the States of the Church, would at once have called for Aus trian intervention to suppress it. But a rising in Lombardy-a resistance to the dominion of the "stranger," was certain to call into the field sections of every party disposed to Liberal opinions. The Italian princes anticipated the rich spoil of a partitioned territory, and the removal beyond the Alps of a haughty and unbending neighbour; the trading classes were flattered with the hopes of an untrammelled commerce from the Gulf of Genoa to the Adriatic; while the people were led into a dream of national greatness, which should restore Italy to the rank she once held amongst the nations.

It is undeniable that there were many grievances to allege against the Austrian rule in Lombardy-some of them to be explained by the not too satisfactory excuse of expediency; others not even so defensible.

To hold in subjection any country where the masses are indisposed to the governing power, and rendered inimical either by differences of religion or nationality, will always imply a system of which repression forms a part; nor are concessions, in such circumstances, attended with the same success as elsewhere-they are either regarded as late and tardy acts of

long-denied justice, or, worse still, victories won from a weakened and declining power.

This was strikingly the case in Lombardy. The cabinet of Vienna, not confident enough to appeal to the nation by an organised system of free institutions, sought a species of compromise, by promoting to places of trust in the administration, many Italians of rank and influence. They fancied that the acceptance of office and emolument had enlisted these men in the cause, and secured their fidelity. In this, however, they were deceived the officials either lost all influence with their countrymen, or regained it by the disgraceful alternative of being traitors to their benefactors.

Each concession of the Austrian government was used as an agency for weakening the Imperial power. Thus the scientific congresses became debating clubs of political subjects, and the very ceremonies that welcomed a new archbishop at Milan, were converted into a display of feel. ing inimical to the government. These are but two from what might be swelled into a long catalogue of similar grievances.

But let any one conceive the details of an administration carried on by men personally and deeply interested in its ruin, anxious to conceal its good and develop all its bad-thwarting, by every means in their power, all conciliatory efforts of the government, and exhibiting, in the most odious light, any act of necessary severity. Let any one picture to himself the working of such a system, aided by all the subtlety of the Italian character, and he will readily acknowledge that the faults of Austrian rule in Lombardy were far more likely to be harshly judged, than appreciated with any leanings to mercy.

That the material prosperity of the country attained a very high standard under German domination, the most violent patriot does not attempt to deny. No city of all Italy could compare with Milan but one short year ago. The splendour of its equipages, the elegance and luxury of its shops, the style of the private residences, the dress and general appearance of its inhabitants, reminded the stranger at once of London and Paris. The same movement in the crowded thorough

fares the businesslike look of everyone-the appearance of purpose, so very different from the wearisome las situde so observable in other Italian capitals, struck even the least observing visitor. You looked about you in vain for the evidences of a despotism whose prerogative is to crush enterprise and destroy commerce. You saw no other sign of a foreign rule than the white uniform of some Austrian grenadier, or the laced boot of a Hungarian sentinel. It is true that in society no admixture of the two races ever occurred. To be received and welcomed by the German was to be shunned and avoided by the Italian. The entrance of an Austrian gentleman into a lady's box at the opera—a rare case, most unquestionably-would be the signal for every Italian to leave it. But in all the signs of external well-doing-in that activity that bespeaks successful industry and rewarding labour, Milan was pre-eminent. The peace of the city was committed to a police, which to strangers' eyes certainly offered nothing obtrusive or impertinent. The most unfrequented quarters were safe at every hour of the night; the foot-passenger might traverse the city from the Como gate to the Corso without the slightest danger of molestation. Property was no less safe than person; in fact, in comparison with its amount of population, Milan might have challenged any city of Europe for the excellence of its internal administration.

Such was the condition of Milan at the close of the year 1847, when the first measures of the new Pope began to excite the hopes of that party who had long determined that the battle of democracy should be fought on the plain of Lombardy.

It was well known to every influential Italian of the Milanese that Austria had at last decided on making large and important concessions to her Italian subjects. The necessity of yielding at home, which the constitution then announced by the king of Prussia manifested, compelled also the adoption of similar measures for the Lombard kingdom. This was no secret; the theme was discussed in every café and in every salon, and men canvassed openly the nature and extent of the coming reforms. The habitual slowness of Austria had protracted the time for making these concessions—the