а 6 mily. Nur Jehan, the black slave, acts as which has passed through her hands to ferash, or carpet-spreader; she does all me, for fear of poison, and she returns the dirty work; spreads the carpets, me the same compliment.” sweeps the rooms, sprinkles the water The ladies will kill Mr Hope for over the court-yard, helps the cook, car having written this part of the book, ries parcels and messages, and, in short, and we shall kill him for having writs is at the call of every one." ten the other parts of it. All this is delightfully naif, and na- There is a subsequent scene, in tural ! One sees so plainly that Zeenab which Hajji is admitted to the andehas not had any one to talk to for run, written with the same spright" these two hours." liness and gossiping pleasantry as the “ As for old Leilah, she is a sort of foregoing. Zeenab has been engaged duenna over the young slaves; she is to cry at a funeral, to which the Khaemployed in the out-of-door service, car- num goes with all the family; and ries on any little affair that the Khanum for which service she is to receive a may have with other harems, and is also black handkerchief, and “to eat sweetsupposed to be a spy upon the actions meats.” Instead of going, she beckons of the doctor. Such as we are, our days Hajji into the anderun to breakfast. are past in peevish disputes, whilst, at By what miracle,' exclaimed I, the same time, two of us are usually have you done this? Where is the Khaleagued in strict friendship, to the exclu num! where are the wornen! And how, sion of the others. At this present mo- if they are not here, shall I escape the ment, I am at open war with the Geor doctor?' gian, who, some time ago, found her good 66 Do not fear,' she repeated again, luck in life had forsaken her, and she in . I have barred all the doors. You must consequence contrived to procure a talis know that our destinies are on the rise, man from a Dervish. She had no sooner and that it was a lucky hour when we obtained it, than, on the very next day, the first saw each other. My rival, the Khanum presented her with a new jacket; Georgian, put it into the Khanum's head this so excited my jealousy, that I also that Leilah, who is a professed weeper made interest with the Dervish to supply at burials, having learned the art in all me with a talisman that should secure me its branches since a child, was a persona good husband. On that very same age absolutely necessary on the present evening I saw you on the terrace-con occasion, and that she ought to go in ceive my happiness !" preference to me, who am a Curd, and We will be crucified if there be not can kuow but little of Persian customs; six Zeenabs in every boarding-school all this, of course, to deprive me of my for five miles round London. black handkerchief, and other advantages. “ But this has established a riyalship Accordingly, I have been left at home; between myself and Shireen, which has and the whole party went off, an hour ended in hatred, and we are now mortal ago, to the house of the deceased.'” enemies; perhaps we may as suddenly be friends again.” That fine perception about the “ black handkerchiet," is worth a milAgreeable variety ! Jion! Zeenab afterwards relates her “ I am now on the most intimate terms with Nur Jehan; and, at my persuasion, markable-exhibiting the customs of life, which is amusing, but not reshe reports to the Khanum every story unfavourable to my rival. Some rare sweet the Yezeedies, a wild Curdish tribe, to which she belonged. Eventually, the meats, with baklava (sweet-cake) made in the royal seraglio, were sent, a few days chief physician makes a present of her ago, from one of the Shah's ladies as a to the Shah ; and Hajji (who, in the present to our mistress; the rats eat a meantime, has become a nasakchi, or great part of them, and we gave out that sub-provost-marshal) is compelled to the Georgian was the culprit, for which witness her execution, for a fault of she received blows on the feet, which which he himself is the author. But Nur Jehan administered. I broke my this scene, which the same pen that mistress's favourite drinking cup, Shireen wrote the story of Euphrosyne, might incurred the blame, and was obliged to have rendered (we should have suppo, supply another. I know that she is sed) almost too fearful for endurance, plotting against me, for she is eternal- has, abstractedly, very little merit; ly closeted with Leilah, who is at pre and, coming from the author of Anassent the confidante of our mistress. I tasius, is a decided failure. take care not' to eat or drink anything Indeed, the latter half of the book consists mainly of matter, very little worthy of a considerable writer. Hajji's adventures as a nasakchi have not a great deal of novelty about them; and the personages are weak into whose association he is thrown. The chief executioner, for instance, is a dull fellow; and the attack (vol. II. p. 272) by two Russian soldiers upon five hundred Turkish horse, should be authenticated. The subsequent business, in which Hajji becomes a mollah, (priest,) with the attack upon the Armenians, tends to almost nothing. The episodes, too, are in no instance fortunate. The story of Yusuf and Mariam is tedious. The adventures of the Dervises few persons will get through; and the legend of "The Baked Head" is a weak imitation of the little Hunchback of the Arabian Nights. The hero subsequently runs, during the whole of the last volume, through a round of incoherent, and often carelessly related adventures. He becomes a merchant, and that is not entertaining; marries, and is divorced again; writes accounts of the Europeans and their customs, which are puerile; and, at last, just as he is appointed secretary-in-chief to the Persian English embassy in Persia, (our supposed translator,) stops short, and addresses the reader. Profiting by the example of the Persian story-tellers, he pauses in his tale at the most interesting point, and says to the public, "Give me en couragement, and I will tell you more. You shall be informed how Hajji Baba accompanied a great ambassador to England; of their adventures by sea and land; of all he saw and all he remarked; aud of what happened to him on his return to Persia. But, in case," he adds, like the third Dervise, (a personage in the tale,) "he should find that he has not yet acquired the art of leading on the attention of the curious, he will never venture to appear again before the world, until he has gained the necessary experience to ensure success." Now, the author of Anastasius may command encouragement in abundance to do anything else; but he shall have no encouragement from us to continue the history of Hajji Baba. An Oriental gentleman, who can neither fight VOL. XV. nor make love, will never do to buckle three more volumes upon the back of. Besides, we have already got some specimen of Hajji's talent for describing European peculiarities; and, from what we see, we should say most decidedly, Let us on that head have no more. All the business about the vaccination-and the doctor's desire to dissect dead bodies-" Boonapoort," the East India "Coompani," and the European constitutions, is, to speak the truth plainly, very wretched stuff indeed. And we say this with the less hesitation to Mr Hope, because we bave expressed our unfeigned admiration of his former work. It should seem that he can do well; and if so, there is no excuse for him when he does miserably ill. Let us guard ourselves against being mistaken. Hajji Baba may be read; and there are, as our extracts will prove, some good things in it. But, as a whole, it is tiresome, incoherent, and full of " damnable iteration." Combats-caravans - reviews-palaces— processions-repeating themselves over and over again—and many of them repetitions, and weak repetitions, of what we have had, in strength, from Mr Hope before. Seriously, Hajji Baba should be cashiered forthwith. As far as the public is concerned, the journey of the "pilgrim" should be at an end. And, indeed, England to be described by any foreigner, is a subject just now not the most promising. For the difference between Mr Hope's last work and his present one, it would be very difficult to account; but certainly, if he writes again, let him at least trust freely to his own conceptions. The present book has none of the eloquence or poetic feeling, very little of the wit, and still less of the fine taste, which distinguished the former in so eminent a degree. Of Anastasius, one would say, that it seemed to have been written by some mighty hand, from a store, full, almost to overflowing, with rich and curious material; of Hajji Baba, that some imitator, of very little comparative force indeed, had picked up the remnant of the rifled note-book, and brought it to market in the best shape that he was able. H LETTER FROM SAMPSON STANDFAST, ESQ. TO CHRISTOPHER NORTH, ESQ. а SIR, the individuals to whom I have advertTHE Session of Parliament seems ed, because I believed their schemes likely to be ushered in by circumstan- to threaten the State with ruin; but ces, alike happy and extraordinary. At when I now glance at them, I should, home, agricultural distress has vanish- if I were addicted to weeping, shed ed; reform, even as a term, has become tears over their wretchedness. If they obsolete; faction has been disarmed by could be relieved by legislative enactthe scorn of “the people," and all is un- ments, I would actually sign a petition clouded prosperity and peace. Abroad, to Parliament in their behalf; and if the demon of revolution has been again a subscription could serve them, I prosmote to the earth, and its followers test I would put down five pounds only exist to be derided for their mad- with the utmost alacrity. In truth, ness and imbecility. Fate, which has the sole object of my present commubeen prodigal of its favours so long to nication is, to furnish the means for party spirit, seems now resolved to preserving them from total annihilaplace public affairs above its reach, and tion. to decree, that the Ministry and Oppo- These truly unfortunate and unsition shall pass, at least one session, happy persons are well aware that they without even a pretext for quarrel and must have matter for Parliamentary combat. motions, or lose their political being; Transcendently beneficial as this and that all their old subjects-reform, state of things is to the nation at large, public distress, foreign policy, finance, there are those to whom it is tran- alteration of the criminal laws, &c. &c. scendently disastrous. There is a class --are now utterly unserviceable. I in the State which it plunges into the here tender to them an entirely new extreme of loss, and distress, and hope- set of Parliamentary motions. If they lessness. I cannot conceive any situa- are wise men, they will eagerly accept tion more truly pitiable than that in my offering; and if they are grateful which the brilliant aspect of public men, they will, in due season, honour affairs places the heads of Opposition, me with a statue as their saviour. from Grey, down to Wilson. Out of In the first place, let Earl Grey in doors, their general principles are cover- the Lords, and Mr Tierney in the ed with contempt and ridicule, and the Commons, move that a committee be few followers they retain will not suffer appointed to ascertain precisely the them to open their lips; and in Parlia- creed and nature of modern Whiggism. ment, they seem to be deprived of every The Committee must be instructed to topic that might enable them to keep point out with the greatest care the difthemselves in sight as public men. ference between the Whiggism of the Without the assistance of the charita- present day, and that of 1688; and to ble and humane, their utter ruin seems state with the utmost exactness, the to be inevitable. distinctions in faith and practice beIt is impossible to withhold our com- tween the Whigs, and the huge Conpassion even from the distress of an tinental faction, which is known by enemy. We forget the dangers which the thousand and one names of, the he has drawn around us, and the inju- Carbonari, Liberals, Revolutionists, ries which we have received at his Constitutionalists, Anarchists, &c. &c. hands; and we only remember that The committee should likewise shew, he rent the veil which concealed our where modern Whiggism agrees with, talents, and lit the blaze of our glory. and where it is hostile to, the British If there had been no Buonaparte, there Constitution; and, as the terms, liberhad been no Wellington.We have ty, despotism, constitutional, patriopassed together through a portion of tic, &c. &c., would probably be often life front to front, if not side by side; employed in the discussion, it ought to we have become familiar from sight give correct definitions of these terms, and contact, if not from sympathy and by way of preface to its report. affection; and we therefore regard the In due time afterwards, let the same fall of a foe with more pity, than that most eminent individuals move for a of a stranger who never wronged us. committee to inquire into the causes of I have long been the bitter enemy of the decline and fall of Whiggism. This men. committee must not fail to notice in punged from the Scriptures which miits report the conduct of the Whigs litate against schism-and that it be during the Peninsular war—at the made high treason for any one to say, peace-on the repeal of the income-tax that the Catholic claims have other during the Manchester and other opponents than the Clergy of the Esriots-on the trial of Queen Caroline tablishment. -towards Carlile and other blasphe- Let Mr Tierney, in a most pathemers at home, and the Continental tic speech, move that it is in the highdeists and traitors, &c. &c.; and it est degree cruel, unconstitutional, and must be careful to give a just descrip- tyrannical, to suffer the clamourers tion of the present Whigs, touching for office to sink into their graves, their abilities and acquirements—their without permitting them to have more character as honest men and states- than a trifling taste of it. It will be alike beneficial to Sir That the long and arduous labours James Mackintosh and his party, if of these committees may be in some he can carry a resolution to this effect: degree shortened and simplified, let -A writer will be an impartial histhe following motions be made by the torian, in proportion as he is a bigotted individuals to whom I assign them. political partizan. The 'despot Buo Let Earl Grey, on the behalf of the naparte, the murderer Buonaparte, Whigs as a body, propose a string of the treaty-violator Buonaparte, the resolutions for the adoption of the enslaver of the Continent Buonaparte, Lords, purporting that the British con- was a paragon, as a man and a Sóvestitution, though apparently a monar- reign, and his memory ought to be chy, is in intent and essence a repub- revered by every friend of humanity lic—that all the powers, duties, and and freedom. It is highly expedient privileges which it assigns to the King that this country do forth with erect a and the Aristocracy, are mere names, monument to the memory of that beand that it is highly unconstitution- nefactor to mankind, Napoleon Buoal to regard them as anything else; naparte. Crime will be restrained by and that, as-the Constitution in spirit mildness of punishment, and vice verand working means the Democracy to 8a. Imprison a murderer for a month, constitute the nation, and a faction, and you purge the nation of murderdomineering alike over King and peo- ers ; hang him, and you make them ple, to constitute the Government, it is abound. in the highest degree unconstitutional Be it Lord John Russell's care to to believe that factions ought not to move, that a day-labourer from every possess despotic power, or that they town and village in the nation be sumcan commit wrong—and that all who moned to the bar of the House of dissent from this are enemies of the Commons, to be examined with regard Constitution. to his proficiency in political and other Let the same noble person, on his learning. If such labourers answer, own personal account, move the Peers as in all probability they will, that to resolve, that no man is qualified to be they believe the Constitution to be the Prime-Minister of this great nation, some strange animal brought over-sea whose political reasonings and predic - the House of Commons to be a pubtions have not been through life falsi- lic alms-house-the House of Peers, fied by events-who has not constant to be the place at which Pears are rely studied to render inflammatory and tailed to the Cockneys, &c. &c., let turbulent times still more inflamma- Lord John move the House to resolve, tory and turbulent-who has not been that such persons are, of all others, the Parliamentary champion of the in- the best qualified for choosing Lawfidels and democrats of the Continent, givers and Statesmen. He must follow - and who has not invariably made this with a set of resolutions to this the weal of his country subservient to effect :- Because a stray copy of Don that of his party, and the propagation Carlos has been seen in a remote norof the tenets of modern Whiggism. thern village, it is the opinion of this Let the Bishop of Norwich move, House that the labouring population that the alliance between Church and of the three kingdoms has become exState be dissolved—that the Catholic ceedingly learned and refined. Falseascendency be substituted for the Pro- hood, sedition, and blasphemy, are testant one-that all passages be ex- knowledge and wisdom; therefore, this a House conscientiously believes that pose as he pleased of both kingdoms? the lower classes have been rendered İs there any loss of honour in publicly extremely knowing and wise, espe- charging Buonaparte with the most cially with regard to State matters, by heinous crimes, and then, through the the mighty increase of Sunday News- mouth of a friend, retracting the papers. A large stake in the weal of charge on the hustings for electionthe State, and a good education, posi- eering purposes--in violating the laws tively disable a man from giving an of a foreign country to save from puhonest and wise vote ; therefore, this nishment a criminal convicted of perHouse is abundantly certain that none jury and treason--in being expelled will ever vote honestly and wisely at the British army-in being publicly elections, except those who are igno- stripped of various foreign orders rant and destitute, whose votes are and in being indebted for bread to a constantly on sale at the rate of a factious subscription? On the bringing guinea, a yard of ribbon, and a couple up of the report, Mr Wilson may of gallons of beer, and who know that move, that all writers be in future Burdett, Hunt, Dr Watson, and Wad- compelled to maintain, that when an dington, are the only men in the nation alien endeavours to force a nation to càpable of forming a government. accept, at the sword's point, a form of This House feels itself bound to de- government, and a set of rulers which clare, that all are evil-disposed persons the vast majority of it abhors, he is who dare to assert that a House of proving himself to be a champion of Commons, chosen exclusively by such national liberty, and an enemy of fovoters, would yield anything but bless- reign interference. ings to the country. This House is Mr Alderman Wood may move, that fully convinced, that it was originally the House do cause it to be notified to formed, not for purposes of national the public, that he is still alive, and good, but that every poor man might in good health-that it is a high crime have a vote to sell at elections, and it and misdemeanour in the mob not to declares it to be highly slavish and un- cheer him as usual—and that, if his constitutional to think otherwise. popularity be not restored forthwith, It will be advisable in Mr H. G. he will commence an action against Bennett to move, that, whenever a the state for the recovery of his legal statement of the misery of criminals is and constitutional property. made to the House, every member be Sir Francis Burdett may move for compelled to shed tears over it; and a committee of discovery to search that every member be ordered to go the records of the House, and report into slight mourning on the transpor- upon the following points. What betation of every convict, and into deep neficial law calls him parent ? Did he mourning at every public execution. ever attempt to carry any such law He may follow it with a resolution, through Parliament? Did he ever instating it to be highly necessary for troduce or support any measure of gepublic good, that honourable members neral utility which had no connection should lose their temper, and make in- with party politics? Has honest conflammatory speeches-that the Tory viction, or party madness, produced press should be destroyed by privilege his violent and disgusting changes of of Parliament—and that he, himself, opinion on Reform? Was he, or was should be regarded, as Hume's friend he not, the parent of radicalism? What and equal. will be his character with historians Mr, late Sir Robert Wilson, may twenty years after his decease? On move for a committee to ascertain how the bringing up of the report, Sir his character stands at present with Francis may move the House to dethe nation. The committee must be clare, that patriotism consists in the instructed to report on the following making of senseless and inflammaparticulars :- Is not Mr Wilson à tory speeches to the multitude,-in greater statesman than Prince Met- the diffusing of hatred towards conternich, and a more able general than stituted authorities,-and, in the conthe Duke of Wellington and was he stantly opposing of all measures calnot warranted in addressing Spain culated to yield public good. and Portugal, as he did, in language Mr Hume must prevail on the House which clearly indicated that he be- to resolve, that the rules of arithmelieved himself to have a right to disa tic, which have been hitherto used |