THE SEAT OF WAR IN THE EAST. I. AFGHANISTAN. continuing the debate for a longer period, which often. happens at the end of a session. If many speakers desire to offer their remarks, adjournments take place from day to day; and the same subject may be the sole public matter in dispute for many weeks. But the other public topics are not neglected meanwhile; for the committees sit in the morning and the evening, and arrange and forward those bills which are not the subject of debate. Almost all the members are engaged the whole day, during the session, either in attending committees, or the debates of the house. It may naturally be supposed, that the city or town where the legislative meetings of the nation are held, must derive an importance from this circumstance, independent of any other; for the senators and representatives from every part of the United States dwell there during the continuance of the session, (which begins early in December, and lasts generally nearly six months.) Washington derives much of its importance from this circumstance, and also much from the excellent plan in which it is built. The streets are arranged in a very singular manner: with the exception of fifteen, the whole of them are arranged due north and south, or east and west, crossing one another at right angles. The fifteen excepted from this rule, point in a direct line towards the fifteen principal states of the republic; the Capitol and the president's house being the points from whence they emanate towards every side of the city. None of the streets are less than ninety feet broad, and one of them, Pennsylvania-street, is a hundred and sixty feet wide, and a mile in length, and reaches from the Capitol to the president's house. We may observe, in concluding this paper, that as it was found inconvenient to have no fixed meridian line in North America, from which to measure longitudes, a line drawn through the centre of the Capitol at Washington has been made the first meridian for this purpose; and exact calculations have been made of the longitudinal distance from thence to the meridian of Greenwich, from which English reckonings are made. ! Ir there were any real difficulty in determining the best means of developing the body and preventing deformity, the comparison of savage with civilized man would at once remove it. An intelligent old author, in describing the Caribs of 170 years ago, says, in a tone of regret, “They do not swaddle their infants, but leave them to tumble about at liberty in their little hammocks, or on beds of leaves, spread on the earth in a corner of their huts, and NEVERTHELESS their limbs do not become crooked, and their whole body is perfectly well made!" And again, "ALTHOUGH the little creatures are left to roll about on the ground in a state of nudity, they NEVERTHELESS grow marvellously well, and most of them become so robust as to be able to walk without support at six months old." The naïveté of this expression of surprise at the little Caribs growing MARVELLOUSLY WELL with the assistance of Nature alone, and without the use of stays and bandages, imported from Europe, is extremely amusing, and shows to what extent prejudice and custom, once established, will continue to prevail, even where we have before our eyes the strongest evidence of their being hurtful. Our excellent author seems never to have allowed the thought to enter his head, that the Europeans produced the deformity by means of swaddling and bandages, and that the Caribs escaped it, simply by avoiding its causes, and giving liberty to both body and limbs.-COMBE. LABOUR is become necessary to us, not only because we need it for making provisions for our life, but even to ease the labour of our rest, there being no greater tediousness of spirit in the world than want of employment and an inactive life.-JEREMY TAYLOR. THE various tracts of country which are already, or may yet become, the theatre of a war between the Anglo-Indian army, and that of native tribes, are of a highly diversified character. Mountains, whose summits are the highest discovered land in the world; sandy deserts, surrounding flourishing towns and busy populations, with extensive remains of the architectural grandeur and magnificence of ancient nations, combine to render the country between Hindùstan and Persia one possessing the highest claims to attention and interest. The principal encampment of the British army is at present on the banks of a tributary stream of the Indus, called the Sutledge, in Punjab, a kingdom which, with the Sinde, or Indian Delta, forms part of the western limit of British India. The territory in dispute, however, is Cabùl, or that portion of Afghanistan the furthest from the Anglo-Indian Empire. Hence, should the war be continued, the following places will be involved in it. 1st. The country of the Afghans, which includes Cabùl; 2nd. Beloochistan; 3rd. Sinde; 4th. Punjab; through which two last places flows the river Indus. Of these districts it is our purpose to give a rapid topographical sketch, and then afford some account of the people who inhabit them. AFGHANISTAN is divided almost solely according to the tribes distributed over it. The most powerful of these are the Berdooranees, the Ghilgies, and the Dooraunees. The whole territory is enclosed between that western portion of the immense Himalaya chain which is called Hindoo Koosh, and rising above Cabùl is its northern boundary, dividing it from Bokhara; the river Indus limits the Afghan country on the east, the Arabian sea on the south, and on the west it is divided from the Persian empire by a winding line, drawn along the desert boundaries of Kerman and Khorassan. The whole country may be shortly aescribed as consisting of mountains, rapid rivers, and high tablelands, in the north,-of sandy and salt deserts on the south. The mountains which, continuing in one unbroken chain, form the whole of its northern boundary, have no parallel in any other region of the globe. Their summits are covered with perpetual snow, though only in the thirty-fourth degree of latitude; the most elevated of them which has yet been observed rising to a height of 20,593 feet. The whole of this stupendous range has not been as yet explored; and it is thought that the same chain extends withElburz, and thus joins the Taurus and Russian Cauout interruption westward, till it links with Mount casus. Herat is the finest and most populous city in this district. It is situated on an elevated, extensive, and fertile plain, and is the emporium of trade between Persia and the east, which is chiefly carried on by 10,000 Hebrews and 600 Hindoos, who inhabit the city. It is well fortified, as recent events have proved; having resisted with effect the efforts of a Russo-Persian army to besiege it. THE PROVINCE OF CABUL is chiefly occupied by the Afghan tribe of the Ghilgies, though the Dooraunees are masters of the country. The City of Cabùl is the capital of all Afghanistan, and is reckoned one of the most delightful in the world. It is situated on a large well-watered plain, 6000 feet above the level of the sea, over which are scattered innumerable villages, the Cabul river and three rivulets running through it. Cabùl is a busy bustling city, and boasts of a bazaar almost unrivalled, for it contains no fewer than 2000 shops. The houses are mostly built of wood, on account of frequent earthquakes. The gardens surrounding the city produce the most delicious fruits, which are exported, chiefly to India. The town is encompassed on three sides by hills, and on one of these is the tomb of the emperor Baber, adorned with large beds of flowers, and commanding a noble prospect. On another eminence is the palace of Dost Mohammed Khan, which is also delightfully situated. The population of Cabùl has been estimated at 60,000 souls. East of Cabùl is an almost circular plain, about thirty miles in diameter, surrounded by the Hindoo Koosh and Soliman mountains, on every side except to the east, where there is an opening of fifteen miles in width. The beauty and fertility of this plain can hardly be exceeded: well watered, it always presents a verdant aspect; and being preserved in a high state of cultivation, produces a variety of choice fruits. PESHAWUR, the capital of Cabùl previous to its late dismemberment, is placed in this valley; it has a circumference of five miles, and was at one time the most considerable town of Afghanistan. Recently, however, it has much declined; and out of 100,000 inhabitants, which were formerly collected within its walls, only 50,000 remain. The varied costumes which greet the eye of the traveller in the streets of Peshawur, have been likened to a masquerade; for the natives of the surrounding mountains mingled with those of Persia, India, and Tartary, present, in their dresses, a motley contrast, which is not the less picturesque. The houses are built of brick, and are about three stories high; the streets are narrow and slippery, but paved, and have a gutter in the centre. During the spring a portion of Peshawur is flooded, which, at that season, renders it an unwholesome residence. But the most celebrated of the cities of Cabùl is GHIZNI, once the proud capital of an empire that reached from the Tigris to the Ganges. In this city Mohammed, the conqueror of India, placed his throne, and reared the most splendid buildings in Asia; remains of which still bear testimony of former splendour. The most remarkable of these are two lofty minarets, and the tomb of Mohammed. The tombstone is of white marble, and on it is placed the mace of the conqueror, which is so heavy that few men can wield it. Mohammedan priests are still maintained there to read the Koran over the grave. The present city is but a wreck of the former one. All to be learnt about it is,-that its streets are dark and narrow; the houses, of which there are only 1500, small; and the bazaars by no means spacious. BAMEEAN, on the northern slope of the mountains, and bordering on Tartary, is a city cut out of a rock, whose cavern abodes are scattered over a surface of eight miles. It contains some remarkable temples with colossal idols. From Ghizni, one of the most ancient oriental cities, we turn to one of the most modern, CANDAHAR, which, although erected on the site of a town built by Alexander the Great, dates its present origin at no earlier period than 1754, when it was rebuilt by Ahmed Shah, who made it the seat of government, which was removed to Cabùl by Timour Shah, in 1774. Unlike the plan of many eastern towns, that of Candahar is perfectly regular, and is oblong in shape. In the centre there is a circular range of buildings, fifty yards in diameter, surmounted by a large dome; this is the public market-place, and is called the Choursoo. Four principal streets are fifty yards in width, all lined with shops, and meet in the Choursoo, their other extremities reaching to the gates of the city. All the smaller streets cross the principal ones at right angles, and are perfectly straight, but narrow, and have a canal running through each of them. The tomb of Ahmed Shah, covered by a gilt cupola, stands near the king's palace, and is held as a sacred asylum, the king himself not daring to take a criminal from it. Though the inhabitants of Candahar are Afghans, they have conformed to the habits of the Persians. The south-east corner of the kingdom of Cabùl is occupied by the tribe called Cankers; they are peaceable, and do not possess the predatory propensities of their neighbours. The south-west portion of this country forms the province of SEISTAN, traversed by the river Helmund. Persian stories and songs celebrate this district as one of the finest regions of the East; but at the present time it exhibits a sad reverse. With the exception of a narrow belt along the banks of the river, it consists entirely of sandy plains, over which a few Afghan and Belooch shepherds occasionally drive their flocks. But the traveller readily believes the extravagant praises bestowed upon Seistan by eastern poets, when, at short intervals, he comes upon the remains of extensive temples and the ruins of superb palaces, but which aptly exemplify the scriptural parable of the folly of building houses upon sand. The province is surrounded on every side by those vast deserts that stretch from the Eastern frontiers of Persia; and the wind blowing from thence during a great part of the year, brings with it clouds of light shifting sand, which convert the fields into an arid waste, and gradually bury beneath them gardens, villages, and the monuments of ancient grandeur scattered over the plains. The city of Seistan and the town of Dooshak are situated in this district. The southern part of the Cabùl territory is composed of a desert of red moving sand, so light and minute as to be almost impalpable; the action of the wind forms it into wall-like ridges of peculiar structure;-one side slopes gradually away, but the other rises perpendicularly, like a brick wall, to a considerable height, and which the traveller must be at the pains to scale before he can pursue his journey. ALL to whom want is terrible, upon whatever principle, ought to think themselves obliged to learn the sage maxims of our parsimonious ancestors, and attain the salutary arts of contracting expense; for without economy none can be rich, and with it few can be poor. The mere power of saving what is already in our hands must be of easy acquisition to every mind; and, as the example of Lord Bacon may show that the highest intellect cannot safely neglect it, a thousand instances every day prove that the humblest may practise it with success.--The Rambler. 33 THE VALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT. fering induced by the imputation of the sins of a whole world, and the wrath of an offended God The Mount of Olives is barren and sombre in its appearance: here and there a few black and withered vines may be seen on its sides; there are also several tufts of stunted olive-trees, while ruins of chapels, oratories, and mosques, increase the air of desolation with which these scenes are marked. Among the tombs of the valley of Jehoshaphat, there is one of extraordinary size, which is called "the sepulchre of the Blessed Virgin." It is the largest of all the caves in the vicinity of Jerusalem, and was doubtless hewn out for the burial of some person of distinguished rank, or of high estimation among the people. The traveller Pococke thinks it likely to have been the burial-place of Melisendis, queen of Jerusalem; the authorities for assigning it to the Virgin Mary are very questionable, and it appears improbable that the early Christians should have had it in their power to erect so magnificent à tomb to her memory. In this cave the Christian sects have each an altar, and even the Turks have an oratory. There are also appropriate chapels in the same cave, to mark the supposed tombs of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and of her parents, Joachim and Anna. The descent to the cave is by a flight of fifty marble steps, each step being twenty feet wide. These are supposed by Dr. Clarke to be of equal antiquity with the cave itself, though no era can be fixed on with certainty as the date of their construction. There are other sepulchres, said to be those of Jehoshaphat, Absalom, St. James, Zachariah, &c., some of them adorned by columns, which appear to support the edifice, but are in fact hewn out from the solid rock into architectural forms. That of Absalom exhibits twenty-four semi-columns of the Doric order, not fluted; six on each front of the monument. sepulchre of Jehoshaphat, said to have been prepared hon by order of that king, as the place of his own intershment, and from which the valley takes its name, is a grot, the door of which is finely executed, and is its chief ornament.. THIS ancient burying-place of the Jewish people The aspect of the valley is sad and desolate: the brook Cedron flows through it from north to south, and shows, by the dull red tint it assumes, that it has partaken of the nature of the soil over which it passes. The name of this brook, and of the neighbouring Mount of Olives, recall to mind the most touching event of all which are recorded in the sacred writings, viz., the bitter suffering and anguish of soul endured by the Saviour of men on the night previous to his crucifixion, an anguish little to be understood by those who, not being partakers of his sinless nature, cannot possibly conceive of the extent of suf The Across the brook Cedron is a bridge, of a single arch, called St. Stephen's, which is, however, unnecessary during the greater part of the year; for the Cedron dries up, and leaves a perfectly dry channel, excepting after the fall of heavy rains. The barrenness of the whole scene, the silence of the neighbouring city of Jerusalem, the ruinous state of the tombs, with the remembrances connected with this spot, are indeed sufficient to excite a melancholy interest in the valley of Jehoshaphat. THE general desire for education, and the general diffusion the habits of the mass of the people. And though it has of it, is working, and partly has worked, a great change in been our lot to witness some of the inconveniences necessarily arising from the transition state, where gross ignorance has been superseded by a somewhat too rapid communica tion of instruction, dazzling the mind, perhaps, rather than enlightening it, yet every day removes something of this evil. Presumption and self-sufficiency are sobered down by become less arrogant in proportion as they better informed. the acquirement of useful knowledge, and men's minds There cannot be a doubt, therefore, but that any evils which may have arisen from opening the flood-gates of education, if I may so say, will quickly flow away, and that a clear and copious stream will succeed, fertilizing the heretofore barren intellect with its wholesome and perrennial waters.-BISHOP RYDER. THE CHARLES THE FIFTH, EMPEROR OF GERMANY. HOUSE AT GHENT, WHEREIN CHARLES THE FIFTH WAS BORN.. father, Ferdinand, usurped the regency of Castile; but the nobles compelled him to resign it. The administration was given to Philip, as guardian to his son Charles; but Philip soon dying, Ferdinand became regent; on the death of whom, in 1516, Charles assumed the title of king of Spain, and left the management of this kingdom to the celebrated Cardinal Ximenes, a man to whom Charles owed much of his celebrity. In 1519, Maximilian died, and Charles was elected emperor, at Frankfort. He quitted Spain to take possession of his new dignity, for which he had to contend with Francis the First, king of France. Charles was crowned emperor at Aix-laChapelle, with great pomp. This great prince, warrior, and politician, was born at Ghent, on the 24th of February, 1500. By a remarkable combination of circumstances, an inheritance was prepared for this prince of vast extent and power. Through his father, Philip the handsome, he was heir to the archduchy of Austria, the duchy of Burgundy, and the earldom of Flanders: through his mother, Joanna, queen of Castile, he became the presumptive heir of the Spanish crown, and the extensive countries in the western hemisphere, recently It would be impossible for us, in the brief space annexed to it by the discoveries of Columbus. After which is allotted to us, to supply even a sketch of the the death of his grandmother, Isabella, his grand-life of this extraordinary man: all we can hope to do VOL. XV. 464 with slighter and more fantastic works of mechanism; in fashioning puppets, which by means of concealed springs, mimicked the actions of men, to the amazement of the ignorant monks, who, observing movements which they could not comprehend, either distrusted their own senses, or suspected Charles and Turriano of communication with invisible powers. Charles was particularly curious with regard to the construction of clocks and watches; and being unable, after repeated trials, to bring any two of them to go exactly alike, he reflected, it is said, with a mixture of surprise and regret, on his own folly in having once bestowed so much time and labour on the more vain attempt to bring mankind to a precise uniformity of sentiment concerning the profound and mysterious doctrines of religion. Robertson, the admirable historian of the reign of this emperor, thus speaks of his more serious occupations: is to excite the reader's attention to a period of history which includes so many great events, affecting the whole human race. The greatest of all is, perhaps, the Reformation, which had been begun shortly before Charles's reign, by Martin Luther, an Augustinian friar; and after the coronation of Charles, a diet was convoked at Worms, to deliberate on the religious disputes then agitating Germany. Charles is said to have assisted the Reformation; but the more probable account is that he found his interest in the divisions which the Lutheran principles occasioned, and he never failed to take advantage of them, sometimes against France, sometimes against the pope, and at other times against the empire itself. On one occasion the army of Charles sacked Rome and took the pope prisoner; and the cruelties exercised by his soldiers are said to have exceeded those committed at the downfall of ancient Rome, by the barbarians of the north. Yet the emperor, with affected sorrow and piety,-stating, too, that he warred against the temporal not the spiritual pope, went into mourning on account of this conquest; forbade the ringing of the bells; commanded processions to be made, and prayers to be offered up for the deliverance of the pope, his own prisoner! He also took Francis the First prisoner, at the battle of Pavia, and sold him his liberty on very hard terms; yet, when the people of Ghent subsequently revolted, and Charles asked permission to pass through the domi-life, and standing on the confines of a future world; either nions of France, it was granted; and though the generous Francis thus had his enemy in his power, yet he received and attended him with pomp and magnificence. Charles fought, during his reign, about sixty battles, in most of which he remained victor, Not content with his vast possessions, he is supposed, with some reason, to have aspired at universal empire. He was also a great traveller, and made fifty different journeys and voyages into Germany, Spain, Italy, Flanders, France, England, and Africa. As age crept upon him, fortune did not seem to continue to favour his enterprises. So that, feeling moreover, unfitted by a tormenting sickness for continuing to hold the reigns of government with steadiness, or to guide them with address, this great, powerful, and ambitious ruler, apparently weary and dissatisfied with the littleness of his own greatness, assembled the several councils of the Grandees of Spain, and of the States; and before them, after a long and solemn speech, detailing the events of his life and the course of his own conduct, he resigned all his dominions to his brother Ferdinand and his son Philip; and retreated to the monastery of Saint Justus, near Placentia, in Estremadura. But in what manner soever Charles disposed of the rest of his time, he constantly reserved a considerable portion of it for religious exercises. He regularly attended divine evening; he took great pleasure in reading books of devoservice in the chapel of the monastery every morning and tion, particularly the works of St. Augustine and St. Bernard; and conversed much with his confessor and the prior of the monastery on pious subjects. Thus did Charles pass the first year of his retreat, in a manner not unbecoming a man perfectly disengaged from the affairs of the present in innocent amusements, which soothed his pains, and relieved a mind worn out with excessive application to business, or in devout occupations, which he deemed necessary in preparing for another state. But about six months before his death, the gout, after a longer intermission than usual, returned with a proportional increase of violence. His shattered constitution had not vigour his mind as much as his body, and from this period we enough remaining to withstand such a shock. It enfeebled hardly discern any traces of that sound and masculine understanding which distinguished Charles among his contemporaries. An illiberal and timid superstition depressed his spirit. He had no relish for amusements of any kind. He endeavoured to conform in his manner of living to all the rigour of monastic austerity, He desired no other society but that of monks, and was almost continually employed with them in chaunting the hymns of the missal. As an expiation for his sins, he gave himself the discipline in secret with such severity, that the whip of cords which he employed as the instrument of his punishment, was found after his these acts of mortification, which, however severe, were not decease tinged with his blood. Nor was he satisfied with unexampled. The timorous and distrustful solitude which always accompanies superstition, still continued to disquiet him, and, depreciating all the devout exercises in which he had hitherto been engaged, prompted him to aim at something extraordinary, at some new and singular act of piety, that would display his zeal, and merit the favour of heaven. The act on which he fixed was as wild and uncommon as In this retreat, Charles occupied himself with in- ordered fancy. He resolved to celebrate his own obsequies any that superstition ever suggested to a weak and disnocent amusements and religious exercises. Some- before his death. He ordered his tomb to be erected in the times he cultivated the plants in his garden; and at chapel of the monastery. His domestics marched thither other times he rode out on a little horse, the only one in funeral procession, with black tapers in their hands, that he kept, attended by a single servant on foot. He himself followed in his shroud. He was laid in his When his infirmities confined him to his apartment, chaunted, and Charles joined in the prayers which were coffin with much solemnity. The service for the dead was and deprived him of corporeal exercises, he was accusoffered up for the rest of his soul, mingling his tears with tomed to admit a few gentlemen who lived near the those which his attendants shed, as if they had been celemonastery to visit him, whom he entertained familiarly brating a real funeral. The ceremony closed with sprinkat his table; or he devoted a portion of his time to ling holy water on the coffin in the usual form; and all the study of mechanical principles, and the application Then Charles rose out of the coffin, and withdrew to his the assistants retiring, the doors of the chapel were shut. of them to the construction of curious machines. Such was his taste for these works, that he engaged singular solemnity was calculated to inspire. But either apartment, full of those awful sentiments which such a Turriano, an ingenious artist of the time, to reside in the fatiguing length of the ceremony, or the impression the monastery. They worked together in constructing which the image of death left on his mind, affected him models of useful machines, and experimenting on so much, that next day he was seized with a fever. His their respective powers; and it is stated that the ideas feeble frame could not long resist its violence, and he exof the monarch often assisted or perfected the inven-pired on the 21st of September, 1558, after a life of fiftytions of the artist. He was also pleased, at times, eight years, six months, and twenty-five days. |