whose wisdom had foreseen and provided against the minutest difficulties, whose generosity had furnished him with the amplest resources. What then could now be apprehended in the future? When were ever such enormous means applied to any undertaking, however vast or difficult, and here what difficulties did there remain to overcome?

(To be continued.)

STATE OF SYRIA.

[The following important Letter on the present State of Syria appeared few days ago in the "Morning Herald." It was our intention, in inserting it, to have offered some observations on the present position of Mehemet Ali, and the deleterious effects produced on the whole Turkish Empire, through the maintenance, by our government, of the status quo.]

FROM AN OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT IN THE EAST.

Beyroot, May.

I quitted Egypt under the full impression that never again should I have to witness such an accumulation of absolute misery and wretchedness. Not so, my dear friend. A few days' travelling in Syria convinced me that the same iron rod that has desolated Egypt, that has left nothing but the decrepid and infirm, women without husbands, and infants without fathers, to pine away disconsolate and in want, is also swayed with a mighty and cruel hand in these once fair regions, which now groan under the effects of unheard-of despotism and tyranny.

Mehemet Ali, this vaunted friend of civilization, absorbed in his plans of aggrandizement, and too ambitious to relinquish them on any plea, is totally indifferent to the cries of his distressed people. To maintain his usurpation, and to further his projects he has adopted the same pernicious measures in regard to his people as he has done in regard to his land; he sweeps away every thing having monopolized the military services of all his subjects, capable of being enrolled into his armies, or of manning his navy. The consequence is, that the greatest part of Egypt remained uncultivated, from want of able-bodied men; and the few who have escaped the huntsmen (for in Egypt they hunt down the peasants for conscripts,) are not occupied in tilling their own ground, but that of their lord. The Delta, that blessed land, that never fails to recompence man's industry by the profuseness of her rich returns, notwithstanding the overflowing of the Nile, remains without culture.

With the exception of Cairo and Alexandria, which yet main

tain an appearance of opulence (and this is easily accounted for, they being the abodes of the "Corps Commercial," at whose head is the prince of Egyptian merchants, Mehemet Ali), the eye meets with nothing but a squalid, starving population, living half naked amid filth and mud, and bewailing their hard fate. Yet, strange to say, the scenes that strike the traveller with pity, to find human destiny cast in so hard a lot, to see his own species reduced to a level with brutes, are looked upon with indifference by the Franks. So accustomed are they to such scenes, that they cease to excite their sympathy.

Will it be believed that Syria in so short a time has become the theatre of similar scenes; that her population should have diminished by one fourth; that her ancient and wealthy cities should witness the destruction of their traffic; that their bazaars should cease to be tenanted; that their inhabitants should be dragged away to the army, to become the fresh instruments of further oppression, to deprive the rest of their countrymen of homes which their own hearts must have ached to be torn from, without the hope of ever seeing them again; their families abandoned to penury, and hunger, and cold; their fields to desolation, for the peasants are compelled to work for their master, chiefly, not in cultivating the land, but in assisting at the construction of forts, barracks, and roads, in cutting down trees, and in working at the iron foundries and mines. Even so it is, and, however unsuited their present occupations may be to their pastoral habits, the bastinado and the thong never fail to correct any deficiency or awkwardness in the exercise of their novel professions. Can it be wondered at, then, that Syria, in the short space of only five years, should have undergone such a change?-that she should now resemble a desert? And should the same system be allowed to continue, can it be denied that the resemblance will soon be turned into the reality, a fertile and populous country into a vast and untenanted wilderness?

While I was at Damascus, the fourth conscription took place Never before did I witness such a scene. So soon as the gun was fired, the people, understanding the mournful signal, fled in all

directions. The utmost confusion and disorder prevailed. The soldiers, more like wild beasts than men, committed every possible outrage upon the Damascenes. The old, the blind, and the decrepid inhabitants were lashed together and driven into the castle; but a detailed description of the tumult and cruelty that ensued cannot be contained within the limits of a letter. What tyranny and brutal inhumanity could do was done. Let me add, however, for the information of Englishmen, that the British Consulate was again violated. With an insulting indifference to the name and authority of England, the servants of the consul were taken from him, and, with the rest of the captured inhabitants, were driven to the locust army of the Pasha.

And why all this? That the usurper may maintain his illgotten power-that he may menace the peace of the Sultan's dominions that he may oblige him to strain and exhaust his resources that the weakness of his sovereign, in short, may enable him to revel safely in the success of his avaricious and bloody-minded schemes.

That Europe should remain an unconcerned spectator of the passing events of the East is unaccountable to one unacquainted wtih the policy of its Cabinets. But let humanity have a voice in their councils. She had a voice in the abolition of the slavetrade; why may not she in the abolition of slavery in Syria and Egypt? Do not the suffering inhabitants of these countries form a portion of God's creatures, like ourselves? Why do we, then, the enlightened portion of mankind, regard with indifference, and even with contempt, the degradation and misery that should excite our sympathy, and stimulate us to extend a saving and protecting hand? I fear the principle of oppressing the oppressed and rendering more wretched the miserable, though not openly allowed to exist, neither the matured civilization nor the benevolent tendency of the religion of Europe has been entirely effective to eradicate. Oh! that no less than a Wilberforce should suffice to make Christian men act up to the simple precepts of their religion!

The Syrians, at this moment, with eyes fixed on Christendom,

are in a state of anxious expectation; and to England it is they turn with fond hopes that the humanity of that country will be experienced in their behalf. The late Firman has shown them that their miseries are not regarded with indifference by Englishmen, and they look upon it as the prelude to some more active interference. This ray of hope makes them bless the givers of it, and speak of them in terms that it would make them proud to hear. Still, it is the opinion here of those who are able to appreciate Mehemet Ali's character, that the subtle despot, notwithstanding the feigned submission he is compelled to yield, will find means to evade the injunctions of the Firman. Nay, the long consistency of his conduct a system of gross deception practised upon Europe remains to this moment, I may say, unbroken. The Firman was received by Mehemet Ali submissively enough, as it seemed, but no change in his policy followed, for he forgot to issue orders in observance of it.

I hope our government is really inclined to use the ready means it possesses of humbling this fierce tyrant of the East, of convincing him that his political existence is not so very essential to the preservation of an equilibrium of power in the world. For he has the audacity to imagine that a desire to keep him as a balancing weight in the scale of European power will induce us to tolerate patiently his perpetual infractions of the common rights of man, and his scorn of the laws of nations. I cannot help thinking it is degrading to England to condescend to treat with this cunning Pasha, when a proper sense of indignation for the insults she has received and a sufficient knowledge of his tottering condition should rouse her to seize and drag him to the tribunal of his injured master. I hope I am not too sanguine in joining the Syrians in their belief that the Firman is the herald of some decisive measures already determined upon.

A TRAVELLER.