"You know, Robert, that he isn't able; and how could you go out to that horrid, horrid club, with this on your mind? It shows how little you care for me; but you might have some thoughts for our boy-poor, poor little Robert, what will become of him!" and the unhappy wife and mother wept passionately.

"There, there, Louisa; now you need not take on so. We are not going to be hung, drawn, and quartered, I dare say; and as to going out, what would have been the good of my stopping at home? But I sha'n't go to the club many more times, if it will do you any good to know that. There, now do leave off fretting, love. That can't be of

any use.

But whether of use or not, the wife sobbed and wept; at length, suddenly breaking off, she exclaimed, "I think it is very unnatural and cruel of your father, Robert; but what does he say P"

"Oh, it will do you no good to hear it; all he says is, that he reckons I have had my share, and he means to keep to his word-that's about all."

""Tis Rebecca Kennet's doings, that's what it is," said Lonisa; "'tis just like her-so scheming and artful, and revengeful too. Why don't you act like a man, and go and see after your rights? A pretty thing it is, I think, for you to be kept away from your natural home, and to have your father's ear poisoned every day against you, by a vile"

:

Hold, hold, Louisa there-least said will be soonest mended about that. I tell you, man or no man, I am not going to that place. If father wants to see me he may come here again, only he must come pretty soon to find us here. And as to Rebecca Kennet, I say you know nothing about my cousin, and I do. You have no right to call her scheming, and artful, and revengeful; and I won't hear her spoken of so. I tell you, and you know that as well as I do, that it was she got me the five hundred pounds to start with; and it was she, too, that persuaded my father to come and see us when he did; and I must say, Louisa, that you didn't behave to him in such a way, when he did come, as to make him want to come again in a hurry. And I would venture anything, that if Rebecca knew we were in want of help now, she wouldn't leave a stone unturned to get it for us. There I have never said so much to you about my cousin before, and you can make what you like of it; but if I did use her badly once, poor girl, you know how that was; and I won't stand by and hear her abused."

was a nice ending to it; and to crown all, he must be insulting her by praising his beautiful cousin. Oh yes, she knew his thoughts; well, it didn't sig nify; it wouldn't last long; he would soon be at liberty again; and then-oh yes, then, he would find his way to that dirty village fast enough, and her poor child would have a step-mother, and

For shame, Louisa!" Robert was at length able to gasp out: "if you have no regard to my feelings, have some to common decency. What have I done or said to deserve this? And, once for all, I won't put up with these tantrums; it isn't the first time, nor the second; but, before long, I shall be desperate, and then you must take the consequences."

It was of little avail, however; the whirlwind would spend its fury, and then a moody, sullen lull succeeded.

·A REPORTER IN THE BRITISH SENATE.

HOUSE OF LORDS.

In the reporters' gallery in the House of Lords great attention has been paid to the convenience of those who occupy it. It is easy of access, and comfortable when attained. It has also a very striking and elegant appearance when seen from the body of the house, its front being richly decorated. One range of seats is for reporters listening, while waiting to "take their turns ;" another row of " boxes," ten in number, is appropriated to those who are actually reporting the debates; and for their use there are inkstands sunk in the shelf.

We noticed, when called on to commence our labours in this house, several points of difference as compared with the House of Commons. The speaker of the lower house rarely or ever speaks except to call to "order" some refractory mem ber, to put "questions" to the vote, or to deter mine some point of order or privilege; but the lord chancellor, on the contrary, is perpetually on his legs; and when he speaks, he advances a little way from his seat, and addresses the house in a very clear and audible tone of voice. It is not one of the most agreeable things in the world to the gentlemen in the gallery for him to make a specch during the whole of a reporter's "turn," because all he says must be given at length; but as a set-off against this, he always has the courtesy and consideration to face us, and to speak in such a manner that he shall be heard. This is more than we can say for many of their lordships.

If Mrs. Godfrey had not been struck temporarily As you enter the reporters' gallery-of course dumb with amazement, her husband would not unless you are formally accredited by one of the have got through this long harangue uninterrupt- daily papers you cannot do so you will see on edly. The silence was soon broken, however, with your left hand, at the end of the first division of a storm of jealous wrath. Wasn't Mr. Godfrey seats, in the body of the house, the bishops, in ashamed to say that to her face? Hadn't she their lawn sleeves and other episcopal habiliments, always thought and now it was plain-that he which give an interesting variation to the picture. had a stronger liking for his cousin than he ever Just below them, coming towards you, is a had had for her, his own wife? Why didn't he figure on which we gaze with great interest. He marry her, as he was going to do? Why did he is the worthy representative of one of our most make such pretences as he did, before they were distinguished Scottish families--the duke of Ar married? It was only her money he was after-gyle, and is the present "lord keeper of the privy she could see that now; and what was become of that, she should like to know. Wasn't it spent at the club? and didn't he go idling about, and let everything go to wreck and ruin? And now, here

seal." Next to him is a staid, thoughtful, straight haired, partly-bald old gentleman, with a peculiarly firm and commanding look, and with whom the duke is in frequent converse; that is the earl of

Aberdeen, the present first lord of the treasury. | speeches on the subject in the next day's papers, The duke is fluent and brilliant, while his great apparently without any definite purpose or evident leader is always brief, sententious, but strikingly origin. The explanation we shall give of this to the point. There is no "beating about the scene will probably tend to throw light on many bush" with him; and, were it not that he so often other debates, which have some hidden origin, as speaks in a low, husky tone of voice-inaudible this had. One evening towards the close of last in the gallery he would be one of the most May, we found, on entering the reporters' gallery, agreeable of the peers, so far as reporting is con- that the House of Lords in all its parts was uncerned. Next, this way, is the youthful earl of usually full; the strangers' gallery could hardly Granville, lord president of the council; and, have held another, and the peeresses' gallery prenearer still, there is probably the marquis of sented an interesting sight. The bishops, too, were Lansdowne, and others of the ministry who are in present to the extent of about a score. On inquiry, that house. There is a tall, thin, grey-haired, we found from one of our colleagues that her grace and yet not apparently aged man, who sits fre- the duchess of Sutherland had come with Mrs. quently by the lord chancellor, on the woolsack; Harriet Beecher Stowe, the gifted authoress of that is lord Brougham, whose name is as "familiar "Uncle Tom's Cabin." To use the words of our as a household word" in the families of Great facetious acquaintance, a little anti-slavery debate Britain and throughout the world at large. His had been "got up" for the sole and exclusive speeches, however, have been so often and so pleasure and benefit of the popular antagonist of minutely criticised, that it would be an imperti- American slavery. Few Americans of lettered nence in us to attempt anything of the kind in a tastes travel in Europe or elsewhere, who do not brief sketch like the present. Suffice it to say, give their countrymen the benefit of their obserthat if the addresses of the noble and learned lord vations in other lands; doubtless, therefore, a lady have of late lacked somewhat of the force and of Mrs. Stowe's ability will issue her " Impressions brilliancy of his earlier efforts, they are character- of England," or some such work; and, should this ized, nevertheless, by a shrewdness of remark and be the case, she will not fail to describe the striking a profundity of penetration, which are the natural scene presented on that evening. Certainly it was result of his herculean labours and of his extensive no mean privilege for a republican lady to sit side and varied experience. by side with some of the noblest of Britain's daughters.

The House of Lords, in a general way, is behind the other House in its speaking. Great orators are not so numerous, and brilliant speakers are far less frequent, than among the Commons. The former house, however, contains, in lord Derby, decidedly one of the most trying speakers to the reporter, from the rapidity of his utterance, his occasional indistinctness, and the general importance of what he says, which renders a full and accurate report indispensable. We might give numerous pen and ink sketches, and considerably amplify those already given, did space permit; we shall, however, conclude this portion of our remarks simply by stating the fact that, while the nobleman we have just named is the reporter's dread among the peers, the right honourable T. B. Macaulay, the historian, is the corresponding difficulty in the lower house; and, in one sense, he is the worst of the two, because his flowing periods admit of no pruning: they can only be shortened by mutilation. With lord Derby it is not invariably SO. There is not a gentleman of the press who would not be at some considerable pains to hear Mr. Macaulay speak; but the most accomplished dread the appearance of the admired orator, when it falls to their lot to be on duty at the time. However glad to hear him, or happy to see him (and his visits to the house are generally "few and far between,") if he be going to speak, the universal feeling of the reporters on duty is, "Don't speak in my turn! Take any time but that!"

Scenes of interest are sometimes witnessed here, of which the public are not informed; and the one we are now about to describe is just of that nature. Only the business part of it came before the public, and that in a form not particularly clear. "What gave rise to that little anti-slavery debate last night in the House of Lords ?" said a friend of ours one morning, recently; and such was doubtless the inquiry of many who read the several long

After a few "notices of motion," and other business of a formal and unimportant nature, the right honourable the earl of Carlisle rose to move for the production of some papers relative to the slavetrade in Cuba; to put certain questions to the noble earl at the head of the foreign office; and to present petitions from certain parties in Jamaica on the subject. In fact, the presentation of the petitions was the only kind of form to which the noble earl confined himself; and after a few words respecting them, he launched forth into a torrent of impetuous eloquence, in behalf of our brethren in bonds, which told with great effect upon the house. He laid particular stress on the fact that Spain, by a treaty, in consideration of the sum of £100,000, had promised to suppress slavery on the part of Spanish subjects; and yet that treaty had been systematically and wilfully violated! Between the months of February and November last, 5000 slaves had been landed in Cuba. He then gave a brilliant and striking sketch of the chase of a slaver named "The Venus," by a warsteamer named "The Vestal." There were many other points of interest, which it would be obviously out of place to repeat here, although they tended at the time to add interest to the scene.

The earl of Clarendon, as foreign minister, of course replied. Oratorically, he was quite a contrast to the noble eari who preceded him. Carlisle is energetic in manner, brilliant and striking in his metaphorical allusions, accurate, elegant, and impetuous in style; while Clarendon, on the other hand, is cool and collected-at times almost to tameness; there is much dignity, though little energy; his style is clear, chaste, and terse, and he speaks at a moderate rate. After a joke at his noble predecessor for getting up to ask questions, and then not putting any one specific interrogatory during the whole of a lengthened speech, he said

VISIT OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.*

that as no questions had been put, no answer could | THE OASIS OF THE LIBYAN DESERT. be given. Nevertheless, taking advantage of the circumstances, he kept the matter up, and delivered an able address on the same subject.

Next rose one of the prelates, the bishop of Oxford; it was not to be expected that any one bearing the honoured name of Wilberforce could sit at ease, and not have something to say under circumstances so interesting, and on such a subject. He made a brief but brilliant speech, and recommended that a firm and manly course should be pursued towards Spain in the matter.

Lord Brougham, whose eloquence on this subject has often thrilled the house, offered a few brief but pungent and pointed remarks. It must have been a source of no little gratification to the distinguished foreigner, to notice how well his lordship looked, and how surprisingly energetic his manner and firm his voice, considering the age he has attained. This remarkably able and eccentric peer often winds up a debate, and he did so on this occasion, by saying all that was left unsaid and that it was necessary to say on the subject.

Lord Wharncliffe added, that the authorities of Cuba could put a stop to the traffic if they were so disposed. The petitions were then "ordered to lie on the table;" that is, they were thrown into a box behind the bench occupied by the clerks, and, to use the ordinary phrase, "the subject then dropped." The bishops went out one by one, and were followed by a number of the peers. The duke of Argyle stepped across the house and spoke to the duchess of Sutherland and Mrs. Stowe, and they, too, speedily left. In five minutes, there were only eight peers present, and the other business having been proceeded with for a brief space, their lordships adjourned.

The end of the hall immediately opposite the reporters' and strangers' galleries is a point of interest, for there the eldest sons of peers and distinguished foreigners are permitted to witness the proceedings of the house. During a recent debate, we saw lord John Russell leaning on the brass rails which separate this portion of the house from that which is confined to peers alone. Soon after he had entered, lord Brougham walked up to the rail to chat with his right honourable and noble friend, on the outer side of it. One could not help thinking how often, and how easily, lord John might have entitled himself to a right to sit within the barrier that intervened, had he so pleased.

In a concluding paper, we hope to present the reader with a few other observations made in both houses: meanwhile, we may mention (what some of our readers may not be aware of) that by application at the lord Chamberlain's, any Wednesday, they can obtain gratuitously an order to see the house of lords on the following or any subsequent Saturday. Both the application and the visit must take place between the hours of 10 and 4 o'clock.

DIVISION OF TIME.-What a desirable plan it would be if a sinking fund should be established of all the long hours men know not what to do with, and the surplus divided amongst those who could employ forty-eight hours a day if they had them. If men could buy time, what a price some would give for it, and how cheaply others would let it go!-MISS SINCLAIR.

THE Macedonian conqueror, having projected the erection of a city on the bank of the western branch of the Nile, proceeded from its site on a remarkable and hazardous expedition into the heart of the Libyan desert, accompanied by a detachment of his troops. Policy of state, personal vanity, some curiosity, and a romantic love of adventure, led to this enterprise, the two former motives being doubtless the most influential. Every Egyptian king had styled himself" the son of the sun," or Ammon, the fabulous protecting divinity of the country, called Zeus Ammon by the Greeks, and Jupiter Ammon by the Romans. Alexander appropriated the titles of the ancient sovereigns to himself, and in order to be acknowledged by the priesthood, in the same relationship to the national god, and firmly to establish his own authority, he undertook a visit to one of the most celebrated shrines, an Ammonium, or oracle temple, situated

in an oasis of the western desert.

The oases are fertile spots in the sterile wilderness, occasioned by the presence of springs, which saturate the ground with moisture for some distance around them, and in many cases give rise to small streams, which meander through dells and valleys till they are finally lost and absorbed in the soil. The tracts thus irrigated are clothed with vegetation, natural or cultivated, and resemble islands of verdure in a sea of sand. Besides being often beautiful in themselves, they receive an additional charm from the contrast with the surrounding desolation, and offer to caravans and travellers a welcome supply of water, with an agreeable shade for halting, furnished by clumps of palms, olive groves, and other trees. These green and fruitful spots in the tawny expanse of bare rock or sand, although generally small, are occasionally of considerable extent, and are the seats of a resident population. The Great Oasis of the Libyan desert, westward of Esneh on the Nile, consists of a chain of fertile tracts, extending about a hundred miles in length, and comprising many springs, villages, and ancient ruins, with plantations of olives, liquorice, grain, and fruits. The Little Oasis, to the north, has the same phy sical character. Still further north, and upwards of three hundred miles west of the Nile, immediately above Cairo, is the oasis of Siwah, of very considerable size, but the most interesting of all, because incontestably proved to be identical with the oasis of Ammon, visited by Alexander. Few Europeans have penetrated to this spot, owing to the natural difficulties of the route, and the ma rauding habits of the wandering Bedouins. But three of our countrymen, Mr. Brown, Mr. Hoskins, and Mr. St. John, accomplished the enterprise, the first in 1792, the last in 1847, both following the line of march pursued by the aspiring Macedonian.

Starting from the western mouth of the Nile, an indirect route along the coast was adopted by Alexander, on the recommendation of his guides, as presenting fewer obstacles, and affording better forage fur cattle. None of the ancient historians

From the "Life of Alexander the Great," one of the recent Monthly Volumes of the Religious Tract Society.

The temple of Ammon, after having borne the brunt of ages, is represented by some majestic remains on a slightly elevated platform of rock, in the centre of an open glade. On approaching the site, a ruined gateway is seen standing immediately in front of the fragments of a chamber, Huge masses of calcareous stone lying in pictu resque confusion, parts of the shafts of columns, capitals of alabaster, and other architectural monuments, cover the surface of the ground, and indicate the former existence of a considerable pile of buildings upon the spot. The temple was inclosed by a wall of immense thickness, nearly four hun dred feet from north to south, and more than three hundred feet from east to west, a considerable portion of which may be made out. A variety of chambers, probably the residences of the priests, with a central apartment or sanctuary, where the responses of the god were delivered in the midst of druidical gloom, seem to have composed the interior, perhaps surrounded by an inner inclosure. The north end of the sanctuary remains, and exhibits a peculiar construction. The side walls, though six feet in thickness, are formed of com.

and snowy tracts of fossil salt. The inhabitants traded with Egypt in the mineral, which, from the name of the place, was called salt of Ammonia. It was so highly valued as to be deemed a suitable present to kings and dignitaries, to whom it was sent in baskets; and even the monarchs of Persia had their table supplied with salt from this remote spot. The valley extends for sixteen or seventeen miles, nearly in an east and west direction; but the available land is confined to a district in the centre, about five miles long by three or four broad. The sterile and fertile grounds run into each other, rendering it difficult to determine where the one ends and the other begins. Fresh and salt waters also are closely contiguous, both at their source and in their direction. From the top of Gebel-el-Monta, or the Mountain of the Dead, a hill honeycombed with catacombs, Mr. St. John obtained a splendid view of the whole oasis. It is difficult," he states, "to convey an idea of the pleasure I experienced in viewing the prospect that developed itself on all sides around me. It could scarcely have possessed more elements of the beautiful. The verdure, the lakes, and the arid hills may be found elsewhere, and be deemed to afford contrasts sufficiently strik-paratively small blocks, while the roof consisted of ing; but perhaps here alone are added in such close juxtaposition the glittering desert and the snowy fields of salt, looking like vast glaciers just beginning to melt beneath that sultry clime.

In addition to this view, which may be obtained with little variety from almost any of the hills I have mentioned, many details of the scenery of the oasis are extremely pleasing. I never wish to enjoy prettier walks than some of those we took during our stay. There is generally a garden wall or a fence on either hand of the lanes, with pomegranate trees bursting over it in redundant luxuriance, and hanging their rich tempting purple fruit within reach of the hand, or the deep-green fig tree, or the apricot, or a huge ragged leaf of the banana, or the olive, or the vine. The spaces between these are not left idle, being carpeted with a spacious growth of bersim and lucerne that loads the air with its fragrance, and is often chequered with spots of a green light that steals in through the branching canopy above. Sometimes a tiny brook shoots its fleet waters along by the wayside, or lapses slowly with eddying surface, rustling gently between grassy banks or babbling over a pebbly bed. Here and there a rude bridge of palm trunks is thrown across, but the glassy current frequently glides at will athwart the road. At one place there is a meadow; at another, a copse; but on all sides the date trees fling up their columnar forms, and wave aloft their leafy capitals. Occasionally a huge blue crane sails by on flagging wing to alight on the margin of some neighbouring pool; the hawk or the falcon soars or wheels far up in the air; the dove sinks fluttering on the bough; the quail starts up with its short, strong, whirring flight; and sparrows, with numerous other small predatory birds, go sweeping across the fields." In one respect the place differs from the ancient representations of it, which speak of its salubrious climate. Dangerous remittent fevers now intest the spot, and annually visit all the oases in the summer and autumn, being caused by the neglect which allows the collection of stagnant fætid water that ought to be used up in irrigation.

immense masses, some of which are still aloft. They are literally beams of stone, twenty-seven feet in length, four in breadth and depth, stretching from side to side, and projecting a little beyond the walls, so as to form a kind of exterior cornice. Hieroglyphics-processions of human figures with tablets above their heads, and representations of cagles or vultures, flying after each other, on a ground interspersed with stars-appear on my of the blocks. These were originally painted blue and red, as traces of such colours still remain. Among the hieroglyphics, the camel occurs as a character, and a bird resembling the ostrich. There are also sculptured representations of a hideouslooking personage with ram's horns, doubtless meant for the ram-faced Ammon.

In the neighbourhood of the temple, the ancients commemorated the "Fons Solis," or Fountain of the Sun, which the Macedonians viewed with interest and veneration on account of the supposed diurnal change in the temperature of the water, from cold at noonday to heat at midnight. The following passage occurs in Lucretius :

"A fount, 'tis rumour'd, near the temple purls
Of Jove Ammonian, tepid through the night,
And cold at noonday; and th' astonish'd sage
Stares at the fact, and deems the punctual sun
Strides through the world's vast centre, as the shades
Of midnight shroud us; and with gay reverse
Maddens the well-spring: creed absurd and false."
Ovid makes a similar statement :-

"Thy stream, O horn-crown'd Ammon in the midst

Chills us at noon, but warms at morn and eve." Herodotus mentions further, that while the natives used the water to fertilize their gardens, this was only done at midday, the time of its greatest cool. ness. This celebrated fountain is a remarkably deep and clear pool, of a slightly bitter taste, inclosed in ancient times with masonry, fragments of which still remain. It is probably a thermal spring. Modern visitors describe the surface as continually covered with bubbles, which rise from the bottom, and give to the pool the appearance of