the South into the torpid and stagnant atmosphere of Europe's degenerate institutions? After removing from their places the seven golden candlesticks of Asia,' did they not wellnigh succeed in extinguishing the holy flame which rose from every altar of Southern Europe?

"During the benighted and iron ages, was it the pure and holy flame of religious fire, bursting from the bosom of semi-barbarous Europe, that gave the impulse to the second great irruption of Northern masses into the South?

"Which was the preponderating influence that urged and kept in motion the swelling surges of the Crusades? was it the pure and holy zeal of those few whose unclouded minds taught them to revere the land which gave birth to their Redeemer, and to look with horror upon the desecration of its holy fanes by the ruthless infidel, and to burn with impatience to snatch from his profaning grasp the Cave of the Nativity and the Holy Sepulchre of Christ, and to bathe in Jordan's stream, or drink of' Siloa's brook, which flows fast by the ora cle of God?' Or were those impulses given by the intellect whose flame burned bright only within the sacred protection of the convent walls, fearing lest the strong hold it had upon the minds of the masses, through the influence of religious zeal, might give way to the rapacity of the powerful barons, or that the barrier which separated them from the vulgar of mankind might be broken down by the overgrown popu lation of serfs, who coveted their broad lands and envied them their privileges?

"It matters little whether the concentrated intellect of Eu. rope, trembling for its religious and political power, gave the first impulse to the Crusades, or the imperial ermine, feeling itself sullied by the too near approach of a powerful and aspiring nobility, desired to rid itself of the increasing restraint upon its authority, by encouraging the cause which made such a diversion in its favour, and sent the iron barons and counts, with their military dependants, far into the depths of Asia, never to return.

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"The effect was the same: Europe, divided into a thousand principalities, a few of which acknowledged some nominal head, not of sufficient power, however, to keep them from depredating on each other, and torn for ages by intestine broils, the result of the rapacity of every hill-top baron or marauding count, could only get rid of the incubus of faction by excision; the body politic could only be relieved by the depletion of war. At each repetition of the same tragedy Europe gained ground; the scattered fragments of the longlost Roman empire reunited into nations, and at each successive throe a new empire sprung into existence.

"The bold barons who escaped the cimeter in Palestine, returned polished in manners though humbled in power; the loss of their estates was amply repaid by the honour of laying the foundation of that splendid institution of chivalry which rid Europe of the dissolute and brutal habits that then sullied its escutcheon. While each knight, ' tired of war's alarms,' was boasting the charms of his 'ladye-love,' and the 'gallant troubadour,' chanting in poetic strain the prowess of his lord and the virtues of the fair, woman assumed her proper sphere, and savage man gradually softened down into modern civilization, while the true sons of chivalry maintain their proud pre-eminence to this day.

"The work of civilization accomplished, the knight has ceased his errant habits in search of wrongs to right and weakness to defend; leaving both to the laws, he has hung up his bright mail in the halls of his ancestors, there to rust among decaying pennons and tattered oriflammes. The iron buckler of the past, the modern gentleman has exchanged for the pure gold shield of polite and elegant refinement, as sure a protection in the strife and action of the present day as was the former in the hot melée of a semi-barbarous age.

"How much is it to be regretted, that at this late day, while education and refinement are striving to maintain the pre-eminence which they have attained, the haughty, priv.

ileged Aristocrat on the one hand, and the fiery, levelling Democrat on the other, are both endeavouring to pull down the fair column of Virtue and Intellect, which is based upon the chivalry of the past, surmounted by the chaste capital of religious charity and social elegance, and inscribed with the proud names of a Bayard, a Chatham, a Washington, and a Hamilton.

"In this age of universal light, neither can, by pleading ignorance, conceal its malignant motives.

"They know the right, and do approve it too;

They know the wrong, and still the wrong pursue.'

"I do not wish you to suppose that I advocate war as necessary to the future progressive civilization and improvement of the human race; yet it is one of the means foretold whereby rebellious man was to be chastened until that day when the 'fulness of the Gentiles' shall come, and the earth shall be one great nation, under the only head that all can join in reverencing.

"There is a pendulum whose point of suspension is far above our ken; the vibrations of which, from the first great irruption into the plains of Shinar, to the late outpourings of the Gaul into Africa, have been, for some wise purpose, continually impelling the masses of the North and South to mingle in bloody strife, each retiring from the combat better and wiser than before."

I have just returned from the great bazar and khans, where I am ever delighted to pass away a morning among the curious shops and still more singular groups of individ. uals, of all nations, kindred, and people.

There the German is seen bartering his glassware for skins of the Astracan lamb, with a descendant of his fatherland beyond the Caspian; the Muscovite is there exchan. ging the gold of Siberia with a child of the Sun, against the beautiful shawls of Cachmere; a commis voyageur of Paris

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is trading for pearls with a native of Hindostan, who gets in return for the rich treasure of the Peris' caves the "kickshaws" of the Palais Royal and the quincaillerie of the Rue St. Denis. Again, one sees a merchant from the Thames dealing out his muslins and chintses to a trader from Bokhara, in return for the wool of Thibet and the drugs of Cathay. A supercargo from beyond the Atlantic, with the product of almost every clime and the fabrics of every mart, is seen trafficking for the gums of Hadramaut and the odours of Yemen. He of the Danube is seen bargaining with the Persian for his bales of Shiraz weed, while the Ethiopian is displaying his plumes of the ostrich to all who may buy. The native of Mount Atlas hands over his dates to him of the Urals, and receives in return his ermines and sables. The mountaineers of Olympus and Lebanon bring their silks, the Russian his grain and his salt, the Greek his wines and his fruits, the Egyptian his black slaves from Sennaar, and the Turk his white houris from Georgia.

After a few hours spent amid this hurlyburly, this Babel of mingled tongues, I returned home with my ideas almost as confused as the eddies of the vortex in which I have been whirling; it will be, therefore, a difficult task, I fear, to give you anything like a clear description of this great exchange of Mammon; yet, with your indulgence, I will endeavour so to sketch the picture that your own fertile imagination may fill up the outline with the crude colours I may be able to afford you.

The bazars of Stamboul form a city within a city, a sort of imperium in imperio, more populous during the hours of business than many seaport towns that command an extensive foreign commerce.

This interior trading and manufacturing city is divided into many quarters, each appropriated to a different nation of the vast Turkish empire. The Turk has his quarter,

and the Rayas have theirs; Greek, Armenian, and Jew trade in separate wards of this great commercial emporium.

Some of the streets are entirely covered in, while others have their sidewalks under a continuous line of porticoes or colonnades, which approach each other within six feet, leaving a space for light to descend, and room for the rains and melting snows to pass off, by means of a kennel.

These walks are raised and paved, and are from three to ten feet wide. Such streets as are entirely covered receive light from windows above, and their walks are very wide, extending from shop to shop, and several of them half a mile in length. They cross each other in every direction, and it requires some time to become acquainted with their topography. At the end of each street that passes through the outer walls there is a strong gate, at which is stationed an agent of the farmers of the customs, to watch their interests; these gates are opened very early in the morning, and just previous to sundown it is curious to see the crowds pouring forth from these vomitoria, and wending their way homeward, the Turks, Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, each to a different quarter of the city, while a portion of all the various tribes dive down the narrow lanes to the water side, where their caiques are in waiting, to take the wealthy merchants to their villas on the Bosphorus or the Prince's Isles; and the immense public passage-boats, filled to overflowing with those of more humble estate, are stemming the strong current towards the distant country villages.

The shops are of all dimensions, from the size of a pedler's box to that of a moderate Broadway bow window; the front of each being entirely open to the street. The smaller places can only contain the wares of the petty trader, who sits at the outside on a bench, while the larger ones have a low counter entirely across the front, behind which sits the owner; those of intermediate size have a low platform cov ering their whole area, on which the indolent Turk sits with