In the other case, a culprit, a man from the interior, had killed a lad who was ploughing, and carried off his cattle. The sultan said to the mother of the lad," Excuse his life, and take one hundred dollars;" she said, "I want the life of him who took the life of my son. The sultan three times repeated his question, doubling his offer; she said, "I ask what the law gives me, and that law you are sultan to execute." The culprit was led out to execution; the head, as we returned, was on the market gate, and the dogs swarmed round the car

and they ran to the neighboring blacksmith's shop | And gave them golden spurs and vizors barred,
for embers, which they threw into the tar, and, set- And steeds that Pheidias had turned pale to see.
ting it on fire, the stump was then plunged in, and That mighty man who opened Paradise
so scorched and burnt. The sheriff was then Harmonious far above Homeric song,
let go.
Or any song that human ears shall hear,
Sometimes was classical and sometimes not.
Rome chained him down, the younger Italy
Dissolved, not fatally, his Samson strength.
I leave behind me those who stood around
The throne of Shakspeare, sturdy, but unclean;
To hurry past the opprobrious courts and lanes
Of the loose pipers at the Belial feasts,
Past mimes obscene, and grinders of lampoons.
Away the petty wheel, the callous hand!
Goldsmith was classical, and Gray almost,
Cowper had more variety, more strength,
Gentlest of bards! still pitied, still beloved!
Romantic, classical, the female hand
That chained the cruel Ivan down forever,
And followed up, rapt in his fiery car,
The boy of Casabianca to the skies.
Wordsworth, in sonnet, is a classic too,
And on that grass-plot sits at Milton's side;
In the long walk he soon is out of breath
And wheezes heavier than his friends could wish.
Follow his pedler up the devious rill,
And, if you faint not, you are well repaid.
Large lumps of precious metal lie engulfed

cass.

From the Examiner.

TO THE AUTHOR OF FESTUS,

ON THE CLASSIC AND ROMANTIC.

PHILIP! I know thee not, thy song I know :
It fell upon my ear among the last
Destined to fall upon it: but while strength
Is left me, I will rise to hail the morn
Of the stout-hearted who begin a work
Wherein I did but idle at odd hours.

The Faeries never tempted me away
From higher fountains and severer shades;
Their rings allured me not from deeper tracks
Left by Olympic wheels on ampler plains,
Yet could I see them and can see them now
With pleasurable warmth, and hold in bonds
Of brotherhood men whom their gamesome wreath
In youth's fresh slumber caught and still detains.
I wear no cestus; my right hand is free

To point the road few seem inclined to take.
Admonish thou, with me, the starting youth,
Ready to seize all nature at one grasp,

In gravelly beds, whence you must delve them out,
And thirst sometimes and hunger; shudder not
To wield the pickaxe and to shake the sieve.
Too weak for ode or epic, and his gait
Somewhat too rural for the tragic pall,
Which never was cut out of duffel gray,
He fell, entangled, "on the grunsel-edge"
Flat on his face," and shamed his worshippers."
Classic in every feature was my friend
The genial Southey: none who ruled around
Held in such order such a wide domain
But often too indulgent, too profuse.

instance, some of the coins of Ephesus have the
guishing it from other places of the same name; for
word, EEZESN, (in the genitive case,) of the
Ephesians, accompanied by the personification of a
river, beneath which is the word KAIETPOE,
which shows that Ephesus was on the banks of
the Cayster. Another instance is that of the an-
cient Italic city of Hatria or Hadria, now known
only by its coins, which yet gave its name to
the Adriatic Sea, on the shores of which it was
situated. Hundreds of other similar instances
might be cited; for it has been stated that upwards
of two thousand names of places, provinces, and
princes, exist upon ancient coins, many of them
having no other record; and many have been dis-
bringing with it still fresh discoveries.
covered since that calculation was made, every day

had so multiplied that a mere list of them formed | which determines not only the existence of the a goodly volume. The Bibliotheca Nummaria, place, which might have been doubted, disputed or published by Lipsius in 1801, consists of 448 close forgotten, but likewise its situation, thus distinpages, exclusive of an appendix, and comprises under the letter A alone one hundred and sixty works. Among the writers who devoted themselves to the task of illustrating ancient coins, and pointing to the facts that the coins illustrated, are some of the greatest names in learning. The origin of numismatic studies, indeed, may be traced to no less a person than Petrarch; who first formed a collection, with some perception of the true use of coins. His example was followed by Alphonso, King of Aragon and Naples, as well as by the Medici, and various crowned heads. The fashion thence descended through princes and nobles to private individuals, till a mere catalogue of collections would probably form a list as long as that of the works which have been written upon them; for it is only by means of such col-interest. The vast numbers of coins existing of lections that the majority of the books on the subject could have been written.

These books are of infinite variety. Some illustrate particular coins, in their history, their manufacture, their metallic composition, weight, value, and depreciation; for it seems the destiny of coinages never to be increased in real value. Others treat of the different kinds of coins, either national or metallic-as gold, silver, copper-at the same time that they point out their uses. Some authors illustrate this use-as Vaillant in his works on the dynasties of the Seleucida, the Arsacide, and the Ptolomies. Other writers have made the Roman emperors their theme, and not only exhibit the acts from the coins, but the portraits of the actors. Visconti, in his Iconographie Grecque and Iconographie Romaine, has illustrated ancient portraiture in part from ancient coins. Perhaps a work like Lodge's Biography, in which the text and the portrait should form an equally conspicuous place, has yet to be written from ancient coins; though such a subject popularly treated would become a standard work.

In important details relative to different stages of civilization, coins have proved of the utmost

some comparatively barren but well-situated island,
denote its commercial importance, and the activity
of its exchanges; while the greater scarcity of the
coins of more luxuriant districts denote that the
native richness of the soil, which rendered the im-
system of exchanges was less active, while the
portation of other produce less necessary, is repre-
sented on such coins by the wheat-ear, the bunch
of grapes, and other symbols of Ceres and Bacchus.
Seaport cities generally adopted some marine sym-
bol either for the principal or subordinate devices
of their coins.

on Greek coins; as, for instance, when the coins
Treaties of alliance may frequently be traced
of one city are countermarked by the emblem of
another, an alliance, or at all events a convention
that the coins of the one are by common agreement
allowed to pass as current money among the people
of the other is denoted; a custom which became
so general that the mark of the allied city was in
imitation of a subsequent stamp.
some cases at once engraved in the original die, in

Some interesting particularities relative to the early commercial importance of Marseilles have just been elicited by the discovery of some coins. Up to the time alluded to, no coins were known of Marseilles (the ancient Massilia) earlier than about the period of Alexander the Great; which had led to the supposition that its commercial importance could not have been extensive before that compara

The use of coins is not limited, however, to the testimony they bear as to the character and progress of art, the data they furnish as to the respective values of the precious metals in relatively late epoch: but the Marquis de Lagoy, in a tion to each other, or to commodities, or the features they preserve of celebrated men and women, and frequently of celebrated monuments. Read with a learned eye, they throw a light on many facts of history, which without them would be obscure or even unknown, and often tell a continuous tale of themselves. "If all our records were lost," says Gibbon, "medals, inscriptions, and other monuments, would be sufficient to record the travels of Hadrian."

Geography as well as history (writes Mr. Noel Humphreys) are both indebted to the fortunate preservation of coins for the possession of many facts connected with the names and situation of cities which would otherwise have passed into oblivion. Many coins might be cited bearing the name of a city, accompanied by that of a river or a mountain,

recent article in the "Revue Numismatique," describes some small silver coins with the well-known hollow back of the earliest periods, recently discovered in some excavations near the port; which removes the difficulty, and proves the active commerce of the place (of which the existence of coin money is an evidence) to have been of the high antiquity which its situation and early colonization rendered probable.

The object of Mr. Humphreys' Ancient Coins and Medals is to give a summary or coup-d'œil of the entire subject, so as to furnish a complete introduction to the study, at the same time that he presents the student with fac-simile specimens of some of the most remarkable coins in actual relief, and in the respective metals of the originals; thus starting the tyro with a substitute for a collection.

In an introduction Mr. Humphreys gives a précis of some century later is really designed for a tor. of the chief writers on coins, and a brief notice toise. An early silver coin of Thasus has the of the chief collections. A chapter treats on the first attempt at a head, supposed to be of Pan or circulating medium, or rather the substitute for Bacchus; and the unskilled observer will have to barter, that preceded the use of coined money. suppose that it is a head at all. On the same A discussion as to the people who first struck plate is the earliest coin known with a monarch's money follows ; and is settled in favor of the name, Alexander the First of Macedon; which Lydians, on the authority of Herodotus and the fixes the date with more certainty, as he reigned probabilities of the case. The earliest coinage is from about 500 to 454 B. C. The obverse is a then discussed and described. After that, the man leading a horse ; and it not only has distinct, reader is introduced to its development in Greece unmistakable forms, but reaches the idea of and her colonies, as well as in the dynasties of action, especially in the steed. Art, however, Greek origin that were established on the death was still immature.

The reverse

can rise no of Alexander. The Roman coinage is exhibited higher than the punch, divided into four squares, in like manner, from its obscure origin under the with a border containing the monarch's name. kings, till its decay with the name and empire These annotations are furnished by the first of Rome, and its subsidence into Byzantine art. plate. The second exhibits an advancing stage Notices of many subordinate branches of the sub- of art, rising to the true coin ; that is, the punchject are intermingled with the leading classifica- mark is superseded by a perfect reverse, though tions, whose very names were long to tell ; but the improvement in art is rather in mechanics than Carthage, Judæa, Bactria, will indicate the nature design. The succeeding plates show the rapid of these lesser chapters. There are also notices progress both in design and execution, till at last of the various metals, weights, values, &c., both the decline of art is reached with the decline of of Greek and Roman coins, with some general the empire. The massy breadth of conception, hints and directions to the collector. These and the spirited action even in groups on a small might have been fuller, and, in the choice of coin of the best period, are exchanged for an imbooks, have taken a catalogue form with advantage. becility in design which falls below that of the

A great feature of the book is its illustrations; Lydian coinage, and a feebleness even in the mewhich, by means of a new invention, exhibits chanical parts. metallic impressions of the coin itself instead of an engraving.

IMITATIVE GALVANISM.—Galvani, in the last This positive fac-simile (says the author in his century, showed that convulsions ensued in a limb preface) is very essential in a work on the coins by simply bringing into connection the muscles and of classical antiquity; as no modern engraving or

In the muscles we have a nitrogenized other imitation of some of the finest Greek coins material, which is acid; in the blood we have a of the best periods can adequately convey an idea nitrogenized material, which is alkaline; the conof their excessive beauty, or the sculptural gran- necting part or nervous fibres are neutral. Mr deur of their general treatment. But I have not

Smee, F. R.S., says: “We may imitate such a confined my illustrations in relief exclusively to combination, by using a solution of ferrocyanate of coins of the finest periods ; I have also deemed it potash, a compound of iron, nitrogen, carbon, and advantageous to exhibit a few of the rude early potash, with a little alkali for one side, a solution coins, by the same process, in order to convey a of the red ferrocyanate for the other side, and conmore accurate idea, ihan could have been afforded nect the two with a solution of chloride of sodium, by means of engravings, of the nature of the prog

or common salt.”—Elements of Electro-Biology. ress which took place from the rude beginnings How CHRONOMETERS ARE TRIED AT GREENWICH. of the primitive artists to the exquisite productions -Chronometers offered to government for purchase of later periods.

are placed at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, The fac-similes are sunk in stout board, which the first or second week in January, where they is bound up with the text like a plate.

are ranged upon shelves round“ the Chronometer These

Room,'

," and each is daily compared with an astroplates are ten in number ; and every plate con-nomical clock, and its rate carefully noted. This lains from ten to a dozen specimens, sometimes is continued until the middle of July, during which of both faces of the coin, sometimes only of the time the temperature of the room is considerably obverse or reverse as the occasion requires : each varied : the windows are thrown open during six plate is accompanied by a page of description. or seven of the coldest weeks, and for about an By this means the reader has really a coup- which are attended at intervals of two hours night

equal period the heat is raised 80° or 90° by fires, d'æil of the history of coinage. The gold stater and day; for the rest of the time the chronometers of Miletus in Lydia, with its strange-looking remain in the ordinary temperatures. This conlion's head and its rude punch-mark on the stitutes the usual trial: but for such chronometers reverse, is a specimen “ of one of the first coins as are subjected to the extreme trial, an iron tray ever struck,” according to received opinions, and is provided over the stove, the mean temperature of may date from 800 to 700 2. C. Yet ihe drachma which may be taken at about 100° Fahr.; and for of Égina, possibly the earliest silver coin known, north side of the building. The severity of both

the cold, they are placed outside a window on the is still ruder. A sort of resemblance to a lion's the ordinary and extreme trials with regard to the head may be traced on the golden stater ; but cold will, of course, vary in different years, acone requires to be assured that the drachma cording to the severity of the season.--Mr. Scoresby.

26

nerves.

CCOII.

LIVING AGE.

VOL. XXIV.

From the Edinburgh Review.

supervened upon internal disorganization, the im Négociations de la France dans le Levant; ou Cor-perial fabric still stands the Turkish Crescent respondance, Mémoires, et Actes Diplomatiques still glitters on the Bosphorus-and still “the des Ambassadeurs de France à Constantinople, et

des Ambassadeurs, Envoyés, ou Résidents à divers tottering arch of conquest spans the ample regions titres à Venise, Raguse, Rome, Malte, et Jerusa- from Bagdad to Belgrade." lem; en Turquie, Perse, Géorgie, Crimée, Syrie, Without repeating, therefore, the ominous note Egypte, etc. et dans les états de Tunis, d'Alger, of prophecy, we shall direct our remarks to the et de Maroc. Publiés pour la première fois. historical elucidation of the questions involved in Par S. CHARRIÈRE. Tome I. (1515-1547.) it. Our wish is to illustrate the origin and estabParis, Imprimerie Nationale, 1848.

lishment of the Ottoman Empire, as one of the THREE centuries ago, the first vow of Chris- substantive powers of Europe; to exhibit the tian statesmen was the expulsion of the Turks causes which conduced to its political recognition; from the city of Constantine, and the deliverance to trace the subsequent action of so anomalous a of Europe from the scourge and terror of the state upon the affairs of Christendom; to mark infidel. In the present age, the absorbing desire the fluctuations of fortune by which its external of the same cabinets is to maintain the misbeliev-relations were determined; and to distinguish the ers in their settlements; and to postpone, by all stages of estimation and influence through which known expedients of diplomacy and menace, the it successively passed, until the dreaded Empire hour at which the Crescent must again give place of the Ottomans dwindled virtually, though with to the Cross. The causes and progress of this dominions not materially diminished, into the posicurious revolution of sentiment we now purpose to trace; and to ascertain, if possible, by what sequence of events, and changes of opinion, such conditions of public policy have at length been accredited among us.

tion of a Protected State-subsisting, apparently, by the interested patronage of those very powers which had been so scared and scandalized at its growth. If our inquiry should include fewer exemplifications than might be expected of the It will naturally be presumed that the clouds civil institutions of this extraordinary nation, the now actually gathering on the Eastern heavens omission must be attributed to the extent of the have suggested both our disquisition and its more immediate subject, and the imperative remoral; nor, indeed, should we, without reason- strictions of space. A sagacious moralist once able warrant for such an introduction of the sub- said of an historian of the Turks, that he was ject. But we feel it would be here perilous to unhappy only in the choice of his matter. If the prophesy the dissolution of a state which has now course of our proposed exposition were but a little been, for five generations, in its nominal agony. less narrow, we should not distrust our ability to We believe we might venture to assert that no cancel this invidious qualification; for there are, Christian writer has treated of Ottoman history, in reality, no known annals more striking in their who did not seek in the sinking fortunes or im- details, and often more purely romantic, than pending fall of the empire the point and commen- those of the house of Othman. Even as it is, dation of his tale. Knolles thankfully recounted we hope for some success; for, though of all the signs of its decline two hundred and fifty kinds of history political history possesses the years ago. Cantemir discoursed of "the growth fewest superficial attractions, yet such topics as and decay of the Ottoman Empire," while even the naturalization of a Mahometan sovereignty Poland was still a powerful kingdom. As the among the states of Christendom-the varying eighteenth century wore on, such reflections be- phases of religious zeal the conflict of tradicame both more justifiable and more frequent; tional duties and practical policy-and the rise and, as the artificial existence of Turkey was and growth of such an element as the power of hardly yet anticipated, the close of its natural the Czars-should command their share of interest term seemed within the limits of easy calculation. and attention. Even the end of the great war, which left so It may reasonably be thought remarkable that many crumbling monarchies repaired and strength- the establishment of an infidel power at the gates ened, brought no similar relief to the house of of Europe should not, in those ages of faith, Othman. Excluded, on the contrary, from the have provoked a prompt and effective combination arrangements of the great European settlement, of the whole Christian world for the expulsion of Turkey remained exposed to worse perils than the intruder. In explanation, however, of this any which had yet beset her. In the great peace apathy or impotence, there are several consideraof Europe there was no peace for Constantinople. tions to be mentioned. In the first place, the Thirty years since, the historian of the Middle phenomenon coincided singularly, in point of Ages expected, "with an assurance that none time, with the definite abandonment of the system can deem extravagant, the approaching subversion of eastern crusades. The seventh and last of of the Ottoman power;" and the progressive cur- these enterprises had resulted in scandal and rent of events has certainly in no degree changed defeat; and had disclosed the growing reluctance since this conviction was avowed. Yet, though of state and people to contribute towards expedithe only symptom of imminent dissolution that tions which neither promoted the objects nor conthen seemed wanting has now appeared, and duced to the credit of those engaged in them. though territorial dismemberment has partially The final and total loss of the Holy Land in