THE Turkish government has many peculiarities that distinguish it from European states, and foremost of these is the administration of its provinces by means of Pachas. This institution, though in its principle perhaps not very different from that of the suzerainties of the feudal system, presents such a systematic course of extortion, bribery, and rebellion, and is, as a whole, so little like anything that the history of Christendom offers to our notice, that it is of itself sufficient to impress upon the country a distinct character, and without some acquaintance with the system, any account of Turkey must be but imperfectly comprehended. We accordingly furnish a sketch of the career of a Turkish pacha, the substance of which we borrow from Colonel Napier.

The Sultan, seldom removing from Constantinople, is there surrounded by a cabinet, termed the Divan, which appoints as the governor of a distant province, that one among the numerous class of the Sultan's personal attendants, who either bribes, or promises to bribe, them most largely. The government is sometimes not even vacant when the post is sold, but should the pacha have become obnoxious to the sultan or his government, a messenger is despatched to bowstring him and bring his head to Constantinople; this, if the governor be weak or taken by surprise, is often accomplished without difficulty: but in other cases, the messenger is waylaid and murdered, and the event only serves to wring a bribe from the intended victim. The purchaser then has to wait an indefinite time till further steps are taken, which he very patiently does, well-knowing that the bowstring would be the reward of any other conduct.

When he at length gains possession, his first measure is to solve what is said to be the grand problem of Turkish government, namely, how far he may plunder his subjects without occasioning a rebellion too formidable for him to put down. This point settled, his tribute remitted, and his promised bribes to the Divan punctually paid, with a handsome additional sum as a retaining fee, the new pacha is generally allowed to go on peaceably, as far as regards the Porte, for a few years. Then similar

means to those tnat procured his rise are employed to work his downfall. His subjects have from the first preferred complaints against him, and now that he is presumed to be rich, these are regarded. His government is in the market, and he, aware of the fact, endeavours to meet the danger by bribing more largely than before. At length, having reached the point of endurance, he atttempts to conciliate his people by relaxing somewhat of his extortions; and these, knowing that the arrival of a new governor is invariably followed by greater oppression than ever, are sometimes induced to make common cause with him. His bribes now become less than before; his government is sold, and a messenger despatched for his head, who, however, not unfrequently loses his own. Next comes the new pacha, with an army, if he can raise one; and then follows a war, which usually ends by one party outwitting the other, and putting him to death, with circumstances of treachery and cruelty of which European readers can form no adequate conception.

This matter premised, we may now proceed to the description of Joannina, once the capital of Ali Pacha, whose eventful life, of which we may one day give a sketch, well exhibits the blood-stained and checkered career of a Turkish governor.

THE PASHALIC OF JOANNINA. JOANNINA is the chief town in a pashalic of the same name, situated in Albania, a province near the northwest boundary of European Turkey. It owes nearly all the celebrity which it has attained, to the power and influence of Ali Pacha, who made it his residence. The town is not far from the eastern shore of the Adriatic, and is in the immediate vicinity of some of the Ionian Islands.

At a distance of about sixty miles north-west of the Morea, a small gulf branches out from the Adriatic, called the Gulf of Arta; at the entrance of which is a commercial town of some importance, called Prevesa. Forty miles northward of Prevesa stands the town of Joannina, the approach to which, from the south, is

described by travellers as being very beautiful. Dr. Hol land thus describes the scene which presents itself, when the traveller has approached within two miles of the city. A large lake spreads its waters along the base of a lofty and precipitous mountain, which forms the first ridge of Pindus, on this side, and which, as I had afterwards reason to believe, attains an elevation of more than 2500 feet above the level of the plain. Opposed to the highest summit of this mountain, and to a small island which lies at its base, a peninsula stretches forward into the lake from its western shore, terminated by a perpendicular face of rock. This peninsula forms the fortress of Joannina; a lofty wall is its barrier on the land side; the waters which lie around its outer cliffs, reflect from their surface the irregular, yet splendid outline of a Turkish seraglio, and the domes and minarets of two Turkish mosques, environed by ancient cypresses. The eye, receding backwards from the fortress of the peninsula, reposes upon the whole extent of the city, as it stretches along the western borders of the lake:-repose, indeed, it may be called, since both the reality and the fancy combine, in giving to the scenery the character of a vast and beautiful picture, spread out before the sight.

very small.

The length of the lake, on the borders of which the town of Joannina is situated, is about six miles, and its greatest breadth two; but at the point where the peninsula juts out into the lake, the breadth of the latter is The city extends along the greater part of the western shore of the lake, and stretches, in width, from the lake to a row of low eminences, about a mile and a half distant from it. The interior aspect of the town is said to be rather gloomy, except at some particular spots. The streets are very tortuous, so as to give a stranger a great deal of embarrassment in rea Ling any destined part of the town; and those in which the lowest classes of the inhabitants dwell, contain little but wretched mud-built cottages, and are in the outskirts of the city. The habitations of the middle ranks make a nearer approach to comfort, being constructed of wood, with a small open gallery under the projecting roof; altogether dissimilar to the cottages of Switzerland. The dwellings of the higher classes, both Greeks and Turks, partake more of an Oriental character, being quadrangular structures surrounding an open court, and having wide galleries running round the sides: the construction of these houses is such as to be extremely convenient in a warm climate; but, externally, they have more the appearance of prisons than of houses, for they present little more to the eye than lofty walls, with massive double gates, and windows (if any) at the top of the building.

The bazaars form, in Joannina, as well as in other Turkish towns, the most bustling and attractive feature in the place. They consist of ten or twelve streets, intersecting each other at irregular angles: they are narrow, and are rendered rather dark by the low projecting roofs, and by the large wooden booths in which the goods are exposed for sale. Each bazaar is appropriated to the sale of one particular class of goods; for instance, there is one occupied by those who deal in jewellery, and other ornamental articles; a second, by the dealers in pelisses, Turkish shawls, and other articles of dress; a third, by the retailers of common cotton goods; a fourth, by the dealers in grocery, tobacco, dried fruits, &c.; a fifth, by those who sell hookah and Meerschaum pipes, wooden trinkets, &c.; a sixth, by the dealers in coloured leather, and Turkish slippers; and one or two others. Some of these bazaars, especially those in which jewellery and articles of dress are sold, are richly and abundantly furnished. Joannina contains sixteen mosques, each standing on an open space of ground, and generally surrounded by large cypresses. There are also about seven or eight Greek churches, Joannina being the seat of a Greek archbishop.

The seraglios, or palaces of the pacha, are very large and important buildings. The chief one is lofty in itself, and situated on the most lofty spot in the city: it is

principally built of wood, but is supported and surrounded by high and massive stone walls, on different parts of which cannon are mounted. The palace itself is built entirely in the Turkish style, with roofs projecting far beyond the face of the building; windows disposed in long rows underneath; and walls richly decorated with paintings, occasionally landscape, but more generally what is merely ornamental, and without any uniform design. The entrance to the seraglio is very mean, being under a broad wooden gateway, within which is a large irregular area, two sides of which are formed by the buildings of the seraglio. On crossing from which an entrance leads into a long and loity this area, a dark stone staircase leads to an outer hall, apartment, contiguous to the audience chamber of the pacha. This last mentioned apartment is decorated in a somewhat gaudy style, the prevailing colours, as well of the walls and ceiling as of the furniture, being crimson, blue, and yellow. The ceiling is divided into squares by woodwork very curiously and delicately carved, the interior of each square being decorated in crimson and gold. Pilasters are arranged at equal distances round the walls, and on these are hung sabres, daggers, pistols, &c., all profusely ornamented with gold and jewels. A carpet covers the floor; and round three sides of the room are ranged divans, or platforms, about fifteen inches high, and covered with cushions of crimson satin. A hearth, for burning wood fuel, is situated at one side of the room, and over it is a projecting chimney, rising in the form of a conical canopy, superbly ornamented with gilding. This description of the style of decoration in the audience chamber, will serve to convey a general idea of all the state apartments, in which a strange mixture of gaudiness and barbarity is observable, but very little real taste.

Perhaps the most beautiful structure in the town is the pavilion of the pacha, situated in the northern suburb. This pavilion is in the middle of a garden, and consists of a great saloon, two hundred and forty feet in circumference: its outline is not a perfect circle, but is formed by the curves of four separate areas or recesses, which are all open to the great circular area that occupies the centre of the building. The curve of each recess contains nine windows; and there are two also at the entrance into the pavilion. The pavement is of marble, with a large and deep marble basin in its centre: in the midst of this basin stands the model of a pyramidal fortress, mounted with numerous cannon, from each of which a jet d'eau issues, meeting the other jets from cannon on the outer circumference of the basin. Attached to one of the pillars of the pavilion is a small organ, which plays while the water is flowing.

The peninsula, of which we have before spoken, widens as it advances into the lake, and is terminated by two distinct promontories of rock; on one of which stands a large Turkish mosque, its lofty minaret, and extensive piazzas, shaded by the cypresses surrounding it. On the other promontory is situated the old seraglio of the pachas of Joannina, inhabited by them previous to the erection of the one which we have described, but now chiefly inhabited by officers and soldiers of the pacha's guard The whole of the peninsula is fortified, so as to form a little town in itself, insulated from the rest of the city by a lofty stone wall, and a broad moat which admits the waters of the lake.

The banks of the lake are studded with numerous objects of a picturesque nature, such as the Great Seraglio, which seems to rise directly from the shore; a painted kiosk, projecting over the water, below the rocks of the old seraglio; a convent of dervishes, shaded by trees, towards the north. But the most attractive object is one which owes nothing to the hand of man, viz., the mountain ridge which backs the city, and which rises to a height of nearly three thousand feet: this range forms a continuous boundary to the valley in which the lake is

situated, rising from the water's edge, in the part opposite to Joannina, with an abruptness and majesty of outline which has much of the sublime in it: its precipitous front is intersected by the ravines of mountain torrents, the borders of which, expanding as they approach the lake, are covered with wood, and form the shelter to many small villages.

The lake is rather inconsiderable in depth, and is terminated at each extremity by low marshy land; there is, an outlet towards the north, by which the water of the lake flows to another small lake about six miles distant from the city. The water which thus flows from one lake to the other, after having passed through the second lake, suddenly enters a subterranean passage underneath some limestone hills, and appears again at a considerable distance. The supply of water to both lakes, is derived from springs, and from the various mountain torrents

which descend into them.

There is a considerable amount of trade carried on at

Joannina. The chief article of importation, is cloth of French and German manufacture: this reaches them by way of Leipsic, and the demand for it is very considerable, since all the rich Greeks and Turks, not only in Albania, but also in parts of Roumelia, and the Morea, purchase at Joannina the cloth for their loose robes and winter pelisses. Within the last few years, English cloths have also found a market at this place. The articles of exportation are, oil, wool, corn, and tobacco, for the Italian ports; and for inland circulation, through Albania and Roumelia, spun cottons, stocks of guns and pistols mounted in chased silver, embroidered velvets, stuffs, and cloths. Large flocks of sheep and goats, and droves of cattle and horses, are collected from the Albanian hills, and sold at an annual fair held near the town: the horses are generally sold again to inhabitants of Albania; but the cattle, sheep, and goats, usually go to the Ionian Islands.

In concluding this slight description of Joannina, we must remark that the town was the scene of many desperate conflicts between the Turks and the Albanians, during the latter part of the life of Ali Pacha, and that these contests have probably made some alterations in the buildings and arrangement of the town; but as there have been very few recent travellers to that part of Turkey, we are not exactly in a position to state what these changes or alterations may have been. Everything relating to the natural beauties of the spot, must, however, be nearly or quite the same as they were before, whatever be the turmoils and strifes of ambitious men: the palaces and houses made by men, may be destroyed by them; but the mountains and valleys remain, enduring witnesses of the power of the Great Creator who formed

them.

LOVE OF HOME. Whatever strengthens our attachments is favourable both to individual and national character. Our home, our birth-place, our native land! Think for a while what the virtues are which arise out of the feelings connected with these words; and if thou hadst any intellectual eyes, thou wilt then perceive the connection between topography and patriotism. Show me a man who cares no more for one place than another, and I will show you in the same person one who loves nothing but himself. Beware of those who are homeless by choice! You have no hold on a human being whose affections are without a tap-root. Vagabond and rogue are convertible terms; and with how much propriety, any one may understand who knows what are the habits of the wandering classes, such as gipsies, tinkers, and potters.-The Doctor.

THE history of creation is, itself, the history of God's government; and nothing short of absolute idiotism, rather than mere ignorance, could believe it possible that this incalculably complicated, multifarious, and inconceivably extended universe, could preserve its order without a government.-MACCULLOCH.

ON CHESS.

I. ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF THE GAME. THE origin of the game of Chess has been the subject of very laborious research and warm argument; and, although the results are by no means satisfactory, yet the inquiry has afforded a good deal of valuable and amusing information; a selection from which will probably be interesting to the general reader, as well as to the amateurs of this noble and scientific game.

Some historians have referred the invention of chess to the philosopher Xerxes; others to the Grecian prince Palamedes; some to the brothers Lydo and Tyrrhene; and others, again, to the Egyptians. The Chinese, the Hindoos, and the Persians, also prefer their claims to be considered as the originators of chess, but the testimonies of writers, in general, prove nothing except the very remote antiquity of the game.

In examining the testimonies of various writers, on a subject so obscure, we must always make considerable allowance for that prejudice in favour of certain opinions which habit and local circumstances apart from sound reasoning have tended to confirm. Thus, a historian who has passed much of his time in India, studying the manners and customs of the native tribes, tracing out their history, translating their legends, and copying their monuments, would almost unconsciously support against any other, the claims of such a people to any remarkable invention. The same remark applies to the historian of the Chinese, of the Egyptians, of the Greeks, and other ancient nations; and, accordingly, we find that each of these nations has its advocate in English literature.

The first writer that we shall mention, is Mr. James Christie, who has written a quarto volume, entitled, An Inquiry into the Ancient Greek Game, supposed to have been invented by Palamedes, antecedent to the Siege of Troy. It is, however, generally agreed that the claims of the ancient Greeks to the invention are unfounded. Palamedes lived during the Trojan war, and was so renowned for his sagacity, that almost every early discovery was ascribed to him. The whole of the claim of Palamedes rests upon the definition of the game of pebbles, Terpeia, as played by the Greeks. This game was played with white and black pebbles, and was invented by Palamedes, as appears by a line in the first book of Homer's Odyssey.

The claim of the Romans is equally unfounded: a game, something like dice, is spoken of by their writers,

which has been mistaken for chess.

Mr. Irwin, in a letter to the Earl of Charlemont, published in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, supports the claims of the Chinese, in whose Concum, or Annals, appears the following passage:

Three hundred and seventy-nine years after the time of Confucius, or 1965 years ago, Hung-cochu, king of Kiangnan, sent an expedition into the Shen-si country, under the command of a mandarin, called Han-sing, to conquer it. After one successful campaign, the soldiers were put into winter quarters; where, finding the weather much colder than what they had been accustomed to, and being also deprived of their wives and families, the army, in general, became impatient of their situation, and clamorous to return home. Han-sing, upon this, revolved in his mind the bad consequences of complying with their wishes. The necessity of soothing his troops, and reconciling them to their position, appeared urgent, in order to finish his operations in the ensuing year. He was a man of genius, as well as a good soldier; and, having contemplated some time on the subject, he invented the game of chess, as well for an amusement to his men, in their vacant hours, as to inflame their military ardour,-the game being wholly founded on the principles of war. The stratagem succeeded to his wish. The soldiery were delighted with the game; and forgot, in their daily contests for victory, the inconveniences of their post. In the spring, the general took the field again; and in a few months, added the rich country of Shen-si to the kingdom of Kiang-nan. Hung-cochu assumed the title of emperor, and Chou-payuen put an end to his life in despair.

In the Chinese game of chess, (which is called Chongke, or the Royal Game,) the board is divided by a river in the middle, to separate the contending parties. The powers of the king are very limited: he is intrenched in a fort, and moves only in that space in every direction. There are also two pieces whose movements are distinct from any in the European game: viz., the MANDARIN, which answers to our bishop in his station and sidelong course, but cannot, through age, cross the river: and a ROCKET-BOY stationed between the lines of each party, who acts with the motion of a rocket, by vaulting over a man, and taking his adversary at the other end of the board. Except that the king has two sons to support him instead of a queen, the game is like ours.

From these considerations, Mr. Irwin infers that the game of chess is probably of Chinese origin; that the confined situation and powers of the king, resembling those of a monarch in the earlier periods of the world, favour the supposition, and that the agency of the princes, in lieu of the queen, bespeaks forcibly the nature of the Chinese customs, which exclude females from all power. The princes, in the passage of the game through Persia, were changed into a single vizier, or minister of state, with the enlarged portion of delegated authority that exists there; instead of whom, the European nations, with their usual gallantry, adopted a queen on their board. Mr. Irwin further infers, that the river between the parties is expressive of the general face of China, where a battle could scarcely be fought without encountering an interruption of this kind, which the soldier was here taught to overcome; but that, on the introduction of the game into Persia, the board changed with the nature of the region, and the contest was decided on land.

Sir William Jones, Dr. Hyde, and others, favour the claim of the Brahmins of India, and adduce the testimony of the Persians (who acknowledge that they received the game from India in the sixth century,) as well as of certain ancient treatises on chess in the Sanscrit. The Brahmins relate, that one of their body contrived chess in the beginning of the fifth century of the Christian era to divert the melancholy of a love-sick princess; but the more popular story is as follows:

At the commencement of the fifth century of the Christian era, there lived in the Indies a very powerful prince, whose kingdom was situated towards where the Ganges discharges itself into the sea. He took to himself the proud title of King of the Indies; his father had forced a great number of sovereign princes to pay tribute to him, and submit themselves under his empire. The young monarch soon forgot that the love of the subjects for their king is the only solid support of his throne: he oppressed the people by his tyranny; and the tributary princes were preparing to throw off the yoke. A Brahmin named Sissa, touched with the misfortunes of his country, and resolved to make the prince open his eyes to the fatal tendency of his conduct, invented the game of chess, wherein the king, although the most considerable of all the pieces, is both impotent either to attack or to defend himself against his enemies, without the assistance of his subjects.

The new game soon became so famous, that the king wished to learn it. The Brahmin Sissa was selected to teach it him, and under the pretext of explaining the rules of the game, and showing him the skill required to make use of the other pieces for the king's defence, soon made him perceive and relish important truths, which he had hitherto refused to hear. The king rigidly applied the Brahmin's lessons to his own circumstances, and feeling that his real strength must consist in his people's confidence and love, averted, by a timely alteration of his conduct, those misfortunes which seemed to be coming upon him.

Out of gratitude to the Brahmin, the prince left him to choose his own reward. The Brahmin requested that a number of grains of corn, equal to the number of the

squares of the chess board, might be given him, one for the first, two for the second, four for the third, and so on, doubling always to the sixty-fourth. The king, astonished at the seeming modesty and reasonableness of the demand, granted it immediately; but when his officers had made a calculation, they found that the king's grant exceeded the value of all his treasures. The Brahmin availed himself of this opportunity, to show how necessary it was for kings to be upon their guard.

The game of chess has been known from the time of its invention or introduction in Hindustan, by the name of Chaturanga, or the four members of an army, viz., elephants, horses, chariots, and foot-soldiers.

Sir William Jones informs us, that by a natural corruption of the pure Sanscrit word, it was changed by the old Persians into Chatrang; but the Arabs, who soon after took possession of their country, had neither the initial or final letter of that word in their alphabet, and consequently altered it further into Shatranj, which soon found its way into modern Persian, and at length into the dialects of India, where the true derivation of the name is known only to the learned; and thus has a very significant word in the sacred language of the Brahmins been transformed by successive changes, into Axedrez, Scacchi, Echecs, Chess. Our learned author thinks that the simpler game, as now played in Europe and Asia, was invented by a single effort of some great genius, and not completed by gradual improvements. He informs us that no account of the game has hitherto been discovered in the classical writings of the Brahmins, though it is confidently asserted, that Sanscrit books on chess exist. He describes a very ancient Indian game of the same kind, but more complex, and, in his opinion, more modern than the simple chess of the Persians.

ANECDOTE OF SIR RALPH ABERCROMBIE.-When Sir Ralph Abercrombie was commander-in-chief of Ireland, he visited Kilkenny, and stopped a few days there. In early life, Sir Ralph had been quartered there, then a subaltern officer. He was in the habit of going down the river to fish; there was a young man and his wife, of the name of Dunfy, who invariably invited him into their cabin, near the river, and were so partial to him, they gave him, on many occasions, the best fare they had, such as potatoes, eggs, and milk, which he, with pleasure, partook of with them. His regiment left Kilkenny, and he never had an opportunity of visiting it after, until this period. The day after Sir Ralph arrived, he walked down, unaccompanied by any one, to his old haunt, and stopping at the door of his once kind friend, Dunfy, found him and his wife living, then an old couple, with a family grown up. Sir Ralph asked them if he then said, "Do you recollect an officer of the name of their names were Dunfy: they replied in the affirmative; Abercrombie, that frequently visited your cottage when fishing in the river some years ago?" "Recollect," said the old man, "we do, indeed, sir, and often inquired for him; at last, we heard he was dead, and heartily sorry for him we were, for he was a good creature, and had no pride: he used to sit down with us in our poor cabin, and sometimes taste our humble fare." "In troth," said the old woman, "we would share with him now, was he alive"-at the same time giving an expressive look at her husband, as if in sorrow for him. To their great surprise and joy, he told them that he was the same Abercombie that they had known. He then put a one hundred pound note into the old man's hand, and wishing him, his wife, and family, all happiness, expressed his grateful sense of his former kindness to him. Judge their surprise, on going into the town of Kilkenny, to hear that their kind benefactor was then commander-in-chief of Ireland.-The Veteran.

WHAT is unknown admits of an interminable phraseology, while real knowledge can be condensed in a few words.MACCULLOCH.

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IN details relating to architecture, we meet with frequent mention of a portion of an ecclesiastical edifice called the Crypt. This name appears to have varied somewhat in its application; for several of the places which we now call crypts, differ in some respects from those which in former times bore that name. Generally speaking, however, we may say that a crypt (the Greek word signifies a place of concealment) is a subterraneous vault, or chapel, constructed beneath the high altar, or eastern end of many cathedral, abbey, and collegiate churches, for preserving the bodies of martyrs and holy persons, and for the performance of Divine Worship.

Catacombs, or subterraneous places, used among the ancients for the burial of their dead, were resorted to by the primitive Christians as places of security from their persecutors, and this, doubtless, from the knowledge that such receptacles were deemed sacred and inviolable, and might therefore be expected to afford them a sure retreat. Some authors have maintained the strange idea that the Christians themselves were the excavators of the catacombs; but the vast extent of these subterranean galleries, as they exist at Rome, Naples, Syracuse, &c., and the inability of the persecuted flock to carry on such undertakings, have only to be considered, to make this opinion appear very extravagant and absurd.

Doubtless, the Christians took these catacombs, as they naturally presented themselves as places of retreat: VOL. XVIII.

they became their places of abode, their churches, and their burial-places; and around the tombs of the earlier saints and martyrs, there deposited, they met together, to encourage each other in their holy faith, and to perform the rites of their religion. When the persecution ceased, and they were no longer obliged to hide themselves from the malice of enemies, but were at liberty to raise public edifices for the performance of Divine Worship, they naturally chose out such situations for this purpose as should mark the remains of their martyred relatives or friends which lay beneath; and gradually as these remains came to be considered as endowed with peculiar sanctity, it became the rule never to consecrate an altar till the remains of some saint were placed within its bosom, or under its base. When churches were required at places distant from the catacombs, similar excavations, but smaller in extent, were made beneath the altars, and relics transferred to them. The excavation just alluded to was the crypt, or vault, which was partly raised above the level of the floor, and partly sunk beneath it. The descent to the crypt was by a number of steps in the nave, or transept, and other steps ascended from it to that part of the sanctuary immediately over the crypt. The contents of the crypt were seen from above, through grated apertures; and over the tomb of the saint was placed the altar. These crypts were likewise furnished with all the requisites for wor

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