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whence I know not-elfland, perhaps. When the travellers again emerge into the open air the night has come, the soft sunset glow lingers faintly along the horizon over the sea, the stars hang sparkling in the now perfectly clear sky; only one fleecy cloud steals along in feathery folds just below the brow of the height whereon stands their house and home — their last, last camp!

"To-morrow, sir," says Cæsar, "we will put the two flags from the tops of the tents on to the palanquins." "No, no, Cæsar that's childish. People would take us for Americans!"

"Indeed, sir," protests the Cæsar, much hurt in his feelings, "that is always done when parties arrive in Beyrout, and not only by the Americans!"

So the point is conceded, and next morning our friends start at about seven o'clock with flying colors, one palanquin adorned with the red ensign, the other with the union-jack, and both of them further decorated with beautiful bunches of roses. The Cæsar has earned his triumphal procession, for it is no small feat to have completed so successfully such a long journey (the longest he has ever made in tents), this being, furthermore, the first expedition through the country which he has organized independently, and on his own account. So he rides into Beyrout in triumph, as before stated, "Leading us like captives at his chariot-wheels! exclaims Sebaste; but Philippa says, "We are the victorious troops."

Before starting this morning it is a pathetic sight to watch Abdul (who, having several times travelled to Mecca, is an important personage, and ought to have been described long ago) tenderly decorating, with a graceful nosegay of crimson roses, the huge head of El Adham, Philippa's great black steed. El Adham (whose name signifieth "the Black One") belongs to Abdul, and is his chief (if not his only) piece of property; and his master's affectionate pride in him is unbounded, so that when the other Syrians wish to tease poor Abdul they are accustomed to announce that El Adham is lost, stolen, or strayed. Unfortunately, that strong-minded steed does not seem to return his master's affection; and indeed, soon after the start from Jerusalem, he one day jumped clean over poor Abdul, who was meekly offering some water, and hurt him considerably. On the present occasion it is touching to see the devoted Abdul tenderly arranging the roses, while El Adham, with his hard old face, does his

best to look indifferently, and not at all flattered.

It takes about four hours to ride from the camping-ground to the journey's end a pretty steep descent nearly all the way, during which our friends gaze with delight at many wonderful views of those mighty western slopes of Lebanon, where the vast sweep of the rocky mountain-sides is variegated with rich, harmonious tints as of lichens gold and brown on ancient ruins contrasting strangely with the vivid green of the young mulberry plantations; while sprinkled all around are innumerable tiny villages, perched aloft on rugged heights, or nestled here and there in rocky nooks and corners.

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"Can one not see," exclaims Philippa, "by the flourishing and populous look of all those villages, that the Lebanon is under a Christian governor? He is almost independent, you know, for though Turkey appoints him to begin with, his authority is guaranteed by the Christian powers of Europe, and he cannot be dismissed without their consent."

"Ah," sighs Sebaste admiringly, "what a splendid thing it is to have one's guidebook all by heart!"

As they ride through the outskirts of Beyrout, Cæsar suddenly catches sight of a figure some distance ahead emerging from a house on the road. Off goes Cæsar at full gallop, and when the other riders come up with him, he is bending down to kiss Sheikh Nasr! The sheikh has discarded his desert-dress, and is now attired as befits his high position. Over a beautiful silk robe of rich orange and gold he wears a long mantle of fine white alpaca, while a silk kefiyeh of white and purple hangs gracefully over his shoulders, bound round his head with the Bedouin coil of camel-hair, which, with his huge boots of scarlet leather, is alone retained of his desert costume. He greets the travellers most kindly, his fine face beaming with welcome, though, as usual, he speaks not. Then, mounting his horse, he rides with them through the town, a distinguished addition to the cavalcade. Finally, our friends arrive at the Oriental Hotel, and there establish themselves.

In the evening they have to perform the melancholy duty of saying good-bye to all their good Syrian folk, whom the father has asked Cæsar to bring to the hotel for that purpose. Standing a little above them on the stone stairs, the father makes them a speech of hearty thanks for all their attention and good behavior during the journey. This is translated bit by bit

into Arabic by Cæsar, and received with looks of gratitude and affection.

Then forth stands Abu Hassan, and, as spokesman on the other side, makes an elaborate Arabic speech, with many gestures of respect and politeness. His thanks and compliments are in their turn duly translated by Cæsar, and then the father distributes the long-expected baksheesh, while the ladies shake hands all round and say farewell in their best Arabic. And so they go their ways.

That night none of the travellers can sleep, so oppressive do they find it to have a roof over their heads, and to be hemmed in by solid walls after their seven weeks of camping in the open.

The days which follow seem unaccountably flat, though enlivened by one long gallop to the Dog River (Nahr el Kelb), where they contemplate the ancient in scriptions left on the rocks by Assyrians, Egyptians, and Romans, and are especially impressed by the dignified mien of certain Assyrian potentates with long, curly beards, carved in bas-relief on the natural rock, and now in various stages of defacement.

At last the day of departure arrives, and our friends embark on the Austrian Lloyd's steamer, on the deck of which we must finally take leave of them. The screw begins its revolutions, and Beyrout slowly recedes, looking very pretty in the rich glow of the nearly setting sun. It is late in the season, and there are but few passengers. The sea is smooth and the sky cloudless, so that there is good hope of a prosperous voyage. The sun is really sinking now in a glory of rosy light. Already the dark blue sea and the white houses of the distant town lie in the shadow, which is creeping up the steep slopes of the mountains. Only their summits, rising clear above a long line of soft, fleecy cloud, glow red and beautiful against the cloudless Eastern sky. Vale!

AUGUSTA KLEIN.

From Macmillan's Magazine. AN OVER-ADMINISTERED NATION.

THE population of Germany consists of two classes: the people who makes rules and regulations and the people who have to obey them. The first class comprises a number of officials respectfully, if vaguely, alluded to as Die Verwaltung (the administration), and includes a great many persons from the sovereign down to the

policeman; the second class embraces the rest of the population of Germany - some fifty-three millions.

Englishmen travel fast, and travel mostly for pleasure; so that they hardly notice what becomes rather important if one stays long in any part of the country, the extent to which the administration regulates the private life of the citizen. To take a simple instance, every one has observed the difficulty of getting the particular carriage and seat in a railway train that one may happen to want. Most of us are content to set this down as one of the little peculiarities of German officials which must be humored or smoothed over. But at the bottom of this curious practice (as at the bottom of everything German) lies a theory. That theory is the direct opposite of what an Englishman would expect, and includes three propositions. (1) It is the guard's duty to open the door of the carriage. (2) He must only open it to a passenger travelling to one of the stations at which the carriage will stop. (3) Such a passenger must be provided with the proper ticket. These involve three corresponding duties on the passenger's part. (1) He must purchase the proper ticket. (2) He must wait on the platform till the guard assigns him a seat. (3) He must take that seat and stay there till he is let out. Thus railway travelling is not such a simple matter as an Englishman is accustomed to think it. These rules are less rigidly insisted on if you are travelling by first-class; for that implies wealth, and you may be a person with whom it is as well, even for that great person, the guard, to be on good terms. If you are travelling by any other class and you show in the slightest particular a disposition to flout the regulations you will feel the heavy hand of the administration at once.

The hand of the administration is heavy in Germany because it is guided by a strong head. This is best understood by a particular instance. The kingdom of Saxony, to take an example, is divided into four Kreishauptmannschaften, and the head of each of these is appointed by the king. He corresponds directly with the minister of the interior (who is also appointed by the king), and is assisted by an elected council (Kreisausschuss), whose advice he is not obliged to take. He stands in a similar position to a lord-lieutenant with real administrative authority. Under him are various Amtshauptmannschaften, with a hierarchy of small officials under them, and as each Amtshauptmann hopes to be a Kreishauptmann some day,

and each Kreishauptmann may aspire to be a minister, it is clear that the chances of a factious opposition arising in any Kreishauptmannschaft are exceedingly small. If any one shows a turbulent spirit he knows that the minister and the king are making a note of it, and that his behavior will count against him if he should ever desire anything from the administration. Be it said at once that in this particular case it happens that the king is a man of great ability in many directions, a man who would have made his mark in any rank, and also a man of inexhaustible courtesy, kindheartedness, and tact; an able and sagacious ruler in every respect.

Be it also said that the fondness of the German citizen for being looked after is such that what makes an Englishman most merry, seems to the German not only natural but agreeable. It is not, in fact, that the Germans put up with their administration; they enjoy it.

wasser nur, Nützwasser" (This water is for general purposes, not for drinking).

To sum up, you may sit on this bench but not on that; you may stand on this and not on the other; you may draw this water but you may not drink it; you may take your children here but not there, and you may take your dogs nowhere except in a short leash. Might not all this paint have been saved, even to the notice about the dogs, seeing that besides being led in a leash they have to be muzzled and registered in the police station?

In a piece of forest land laid out in walks near a health resort I saw a number of boards suggesting various transgressions to my virgin mind, and among them the following very fierce notice: "WARNUNG [in very large capitals]. Das Rauchen aus offenen Tabakspfeifen oder von Cigarren sowie der Gebrauch hell brennender

One notice you do not see in a German public park, and that is, Keep off the grass. The reason for this is the same as led the fathers to provide no punishment for parricide; it does not enter into the heads of the administration that any one would be guilty of such an enormity. The parallel outrage in England would be if a man were to take an axe into Hyde Park and begin cutting down the trees. The one event which can move a German citizen It may be worth while then to note, in to interfere, even by speech, with a prov no unfriendly spirit, how much interfer-ince of the administration is to see an ence with the subject this powerful admin- Englishman walking on the grass. istration thinks necessary in one or two directions. Everybody's railway experience is the same; but a step further on and most travellers note nothing more because it is not forced on their attention. Take a public garden. On the back of one seat may be read, "Nicht drauftreten" (Do not stand on the seat). On the back of the next, "Nur für Erwachsene" (Only | Anzündemittel am oder im Walde ausfor grown-up people). The use of the serhalb der öffentlichen Fahrwege ist bei latter notice is twofold: it gives a self- Zwei Mark-Pf. Strafe, verboten." It was important citizen a chance of turning out a very hot day, and this was the last notice half-a-dozen children and taking the seat that I came to. So I read it through twice, for himself, which is gratifying; and sec- and, as the sense did not come quickly, I ondly it opens a fine field for administrative copied it down and retired to the shade to functionaries to consider whether a given take off my hat and think it over. I think occupant is grown-up or not. A little fur- it means that you may smoke a pipe with ther on we find, "Hunde sind an kurzer a cover to it anywhere in the woods, but Leine zu führen" (Dogs to be led in a that you may only smoke open pipes and short leash); kurzer being in spaced cap- cigars, or strike matches, on the public itals. The enormity of having a dog in a paths. The reason is obvious and laudalong leash is not so clear as the discomfort ble; it is to prevent the forest from being to oneself in leading him. This last no- burnt down; but I was reminded of the tice is a very good example of a class of notice that I saw in one of the comic panotices forbidding things that one would pers some time since, alleged to have not think of doing if they were not sug- been discovered at the top of the Mattergested. horn: "Notice! This hill is dangerous to cyclists."

A little further on comes "Kein Einlass für Kinderwagen" (No perambulators Outside the wood was a moderate slope allowed here), which is good; and yet a down which the road wound to the river; little further, "Spielplatz" (Playground), the slope was perhaps as steep as St. which is thoughtful of the administration, James's Street. At the top was a notice, and here you will see not much except "Radfahrer: Bergab absteigen" (Cyclists! perambulators, nurses, and children. On get off going downhill). How do Gera pump you will often see, "Kein Trink-man cyclists manage to stomach that?

But the most carefully administered of all German subjects is the traveller by tramway. The following are some only, perhaps one half, of the notices affecting the traffic in one single tram-car. (1) "Keep your ticket till the end of the journey to prevent its re-issue, and show it to the inspector when he requires it." (2) "Get out to the right." (3) "All chattering with passengers is strictly forbid den to the officials." (4) "Any one who gets out or in while the car is in motion does so at his own risk.” (5) "Out of consideration for your fellow-passengers, please do not spit in the carriages." Even the administration dare not put that in any other form than a request.

The business controlled by the administration may be generally described as everything in the country except the army. The army and the administration practically divide the attention of the country; and the genuine importance of the administration arising from the duties they have to perform is enhanced by the relative absence of other careers for talent. The navy and the Colonial Office are (if one may venture to say so) as yet comparatively in their infancy, while the bar and the Church do not take the same position in Germany as they do in England. On the other hand medicine takes a position slightly better; but on the whole there remain only two really fine careers, the army and the administration.

The effect of all this on the German nature quite sufficiently prepared, in any case, to take itself seriously-may be imagined. No doubt the administration is good, but the notion of his own importance which is entertained by every one connected with it is exaggerated. You feel this very strongly if you have had anything to do with English offices. An Englishman, with rare exceptions, is a gentleman first and an official afterwards. He construes the rules which govern your application as favorably to you as possible, and gladly stretches a point if he can. If he is obliged to refuse you he shows you how his hands are tied, and perhaps suggests some other way by which you may attain part, at any rate, of your object. He does not carry himself as if he were administering you, and as if you ought to be grateful to him for the attention. Far different is your reception if your business lies a little off the lines of ordinary routine in Germany. Hardly have you framed your request when the answer comes back like the crack of a whip,

Let no man suppose that these minute regulations are to be disregarded; let him be equally slow to conclude that they are as ridiculous as they appear. They suit the people, and are in some respects an improvement on English ways. To mention one: the really admirable plan of making every cabman driving to the opera exact his fare before he starts. But they are undeniably inquisitorial; and a nation ought to be able to manage some of the simplest actions of life without so much help from its appointed officers. To take one or two miscellaneous examples: you cannot hire a cab at a railway-station without taking a ticket from the cab-inspector, and then you must hire the cab whose number corresponds with your ticket. You may not take tickets at the opera except on the second day before, or else on the morning of the performance. You may not water plants on the window-sill lest they should fall over. You may not put milk in a beer-bottle lest you should poison yourself. This last regulation is very stringent indeed. I wanted some milk in a hurry the other day for a picnic, and the milkman said that unfortunately he had" Nein! das geht nicht" (No! that cannot no bottles. Of the many dozen empty ones in the shop he flatly declined to fill a single one, alleging that they were not meant for milk. He pointed to the administration's stamp on the stopper, which consecrated the bottle to beer forever, and assured me that it could not be made worth his while to offend that silent witness. I marvelled, and went empty away. I have a profound admiration for Germany and all her works; but I hope it is no offence to the great empire to say that in some of her dealings with her citizens she often reminds me of the immortal sketch in Punch, whereof the legend runs, "Go and see what baby is doing, and tell him not to."

be done). You mumble excuses, which
are acknowledged with a grand bow and a,
"Bitte sehr! Adieu!" (Don't mention
it; good-morning)-courteous but unen-
couraging. In fact the grand difference
resides herein; the English administra-
tion, knowing itself to be human, does not
pretend to perfection, and thinks it quite
natural that a point might be raised now
and again which it has not foreseen.
the other hand, the German administra-
tion rather resents a suggestion that every-
thing is not being done for you that you
can reasonably want; and I think that is
a sign that a country is over-administered.

On

The proper province of the administration is a subject one might dispute on for.

ever. But it certainly does not include | form of government. It is just a hundred some injunctions that we have noticed. It years since Paoli, the liberator of his is not necessary to put at a bridge-head, countrymen from their Genoese oppress"Notice! keep to the right, and do not ors, was welcomed in Paris as the Washloiter on the pathways," because bodies of ington of Europe, and was invited by the men always find it more comfortable to go National Assembly to take supreme comone way and come back the other. As for mand of the new department of France. loitering, it is impossible if there are many A people who have for four centuries people crossing, and if there are not it spent their whole energies in desultory does not matter. It is not necessary that rebellion against the tyranny of alien mas the State should put you into a railway- ters are as little fitted for the privileges carriage; the State is sufficiently pro- of self-government as were the liberated tected if it makes sure that you have slaves of the Southern States, or the nataken your ticket. The carriage you travel tive population of India. Restlessness, in is a detail which concerns your comfort, love of intrigue, and unhealthy excitement and that you must necessarily understand have entered into their blood. The taint better than the State. It is not neces- is as hereditary as insanity, and it requires sary that the State should forbid a man to a more powerful remedy than mere time. cycle downhill; it might as well forbid If the natural outlet is denied to it, it will him to go out in the rain without an vent itself in social disorder, in political umbrella. Such regulations do nothing intrigue, or in private enmity. In Corsica except swell the importance of the admin- there is a stronger element of disorder istration. than the mere restlessness born of centuIf an Englishman comments unfavor-ries of rebellion and bloodshed. For the ably on the administration he generally says, "Something ought to be done," and then does nothing. That is a sign, I think, that, on the whole, our administration is weak; although when we have made up our minds that a particular official must be strong, there is no limit to the extent we trust him. The policemen at Regent Circus, for example, are in-ished side by side with the advanced and vested with, and daily exercise to the admiration of the world, a despotic and uncontrolled authority over the liberty of the subject which is not approached by any Continental official.

political corruption, and for the crimes of the vendetta, which combine to make the state of Corsica a disgrace to France, the spirit of clanship is really responsible. The clan disappeared from the Highlands of Scotland before the civilization of the seventeenth century, with which it was incompatible. In Corsica it flour

elaborate institutions of republican government, with all of which it is in the bitterest antagonism. The spirit of the clan infects every department of the State. The elections are corrupted by it; the If a German comments unfavorably on hands of the executive are tied by it; prithe administration he says with an irri- vate quarrels are spread and embittered tated shrug, "Of course if you want any- by it. It invades the law courts, and thing you must do what you are told, but utterly destroys the confidence of the peoa sensible man cannot even understand ple in the impartiality of their magishalf their nonsense." That, I think, is a trates. The unit in Corsica is not the sign that a country is being over-adminis- individual. It is the clan. The leader or tered. Of the two states it is difficult to patron of the clan is generally a person of say which in the abstract is better; but an considerable wealth and influence, both of Englishman in Germany is by no means which must be at the service of the meanprepared to admit that his native coun-est of his supporters in whatsoever cause try's state is the less gracious. G. C.

From The National Review.
SOCIETY IN CORSICA.*

THE history of Corsica, and its steady social retrogression since it has become a department of France, is an interesting study for the upholder of a republican For many of the statistics in this paper, the writer

is indebted to M. Paul Bourde,

he may require it. In return, the vote, the services, and even the life, of the clansman are at the disposition of his chief. The spirit which in a former age responded to the call to arms is now perverted to secret political intrigue, to the support of the family representative at the elections, even to the darker services of the family vendetta. The aggregation of families into organized clans may be ob served among most mountainous countries, where the difficulties of communication have prevented any central organization

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