of one quality, and that quality is the having something to do for existence. The line is not to be drawn between the educated and the uneducated; but between those who, under some form of profession or pursuit, must labour for their bread, and those who must not. If the former class is beyond all comparison the more numerous, it is equally beyond question the most active, ardent, and powerful. Yet, it is in a higher sphere of society, that character is most strikingly displayed; that the human propensities, more uncompressed by circumstances, assume the most singular shapes, that the vapourish caprices of our nature float through the widest career, and that the most curious displays of human eccentricity astonish the eye which observes them from the level of life below.

The Barrister. To delineate those perpetual fluctuations, is perhaps one of the most difficult triumphs of the pen; to embody the frivolities of the fop, to give colour to the vapidity of the languid "fashionable;" to mark the circulation of the passions through the colourless mind of the man of etiquette; to "catch the Cynthia of the minute," where the very essence of being is change; requires at once elegance and force, quickness and fidelity, the penetration to watch the hidden movements of the heart, and the power to fix them by vigorous delineation.

The Colonel. Personal character can never become a fair subject of the novelist; yet there are individuals whose passion for prominence would evidently be much disappointed by neglect. When public characters are to be delineated, those naturally sit for the picture. Women who throw themselves into the attitude of politicians-ladies of rank notoriously meddling with the manufacture of cabinets; heroines sitting up to hear the result of debates, and laying themselves down to dream with the "division" by express, under their pillows; such actually canvass the pen of the novelist, advertise their ambition into a table talk ;" and make it a matter of legitimate amusement to inquire into the state of their brains. Some of the happiest scenes in this novel carry allusions which, without giving pain to the individual, characterise the class, and give the general likeness, without offending by the personal caricature.

The Doctor. Here is a case in point-who that has known anything of London, does not recognise the "sitter-out" of the debates, the eternal haunter of what was once the upper floor of St. Stephen's chapel? A party of ladies have obtained the Speaker's ticket to sit over "the ventilator."

"After them came Lady Darlington, who was as regular an attendant at the House of Commons, as if the fate of every division depended on her presence. Night after night, hour after hour, there she sate. The duller the debate, the more contented she seemed. She seldom withdrew her head from her window (the hole in the ventilator); never to address any particular individual; but there were four or five high Tory speakers, whose rising induced her to say generally, to her companions, 'Now, be quiet, here is somebody worth listening to.' This she continued to do long after two of her favorites had settled that it was better to march with the times, and had grown ultra-liberal in their speeches. Some ill-natured people were thus led to suspect that she did not really understand a syllable of what was passing."

This is all very true, and very applicable; but its applicability is to fifty, whilst the pungency is too wide to hurt the feelings of any one among the showy delinquents.

The Barrister. To contrast this sketch, we have a living picture of a male politician's life. Frederick Percival, one of the leading figures of the novel, has adopted parliament for his "profession."

“Before the chimney-sweeper rose from his bag of soot, and shook himself preparatory to the labours of the day, Frederick was up and writing in his room. Then came the semblance of comfort in the shape of his breakfast tray, and with it came the productions of the post; letters from angry friends, poor relations and disappointed constituents; pamphlets containing theories for raising money without taxes, defending countries without armies, and upholding the church without clergymen; and newspapers carefully sent because they were full of virulence against himself."

The Colonel. So much for what may be called the chamber practice of the profession. The business of the House opens another scene still more anxious, more difficult, and more uncertain. The novelist touches the principal points with the force of reality. The young Member, after a day of this eager application, hurries down to Westminster. The House is hot and stifling, but his business is more feverish still, for notice has been given of a motion, which, if carried, would overthrow a measure at which he has been labouring for months. He speaks, is cheered, and is left in a minority; for his friends, when the division took place, had gone to dinner, and he himself had only to go home baffled, bored, and weary, to try to sleep, if Fortune has such a favour in store for him, and then to go through the same mill-horse round tomorrow. The novel, on the whole, is romantic, various, and amusing.

The Rector. "Captain Alexander's Expedition of Discovery into the Interior of Africa."-Captain Alexander has already distinguished himself as a writer of African narrative. In the beginning of 1834, he was invited by the Geographical Society to make a journey into the interior of the "Leonum arida nutrix; but this, as it happened, was to be preceded by some adventures more strictly professional. Taking Portugal in his way, to obtain information relative to its Southern possessions, he became a spectator of its unhappy civil war. In the next year, arriving at the Cape of Good Hope, he found the whole of South Africa in commotion, and volunteered his services to accompany the British Governor to the field.

The Colonel. Man is a belligerent animal, let the philosophers say what they will. It evidently does not require the frenzy of republicanism, or the ambition of monarchy, the thirst of wealth, or the passion for glory, to rouse him to sink, burn, and destroy. With neither Greek nor Roman recollections to feed the flame, nor Wellingtons or Napoleons to guide it, the naked sons of Africa, with nothing to gain but sands, and with their lives to lose, rush as blindly and as frequently into war, as the most chivalric, or the silliest, nation of the civilized world. In 1835, the Zoolas had poured down in a barbaric torrent on the Portuguese at Delagoa, and had killed the Governor. The native tribes of the interior then came into play, and their black warriors were suddenly let loose,

shooting, stabbing, and poisoning each other, on the most sweeping scale. Next, the Amakosa Kaffers, suddenly burst into the Eastern province of the Cape colony, and proceeded to lay it waste with fire and sword. Captain Alexander, then on the staff, and appointed Aid-decamp and private Secretary to the Commander-in-chief, was thus put in possession of the opportunities which enabled him to give his very picturesque, interesting, and characteristic Memoir of the Kaffer war.

The Rector. Africa offers a boundless field for discovery-the whole immense area from Cape Delgado to Biafra on the west, and from the mountains of the Moon on the north to the limits of our Cape colony, a space of nearly forty degrees of longitude by forty of latitude, cut through its centre by the equator. This seat of vast mountains, mighty rivers, populous nations, and, probably, of the most inexhaustible fertility, is known to Europe only by rumour and romance. No traveller, of any intelligence, has ever traversed it; and, this vast and noble portion of the earth remains to us as if it had never been.

The Colonel. The obvious reason hitherto was, that all the accesses to this region, from the north and west, were in the hands of jealous barbarians, poisoned against all beneficial European approach by the vices of the slave trade, or by Mahometan prejudices. But, on the east, the only Europeans were the Portuguese, equally jealous; and, on the south, the Dutch, proverbial for shutting up their colony even from their own countrymen. But now the scene has assumed another aspect. England, the great opener of intercourse, the great trader, the great civilizer, and, by consequence, taking the lead in all discovery, is now mistress of the south, and is pushing her vigorous branches along the whole east coast of this stupendous continent. Her steam-boats are on the west, and the Niger is already carrying commerce into the heart of the equatorial region. Judicious patronage, combined with commercial activity, will speedily urge the progress of discovery, and, before the next fifty years are past, the central Table Land may be traversed, and a new southern empire added to the dominion of civilized man.

The Barrister. It is fortunate that the task of planting the southern portion of Africa has fallen into the hands of a nation less addicted to violence, most benevolent and public spirited in its enterprises, and by every habit, reason, and interest most fitted to found an empire on the basis of religion, humanity, and law. The Kaffre war has been charged on our ambition; but the unquestionable fact is, that it has arisen solely from the rapacity of the savages themselves, and that it has been conducted by the English with all the mildness and justice compatible with repelling a treacherous and blood thirsty inroad.

The Doctor. Captain Alexander commenced his late expedition on the 10th of September, 1836. The season was auspicious, and the first aspect of the country attractive. There was nothing of the desert of the country, all was covered with a broad carpet of dark green marked with patches of the most brilliant wild flowers. On the right the snowcapped peaks of the Drakenstein mountains, rising two or three thousand feet above the plains, formed a most agreeable picture. The Cape

Lark rose near him perpendicularly to the height of about thirty feet, gently descending with a prolonged whistle, and all around wore a delightful aspect of life and liberty; but when they advanced into the open country they began to feel the effects of the rain which had thus covered the wilderness with verdure. The paths were deep with mud, and their heavy waggon plunged into holes from which neither shouting nor the whip could induce the oxen to draw it. All possible expedients were adopted, and by digging out the mud from before the wheels, trampling down branches, and loading a portion of the stores, and similar contrivances, they made some way; but before nightfall the waggon had sunk up to the naves in a slough of despond from which all extrication seemed impossible. The rain fell, the night descended, and the spirits of the party had sunk like their waggon, until, after a long and weary circuit, they obtained the assistance of some of the farmers, shifted a portion of their stores to another waggon, and thus escaped shipwreck at their very leaving the harbour.

The Barrister. The chief difficulty in colonizing this country would evidently be the want of great rivers; but, though the coast is generally sandy, the interior frequently exhibits scenes of remarkable beauty. Among the Damaras there are vast tracts covered with sheep and cattle. Captain Alexander dwells with natural interest on the sight of the herds and flocks returning from pasture by thousands at sunset towards the huts to be protected from the lions during the night. Would not the camel be an admirable addition to the riches of those people, as well as an invaluable conveyance of the traveller through those alternate sands and pastures of the interior, for which the waggon and its oxen are proved to be so unsuitable?

The Colonel. This is the especial land of the two most formidable of wild beasts, the rhinoceros and the lion. Some of the people went one day after a white rhinoceros not far from Niais; they pursued it rapidly, and it ran-for the white rhinoceros generally flies from man, while the bolder animal, the black, is infuriated by the sight, and charges him. As the hunters were passing a clump of bushes in pursuit, a black rhinoceros rushed out upon them. They immediately scattered themselves in all directions to escape, but the last man of the party was caught on the terrible nose-horn and flung into the air. He fell on the ground on his back, but, either from being stunned or through presence of mind, lay quite still with his eyes nearly closed; the rhinoceros then made short rushes at him, snorting and smelling, as if to ascertain that he lived, the man still lying as dead, for at the least motion he would have been gored and trampled to death. In the mean time the rest of the hunters turned, and seeing what the rhinoceros was about, fired. Some of the shots striking him, sent him off screaming with his tail between his legs. The man was then brought in; but the only injury he was found to have sustained was a slight graze on one of his legs, which was soon healed.

The Doctor. "Letters from Egypt, Edom, and the Holy Land," by Lord Lindsay. This is a tour in letters to friends and relatives of the noble writer, commencing in the latter part of 1836, with Cadiz and

Gibraltar. Cadiz delights all strangers by its romance, its beauty, and its novelty. All is intensely Spanish-the long, black cloaks of the sleepy Hidalgos-the Moorish faces-the conical hats and sashes of the lower order-the fans and graceful gliding feet of the women-the painted balconies above, that give such a character to the straight, narrow streets, with flowers in them; and the dazzling whiteness of the houses, render it a captivating scene to the stranger, to say nothing of the delight of feeling one's-self on Spanish ground at last, and hearing the language of Calderon and Cervantes on every lip that passes.

The Colonel. No change can be conceived stronger than from Cadiz to Gibraltar; from the quay of Cadiz, crowded with the swarthy and fantastic populace, to Gibraltar with its throng of English uniforms, sentries, guards changing, officers riding past, the sound of English on every side, and all the pomp and circumstance of British soldiery. But Gibraltar is almost a museum of African and Oriental life. Here are to be seen the Moor with his white turban, burnoosh, and trousers; the Jew with his black skull cap, beard, and Israelitish face, the index of his pedigree the wide world over; then the holiday attire, and light, springy step of the Andalusian peasant.

The Barrister. The next step of the noble tourist is to Alexandria, a scene equally strange, and, if possible, more diversified. Alexandria, though geographically belonging to Egypt, morally belongs to Asia. Its power, its politics, its manners and its costumes are Asiatic. The streets are a living panorama of the Oriental nations. Every nation has its representatives there. The Arab soldier, the Coptic serf, the grave and opulent Armenian, and the Jew, always looking either the most miserable or the most majestic of mankind, mingled with the strings of camels towering along, the women gliding about in their deep veils, and the haughty officers of the Pasha in their splendid dresses, and mounted on their superb horses, driving the multitude before them, are thoroughly Oriental. One part leads the recollection back to ages which throw all modern pomp into the shade.-The Bedouin groups, exhibiting the same countenances and costumes, retaining the same manners, and speaking the same language which the sons of Ishmael have held since the patriarchal age.

The Rector. After a short sojourn in Alexandria, Lord Lindsay went up the Nile as far as the second cataract, the usual termination of tours; though there can be no doubt, that in a few years more, this will be looked upon as the mere commencement of the voyage up the Nile, and that Abyssinia will have its steam-boats "arriving to the minute," its English hotels to receive the passengers, its coffee-houses for the morning lounge of the sable politicians, and its Bourse for the transaction of securities and shares in speculations in lion skins, elephants' teeth, and the Gondar canal.

The Colonel. The voyage, for the first hundred miles up the river, is through a flat but remarkably fertile country, covered along the edge of the Nile with farm-houses, garden-grounds, the residences of the opulent natives, and the establishments of the great Pasha. Higher up it becomes one of boldness and grandeur. The rocks assume a sudden