moment, allow the important mercantile interests of India and Europe to suffer any inconvenience through the interception of their correspondence," &c.

Extract from Manzari Shark, No. 40, Smyrna, June 19, 1841.

"What admirable farces are these accepted addresses' to Mehmed Ali! How indebted ought we to feel to the subscribers of them, for the monthly modicum of fun they send us, for the broad grins and hearty laughs, with which they enable us to while away a passing hour that perchance lies heavy on our hands. Pity it is, however, that our amusement should be at their expense; but is not the whole affair eminently characteristic of John Bull, one of whose chief services among the family of nations, is keeping them in good humour by his ludicrous mistakes? It reminds us much of a tall lubberly school-boy, who, having floored his opponent, takes sudden compassion on his fall, flies to his side, covers him with his caresses, wipes his bloody face, hopes he is not hurt, and finally stuffs his weekly allowance into the pocket of his disabled foe. Very much like this, (except in the last particular,) is the conduct of the Notables of Great Britain. Those of London, it appears, (determined not to be one whit behind the 'persons of consideration of Liverpool,' in their 'expressions of gratitude and thankfulness' to the lord and master of Egypt for benefits not bestowed,) have quickly followed up their address with another equally as remarkable for the elegance and polish of its style, and its thorough acquaintance with the facts which it assumes to have taken place. We congratulate the merchants of Liverpool upon having set so laudable an example; one so eagerly followed by their seniors of the metropolis. Rivals for distinction in the Court of an Egyptian despot, whose impartiality in the distribution of his returns in kind' must be a new theme of praise to his admirers, we would beg to suggest to each of these parties other avenues of approach to the affection of their idol, which, from our own knowledge, are more desirable and facile. Mehmed Ali knows as well as they-the value of words: they are with him, like his money, of light weight and very current-and we would therefore recommend that more durable marks of estimation-' such as he might bequeath to his posterity-should be made to him by the united bodies of the Mayor, Notables, and other persons of consideration in London and Liverpool. Several ideas connect themselves with so high-minded a scheme, one that would reflect such new lustre upon those respectable bodies of individuals; for instance-a piece of plate-with Acre in basso relievo, and the British fleet repulsed and burning in the distance, would be more acceptable, and about as true a representation of facts as their present 'addresses.' Or a Fancy Ball might be got up for the benefit of the widows and orphans of the martyrs slain in Syria, and the proceeds being paid to the treasury here, would doubtless very soon reach these unfortu nates; or, handsomely bound copies of Bowring's Reports, with a few volumes from the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, would be graciously received, as indicative at once of similar powers of understanding, and a singular congeniality of taste between the offerers and the acceptor; or, what would be still more highly prized, a few cargoes of

shot and shell-or, a new frigate or two. These, indeed, would be 'true balms of consolation to a wounded and harassed spirit,' and it would exhibit at once the independence of the donors, and their freedom from any vulgar notions of patriotism or national pride, if the arrivals of such tributes of admiration' could be timed, just when our line-of-battle ships are administering balms of a different kind to the wounded and harassed soldiers of their friend and patron.

"We hear that other notables are coming forward from the East' and from the West' to play at this game of follow-your-leader, and as the old rams have leaped the gap, we suppose the rest of the flock will follow. Warning is to them of course useless; they will be going their own gate:' but for the information of such of your readers as look before they leap, it may be a matter of kindness to them, to review, hastily, a few of the facts relating to Mehmed Ali's boasted pretensions of protection to British interests during the autumn of 1840.

"On the 10th September, 1840, the Hydra brought news of the blockade of the coast of Syria. The next day, a boat bearing British colours, with specie to the amount of 20,000 dollars, was forcibly and piratically seized in the great harbour, by order of the 'protector of British commerce.' British subjects were arrested, imprisoned, and maltreated; and only owing to the energetic expostulations of Colonel Hodges (who, thank Heaven! was still here), Mehmed Ali was induced to depart from a course that would speedily have shown him that his humanity and justice were called, by the British people, cruelty and injustice.-The 24th of the same month was a memorable day; at a public meeting it was proposed, that the British residents should express to the Pasha their full sense of his willingness to protect them. While at the same time, a public officer connected with the Pasha by the strongest ties of Eastern friendship, was heard to declare, that there was not ten minutes safety on shore, and accordingly removed himself and family on board the Asia. Universal consternation reigned in the town. All who could prepare, hastened on board the Oriental, and departed. And the Great Liverpool, a month afterwards, took down to Malta a large proportion of the mercantile body, and of the wealth and respectability of Alexandria: so much for 'personal protection' from Mehmed Ali. Did his friends trust him? Did those who were most intimately allied to him trust him? Did any of those who had even picked the crumbs of his Divan, leave one more para of property in his country than they could help? Who trusted to his duties as a man and a governor, then! And who, should similar circumstances arise, would trust to him now?'

"Now for the protection in the transit of mails and passengers.'The Pasha never works by direct means. No! he is too cunning for that the mails and passengers of September passed through; and now began the interruption. The Hon. East India Company's agent was commanded instantly to quit Cairo; he refused, and he was forced to do so at three hours' notice; his property was left without 'protection,' the British Consular arms were lowered before the mandates of him, who thereby procured that tranquillity of soul, which is the greatest happiness this world can bestow.' Nor was this all; the Bedouins of

the Desert were excited to plunder, and every energy of government was brought to bear against the Suez communication. The inns were closed; every living being, down to the house dog, was turned out, the doors were fastened, and bars of wood nailed upon them, and thus they remained for weeks. Mark what follows; many passengers arrived from Alexandria, and all were anxious to be off for Suez, preferring to wait there for the steamer than at Cairo. They tried every expedient to escape, but in vain; for they were repulsed in succession from every gate in Cairo. Mehmed Ali saw, through the representations of Mons. Cochelet, that a storm was brewing, and he, thanks to six line-of-battle ships off Alexandria, gave way.

"These are the true facts; this is 'plain unvarnished tale,' and we defy contradiction.

"Merchants of London! It matters little by whom you have been deceived whether by the said agent of Mehmed Ali; whether by those who have mercilessly enriched themselves at his expense; whether by his tenants at will, or by those who, more sagaciously, play on the chances of his crops. But deceived, grossly deceived, you have been; the man whom you address, is he who, in cold blood, murdered five hundred of the only aristocracy that Egypt ever possessed; who slaughtered your countrymen at Rosetta, and displayed their heads in triumph at Cairo ; and who, embroiling himself in European politics, began by breaking faith with Codrington, for which he received his deserts, and ends by cheating Charles Napier, for which you render him the tribute of your thanks."

ART. V.-D'Aubigné's History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century. Translated from the French by W. K. KELLY, Esq. B.A. Part I. Whittaker and Co.

THE first volume of the original, and forming one number of the "Popular Library of Modern Authors," of Whittaker's "Copyright Editions;" offering another opportunity for us to feel the pulse, so to speak, of our readers with regard to the tendencies and progression of the public mind upon subjects that have for a long time been regarded as of vital importance in the social, civil, and religious relations of life. It appears to us, that in a political as well as in an ecclesiastical sense, the world, we mean the British world, is drawing towards a general settlement of several of the grand questions that have been distracting the nation for centuries; and which have, the longer and broader that freedom of opinion extended, introduced so many new splits, and exhibited a so strangely checquered garment, as at length almost to defy description, or intelligible arrangement of shades and parts. None of these questions are, of course, of such mighty importance, and therefore none of them have been generative of such wide and curious divisions as those which belong to the kingdom of man's faith with respect to

this as well as a future sphere of existence. Were we to attempt to classify the diversities and the distinctions upon any simple and comprehensive plan, the terms Catholicism and Protestantism, or some such as would characterize the movement that occurred between the old and the new state of opinions and feelings at the period of the Reformation, would certainly meet and satisfy the demand. And yet, true it is that few seem to understand the precise value or meaning of either of these significant words; and that one as well as the other of them convey notions which are either indefinite, or which are made to stand for something far more important, distinctive, and promising, than any correct definition can substantiate. What, for example, is the general impression at this moment relative to the strength and prospects of Popery in England? One party will answer,-a Protestant party, we mean,-that its increase and threatenings are most alarming; another section of the same great body will say that a morbid sensitiveness exists on the subject; and that, independent of the bulwarks of the constitution against an ascendency that would chain the mind and send us back for several centuries, truth and freedom will of themselves triumph, that is, priestly domination must cease, while reason and conviction will consolidate the nation.

Perhaps, however, we shall not be far wide of the truth, should we assert that the church dominant of England, as at present established, with all the alliances which parchments and parliaments can yield, does not promise ample security for the reformed doctrines of the sixteenth century; or, in other words, that the Reformation requires to be reformed. We are aware that we are treading upon tender ground, and would speak with all diffidence; but may not this question be put, and become productive of anxious and perplexing discussion,-whether did Luther and his great Protestant, or reforming colleagues and successors, err most in declaring a total emancipation from the bondage of the Church of Rome, or in not proclaiming a greater freedom from the yoke and servitude of human authority? We think we discover that reformed England is divided on such a subject; that while one section is tilting at the principles preached at the period to which D'Aubigné's History particularly refers, on account of the ill-defined or bastard disentanglement then announced of the rights of private judgment in matters of religion, another section is disturbing society by holding forth that the world would be wiser, better, and far more perfectly agreed, if greater heed were given to the authority of sacred names and sacred characters:-that it would be for the world's well-being and well-doing if it was semi-popish instead of being semi-infidel. But what is it that we intend by noticing the extremes to which each of these sections appears to be rushing?It is this, that the very approach to or arrival at these extremities,

-each most probably exhibiting absurdities and woful dangers,will induce such re-actions that the two will again re-unite, and settle down upon the old, the tried, and the excellent foundations; that the tendencies of human nature, its exigencies, and its needs, will be found nicely to accord with and to require the provisions which Christianity and the Church Apostolical have furnished for mankind.

But if we were to form a judgment of the present tendencies of the public mind, or to speculate concerning the issues that ere long may be witnessed, we should find it necessary to discard the sort of lights which most of our recent and modern ccclesiastical historians have published, and the sectarian sentiments they would inculcate. In fact, there seems, as the day advances, to be in certain quarters a keener heat, and louder explosions; circumstances which in themselves may be supposed to indicate that the final struggle is not distant. May we not hope that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and that its manifestations, before many ages elapse, shall be so conspicuous, unmistakeable, and brilliant, as to silence all cavillings, and banish all doubts; giving us back what is pure and ancient, and disavowing the rust that must ever accrue to what is of man's seeking and man's making?

But to speak more particularly of the History, the first volume of which, as given in the original, is now in a translated shape before us, we have to say that it contains, if not an impartial, at least an engaging as well as a very full view of Luther, and also of the Reformation in Germany; frequently, too, derived from sources to which British writers have not ready access. D'Aubigné's own prefatory account of his motives and manner conveys a very fair idea of the work so far as we have consulted it; and we may observe that that consultation goes beyond the Part which is named at the head of this paper; there being another, although a much more expensive translation of the history, in the course of publication. But with regard to our author's intention: he says, "It is not the history of a party that I propose to write, but that of one of the greatest revolutions that have affected mankind, that of a potent impulse given to the world three centuries ago, the influence of which is every where still sensibly manifest in our own day." He goes on to observe that the history of the Reformation is a thing apart from the history of Protestantism; for that the former tells, in every line, of a regeneration of humanity, of a religious and social transformation issuing from God; while the latter exhibits too frequently a decided degeneration from primitive principles, the spirit of sectarianism, and petty intrigues. The distinction, however, appears to us to be rather in words than in effect; since, but for the proclaimed principles of the Reformation, we should not have had the allowance of continually protesting, according to