purchasing land and establishing themselves in the kingdom, enjoy the privilege of importing free of duty,' &c. &c. &c.-Strong, p. 164.

(Here follows a schedule.)

A third great impediment, however, to the more successful cultivation of Greece is the want, or rather the partial distribution, of water. The catabothra, or emissaries, among the most curious and gigantic works of ancient Greece, and to which some attention was paid by the Turks, are now completely choked up, and vast plains of the most fertile land are become stagnant marshes, or the beds of shallow lakes. If land should rise in demand, the government, by a wise, even if costly, expenditure, on the cleansing out and restoring these vast drains, would no doubt amply repay themselves in the end for such an outlay. We quote Mr. Strong's observations on this emissary of the Lake Copais, as well on its own account, as for the passage which follows relating to the general change in the watercourses of the country since the flourishing days of Greece.

'That Lake Copaïs might be drained, there can be no reasonable doubt; the only difficulty would be to furnish the pecuniary means. Crates of Chalcis, an eminent hydraulic engineer in the time of Alexander the Great, perforated an artificial channel through the mountains, of sufficient size to admit of the passage of the waters, though increased by the winter rains, which were thus carried off into the sea, the mouth of this artificial channel being opposite the island of Eubœca. The length of the conduit was about an English mile; and in order to clean it in case of its becoming obstructed, upwards of forty vertical shafts were sunk at different stations from the surface of the mountain through which it passed, so as to permit of easy access to the part where the stoppage existed.

This magnificent work is now completely choked up, but the vertical shafts still exist, and the whole might be cleared out, and thus drain the extensive plain of Copaïs. The inundations are very gradual. The water begins to rise in the winter, after the fall of the first rains, not with the boisterous impetuosity of an Alpine mountain torrent, tearing up trees and destroying houses, but so gently as to be almost imperceptible; and an ancient Hellenic causeway, which is annually submerged, appears again periodically without any visible damage or alteration, though one half the year under water.

But the clearing out of the subterraneous water-courses, though the most efficacious and radical, are not the only means to be adopted; for as the water which covers the greatest part of the country is only about a couple of feet deep, a solid wall of not more than three feet in height would protect many thousands of acres from inundation, the waters of which are now only carried off and exhaled in the summer, when it is too late to cultivate the land.

There is no doubt that in Greece the appearance of the country has changed most materially during the last twenty or thirty centuries; and

though

though the position of mountains and rivers remain the same, even their aspect must have undergone a complete change. Herodotus says that the Athenians hunted bears in the forests on Mount Lycabettus, where now there is scarcely a shrub to be found a foot high. From other writers we know that Hymettus, Pentelicon, and Parnassus were covered with forests to their summits. They now present the appearance of skeletons of mountains, bare rocks without any vegetation, or only producing a few stunted trees, whose roots seek in vain for nourishment among the soilless crevices. The trees which formerly covered these mountains having died away by degrees, the soil kept together by their roots, and increased by the decomposition of their leaves, has, in the course of time, been washed down by the heavy periodical rains into the valleys, the level of which has, no doubt, considerably risen, as is abundantly proved by many antique ruins having been discovered in digging the foundations of modern houses. In the plain of Olympia the pedestals of the columns of the Temple of Jupiter, which have lately been discovered, are nearly twenty feet below the present surface of the ground.

That the rivers have shared the same fate is also easily proved. The Cephissus, for instance, has dwindled down to a little stream, not sufficient for irrigating the gardens in the plain of Attica; and yet, at one time, it was so deep as to form a barrier to the progress of Xerxes and his whole army, who, not being able to cross it, encamped upon its banks. The classical Ilyssus is now quite dry, though the buttresses of the magnificent bridge which connected the Athenian side of the river with the Stadium still exist, showing that the span of the arch was fifty feet; and, judging by appearances, the depth of water must have been at least twelve or fourteen feet. At Sparta are still to be seen the iron rings inserted in the stones forming the quays of the Eurotas, formerly used for the purpose of making fast the galleys. The water in that river now does not reach to the knee in any part; and the Inachus, which was formerly navigable up to Argos, is a dry torrent-bed except during the rainy season. Strong, pp. 167-169.

Artesian wells are proposed to remedy this defect, but the Greeks, according to Mr. Strong, are ignorant even of the common pump.

All such improvements, of course, must depend on the finances of the country. We find, however, from the abstract of income and expenditure, that there was in 1840-for the first time indeed-but still, if we may trust the figures, in that year, the last of which we have the financial statement, there was a surplus of 819,770 dollars. The revenue shows a regular and progressive increase, the expenditure appears to diminish. This, with the large and gradually available fund which the state possesses in the property of the soil, might offer, under prudent yet wisely speculative management, resources proportionately more hopeful than those of most European kingdoms.

For

For the rest of the details of the army, navy, and church establishment of Greece we must content ourselves with a general reference to Mr. Strong's book-not without rendering our thanks for the information afforded us.

When, indeed, we throw off the archaeologist-when we consider Greece, not merely as a sacred treasure-house of the monuments and of the lofty reminiscences of antiquity, but look upon it as taking its place, however humble, in the great federation of European nations-we think that, as a Christian power, in its peculiar position, it may become of greater political importance than many may be at present disposed to allow. In this small kingdom a great man might, we think, at least lay the foundation of great things. If, by a wise and paternal administration, he could at the same time people the deserted fields, and cultivate them to their height; if, while thus fully developing the national resources, he could create a national spirit; if, confining her military expenditure to the defence of the country, Greece were to aspire gradually to become what nature seems to have destined her for, in her limited waters, and what she was in the palmy days of Athens, a maritime power, she might gradually grow in consideration. And when the time comes, as come it apparently must, sooner or later-when changes take place, in at least the European dominions of Mahometanism-when the waning Crescent may be compelled to retire to its native Asia-it might be convenient to have a small, indeed, but flourishing and well-governed Christian state, whose frontiers might be advanced without danger to the balance of Europe; and which, strong, not in her own strength, but in that of the great powers of Europe, who might find it their interest to put her forward, might receive accession of territory, of which no one could be jealous; and obtain by common consent a part of those spoils which might otherwise give rise to interminable wars.

But if Greece is to arrive at this glorious destiny, its sceptre must be wielded with a firm and vigorous hand; and whether it is now, or is likely to be, so wielded, is a question on which we must, at present at least, decline to enter. The scattered intelligence which reaches us seems by no means altogether of propitious omen; yet some highly intelligent countrymen of our own have of late, after deliberate examination, established their families in the capital of King Otho.

ART.

ART. VI.-1. Report of the Commissioners for Inquiring into the Condition of Children employed in Mines, &c., with two Appendices of Evidence. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty. 3 vols. Folio. pp. 2022. London. 1842.

2. History of Fossil Fuel, the Coal-trade and Collieries, &c. London. Svo. 1841. Second Edition.

3. Speech of Lord Ashley in the House of Commons on the 7th June, 1842, on moving for leave to bring in a Bill to make Regulations respecting the Age and Sex of Children and Young Persons employed in Mines and Collieries. London. 8vo. pp. 58.

ON

N this our fair Earth, with its canopy of air and cincture of waters, the prying mind of man observes a host of animated forms, which, with every apparent capacity for liberty and power of change, seem each in its kind to be tethered to its own region by invisible influences of such potency that to trangress them is to die. A certain zone is alloted to each of the four-footed racesa certain range and altitude to the bird-and a certain stratum of waters to the finny tribe; the surface and the caverns of the ocean have each their inhabitants, ever embraced by the same common element, yet ever remaining strangers to each other. Something of the same complexity and economy is visible in the ordering of that great moral universe, which is made visible here through the agency of man-who, whatever may be the capacity of the individual for intellectual advancement, has his brotherhood with his humbler companions of earth; and, like them, is chained to those regions where he can alone procure the conditions of physical existence. Practically, we always find, and have ever found, large sections of our race exhibiting grades and differences of action and suffering; so that we are compelled to acknowledge that that which is to sustain and perfect the social fabric, considered as a whole, is not one in form and shape-not found in one spot-but scattered over the earth-acquired by a variety of efforts under varying circumstances, but everywhere, and under all its varieties, taxing all the faculties of mind and body in the individual, that the great destinies of the race may be fulfilled.

Here, however, the parallel between the physical world and the social ceases. The author of both has ordained, in the former, that so long as each tribe of animals plays its appointed part, so essential to the great organism of nature, all its capacities for enjoyment shall be satisfied. To man alone he has intrusted the perilous duty of guarding his own happiness. Labour for sustenance is his lot, in common with all flesh; variety in the kind,

and

and intensity in the degree of labour, is a necessary inheritance, on which the very existence of the social and moral system hinges. But whether or not he shall vindicate, in the midst of this, his nobler nature and destinies, depends greatly upon himself, and also in no small degree on the society in which his lot is cast.

Here, by three ponderous folios, we have disclosed to us—in our own land, and within our own ken-modes of existence, thoughts, feelings, actions, sufferings, virtues, and vices, which are as strange and as new as the wildest dreams of fiction. The earth seems now for the first time to have heaved from its entrails another race, to astonish and to move us to reflection and to sympathy.

Here we find tens of thousands of our countrymen living apart from the rest of the world-intermarrying—having habits, manners, and almost a language, peculiar to themselves-the circumstances surrounding their existence stamping and moulding mind and body with gigantic power. The common accidents of daily life are literally multiplied to this race of men a hundredfold; while they are subject to others which have no parallel on earth. It is not, then, a matter for wonder that their minds should borrow from the rocks and caverns they inhabit something of the hardness of the one and something of the awful power of darkness' of the other; and that their hearts and emotions should exhibit the fierceness of the elements amidst which they dwell.

It is mainly to Lord Ashley, who has headed this great movement for the moral improvement of the working classes, that we are indebted for these volumes, issued apparently for the purpose of letting the public know the true condition of the mining population, and so forcing, by the weight of opinion and individual co-operation, society at large to attempt an amelioration.

The legislature of past years has undoubtedly been to blame in taking no cognizance of such a state of things as is now exhibited. But are they blameless who employ these men, and reap the benefit of labours which have induced a premature old age in their service? Have they, with so much in their power, fulfilled their duties-have they considered how to strengthen the connection of the master and the hireling by other ties than those of gain? Has our Church, clerical and lay, been diligent in civilising these rough natures? Have proprietors, enriched by the development of minerals, enabled the Church to increase her functionaries in proportion to the growth of new populations? These are questions which must be asked, and answered, before the burden of change is laid on a few, which should be borne by many. We feel that this benefit must be conferred by all; and the power of the state must be propped by the self-denial of the owner-and the mild, untiring energies of the Church must be