Deprived then of the highest and most exquisite enjoyments of civilized society, they are, it must be allowed, comparatively free from the pitiful bickerings and intrigues and jealousies, which so frequently deform the beauty, and disturb the tranquillity of our domestic life. Their women, it is true, gain not so much in this respect as their men; because that soft and patient sex is said to delight in those little innocent exercises of liberty, those gentle breezes of discord, which just serve to ruffle the surface of matrimony, without endangering the safety of the vessels that are floating on it-a perpetual calm were too tedious-let us set sail and trust to Providence.-Now men are generally of a different opinion, and Mussulmen are not slow in exerting their authority to repress these amiable effervescences, these little" consequential ills that freedom draws."

We must now come, I fear, to the mention of one virtue, in which the advantage must be conceded to the daughters of the east-so awful a virtue, that its very name may not be pronounced without hesitation.-Is it charity, or economy? is it sensibility, devotion, or piety? Not one of these. Beauty it cannot be, nor the power of displaying or preserving it-for these are hardly virtues-no; it is the power of opposing moral rectitude to vicious inclination-of subduing passion by principle-in one word, it is chastity.

Now when we consider that the customs and religion of Mahometan women, and the legal power of their husbands, subject them, not indeed to slavery, but to a degree of restraint much greater than is at all fashionable in the west-that they are almost precluded from the society of strangers, into which our unsuspicious fair ones advance with the most engaging familiarity; the fact, which it has been my misfortune to mention, appears utterly anomalous and incomprehensible.— For is it not now sufficiently notorious, that every species of confinement and severity tends essentially to the encouragement of female weakness? Is there a bride in Kensington gardens, a widow at a masquerade, or a paysanne in a hayfield, who cannot make it indisputably clear-to all other brides, widows, and haymakers,-that duennas and jealousy, and bars, and locks are utterly subversive of virtue? that principles are to be tried and confirmed by temptation? that constant exposure

to danger is the only possible preservation from harm? All this is incontrovertible-but the fact remains-certain, disgraceful, and inexplicable.

Another fact, consequent on this, and of immeasurable importance in our estimate of happiness, is not to be omitted; though it is difficult to find expressions corresponding to the mixture of intense and conflicting feelings, which are ever excited by the consideration of that subject. Is it affliction or is it shame that preponderates, when we confess that the cities of Christian Europe are oppressed by a moral calamity, for which legislators can provide no remedy, which overwhelms honour and decency, and to which religion itself can oppose little impediment. And has our boasted civilisation really reduced us to this? is the health of our social body to be maintained only by the action of the running sore, which deforms and disgraces it? this curious and gaudy edifice, does it require then such unseemly and unnatural appendages to prop and support it? Wise men tell us so and good men are sorrowfully silent-and all other men, without either thought or sorrow, acquiesce in the necessity of prostitution.

This desolating evil, the moral plague of Christianity, has a very rare and confined existence in the east-its publicity is endured only in Egypt. Thus is prevented an enormity of misery, surpassed only by that which is inflicted on the human race by the toleration of slavery. But we have little reason to exult that, of two degrading calamities, we have chosen, or are subjected to, the lesser-it is at last but a miserable kind of satisfaction which the wretch derives from the contemplation of greater wretchedness-still it is satisfaction-but there is surely no consolation in being surpassed in villainy and infamy.

Thus much may be said generally with respect to the character and comparative happiness of Christian and Mahometan women-some facts, however, may have been generally stated, which are not universally true; for there are distinct national characters among eastern as well as among western ladies. A Turkish sultana, for instance, has some accomplishments to which the belles of Nubia or Arabia are entire strangers; and many pages of praise might be written on the incorruptibility of English women, which would not be so strictly

merited (we are assured) by the "fair and fervid" daughters of Italy. And besides, I wish not to dismiss this very interesting subject without entering a little more minutely into the details of female life, on both sides of the Adriatic, and thus instituting a closer investigation of the causes of social enjoyment, as emanating from women and as reflected upon men. I feel the oppressive importance of the inquiry which I have undertaken, and am determined to conduct it with becoming gravity and impartiality.

Thus much had been submitted to the examination of " the Council," when it was suggested by the Soldier, that the subject on which the Traveller was now about to enter, was of such extreme delicacy, that his opinions thereon, however just they might possibly be, and even derived from actual observation and experience, could not with propriety be published, without the imprimatur of the "Ladies in Council.” The Traveller professed the highest veneration for that tribunal --objecting, however, their necessary ignorance of Oriental life, and expressing a suspicion, that women were not in general the best judges in matters of human nature, even when relating peculiarly to themselves. This paradox served only to convince the majority of the Council, that the affairs of the ladies were not perfectly safe in the hands of the Traveller ;he submitted therefore, with a tolerably good grace, to the order of the President, that the remainder of his disquisition should be distinctly recited by himself in person to the assembled ladies, and again brought up for the approbation of the Council, after it should have received their sanction. The Traveller only requested that, while attending to the objections of his fair judges, more than four of them might not be allowed to speak at the same moment-this was thought just by the President; but was looked upon by the ladies as an unconscionable restraint on their freedom of debate: hence arose other difficulties, which will defer for several days the conclusion of the Traveller's labour.

HUNT AND THE RADICALS.

THE BARON LAS CASAS v. SIR HUDSON LOWE:

MR. O'MEARA v. THE EDITORS OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

YOUR modern Babylon is a very dull place at this season of the year, said the Cosmopolite the other evening in Council. As to foreign intelligence, it is true that the stock-jobbers manage to get up some alarming reports, and spread them in rapid succession along the town, that they may prey upon human gullibility. But of subjects of conversation in the home department of news, there is a miserable dearth: there is absolutely nothing to talk about. We cannot be amused for ever with the tomfooleries of Radicalism. We have had quite enough of the liberation and triumphal entry into London of that most magnificent mountebank Mr. Hunt—the plaided prince of quacks-the adviser of constables-the Lord of the Manor of Glaston twelve hides-the friend of peace and order -the dissuader from violence and tumult-the intrepid hero who disregards even the perils of assassination by the emissaries of a British Ministry for the good of the people. We have had enough too of that other philanthropic Solomon Mr. ex-Sheriff Parkins, the wiseacre who procreates children by mistake, and presides at public dinners by accident. Really, when all this caricaturing of patriotism is understood and un-' masked, there is just as little interest in the thing as in the exhibition of the mermaid, when we know the exact place where the head of the ape has been stitched on to the body of the fish. By the way, if the said monster, instead of being half fish, was a compound of the baboon and the serpent, the imposture in the glass-case would be no bad emblem of the present demigods of reform. Why will not your government let them alone; leave their exposure to each other, and their punishment to the common sense of the nation? When it is evident that the great key to their character is an insane thirst after notoriety; why should we not apply to them the words of Milton ?—

They nought merit but dispraise

And ignominy, yet to glory aspire

Vain-glorious; and through infamy seek fame :-
Therefore eternal silence be their doom.

This would be all very well, said the President, if there were no unprincipled journalists, who laboured, for the furtherance of their own views, to write these pretenders to patriotism into a kind of celebrity, and attach importance to their operations. As it is, we ought to be thankful to the men, whoever they may be, who in such a case apply the lash of ridicule, and do the dirty work of castigation. It would be well if we were to undertake the task ourselves. Suppose, Urbanus, you were to write a mock-heroic poem, or satirical epic, to be called "The Reformiad," or some such name. It is an excellent subject; but you must mind, in treating it, to shew yourself the friend of regulated freedom, while you laugh at the mischievous or frantic projects which can alone bring our possession of it into jeopardy. Your Your poem should be a political Dunciad, in which you might embalm all the political impostors and political blockheads of the present age, in terrorem to the political impostors and political blockheads of posterity:

"Sacred to ridicule their whole life long,
And the sad burthen of some merry song."

"What think you of my suggestion?" "I am ready enough," answered Urbanus, " to undertake the task; but the chances are, that before it can be completed these doughty politicians will have died a natural death, or become a theme too obscure and despicable for my muse."-"So much the better," replied the President: "but I fear that the species will remain, although the individuals may be politically defunct."

Some members of the Council now observed, with reference to the remark of the Cosmopolite, that there were other topics of conversation afloat, besides the rump of a contemptible faction-the self-exposed champions of revolutionary reform. Mention was made, among the rest, of the rencontre between the young Las Casas and Sir Hudson Lowe: and as connected with it, the disputes between Mr. O'Meara and the editors of the London journals. The discourse then turned upon duelling in general: but as much difference of opinion was found to exist upon the subject, we have kept the form of a dialogue and reserved the discussion for a future time. With regard, however, to the above-mentioned transactions, the sentiments of the whole "Ten" were the same, with some very slight

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