were out of provisions, gave us the prospect of starving till we arrived at another. At last an old woman ventured on board with some fowls, we paid her what she asked for them (about three-pence a-piece), and, in the course of half an hour, all the inhabitants of the village brought fowls, fish, sheep, &c. sufficient to stock our boat. For the sheep we gave about halfa-crown for each. We hailed a fishing-boat, but the men denied that they had caught anything until a Tartar called out in his own language to our Tartar interpreter and told him where they were concealed; we immediately presented our double-barrelled guns, and having compelled a delivery, requested them to set their own price on our capture-a demand which not a little astonished and pleased them. The number of fish, of all species, which inhabit the Volga, is amazing; but the superstitious prejudices of the Russian peasants prevent their making use of several sorts. Having many more than I could consume, of a sort which resembles the chad, I offered them to our boat's crew; they refused them, alleging as a reason that all those fish were insane and swam round and round, and that if they eat them they would become insane too; in consequence vast numbers of them are sold, at very low prices, to the Tartars, Calmoucs, Cossacs, Tchouasses, Mordouans, and German colonists who inhabit the banks, and who profit by the ignorance of their neighbours. Pigeons they also refused, from some religious idea; and to hares, also, for some reasons or other, they had an equal aversion."

Lord Royston in the course of his tour, visited some places that have been seldom resorted to by modern European travellers, such as the Tartar deserts, the shores of the Caspian and Baku, and the Guebre fire-worshippers. Our last extract regards these remarkable devotees, and exhibits the writer fairly and advantageously.

"I rode on to the peninsula of Afsharon, to see the everlasting fire; about which I was the more curious, as Olearius, who, however, did not see it himself, asserts that the worship of the Guebres no longer subsisted, and the relation in Hanway is not taken from an eye-witness. About five or six miles from the sources of naphtha (that is, from the principal sources, for there is a well of white naphtha much nearer), there is a spot of ground, of pretty considerable extent, of such a nature, that, if a hole is dug in it, or the first coat of earth removed, and fire applied, the vapour which issues forth burns with great intensity, and continues to do so, till it is extinguished by some violent storin. The heat is sufficient to calcine lime-stone, and the peasants burn their lime in no other manner. About the centre of this spot is a large quadrangular building of stone, built round a court, in the centre of which is a perforated tumulus, from the top of which blazes up the everlasting fire, surrounded by smaller fires of the same nature. The building is divided into cells, each with a separate entrance, designed for the accommodation of worshippers; on each door was a tablet with an inscription, in characters of which I am ignorant; one of them seemed to have a translation, of which the characters were Persian; but the language was neither Persian, Arabic, nor Turkish, and, therefore, most probably modern Hindostanee. I went into one of the cells, which was inhabited; a small platform of earth was raised on each side, perforated, and a tube introduced; one of these is always kept burning, according to the direction of

the wind. The first Zerdusht forbad to raise temples or enclose the sacred fire, asserting it to be impious to confine the image of the deity, but the second raised altars and temples. I asked the inhabitant of the cell what was his country? He said he was a Hindoo (I presume a Parsee, from the frontiers of India), and that the building was erected entirely at the expense of the Hindoos. I asked for what purpose he came thither? He replied, without hesitation, To worship that fire;' and said that persons were sent from India to relieve each other in the employment of tending the everlasting flame, and that he, and his companions, were then waiting to be relieved. I observed a great pile of fuel, for they esteem the other fire too pure for culinary purposes. The quadrangle contains a well of fresh water. If the vapour which issues from the earth is collected in bladders and car ried to a distance, it remains equally inflammable, and, from its burning with a red flame, I conclude it to be carbonated hydrogen gas: now, though carbon and hydrogen are contained in naphtha, I know of no way in which naphtha could be decomposed in such a manner as to set the gas free. The sources are at some distance, the soil is not bituminous but calcareous, and the only smell is a faint odour of Harrowgate water, which shews the presence of a small quantity of sulphurated hydrogen, blended with the carbonated. I do not believe the naphtha to be an agent in producing the phenomenon. I remained four days at Baku, exclusive of those on which I arrived and departed; and then set off across the desert to Shamachee."

ART. V.-Correspondence of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham. Edited by the Executors of his son JOHN, EARL OF CHATHAM. Vol. 1. Lon don Murray. 1838.

THIS Correspondence of the idol of the British people is appropriately dedicated to the "British Public" by his Great-grandsons, "to illustrate an eventful period of England's story, and to develope the character of an heroic statesman." The volume commences with the year 1741, when William Pitt was thirty-three years of age, and extends into 1759. In the interval he had successively filled various official situations, had become Secretary of State, and had put England upon that basis of power and career of action that was to elevate her to the highest pitch of renown and glory.

To refresh our readers' memories, and to afford them the benefit of a skeleton map in which to set down readily and satisfactorily facts, dates, or extracts which are afterwards to be noticed, we shall just glance at Lord Chatham's history.

William Pitt was born in 1708. He was the younger son of a Cornish gentleman; was educated at Eton and Oxford; obtained on leaving the University a cornetcy in the Blues; took his seat in Parliament for Old Sarum in 1735. On account of his formidable opposition, which his commanding abilities and eloquence speedily exerted, Sir Robert Walpole deprived him of his military commission, one of those blind steps and paltry pieces of tyranny which are

the appointed forerunners, and sometimes apparent causes of vast and glorious effects.

Having been forced to bid adieu to the army, he was appointed Groom of the Bedchamber to the Prince of Wales. We have already alluded to the subordinate offices which he filled. In December 1756, he kissed hands as Secretary of State, but was commanded to resign in the following April: for, not to speak of the covert dislike which the aristocracy generally bore him, on account of his immense real superiority, and comparatively obscure birth as well as narrow fortune, the King was from some cause personally hostile to him. But so much the more boldly did he throw himself upon the intelligence and advocate the cause of the people. Nor were they slow to respond generously to his magnanimity and to own his patriotic exertions, so that there was no alternative but to redeliver the seals of office to him again, which was done in June. From this moment and during the whole of his future power as a member of the cabinet, or at its head, he infused into Government his administrative genius, while he filled the nation and the world with his

name.

In 1766, Mr. Pitt was created Earl of Chatham. But he had ever been a martyr to the gout; so that after a dreadful attack in the following year, which continued for several months, he remained at the head of the Government, only because his sovereign assured him that his name alone was sufficient to give it stability. He resigned in October, 1768, and never afterwards took office, although he continued to take a deep interest in the disputes between England and her American Colonies. The whole world knows the particulars of Lord Chatham's last appearance in the Senate, when he sank under a gigantic exertion, and received his death warrant. He died in May 1778.

Mr. Pitt married, in 1754, Hester, only daughter of Richard Grenville, of Walton, Esq., and of Hester, Countess Temple. They had five children, three sons and two daughters: William was the second son.

It is hardly necessary to utter a word about the character of Lord Chatham as a patriot or a statesman. In regard to the former as well as the latter he presented a wonderful contrast to those weak, knavish, gaudy, or intriguing and worthless men, who from the days of the Commonwealth had lain heavy upon, or distracted the empire, till it was brought to the verge of ruin and despair. But the man arose who was imbued with the power and the pure good will to restore his country, and to render her pre-eminent among nations; a man whose private and social life exhibited as grand a spectacle and theme of national boast, as his diplomacy was direct and bold, his political course undeviating and resistless, or as his eloquence was convincing and vehement. He stood in every capacity erect, and towered above all. His was the simplicity of true

sublimity, his was the sternness of Roman dignity, his were the bursts of godlike wisdom or mighty passion, indignant, arousing, and melting by turns to the consternation, the discomfiture, or the admiration of all. His deeds were but an embodiment of his words, as foreign or domestic foes suddenly learned; and both were but transcripts of his nature, which combined in its very texture, strengthened by assiduous training, the elements of a lofty philosophy and a fiery genius: let us add, the whole having a most obvious and practical force, which inspired other men with kindred feelings and qualities.

Of such a man the world can never learn too much; and since there is no species of evidence, no form of literary records which so faithfully declares principles and sentiments as those which private and confidential correspondence and other secret and unpremeditated documents convey, when the writer unbosoms himself, or, as it were, holds converse with his own heart, we have looked with anxiety and no small degree of expectation to the appearance of the present work. It must be admitted, however, that anticipation in such a case is exceedingly apt to be unreasonably great. Everything is measured by what one has before heard of the subject, by what has already given it a transcendant eminence in the estimation. Partly on this account the volume before us will occasion disappointment. Besides, one regrets extremely that there should be none of Mr. Pitt's letters in this collection prior to his thirty-third year, and that for the ensuing years they should be so few. And what is not less to be regretted, we here find but little that can introduce us to his fire-side, to the bosom of his family, to his conjugal, parental, and everyday life, when unmarked and conscious of being unmarked by the public. Some precious glimpses we receive, to be sure, even of home and ordinary scenes; but seeing that it is almost solely from his senatorial displays and his political career that the world has arrived at such a lofty estimate of his character, it is natural to long for a sight of him in a sphere where many shining and even many majestic personages have been beheld not otherwise than tame, dull, disagreeable, or in some less questionable shape. Of course we cannot pronounce an opinion upon any but the first volume.

In spite, however, of all these defects, this volume deserves to be warmly welcomed and highly prized; for though its contents were entirely confined to matters of state, to party politics and struggles, and to the public deeds and characters of personages who have stood in high places and wielded the destinies of nations, it would be entitled to deep consideration and to obtain a place in every historical library. Independent of the view which we here obtain of bygone times merely as a matter of curiosity, in the annals of England, some questions are mooted which have not yet been set at rest, and others solved which are fraught with emphatic lessons for present and future instruction. But we must no longer refrain from

presenting some specimens; and as the political letters must be considered the feature of the volume, to a few of these we first direct attention.

Among the first of the purely political documents, or, at least, those which let the reader behold some of the tortuous and mean doings behind the curtain, the chase after coronets, ribbons, garters, and the like, occur letters concerning the disgraceful quarrels and suspicious between the Duke of Newcastle and his brother Henry Pelham. During these fraternal altercations Mr. Pitt acted, on some occasions, it appears, as a conciliator and mediator. Our readers will at once call to recollection certain historical particulars connected with the Duke's cabinet, the Spanish treaty, &c., as inseparable from these squabbles. We quote one of the letters herewith connected.

"THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO MR. PITT. "DEAR SIR, Claremont, November 17, 1750. "Your goodness to me encourages me to give you the trouble of reading a voluminous correspondence; at the same time that it convinces me, I may do it with the utmost security. You will see by the particulars in the inclosed letters, how hard my fate is. I think it is impossible for one brother to write more truly through heart and soul to another than I do, and that in the most affectionate manner; no single circumstance concealed, or any forced construction put upon any part of my intelligence. Of what nature are the answers, you will now be able to judge. There are two things, I think plain: first, that the notion of removing the Duke of Bedford came originally and solely from the King, without any condition or restriction of his Grace's consent to take any other place, and at first, without even the condition of the consent of the Council, which was added afterwards. Secondly, that my good brother was always affraid lest it should take place, even though both the King and the Duke of Bedford should agree to it. And yet I am so unhappy, that his Majesty now is pleased to say he never meant anything further than that the Duke of Bedford should exchange his employment, if it was agreeable to him, and not otherwise, and my brother now affirms he wishes the exchange upon that condition.

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'I have in these letters sufficiently showed him the terrible situation I should be left in. That at least, I think, should have made him more cautious; but the bait was too strong to be lost, and the opportunity too good to be neglected. The thing is over, and I am every hour more convinced that it is impossible for me to stay with ease and reputation, much less with credit and influence. I shall take an opportunity of talking to the King; after that, upon full consultation with you and my Lord Chancellor, I must take my resolution. There are many things in these letters that concern third persons whom I love and honour. I am sure that part also is safe with you; I show you the whole, because I will conceal nothing, that you may judge the better what advice to give to him, who, you see is without reserve.