LECTURES ON THE GREAT NOVELISTS. nion as the speaker, but to incite them to become so.-Spectator. King Henry had, But Anna he Would have for wife, An interesting course of lectures by Mr. Cowden Clarke, at the London Institution, on "four A HISTORY OF ENGLAND, IN RHYME, FROM of the Great European Novelists," was brought to a close on Monday. The authors selected THE CONQUEST TO THE RESTORATION. From were Boccacio, Cervantes, Lesage, and Richard- which rejected burlesque or unperformed opera son; but it is to the last of the four that our have been drawn the materials for this work its notice must be confined. author does not explain to us :-his song having Richardson, said the lecturer, leaves nothing no symphony or preface. It is meant, we preto the imagination. Every detail of every inci- sume, principally to be jingled-after the fashion dent is given but this detail is always relevant. of coral and bells-in the cars of "the hope of There is no digression, no episode even. The England, from three years and downwards,"plots are at once simple and intricate. The and there is not a page at which we could open elaborate indices appended to "Clarissa" and the book without coming upon some chord or "Grandison" show the gravity with which Rich-modulation, so much in the style of "Goosey ardson regarded his productions. He wrote in Gander" as to take us back into Babyland, where perfect good faith; he never trifles with his sub- the kings are made of elecampane and the queens ject; his matter seems real and momentous to of gingerbread. Listen, by way of specimen, to himself, and becomes so to his reader. Of the some of the rhymes devoted to our royal Bluelatter fact, indeed, the lecturer gave proof posi- beard.— tive by the earnest conviction with which he discussed and sympathized with the fortunes of Clarissa. Of the character of Lovelace he delivered an elaborate précis; as also of Grandi- For eighteen years. son, that hero of "the malice prepense of good-* ness" of Miss Byron, whose mind, like the A Queen she was minds of more than one of the heroines, "is al- of modest mind, ways in full dress"-of Clementina, and of Cla-Most sweet and kind. Whose temper was rissa. The knowledge of women displayed by Richardson is most subtile. His finished por- The King, howe'er, traiture reaches the subordinate no less than At court had seen the principal characters. His morality is very A beauty, nam'd high he inculcates the great truth that men Anna Boleyn, must look into themselves for the paramount arbitration of their fate-on their own goodness or depravity for their happiness or wretchedness. In this respect he is the extreme opposite of Lesage. Richardson's wit and his pathos were then touched on; the former less convincingly than the latter. He is an author who never appears in his books, and yet he is incarnate in them. These you may admire deeply, or dislike altogether: you cannot read them with indifference. Lamb and Hazlitt were two of his greatest admirers; "and very delightful it was," said Mr. Clarke, with the freshness of personal knowledge, "to hear them talk of him." * And had for her * While thoughts like these "Ah, Kate, of you "My wish, indeed, CURIOUS TENDER." If any young clergyman, somewhat agreeable in person, and who has a small fortune independent, can be well recommended as to strictness of morals and good temper, firmly attached to the present happy establishment, and is willing to engage in the matrimonial estate with an agreeable young lady The question suggests itself, how far Richard- in whose power it is immediately to bestow a son, an author whom the novel-readers of the living of nearly £100 per annum, in a very pleaday may think comparatively old fashioned, and sant situation, with a good prospect of prefer who is more talked of than read, may be suit-ment,-any person whom this may suit may able as the theme of a lecture to a mixed audi- leave a line at the bar of the Union Coffee House ence. Boccacio is a great name, and the root in the Strand, directed to Z. Z., within three of the tree of modern fiction: Cervantes and days of this advertisement. The utmost secrecy Lesage are thoroughly popular: Richardson is and honor may be depended upon."-London distinguished rather than cherished. Mr. Clarke Chronicle, March, 1758. retained the attention of his audience throughout. He roused it into lively and even eager FLY-TAKERS OF CAPE COLONY.-A large wisp interest, where, as in the pictures he drew of of straw is dipped in milk and hung by a string Lovelace and Grandison, his own graphic touch-to the beams of the roof; when this is covered es presented a striking figure, and his power in with flies they come with a large bag slowly undescribing what his author had described demon-der the straw, and getting it in to a certain depth, strated the admirable truth of that, or stood by shake it so that the flies are shaken to the bottom its own strength: but, where lively delineation of the bag. In this manner they sometimes take gave place to critical statement, as it necessarily as many as a bushel of flies a day.-Lichtenstein. did towards the end, the hearers cooled in proportion to their coolness to Richardson himself. The function of a critical lecture, however, is this to be a corruption of " Topside t'other way." not merely to find an audience of the same opiNotes and Queries. TOPSY TURVY.-I have always understood From Chambers's Repository. CHRISTIAN SLAVERY IN BARBARY. and their families became bound under the name of adscripti; and thus arose that mitigated system of slavery known as serfdom, which prevailed during the middle ages, and which, in some of the northern parts of Europe, is not yet abolished. War and con WE find in the records of the remotest antiquity, slavery mentioned as an established system as quite a common usage. Abraham had "318 servants born in his own house;" quest, however, were always the great sources and thousands of children have wept when of slavery. England, overrun by Romans, they heard how Joseph was sold by his un- Saxons, Norwegians, and Normans, was long natural brethren. That it is an "institution" a country of slaves and slave-dealers. To the adapted to a rude state of society only, is circumstance of English captives being exposed satisfactorily proved by its complete extinction for sale in the market of Rome, we are inin almost all the more highly civilized and re- debted for the first gleam of the light of Gosfined communities of the earth; and also by pel truth. The Anglo-Saxons held a great its origin being clearly traceable to the lowest slave-mart at Bristol, where they sold large conditions of savage life. Women, being the numbers of slaves to the Irish traders. Wolsweaker, were undoubtedly the first slaves. ton, Bishop of Worcester, who died in 1095, The uncivilized man of the present day fol- went year after year to Bristol and preached lows the chase or sallies forth upon the war- against the odious traffic; and his zeal was path, all labor and drudgery falling to the lot crowned with success, for many of the leading of his female partner. The mere savage merchants discontinued it. In the canons hunter of antiquity compelled, by scarcity of of a council held at London in 1102, it is writgame and other circumstances, to tame and ten :-"Let no one from henceforth presume rear cattle for their flesh and skins, re- to carry on that wicked traffic, by which men quired more assistance than his wife could in England have hitherto been sold like brute afford, and, consequently, the life of the enemy, beasts." Still, however, to a very late period vanquished in war, was spared on condition prisoners taken in war were considered to be the of being the conqueror's slave. The wife property of their captors: the rich were held then became an overlooker, and woman was to ransom, and the poor condemned to slavery. raised the first step in the social scale. Agri- Another prolific source of slavery was reliculture, requiring more labor still, was next gious difference-it being long understood that discovered and practised; slaves became ar- any person who had the power, had also the right ticles of value and merchandise; and the to enslave any other person professing a dif victorious warrior, instead of slaying his pris- ferent faith. The Laws of Oleron, the marioners, sacrificing them to hideous heathen time code of the middle ages, described infidels deities, or eating them, as he had formerly who did not receive the Christian faith, as done, found it more advantageous to adopt "dogs to be attacked, despoiled, and enslaved the less cruel alternative of selling them. by all true believers." The Venetians long Thus we see that the horrible system of carried on a prosperous trade in Sclavonian slavery, the offspring of brute force and bar- infidel slaves from the shores of the Adriatic, barism, was, nevertheless, a forward step in and they honestly, as the word was then the world's march to civilization. So, as toil understood, bought and paid for them. But and suffering is the ordeal which mankind individually and nationally must pass through before their highest state of progress can be achieved, we may confidently cheer ourselves with the hope, that the last remnant of slavery still existing in Christian lands, and now The ecclesiastical order of Hospitallers of writhing in its death-pangs, will be the means St. John of Jerusalem-originally instituted of raising a degraded race to their proper for the purpose of sheltering and relieving position among the people of the earth. sick pilgrims to the Holy Temple-assumed it was reserved for chivalry-Christian chivalry par excellence-to commence that hideous system of piracy and slavery, which so long stained with blood and tears the blue waters of the Mediterranean. The ancient Greeks, puffed with the pride in course of time a military character and of their superficial refinement, deemed all the organization, becoming a rich and powerful rest of the world barbarians, and only fit to body of monastic warriors. When the Chrisbe their slaves. The haughty republican tian powers were driven from Palestine, the Roman, selfish and intolerant, demanding un- Knights Hospitallers took possession of Rhodes, limited and aggressive privileges for himself and a few other smaller islands in the group as a citizen, was a brutal master to his bonds- so well known in ancient history as the Spo man. Under the Empire, the number of rades. Shut up in these islands, yet bound by slaves increased so much by wealth and con- their vows to wage perpetual war against all quest, that the poorer class of freemen were infidels, the knights became a considerable glad to secure a subsistence by working on the naval power, and pursued a continual system estates of the great landowners, to which they of piracy upon their Mohammedan neighbors. All their prisoners were unconditionally a little from the Greek and Roman historians. doomed to life-long slavery. Manacled to We know that in turn becoming the rulers of the oars, they rowed the galleys of their the seas, they explored and founded colonies knightly captors, who impiously used to and trading-depots in what were at that time boast, that they cared not how the winds of the most distant regions; extending their comheaven blew, as they carried their own winds mercial relations from the tropical banks of in the sinews of their slaves. Four times did the Niger to the frost-bound beach of the Balthe plundered Ottomans unsuccessfully en- tic. A powerful people ere Rome was built, deavor to expel the priestly pirates from their they long enjoyed their supremacy; at last, stronghold. At last Solyman the Magnificent the thirst of territorial conquest brought the beleaguered Rhodes with an immense fleet and two great nations into rivalry, and the rich army, and summoned the knights to surrender temples of Carthage fell a prey to the legions in the following words:- "The constant of Scipio. For a short period after the derobberies with which you molest our faithful struction of Carthage, the energetic subtlety subjects, oblige us to require you to deliver up of Jugurtha prevented the conquerors from to us the island and fortress of Rhodes." The extending their dominion; but in a few years, summons was treated with scorn; a series of the whole coast, as far as the waves of the sanguinary battles ensued; and ultimately, Atlantic, became a Roman province. It reafter performing prodigies of valor, the order mained so till about the year 428 of the was almost annihilated, and their feeble rem- Christian era, in the reign of the Emperor nant expelled from Rhodes. After some Honorius, when Genseric, king of the Vanyears' wandering in various parts of Europe, dals, crossed over to Africa, conquered the they received the island of Malta from Charles Roman territory, and founded a dynasty which V. Recruiting their numbers, they established reigned for about 100 years. The Greek themselves on that almost impregnable rock, emperor Justinian then sent Belisarius to reand pursued their former system of piracy conquer the country; he defeated the Vandals, with greater vigor than ever. Al Makbari, made their king prisoner, and added Northern an Arabic writer, speaks of Malta in language Africa to the Greek Empire. similar to that which, no doubt, our ancestors have used respecting Algiers. He terms it, "that accursed island, from the neighborhood of which whoever escapes may well say that he has deserved favor; that dreaded spot which throws its deadly shades on the pleasant waters; that den of iniquity; that place of ambush, which is like a net to ensnare all Moslems who sail the sea." The History presents us with a series of conquering races, following each other as the waves upon the sea-beach, each washing away the impression made upon the sand by its forerunner, and each leaving a fresh impression to be washed out by its successor. irruption of the Saracens followed hard upon the conquering footsteps of Belisarius. Swarm after swarm of the Arabs came up out of Barbary is the general and somewhat vague Egypt, till Northern Africa was under the denomination adopted by Europeans to des- rule of the caliphs, excepting a small part of ignate that part of the northern coast of the sea-coast held by the Spanish Goths. They Africa which, bounded on the south by the at last were driven out by Musa, about the desert of Sahara, is comprised between the year 710; and then Tarik, Musa's lieutenant, frontiers of Egypt on the Mediterranean, and crossing the narrow straits, carried the war Cape Nun, the western spur of the lofty Atlas into Europe, defeated Roderick, the last range, on the Atlantic. Imperfectly known Gothic king, and laid the foundation of Arab even at the present day, in ancient legend it dominion in Spain. The ruthless spirit of was peculiarly the land of mystery and fable. religious fanaticism which inspired the followIt was there the Grecian poets, giving their ers of Mohammed, destroyed everything it airy nothings a local habitation and a name, could not change. Romans, Vandals, Greeks, placed the site of the delightful gardens of Goths, their laws, literature, and religions, all the Hesperides, whose trees bore apples of have disappeared in Northern Africa; the the purest gold; there dwelt the terrible recollection of the most powerful of them is Gorgon, whose snaky tresses turned all living only preserved in the word Romi-a term of things into stone; there the invincible Her-reproach to the Christians of all nations. Of cules wrestled and overthrew mighty Antæus; their more material works, the learned anthere the weary Atlas supported the ponder- tiquary still finds some traces of Roman edious arch of heaven on his stalwart shoulders. fices, and the remains of a sewer are supposed Almost as mythical and mysterious is the little to indicate the site of Carthage. The warlike we know of the Phoenicians, the greatest enthusiasm of the Saracens was better adapted maritime people of antiquity, who planted for making conquests than for preserving their most powerful colony, the proud city of Carthage, on these furtile shores of Northern Africa. Of the Carthaginians, we can glean them. The great distance from the seat of empire, the revolutions caused by rival houses contending for the caliphate, the ambitious projects of the viceroys inclining them to had no sooner rendered the ancient ruins hableague with native chiefs, led to a dis- itable, than they turned their attention to nasolution of the Arabian power in Northern val affairs. Building row-boats, carrying from Africa. Consequently, when the dawn of modern history begins to throw a clearer light upon the scene, we find the territory divided into a number of petty sovereignties. fourteen to twenty-six oars, they boldly put to sea, and incited by feelings of the deadliest enmity, revenged themselves on the hated Spaniard, at the same time that they plundered for The Saracens in Africa intermixing with the a livelihood. Crossing the narrow channel barbarous native tribes, never reached the which separates the two continents, and lying high position in the arts of peace and civiliza- off out of sight of the Spanish coast during the tion attained by their brethren, the conquer- day, they landed at night-not as strangers, ors of Spain. The devastating instinct of but on the shores of their native land, where Islamism seems to have yielded to a more be- every bay and creck, every path and pass, nign influence, as soon as it entered Europe. every village and homestead, were as well When Spain was thoroughly subdued, the known to them as to the Christian Spaniard. natives were permitted, with but few restric- In the morning, mangled bodies and burning tions, the full enjoyment of their own laws and houses testified that the Moriscos had been religion; and the Arabs, enjoying almost there; while all portable plunder, every cappeaceable possession for nearly three centuries tured Christian not too old or too young to be after the conquest, devoted their fiery energies a slave, was in the row-boat speeding swiftly to the acquisition of knowledge. Enriched to the African coast. The harassed Spaniards by a fertile soil and prosperous commerce, kept watch and ward, winter and summer, they blended the acquirements and refinements from sunrise to sunset, and sometimes sucof intellectual culture with Arabian luxury ceeded in cutting off small parties of the piand magnificence; the palaces of their princes ratical invaders; yet such was the audacity were radiant with splendor, their colleges of the Moriscos, and so well were their incurfamous for learning, their libraries overflowing sions planned, that frequently they plundered with books, their agricultural and manufac- villages miles in the interior. Then ensued turing processes conducted with scientific the hasty flight and hot pursuit; the freebootaccuracy, when all the rest of Europe was ers retreating to the boats, driving before them, buried in midnight barbarism. To those hal- at the lance's point, unfortunate captives, laden cyon days of comparative peace succeeded with the plunder of their own dwellings; the four centuries of bitter conflict between the pursuers, horse and foot, following into the invaders and the invaded, exhibiting one of very water, and firing on the retiring rowthe grandest romances of military history on boats till their long oars swept them out of record. It was long doubtful on which side gunshot. The Barbary Moors soon joined the the honors of victory would descend. At last, Moriscos in those exciting and profitable adthe ardor and audacity of the Mussulman ventures; and thus originated the atrocious succumbed to the patriotic courage of the practice, which being subsequently recognized Christian, and the reluctant Moor was com- in treaties made by the various European pelled to abandon the lovely region he had powers, became, according to the laws of narendered classical by the exercise of his pecu- tions, a legally organized system of Christian liar taste and genius. slavery. Immediately after the fall of Granada, in In 1509, Ferdinand the Catholic, anxious to 1492, about 100,000 Spanish Moors passed stop the Morisco depredations on the Spanish over into Africa with their unfortunate king coast, sent a considerable force, under the celeBobadil. Some ruined and deserted cities on brated Cardinal Ximines, to invade Barbary. the sea-coast, the remains of Carthaginian and During this expedition, the Spaniards released Roman power and enterprize, were allotted to 300 captives, and took possession of Oran and the exiles; for, though of the same religion, a few other unimportant places on the coast. and almost of the same race and language as One of those was a small island, about a mile the people they sought refuge amongst, yet from the main, lying exactly opposite the town they were strangers in a strange land; the Af- since known as Algiers, but previously so little rican Moors termed them Tigarins (Andalu- recognized by history, that it is not certain sians); they dwelt and intermarried together, when it received the name. In all probability, and were long known to Europeans, in the it acquired the high-sounding appellation of lingua franca of the Mediterranean, by the ap- Al Ghezire (The Invincible) at a subsequent pellation of Moriscos. At the period of this period. Carefully fortifying this insulated rock, forced migration, the Barbary Moors knew the Spaniards, by the superiority of their artilnothing of navigation; what little commerce lery, held possession of it for several years, as a they had was carried on by the ships of Cadiz, sort of outpost, and a curb upon the piratical Genoa, and Ragusa. But the Moriscos, confined tendencies of the native powers. to the sea-coast, and debarred from agriculture, I One of these extraordinary adventurers, leta as a naval depôt, on condition of paying a certain percentage on all prizes. Adding daily to his wealth and fleet, the daring sea-rover had no lack of followers: Turkish and Moorish adventurers eagerly enrolled themselves under his fortunate banner. who, rising from nothing, carve out kingdoms barossa (Redbeard), so long the terror of the for themselves with the edge of their sabres, Mediterranean. Taking his prizes to Tunis, and gleaming at intervals on an astonished one of the small states that had once been part world, vanish into utter darkness, like comets of the great Saracen empire in Barbary, in their erratic orbits, appeared at this time, Aroudje was well received by the king, who and changed the destinies of the greater part allowed him to use the island and fort of Goof Northern Africa. The son of a poor Greek potter, in the island of Mitylene, worked with his father till a younger brother was able to take his place in assisting to support the family; then, going on board a Turkish war-ves. sel, he signified his desire to become a Mussulman, and enter the service. His offer was The precarious position of the petty Baraccepted; he received the Turkish name of bary States, threatened by the Berbers and Aroudje-his previous appellation is un- Bedouins of the interior on the land-side, and known-and in a short time his fierce intre- menaced by the Spaniards on the sea-board, pidity and nautical skill raised him to the was highly favorable to the ambitious aspiracommand of a vessel belonging to the sultan. tions of the potter's son. The district of "Jijil Intrusted with a considerable sum of money, to being attacked by famine, he seized the cornpay the Turkish garrisons in the Morea, he sail- ships of Sicily, and distributed the grain freely ed from Constantinople, and having passed the and without price among the starving inhabiDardanelles, he mustered his crew, and de- tants, who gratefully proclaimed him their king; clared his intentions of renouncing allegiance and in a few years his army equalled in magto the Porte. He told them that, if they would nitude his still increasing fleet. The fort built stand by him, he would lead them to the west- by the Spaniards on the island off Algiers was ern waters of the Mediterranean, where prizes a great annoyance to Eutemi, the Moorish king of all nations might be captured in abundance, of that little state. Unwisely, he applied to where there were no knights of Rhodes to con- Barbarossa for aid to evict the Spaniard, and tend against, and where they would be com- eagerly was the request granted. With 5,000 pletely out of the power of the sultan. A men, the pirate chief marched to Algiers, where project so much in unison with the predilec- the people hailed him as a deliverer; Eutemi tions of the rude crew was received with en- was murdered, and Aroudje proclaimed king. thusiastic acclamations of assent. Aroudje then The throne thus usurped by audacity, he estab steered for his native island of Mitylene, where lished by policy: profusely liberal to his friends, he landed, and gave a large sum of money to ferociously cruel to his enemies, he was loved his mother and sisters; and being joined by and dreaded by all his subjects. His reign, his brother, who, becoming a Mohammedan, however, was short, being defeated and killed assumed the name of Hayraddin, he weighed in battle by the Spaniards, only two years afanchor, and turned his prow to the westward. ter he ascended the throne. In such estimaArriving off the island of Elba, he fell in with tion was this victory held, that the head, shirt two portly argosies under papal colors. Piracy of mail; and gold-embroidered vest of the slain in these western seas having previously been warrior were carried on a lance, in triumphant carried on in the Morisco row-boats only, the procession, through the principal cities of Spain, Christians were not alarmed, but believing and then deposited as sacred trophies in the Aroudje to be an honest trader, permitted him church of St. Jerome at Cordova. Hayradto run alongside, as he seemed to wish to com- din, who is styled by the old historians Barbamunicate some information. They were quickly rossa II., succeeded his brother, but, feeling his undeceived. Boarding the nearest one, he im- position insecure, he tendered the sovereignty mediately took possession of her, and then of Algiers to the Grand Seignior, on condition dressing his men in the clothes of the captured of being appointed viceroy and receiving a crew, he bore down upon her unsuspecting contingent of troops. Sultan Selim, gladly consort. She was captured also, with scarcely accepting the offer, sent a firman creating a blow; and Aroudje found himself in posses- Hayraddin pacha, and a force of 2,000 janizasion of two ships, each much larger than his ries. From that period, the Ottoman supremown, with cargoes of great value, and some acy over the Moorish and Morisco inhabitants hundreds of prisoners. The fame of this bold of Algiers was firmly established. action resounded from the southern shores of Piracy upon all Christian nations was still Europe to the opposite coast of Africa. Such vigorously carried on from Tunis and other captives as were ransomed, when describing ports of Barbary; but the harbor of Algiers the appearance of Aroudje, did not fail to re-being commanded by the island-fort in possescount the ferocious aspect of his huge red beard, sion of the Spaniards, was deprived of that so unusual an appendage to a native of the nefarious source of wealth. This island was south, and thus he obtained the name of Bar-long the "Castle Dangerous" of the Spanish |