From the North American. |pires," he says, "which now stand banded AMERICAN VIEWS OF THE EASTERN against Nicholas have all their separate in QUESTION. terests and aims, and though each people desires peace, each has its views fixed on a differBEFORE the difficulties in the way of the ent career in the new age which is to succeed capture of Cronstadt and Sebastopol had been the settlement of the Eastern question." He brought home, in their present calamitous as- admits frankly that the Turks already enterpect, to the public mind of Great Britain and tain most serious apprehensions, and that, of France, at a time when their statesmen were all the nations, they are most anxious to end yet indulging in the bright dream of razing the war; not that they expect advantages the latter and destroying the Russian fleet of from peace, "but from a consciousness that the Black Sea, with the prospects of reigning su- their state becomes worse every day, and that, preme on the waters of the Euxine, an Eng whoever may gain from the continuance of lish Minister, in insular self complacency, and hostilities, they themselves can only suffer." Louis Napoleon, in recollections of the military The following passage is somewhat calculated glories of France, proclaimed, elated with an- to throw a ray of light upon the "noble conticipation of certain success, to the astonished duct" and "disinterested motives" of the world their ambitious design of regulating the Allies:-"Every day that sees the strife condestinies of "either hemisphere. And though, tinue and the capital of the Ottomans occuas yet, they have been deceived in their ex-pied by newly arriving forces, witnesses also pectations of triumph, the coalition of these the weakening of the independent action of two mighty maritime powers remains never- the Porte, and the substitution for it of the theless a menacing reality, well deserving of will of the Allies. It is necessary for the safethe vigilance and attention of the people of ty of Europe and the final settlement of this the United States, and of the serious reflection question that the influence of the West should of our statesmen. General Cass, in alluding, continue to increase. The time has not come in his recent speech, to the various pretexts for an abandonment of the position gained under which the allied powers opened the war by so many sacrifices. In this lies the chief against Russia, exclained: "I do not believe cause of difference with the ally whom we one word of all this." We fully concur in his protect." disbelief, and are convinced, with him, that "England and France are fighting their own battles, each for its own purposes." Further, we are informed that the Turks are utterly discouraged as to the result of the present occupation, that they wish to see If facts, as they already have occurredthe close of it at any price, and that ever amongst others, the evident purpose of the since the struggle before Sebastopol, the Ruspreliminary four points, totally subversive of sian party, to whom some of the wealthier the Sultan's sovereignty, and designed to es- Pashas belong, has gained considerably. tablish, as far as possible, their own authority The correspondent candidly confesses that in his dominions did not prove the assertion, this party considers it most prudent to lean on a retrospect of the history of England and Muscovite protection, in the confident hope France could not, for a moment, allow a doubt that the Czar would preserve their present to the contrary, to cloud the judgment of the system of government. He regrets as an people of America. The past history of unfortunate circumstance that England and France and England contains the revelation, France have not even tried to conciliate any and prognosticates the future lot of Turkey, of the races which inhabit the land; that, on should their endeavors be crowned with suc- the contrary, they have been ill-used, ridiculcess. Algeria and the British East Indies ed and beaten in a manner that has created present the solution of the momentous ques- the most bitter feeling among high and low in tion. The London Times of the 8th of Feb- Stamboul; that in consequence no good will ruary, in a correspondence from Constantino- is borne to the Allies, which—the correspondple, significantly hints a plan in reference to ent remarks - is another reason why 66 we Turkey, the boldness of which could only be should materially humble the enemy, (the equalled by its glaring perfidy. The purport Russians,) and place our influence on a of the whole article appears to be calculated strong basis." "The capture of Sebastopol to broach nothing short of the colonization is likely to give us that influence in the East, of the Turkish dominions, by England and France, and to stretch forth a feeler in order to ascertain public sentiment respecting the subject. without which the war has been waged in vain." In other words, the capture of Sebastopol, according to the correspondent of the Times, is necessary and indispensable to the The correspondent of the Times opens the Allies for the purpose of subjecting, not the matter with the annunciation of a fact upon Russians alone, but the Turks also. The sum which no reflecting mind could have enter- and substance is, that the Allies are detertained a shadow of doubt. "The four em-mined to make the most of their position. They occupy Turkey, and do not intend to any real knowledge can be obtained by the maleave it. They must defeat the Russians, not chinery of Pashas and Councils can be believed to re-establish the sovereignty of the Sultan by no one acquainted with the East. If we wish to and the independence of Turkey-no-but learn something of the country we must havo refor the sole purpose of being, after a victory suls of England and France are to be found men course to European observation. Among the conover Russia, enabled to turn their treacherous long acquainted with the several districts of the weapons against Turkey itself. The moral of empire, and of capacity to judge clearly, and give the story is founded on the principle of "Beati trustworthy opinions on almost every point. The possidentes"-or, in plain English, "posses- internal state of the empire has now become of sion is nine points of the law." Thus much such consequence that it would be no waste of infor the "disinterested and noble motives" of tellectual labor to employ some of the ablest men the Western powers, "the representatives of of civilized Europe to examine into and report civilization," the "protectors of the weaker upon the information received from every quarter, against the stronger," the "champions of or even to send such men to make a personal inliberal principles! The Turks must be im- spection and survey of these rich provinces and bued by this time to their heart's content with their various populations. It is by the use of such means that we have tranquillized India and dethe superiority of Christian morals and civili-veloped its prosperity; without it we can have no zation! Now follows an interesting paragraph which palpably broaches the subject of colonization of the Turkish empire by the allies. idea of the secret causes of discontent and disaffection, of the reason why regions the most fertile are untilled and unproductive; nor without such an examination can we hope that the hardy British and German races will ever choose the East The correspondence concludes with the following remark: Every one who looks forward to the future of as the field of a new colonization, or that a real this Empire, and who is impressed with the con- barrier will ever be built against the designs of a viction that the war with Russia is only a secon- Power which has raised its power on the decay of dary matter compared with the establishment of a its neighbors. Unhappily there is more than ever solid and prosperous social state within the limits a necessity for such an infusion of new vigor. As of the Ottoman dominions, must feel anxiety when every success must have its drawbacks, so it has he sees the whole question of political and mate- been an unfortunate result of the present war that rial reform forgotten in the excitement of a war- the growing prosperity of the Eastern population like struggle. Still deeper must be that feeling has been blighted and rooted up. when he is persuaded that little is to be expected from the action of the existing government, even when urged on by the arguments or threats of European representatives. Perhaps even deeper than political reforms lie the benefits to be re- It is to be hoped that, with the close of the war ceived from a proper use of the material wealth of returning prosperity may visit this unhappy land; the country. Although in the present collapse of but it cannot be doubted that its chief hope of salthe national resources no enterprise can expect vation lies in the spirit and enterprise of the Westassistance from the public wealth, yet it is a ques-ern nations. If we act with energy and determition whether some inquiry might not take place nation, we may direct the future of the empire as to the material wants of the country and the for many years to come. The chief practical relatent riches which it is so well known to possess.sult of this war will probably be that France and Probably no subject will interest Englishmen so England will have established a just claim to a much after this struggle is over as the capabilities vigorous interference in the East, and if they use of these regions for settlement and the investment their right with proper resolution, they will not of capital. On all these subjects little or nothing is have fought in vain." known. The travellers who have visited the East have been generally among the shallowest of their Another letter, dated Constantinople, Jan. class, and their books only show how far a man may go without observing anything worthy to be 29th, from the same correspondent, if we may recollected. Such volumes as "The Cab and the judge from its evident bearing upon the subCaique" and "From Turnham-Green to Tophaneh," ject broached in the foregoing, dilates, after a seldom contain anything that will repay the trou- prelude intended to disguise as much as possible of cutting the leaves. The soil, mineral wealth, ble its real aim and purport, with apparent healthiness, and commercial advantages of vari- unconcernedness, upon the subject of African ous districts in Roumelia and Asia; the capacities slavery in Turkey. The Africans, it says, are of the population, their readiness to fraternize with not cruelly treated when once in Turkey; and work for strangers; the tenure of land and the but the overland route, which they have to obstacles to its acquisition or demise, are all sub- take to reach the point of their destination, is jects of the greatest importance for the future full of terrors, and the desert is represented to and yet we know hardly anything of them. The use of agricultural and commercial statistics is the horrified mind of the reader as actually recognized in a country of so much education and whitened with the bones of the poor creatures; publicity as England; much more is some infor- and although the Sultan had suppressed the mation necessary to guide the settler or capitalist trade and was enforcing the law directed in a new land and among a new people. That against it, some might still be brought in by stealth, upon which apprehension, of course, maritime powers, as would set at nought every the necessity of keeping a watchful eye on the resistance to their cherished plan of extending matter is recommended. The game is too old their influence East and West, encircling the not to be understood instantly. Really, a sub- whole globe, and regulating the destinies of ject backed by so much philanthropy, may "either hemisphere." After the capture of prove useful and furnish a convenient pretext Sebastopol and the destruction of the Russian for the occupation of Eastern ports by British fleet- without which the plan would be utvessels and British surveillance in Asia Minor terly impossible serious apprehension might and Egypt. When the mellow and tender be entertained of the formidable coalitions of heart of the Briton begins to overflow with England and France. The pressure of such a philanthropic emotions, and he points out the ponderous weight all in one scale might make course of his sympathies, we may safely look itself felt in the relations of this country to the into the opposite direction for the discovery West India Islands and Japan in a way to inof the real aim of his charitable endeavors. volve us in the calamity of repulsion by force Thus the Times contemplates for Great Britain of arms. If, hereafter, Spain should deem it another "East India" another accession to her interest to agree with us, upon terms satisher immeasurable encroachments. But what factory to both parties, in reference to Cuba, becomes, we may ask, of that "balance of these powers might interpose their veto. Engpower," for which the Allies wage this bloody land, with breathless uneasiness, has watched war? all the movements of political and commercial The fact is, that this "balance" is nothing progress in the United States. She has folelse than a phantom- —a hallucination - a po-lowed us, with insolent interference, to Mexilitical hoax! When Napoleon I. spoke of the co, Japan, Cuba, the Sandwich Islands, etc. "balance of power," he meant, and could And now she combines her power with that mean nothing else, than his own supremacy on of France- thus adding another weight to the land on the continent of Europe, where he scale which already inclined all on her side. dictated the destinies of empires. When England speaks of it, she means nothing but her supremacy on the seas. When Napoleon, by his continental policy, tried to counterpoise the supremacy of England, in order to restore a kind of equilibrium, England drenched the whole of Europe with blood- she was at the bottom of almost all the wars of that period. When the formidable coalition of England and France at present tell us that they wage war against Russia for the maintenance of the balance of power, they mean nothing else than that they will prevent Russia from reaching the Mediterranean, as such an event might form, at some future day, a counterpoise to the raw material of the whole world against their present world-menacing supremacy. The plan of a colonization of the Turkish dominions would necessarily produce a great change in the commercial and political relations of the world. England and France both have had their eyes fixed, for a long time, upon Egypt. To England it is of immense importance for the protection of her East India possessions. She has already, silently and stealthily, approached the fertile regions of the Nile with her capital. She has taken preparatory steps in order to raise, at a favorable moment, the rod of the taskmaster over the wretched population that dwell near its banks. England considers herself entitled, as a matter of course, men not excluded. Nations are only made to supply her demands. Her selfishness is so unbounded that it would draw the universe into the vortex of her numberless spinning-wheels. The scheme, as broached here by the "Times," is indeed entirely consonant to, and in conformity with, the aggressive practice Asia Minor, Egypt, and European Turkey and policy of the government of Great Britain. have a climate and soil most propitious for all It is the more likely that efforts will be made the productions of the Southern States of this to accomplish such an object, as a colonization Union. The soil is among the most fertile of in Asia Minor, Egypt, and Turkey, would the world. It is adapted to tobacco, rice, cotprove a barrier against Russian advance to- ton, corn, oats, etc. The cultivation of these wards the British East Indies so seriously articles at present is not carried on on a large apprehended by England. The greatest dif- scale, for want of capital, and on account of ficulty in the way of success would lie, how- the indolence of the people. The United States ever, in the agreement upon satisfactory terms now command the cotton market of Europe, with France and Austria. The colonization principally on account of our greater proximiof European Turkey, Asia Minor, and Egypt ty to that market than the British East Indies. by England and France, would necessarily A colonization in the Turkish Empire, howproduce changes of prodigious magnitude in ever, would offer to England immense advanthe present conditions of the commercial and tages. The distance would be considerably political world. The flags of England and less; and, moreover, the innumerable points France would gain, with this uncontested su- favorable for coal depots would admit of a very premacy in the Mediterranean, such an im-extensive steam navigation, particularly of mense ascendency over all the rest of the screw steamers. From the New Monthly Magazine. AHASUERUS, THE EVER-LIVING JEW. FROM THE DANISH OF F. PALUDAN-MULLER. BY MRS. BUSHBY. It is no wonder that the subject of the Wandering Jew should be so much liked by that class of authors who devote themselves to works of the imagination, for it is perhaps the most sublime fiction that the mind of man ever created. In the graceful fables of antiquity we read of eternal youth being bestowed by the gods on mortals as a precious boon, and in the fantastic legends of fairy lore, as the brightest of magic gifts; but in this solitary tradition, to live on for ages was not accorded as a blessing or a reward, but imposed as a punishment and a curse. Bending under the weight of centuries, not renewing his youth, and revelling over and over again amidst the passions and pleasures of that period of life, the Wandering Jew was doomed to outlive his family, his friends, his race; to see generation after generation sink into the tomb, empires rise and fall, mankind pass from transition to transition, yet ever to remain a lonely wanderer over the face of the earth. among the creatures who people it; and these. were the descendants of his sister. He makes his Jew exclaim: "Passing through so many generations, by the veins of the poor and of the rich, of the sovereign and of the bandit, of the sage and of the madman, of the coward and of the brave, of the saint and of the atheist, the blood of my sister has been s been perpetuated even until this hour." He then had some interest in life, some worldly objects to engross his mind; he had traced the descendants of his family through ages, and though his remote kindred knew him not, he watched over them, in as far, at least, as the invisible agency which ever compelled him to move on would admit of his protecting them. The other French author-Edgar Quinetimbues his Ahasuerus with a deep longing for human sympathy, and bestows it upon him also, in the devoted love of a female called Rachel, whose affectionate companionship is a great solace to the pilgrim of ages. art ed llw But Frederick Paludan-Müller, the Danish writer, with a finer conception of the gloomy grandeur of the character, makes his Ahasuerus to have his thoughts fixed only on the This extraordinary legend is supposed to earnest longing for repose, and escape from have been first disseminated about the begin- the weary world, mingled with horror at the ning of the fourth century; it may possibly remembrance of his own daring crime in ages have owed its origin to the gloomy fancy of long gone by, when he insulted his Saviour, monkish superstition, but with whomsoever it and spurned him from his door. He describes originated, it was a grand and striking idea. him as living without sympathy, without affecAccording to the story, as it prevails in the tion for anything beneath the sun; a waif on East, the Jew is called Joseph-is said to have the ocean of life-a wanderer from ancient become a Christian about the time that St. times--bearing always about him the princiPaul was baptized-and to reside principally ple of vitality, yet longing to close his eyes in in Armenia. The tradition of the West gives death, and envying the myriads whom he had him the name of Ahasuerus; describes him seen descend into the quiet grave; Wein short, as having been met with in various countries of Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; as speaking the language of every nation he visits, and as never having been seen to laugh. It is said that the celebrated Goethe had intended writing an epic poem on the subject of this wonderful Jew, but he did not accomplish his design. "Le Juif Errant," by Eugène Sue, is well known; and so, to many readers, may also be "Ahasverus," by Edgar Quinet; but the Danish dramatic poem of Ahasverus, den Evige Jöde," has not yet, probably, found its way into England. In Eugène Sue's voluminous work, the my3terious Jew is only occasionally introduced as a spectral apparition might be-now on the snow-laden steppes of Siberia, now amidst the twilight darkness of some thick wood on the brow of some rocky height. This strange being, who, for eighteen hundred years had walked the earth, is yet described by the French author as having ties still existing one who had been hon austrom & not only will of Stone and aroma deon hyol bord tada se 300 Too long and deeply wrecked b On the lone rock of desolate despair.as Manat The I-bos how gift and -BAT "Ahasverus, den Evige Jöde," forms a portion of a volume published in Copenhagen last year by Frederik Paludan Müller, a writer much admired in Denmark. This volume is modestly entitled "Tre Digte"-" Three Poems." One of these, the "Death of Abel," was originally published in a periodical work; the other two are dramas in verse" Kalanus," which the author calls an historical poem-and "Ahasuerus, the Ever-living Jew," a dramatic poem. It is with the latter that we have at present to do. 1972 be the r Paludan-Müller's Wandering Jew is introduced by a "Prologue," consisting of a conversation, in blank verse, between the author and "his Muse," which is supposed to have taken place in an apartment at Fredensborg There, Jesus Christ was passing from the Hall, Until- when the world ends-I call for thee!" sea. Comes the last awful earthquake now, While motionless as the cold dead, I can conceive that man will smite Oh hour-to others-awful, strange. The ancient man is then addressing a prayer for release from his misery to the Lord of Heaven, whom he had derided and ill-used, The Muse having thus fixed upon a subject, when he is interrupted by two men with drawn presents the scene to the poet. It is described swords rushing into the funereal asylum. Gold, as an ancient and deserted churchyard in ruins, the cause of so much evil, is the occasion of situated at the foot of a hill, and close to the their quarrel, which ends in one murdering Ahasuerus enters, and seating himself on the other. Ahasuerus, of course, reproves an old tombstone, soliloquises for a time about him, and tries to awaken him to a proper the misery and wickedness of the world, on scoffed at as the "mad old Jew." The wife and sense of the crime he has committed, but is the horrors that are being enacted-riot, ra- child of the murdered man next enter on the pine, and murder apparently let loose-and how small is the band of true believers who scene; and the all-pervading love of gold is are awaiting in faith and prayer the hour of still shown forth in the more vehement lamendissolution. He then exclaims, as he casts tations of the newly-made widow for the loss of her husband's money, which had been cara searching glance around :bang ried off by his murderer, than of his life. Shak'st thou at length, thou fast-poised world! To thy foundations tremblest thou After a long and, in the original, beautiful monologue, in which the aged wanderer complains of his weariness, his loneliness, and his |