Art. III. 1. Memoirs relating to European and Asiatic Turkey, from the Manuscript Journals of Modern Travellers in those Countries. Edited by Robert Walpole, A.M. 4to. Price 31. 3s. 2. Travels in various Countries of the East, being a Continuation of Memoirs relating to European and Asiatic Turkey, &c. Edited by the Rev. Robert Walpole, M.A. 4to. pp. xxiv, 612. Price 31. 3s. London. 1820. TRAVELLERS in European or Asiatic Turkey have many obstacles to encounter. A considerable part of this vast empire is rugged and mountainous, and destitute not only of commodious roads, but of the meanest accommodations to recreate or facilitate the journey. Some spots, and these too the most beautiful portions of the country, are subject to the dreadful visitations of the plague. Add to these impediments, the unquiet state of the Ottoman provinces, their disorderly governments and defective police, the sleepless and feverish animosity between the enslaved descendants of the ancient Greeks and their oppressive and insolent masters, the interruption of intercourse between different places, occasioned by the numerous banditti which infest them ;-and we shall be able to form some conjecture as to the difficulties which have so long rendered a complete or systematic account of this interesting part of the globe, a matter of hope rather than of expectation. It is to these causes, diverging indeed from their radical cause-bad government, that we must attribute the debasement and degeneracy of the modern Turks. Among the numerous works lately published concerning Turkey and the countries under her rule, there is not one which refers us to their advancement in art or science, or to a melioration of their civil and political condition, or which gives us the slightest reason to conclude that they have been taught to avail themselves of the lights and acquirements of the more polished states of Europe. A dread of innovation keeps the Turkish mind nearly at the same level from age to age; and those ebbs and flows in the general intellect of nations, of which History has so many examples, are wholly unknown in Turkey. They have also a summary and unceremonious mode of admonishing their sovereigns to abstain from all changes suggested by the practice of Christian countries. The apprehension that the Emperor Selim the Third would introduce some political meliorations, was the principal cause which led to his deposition and death. The result is, that so long as this brutal government subsists, our general stock of information concerning Turkey must be imperfect, and derived from the contributions of various travellers, rather than the fruit of researches prosecuted by an individual. We are, therefore, disposed to commend the plan adopted by Mr. Walpole, of collecting from intelligent and learned persons who have recently visited those countries, such extracts from their diaries or note-books, as were likely to illustrate their geography, antiquities, and natural history, their ancient grandeur or present condition; subjects which open an extensive field of investigation. But the chief advantage of this plan is, in our opinion, that we obtain the actual observations of each traveller in his own words, the faithful record of what he himself saw, presented in a state of deshabille as it were; not dressed and tricked out for the purpose of making a book. We have hitherto from various causes delayed our notice of the former volume edited by Mr. Walpole. We shall, therefore, slightly glance at its contents, in order that the scholar and general reader may be enabled to form some estimate of the literary value of both compilations. It may be easily supposed, that our information respecting Greece is more copious than that which we have obtained concerning the other provinces of the empire. The reason is obvious. The population is chiefly Christian, and the intercourse with the inhabitants is more easy than with a people influenced by the pride and prejudice of Mahommedanism. The greater part, therefore, of the papers which compose the first volume, relate to Greece, both within and without the isthmus of Corinth, and the islands of the Egean. The Earl of Aberdeen, Mr. Morritt, Dr. Sibthorp, Dr. Hunt, the late Professor Carlyle, Mr. Hawkins, Mr. Raikes, Mr. Wilkins, and the learned Editor himself, are the principal contributors. The first paper is an interesting journal by Mr. Morritt of his travels through the district of Maina in the Morea. The history of the Mainotes has given rise to so much disquisition and conjecture, and so little is known concerning a people whose fundamental policy it is to hold no intercourse with strangers, and even to expel them from their territory, that we shall make no apology for extracting a short account of this interesting country from Mr. Morritt's narrative; first, however, making a few remarks upon the obscure question of their origin. Upon this head, three opinions have been advanced. The Mainotes themselves boast of their descent from the ancient Spartans. It is the designation by which they are known among themselves, while the histories of Lycurgus and Leonidas, partly as saints and partly as robbers, are still figured in their popular traditions. On the other hand, the unsparing and universal extermination in which Nabis is said to have involved the whole Spartan race, greatly diminishes the authenticity of the claim. Some travellers have gone so far as to deny that they are Greeks at all, and to assert them to be the progeny of Sclavonian robbers. But Villoison remarked the purity of their Doric dialect, and later travellers have remarked the par ticular resemblance of their customs to those of Greece; among whom, Pouqueville is no mean authority. For our parts, were we disposed to hazard an opinion, we should assign their origin to the 'Expo Aάxwves, or the inhabitants of the sea-towns of Laconia, who were separated from the dominion of Sparta by the decree of Augustus. The Maina is inclosed in the southern part of the Laconian peninsula, which is separated from the rest of the Morea by a chain of nearly impassable mountains. Lying between the gulfs of Messene and Gythium, it is bounded to the North by the Taygetus, a ridge of slippery rocks so bristled with points and angles as to render the gentlest fall on it highly dangerous; and within these bulwarks, a race of Greeks have uniformly braved the power of every nation that has successively acquired the sceptre of the Atridæ. The government of Maina bears some resemblance to that which once subsisted in the Highlands of Scotland. Over each district presides a Capitano, who resides in a white fortress of Italian architecture, and receives a tithe of the produce from the land of his retainers. The chief Capitano bears the title of Bey by virtue of a ferman from the Porte. These chiefs are hereditary, and exercise an uncontrolled jurisdiction in their districts. The Mainotes have uniformly resisted the payment of the haratch or poll-tax exacted by the Turks, who have endeavoured in vain, by their clumsy and illequipped forces, to assail them. On the arrival of an enemy by sea, the coast is instantly deserted, and the population, which is wholly warlike, retires within the strong holds of the Taygetus. They are dexterous in the use of the rifle, and, defended by a tempestuous and rocky shore to the South, and an impenetrable barrier of precipices to the North, may laugh to scorn whole hosts of such assailants as the Turks. In that disastrous war which was stirred up by Russia against the Ottoman power, the fleets of the Capudan Pasha and an army of 20,000 men attempted to subdue them. What was the issue? A heap of bones near the town of Cardamyle, whitened by the sun, attested the impotence of the attempt. We must acknowledge, that we could scarcely forbear a smile, of incredulity, when we found Mr. Morritt gravely remarking, that many of the Mainote chiefs are sufficiently masters of the ancient Hellenick to read Herodotus and Xenophon. We venture to assert with a confidence not without foundation, that they would have been wofully perplexed in interpreting a single passage of those authors. The laws of hospitality are held by the Mainotes in religious reverence. Travellers, if they are fortunate enough to penetrate into the country, may be sure of the most cordial welcome while they stay, and a safe escort at their departure. The Homeric maxim is not yet worn out in that country: τον ξείνον παρέοντα φιλειν, απέοντα δε πεμπειν· Welcome the coming, speed the going guest.'. Their religion is the Greek in its most fantastic form. But it is in the intercourses of the sexes, that their character appears in the most favourable light. The women are neither enslaved nor secluded, and are treated with the utmost affection and respect. Conjugal infidelity is extremely rare. A German fiddler was imprudent enough to be rude to a pretty woman. She met his advances with a pistol, and shot him dead on the spot. We are indebted to the valuable papers of Dr. Sibthorp, though by no means prepared for the press, for many important details upon the present state of Attica. We are obliged to pass over several other articles of equal value in Mr. Walpole's first volume; but we should neglect an important duty, if we failed to recommend the perusal of the learned and elegant dissertation of Lord Aberdeen upon the Attic Coins. It confirms us in the opinion which we have long maintained, that the Athenians had no gold money coined by themselves. That which was current at Athens, was either the stater of Persia, or the talent of Egina or Cyzicum. But the currency of the Attic silver money, as the noble Lord justly observes, was almost universal. This was owing to its purity; and the Attic tetradrachm had in ancient times as extended a circulation as the Spanish dollar has had since the discovery of the New World. Those who are interested in this curious subject, will know how to estimate the truth and acuteness of the following observations. One of the greatest problems in numismatical difficulties, is the cause of the manifest neglect, both in design and execution, which is invariably to be met with in the silver money of Athens; in which the affectation of an archaic style of work is easily distinguished from the rudeness of a remote antiquity. Different attempts have been made to elucidate the subject. De Pauw affirms, that owing to a wise economy, the magistrates whose office it was to superintend the coinage of silver, employed none but inferior artists in making the design, as well as in other branches of the process; an hypothesis wholly inconsistent with the characteristic magnificence of the republic. Pinkerton asserts, that it can only be accounted for from the excellence of the artists being such as to occasion all the gold to be called into other countries, and none but the bad left at home. It would be difficult to explain how Athens came to be so long honoured both by the presence and the works of Phidias and Praxitiles, Zeuxis and Apelles. The Attic silver was of acknowledged purity. The Athenian merchants, particularly in their commercial dealings with the more distant and barbarous nations, appear frequently to have made their payments in it. The barbarians being once impressed with these notions of its purity, the government was probably afraid materially to change that style and appearance by which their money was known and valued among them. A similar proceeding in the state of Venice throws the strongest light on the practice of the Athenians. The Venetian sechin is perhaps the most unseemly of the coins of modern Europe it has long been the current gold of Turkey, where its purity is universally and justly respected; any change in its appearance would have brought it into discredit.' Vol. I. p. 425. We have remarked several inaccuracies in point of typographical correctness, which we are somewhat astonished that so learned an Editor should have overlooked. At page 321, a lecythus or cruse is described, which presents the figures of two horses and their grooms. It is entitled λήκυθος Αττικός, whereas the concord requires λήκυθος Αττική ; a trivial error, indeed, in ordinary works, but unpardonable in those which are almost exclusively addressed to the learned. It is with great satisfaction, however, that we have observed the more recent volume to be wholly exempt from the incorrectness which disfigured the former. We proceed to give our readers a summary view of its contents; only premising, that they might have been much better arranged, and that papers referring to the same country or subject, ought at least to have been placed together, even if a more artificial classification had not been adopted. The first Memoir, on the tar-springs of Zante, communicated by Mr. Hawkins, contains several scientific facts of singular importance. These celebrated springs, situated in a morass near the South-eastern extremity of the island, were visited and described by Herodotus more than two thousand years ago; and they appear to have undergone no material change since, except that produced by the progressive growth of the peat, which has choked up all the small lakes or pools described by that author. The springs which produce the bitumen, are situated on the two opposite sides of the morass. This substance gradually oozing out of the earth below, settles at the bottom of the pit, which serves as a reservoir for collecting it. Here the inquisitive traveller, as in the days of Herodotus, may still dip his myrtlebough into the water, and draw out the liquid mineral. Mr. Hawkins was anxious to ascertain whether the bitumen issued out of the rock below, or merely oozed out of the peat in which it originates: for this reason, during his residence in Zante (1795), with the assistance of the Venetian Admiral Corrèr, who employed in this difficult operation the most ablebodied men of his ship's crew, he procured the pit to be so completely drained as to expose the bottom to view. The spring of water was then observed to issue from the peat at the depth of |