of two or three months, he was able to drive out and walk a little every day. From month to month thereafter the amendment was so gradual as to be scarcely perceptible; but, at the end of a longer period, the difference was striking enough. Thus encouraged, the author continued true to his own principles, and in resisting every temptation to which improving health exposed him; and the ultimate result has been, that every successive year, from 1832 up to the present time, 1841, has, with one or two exceptions, found him more healthy and vigorous than before, and that many of his professional friends, who long regarded his partial convalescence as destined to be of very brief duration, cannot yet refrain from an expression of surprise on observing it to be still perceptibly advancing at the end of ten years.

The author now publishes this example, both because -as an illustration of the advantages of acting in accordance with the laws of our nature-it is as instructive as any with which he is acquainted, and because it strikingly shows the gradual accumulation of almost imperceptible influences operating surely, though slowly, in restoring him to a degree of health and enjoyment which has richly repaid him for all its attendant privations. Had he not been fully aware of the gravity of his own situation, and, from previous knowledge of the admirable adaptation of the physiological laws to carry on the machinery of life, disposed to place implicit reliance on the superior advantages of fulfilling them, as the direct dictates of Divine Wisdom, he never would have been able to persevere in the course chalked out for him, with that ready and long-enduring regularity and cheerfulness which have contributed so much to their successful fulfilment and results. And, therefore, he feels himself entitled to call upon those who, impatient at the slowness of their progress, are apt, after a time, to disregard all restrictions, to take a sounder view of their true position, to make themselves acquainted with the real dictates of the organic laws, and, having done so, to yield them full, implicit, and persevering obedience, in the certain assurance that they will reap their reward in renewed health, if recovery be still possible; and, if not, that they will thereby obtain more peace of mind and bodily ease than by any other means which they can use.

able entirely to protect himself. If they are speedily withdrawn from him, the slight disorder which they produce quickly ceases, and health remains essentially undisturbed. But, if they be left in operation for a considerable length of time, the derangement which they excite gradually and slowly increases, till at last a state of disease becomes established, which requires an equally long or longer period, and a steady observance of the laws of health, for its removal.

[The present seems a proper opportunity for informing our readers, that Dr Combe's Physiology is now published in a People's Edition (Maclauchlan and Stewart, Edinburgh) at a third of its former cost, so as to be within the reach of a much larger portion of the community than have yet availed themselves of it. This cheap edition is the twelfth in nine years, a strong proof of the value which the public has placed upon the work, and we observe that thirty thousand copies have been sold in America. It is no extravagance to say, that the sound unostentatious wisdom of this book, the interesting manner in which it impresses the importance of attention to the organic laws of our being, and the singular lucidity and simplicity of the author's language and ideas, all combine to render it one of the most remarkable literary productions of our age. It should be read and studied, and made a practical guide, by all: the poorest man, as well as the richest, ought, if possible, to possess it. The numbers who have profited by the book must be pleased to learn what the author tells of his personal history in the above extract. So the case really is, that this gifted man has written his Physiology, his work on Dietetics-scarcely less valuable and an admirable practical manual for mothers on the Management of Infancy, entirely out of the relics of a constitutional strength which twelve years ago seemed on the point of extinction, but has been saved and revived purely by attention to the organic laws. The thread is still a frail one; insomuch that the author has been obliged to spend some of the late winters in milder climes than ours; but, in common with thousands who have enjoyed the benefits of his writings, we shall hope that a few more years will see this changed, so that Dr Combe will not only have the satisfaction of seeing his present works going on to a vastly extended utility, but compose others by which he will confer new, and, if possible, still greater obligations upon his kind.]

From the preceding explanation of the slow but gradually increasing effect of both noxious and healthful influences on the human body, it is obvious, that while we cannot infer from a single application of a remedy ANECDOTES OF ENGLAND IN 1843. or single fulfilment of a physiological law being un[From the newspapers.] productive of an instantly perceptible result, that it is THE condition of the poor is a subject which, altogether therefore of no use; neither ought we to infer, that irrespective of the poor-law and its collateral questions, because a single excess of any kind does not produce a must ever excite the attention of thinking men. Above direct attack of disease, it is therefore necessarily harm- all, it should in London, where the condition of the poor less; for it is only when the noxious agent is very is most strikingly appalling. It appears, from the repowerful, indeed, that its deleterious influence on the port of the proceedings at Marlborough Street policesystem becomes instantly sensible. In the great majo-office, that there is an average number of fifty human rity of situations to which man is exposed in social life, it is the continued or the reiterated application of less powerful causes which gradually, and often imperceptibly, unless to the vigilant eye, effects the change, and ruins the constitution before danger is dreamt of; and hence the great mass of human ailments is of slow growth and slow progress, and admits only of a slow cure; whereas those which are suddenly induced by violent causes are urgent in their nature and rapid in their course. And yet so little are we accustomed to trace diseased action to its true causes, and to distinguish between the essential and the accidental in the list of consequences, that, as already observed, if no glaring mischief has followed any particular practice within at most twenty-four hours, nine out of ten individuals will be found to have come to the conclusion that it is perfectly harmless, even where it is capable of demonstration that the reverse is the fact.

The benevolence and wisdom of this arrangement are very conspicuous. There are many casual influences, from the agency of which man will never be

beings, of all ages, who huddle together in the parks every night, having no other shelter than what is supplied by the trees and hollows of the embankment. Of these, the majority are young girls, who have been seduced from the country by the soldiers, and turned loose on the world in all the destitution of friendless penury, and all the recklessness of early vice. This is truly horrible. Poor there must be everywhere. But that, within the precincts of wealth, gaiety, and fashion, nigh the regal grandeur of St James's, close on the palatial splendour of Bayswater, on the confines of the old and the new aristocratic quarters, in a district where the cautious refinement of modern design has abstained from erecting one single tenement for poverty, which seems, as it were, dedicated to the exclusive enjoyments of wealth

that there want, and famine, and disease, and vice, should stalk in all their kindred horrors, consuming body by body, soul by soul! It is, indeed, a monstrous state of things. Enjoyment, the most absolute that bodily ease, intellectual excitement, or the more innocent pleasures of sense, can supply to man's craving.

of course under the necessity of borrowing money; but by industry and good management he has been enabled to pay it off, and is now free of the world. To make his history still more remarkable, he has brought up a family of 14 children, and buried two others.

vantage to those lines that would fearlessly adopt it. A penny-wise policy induced the directors of the Hull and Selby Railway to raise their fares, particularly the third class; and what has been the result?-a falling off of passengers, inconvenience to the public, diminished revenue, and then a return to former rates, when they find their exorbitant demands will not pay them for the capital ex

The circumstances of the case, as I heard them related, appeared to me so extraordinary, that I was induced to go over to Carlton to see the land, and to inquire into the sys-pended.' tem pursued with such admirable results. I found that Chaney has two sons grown up and married, who work for him as day-labourers, and three unmarried, who also work for him. In addition, he sometimes employs two or three other hands. He has five working horses, besides a brood mare and foal; nine breeding sows and a boar, five milk cows, and nine young cattle of different ages. I did not see any sheep. I could not find that he adopts any regular system of cropping; but the appearance of his crops bore testimony to the high condition of the land, though originally, I was informed, of inferior quality. The great secret of his good management and extraordinary success seems to be in a very liberal application of manure and of labour to improving the soil. He told me that he never sells any barley, peas, or beans, but devotes his whole growth of these to the feeding of stock, chiefly hogs, of which he fattens a great number. The particulars of this case are so extraordinary, that I should scarcely have given credit to them, had I not verified them on the spot. They appear to me to furnish a proof as remarkable as it is delightful, of the benefit of high farming. Rent of the 24 acres originally taken, 20s. per acre. Rent afterwards raised to 22s. and 248. Rent of land subsequently taken, 40s.

Weekly Chit-Chat.

The Reformed Crows.-The following piece of drollery is found in a late Illinois newspaper:-Colonel B--has one of the best farms on the Illinois river. About one hundred acres of it are now covered with waving corn. When it came up in the spring, the crows seemed determined on its entire destruction. When one was killed, it seemed as though a dozen came to its funeral; and though the sharp crack of the rifle often drove them away, they always returned with its echo. The colonel at length became weary of throwing grass, and resolved on trying the virtue of stones. He sent to the druggist for a gallon of alcohol, in which he soaked a few quarts of corn, and scattered it over his field. The blacklegs came and partook with their usual relish, and, as usual, they were pretty well corned; and such a cooing and cackling-such strutting and staggering! When the boys attempted to catch them, they were not a little amused at their staggering gait, and their zig-zag course through the air. At length they gained the edge of the woods, and there being joined by a new recruit, which happened to be sober, they united, at the top of their voices, in haw-haw-hawing, and shouting either praises or curses of alcohol; it was difficult to tell which, as they rattled away without rhyme or reason. But the colonel saved his corn. As soon as they became sober, they set their faces steadfastly against alcohol. Not another kernel would they touch in his field, lest it should contain the accursed thing, while they went and pulled up the corn of his neighbours. They have too much respect for their character, black as they are, again to be found drunk.'

Railway Charges.-Railway companies, from the general want of tact in their directors, are yet far from meeting the public wants. They do not seem to be aware that while a thousand persons desirous of travelling can spare ten shillings, a hundred thousand can spare five shillings, and so on in proportion-the lower the fare, the much greater increase in the number who would travel. This may be well exemplified in our own publication. At its present price of three-halfpence, it has sixty thousand purchasers: were the price raised to threepence, it would get only seven or eight thousand purchasers, if so many: if raised to fourpence, its circulation would probably sink to a thousand, and then it would not be worth anybody's while to issue it. How long it is before public bodies of traffickers can take lessons from facts so obvious to private comprehension! A universal lowering of railway fares is earnestly demanded by the public. A late writer on the subject observes-What astonishes us most in the present management of railways, is the indisposition to meet the public in the adoption of low fares-a plan which, we are more than ever convinced, would prove of incalculable ad

Southey's Epitaph.-The following lines, for inscription on a monument to Mr Southey in the church of Crosthwaite, have been furnished by Mr Wordsworth, poet-laureate :'Ye torrents foaming down the rocky steeps, Ye lakes wherein the spirit of water sleeps, Ye vales and hills, whose beauty hither drew The poet's steps, and fixed him here, on you His eyes have closed; and ye, loved books, no more Shall Southey feed upon your precious lore, To works that ne'er shall forfeit their renown, Adding immortal labours of his own: Whether he traced historic truth with zeal For the State's guidance, or the Church's weal; Or fancy, disciplined by studious art, Informed his pen, or wisdom of the heart, Or judgments sanctioned in the patriot's mind By reverence for the rights of all mankind. Large were his aims, yet in no human breast Could private feelings find a holier nest. His joys, his griefs, have vanished like,a cloud From Skiddaw's top; but he to heaven was vowed Through a long life, and calmed by Christian faith In his pure soul the fear of change and death.' The Line of Literature. The reason why the periodicals have all arranged themselves along the line of Fleet Street and the Strand, is merely one of convenience. To establish an office for a newspaper in any other district of the metropolis, would argue very great ignorance on the part of the publisher or proprietor. This alone, without some irresistible attraction or extraordinary merit to overcome the obstruction, would be sufficient to nip the young flower in the bud. The newsmen, in collecting their daily supply of literary ware, run along the line of literature, and pick up dozens or half-dozens, or even single numbers of periodicals, within a line of about one mile in length. Even this is too long for many; and a literary square or market would reduce the trudgery of the trade considerably; but to be compelled to diverge from this line into any other as long as itself-to run from Fleet Street to Holborn, and from thence to Oxford Street or Regent Street, to collect two or three copies of different periodicals--would scarcely repay a common mendicant for the risk and the labour, even supposing he got his shoes for nothing, which, however, needs no supposition at all. Every periodical, thereforc, either establishes its office in Fleet Street or the Strand, or in some street that branches off from them, as the two parent stocks-the father and the mother of English periodical literature. I should say that Fleet Street, being the oldest of the two, and within the city of London, is the male parent. The Strand, being the youngest, and within the city of Westminster, may be entitled to the honoured name of mother, or alma mater. It is remarkable, too, that there is a city for each, and that these two cities unite where the two streets unite-at the venerable old gateway of Temple Bar. There are several streets, or rather lanes, which branch off from Fleet Street, but none of them are publishing lanes: they have not yet risen to that dignity and such is the conservatism of the venders, as a class, that it would be almost dangerous to settle in one of them.- Walk from St Paul's,' in Family Herald.

Duty of Old Age.-A material part of the duty of the aged consists in studying to be useful to the race who succeeds them. Here opens to them an extensive field, in which they may so employ themselves, as considerably to advance the happiness of mankind. To them it belongs to impart to the young the fruit of their long experience; to instruct them in the proper conduct, and to warn them of the various dangers of life; by wise counsel to temper their precipitate ardour; and both by precept and example to form them to piety and virtue. Aged wisdom, when joined with acknowledged virtue, exerts an authority over the human mind greater even than that which arises from power and station. It can check the most forward, abash the most profligate, and strike with awe the most giddy and unthinking.-Dr Blair.

Published by W. and R. CHAMBERS, Edinburgh; and, with their permission, by W. S. ORR, Amen Corner, London.-Printed by W. and R. CHAMBERS, High Street, Edinburgh.

EDINBURGH JOURNAL

CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1844.

by William Howitt, within the last month or two, and issued for the benefit of the English public.*

but all discomforts came to an end when he arrived in Pera, the Frankish suburb of Constantinople. 'Here,' This singular production is somewhat less amusing said he, I had the good fortune to obtain employment than we had expected, for the author says comparatively from the ladies' tailor, M. Rolle, and I sat steadily for little about his own adventures, or means of getting em- three quarters of a year, and worked hard. My manner ployment, confining himself chiefly to a narration of of life was wholly Frankish. To breakfast and supper where he went, with accounts of the places he visited. I had my own table; for dinner, I frequented a Frankish Yet the book is curious, as describing the actual rambles eating-house. At set of sun the workshop was closed, of an operative through various countries in Europe, and then I returned to my quarters, which I had taken Asia, and Africa, everywhere depending for the gratifi- in company with others of my comrades, and there cation of his passion for travel solely on his needle. As supped. In summer, supper consisted of figs, melons, the translator observes, it is the history of a man who and grapes; in winter, of tea, coffee, ham, and bacon, 'literally sews his way from continent to continent.' which last article the Maltese export in quantities to To whatever country or capital he goes, he finds different countries. After supper we generally remained masters of his own nation and trade established. He sitting, and smoked our tschibook, and conversed. In works with them, saves money enough to carry him on winter, we worked again some hours by lamp-light. Of to a new country, and there finds in his young country- course I did not omit on Sundays, and sometimes, too, men fellow pilgrims of the staff and knapsack, ready on Mondays, to go about and observe the life and manto bear him company on new excursions. Our hero ners of this great city, with its million of men of the commences his narrative as follows:--most various nations and characters.' His account of Constantinople, and the manners of its inhabitants, is ample, extending to about forty pages of his book, but is only a thousand-times told tale. Stamboul proved a golden soil to the vagrant tailor; he saved thirty-eight ducats by his labour. Here he might have remained and become rich; but no, he had an ardent craving to visit Egypt and the Holy Land, and set off ou a voyage to the East accordingly.

It was in the year 1824, that, after the early death of my parents, I quitted my native place, Werdohl, in the circle of Altena, being not yet sixteen years old, and betook myself to Schwelm. There I worked a year and a quarter. I then resolved on a farther journey through Germany, and set out upon it in July 1825, in company with three other hand-workers, one of whom was out of Saxony. They proceed through the countries on the Rhine to Berlin, after which they go by Pome- Arrived in Egypt, our hero remained thirteen weeks rania into Poland. Here they experience difficulties for in Cairo, but was not successful in picking up employwant of proper passports, and their money runs so short, ment. Most of his time was spent in visiting the pyrathat one sold a shirt, the second a coat, and a third a mids and other objects of curiosity. I often visited the pair of boots and pantaloons. At Cracow the author is slave-market in Cairo. Black and brown people lie struck with ague, which confines him to the hospital separated into lots, and are offered for sale by the cona fortnight. Quit of this affliction, he obtains work for ductors. The brown are from Abyssinia, and have a a few days, and earns a little money, with the view of tolerably handsome European cast of countenance, but proceeding to Vienna; but the police turn him back with a black woolly hair. The black from Darfur, from into Prussia, and, beaten about from point to point, he is Sennaar, and Upper Egypt, are more ugly, have thick compelled to part with his knapsack to pay a debt lips, flat noses, through which they stick a bit of wood, which he had incurred for lodging. Lightened of his so that the orifice may remain open for the ornament of burden, our unfortunate tailor pushes his way home- an ivory ring. On each cheek they have three deep wards; and again,' says he, 'I stood poor and ragged cuts, and on their heads black wool. The majority are only at a few hours' distance from my native place, wholly naked, though others have a gray woollen cloth Werdohl.' A feeling of shame now overwhelms him; round the loins, which they use at night as a blanket. he takes courage, and sets forth on a fresh cruise. If a Frank come into the market, they press eagerly To give anything like an idea of his zig-zag tra- forward, nod, call out with a soft voice, Tale henne!' versings, and also of his loiterings in different parts and would fain be bought by him. In Egypt, the of Germany, for a number of years, is out of the ques- Franks are allowed to purchase some of them, but not tion. It is sufficient to say that at Erfurt he got employ-in Constantinople. A female slave costs from five to ment, saved some money, and was able to refit himself with clothes and knapsack. Having passed through Bavaria, the Tyrol, and Austria Proper, staying and working a short time in Vienna, off he set for Lower Hungary, sailed down the Danube, and halted at Pancsowa, where he worked for eight months, and then went on a journey through Wallachia. At Bucharest he remained ten months. We next find him travelling to Warsaw, in Poland, and after that to the baths of Töplitz and Carlsbad. At the entrance to the latter place, the inscription struck his eye-He who is found begging in these walks will be seized, and sent with a shove to his own town.' I read this,' says he, with great composure, for I had yet money in my pocket.' After a short stay, with a glad heart he seized once more the old wander-staff, and went off towards Innspruck; journeyed a while through the Tyrol, where little work is to be had; proceeded again by Hungary and the Danube; and hearing that something might be done at Constantinople, his plan was made up to visit that distant capital.

The voyage down the Danube, and across the Black Sea, lasted several weeks, and was far from agreeable;

* Wanderings of a Journeyman Tailor, through Europe and the East, during the Years 1824 to 1840. By P. D. Holthaus, Journey man Tailor, from Werdohl, in Westphalia. Translated from the third German Edition by William Howitt. London: Longman and Company. 1844.

4

eight hundred piastres-from six to ten pounds English; the young are something dearer. In Alexandria they are higher, and still higher in Constantinople. No white slaves are to be seen in Cairo, but black ones in great numbers.'

In June 1838, Holthaus quitted Cairo by a vessel down the Nile, and after a stay of ten days at Damietta, contracted with the captain of a merchant vessel to carry him to Beyrout, in Syria, for the sum of twenty piastres, or three shillings and sixpence. The voyage to Beyrout was undertaken with the hope of procuring work, and a recruitment to the purse, from a German tailor who was established there. On landing, says he, 'I made inquiries after him from some Franks whom Í perceived on the strand, and found him in a large haan, where only foreigners lodged. Our countryman assisted us to hire a room in the haan-and a most wretched one it was-which we got for twenty parahs daily. It was neither drawn nor paved; window holes it had, but no windows; and it was thoroughly black, and perfectly alive with fleas, rats, and nice. There was neither seat nor table in it; and for the wooden key with which we secured our door, we had three piastres extra to pay. The slave-merchants, too, took up their quarters in our haan, and offered their blacks for sale.' This turns out work, and Holthaus resolved on a voyage to Acre. a bad move. The German tailor could not give any

With a heart full of piety and thankfulness, the wandering journeyman set his foot on the Holy Land,