prosperity of the Shah, and the success of his soldiers."

Sefi was not appeased by the death of Tabub, but thought it due to his insulted name to visit Urgulu with the like severity. Aliculi Chan received orders to fetch his head; he waited on the victim in due form, and met him as he was leaving his bath. He started at seeing Aliculi with two attendants, and rightly conjectured the nature of his errand. Escape was impossible he and Aliculi had been extremely intimate, and he now addressed his friend in a desponding tone :

"Alas!" he exclaimed, "woe is me! Hope is no more! I fear, my friend, thou bringest me no good news."

Aliculi answered, "I am grieved to say thy conjecture is too correct. The Shah

has laid his commands upon me to fetch thy head. My duty is most painful, but thou hast only to submit."

The bloody deed was then performed, and the head of Urgulu severed from the body. Aliculi made a hole in one cheek large enough to admit his finger, and by this he carried it into the royal presence. Sefi looked on the ghastly object with a smile, and touching it with a wand, he

exclaimed.

THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW.
BY A SOLDIER OF THE GRAND ARMY.
(For the Mirror.)

"LET harps, and lyres, and trumpets proudly sound!

Bid echoing cannon the bold strain prolong!

With laurel be our mighty Emperor crown'd,
And celebrate him in immortal song!"
Such-even such th' exulting choral swell,
Which hail'd of Gallia's chief the favouring
star,

When the famed Kremlin to his cohorts fell-
The celebrated palace of the Czar.
Where Moscow's towers majestically rise
Chilly and dreary are September's nights:
Whence come those flashes reddening all the
skies?

That cloud of smoke? that thousand, thousand lights?

A city burns!-a mighty sea of fire
From house, and tower, and temple throws
its glare!

Mad vengeance only could the deed inspire!
It is the throe of national despair!
Soon we retreat. The snows incessant fall
From the black bosom of yon threatening
cloud;

Above we see but a funereal pall,

Below one awful, all-surrounding shroud.

Strange human figures in the woods appear; They do not live, nor are they sculptured stone

We recognise these statues, drawing near, Though cold and motionless, are flesh and bone.*

Slow is our progress, terrible the cold,

As on we move a wild disordered mass;The sage grow timid, and subdued the bold, The falling bridge, the yielding ice, the groan While seeking Beresina's awful pass. Of strugglers sinking to a watery grave, The mother's thrilling cry, the infant's moan, Mingle with howling winds and roaring

trade;

Immovably was frozen to the sword. Dread lines of ghastly corses mark our flight! The pale survivors disregard the dead! Horrors become familiar to the sight, And every spark of sympathy is fled! But is the fearful spectacle I see

In sad reality what it would seem? On earth may such abominations be;

Or is what I relate a madman's dream?

Unhappily, alas! too real all

The grim magnificence of "war's dread game;"

Maids, wives, and mothers weep, and men must fall,

And "thousands bleed to raise a single

name."

Wild terror, fiendish rage, and bleeding hearts,

Make of a hero chief the brilliant story; For these are ever the constituent parts Of what the giddy, senseless world calls

GLORY.

EGYPTIAN SLAVE HUNT.

THE 'Fourth Annual Report of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society' is before us. It contains much interesting

like men asleep. On approaching them it was found that they were dead.-History of Napoleon.

*Forms were seen in the woods which seemed

+ Some, furious and determined, with sword in hand, cleared for themselves a horrible passage. Others, still more cruel, opened a way for their carriages by driving them without mercy over crowds of unfortunate persons, whom they crushed to death.-Twenty-ninth Bulletin.

matter. However great the merits and however unremitting the exertions of the opponents of slavery, we are sorry to say as yet humanity has little to boast of having gained through their well-meant labours. Though success has crowned their efforts in some instances, in others there is reason to lament the horrors of slavery have not merely remained stationary, but have been fearfully aggravated through the measures necessarily adopted to abate the evil. Some melancholy statements appear in the report. Few of our readers will be prepared for the following particulars of a slave hunt, ordered by that enlightened personage the Pasha of Egypt, to whom the merchants of England lately presented a medal, with a laboured eulogium on his generosity and virtue.

The exhibition, or sport as it may be called, we suppose, was commenced on the 15th January, 1843. The progress of the Egyptian force is thus recorded:

"Arrived, on the 9th of February, at the head of the Khor el Sidr, the cavalry, with a party of Beduins, were detached against the Dinkas, a race of nomadic negroes occupying the banks of the White River. The main army, in the meanwhile, marched southward to Ule, in the country of the Bórun negroes, where they awaited the return of this detachment, which joined them there on the 14th February, bringing 623 slaves (males, females, and children), 1,500 oxen, and a few sheep and goats. Next day the booty was divided in the proportion of one-half to the government and one-half to the captors. My informant not having accompanied this detachment saw nothing of its proceedings, and only heard of its results in a general way. "The army now marched on southward into the country of the Bóruns as far as Abu Gúnus, about 9° 45' N. lat, and 32° E. long., when they turned eastward, still through the country of the same people, who, together with the Bártas, another negro people living on the Blue River and along the Túmat, were destined to be the prey of the invaders. At Djebel Tombak, in about 40° N, and 33° E, the first attack was made on the 19th of February. The inhabitants of the village having received warning of the enemy s approach, had retired to the summit of a small isolated mountain, rising some five or six hundred feet above the plain, which mountain was surrounded by the Egyptian cavalry and then stormed by the infantry.

"The negroes defended themselves valiantly, and even desperately, preferring death to submission and its inevitable consequence, slavery; so that but very few men able to defend themselves escaped death. But so insufficient were their means of defence, their arms consisting

of only bows and arrows tipped with ebony, that not one man of the Egyptian troops was killed; and though numbers were wounded by the arrows, still the wounds inflicted were of so trifling a nature as not to hinder a single individual from following his usual avocations. About noon. the soldiers returned to the camp with their prisoners and booty, so much of the grain (dhúrra and sésame), as the army wanted having been taken from the village, and then the whole place was given as a prey to the flames.

"On the following day (February 20th) the slaves taken were reviewed. They were all brought out, in number five hundred and twenty-six, inclusive of infants at the breast, and examined by the medical officers of the army (principally Europeans) in order to see how many of the men were fit to bear arms. They were all naked, being a fine, large, handsome people of the true negro race. The men had only a sheepskin over their shoulders, and the women wore a small apron. Only seventyfive men were found fit for military service, and these had most of them severe musket-shot wounds. After these had been set apart the Pasha selected the handsomest women and boys to make up the tale of the half belonging to government, leaving the remainder to the army, among the soldiers of which they were divided. Thus far all had remained perfectly quiet; but when the allotment was begun to be carried into effect, husbands being separated from their wives, children from their parents, and even infants from the arms of their mothers, the cries and lamentations which broke out among these poor wretches were dreadful and heartrending. The slaves were secured in the following maaner. The neck of each captive was inserted between the forked end of a pole from seven to eight feet in length, and as thick as the arm, the two points of the fork being fastened behind his head. The right arm was tied to the pole, the other being left free. The other end of the pole was then attached to the saddle of one of the soldiers, who could thus drag on his prisoner without being obliged to pay him much attention. This was the plan adopted with men and stout women: the old people and children were led along with merely a rope fastened round their necks. Having on the march generally to go six or eight hours without finding water, the waterskins of the soldiers were not more than sufficient for their own supply during the interval; and the only nourishment of their miserable captives being a little dhúrra moistened with water, and they being dragged along without any regard to their sufferings, it is not at all to be wondered at that a very large proportion of them should sink from

exhaustion and fatigue. Those who were too severely wounded, or whose strength failed them on the march so that they could not keep up with the army, were, on the spot, shot through the head by their inhuman masters without a moment's consideration or the slightest compunction. The result showed that at least one-half of the captives died before reaching the head-quarters at Khartum.

"On the 21st February the army proceeded northward to Kerr, an assemblage of ten or fifteen small villages, the inhabitants of which, on hearing of its approach, had retired to two stockaded enclosures erected by them as places of refuge and defence in case of need. On the following morning one of these stockades was attempted to be breached with the cannon, about forty shots being fired against it, but so ignorantly was the firing conducted that it had no effect whatever, and at length it was discontinued, and the soldiers themselves advanced to the stockade, into which they forced an opening by pulling up the stakes with their hands. The negroes, armed, like those of Djebel Tombak, with only bows and arrows, made so resolute a defence that the assailants were thrice driven back. But personal bravery could not avail against the fire-arms of the Egyptians, and in about an hour they were overpowered. The scene of horror that now ensued is not to be described. On obtaining an entrance into the stockade the soldiers not merely shot and cut down all those who continued to resist, but butchered in cold blood men, women, and children whose wounds rendered them unfit to be taken as captives; and then fire being set to the stockade, the dying with the dead were left to be consumed in its flames, whilst the attack of the second stockade was commenced. But seeing the unprofitableness of employing force, the Pasha first attempted to bring its defenders to terms, and one of the prisoners was sent in to call on them to submit to slavery. It was with great unwillingness that he went on his errand: I know my brethren well,' said he, they will never submit.' And he judged them rightly. The brave natives did not even deign to return an answer; so that the Pasha, after waiting some time to no purpose, was obliged to order the attack, which (as might have been anticipated) resulted in the same manner as that of the former stockade."

THE PARISIAN VENUS. THIS astonishing work of art is now in Regent street. On entering we see what seems to be the corpse of a handsome female who has just expired. It is moulded in wax; the face is removed like

a mask; and the exterior of the limbs and bosom being lifted, representations of what would appear in a real subject are pointed out. Anatomical explanations are supplied with great clearness by the gentleman who attends. Much real information may be gained from this exhibition. It gratifies curiosity in a high degree; nor can the contemplative mind look on such an object without emotionwithout feeling how just, how natural the exclamation of the Psalmist, "I am wonderfully and fearfully made!" Young medical students would be likely to derive considerable benefit from the inspection. The artist has gone all through the human subject.

"After displacing the lungs the heart is separated into sections, and the wonderful and admirable mechanism of its interior fully demonstrated here are seen the beautiful series of valves, and their accessory parts, accompanied by a description of their uses and mode of action. If (adds the programme) in one part of the body there are evidences of design more than in another it is here; for so palpable is the adaptation of the various means to their respective ends, that no one who has seen and reflects on this portion of our organization can fail to pay a tribute to the great First Cause."

Scandinavian Usages.-In some of the northern provinces of Scandinavia the administration of justice was marked by the observance of rules which seem not a little singular. The hanging up of a shield was essential to the formation of the court, and an announcement that it was open; the overturning of the judges' seats proclaimed its close; the judge was to sit (his rising interrupted all proceedings), and sit in a specific attitude In one state he was to sit "with one foot upon the opposite knee;" in another "with the right leg thrown over the left, like a grim lion," in which position, if he could not decide a point at once, he was to meditate upon it 123 times. In this awful position, when he had decided, he pronounced in a loud voice such dooms as the following:"For this we judge and doom thee, and take thee out of all rights, and place thee in all wrongs; and we pronounce thy wife a lawful widow, and thy children lawful orphans; and we award thy fiefs to the lord from whom they came, thy patrimony and acquired property to thy children, and thy body and flesh to the beasts of the forest, the birds of the air, the fish in the water. We give thee over to all men upon all ways; and where every man has peace and safe conduct, thou shalt have none; and we turn thee forth upon the four ways of the world, and no man can sin against thee."

"The value of such an expectation is a mere trifle; and with respect to the probability of its happening, it was exceeding uncertain whether I should have an opportunity of putting in one single

master.

"Three masters have happened to die in my time, and two of those in less than the space of a year; but I think not one in nine years before.

"My Lord Cowper admitted but one in the last time of his being chancellor, which was four years; and that was upon a surrender.

"There are twenty-four cursitors; only one has died in my time: thirty commissioners of bankrupts; only one died in above six years.

"Surrenders of the offices of masters are rarely till after sixteen or seventeen years, sometimes thirty or forty years' enjoy

ment.

"My life was very uncertain, the office of chancellor much more so.

"Little therefore was to be hoped from the profit to be made by masters' places. "My lords, in the next place, I apprehend, that it appears I did not take the advantage I might have taken.

"When the time came for me to reap the fruit of all my contrivances, all those schemes and stratagems, the work of above three years (a great space in the time of a chancellor), see whether there be the least mark or symptom of this impotent desire of gain."

It was said that the king proposed to pay his fine, but never did. He died April 28, 1732. His son George succeeded to the title as second earl. He was an LL.D., and President of the Royal Society in 1752. In 1722 he had married Mary, eldest daughter and co-heiress of Ralph Lane, Esq., an eminent Turkey merchant, by whom he had two sons, Thomas and George Lane. In 1757 his lordship married a second time, a Miss Nesbitt. He took an active part in forwarding the act of parliament for altering the style. He died in 1764, and was succeeded by his eldest son Thomas, who, in 1749, had married his cousin Mary, eldest daughter of Sir William Heathcote. She died in 1812. By her he had issue two sons, George and Thomas. His lordship died February 9, 1795, and was succeeded by George, the present Earl, who was born February 24, 1755, and married, May 25, 1780, to Mary Frances, daughter and coheir of the late Rev. Thomas Drake, D.D., rector of Amershan, Bucks. Her ladyship died January 1, 1823, leaving an only daughter, who was married, in 1802, to Thomas, Earl of Haddington. The Earl of Macclesfield is Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of the county of Oxford, High Steward of Henley, and President of the Board of Agriculture.

A LONDON GIN PALACE. THE following fearful picture is from 'Bentley's Miscellany' for the present month:

"The gin palace is generally at the corner of two intersecting streets, in a gindrinking neighbourhood; it lowers, in all the majesty of stucco pilasters, in genuine cockney splendour, over the dingy mansions that support it, like a rapacious tyrant over his impoverished subjects.

"The doors are large, swinging easily upon patent hinges, and ever half-and-half -half open, half shut, so that the most undecided touch of the dram-drinker admits him. The windows are of plate-glass, set in brass sashes, and are filled with flaming announcements, in large letters, 'The cheapest House in London,''Cream of the Valley,' 'Creaming Stout,'-'Brilliant Ales,'' Old Tom, fourpence a quartern,'-' Hodges' Best, for mixing,' and a variety of other entertainments for the men and beasts who make the gin-palace their home. At night splendid lights irradiate the surrounding gloom, and an illuminated clock serves to remind the toper of the time he throws away in throwing away his reason.

Within, the splendour is in keeping with the splendour without; counters fitted with zinc, and a long array of brass taps; fittings of the finest Spanish mahogany, beautifully polished; bottles containing cordials, and other drugs, gilded and labelled, as in the apothecaries' shops. At one side is the bar-parlour, an apartment fitted up with congenial taste, and usually occupied by the family of the publican; in the distance are vistas, and sometimes galleries, formed altogether of huge vats of the various sorts of liquor dispensed in the establishment. Behind the counter, which is usually raised to a level with the breasts of the topers, stand men in their shirtsleeves, well-dressed females, or both, dispensers of the 'short' and 'heavy;' the under-sized tipplers, raising themselves on tiptoe, deposit the three-halfpence for the drop' of gin, or whatever else they require, and receive their quantum of the poison in return; ragged women, with starveling children, match and ballad-vendors, fill up the foreground of the picture. There are no seats, nor any accommodation for the customers in the regular gin-palace; every exertion is used to make the place as uncomfortable to the consumers as possible, so that they shall only step in to drink, and pay; step out, and return to drink and pay again. No food of any kind is provided at the gin-palace, save a few biscuits, which are exhibited in a wirecage, for protection against the furtive hand; drink, eternal, poisonous drink, is the sole provision of this whited sepulchre.

"There is not in all London a more melancholy and spirit-depressing sight than