to fanatic zeal, so on the other hand they often sustain patriotic purpose.

There is nothing now in the condition of the Turkish empire which threatens dissolution, or forbids a healthful, if gradual progress. And we must not lightly estimate the advantage which historical experience warrants us to hope she may be destined to gain from the friendly intercourse with Christian powers, and that impetus to every energy which follows the repulse of invasion. War, no doubt, is an evil in itself, deserving all the epithets bestowed on it by the philosophy of the closet. But still, in the philosophy of life, there is one war which often advances the civilization of states more efficiently than centuries of peace-it is the war in defence of the native soil-the war for independence from foreign yoke. Had the Persians never invaded Greece, would Greece ever have become the instructress of the world? The Osmanli too may have his Marathon and Salamis. There is no need to exaggerate the capabilities of this empire. We do not say that a Mussulman dynasty can avail itself to the utmost of the immense resources of European Turkey-can pour into its treasury all that might be borne to the quays of Stamboul from the Three Rivers and the Twofold Sea-fill the Golden Horn with formidable fleets, or overawe the Germanic kingdoms with gigantic standing armies. It is not our belief that the government of the Porte can raise the Ottoman empire into a first-rate power; nor is it to the interest or for the safety of the world that a first-rate power should bestride the straits, that it could lock against the commerce of the globe. Our interest-the interest of all civilization-is but to render Turkey in Europe the most effectual barrier in our power against the encroachment of a barbaric force. We have no necessity to re-create an Eastern Cæsar, but to block out the inroads of a northern Attila. It is enough for us if we can read in the map 'Turkey in Europe,' instead of seeing in that gigantic chart which spreads from the Baltic to the Wall of China-a new district robbed from humanity, and inscribed in red letters Turkey in Russia.' We dismiss at once as an obsolete chimera all idea of amalgamating Greeks and Armenians, Servians and Bulgarians, into some new empire to replace the Ottoman rule. Long before such elements could struggle into shape, Austria and Russia, united by common interest and common fear, would quell the mere mob of insurgent tribes. What time and the natural tendency of internal circumstances may hereafter produce on the relative position of the Ottoman rulers and the Christian subjects enters no farther into our policy than to secure for the latter the rights of conscience, and due securities from civil oppression. Our course is as clear

to

to wisdom as it is to honour. We find a power already established in Turkey, with ancestral attributes of national integrity and independence-that power, under very adverse circumstances, has shown a courage and temper to assist the object of civilized Europe in maintaining its own stronghold against the progress of Russian ambition. What more could Greek and Armenian, Servian and Bulgarian, fused into one commonwealth, do? This power, then, it is our business to confirm and strengthen, and not to lay down those arms we have taken up in its defence until we have cleared every class of its native subjects, every rood of its legitimate dominion, from one single diplomatic pretext to usurp its authority, from one single territorial hold by which the garrison of Russia can awe its councils and threaten its existence. Unless we effect this, we shall not have preserved the independence of Turkey; we shall only have postponed to a more convenient time the liabilities to destruction. We may sign what cabinets may call a peace, but the common sense of mankind will know that we have relinquished all for which it was worth while to contend; all which a rare and felicitous combination of circumstances--that no statesman the most sanguine can expect hereafter to command-warrants us to believe we could permanently accomplish, for a blotted parchment and a hollow truce.

As we write, events march, and enforce the views for which we contend. War recedes, and peace threatens to re-appear in a shape to justify the apprehensions we express. The siege of Silistria is raised; the Russians have quitted Western Wallachia, and have taken up positions in Moldavia; and diplomatic interferences are again spoken of. By a separate treaty with the Porte, Austria has placed herself under a more direct pledge to co-operate with the Western Powers; and in reply to a renewed summons of the German States for immediate evacuation of the provinces, the Czar announces himself not unwilling, 'in respect, it is alleged, 'to Austria,' to resume negotiations on the basis of the Protocol of the 9th April.

'As I suck blood, I will some mercy show,'

saith Ancient Pistol. If this news be confirmed, we trust that it will be something very different from 'remembrances' that Lord Aberdeen will convey to Prince Metternich. Respect to Austria may induce the Czar, at a moment of humiliation and defeat, to re-invite mediation at Vienna; but before any kind of sanction is given to such an attempt by the Western Powers, no doubt must exist as to the complete good-faith of the proposed mediator. If, as Lord Aberdeen says-often as bold in the wrong place

as

as he is timid where boldness would be prudence- France alone is more powerful than Russia and Austria put together," France and England united are surely in a position to obtain from Austria the respect she receives from Russia. That respect will be shown by the nature of the terms she may consider due to the dignity of those powers. And, if the valour of the Turks has deprived us of the occasion to divide with them the glory of defeating their invader, we must at least not incur the disgrace of losing by friendly negotiations what our ally singlehanded has effected by force of arms.

THE

QUARTERLY REVIEW.

ART. I.-1. Report of the Commissioners appointed to make Inquiries relating to Smithfield Market, and the Markets in the City of London for the Sale of Meat. London. 1850.

2. Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the existing State of the Corporation of the City of London, &c.; together with the Minutes of Evidence, and Appendix. London. 1854.

3. London in 1850-51, from the Geographical Dictionary of of J. R. M'Culloch. London. 1851.

4. Market Gardening round London; giving in detail the various Methods adopted by Gardeners in growing for the London Markets. By James Cuthill. London. 1851.

5. Report of the Supply of Water to the Metropolis.

Board of Health. London. 1850.

General

6. London Labour and the London Poor. By Henry Mayhew. London. 1851.

7. The Census of Great Britain, 1851. Report and Summary Tables. London. 1852.

IF,,

F, early on a summer morning before the smoke of countless fires had narrowed the horizon of the metropolis, a spectator were to ascend to the top of St. Paul's, and take his stand upon the balcony, that with gilded rail flashes like a fringe of fire upon the summit of the dome, he would see sleeping beneath his feet the greatest camp of men upon which the sun has ever risen. As far as he could distinguish by the morning light he would behold stretched before him the mighty map of the metropolis; and could he ascend still higher, he would note the stream of life overflowing the brim of hills which enclose the basin in which it stands.

In the space swept by his vision would lie the congregated habitations of two millions and a half of his species-but how vain are figures to convey an idea of so immense a multitude. If Norway, stretching from the Frozen Ocean down to the southern extremity of the North Sea, were to summon all its people to one vast conclave, they would number little more than half the souls within the London bills of mortality. Switzerland, in her thousand

VOL. XCV. NO. CXC.

T

valleys,

valleys, could not muster such an army; and even busy Holland, within her mast-thronged harbours, humming cities, and populous plains, could barely overmatch the close-packed millions within sound of the great bell at his feet. As the spectator gazed upon this extraordinary prospect, the first stir of the awakening city would gradually steal upon his ear. The rumbling of wheels, the clang of hammers, the clear call of the human voice, all deepening by degrees into a confused hum, would proclaim that the mighty city was once more rousing to the labour of the day, and the blue columns of smoke climbing up to heaven that the morning meal was at hand. At such a moment the thought would naturally arise in his mind,—In what manner is such an assemblage victualled? By what complicated wheels does all the machinery move by which two millions and a half of human beings sit down day by day to their meals as regularly and quietly as though they only formed a snug little party at Lovegrove's on a summer's afternoon? As thus he mused respecting the means by which the supply and demand of so vast a multitude is brought to agree, so that every one is enabled to procure exactly what he wants, at the exact time, without loss to himself or injury to the community, thin lines of steam, sharply marked for the moment, as they advanced one after another from the horizon and converged towards him, would indicate the arrival of the great commissariat trains, stored with produce from all parts of these isles and from the adjacent continent. Could his eye distinguish in addition the fine threads of that far-spreading web which makes London the most sensitive spot on the earth, he would be enabled to take in at a glance the two agents-steam and electricity-which keep the balance true between the wants and the supply of London.

If our spectator will now descend from his giddy height, and will accompany us among the busy haunts of men, we will attempt to point out to him whence those innumerable commodities, which he has seen pouring into the town, have been obtained, the chief marts to which they are consigned, and the manner in which they are distributed from house to house. Had London like Paris its octroi, the difficulty of our task would be limited to the mere display of official figures, but, thanks to a free policy, we have no such means of getting at strictly accurate estimates, and must therefore content ourselves with the results of patient inquiry among the foremost carriers-the railway companies-aided by such other information as we have been able to procure. For the sake of convenience, and of sequence, let us imagine that the principal daily meal is proceeding, and, according to the order of the courses, we will endeavour to trace

the