family, reigning at Constantinople, allowed them more than this distinction; or demanded from his people, when he could demand all they possess, the value of one zechin for his relatives. Little did he ever think of surrounding them with muftis and horse-tails, with the pageantry of religion and the pomp of war.

If we are to bow down and worship whatever images it may please the high menials of the palace to set up before us, be it permitted to remark that no images are rendered more venerable by a profusion of jewelry, a redundance of drapery, a flutter of embroidery, or gilding from head to foot. If we are to distinguish the features, if we are to admire the workmanship, it is of no advantage that they may be poised on columns a hundred feet above us. The barbarian may adore his own carving, a thing viler than himself; but civilized man requires the voice, the activity, the attention, the sympathy, of those to whom he assigns a station and is willing to respect.

SYDNEY SMITH.

BORN 1771, DIED 1845.

FALLACIES OF ANTI-REFORMERS.

BY SYDNEY SMITH.

The Book of Fallacies: from Unfinished Papers of Feremy Bentham. By a Friend.

T

HERE are a vast number of absurd and

mischievous fallacies, which pass readily in the world for sense and virtue, while in truth they tend only to fortify error and encourage crime. Mr. Bentham has enumerated the most conspicuous of these in the book before us.

Whether it be necessary there should be a middleman between the cultivator and the possessor, learned economists have doubted; but neither gods, men, nor booksellers can doubt the necessity of a middleman between Mr. Bentham and the public. Mr. Bentham is long; Mr. Bentham is occasionally involved and obscure; Mr. Bentham invents new and alarming expressions; Mr. Bentham loves division and subdivision—and he loves method