N considering the capacities and burdens of the leading nations of Christendom, we are struck by the great disproportion of the expenditures for war, compared with those for the purposes of civil government. Especially in the case of Great Britain, this disparity is extraordinary. The expenditures of that power, in 1854, for wars past and prospective, were more than $251,000,000; while all its other expenses amounted only to about $30,000,000. It is difficult to convey to the common mind, even an approximate idea of the values represented in these one-hundred-million amounts. It may assist the reader to a better appreciation, if we measure them with familiar standards. To do this with the annual revenue of the richest man on earth, would be like measuring the equator with a two-foot rule. Let us take the largest joint-stock property in the world for our measure. This is the capital invested in the railways of Great Britain, which amounted, in 1853, to £264,165,680, or, $1.267,995,264. Every dollar of this almost unfathomable sum has been actually raised and paid. Whoever has seen a recent map of the United Kingdom, will have observed that it is almost literally put in irons, or covered with such a network of railroads, that the meshes of unintersected land look very small. Those who have traveled in that country, must have been struck with the standing army of officials and men in fustian sustained by every line. Well, what are the gross earnings of all these railways in a good year? In 1854, the whole receipts for passengers and freights amounted to £20,000,525, or, $96,002,520. The reader will easily see that this is the greatest vested interest in any country on the globe, excluding landed estate. Now put these things together, and see what a lesson may be derived from the comparison. The expenditures of Great Britain for mere preparations for war, in 1854, were $117,984,201, and the gross receipts of all the railways in the realm, the same year, were $96,002,520; or nearly $22,000,000 less than the amount appropriated to military and naval armaments!

Let us measure this annual offering to the altar of Mars by the standard of human labor and its earnings. The number of agricultural laborers, male and female, old and young, employed in Great Britain, in 1851, according to the census of that year, was 1,077,627; of these, 198.226 were under the age of twenty years, and probably one third of this number were under twelve. The average wages of able-bodied men are about ten English shillings per week. Taking with them the women and children in a general estimate, the average weekly wages of the whole number employed in farm-work would probably be eight shillings, or $1.92; making about $100 a year per head. Thus all the men, women and children, who make Great Britain one great garden of beauty and wealth of production, earn $107,762,700 in the course of twelve months, provided they work every day in the year, except the sabbath. In round numbers, the cost of producing food for man and beast was $108,000,000; while preparations to

slaughter man and beast cost $118,000,000! There is a useful lesson at once apparent in the collocation of these figures. We would commend it to the honest toilers who plough, sow, and reap, and bear the out-door brunt and burden of feeding a nation. The deduction and inference are perfectly simple and easy to the mind of a child. For the husbandry of the plough, $108,000,000, for the husbandry of the sword, $118,000,000, per annum.

Let us apply a measure to these vast expenditures for war-establishments in time of peace, which the commercial community will more fully appreciate. No nation in the world has ever done so much to open up new markets for its commerce as Great Britain. Its geographical position has greatly favored this policy; having, as it were, its factories and warehouses midway between the great continents of the old world on one side, and the western hemisphere on the other. The whole globe is dotted or belted with its colonies; and these are all maritime, or accessible by water. To supply them all with manufactured goods and other productions, one would think, might employ

the industral genius and activities of a great nation. But their trade is trifling compared with the commerce with independent states. In the year 1853, the imports of the United States amounted to $267,978,647; and $143,019,260, or more than half of this amount, came from Great Britain and her dependencies. She imports for manufacture more raw cotton, silk and flax than all the other nations of Europe put together. The entire cellar of her island seems to be stocked with an inexhaustible supply of iron, coal, etc., and whole districts are covered with factories, dunning the heavens with smoke, and dinning the ears of millions with the click and clatter of machinery. In the back-ground of these industries, or in the agricultural districts, is a boundless supply of cheap labor, from which they may be recruited at any time and to any extent.

With such resources, there is no reason to wonder that Great Britain has surpassed all other nations in productive capacity. Her exports in 1854 amounted to $466,000,000, while those of the United States were $278,000,000, including specie. This comparison will show how far she is in advance of any other country in foreign commerce. Now what is the net and positive profit of all these exports, after deducting every charge and liability? Is there any experienced merchant in New York or Boston who would put it at 25 per cent.? But let us allow that rate; which would make the total profit of $466,000,000 amount to $116,500,000. In 1854, there were 31,517 ships, with an aggregate burden of 7,583,611 tons, that cleared from various ports of Great Britain, more or less freighted with its productions. The whole net profit of these exports was $116,500,000; the preparations for war the same year cost $118,000,000! The merchant needs no suggestion in reference to the lesson these two facts convey. He will see at once the burden and bearing of the present armed-force system upon the interests of commerce.

In the foregoing comparisons we have had to do only with what are called peace-establishments, or ordinary preparations for future hostilities. We have not touched upon the waste of actual war. Let us now glance at one tide-mark which the deluge of this calamity has left as an instructive me

mento to the nations it has inundated. The public debts of all the states of Christendom, both in Europe and America, from which we have official returns, amount to the grand total of $8,861,694,000. Doubtless $8,000,000,000 of this almost immeasurable sum represent the war-bills left to present and future generations to pay, by those who contracted them. What known value shall we apply to this mountainous aggregate? What shall we put in the opposite scale in order to ascertain its weight upon the civilized world? According to Otto Hübner, the paid in capital of all the known banks of the world amounted, in 1852, to 1,085,478,664 thalers, or $781,554,865. Thus the war-debts of Christendom amount, at this moment, to ten times the capital of all the banks!

Here is a fact and a lesson for the capitalist. He will see at once the reason why the barometer of the public funds is so exceedingly sensitive, sinking at a statesman's frown, or at an angry word between two irascible diplomats. What is the meaning of all these feverish perturbations in "national securities?" may be a puzzling query to common minds, unacquainted with the true cause of the phenomena; but to him it must be all clear as the day. Translating the true meaning from the delicate and mincing phraseology of 'Change, it is just this, and nothing more nor less: the monetary world knows that "it is the last ounce that breaks the camel's back;" that the people of Europe are now bending toward the ground and staggering under as heavy a load as they can carry, and that a few ounces more will break them down; and then, woe to all who have their treasures in that crushing burden. It should be remembered that we have taken these war debts as they existed before the terrible conflict with Russia just terminated by the Paris conferences. At the lowest figure admissible, this will add at least $1,000,000,000 to the indebtedness of the various powers that took part in it, directly or indirectly.

Thus Christendom enters upon the first years of the last half of the nineteenth century, with unpaid war-bills amounting to $9,000,000,000, besides other liabilities! What a legacy for future generations! But the most aggravating circumstance connected with this appalling inheritance, is the fact, that, in some cases, it will go down to them with

the solemn and reiterated assurance of those who contracted it, or of their representatives, that it was all a mistake, and might have been avoided, had not the people been wrought up to a gust of passion and frenzy. Lord John Russell, Disraeli, and other eminent statesmen representing all parties in the British Parliament, have deliberately declared their opinion to the world, from the high places they occupy, that the long wars with the French Republic and Empire were all waged upon a wrong principle, and might have been safely and honorably avoided. These wars cost the people of Great Britain more than $5,000,000,000 in money, besides a sacrifice of human life which money cannot measure. How tantalizing to be told, within forty years of their termination, that all this sacrifice was for nothing; resulting in no real good to the nation, establishing no principle of justice, contributing nothing to the progress of freedom at home or abroad! It required almost the life-time of a generation for the English people to get their eyes open to this stupendous delusion. But, what is passing strange, no sooner were they thus undeceived, than they rushed into a new and disastrous hallucination, a war with Russia. It will not take forty years, or forty weeks, to prove to them that this was the greatest delusion of all, so far as their first hopes, objects and expectations were concerned.

The sum of $9,000,000.000 does not, by any means, represent the waste of war during the last century, but only that portion of its cost handed down unpaid. Doubtless the present generation will follow in the footsteps of its illustrious predecessor, and pass down this burden undiminished to unborn millions. But the interest must be paid annually. There is no way to wriggle out of that obligation. This interest, at 5 per cent., will amount to $450,000,000 yearly. This sum raised from the industry and earnings of the people, will serve to remind them very impressively of their obligations to wars past. Then there is a considerable bill for wars prospective, or possible, which they have to meet. We cannot say within $50,000,000 how

much the mere preparations for war in time of peace in Christendom cost annually. We have official returns from only twenty of the forty-three independent states, which mostly comprise the family of civilized nations. These twenty include all the large powers, both in Europe and America; and we find their annual expenditures for armies and navies amounted, in 1854, to $466,000,000. The expenses of the twentythree small states from which we have no returns, would probably swell the sum to a total of $500,000,000. It will be seen that these two great totals nearly balance each other; just as those probably did between which the ass, in Scripture, crouched to the ground. Reduced to their minimum, and put together, they weigh $900,000,000. This is the grand aggregate annual tax imposed upon the people of the civilized world by wars past and prospective. This is the amount which they must pay out of their earnings every year, to sate the cravings of this horse-leech monster that cries, give! give!

Nine hundred millions of dollars a year for wars past and possible. What wonder there is a tremor in public securities at the slightest danger that this mountainous burden may become "the last ounce" too heavy for the people's backs! It now exceeds by more than $100,000,000 the inpaid capital of all the known banks in the world. It is equal to the whole value of all exports of England, France, and the United States put together, and to full fifty per cent. of the exports of all the nations of the world. It is twice the rental of all the real estate of Great Britain; it exceeds the net profit of all the manufacturers of Christendom. It is equal to the yearly wages of 4,500,000 agricultural laborers at $200 per head. It would pay for the construction of 45,000 miles of railway, at $20,000 per mile. It would support 1,200,000 ministers of the gospel, allowing each $750 per annum; giving a religious teacher and pastor to every 750 persons of the whole population of the globe.

Such is the condition of the people of Christendom in 1856, resulting from the cost of war.

the mountain had given us a night of refreshing sleep. We set off from Ain Heiruny at 7.25, and had still a steep ascent of about fifteen minutes. Here and below the northern side of the gorge is a precipice of naked rock, having the strata dislocated and nearly perpendicular. We soon came out of the chasm, and continued to ascend gradually over open ground; a high, rocky, isolated point being on our right. We passed a path on the left, leading off to the Maronite convent of Mar Antânus el-Kuzheiya, and soon after came out on a high plateau-a tract of land uneven and broken, but cultivated; having on the south the deep gorge of Bsherreh, with the stream Abu Aly, the main branch of the Kadisha, and extending for an hour or two towards the north. To this plateau the tract quite to the cedars may be said to belong. Here we fell in with several purling rills, brought down from the fountain of Elden. Our course was about S. S. E. Some of the fields of wheat afforded little promise; but others again were fine, almost as good as in the plains below. They were, however, not yet ready for harvest, and would not be ripe enough for two or three weeks. The silk harvest of the mountain was equally behind that of the plains. As we approached Ehden, we came upon a field of potatoes; the first I had seen in Syria, and which I saw only here in the highest cultivated parts of Lebanon. It was laid out in beds, and regularly irrigated. Burckhardt, in 1810. speaks of the potato as cultivated in this region. According to Seetzen, the cultivation of it began not long before 1805.

In about two hours we came to the village of Ehden, pleasantly situated on the northwestern border of a deep gulf, running southwest to that of the Kad1sha. The village stands also at the northwestern outer edge of the great amphitheatre of mountains, which surrounds the cedars, at the extremity of the lofty spur which projects westward from the great dorsal ridge to form that amphitheatre. It lies on a slope, facing the south, at an elevation of 4,750 English feet above the sea. Here, is an abundance of water for every purpose, coming from a copious fountain

are many vineyards; and figs and apricots flourish well. There was also fine shade from many noble walnut trees. The people seemed thrifty and well off, and there was no begging. The families make their winter residence in Zügharta. We were detained for some time, in order to have our horses shod, and were treated with great civility by the inhabitants.

Ehden is said to have been the birthplace of the Maronite scholar, Gabriel Sconita, the editor of the Syrian version in the Paris Polyglot. It was, also, formerly the seat of a Maronite bishop. South of Ehden, beyond the adjacent gulf, lies the village of Kefr Sáâb; and still further down, also, on the lower side, that of Bân.

Now, if the name of Ehden should suggest to our readers the idea of the garden of Eden, we should not wonder; but the two names have, indeed, no relation to each other, being differently written. That it should accord with the taste and learning of Maronite monks, to confound Ehden with Eden, and regard it as the Paradise of ancient writers, is not surprising; but that the same error should be committed by a scholar like Gesenius, is less excusable.

Leaving Ehden we passed on in a southeast course, having the fountain on our left, and kept along the border of the gulf, which has its beginning towards the northeast, under the adjacent mountain. We soon crossed the valley and its stream, here merely a wild sheet of white foam, coming down southwest from a fountain at the Maronite convent Mâr Serkis, situated just at the base of the mountain, fifteen or twenty minutes on our left. I believe this convent to be the same which Pocaide mentions, in 1793, as dedicated to St. Sergius, belonging, as he supposed, to the Latin Carmelites. We now continued to ascend gradually along this high basin, having on our left the lofty spur running out from the great dorsal ridge of Lebanon; the spur being here a thousand feet high, or more, above the basin, with pyramidal cliffs along the top, and becoming higher and higher towards the East. On our right was a low ridge between us and the gulf of the Kadisha,

through the breaks in which we could see the lofty dorsal ridge beyond, with its snows.

Reaching the end of this basin, in little more than an hour, we crossed a low saddee, and continued to wind our way among rocky hills, and passed a fountain called Ain-el-Bakavah. At one point, we had a view down a deep cleft into the gulf of the Kadisha, a monstrous gorge, having five villages in sight on its southern brow, and Bsherreh lower down on the side next us. We still kept along upon and among the hills. Before long we came upon a fine fountain at the base of a ledge of rocks; from one orifice issued a spout of water two or three feet high, and others just below were boiling up quite strongly. It is called Ain enNebât; its stream runs, or rather shoots, down to the Kadisha. We could now see the road from Baalbek coming down over the lofty and naked ridge of Lebanon, a little south of the cedars.

At last we fell into the great road from Bsherreh, having, I suppose, followed a less usual path from Ehden, at least for a part of the way. We now kept along for a time upon the brink of the great chasm, and then more to the left. At 12 o'clock we reached the cedars, situated a quarter of a mile north of the road. Here we rested for three hours, beneath these shades of solemn grandeur, embosomed among the loftiest heights of Lebanon.

The cedars, which still bear their ancient name, stand mostly upon four small contiguous rocky knolls, within a compass of less than forty rods in diameter. They form a thick forest, without underbrush. The older trees have each several trunks, and thus spread themselves widely around; but most of them are cone-like in form, and do not throw out their boughs laterally to any great extent. Some few trees

stand alone on the outskirts of the grove; and one especially, on the south, is large and very beautiful. With this exception, none of the trees came up to my ideal of the graceful beauty of the cedar of Lebanon, such as I had formerly seen it in the Jardin des Plantes. Some of the older trees are already much broken, and will soon be wholly destroyed. The fashion is now coming into vogue, to have articles made of this wood for sale to travelers; and it is also VOL. VIII.-11

burned as fuel by the few people who here pass the summer. These causes of destruction, though gradual in their operation, are nevertheless sure. Add to this the circumstance, that travelers, in former years (to say nothing of the present time), have been shameless enough to cause large spots to be hewn smooth on the trunks of some of the noblest trees, in order to inscribe their names. The two earliest which I saw were Frenchmen; one was dated in 1791. The wood of the cedar (Pinus cedrus) is white, with a pleasant, but not strong odor, and bears no comparison, in beauty or fragrance, with the common red cedar of America (Juniperus Virginiana).

I made no attempt to count the trees. Probably no two persons would fully agree with respect to the old ones, or in the number of the whole. Yet I should be disposed to concur in the language of Burckhardt, who says:"Of the oldest and best looking trees I could count eleven or twelve; twentyfive very large ones; about fifty of middling size, and more than three hundred smaller and young ones." Seetzen, five years earlier gives the number of the large trees at fourteen. Also Dr. Wilson, in 1845, counts twelve of the ancient trees standing together. Yet there is no room to doubt but that, during the last three centuries, the number of earlier trees has diminished by nearly or quite one half; while the younger growth has in great part, if not wholly, sprung up during that interval. Busching enumerates by name no less than twenty-six travelers between A. D. 1550 and 1755, from P: Belon to Stephan Schulz, who had described and counted the trees; and since that time the number of like descriptions has probably been hardly less than twice as many. In the sixteenth century the number of old trees is variously given as from twenty-eight to twenty-three; in the seventeenth, from twenty-four to sixteen; in the eighteenth, from twenty to fifteen. Thus Belon about 1550 has twenty-eight; Fürer in 1556 about twenty-five; Rauwolf in 1575 has twentyfour, and two others, the boughs of which were broken off by age; Dandini in 1596 has twenty-three; in 1688 De la Roque has twenty; and in 1696 Maundrell has only sixteen. Korte in 1758 counted eighteen, very old and large; Pococke about 1739 found fifteen, and one re