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    at Windsor . He looks pale , old for his age ( about thirty-one , I believe ) , and he has lately grown corpulent : the impression his aspect conveys is of a man , gentle , unassuming , feeble , unstrung , doomed ; no energy of purpose gleamed in that passive glance ; no augury of victory sat on that still brow . How different from the mien of the Emperor of Austria as he rode at the head of his cohorts , though that may not have had any special moral significance . The Sultan looked like Richard II . riding past ; Bolingbroke , however , has not yet arrived . The French Ambassador , M . Delacour , and several ladies , arrived too late for the exit of the procession , but saw its return . Lord Stratford did not come , but Tve had his interpreter , and an imposing array of four cavasses , a sort of armed policemen . We were then transferred to the interior court . Here the Sultan takes his place on a gold or gilded couch ; the Sheik Islam , or head of the Church , and a descendant of the Prophet from Meccaoffer up a

    , short prayer , and then in succession the whole Ottoman array of dignitaries and officers file before him : the first few of the highest grade kiss his foot while he stands ; he then sits down , and the great bulk of military and civil employe ' s only kiss the tassel of the couch ; the cadis ( judges ) , ulemas ( professors of law ) , and muftis ( much the same ) kiss the hem of his garment . The Sultan ' s band played marches and airs all the time , chiefly from JSemiramide , and extremely well . The sight was extremely picturesque , somewhat barbaric , highly suggestive ;—picturesque from the variety and brilliancy of costume , the gleaming of uniforms , the clash of music under the dark rich green of 4 he cypresses , and the quaintness of the surrounding architecture ; barbaric , from the idolatrous forms of prostration ; suggestive , from the thought that always follows me here , from minaret to minaret , from one silver sea to another , " How long ?"

    TURKISH I . VNE OF BATTLE SHIPS . July 26 th . —I breakfasted under a . vine in the garden . Poor Captain " Woolrige , of the Inflexible , died here this morning , of fever , which I fear was brought on and aggravated by excitement at the prospect of undergoing a court-martial , for his ship having been run aground by its pilot . Lord George Paulet and I were called for by Captain Borlase , an English naval officer , who has been here for a year or two , in--structing the Tttrkish fleet in gunnery , and taken by him on board the largest Turkish man-of-Tirar , the Mahmoudieh , of 122 guns , She is very immense , and of unusual depth : she was built , like most , I believe , of their . ships , by an American . Even after my residence with the fleet , I do not assume to be a naval critic , so I spare my readall detailsLord

    er . ' George seemed on the whole very much satisfied with the arrangements ; the captain , who had been for some little time at Portsmouth , seemed a very intelligent man . I was particularly pleased with the care they appear to bestow on the sick in the ship ' s hospital , though there was an array of sweetmeats for them we should not have found in our vessels . The crew looked active and healthy ; not quite so clean as our men . We had of course pipes , sherbet , and coffee . We went to another ship of 78 guns , where we found two Turkish admirals , Acnmed Pasha and Mustapha Pasha , the latter of whom served for some years in an English ship , and speaks English perfectly . Here we saw the crew work the guns ; and Lord George thought , as I had heard from others before , that no English crew whatever could have done it better . This is highly to the credit of Captain Borlase .

    THE POLITICS OF MODERN GREECE . I have barely adverted to the politics of modern Greece : during one fortnight , at least , ancient Hellas repels all other intrusion , and , truth to say , there is but little attraction in the modern competitor for notice . I should also shrink from any direct references to those with whom I have conversed ; I may , however , most truthfully aum up , from all that I have seen , or read , or heard among persons of different nations , stations , and principles , that the present Government of Greece seems to be about the most inefficient , corrupt , and , above all , contemptible , with which a nation was ever cursed . The Constitution is so woxked as to be constantly and flagrantly evaded or violated ; the liberty of election is shamefull y infringed ; and where no overt bribery or intimidation are employed , —charges from which we Englishmen can , I fear , hy no means make out an exemption , —the absence of the voters , who regard the whole process as a mockery , is compensated by the electoral boxes being filled with voting papers by the gendarmerie , —a height of impudence to which > re have not yet soared

    . Persons the most discredited by their characters and antecedents are forced on the reluctant constituencies , and even occasionally advanced to places of high trust and dignity . The absence of legislative cheeks is not atoned for by the vigour of the executive in promoting public improvements . Agriculture stagnates ; manufactures do not exist ; the communications , oxcept in the immediate neighbourhood of the capital , where they are good , are deplorable ; the provinces—and hero I can hardly except the neighbourhood of the capital—teem with robbers . The navy , for which the aptitude of the peoplo 5 s remarkable , consists of one vessel : the public debt is riot paid : an offer by a company of respectable individuals to institute a steam navigation , for which the seas and shores of Greece offer such innumerable facilities , was declined at the very period of my visit , because it was apprehended that it would be unpalatable to Austria . Bitter , indeed , is the disappointment of those who formed bright auguries for the future career of regenerate Greece , and made gonerous sacrifices in her onco august and honoured cause . Yet the feeling so natural to

    thorn , so difficult to avoid for us all , should , still stop far short of despair . When it is remembered that , about twenty-throe years ago , the only building at the Piraus was a small convent , and that at the same time there was not a single entire roof in Athens ; and that we now find , at the harbour , noble wharves and substantial streets , and at the base of the Acropolis , not indeed a renewal of its older glories , but what would bo thought anywhere a frosli and comely city 5—it would bo impossible to deny either the possibility , or presence of progress : it is of deeper importance , that , aa I believe , there undoubtedly are solid materials for advance and improvement among the bulk of tlie Greek people themselves ; their high intelligence no detractor could think of denying ; they seein capable of patient and persevering industry ; tho zoal for education pierces to tho very lowest ranks ; many instances aro known of young men and women coming to Athens , and engaging in service for no other -wages than tho permission or opportunity to attend some place of instruction : and

    when an exception ia made of tlio classes most exposed to contact with tho abuses of government , and tho frivolities of a society hurriedly forced into a premature and imporfect refinement , there is much of homely simplicity , cheerful temperance , nnd hearty good-will amidst tho main body of tho country population . Tho most essential element in thus forecnuting tho destinies of a people , is thoir religion ; it is notorious that tho religion of tho modern Greeks is oncumbored witli very much both of ignorance and suporstition . 1 boliovo that , in instituting a fair comparison of tho Grook Church with her Lathi aistor , she must bo acknowledged to lag bohind hor in tho activity and zeal which constitute tho missionary aharacter of a church , and in tho spirit of association for purposes of bcnovolonco : but she posuoflnos a superiority in two points , full of v « luo and pregnant with promise : h 1 »« has more toloranco towards other r eligious conamunitios , and sho encourugea tho poruaal of tho Holy Scriptures .

    Before wo close Lord Carlisle ' s volume , it 13 only justice to him to say that he writes without any reference , ouo way or the other , to P ^ ty politics . Paragraphs and sentences may very possibly bo picked out or hia book as texts , from ¦ which Opposition members , next aosaion , may speak againat the Turks , and tho Palmorstonian sympathy for them . But a fair perusal of Lord Carlisle ' s Diary , and a fair comparison of dotached passages with eaol

    other , will , we think , prove that he writes impartially even on the subject of Turkey . He speaks on topics of present and powerful interest in * the character of a _ spectator , not of a partisan ; and though he says but little , that little , in virtue of the speaker ' s moderation , may claim to have a value of its own .

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    MORE VERSIFIERS . The Bream of Pythagoras , and Other Poems . By Emma Tatham . Binns and Goodwin . Poems by William Bell Scott . Smith , Elder , and Co . Sonnets on Anglo-Saxon History . By Ann Hawkdhaw . Minor Poems by James Sykes . Idyls and Songs . By Francis Turner Palgrave . John W . Parker and Son . The Village Bridal , and Other Poems . By James Henry To well . Wluttaker and Co . Indulgent old Michel de Montaigne was almost tormented into severitv by the excessive escrivaillerie of his time . Yet he lived in an age comparatively innocent of ink . What would he have said if his fate had fallen on these evil days of fungoid poetasters ?

    " Poetry , " in the modern acceptation , seems to be the refuge of weak minds incapable of prose . Sometimes it is but a premonitory symptom of that moral ^ enlargement of the heart , which precedes the total loss of head ; and then it deserves our amused pity , sometimes it is the motley of a melancholy dilettantism .: sometimes it is the harmless offspring of a too retentive memory and a too facile mimicry . Once or twice in a century it 5 s an inspiration , a gift , a creative power , an art . We do not , of course , include in these sweeping definitions the innocuous pastime of nice young men who scribble in albums , or the still more innocuous accomplishment of nice young ladies who take to writing " poetry " like puppy-dogs to milk . Whenever we bear that very common remark , Oh ! she is so clever , ske writes poetry , we can only smile-pityingly , and silently regret that the young 'lady should allow her feelings to get the

    better of her p ' s and q ' s , and stain with horrid ink those delicate pickers and stealers which we cannot doubt were originally created for domestic cookery and crochet—not to speak of the poetry of plain needlework ! Rising to higher considerations , we may ask , why should beauty descend from the shrine ^ to mingle with the vulgar crowd in the temple ? why should the worshipped become a worshipper ? Young ladies , be content to he the Poem , and let those rougher mortals with whom , since your mother Eve , you have waged an everlasting war , be the despairing poets . Here is an unpretending little volume of " poems" by a young lady who , we can scarcely ^ be surprised to learn , has " not hitherto published . " Many of the pieces were written , we are assured ^ when the authoress was sixteen or seventeen years of age . These extenuating circumstances are' undoubtedly prepossessing ; and we should have nothing to add at present in acknowledging the receipt of The Dream of

    Pythagoras , and Other Poems , but a word of unfeigned sympathy and regard for a young mind so full of fine and fervent feeling , so rich in aspiration , so refined in culture , so pure and delicate in thought , so accomplished in expression . But we cannot resist the duty of warning , we trust in a spirit of sincere kindness and true respect , the friends of this young lad y against the practice of enclosing in a copy of the poems a sheet full of " opinions of the press . " If a lady were not the unconscious subject of this ill-advised naivete , we should be disposed to- resent it as an intolerable intrusion . It is an equally foolish and impertinent attempt to bias the judgment of the reviewer whose conscientious judgment is appealed to , and who is presumed to be overpowered by a cloud of " favourable notices . " In the present instance , nothing could be more fatal to the reputation of the " poet" than the so-called " Opinions of the Press" now lying before us . Here is a specimen of the suit we are indirectly requested to follow : ¦—

    " Miss Tatham is , indeed , a poet . If great imagination—immense rfopth of thought and feeling—exquisite tenderness—great power of expression , combined with a harmony of metro rarely aurpassed ^ -bo tho qualifications of a poet , then , indeed , may Miss Tatham lay claim to a high rank iu the rield of Kngliah . poetic Htoraturo . Wo could have wished , indeed , that her inspiration would occasionally indulge itself on subjects less serious than those which sho has treated—not that « he is not e ^ ual to such , themes , , wo believe hor equal to anything—but because she would coino more homo to our hearts in matters connected with tho overy-duy world around vih . " This friendly critic v ? y va pas de main niorte . But we confess Ins enthusiasm is not infectious . Here is another , whose raptures almost run away with his grammar :-

    —" There aro so many individuals claiming rank in these dnya as poots andpoetosm - < , that it is natural to contract o distaste for every now poetic book , and to turn away ire loathing ; as if nothing good could now descend to us orurept in sulomn and aober proso . Tho same fate may await tho inspiration * of Kmma Tatham ; but we take , tin * opportunity of saying that we should be jorry to find her x / iclmd , because it is somewhat extraordinary that a female mind can be found among us aspiring to the most claanic and sacred hoights of poetic art . Miss Tatham will not condoseend to -write about subjects of a more earthly or social kind ;—she must bo a Miltonoss or nothing at all , and hor chief poom ia therefore an elaborated , a complicated , a metaphysical , and a during rendering of tho dreams and vision * of tho grontost plnlonopher and myth of ancient Greece Mon of most manly mind would not . oven havo darod ho much ; but Miss Tatham knows sho has groat powers , worthy of grout decdu ; and if yet a young lady , tho better for herself and hor country . "

    Undoubtedly we should bo sorry to find any amiable and accomplished young lady " shelved : " tho position would ba most trying and uncomfortable ; but with regard to tho poems , a shelf after all ia better than a wafltopftper basket or tho butter man . It is not our fault , nor , wo believe , Miss Emma Tatham ' s , that wo have bven diverted into a criticism of her critics instead of her own veraos \ we have already said all wo havo to say about her refined and pensive exercises iu metro . Mb . Wiuiam Bbm , Scott has caught a mannerism or two of Tennyson , and this mimetic knack has probably driven him into rhythm to express obscurely , and therefore feebly , thoughts uud perceptions often subtle , always scholarly and refined , somotimeB even profound .

    Misa Hawkshaw has in a loving spirit ot revoronoo transcribed , iu ninetyeight sonnota , the chief epochs and episodes of Anglo-Saxon history . The stylo of tho sonnets ia a vigorous sobriety . Mr . Jamms Sticks sonda us a copy of bis Minor Poems , printed , we Amd ,

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    1024 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 28, 1854, page 1024, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2062/page/16/