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    clustered domes , to -. Ufa , bosomed amid tufted trees , the bare and silent : SteppeSy the wondrous pine forests , the Bashkir camps and the Asiatic glitter of Astrakhani We Tank it , for freshness and accuracy , with the works of Oliphaiit and Danby Seymour , although , of course , Mr . Spottiswoode ' s experiences were more lightly spread over a large surface ; he travelled only for a fevr months , but he made the best use of his brief opportunity . He had studied the reports of previous writers , and , in the presence of a strange people and a little-known country , sought only impressions of life and nature ; it was far from his design to judge of social or government institutions . At least , he tas not included any political speculations among the first-fruits of his tarantasse

    journeytkosewho sleep are as dead . And thirdly , that there arc more women than men ; because Imsbauds who obey their wives are but women . If th . e reflective European inquire further how the Kalmuck philosopher explains these anomalies in the . physical and moral worlds , he -will hold up his open hand , and say , " some fingers are long , and some are short . " His tenth chapter , purports to beau account of a Buddhist temple and ritual by a--pilgrim . It is . an ingenious and faithful restoration of religious manners and dialogues ; but we have no space for further extracts . The book contains much more than we have noticed , and is remarkable as opening in deep and clear perspective , the scenery and life of a region so curious and so little known as Eastern Russia .

    As usual upon quitting Moscow , Mr . Spottiswoode betook hiniself to Kizhui , journeying thence by steam down tlie broad , shallow , shifting "Volga . Passing a village of the mystic Old Believers—a sect of heretics—he notices that they abjure tobacco antl potatoes , 'the . former ' as--a transubstantiation of the Devil himself , the latter as the forbidden fruit , and the flesh of the accursed Iscariot . This singular people has been forcibl y dispersed , and will probably xnelt away among the eastern solitudes of the empire . It » was an abrupt transition from their village to Kazan , where a half-ripe Orientalism mellows the aspects of the JNorth . Here was procured the tarantassre , a four-wheeled vehicle resembling a broad , low-builfc boat , truncated at both ends , with a coacli-box and a tented leathern hood , but neither Springs nor seats ; stoi'irig this ponderous carriage with such comforts

    as ave relished by liuogry travellers , including Cheshire cheese purchased in the bazaars of Kazan , Mr . Spottiswoode , with his courier and his coachman , started , and was speedily rattling along the savage Siberian road , a great broadway hewn in ¦ ¦ the--forest , with measureless depth of sunless pine cloisters spreading on either side . Now and then he was jolted over a Tough timber bridge ; once the woods seemed to have taken fire ; next , in the chill , grey morning , a long line of drab-clad figures was seen inarching ¦ under the trees towards Siberia—an instalment of the annual ten thousand exiles , of whom one in four perishes oh the road . At the post-houses and inns , civilization seemed to betaking a parting glance at the tarantasse ; occasionally a meadow appeared brightly between the masses of forest ; then a huge Russian town , ornate and bulky , varied the lengthening view . ¦ ¦

    ¦ - 'From Ekaterinburg , on the Siberian frontier , the tarantasse was driven in a south-easterly direction ; but Mr . Spottiswoode felt that the tints of the country on that side of the Ural were those of Asia , that the sun he saw' in the early morning -was as yet invisible in Europe , in Palestine , in Egypt , in -the Syrian desert ; it might have just touched the eastern headland of Arabia . Speedily , however , he was among the non-Russian populations beyond Ufa , the limes and poplars of Orenburg , and entering upon a journey of more than i a-thousand miles through an uncultured region . At this point he interrupts the narrative by a succinct and informing sketch of the tribes inhabiting Eastern Russia , a chapter in which he develops his ethnological views . We might here discuss with him the points of affinity between the -Tatar and Mongolian races ; but , it is unnecessary . The etlinography of those countries has hitherto been very imperfectly explored ; we arc

    satisfied that much remains to be elucidated with respect to the original links between these nations and those of Mongolia . The Kirghiz hordes especially seem the kindred of other nomades , from whom , by certain theorists , they have been somewhat arbitrarily separated . Mr . Spottiswoode . hesitates between Abbott and Pallas to decide as to their cruelty . M . de Lev chine , whose authority is of weight , supplies interesting testimony on this subject . As to their women , although their minstrels sing of them as whiter than snow , \ sdth cheeks red as blood , hair dark as ni ght , and eyebrows black as characters traced by a Moollah ' s pen , Abbott affirms them to hiive complexions resembling beetroot , faces ever furious by crimson , features naturally coarse , the figures of bears , and the dress of torn toadstools . Mr . Spottiswoode corroborates Abbott , except , we should think , as to the torntoadstool metaphor .

    In six days Mr . Spottiswoode gained a familiar knowledge of the city of Astrakhan , the Star of the Desert , beloved by the Oriental tribes . Situated Tvhere a river , after a course of full three thousand miles , empties into an inland sea with a coast of incomparable beauty , Astrakhan is connected by tsommercial roads with the Baltic and the Caucasus , Tiflis and Baku , and presents a dramatic -variety of population , contrast , and colour : — - Wo -were for the moment almost bewildered , and could scarcely realise tlie fact , although at the same time we could not for a moment divest ourselves of the idea , that we were in the land of the Kalmucks and Kirghiz , the steppes of the Caspian :

    and that the only roads were , one by which we had arrived , leading Jiomewanl . s it is true , but little short of 2000 miles before it brought us to the frontier ; the other along tlie sea-shore to a region , unparalleled in beauty , scarcely surpassed in grandeur , almost untrodden by travellers , —a region about which so many reminiscences and interests , both historical and political , have ever clustered ; where traces of old language arid dialect that have elsewhere long 1 since died out may still be found ; where fragments of old manners , customs , and religions etill linger , like , the last wreaths of the morning mist , which hang entwined about tlio nealts of this their mountain home .

    Mullions , nuabesques , green-gold-starred domes , cupolas , spires , planted groves , huge , painted gates , red and yellow , tawny sand , und the innumerable variegations painted by the encaustic pencils of the sun , confer on Astrakhan the appearance of Oriental antiquity . Mr . Spottiswoodc , however , was soon away in Kalmuck tents , or calculating the produce of the Volgan and Caspian fif-heries , or analyzing the Tatar nationalities ; but hi . notes are most strikingly interesting when they touch uppn the life of the uomadc people . He is now referring to the Kalmucks : — The women enjoy a liberty and independence unknown in Moslem countries , but atilliUot unlhuitoU , as tho following extract from one of their fuvourite fables will show .

    At a council of the birds , summoned to deliberate about tho raarria ^ o their khan , one member , JUaving arrived late , was called ujion for an explanation of hia want of punctuality . And having pleaded the length of his journey , ho proceeded to Bay that ha had in the course of it observed throe , things . First , that there are mores nightu than days ; for tho clouds and fogs convert intervals , which should rightly be days , into-nights . . ' Secondly , that the dead are more numerous thun tho living ; because

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    THE MAN" WITH THE PAPER MASK . Junius Lord CFiatham .- A B ' toyrajjhy . By "William Dowe . London : Triibner and Co . Mr . Dowjj has been pleased to revive the Junian controversy . Having proved to his own satisfaction that the oratorical Great Commoner of the Junian epoch was also the Great Demagogue of the Press , he has thrown his proofs into shape and given them to the world . The form itt which he has put forward his argument is that of a biography of the fiery Earl whonv he more than suspects to be the popular oracle of those days , " setting fortL , " as be tells us , " the condition of English politics preceding and contemporary with the Revolutionary Junian period , and showing that the greatest orator and statesman was also the greatest epistolary writer of the age . " It is the misfortune of this notorious nomi / iis umbra which

    electrified Great Britain during the short period it stalked through the country , that inquisitive persons have not been content with the shadow , but must get at the substance , even though that substance be but a name . Nearly a century has elapsed since the first letter was published , - ' yet the curiosity of not a few is as rife as ever to discover who the man with the impenetrable mask could be ; and what is still more curious , historians and political writers of every degree have felt themselves bound to enter the lists , and earn their spurs by a tilt against this unknown knight . Lords Campbell and Mahon , Mr . Macaulay , Sir David Brewster , and a crowd of critics might be mentioned ,- who have done their best to bring the discussion to an end . . But this is not so astonishing ns thecrowd of personages who have been marshalled upon the scene and made to answer to the name of the great Juniua . Almost every writer of that day -who had acquired a little

    preeminence over his fellow men was put forward as the author of the letters . Some asserted it was George GrenviHe , the leader of the Liberal party ; some , James GrenviHe ; others , that it was Lord Temple ; and others , again , that it Was Charles Lloyd , private secretary of George GrenviUo . Exclusive of these , however , we meet with a host in the same predicament—John . VVjlkes , Home Tooke , Macaulay , Boyd , Burke , Barre , Hood , Grattan , Francis , Maclean , Glover , Delolme , Lord Shelburne , the Duke of Portland , Sir W . Jones , Gibbon , Sam Dyer , General Lee , Gerard Hamilton ^ J . Roberts , Lord Ashburton , Lord Camden , James Holl is , Dr . Wray , Horace Walpole , Lord Loughborough , W-, Greatrakes , Iiev . 1 \ Hosenhagen , John Kent ,. Bishop Butler , Lord Chesterfield , Lord George Saekville , Dr . Francis , Thomas Lowe Lyttleton , and even Dr . Johnson and Peter Pindar , have been dragged into the arena .

    Mr . Dowe undertakes to dispose of the principal characters in this heterogeneous mass by analyzing their pretensions to the Junum glory . The others , too humble to attract attention , he passes over without a single glance . . Those whose claims lie deigns to notice are Burke , Lord George Sackville , Lord Ashburton ^ Thomas Lord Littleton—n feoble imitation of Lord Rochester—und Francis ; but all these lie contemptuously sets usidu for hia own favourite . The hypothesis of Britton , that the letters of Junius were the joint production of Lord Ashburton , Lord SheLbourne , and ColoneL Barre , falls to the ground , from the single fact that the secrot would scarcely have been kept inviolate had three been concerned in it . The other

    evidence needs scarcely be sifted after the utter improbability that the authorship could have been withheld from the world had more than one been entrusted with it . Macaulay , and with him are several other able critics , aflinn that Philip Francis was the writer of these letters . They affirm that the handwriting of the MSS . is the handwriting of Francis , slightly disguised . In comparing the position , pursuits , and connexions of Junius with those of Francis , they draw a close analogy : —They assert that Junius was acquainted with the technical forms of the Secretary of State ' s Office ; that he was intimately acquainted with the business of the War Office ; that during the year 1770 he took notes of . speeches delivered in the House of Lords ; that he bitterly resented the appointment of Mr . Chamieir to the

    place of Secretary at War , and that he was bound by some strong tie to the first Lord Holland . Turning to tlie career of Philip Francis , it is well known that he was for some time in the Secretary of State ' s Office ; that he wus subsequently chief clerk of the War Office ; that ho heard the speeches of Lord Chatham during tlie year 1770 ; that he resigned his office from i-csentnient to Mr . Cliamier , and that he wua introduced to public life by Lord Holland . The objection that Philip Francis wrote in his other correspondence nothing that could indicate him to bo capable of writing the letters of Juihuh , Mactuilay meets b y a direct denial , and also shows that every man must write his best und his worst work , and that if we criticize tlie letters of Junius himself we shall find su / Iieieufc irregularities in the stylo to overthrow the objection .

    ^ 1 lie idea that Lord Chatham was Junius is not original ' , although Mr . Dowe has worked it out more elaborately than any of his predecessors . He tulces , too , a larger range of inquiry ; and instead of confining his examina .-lion to the Letters of Junius , he rambles through the correspondence of " Attieus , " "Poplicolu , " " Anti-SujanuH , " "Anti-Stuart , " " Mncinon , " u Anti-Van Tongue , " "Modestus , " &c . ; and tracing the nuthorship to one source , builds up a theory of cunning and subtlety on the part of the writer , worthy of Muchiavelli himself . This argument in ingenious but tortuous , and it requires no small innount of credulity to submit to it . All tho points of coincidence in feeling and opinion between Junius and Chathuin , of courao arc made the most oi \ and with , great plausibility . Tho disgusted ru-

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    iPimil ^ l ^ J / j _ THE vLiE A DEE , 3 ff 5

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 11, 1857, page 355, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2188/page/19/