Egypt. There does not appear a single dependant in the house of any of the Princes, who is not a slave. Over many of them is inscribed the writing of their perpetual servitude: "Slaves born in the house, in the books "-that is, deeds, muniments-" of the house for ever." The determinative of the group muse, "bound man," "slave," is often a cord. It is here (in the hieroglyphic quoted by Mr. Osburn) a deformed, dwarfish man. Many generations of abject drudgery, enforced with remorseless cruelty on both parents, had, doubtless, inflicted hereditary deformity upon their offspring. The butchers, cooks, and other performers of menial offices, seem all to have belonged to these most degraded classes, and are frequently represented with deformed heads, crooked legs, and other bodily defects. The field-labourers, herdsmen, shepherds, and tenders of live stock* generally, are also so inscribed; but they are free from personal deformity,—an immunity for which they were indebted to the healthier nature of their occupation. Whether these performers of the drudgery of human existence in Old Egypt were originally slaves purchased of foreigners, or prisoners of war, does not appear in the tombs. As depicted there, their complexion and countenances are Egyptian.

A higher class consisted of the chief officers and stewards over the estates of the Princes, and the scribes or accountants of their wealth. These were, in a sense, posts of honour, often filled by the sons of the nobility. They were placed over each department of the great man's possessions. They invariably appear in the tombs at the head of each plane of the picture to the left from the entrance, which represents the stock-taking for the collection of the tithe. They were also allowed to stand before the Prince, their master, while the ranks below them prostrated themselves on the ground in his presence. But this was, so far as appears, the extent of their privileges. They were

"A shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians,"-because he is a slave.

slaves in the bitterest sense of the word, notwithstanding. They worked under taskmasters having unlimited power over them. They were thrown down and mercilessly beaten, before the Prince to whom they belonged, upon frequent occasions, and therefore for very slight offences. This indignity they also inflicted at their pleasure on those over whom they had authority; so that the slave became, in his turn, the tyrant; and thus society was crystallised into one mass of tyranny, and slavery, and misery.

The artisans were the slaves of the Princes; and religion forbade, under the heaviest penalties, that the son should follow any other craft than that of the father. These wretched beings worked in gangs, under the merciless cudgels of taskmasters, who themselves were slaves. No single appliance to spare their labour, or relieve them from suffering, appears in these reliefs. The braziers strike with hammers consisting merely of a pebble or a mass of metal. The field-labourers worked with hoes having handles so short, that the unhappy workmen were bent double in using them. The plasterers and polishers levigate the mortar, or rub the hard wood, with the bare unprotected palms of the hands. The women and the children work like the men, bearing heavy burdens, and, like them, are driven to their labour by the unsparing blows of their taskmasters. It is with these wretches, and with these alone, that the paintings on the tombs make us really familiar.

LORD DUDLEY STUART.

IN a notice of the late Lord Dudley Stuart, written with intimate and affectionate knowledge of the subject, we find an anecdote which we have ourselves heard,--with a difference,-worth a recording note. Says our contemporary:—

"He [Lord Dudley] was residing at Nice, one of the stations where, during her long pilgrimage on the Continent, overcome by her protracted, and ultimately fatal, illness, the Marchioness of Bute remained for some months. Within a few miles of Nice is a prison where (perhaps it is the case still) the worst criminals of Sardinia were confined.

It is situated in a most lovely country; and the countless travellers who pass Villa Franca have little idea of the inferno existing in their neighbourhood. Below the level of the sea there is a vast dungeon, in which the prisoners were chained in a double row to two long iron bars that traverse the whole length of the chamber. Only once, for about an hour in the day, were they permitted to walk in the yard of the prison. Never at any other time, day or night, were their chains unloosened. Lord Dudley was permitted to visit this dungeon, and to converse with the prisoners. He was particularly struck with the appearance of one man, whose face had no felonious expression, yet who was doubly ironed, and who was denied the indulgence of seeing the light, like the others, one hour in the day. The man was a political prisoner. He had dared to cry, Viva la Constituzione;' and for that offence was condemned for life to this living tomb. Lord Dudley (then a very young man) immediately sought to effect some mitigation of his sufferings. Professing that he could not endure the stench of the dungeon, he requested permission to converse with the prisoner in the open air. The favour was granted; and by paying a daily visit to Villa Franca, Lord Dudley secured a few minutes of sunshine and fresh air to the captive. But he was suffering from a tumour in the throat; and an English surgeon, brought by Lord Dudley, declared that the man must die unless an operation were performed. It was contrary to the regulations that this should be undertaken by any but the surgeon of the prison, who, as the prisoner declared, had already forced a knife into his neck, with no other effect than that of making him worse. An opportunity was therefore seized when the officials were not on the watch, and the tumour was successfully opened by the Englishman, to the great indignation of the Governor his prisoner was refused any further indulgence, but his life was saved. This, however, was not enough for Lord Dudley Stuart: he determined to effect the man's liberation. He had heard of a certain lawyer who was supposed capable, by some mysterious means, of effecting even a task so hopeless as the liberation of a political

prisoner in Sardinia. The lawyer was consulted; but demanded a hundred ducats before he would undertake the business. Some of Lord Dudley's friends, who had heard of the circumstance, derided what they considered so foolish and Quixotic a scheme. Lord Dudley, however, did not think the price too much, even for the chance of delivering a fellow-creature from such bondage. He paid the money, asking (according to the contract) no questions as to its application. Some months after, whilst at Naples, Lord Dudley was surprised by a man rushing into his room, and throwing himself at his feet. It was the prisoner of Villa Franca. A free pardon had been forwarded to the Governor."

Our version of the anecdote is this:-After the first sum of money was paid, some time elapsed, during which the liberator fancied that the mysterious agents were at work. A second application came for money. Deeply interested in the prisoner, Lord Dudley sent it at once, with the same reserve as before, asking no questions, and trusting in the unknown agent of the destinies. Time sped, and no result. The Englishman had gone to reside in Genoa. At length comes a third application for money. Patience is now exhausted; and, supposing that he has been made the victim of a sharper, Lord Dudley writes an indignant refusal, puts the letter in his pocket, and walks to the post-office. As his hand is raised to drop the letter into the box, a thought strikes him :-What if the lawyer be honestly working for the poor wretch's liberation, and has found more rascals to bribe than he had counted on at first? It is but a few pounds. Perhaps the man's life is hanging on the turn of his thought. This "perhaps " decides it. He will give him one more chance. He tears up his letter of refusal, sends the money, and hears no more about it until the poor fellow breaks in upon him at Naples. The man is still alive, (or was a few months ago,) a prosperous citizen. He resides in Tuscany, and entertains a very pardonable idolatry of the name of Dudley Stuart.-Athenæum.

NEW BOOKS.

(Literary, Scientific, Educational.)

STUDENTS of Egyptian antiquities have now the second volume of Bunsen's Egypt's Place in Universal History. (Longmans.) The first volume appeared in 1848; and this one has the benefit, therefore, of six years' additional study and discovery, not only by the learned author, but by his friend and fellow-labourer, Professor Lepsius. What is hypothetical in this, as in all other works on Egyptology, has to be tested, of course, by future scrutiny; but the volume contains rich contributions of original material, specially in the form of surveys, transcriptions, and translations.

Osburn's Monumental History of Egypt, (Trübner,) in two volumes, is a magnificent and full compendium of as much as the learned author could colleet from the researches of Bunsen, Lepsius, Birch, and others, placed under the light of his own investigations, enriched with a splendid apparatus of typographical and pictorial illustration, and so digested and arranged as to form a firm and lofty standing-point for those who compare the precious monuments of Egypt with the text of Scripture and the most ancient profane history. It is extremely interesting to the general reader. We recommend it for the Libraries.

MR. CREASY has brought out the first of two volumes of a History of the Ottoman Turks. (Bentley.) Von Hammer must retain his pre-eminence as historian of Turkey, until some one of equal industry and power shall exhaust the original fountains. Meanwhile the labour of Mr. Creasy, in our own language, deserves to be welcomed as coming from an agreeable compendiator of the German scholar. If he fails to satisfy in the details, he nevertheless brings a sufficiently distinct general view within reach of English readers. This portion of history must now be made more familiar than it has been hitherto.

Historical Chapters relating to Many Lands, (Jackson and Walford,) from the French of M. Lamé Fleury, are modestly offered for children, but deserve the attention of young persons advanced beyond childhood. They are short biographical sketches of persons eminent in history.

The Works of Publius Virgilius Maro, by the Rev. Henry Thompson, M.A., (Griffin), "illustrated with engravings from the most authentic sources." The engravings are the distinguishing feature of this edition of Virgil, which has no notes. Their antique origin is impaired by the injudicious diligence of the engraver; but, nevertheless, they contribute frequent illustration, and supply the place of expensive editions to the young man who has not guineas at command.