Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Critical Notices Of The Literature Of The Last Three Months,
the Colonel not only gives a descrip tion of the surrounding country , but he goes into all the particulars about the . different sects of religionists , and the innumerable number of superstitious tenets which they hold , the variety of laws and customs they observe , the relative antiquity and origin of the several races , besides several long discourses upon landtenure , tenant-right , and modes of provincial government . It is a relieftherefore , to turn off into Turkey proper , and with the
, assistance of Mr . Crowe , * and Mr . Bayle St . Jbhn , f not forgetting the melancholy effusion of Mr . Faber , J learn something of the true state of the case between the Porte and the Czar . And the first thing that strikes us is the identity of opinion entertained by the two former of these gentlemen regarding the precarious position of Mussulman rule in Europe . Mr . Crowe takes , it is true , the bolder course , and declares it to be his opinion that war alone can save the Turkish empire , even for a time ; while
Ml-. St . John , with no very great inclination to save it at all , prophesies its downfall on the bare presumption of its internal rottenness . Without meaning to disparage the work of the latter author , for it is really a clever little book , though it should be read with caution , we should advise our readers to trust themselves and their judgments to Mr . Crowe in preference to Mr . St . John . From the first page to the last of Mr . Crowe ' s book , there is a calm spirit of investigation , an accurate calculation of
chances and data , aud an intimate knowledge of the spirit of European policy since the gene 2-al peace , which places the reader almost immediately ait fait with all that it is most essential for him to know at the present moment . The picture which is drawn of Turkey , socially and politically , is a true one ; and so also are those which depict Greece and its king , and Russia and its Czar ; while interspersed throughout the whole are graphic sketches of the places the writer visited , and many admirable
comments and reflections on the nations of the Mediterranean . M . Dcmidoff's Southern Russia , § although decidedly stale , is not wholly uninteresting at the present moment , on account of the description which it contains of the provinces on the Danube now in the occupation of Russia . Tet the reader of it must not forget that fourteen important years have passed away since it was written , and that changes of no insignificant character have taken place , not only in the provinces
themselves , but in the other countries with which they had , and still have to a much larger extent , commercial relations . Still the work is a valuable one , and from it the reader may learn to estimate how far these provinces are in a fit state for the independence , which is perhaps at this moment on the eve of being offered them . With Mr . Watson ' s " Cruise in the iEgean , " || and Mr . Gosse ' s " Naturalist ' s Rambles , " f the more strictly itinerant ( to use an expressive word iu a wrong p lace ) literature of the last three months is brought to an end . The former work is partially Hew ground beyond the reach of ordinary
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Critical Notices Of The Literature Of The Last Three Months,
the Colonel not only gives a descrip tion of the surrounding country , but he goes into all the particulars about the . different sects of religionists , and the innumerable number of superstitious tenets which they hold , the variety of laws and customs they observe , the relative antiquity and origin of the several races , besides several long discourses upon landtenure , tenant-right , and modes of provincial government . It is a relieftherefore , to turn off into Turkey proper , and with the
, assistance of Mr . Crowe , * and Mr . Bayle St . Jbhn , f not forgetting the melancholy effusion of Mr . Faber , J learn something of the true state of the case between the Porte and the Czar . And the first thing that strikes us is the identity of opinion entertained by the two former of these gentlemen regarding the precarious position of Mussulman rule in Europe . Mr . Crowe takes , it is true , the bolder course , and declares it to be his opinion that war alone can save the Turkish empire , even for a time ; while
Ml-. St . John , with no very great inclination to save it at all , prophesies its downfall on the bare presumption of its internal rottenness . Without meaning to disparage the work of the latter author , for it is really a clever little book , though it should be read with caution , we should advise our readers to trust themselves and their judgments to Mr . Crowe in preference to Mr . St . John . From the first page to the last of Mr . Crowe ' s book , there is a calm spirit of investigation , an accurate calculation of
chances and data , aud an intimate knowledge of the spirit of European policy since the gene 2-al peace , which places the reader almost immediately ait fait with all that it is most essential for him to know at the present moment . The picture which is drawn of Turkey , socially and politically , is a true one ; and so also are those which depict Greece and its king , and Russia and its Czar ; while interspersed throughout the whole are graphic sketches of the places the writer visited , and many admirable
comments and reflections on the nations of the Mediterranean . M . Dcmidoff's Southern Russia , § although decidedly stale , is not wholly uninteresting at the present moment , on account of the description which it contains of the provinces on the Danube now in the occupation of Russia . Tet the reader of it must not forget that fourteen important years have passed away since it was written , and that changes of no insignificant character have taken place , not only in the provinces
themselves , but in the other countries with which they had , and still have to a much larger extent , commercial relations . Still the work is a valuable one , and from it the reader may learn to estimate how far these provinces are in a fit state for the independence , which is perhaps at this moment on the eve of being offered them . With Mr . Watson ' s " Cruise in the iEgean , " || and Mr . Gosse ' s " Naturalist ' s Rambles , " f the more strictly itinerant ( to use an expressive word iu a wrong p lace ) literature of the last three months is brought to an end . The former work is partially Hew ground beyond the reach of ordinary