The Press.
London, England, 1858-10-16 00:00:00

THE PRESS, OCTOBER 16, 1858.

1010

once been rather slow to take a hint, and either
by a singular and remarkable courtesy have
tacitly ceded to Albemarle-street the right of '
free warren over the habitable globe, or have
felt themselves unequal to command the varied
resources and first-rate talent which Mr.
Murray's position has enabled him to bring into
the field. At any rate, they have left him to
pursue his own path, for the most part, without
competition, except of an insignificant sort ; and
the continued—nay, in some cases increasing—ex-
cellence of his Handbooks shows that he does not
require the spur of competition to induce him to
present us with the very best article that can be
produced.
We regret, as we have had to observe on a former
occasion, that Great Britain has been the last to
profit by the energies which have smoothed the
path of so many travellers in other lands. With
the exception of some few counties which Mr.
Murray has already described, and without refe-
rence also to the excellent little guides of Mr.
Stanford which we noticed some weeks ago, here
at home we remain for the most part at the
mercy of those shovel-hatted quackheads ' who,
in an infinity of local guides, chronicle their small
beer, puff their medicinal spring, or expend their
literary talents on the delineation of the town
pump and the biography of the parish beadle.
As Chierilus said long ago with a somewhat dif-
ferent reference :

vi), Feu •Irarres SiSaQrat, ;xnvil SE Tripets-a [xi;log],
rctrtOp.p xesTl.xt;rot.4.o', 6:Ai I.t y' 70.1.1.1
Wei v•rn IrarTa4vonrc vi4:,yl; iipfhts iraciTerat.
As regards Europe in general, the work is well-
nigh done. Unless Lord Dufferin should under-
take 'A Glance at Ireland' or Lord Clarendon
should treat us to a Cursory View of the Prin-
cipalities,' the bibliopole may sigh, and sigh in
vain, for new worlds to conquer. But with Asia the
case is different. Axr:;a7o; i3O. ts-; XEiFeu.;—there are
excursions to be made in the Caucasus—there is the
pleasant region of Siberia to be explored, and " that
comforting word, Mesopotamia," may yet figure on
the back of a red cover. But the regular travel-
ling Englishman, though prepared to " do the
East," is not yet equal to the magnitude of the
aforesaid conceptions. A winter on the Nile—
up to the Second Cataract, let us say—is about
his mark; and then he likes to follow it up with
a spring in Palestine, via the Sinaitic desert.
For the Egyptian part of the journey Mr.
Murray had already provided. But, up to the
present time, the information required for the
Syrian portion was only available either by
carrying a large number of bulky works, or by
compiling a guidebook for yourself beforehand
from them. And though from Laborde, Robin-
son, and that most fascinating of all books of
travel, Stanley's " Sinai and Palestine," almost
all requisite topographic or antiquarian particu-
lars might be gathered, it was neither to be ex-
pected nor desired that writers occupied with
such high themes should condescend to chronicle
their squabbles with interpreters, their methods
of travelling accommodation, or the number of
times they had to bestow backshish for Arab
services. So, when Mr. J. L. Porter, who has
himself written not by any means the worst
book on the Holy Land, and whose long
residence in the East has duly qualified him
to instruct us with authority on the matters
of Syrian characters and customs, comes
forward to take us by the hand, we feel
that such guidance would be extremely accept-
able even if conveyed in the driest and most
methodical style. When it appears, however,
that the author still shows the qualities which
made his " Five Years in Damascus" so de-
servedly popular—when we find that he is
graphic without overdoing his descriptions, laud-
ably minute in suggestions as to all matters of
personal comfort and convenience, and is an
orthodox Christian, a sound scholar, and a good
historian besides, we feel that we have got into
very good hands indeed, and are perfectly con-
vinced that the work could not have been com-
mitted to any one likely to perform it better.
We have looked through nearly the whole of it,
reading here and there, and have been struck by
the freshness and geniality everywhere displayed.
Mr. Porter, though he has apparently surveyed
in person every place he describes, does not in all
cases give the results of his own observation, pre-
ferring occasionally to extract a passage from
some other traveller. He has done right in lay-
ing his predecessors under contribution, and the

effect is that we have the cream of many excel-
lent books in a portable and still readable form.
The method pursued is to give a full description
of each locality as it appears at present, and
having as it were transferred the reader to the scene
itself, a resume of the history is then appended.
These sketches are ably executed, and, though
necessarily short, omit no interesting particulars.
We may refer, for instance, to that of Masada,
the Numantia of Palestine, which, on its almost
impregnable rock overhanging the Dead Sea,
made so heroic a resistance to a Roman army
after the fall of Jerusalem. Mr. Porter is hardly
correct, however, in saying that the first person
to revive its history was Dr. Robinson. lie
would have found an account of the siege, con-
densed like his own from Josephus, in Dean
Milman's " History of the Jews; " a work which
we are surprised not to find referred to in his
list of authorities. Mr. Porter has, perhaps,
never visited Mr. Albert Smith's entertainment.
If he had heard the parody of Macaulay with
which the lecturer used latterly to commence, we
are inclined to think he would have let down his
own opening paragraph—in which the first five
sentences begin with " I shall," and the sixth
with "My remarks,"—from the high epic pitch
to which it is at present wound up. We do not,
also, doubt his Oriental scholarship, but we should
have preferred to see the plural of " dragoman "
spelt like the plural of "Mussulman," instead of
with the English and rather barbarous termina-
tion which is here employed. These, however, are
minor points. The whole work is interesting to
read, as well as useful for its professed purpose,
and will probably have the effect not only of
facilitating the journey of those who have made
up their minds to a pilgrimage, but of suggest-
ing the practicability of it to those who have not.