The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-21 00:00:00

sorbed in rearing this great monument of the religion of trousers, sneak about rather ingloriously, but for the orna-
the early Greek empire. God alone knows how far it was mented holster at the belt, in which their pistols lurk.
the pride and how far it was the religion of Justinian that "It is not possible to go up a Turkish street, if it contain
prompted its building just outside the walls of the old By . any shops at all, without also finding among them a furni-
zantium of Xene-phon. ture shop, where Chinese-looking stools and large chests
" I could quote f. m Procopius, Agathias, Silentiarius, are sold ; their whole surface diced over with squares of
Evagrias, Codinus, Ducange, Gyllius, Grelot, Busbequius, mother-of-pearl, frequently dry and loose with extreme age,
and Fossati, most of whom, I may incidentally mention, I being now, we believe, rather out of fashion in the palaces
know o y through the footnotes of that monster of erudi- on the Bosphorus.
tion, Mr. Edward Gibbon, to show that all the riches and "But these are the first-rate streets; in the lower alleys,
ancient splendour of East and West went to adorn this round the gates of the Golden Horn side of the city, down.
dingy sanctuary, now swaddled in matting, and daubed by the timber stoles and the fish market, the shops are mere
with ochry wash. workstalls, alternating with mere sheds and with rooms
" Its cedar came from Lebanon ; its porphyry columns full to the very door with shining millet' or sesame, which
came from the great Temple of the Sun at Baalbec : they looks like carraway seed ; with charcoal stores, and fruit-
were a widow's dowry bequeathed to the emperor : eight stands where little green peaches are sold, the true Turk
others came from Diana's temple at Ephesus. To prevent preferring raw fruit to ripe."
fire, wood, except in the dome and one or two doors, was The photographs are numerous and very success-
scantily used. All parts of the, world sent their marbles to
frame the great church of St. Sophia. Thessaly and rill, and enhance the attractions of the work.
Molossus sent theirs, and the pavement was Proconnesian. chose who like to gather a little information while
There was the Bosphoric white and black, the green they amuse a leisure hour, will probably derive
marble of Laconia ; the Carystian pale, with iron veins ; much pleasure from Mr. Thornbury's lively and
the Phrygian rosy and purple ; the Carian and Lydian graphic pages.
white and red ; but it is difficult to trace most of these now;
the pillars of Ephesus are dulled and dark; the costly
Apollonian porphyry of an opaque purple, in enormous
blocks, banded with bronze, is the only real wonder of the
existing church.

Lavinia. By the author of " Lorenzo Benoni,"
and " Doctor Antonio." 3 vols. Smith and
Elder.
This is a very romantic story, and it is written
with considerable ability ; altogether it is an unu-
sual treat for the generality of readers to meet with
so well worked a romance, and such artistically
drawn characters. Lavinia, the heroine, undergoes
many extraordinary trials ; and her adventures
when she was cast a helpless orphan in the wilder-
ness of London are really most exciting.
She
had had the worst sort of training for such a thing,
inasmuch as she had been brought up in luxury,
and was suddenly deprived of everything, even her
name, by a sudden disclosure of dreadful circum-
stances. She went to her new and unwelcome task
with a brave spirit and a trusting heart, and though
she found much to try to the uttermost of her spirits
and strength, and almost break her sensitive
heart, she was enabled to brave the storm and
survive the tempest. The account of Paolo is most
interesting, and no young hero of romance can
attract more, by his glories and misfortunes, than
he who is so admirably portrayed in these fasci-
nating pages. The engagement between him and
Lavinia was as stormy and fitful as any tie that
ever strove to unite unruly hearts and ill-disci-
plined minds. Too late did Lavinia discover the
treasure she had ruthlessly and recklessly cast
aside in persisting to break off with Paolo. Paolo,
onlis side, repented his ill-timed haste and wild
conduct when the object of his ardent attachment
seemed to be for ever lost to him. Perhaps the
most pleasing chapter in these volumes
is that entitled the " Good Samaritans."
Far more-touching and high beyond the trophies
of arts that are described in some pages with
glowing splendour of imagery, and the very bril-
liant and dazzling views of earth's crowned and
titled ones, whose descriptions lend lustre to some
i passages, s the simple record of these poor unknown
and unnoticed persons, dwelling in obscurity and
toiling in poverty, but unskilled in this world's
ways, they were cognisant of the ways of a better
world than this. On these the helpless stranger
had a claim, for them the suffering youth was an
object of compassion, and through their agency he
was indebted for his life, It is true charity when
the poor help the poor, and Benoit Prosper and
Prudence were rich in the unspeakable treasure of
a heart overflowing with kindness. These simple
and humble creatures leave a pleasing memory in
the mind of the reader that lingers on when grander
and greater people are forgotten, bright with
the beauty that is beyond all outward attributes,
and shining with the glory that waits on the
actions of grace. There are many others intro-
duced into these pages who arc deserving of notice.
Salvator, the devoted friend of Paolo, who was his
benefactor when he nearly sunk under the snares
of wealth, is a finished sketch in its way.
Thornton is a .fine character, who is well nigh
wrecked in body and mind owing to most adverse
and pernicious influences. His recovery is most
touchingly narrated ; it is a sorrowful task to
enter that dreariest of all human tenements that
exceeds in its gloomy horror even the grave-
yard, that place where dwell those over whose
mind has fallen the dark shroud of sepulture,
"Where night everlasting has shut them from day."
The resurrection from such a doom is most blessed,
and sech was the bright boon vouchsafed to Thorn-
ton. This is a most successful story in its way,
and no one can deny the evidence of real talent that
exists in its exciting events and its eloquent pas-
sages. Paolo is a true child of genius, and Lavinia
is a real creature of impulse. The erratic wander-
ings of one, and the wayward impulses of the other,
drove them far away and wide apart ; but truth
and nature triumphed at last in revealing his divine
gift of a glorious power, and in displaying her
shining qualities of head and heart. " Lavinia" is
a most entertaining and interesting novel for those
who would obtain a desirable study.

" But there was a time when the dome was all gold and
mosaic ; when even the balustrades of the choir, the capi-
tals of the pillars, and the ornaments of the doors and
women's galleries were of gilt bronze; when the walls
shone with mosaics, as if enamelled with jewels ; when the
sanctuary was piled with forty thousand pounds weight of
silver, and when every vase and vestment of the church-
was heaped with gold and gems ; when the altar in the
east shone like the noonday sun ; when the clergy and
singers in white robes filled all the space of the choir;
when the poorer Greeks filled the nave, the penitents the
portico, and the women of Constantinople the galleries ;
when all eyes turned to the great gilt balustrade that ran
from north to south, from the Baalbec pillars to the
columns of Diana, because on one side rose the throne of
the emperor, and on the other the throne of the patriarch.
But the baths, and circuses, an theatres, and porticos of
that age are gone, and only a large, tawdry, defaced, defiled
building, now remains. The Shechinah is long since
passed from it. •
_ .

" It is difficult now even to believe that it is the scene
consecrated by so many legends. Can this be the building
whose completion Justinian celebrated with fourteen days'
rejoicing, with sacrifices, and with the distribution of gold
coins ? Can this be the central temple of Christianity that
was built up of the fragments of the broken limbs of the
Pagan Dagon, of columns from the Troas and Assyria,
from Athens and the Cyclades, from the temples of Isis
and Osiris, Cybele, Apollo, Pallas, and Diana' Was it
when these waljs were building that Justinian came at
siesta time, dressed in coarse linen, with a stick in his
hand and a turban round his head, to urge on the work-
, men? Was it to a boy here, guarding the masons' tools,
, that an angel appeared in the disguise of a eunuch ? Was
it this building that an archangel specially took in keep-
ing ? Can it be those green-winged figures of seraphim (as
at St. Mark's) at the four corners of the dome now painted
over and showing dimly through the semi-opaque paint-
ing—that the Turks believe to be spirits—that during
times of war and distress used to utter oracles, and who,
before the birth of Mahoutet, announced that the child to
be born in Arabia would excel Chosroes and Shedad ? Is
this really the building where they still show a walled-up
staircase, through which a priest, bearing the host, disap-
peared when Mahomet burst with his sabres into St.
Sophia?
" I could not asceid the great dome that rises over the
wide cupola guarding the four minarets; but I was told
that the crescent there is 50 yards across and that Sultan
Marad spent 50,000 ducats in gilding it. It shines so, that
it can be seen a hundred miles off at sea, and from Mount
Olympus I saw it. glimmer like a golden glow-worm.
" But the object which especially touched my heart in
St. Sophia was a colossal figure over the apse at the east
end, showing dimly through a blank surface of gilding. I
follow the dim outline for a moment with my oyes, and
gradually become sensible of the perfect figure. It is
Christ, the Son of God, the second person' of the Trinity,
that Divine wisdom to whom Justinian reared this great
temple centuries ago.

"'lt seemed to me a perfect emblem of the half-restored
Christianity of the place ; and I felt at that moment sure,
as if God had spokes. to me from heaven; that some day,
and not far distant, the cross will replace the crescent upon
the dome of St
.Sophia; wed that figure of the glorified
Christ, breaking through the foul Arabian *list, will shine
forth in restored glory, to gather brightness more and more
until the perfect day."

As the best sample of the general style and cha-
racter of the work we subjoin the following
extracts :

" Now these fountains arose either from royal magnifl-
cence.,(how easy it is to be generous with other people's
money), or from the bequests of charitable people, dying
Tucks not unfrequently leaving enormous legacies, not
only to build, but also to maintain these fountains. Some-
times they are square, isolated buildings, standing by the
river side, or usefully in the centre of some market-place ;
never however, for more ornament or display, like our
poor little squirts and sloppy tea-tables in Trafalgar •square.
Generally, as in this instance, they project in a sort of bow,
or apse, from the wall ; sometimes, in thehumbler instances,
mere brass taps project from a sort of ornamental altar-
piece flush with the wall. They are never quite alike, but
these features all the larger ones have in common : an over-
lapping roof of extreme breadth, so as to cast the greatest
possible amount of shadow ; much inscription, and cursive
and undulating floral ornament, either painted or carved in
marble ; a terrace with steps round its base, and tall grat-
ings, round the lower openings of which are chained small
brass vessels to drink out of. No wonder, then, that as
people come here to bathe in shadow, and to drink the
liquid coolness fresh from the well that guards it, as the
melon does its inner juice, the fountain becomes, almost
from necessity, a special lounge for everybody but the
women. Here come the roast chesnuts and the green
peaches, the figs and the pickled cucumbers, the sherbet
and the lemonade, the horse-boys and the beggars, the
fakir and the guitar player, the street boy and the wild
dog ; here the porter rests his luggage mountains, and the
araba man looks for custom.
*

THE BONN TRIAL.

BONN, DEC. 17, 3 P.M.

" The gratings that shut in the fountain rooms are
always specially beautiful, and generally of a pattern de-
vised on purpose for the building. They are fine as jewel-
ler's work, and full of the most cunning harmony of flow •
ing lines, trefoilod or heart-shaped, and blossoming into a
thousand shapes of ingenuity and fairy-like art. The
shafts between the gratings are marble, and waist high
comes the lower wall, on the top of which rest the brass
chatties.
" Most of these fountain; have a guardian who lives
within, at least by day, and who sees that nothing is in-
jured or defaced. There this venerable dryad hears the
water hour by hour rinse and trickle, as he reads his Koran
and dreams about paradise, and the future rewards of the
charitable, such as lie who endowed this fountain.

Our trial terminated to-day at 2 o'clock, and we attend
court on Monday next to hear the sentence, though, indeed,
that has already been passed, only Monday next is fixed for
the final decision, after reference to Berlin.
Every one in England will be glad, to learn that a highly
respectable lady of Cologne, named Wolf Heydin, gave evi-
dence in court to-day entirely exculpating Captain Mac-
donald.

She states that she got into the same railway compart-
ment before Mrs. Parrow ; that Captain Macdonald politely
motioned her to a seat disengaged ; then came Mrs. Parrow,
when Captain Macdonald gently placed his hand, or fingers
of one hand, on Mrs. Parrow's shoulder, motioning to her
in a polite manticr that the seats were already taken. Mrs.
Parrow was not to be deterred, but entered the carriage.
Mr. Parrow, close behind, seeing Captain Macdonald place
his hand on his wife's shoulder, gate him abuse, and called
the railway official, and said the Englishman had insulted
his wife, and he would not ride in the same carriage with
him ; whereupon Hoffman, the railway director, told him
(Macdonald) to turn out and go into another compartment ;
and, on Macdonald's refusing to obey, help was called, and
three men and the director Hoffman bundled him out with
force, and the result we all know.

" Two things always are seen about a Turkish fountain:
the first, pigeons; the second, street boys. Always pigeons
on the lead roof, cooing, spreading their veering purple
necks to the light, fondling, pecking, or fluttering ; always
street boys, watchful and mischievous as apes, who sit in
the niches, with their dirty backs against the gilding and
carving, idle and, because idle, happy. Over them lies the
broad shadow, and they lie under it as in a shady wood,
defying the heat that makes the paving-stones just beyond
the shadow all but red-hot. They think nothing of tic
dead men's charity, or of the carving fine as needlework'
but they munch their chesiuts and are happy, thieving'
mischievous apes that they are. Often, too, a boatman's'
oars or a hammers elastic pole rest up against the carved
brackets, while the owners snatch a nap under the grate-
ful shadow, having first drunk of the fountain. Hundreds
of times in the day those brass cups, all in a row under the
stanchioned grating, aro filled and emptied.
" There is something humane and poetical in this per-
petual enforcement of charity that you receive in a Turkish
street. There aro the scavenger dogs, waiters on Provi-
dence, that abound n every street, who, though a good
deal drubbed and bruised, are still partly maintained by the
kindness of old Turks, who feed certain of them daily ;
then there are the countless clouds of pigeons, har-
boured on the mosque domes, and guarded with as much
care as if they were young angels; and, lastly, to crown
the whole, these innumerable fountains, of all sizes, from
that at the seraglio gate, with its square bulk and circular
towers at the angles, to the mere arch, tap, and tank :
everywhere water gushing forth from dead men's hands
into living men's mouths, expressing a benevolence that
has striven to be immortal.

Soon after this the names of all the passengers were taken
down by the railway officer, Mrs. Hoydin's among the
number.

In the course of the journey to Cologne Mr. Barrow
asked his wife if that Englishman had insulted her. She

said " No."

Mr. Parrow, moreover, advised Mrs. Heydin to get her
name scratched out ; that it was of no use, and would save
her trouble. This sho did, and that is the reason assigned
for her not before appearing at Macdonald's trial. My"
donald's imprisonment is thus proved to have been entirely
unjust, and they cannot carry into effect any punishment
against us.
J may add, the judges and all the law officers have exhi-
bited towards us during the trial the greatest politeness,
kindness, and forbearance.

" And in thinking of fountains, the gentleman who on a
fine day feels it so hot in Regent-street that he must really,
perforce' go into Verey's for a strawberry ice, must remem-
ber that it is not to relieve such trivial thirst that Eastern
fountains were erected. It was not for slight, damp warmth,
languor, and dry mouth that the Turks have spent mil-
lions in public fountains. It was for the heat that dries up
all saliva; that inflames the mouth and blackens the lips ;
that dims the eye and makes you giddy, faint, and sick ;
that becomes, if not relieved incessantly, an intolerable
pain and torture, coming, too, when the body is exhausted,
and languor is so great that rest becomes the greatest nega-
tive pleasure that can be conceived.
" In that intolerable city, indeed, all up-hill, where the
streets are pared with loose boulders, walking at noonday
is a work of the greatest fatigue and of the most painful
exertion. Every moment the stranger betakes himself to
peaches, grapes, or figs, of which he keeps a pocketful, and'
when these are gone, to sherbet, lemonade, or some soiretoTf
fruit broth. Imagine, then, what delight, what life-
the
the penniless and vagabond draws from a draught at
street fountain."
" It was hard times for the bakers twenty years ago,
shop
ac
hersoiri
when you could hardly be a week in Constantinoplena through
with-
out seeing one of the tribe groaning
his ear, fastening him to his own brTohadatdwayas.
the time when women were drowned
appetite of many an
light, and when the sight of a rebele lasha's head, brought
in in triumph, has taken away
s
with Turkish Minister. But
Englishman breakfasting
wi floury, ghostly, and serious
there he (the baker) now,
as ever, groping in thatis black cave of an oven at the back
of his shop, or twisting rings of bread with all the unction
of a feeder of mankind and a well-paid philanthropist.
i 4 The fez shops are very numerous in the Sick Man's'
city, for turbans decreased, though slowly. They are of a
deep crimson,
and have at the top a little red stalk, to 'which
the heavy blue tassel is tied, and which always, to prevent
entanglement, is kept in stock with a sort of ornament of
raper cat into a lace pattern round it. The blocks, too, for
zto be kept on, are sold in distinct shop. You see them
roundees as cheeses ranged in front of a Turk, who watches
them as if he was expecting them to grow. Sometimes you
could hardly help thinking they were pork pies, were it not
for seeing the barelegged boy in the background, who,
pushing the unfinished block with the flexible sole of his
foot, keeps it even upon the lathe.
44 Stationers and booksellers hardly show at all in Stam-
boul but in the bazaar, and there in a very limited way, in
a way, too, that makes the Englishman wish they were
away altogether. The tailor, too, does not figure largely,
though you see Turks busy in their shops sewing at quilted
gowns and coverlids stuffed with down ; and you seldom
pass down a street without seeing a man with a bow, such
as the Saracen of Snow Hill could scarcely have drawn,
bowing cotton, with the twang and flutter peculiar to that
occupation, the slave behind being half buried in flock,e or
emerging from a swansdown sea of loose white feathers.
" The sowellers (frequently Jews) reside . eeehrie
tyheienv the
bazaars, both for safety and convenience. h
sorting great heaps of seed pearl, as if it
squinting through lumps of emerald,
u or wwasTei:ohimnguefihlirigrceee,
earrings, with veiled ladies looking ,and black duennas
in yellow boots ever in waiting ; but still there are also a
few outsiders who sell coarse European
un-
seemly French cases, and large bosh watches, with
sil basins for rose-
water, es some such frivolous use, ped like huge melons,
and crusted with patterning, much. waAched over by the
Turkish police, who, bluo hums; red fe4s, All'a white