The Sun.
London, England, 1835-05-21 00:00:00

A PILGRIMAGE TO THE HOLY LA

ND:

COMPRISING RECOLLECTIONS, SKETCHES, AND REFLECTIONS,
MADE DURING A TOUR IN TILE EAST, IN 1832-33.
By ALPHONSE DE LAMAR TINE,
Member of the French Academy.
In 3 Vols. London : Richard Bentley. 1835.
There is not such another book in the English

language as this. It is, from the beginning to the
end, replete with beauties and absurdities—with pathos
and bathos—with noble sentiments and maudlin senti-

mentality—with pure religion and ridiculous spiritua-
lizing theories—with ennobling thoughts and shallow
sophisms—with fine poetical conceptions and grotesque
fooleries, below the regard of a rational being. La-

martine is egotism personified. He is evidently,
in his own opinion, one of the most important

personages in the world. He presumes that •no indi-
vidual, however humble, can be ignorant of his fame

as a great poet ; and, consequently, that he can neither
speak, think,- nor even breathe, without exciting the
curiosity of all Europ•---a curiosity which he is laud-
ably eager to gratify. An Englishman who would
talk so much of himself, would be pronounced unen-
durable ; and did his pen trace the sublimest concep-
tions ever given to the world, in characters of light,
the public would no more think of soiling his pages
than it would of exploring every jungle in the interior
of Africa. But what would be insufferable in the
Journal of an English traveller, is frequently the most
delightful part of a Frenchman's Narrative. Certainly
in the volumes before us the egotism is not the least
amusing portion ; and we feel confident that entirely
divested of it, they would be less acceptable to that
class of fashionable readers to whom they are more
especially addressed.
The aerial castle-builder and the waking dreamer
will find a delicious banquet in almost every page of
these volumes ; but let no person open them in ex-
pectation of finding the usual complement of guide-

book information. M. Lamartine travelled with all the
splendour of a Sovereign Prince ; and as he informs
us, was received with all the honours usually paid to
the representative of one, in most of the countries
through which he passed. His descriptions, with a
very few exceptions, are too poetical—too much
wrapped up in sentiment, and too closely interwoven
with feelings with which an ordinary reader cannot
sympathise, to be of the least value to persons about to
make a tour of the East. Some of the most delightful

passages in the work are episodes introduced with ap-
parent artlessness, and which have the happiest effect.
For the verses, of which there is a great profusion, we
cannot say much. They are pretty of the kind—no-
thing more. At the same time we must do the fair
translator—Miss Landon—the justice to say that she
has performed her part with great fidelity and much
elegance.

In giving an extract from this work we shall be

guided by what we take to be the prevailing taste of
English readers ; which, generally speaking, is less
easily sated with facts than with fancies. Some of
Lamartine's theories are highly valuable—particularly
one which regards the legislative neglect of the ties of

kindred in the preservation of social order ; and most
of his rhapsodies contain conceptions worthy of a true
poet; but the following description of the ceremonies of
the bath is more after the manner of an English tra-
veller, and has, besides, the merit of being the most
accurate that we remember to have read. The work
is modelled after Chauteaubriand's Tour in Palestine :
19th September, 1832.
" My wife and Julia have been invited, to-day, by the wife and
daughter of an Arab chief of the vicinity, to pass the day at
their baths; this is the diversion in which oriental women
chiefly indulge. A bath is announced a fortnight beforehand,
as a ball would be in Europe. I subjoin the description of
this fete, such as my wife gave it to us this night on her
,return.

" The bathing apartments are a public place, the approach
of which is interdicted to men: on every day until a certain
hour, in order that women alone may have the free range of
them ; but when it is intended to be a bride's bath, such as the
one in question, men are excluded throughout the day. A
faint light is admitted into the apartments by means of small
domes with painted windows. They are paved with marble,
shaped into compartments, of varied colours, and inlaid with
considerable skill. The walls are also lined with marble in
the form of mosaics, or sculptured with Moorish mouldings or
small columns. A graduated heat pervades these apartments ;
the first one has the temperature of the external air; the se-
cond is tepid, the others are warmer in succession,—until
the last—when the vapour of the almost boiling water
rises from the bason, and oppresses the air with its
overpowering heat. In general there are no basons
scooped in the centre of the apartments, but merely spouts
through which water to the depth of an inch is con-
stantly flowing upon the marble floor, running off through stone
gutters, and incessantly renewed. What is called a bath, in
the East, is not a complete immersion, but successive
aspersions of a greater or less warmth, and the impression of
vapour upon the skin.
" Two hundred females of the town of Baireut, and of the
neighbourhood, were on that day invited to the bath, and
amongst them many young Europeans ; each one arrived
wrapped up in an immense sheet of white linen, which com-
pletely conceals the superb costume of the women when they
issue forth. They were all accompanied by their black slaves
or free servants ; according as they arrived, they formed into
groups, or sat down upon mats and cushions prepared in the
outer ball; their suite removed the sheets which enveloped
them, and they then appeared in all the rich and picturesque
brilliancy of their dress and jewels. These costumes are
highly varied in the colour of the stuffs and the splendour of
the jewels ; but they are altogether shapeless.
" The dress consists in broad folded pantaloons of striped
satin, secured at the waist by a tissue of red silk, and drawn
in above the ancle by a gold or silver bracelet; a robe worked
in gold, open in front and fastened under the bosom, which is
left bare ; the sleeves are drawn close under the armpit, and
afterwards hang loose from the elbow to the wrist ; a silk
gauze tunic runs underneath and covers the chest. Over the
robe they wear a velvet vest of scarlet colour lined with sable
or ermine, with gold embroidery over the seams ; the sleeves
are also open.
" The hair is parted across the head, a portion falling over
the neck, the rest twisted in plaits falling to the ancles, and
made longer by black silk tresses imitating natural hair. Small
wreaths of gold or silver hang at the extremity of these tresses,
which by their weight they cause to float along the shape ;
the head is moreover strewed with small pearl chains, strung
gold sequins, and natural flowers, all mixed up together and
scattered with incredible profusion just as if the contents of
a casket had been thrown pell-mell over those gaudy heads of
hair, covered with the perfume of jewels and flowers. This
barbarian gorgeousness has the most picturesque effect on
young females of fifteen or twenty ; some women, moreover,
wear a cap of cut gold, of the shape of an inverted cup • on
the centre of which cap is seen a gold tassel bearing a tuft of
pearls, and dangling on the shoulders. Their legs are bare,
and the only covering of the feet are yellow morocco slippers,
which they drag along at every step.
" Their arms are covered with bracelets of gold, silver, or
pearls ; their necks, with several necklaces, forming a twist of
gold or pearl on the uncovered bosom.
" As soon as all the women had assembled, a wild music was
heard ; some females, whose breasts were only covered with a
slight red gauze, uttered sharp and plaintive cries, and played
on the fife and tambourine; this music continued throughout
the day, and imparted to a scene of pleasure and festivity a
character of savage tumult and frenzy.
" When the bride appeared, accompanied by her mother
and her young friends, and dressed in so splendid costume
that her hair, 'her neck, her arms, and her breast, were com-
pletely concealed under a veil strewed with garlands of gold
and pearls, the bathing women seized upon her, and stripped
her, by degrees, of all her ornaments ; in the meanwhile the
rest of the company were undressed by their slaves, and the
various ceremonies of the bath now commenced. They
moved, to tho unceasing sound of tha same music, coupled

POPULAR STATISTICS.
J. Thomas, Finch-lane, London. 1838.

THE BELGIC REVOLUTION of 1830.
By CILIIRLES WHITE, ESQ•

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY, MAY 21, 1835.

with more and more extravagant forms and words, from one
apartment to another; they began with vapour baths; after-
wards came ablution baths ; perfumed and soapy water was
next poured over them ; then commenced the several amuse-
ments ; and all the women indulged, with various cries and
gesticulations, in the sports familiar to School-boys who are
taken out to bathe—splashing one another, dipping their heads
under water, throwing water in each other's faces ; the music
withal growing louder and more yelling, as often as any of
those childish amusements excited the boisterous laughter of
the young Arab girls. At last they left the bath ; the slaves and
other attendants again plaited the damp hair of their mistresses,
fastened the necklaces and bracelets, dressed them in their silk
gowns and velvet vests, spread cushions upon mats in the apart-
ments, the flooring of which had been wiped dry, and brought
forth from baskets and silk wrappers the provisions prepared
for the repast ; these consisted of pastry and all kinds of con-
fectionary, for which the Turks and Arabs are unrivalled ;
sherbets, orange flower water, and all the icy beverages in
which eastern people indulge at every moment. Pipes and
narguils were also brought in for the elder part of the company ;
a cloud of odoriferous smoke filled the atmosphere ; coffee,
of excellent flavour, was freely served up in small cups en-
closed in little transparent vases of gold and silver wire ; the
conversation now became animated ; dancing women came
next, who executed, to the sound of the same music,
Egyptian dances and the monotonous Arab evolutions. Such
were the occupations of this day, and it was not until nightfall
that the whole train of women led the young bride back to her
mother's house. This ceremony of the bath usually takes
place a few days before the wedding."

There is an abundant variety of useful information,
packed up in the smallest possible compass, in this
lean little duodecimo. 'We have, first, a Universal
Geography ; secondly, a Perpetual Companion to the
Almanacs, containing, inter alia, accounts of the reve-
nues, chief cities, military strength, and population of
every State in the world ; thirdly, a Distance Table of
England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales ; and, lastly,
Chronological Tables of Ancient and Modern His-
tory ; to say nothing of an Engraved Chart of the
World, after Mercator's projection, with which the
volume is embellished. Thus recommended, it can
scarcely fail to meet the views of the enterprising pub-
lisher by a speedy and extensive circulation.

In Two Vols. London : Whittaker and Co. 1835.
Out of materials which men of narrow minds, and
common-place intellect, would no more think of dwell-
ing upon than they would of reviving a forgotten ru-
mour to their own prejudice, Mr. White has produced
a manual which ought to find a place in the closets of
kings and the bureaux of statesmen. The history of
the Revolution of Belgium presents human nature
under no new phase—it offers no striking incident of
the effects of creed or clime, or time, or leadership, or
example, on the movements of a whole nation. It
merely illustrates an eternal truth—a truth which is
yet but partially known to the Sovereigns of the earth
—namely, that loyalty to kings, fealty to nobles, and
reverence to priests, only exist among a whole people,
so long as these functionaries regard themselves as the
agents and executors of the will of the majority.
There is a certain point at which resistance, in the sub-
ject, becomes a duty ; and so intuitive is this feeling—
so correctly fixed is this standard in the human mind,
that all revolutions brought about by a popular, univer-
sal movement in the masses which constitute the base
of society, might be mistaken for the repetitions of the
effect of one immutable cause. It is true that revolu-

tions have been successfully effected, and dynasties
completely overthrown by the conspiracies of nobles,
or in expiation of the wrongs of individuals ; but the
people took no part in them—they were passive spec-
tators of acts which they either could not, or knew not
how to prevent. Besides, it is of the utmost impor-
tance to remember, that although the rebellion of feu-
dal chiefs may be followed by the same consequences,
with respect to kings, as the rising of the people, yet
the acts of regal deposition are in themselves essen-
tially different. The people cannot be guilty of rebel-
lion, because their universal will constitutes political
justice. They may, it is true, depose a virtuous and
a liberal Sovereign ; they may rise en masse in support
of the most degrading superstitions, when the object of
the Prince is to diffuse among them the light of truth,
and rear up for their benefit the most liberal institu-
tions ; but even in these cases they are justified in re-
sisting the violence offered to their consciences, and
the restraint imposed upon the exercise of their judg-
ment and their will. The mind is beyond the province
of regal government, and whoever attempts to bridle it
by penal laws and enactments is a tyrant.
The history of Belgium offers a useful and a salu-

tary lesson to the Government of this country, as far
as concerns its conduct to Ireland. For upwards of
eighteen centuries Belgium might be termed the com-
monage of European kingdoms, to the right of which
all and each were entitled to lay claim. Austria,
Spain, France, and Holland, respectively held it in a
state of vassalage. It had been sunk so low in the
opinion of its several possessors, that it was deemed an
act of grace in the Government to consult the feelings
and habits of its people previous to the imposition of
new laws. Charles V. granted it a constitution, which
was remodelled by Philip of Anjou and Charles VI. ;
Joseph 11. attempted to improve the institutions of
Belgium, and to deliver the people from the thraldoM
of the priesthood, which led to an insurrection under
the celebrated Vandernoot, and eventually caused its

annexation to the French Republic. The history of
its ill assorted union with Holland under the Orange
dynasty, after the deposition of Napoleon by the
Allied Sovereigns, is well known. Now, during this
long period it never appears to have entered into the
heads of her conquerors, that Belgium ever would or
could raise herself to the dignity of a Sovereign State.
Had such an idea been entertained, the mad projects

of the King of Holland would not have received the
sanction of the States-General. These projects were:—
imposing the Dutch language upon the public func-
tionaries in Belgium—parcelling out all dignities
among Hollanders—closing the avenues of justice
to the Belgians, by insisting upon all legal pro-
ceedings being conducted in a foreign idiom—and at-
tempting to proselytize the people from the faith of
their fathers, by interfering with the exercise of the
Catholic religion—the religion of the majority. It was
the previous abject condition of Belgium that encou-
raged King William to despise the remonstrances of
her people. They were the majority, but William
was a Tory of the good old Church and King school,
and laughed at the idea of subjecting the acts of his
Government to the will of the majority. He was a
bigot too—an infirmity of mind which has always
appeared conspicuous in every branch of the House of
Orange. Like the Tories of Great Britain, with re-
gard to the Irish Church, he was less solicitous to
court the affections of the populace, than to root out
popery. The consequence of all this was that he
reached the point which justified resistance in the
people, without being aware of his approach to it ; and
so lost a crown in a foolish struggle to impose a foreign
language, foreign institutions, and an orthodox creed
upon the despised, but resolute, adherents to the faith
and usages of their fathers. Heaven grant that the
bigotted and proselytizing spirit of the English Tories
may not be attended with con-sequences equally fatal
to the Sovereignty of the British Empire !
Mr. White's History of the Belgic Revolution is
written in a spirit of great earnestness, fairness, and
impartiality. Being himself a resident in the country,
and on the spot during the greater part of the eventful
struggle, his descriptions are vivid and animated, with
here and there a touch of colouring which gives an
impressive reality to his more striking scenes. He
I evidently lent himself to the interests- of ..no party or
faction.

In exposing the mistakes of Holland, he has not