The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1839-02-02

dience but when they are more conversant with
analogous facts on this subject, they will cease to
smile. tits capable of demonstration that trees
are yet growing of date far older 1t is certain
that in England, there are, at this day. trees
which were standing in the days of William the
Conqueror, and whose position and species are
strictly alluded to as landmarks in Doomsday-
book They were even then called old oaks and
they are green still. The trees are identified,
having been the places of fairs and markets, and
being described and referred to in charters grant
ed by successive kings of England. Some of
these oaks were chosen, as tradition says because
they had once been used by the Druids for the
celebration Of their religious rites. However that
be, the most ancient of them must be now two
thousand years old, There are still growing on
Mount Lebanon ccdars which are with good rea-
son thought to have been coeval with Solomon.
At the height of the arms of tall man, some of
these enormous trees require six men with arms
extended to encircle their stems, and must there
fore be at least thirty six feet in circumference
they are two hundred feet in height, and at the
distance Of thirty feet from the ground, have later
al branches as large as the trunk of well-known
elm. Now the cedar, you know, is tree OF
slow growth and to reach this size, must have
required centuries. Again, there is the tree Mar
buGda, in India, better known as the Indian Ban
yam, or Indian Fig,-to which Milton so beau-
fully alludes in his Paradise Lost:
$50 counseled he, and both together
| Into the hicket wood; there soon they chose
The fig tree; not that kind for fruit renowned,
But such at this day, to Indians known
In Malabar or Decean, spreads her
Branching so broad and long, that in the ground
| The Bonded twgs take root, and daughters grow
About the mother tree, billiard shade,
High overarched the echoing walks between.'
Of this tree there is one individual plant known
to be three thousand years of age, having -four
ished from the time of Menou. This tree is to
the Hindoos the same as the oak was to the Dru-
ids. 1t spreads by sending down branches to the
ground which take root, so that single tree will
thus increase, till it covers acres of ground, and
under the shadow Of its broad leaves would cover
an army of twenty-five thousand men. Nor is
this ALL | might add the Decuadori, which bo-
tanc writer, second only to Linn8us, examined
near the Cape of Good Hope, and ascertained, by
rings of its wood, Zone of which, you know, is
added every year, to be four thousand years of
age. There is therefore nothing to call up smile
of incredulty or dersion in the assertion that the
ancient trunks of olive trees, now in the garden
of Gethsemane, may be the remains of plants
growing on that spot when it was forever haIlow-
ed by the agonizcd tears Of the Friend of sin
nerS.
The Valley Of Jeloshaphat,
So called from its containing the tomb of that
monarch, the sepulchre of Absaom and the sep
ulchres of the kings, was favorable burial place
of the Jews. 1t lies, as said on the east of the
city; and through its centre flows the brook Ke-
dron. Here was the pool of Bethesda and the
pool of Sloan.
Population-PHgrinaS.
The city is compactly built, and contains res
ident population of twenty thousand. This is
the minimum number, estimated at the time when
there are no strangers present. But there are
two periods of the year, namely, Christmas and
Easter, at which it is customary for devotees to
make pilgrimage to Jerusalem and at that time
the city will sometimes have, during the day time,
a hundred thousand people within its walls A
more interesting or curious spectacle can scarce
ly be presented to the human eye than is afforded
by this vast multitude, collected as it is from the
Straits of Gibraltar to the walls of China, and
from the frozen sea of the north, to the island of
Madagascar The pilgrims are of every COM
plexion and exhibit every variety Of costume, and
OF language; the Malay the Circassian, the Tar
tar, the European and the African. believe that
at dinner party to which | was invited, |
must have been in the midst of persons
who spoke at least sixteen different languages,
and probably these were not more than half off
the tongues which were at that time spoken with
in the walls of the city. do not say that we all
understood all that was spoken; but observed
an understanding facility in passing from one d.
aact to another in ordinary conversation.
When the multitude of 100000 pilgrims come
up to the city, there is no room for their accom-
mediation within the city. 1t will not, at the ut
most, lodge more than 100000 The native in
habitants being 10000, not more than 10000 of
the pilgrims can be furnished with lodging. The
remaining $4,000 take up their abode where they
can, either among the neighboring villages, or in
an encampment of their own and you may see
the hills and valleys around filled with their tents,
thus presenting great pacific camp, having in
Decd nothing of the ''pomp and circumstance of
glorious war;" yet in the highest degree lively
and interesting.
The resident population may be divided thus
Turks, 5000; Arabs inhabitants 10000, and the
5000 made up of Christians and Jews
The Turks, of course, hold all the Offices They
form the aristocracy and gentry of the place, and
are the best paid, the best lodged and the best
dressed Of any of its inhabitants. They have
comfortable houses,-some with small gardens at
tached to them. But this most important part of