bad one of the Greeks. Their oppression is of oppression from the Turks is unjust, at this nearly if not altogether a thing of the past, time at all events, since they are all but indeespecially in the islands, where they have de pendent. They only give utterance to comfacto self-government, paying for it, how- plaints of traditional rapacities. ever. This sketch is from Mytilene, but the facts are substantially the same in other places: the Captain's own observation serve to show Occurrences, however, which passed under The population of the island is between 60,000 that the Turkish power is in a disorganized and 70,000, chiefly Greeks; of whom 12,000 are state; being probably weakened by the wellin the town. The government is actually in the meant attempts of the European Ambassadors hands of the Greek inhabitants, as the Turkish to give a milder and more civilized character Governor is nearly nominal, and very easily re- to Turkish rule and punishments. On seveduced to that condition if he shows any disposi-ral occasions our traveller was stopped by the tion to be obnoxious. For this purpose double dangerous state of the district, owing to gangs the amount of taxes required by the government of robbers. Under a vigorous Pasha of the at Stamboul is usually collected, and one-half is old school this would have been promptly rereserved for a fund to bribe the Sublime (virtue medied by a fall of heads. Under the new of the) Porte. While they do not scruple to overtax them- system, authority seems paralyzed; probably selves for this unworthy object, they will not it has not the power of inflicting that prompt raise a piaster for the repairs of the town, or for punishment which alone can keep order among clearing out their harbor, which is capable of a semi-barbarous people. In some places sogreat improvement, inasmuch as it was formerly good, and now it is useless. It only requires the exercise of a little industry, and a small outlay of capital. I will not venture to affirm that this would restore it to the condition in which it was under ancient Hellenic enterprise, but it might be made available for small coasting-vessels. Still, with all the sagacity and aptness for trade evinced by the Greeks of the present day, blind hatred for the Turks paralyzes their exertions when there is any prospect of their participating in the advantages. As in the present case, the restoration of the harbor, although it would he of immense benefit to themselves, would give increased revenue to the Sultan; which is quite sufficient to make them forego the far greater advantages they would derive. Their complaint ciety seems passing into anarchy. There also appears to be a sluggishness for sustained enterprise about the Turks, which peeps out on common occasions. This is a slight but preg nant instance : There is a mixed population of Turks, Ansaïri, and Christians [at Swediah]. The last greatly predominate. The land is possessed by the Turks; and there is a marked difference wher ever they undertake to cultivate it, as they are incapable of continuous exertion. There is, consequently, a slovenly character about their farms and gardens; and the soil, not being well cultivated, yields a proportionately small return. The Turk on his own land is not so well off as the Christian on that for which he pays rent. HAMPSHIRE PROVINCIAL WORDS.-In a former volume one of your correspondents happily suggested that a collection of provincial words and expressions should be made in "N. & Q." As education is now on the advance in our country villages, the provincial dialect and "simple annals" of the poor are fast disappearing. It is therefore of some importance to gather and preserve the homely language and phraseology of the people. Perhaps the following list of words, which I have collected from time to time, may prove ac ceptable to some of your readers. Civil, good-natured; used much of animals, as "a civil dog." Frout, frit, frightened. Pure, well, in good health. Nens as he was, "much the same as he was." Pooks, haycocks. From The Spectator. DR. DORAN'S QUEENS OF ENGLAND |full light upon the whole reign of George the Second, and the early times of George the Third. For a later period there are the Memoirs of Madame D'Arblay, (Fanny Burney), THE lives of the Queens of England since the Malmesbury and Buckingham papers, the the accession of the house of Brunswick have lives of Eldon and Sidmouth, with many interest in various points of view. The bio- other publications, of less value and authority, graphy of Sophia Dorothea of Zell, wife of perhaps, but containing curious particulars. George the First, though not very eventful, There is also the daily press, getting fuller has the mystery attaching to her connection and fuller as time rolls on, till at the "Queen's with Count Königsmark, which ended in his Trial" it becomes as full as the greatest lover assassination, and her imprisonment for life. of scandal could desire. There is, however, Her relationship to the court of Hanover-one peculiarity in connection with this amplithe Elector and the father of Sophia were tude of authorities. A large portion of the brothers-offers a fair opportunity of describ- works are, or have been, the "new books" of ing the politics, intrigues, morals, and man- this generation, with which the reading public ners of the German courts from a hundred are already acquainted. Dr. Doran's labors and fifty to two hundred years ago; which do not leave an impression of research but of Dr. Doran by no means omits. Sophia's cous-reading: they have as much the air of an artiinship to George the First likewise furnishes cle as a book. a fit occasion for giving a genealogical and This peculiarity is inevitable. The fulness historical sketch of the house of Brunswick. with which the private life and vices of the The life of Caroline, wife of George the first two Georges are exhibited, rendering the Second, was externally happier than that of biography of Sophia Dorothea, especially, less her mother-in-law Sophia, if not, owing to the a life of the Queen than of the King, is a fault coarse infidelity of her husband, in reality. that might easily have been avoided, though Perhaps, however, she did not feel this; for at the expense of some curious if not very Caroline was ambitious; ruled her husband edifying matter. A natural wish not to lose secretly; and was conspicuously before the singular and characteristic particulars has inpublic herself as a belle esprit, patroness of duced Dr. Doran to overlay his professed subliterature and philosophy, and a friend of ject with facts and stories as illustrative of learning. Queen Charlotte, the "old Queen" the times as of the lives of his Queens; and of the last generation, had little strength or at these particulars are sometimes out of place least elevation of character, and, as general where they are found, though they would do opinion painted her when the first heyday of very well in separate chapters on the manyouth was over, very little of attractiveness.ners of the first half of the eighteenth cenThe madness of her husband, and the miscon- tury. The great defect of the book is the duct of her two eldest sons during that mad- tone. Dr. Doran has forgotten that the rather ness, gave something of a Lear-like air to a forced fun which is appropriate to such topics large portion of her life, and to the reader as dress and dining is not so fit for the lives redeems it from insipidity by suffering. The of queens, or the characteristics of kings, nocareer of Caroline of Brunswick, from the bles, and courts. It is possible that in his time when Malmesbury appeared at the court ethical censures he is sometimes a little harsh of her father to demand her hand for "the under all circumstances, and sometimes looks first gentleman in Europe," until she died, at the mode as much as the morality. We mortified, worn-out, and broken-hearted, seven- know that the populace were highly indignant and-twenty years afterwards, is full of trouble, change, and turmoil. And though there is nothing in her course either lofty or attract ive, there is much over which the moralist may ponder, and the lover of gossip revel. Very sufficient materials exist for a delineation of the lives of these Queens, except Sophia Dorothea, respecting whose character, and whose guilt or innocence, not much of a conclusive nature is really extant. Walpole's numerous publications, Lord Hervey's Memoirs published within these few years, and several collections of family papers, throw a Lives of the Queens of England of the House at the coarseness and ungainliness of George the First's German ladies; but that was surely the King's affair. Dr. Doran's book, however, is an extraordinary repository of facts and anecdotes connected with the courts of Germany and England for a century and a half; and a very humiliating picture it is. One feature of the book is the number of portraits introduced, of persons about whom the general reader knows little or nothing. Here is a name well enough known, but how few have heard of the individual, a natural daughter of George the First: Her more celebrated sister, who married the Earl of Chesterfield, and in whose name her husband is said to have compelled George II. to pay those who cannot are excited by yet grosser every sinew is now strained to bursting to carfictions. The attack on the monastery of Solo- ry on the war. vetski in the White Sea, last year, was spread Many persons have expressed surprise at with great rapidity through the country, with the smallness of the returns of killed on the many comments, improvements, and additions part of the Russians after an engagement; but by the priesthood. I heard one account of it to any one who understands the Russian system, from a peasant, who said that all the monks had this will not appear strange at all. The pracbeen impaled by the English barbarians, who tice is to send in returns of only a small prohad no respect either for the holy place or the portion of the killed, while the remainder are holy men who inhabited it. I have frequently supposed to be in the field, and receive pay heard it asserted that there were no soldiers and rations, to the benefit of the colonels. As in the place; and, if I remember right, the re- a great personage to whom I related this in port by the head of the monastery to the synod England, remarked, "the colonels eat the was to that effect, stating that there were only dead men's rations!" Nor is there any dana few invalids, who were employed as servants ger of detection, for the greater part of the about the place. It is for those who made this generals have done the same thing before, and brutal [Russian account] attack upon a quiet are practising something similar at all times. religious retreat, to prove that it was a fortified while the subalterns hope some day to become place, although no Russian will ever be con- colonels themselves. I know an instance of a vinced of it. Messrs. Bright & Co. are wonder-man commanding a regiment, who, from the fully popular with this party; for all their time of his regiment taking the field in the speeches are diligently translated and com- summer of last year up to the end of last Nomented upon in the Russian papers. They are vember, was in the habit of sending two or generally represented as the only true exposi-three thousand roubles every week to his tors of the feelings of the majority of the people family, while he is known to possess no private of England; so that the Russians are firmly fortune. All this money was of course convinced that the populace is ripe for a rising; squeezed out of the soldiers' rations and forand I have no doubt the disturbances, which un- age, for it is a cavalry regiment. The life of fortunately took place recently in the metropo- a Russian soldier is so miserable, that I think lis, were misrepresented as a serious revolution, half of them would prefer to be killed to dragcaused by the burdens entailed on the people ging on such a wretched existence. They are by the expenses of the war. Last March there torn from their homes by the arbitrary hand was an absurd story spread about a similar oc- of despotism, and made to form part of an imcurrence, without any foundation whatever. mense machine called a regiment, which again Russia, like a drowning man, catches at straws! forms part of another called a division; but Since the beginning of the present year they have not the remotest idea why they are there has been a great scarcity of silver and made to execute certain movements. gold coin in the southern provinces of the em- English officers who were taken prisoners at pire, though gold was very plentiful last au- different times admired the severe discipline tumn. This scarcity may be accounted for by of the Russian army, little thinking that it the merchants withdrawing their capital from was purchased at the expense of every moral trade. As few of them have any confidence feeling; for the soldier is brutalized by the in the paper circulation, they availed them-treatment he receives, every officer having the selves of the gold, then very plentiful, which right to buffet and cuff him as he may think all disappeared in this way in a very few weeks. proper. An old cavalry officer once told me, A friend of mine, who was in Simpheropol in that if a horse died, there was a rigid inquiry February, wishing to change a hundred-rouble into the cause of his death; and if the least note into notes of one, three, and five roubles thing appeared to show that it had been neeach, was obliged to pay ten per cent. for the glected, the subaltern in command of the exchange; and he assured me that, if any squadron was placed under arrest; but if, on small article were purchased, the value of which the other hand, a man died, on his death being did not amount to a rouble, the merchant reported to the colonel he would say, "Poor would rather lose the sale than give coin in fellow! I hope he is in heaven!" exchange, though he was perhaps making a be accounted for easily enough. The colonel profit of a hundred per cent. upon the article. receives an annual sum to provide horses for This state of things is gradually travelling his regiment, so that every loss affects directnorthwards. In Ekaterinoslav it was the same ly his pocket; whereas the men cost him nothin April; and in Kharkoff, in May, there was a ing! The men are allowed meat by the gov great difficulty in procuring coin, especially ernment three days a-week, except during the gold and the smaller silver money. Kharkoff fasts, and brandy on Sundays and great holiis a large commercial town, and the capital of days. The officers generally propose to the the Ukraine. The issue of notes has recently men to accept, instead of meat, the money, been very great. All this tends to prove that and to provide themselves. To this, of course, The This may the poor fellows agree, as a proposal from an in the army now. The students of medicine officer is tantamount to an order; but they from all the universities are forced to enter never see more than one-fourth of the money, the army before they have completed their which is disposed of as follows:-The colonel course of study, which ordinarily occupies five takes one-fourth, the majors commanding bat-years, but is now curtailed to three and a half talions another, and the captains of companies years. It may be objected that I use the term a third, while the other goes to the soldiers themselves! This may account for the finding only black bread in the knapsacks of the killed and wounded. I have given these examples in order to show the system under which these men fight so desperately, and which prevails throughout the whole empire -one vast system of fraud, peculation, and pillage. forced, when they are only invited to join the In Sim As illustrative of the difficulty experienced Not withstanding the immense establishments in Russia in transporting their armies, may be for the education of military men that exist in mentioned the journey of the Sisters of MerRussia great difficulties are experienced in cy from St. Petersburg to the Crimea last obtaining officers for the new levies. All the year. They left the capital about the middle officers must be nobles, and undergo an exam- of November, and, as far as the chaussée exination in various branches of science. A tended, travelled without any mishap; but colonel sent to obtain officers to a certain town from Koursk-where the chaussée finishes-to in the south, persuaded a number of copying Kharkoff, they met with great difficulties, as clerks from the government offices to enter the they travelled in large diligences like those of army. These men, though of noble birth, France. It was on leaving the latter town only knew how to read and write. As they that they experienced all the pleasures of a were earning a miserable pittance, they were Russian autumnal road. They left the town glad to embrace the offer, which opened to with fifteen horses to each carriage, and reached them a prospect of advancement: but they in safety the first station, situated in a valley, expressd their fears of not being able to pass about ten miles from the town; but on atthe required examination. They were, how- tempting to ascend the mountain, the wheels ever, reassured by the colonel, who said that stuck fast in the mud, and the fifteen horses he would examine them himself. This he did could not stir it; the number was increased to in the following manner:-Col. "What is ge-thirty, but without moving the vehicle. Evenography?" Ans. "I don't know; I never tually oxen were procured that dragged them heard of it before." Col. "Nonsense! you out, and in this manner they proceeded on must know! On which bank of what great their way to the Crimea, to attend the sick and river is situated the town of E?" (the town wounded, at the rate of two miles an hour! they were in.) Ans. "On the right bank of This was a case of the most urgent necessity. the river D." Col. "There, I was sure you With such a state of things, would it not be knew all about geography!—you are passed." better and wiser for Russia to employ those Another time the subject was mathematics. means in improving the internal state of the Col. "What are mathematics?" Ans. "I country, which she is now wasting on a ruinnever saw them." Col. "Add two to two."ous war? Ans. "Four." Col. "There, that will do- The English prisoners of war will be able to you are passed!" Of course I was not pre- give a good account of the evils of Russian sent at either of these examinations, but I had travelling. I saw them all, poor fellows! as the facts upon good authority. These are the they passed through the town I was then remen who are to replace those polished gentle- siding in, and can say that their sufferings men, whose knowledge of the European lan- were more intense than those of their com guages and suave manners have been the ad-rades who were left behind. Those who were miration of all who have met them. taken first, and who arrived at their destinaThe militia is chiefly officered by those who tion before the severe colds set in, suffered have been in the army before and are retired; comparatively little. Then they were still a but if in any of the governments there should novelty, and excited a great deal of curiosity, not be enough of these, the nobles choose them which in a Russian is never without compasfrom among their own body. There is in gen- sion. Of this the first parties who passed eral a great reluctance to enter this service, as well as military service generally, for the majority of the Russian people is anything but warlike, notwithstanding their boasted martial prowess. The want of proper medical aid is much felt reaped the benefit. Besides, they were all fine men, taken at Balaklava and Inkermann, about which battles every one was eager to get what information he could from persons who had assisted at them. Still these suffered severely from deprivation of all the com forts they had been accustomed to, and which cember, a party of prisoners, of all nations, they were unable to procure in the villages numbering either seventy-three or seventy-five, they passed through, even when they had the I am not quite sure which-left Simpheropol means; for tea and coffee are unknown lux-in charge of a captain, a Greek, with the uries to the Russian peasant, but would have usual escort. He, kind, humane _man, probeen very acceptable to the prisoners after posed, through my informant, an English soltheir long march of fifteen or twenty miles dier, who spoke a little Greek, to provide the through the mud reaching to their knees, with whole party with provisions, alleging, that the the prospect of a miserable billet in a mud-country they were about to pass through was hut, in which so many were placed that there nearly exhausted, so that, with their ignorance was scarcely room to lie down, and a piece of the language, it would be next to impossiof black bread washed down with a little brack-ble for them to procure anything. To this propo ish water, or kras (a sour liquor much used in sal they all agreed without hesitation. Instead of Russia. But those who left Simpheropol in giving them good food, he gave them little December and January, underwent hardships more than black bread; so that out of the enthat were heartrending to listen to, for then tire number, only nineteen reached Ekaterinthey experienced all the severity of a Russian oslav! a distance of about 270 miles from winter during a march of about six hundred Simpheropol, the remainder being left sick at miles to Voronege, the depot. They are the different hospitals, or perishing miserably about seventy days upon the journey through on the road! I do not vouch for the truth of the snow, and frequently subject to the most this; but the man, who was one of the suf vile treatment at the hands of those to whose ferers, appeared to be intelligent, and told care they were committed. They are al- his story clearly, and without hesitation. I lowed by the government twenty copecks a- know that this can be possible, for there are day (about 8d.) This would be amply suffi- such men, who, in order to gain a few roubles, cient to supply all their wants, for provisions will inflict any amount of misery on their felare very cheap,-the best meat three and four low creatures. The English inhabitants of copecks per pound, bread about one or one- Moscow and St. Petersburg, have nobly come and-a-half copeck per pound; but the sol- forward to assist their poor fellow countrymen; diers who served as their guard usually set the and Mr. Grey, the English clergyman at Mosprices in the villages at about three times the cow, has exerted himself greatly on their beordinary rate, out of which they made their half; but unfortunately there are few English own profit; while our poor fellows, not under- on the line of march, so that it is very diffistanding the language or the prices, were cult to render them assistance where most it is obliged to pay whatever was demanded of wanted, although all is done that humanity them, or go hungry to bed. They were even could dictate by those who are able to see made to pay for the very water they drank. them. I cannot omnit this occasion of speakThis happened always in the prisons of small ing of the kindness shown by the authorities towns. Once they refused to pay for it, and of the town of Kharkoff to all the prisoners. two men offered to fetch water for the whole They never refused any prayer of which party if a soldier would show them where to they saw the justice, and tried all they could procure it. The soldier, not wishing to lose his perquisites, took them to a distance of about three miles, to a well of brackish water, while there was plenty to be had within two hundred yards of the prison. After this they always preferred paying to fetching it themselves. to help the poor fellows; and had the same spirit been shown by all parties, there would be little to complain of in the treatment with which these unfortunates met. Many of the Russian families received them into their houses, and at their own tables. When remonstrated with by the would-be patriots, they In the large towns they are generally well replied," These men are no longer to be treated, and allowed a certain liberty. They looked upon as enemies; they have fought for may go out to the market to buy themselves their country, and by the fortune of war are provisions, alone if they know the way; or if our prisoners, only that we may treat them as not, one soldier is sent with them as a guide. our guests." To sum up all, the prisoners are They are even allowed to sleep out of the well treated by all the higher classes, and sufprison, if some inhabitant of the town will fer only from the cupidity of those who have become responsible for them. I have had an opportunity of making a few copecks by several staying with me; and two, who were them, and from the natural evils imposed upon ill, lived with me three months till their health them by their ignorance of the language, was perfectly established, and the warm manners, and customs. I do not speak of the weather rendered travelling no longer diffi- treatment the officers have met with, as they cult. One circumstance I cannot help men- will be able to speak for themselves when they tioning, if only that it might be known to the recover their liberty. Russian government by this means. In De It will be seen by a careful perusal of the |