Greeks that the Cypriote artists derived the original idea of statues in the round, however much in detail they may have copied from the Egyptians and Assyrians.

This is, however, a topic which, important as it is, we cannot here discuss at greater length.

Independently of the interest attaching to General di Cesnola's volume because of its strange antiquarian revelations, it is at the present moment of special importance from the views presented regarding an island that has, after centuries of comparative neglect, suddenly forced itself upon the world's notice. That the soil is fertile and capable of sustaining not the scanty one hundred thousand or so of human beings that now inhabit it, but the million or more that it may have had for its population in the palmy days of its history, is very clear. On an area nearly as great as that of the State of Connecticut, it boasts a wonderful variety of natural products, and the copper and other mines that early rendered it famous may be regarded as practically inexhaustible. Yet Cyprus is a wonderful illustration of the extent to which the most glorious natural endowments may be rendered useless by war, misrule, ignorance, and a debased form of religion. For two or three thousand years-in fact for as long a period as we know any thing of its fortunes-Cyprus has been a prey to the most destructive warfare, its very physical advantages luring all its powerful neighbors to contend for possession of this beautiful garden spot of the East. If the earth were to reveal its long-kept secrets, we should find the slain of Assyrian, Egyptian, Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Saracen, Venetian, Genoese, Turkish, and still other blood, lying side by side in an island that thus became the common burial-ground of Asia, Africa, and Europe. But of all the misery entailed by conquest that which has followed in the wake of the Turkish subjugation has unquestionably been the deepest. It is, therefore, not without a sense of satisfaction that we read of the steady decline of the Turkish element of the population, through the inexorable laws of God's own implanting, even before the island fell into British hands. The Christian population of Famagosta, expelled at the time of its capture by the Ottoman army, founded the little town. of Varossia close by. The latter, Cesnola tells us, (page 193,) is a neat, thriving place, with its fine Greek church and new

belfry, a good bazaar, several manufactories of pottery, its good stone houses, orange and lemon groves, and very extensive gardens, studded with mulberry-trees for the nourishment of the silkworm. The appearance of the Christian town presents a marked contrast to the gloomy quarters of Famagosta, occupied by the Turks. Indeed, throughout the island, General di Cesnola assures us, the places inhabited solely by the Turks are, as a general rule, dirty and miserable, and show every indication of decay. It is the natural consequence in the case of a race that disdains honorable occupation, that knows little of, and cares still less for, profitable handicraft, and of which the men spend their time in idleness, drinking and smoking at the café, leaving the household to take care of itself. Cesnola is very positive of the result:

In Cyprus the race of the Osmanlis is fast disappearing. This I had opportunities of remarking during my residence there, and I have been assured by competent persons that only forty years ago the capital of the island contained more Turks than Christians; at the present day the latter are in a large majority. The crime of abortion is extensively practiced among the Turkish population, and the Turkish midwives flourish every-where. I have spoken of this to Turks, who were intelligent and upright enough to condemn the system, but they invariably added that the Turk was too poor to allow himself the expensive luxury of having children! If such a state of things exists also in the other provinces of Turkey there is no need of any thing but time to rid Europe of this degenerate race.-Page 193.

About a mile from Nicosia, the capital of the island, is the lepers' village, for leprosy is a sadly real infliction in Cyprus. Cesnola does not seem to have visited it, but he met and conversed with some of its inmates. They form a community of about two hundred persons, of whom forty are Turks. They have no houses, but live in ancient excavated tombs, and in a few sheds built by themselves. The Turkish Government is supposed to give each of them a loaf of bread daily, but in reality the authorities withhold even this scanty support, and, it is said, the lepers would long since have perished but for the charity of the Greek Archbishop. At every fair or festival in the island they make their appearance, keeping together at their encampment by the roadside, and entreating the passerby to have compassion upon them. Their average age is from

forty to sixty years, but there are boys and girls in the company. They receive recruits from time to time, for from the moment a person exhibits even the faintest symptoms of leprosy "all relationship and friendship are at an end, all future intercourse with him ceases, and he is driven from his native place, provided with a quilt and some food, to find his way to the lepers' village, seldom, if ever, with a word of pity, compassion, or hope." The disease seems to exist only among persons of the lowest class, and, as Cesnola notices, the number of lepers increased in those years when, on account of the drought, there was greater scarcity of food than usual. The physical effects are described (pages 245 and 246) about as they are seen in other parts of the East.

Some interesting references to customs that have come down from patriarchal times occur in this work. We can only allude to the very singular practice, that prevails to some extent in Cyprus, in accordance with which an aged father frequently dispossesses himself of his whole property in favor of his sons and daughters, becoming entirely dependent upon their generosity for the rest of his life. A curious but painful story is told of the way in which the custom worked in, at least, one case, (pages 83 and 84).

General di Cesnola gives an account, which is well worth reading, of a class of persons, nicknamed Linobambaki, of whom we do not remember ever before to have heard. They are the descendants of ancestors who, at the time of the Turkish conquest, externally submitted, through fear, to the religion of the victors, and pretended to become Moslems while loathing the rites of Islam in their hearts. From that day to this, or for over three centuries, these people have consigned themselves to a degrading hypocrisy. Our author met them in the hamlet of Leo-Castro, a mere agglomeration of huts, in the south-eastern part of the island, whose inhabitants, miserably poor, eke out a scanty living by trafficking in poultry, which they buy in the mountains and sell in the large towns of the plain or sea-coast. Their nickname "Linobambaki "—signifies linen and cotton, and points to the circumstance that they try to be both Christian and Moslem. Externally they are Turks, and they are treated by the government as such, but at heart they are adherents of the Christian religion. Many, if

not all, we are told, originally belonged to the Latin, or Roman Catholic, Church; but at the present day the Greek bishops and the Latin priests dispute for them, each claiming them as rightfully numbered among their respective flocks. The marriage and baptismal ceremonies of the Linobambaki are secretly performed by a priest of their choice. They manage to evade the performance of the rite of circumcision on the birth of their male children, by making a present to the hodja. In order to avoid suspicion they adopt for their sons (we are not told how it is for their daughters) such names as are common to Christians and Mussulmans; as, for instance, Ibrahim, (Abraham,) Moussa, (Moses,) Yusuf, (Joseph,) etc. When the yearly military conscription of the Turks takes place, they are regularly subjected to great annoyance, amounting to persecution. As Mohammedans they are obliged to serve in the army if drafted; as Christians they would be exempt on payment of the "Askerieh," a tax that begins with the day of their birth. In order that their children may escape the draft the Linobambaki often, it is said, pay this tax like the other Christian subjects of the Sultan. When, however, the draft takes place, this circumstance avails them nothing, and the authorities will accept no evidence of the Christianity of the Linobambaki who has been drawn for service. In such cases many young men flee from the island never to return. The authorities, on the other hand, are wont to throw the father of the conscript into prison until the son can be produced, or to force one of his brothers to take his place in the ranks. Cesnola was so happy as to succeed in his intercession with the Turkish governorgeneral, in behalf of a young man who had been treated in this unjust manner.

Altogether we must express the great satisfaction with which we have read General di Cesnola's volume. The entertaining narrative is rendered even more attractive than it would otherwise have been by the sumptuous manner in which it has been brought out. Not only is the letter-press in the best style of modern typography, but the illustrations are exceedingly numerous, of exquisite delicacy of finish, and, what is still more essential, minutely exact. It is just the book to study carefully at home, and then, when the contents are fully mastered, to take with one to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in

its new and appropriate rooms in the building just erected for it on the Central Park. A series of such visits, with the necessary preliminary study, and with this admirable hand-book by him, will give an observant man a clearer insight into ancient art in its historical development than is brought home by the majority of tourists from the cursory inspection of the great museums of Europe now in vogue.

And here let us, in conclusion, felicitate our metropolitan city upon its astonishing good fortune in securing for this side of the Atlantic a collection in many respects without a rival' on the eastern continent. In truth, we hardly know whether to wonder most at the inexplicable delay of the authorities of the British Museum and the Louvre, by which the opportunity to get possession of the Cyprus curiosities was forever lost by them, or the smallness of the cost at which the trustees of the New York Museum (who none the less on that account deserve the warm thanks of the public) obtained what we sincerely believe will prove an unceasing source of profit and instruction to all our community

ART. VI.-A PLEA FOR PROTESTANTISM IN FRANCE.

ONE of the marvels of the present troublesome "Religious Question" in France is the fact that so many of the people believe that it can and must have a Protestant solution; and another marvel is the rapidity with which Protestants are coming to the front in all the responsible positions of the French Republic. Nearly half the present Cabinet are Protestants, who have not attained their positions in this capacity or because of this fact directly, but rather because of their energy and practical character, and of the very significant circumstance that nearly all the solid, sensible, and capable men among the moderate Republicans are either Protestants or are inclined to favor the development of the Prot

estant movement.

Even the "Freethinkers of the Republic" are led to sustain and develop the Protestant idea. We lately in Paris picked up a book with the above title from the counter of a FOURTH SERIES, Vol. XXXI.—33