chief habiliments of the Circassian. Each man, when on shore, is armed with a well-made rifle, a curved sabre without a guard, but forked at the hilt to serve as a rest for the rifle, and a pistol worn in the belt behind. The history of their twenty years' war with Russia can attest the good use they make of these weapons. I entered into conversation with a Circassian gentleman, whose tunic of fine broadcloth, trimmed with silver lace, showed him to be a man of rank. He had the polished manners of a Constantinople courtier, and spoke Turkish with the elegance of a Pasha. He was, like all his race, enthusiastic on the subject of the Russian war. He told me he was one of the Abassa race or nation, and that they counted 100,000 well-armed warriors. "With these," I remarked, "you ought to march to Moscow." "Ah, there is the difficulty," he answered; "we can march nowhere. Each individual is a tried warrior, but we have no organisation. Each man is ready to defend his own cottage, each village its own homesteads; but we have no discipline, no commissariat, no supreme chief, and consequently we can never fight a grand battle as the Franks can. On great occasions we may, to a certain extent, combine, as do mountain-streams in a storm. We then descend in an impetuous torrent, and sweep all before us, after which each man collects his plunder and retires to his fastness."

It is a popular error to speak of the Circassians as a gallant but half-civilised nation, ruled by the Prophet and King Schamyl. It is scarcely necessary to say, that the Circassian range contains far more nations and languages than Europe, and that many of these people are pagans.

The only resemblance they bear to each other is in their costume, which varies but little throughout the whole of those regions.

I can scarcely attempt the description of any more of the passengers of the Stadium. There are several Turkish women, who Occupy a space railed off from the rest of the deck. Among the males we have Armenian hammals, and sundry other artisans returning to their native homes after having earned a little capital in Constantinople. Their money is in gold, carefully sewed up in some extraordinary part of their clothing. When they land, they will wait for some days at Samsoon or Trebizond for the departure of a caravan, with which they travel for protection; and having arrived at their native village, their money will be buried in some secret place, or perchance lent out at enormous interest. In either case, it will probably be lost to the use of the

owner.

At a few hours' sail from the mouth of the Bosphorus we pass the now miserable village of Heraclea, which owes its present celebrity to its coal-mines. Englishmen are scarcely aware that the coast from the mouth of the Bosphorus for several miles eastward presents a coal-field that would rival the beds of Durham. For many years past these coal deposits have been well known, and the natives of the country, or rather the Croats, have worked them in their own rude manner; that is to say, they have dug from the surface through the seam, have taken out the surface layers of coal, which are always the worst, and then abandoned that part for other diggings. I believe about twenty years ago this locality was surveyed by an

Englishman, who at once appreciated its wealth, and, guided by his reports, an English company came forward with a magnificent offer to the Turkish Government, They wished to take the mines entirely into their own hands, on contract; in short, to farm them, paying to the Turks a sum which they could never hope to receive, even from a province. They offered, moreover, shares to the Sultan, and to his principal ministers. At one time these negotiations appeared to be on the point of succeeding, when the Russian minister, hearing of them, posted off to the Grand Vizier and the most influential ministers. "What are you about?" he asked; "have you not the history of India before your eyes? Do you not know what manner of men these English merchants are, and what they did in India? They first of all gained a few yards of territory as humble traders; they then worked with their gold and got more; they then built forts, landed soldiers, quarrelled with the princes of the soil, and thus step by step they have gained a mighty empire. Have they not seized on the throne of the Great Mogul? do they not rule over millions of Mahomedans? and are you prepared blindly to put your own necks into the yoke? Why, these coal-mines are within three days' march of Constantinople! these English workmen would be soldiers in disguise, their overseers colonels and generals, their houses barracks and forts; you would have them threatening you north and south. A fleet would appear at the Dardanelles, while an army would spring out of the mines at three days' march from the Bosphorus. Besides, think on the enormous sum they have offered you! Is it for a few shiploads of coals, or is it not

for something far more valuable? or, if there be such wealth in the earth as would warrant them offering such a sum, why cannot you work the mines yourselves? The whole science of Europe is at your command; you have but to pay, and engineers from Belgium will arrive by scores, from whom you have nothing to fear, and who will work for half the wages that these overfed, insolent English require."

Although the above is placed in inverted commas, I do not profess to be quoting any secret speech of the Russian minister's, but such was the general tenor of his arguments; and if any Turkish Pasha was still unconvinced, it would be quite worth while for Russia to spend a handsome sum upon him rather than entertain for a moment the idea of an English coal-mine on the Black Sea. A power which would close the Sulina mouth of the Danube would not be likely to encourage the rise and growth of a Newcastle opposite Sevastopol; moreover, Turkish jealousy is as proverbial as Turkish covetousness, and here we have both feelings worked upon. The negotiations with the English company came to a close; and it was resolved to engage Belgian engineers and miners, and to commence the works on scientific principles; for it was still thought that the English offer had been elicited no less by the mineral wealth than by the prospect of seizing Constantinople. In due time the Belgian miners began their works, but not a few unlooked-for difficulties presented themselves. The Turkish mode of doing business differs somewhat from that which obtains in any European country. They regarded the Belgians as so many Armenians bent on cheating them; and so they tried to overreach them in

self-defence. A Turk, moreover, dislikes above all things making any outlay for ulterior benefit. These Franks were expected to go and dig up the coal at once, and send it to Constantinople. But they wanted buckets, candles, tools, rope, wood, and sundry other things necessary to make a beginning. To every demand the Turks opposed a stolid resistance as to an Armenian scheme for cheating them; so most of the engineer's time was spent in passing backwards and forwards to and from the capital, asking, beseeching, arguing, and finally threatening to resign: to all which modes of persuasion the Turks are perfectly well accustomed, as so many of the Oriental modes of driving a hard bargain; no asseveration on the part of the suppliant ever being believed.

Meanwhile time passed on, and the workmen engaged by contract must be paid; at the end of the year, therefore, it was not to be wondered at that the mine did not pay. The Belgians were discharged as unequal to their work, and it was at last determined to try Englishmen, who have of course a very great reputation in the East for everything requiring science and energy. The English miners and engineers were engaged at a high remuneration, and began where the Belgians had left off. For a time the work went on, and then it would come to a dead lock for want of candles, or some other trifling but necessary article, and the Turks would be paying three hundred pounds a week for the wages of workmen, unemployed because they themselves were haggling for a twentieth of that sum.

The English engineer who tried his hand for the first time at a Turkish mine now threw up his appointment in