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lead us very widely astray; and pronunciation being closely connected with this part of grammar, we naturally infer that an implicit reliance upon their authority would be as hazardous in the one case as in the other. It may not however be a safe conclusion, that, in every particular in which they differ from us, their pronunciation of the ancient language is wrong, and ours is right. Both the one and the other may be wrong. Mynas has arrayed most of the arguments that are usually urged on his side of the question. It was not to be supposed that he should overlook the oracular verse quoted by Thucydides in the second book of his history, and regularly produced in evidence by all the modern advocates of iotacisms., re 14 itsold out A

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Το Ιποίο Ήξει Δωριακὸς πόλεμος, καὶ λοιμὸς ἅμ ̓ αὐτῷ. αυτήν τ

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These words had been uttered in the form of an oracle, and were called to remembrance by some of the older inhabitants during the plague of Athens: φάσκοντες οἱ πρεσβύτεροι πάλαι ᾄδεσθαι. Whether the oracle had threatened Aouds, pestilence, or as, famine, became a subject of discussion. "Si donc," says Mynas, le son du o n'était pas comme, pourquoi discuter sur ce mot?" A similar question has often been asked before. Now," says Mr. Pickering, "if the two words in question were not pro nounced alike, there could have been no room for this ambiguity and to all the objections of those who reason upon this verse, as if it had been in writing, it is a sufficient answer that the oracles were delivered orally." Doubtless they were so delivered; and the words of this particular oracle, floating in the memory some aged men, were liable to variations. Either word preserves the measure of the verse, and the sense of either is perfectly appo‹ site; for both famine and pestilence have too frequently followed in the train of war. A dispute arose as to the fact, whether the men of a former age had, in singing or reciting the verse, employed the word λοιμός or λιμὸς, not whether the word which they had employed was to be explained in one or other of two senses which its sound admitted. Some contended, as the historian informs us, that famine, and not pestilence, was mentioned by men of the past age; but, in the mean time, the opinion naturally prevailed that pestilence was mentioned, λopov eignotai; that pestilence was the word formerly used in reciting this oracular verse; for they were led to adopt what was applicable to their present circumstances. But, subjoins Thucydides, if another Dorian war should take place, and should be accompanied with famine, they will probably recite it according to the event, outws σovraι; that is, they will probably substitute the word Ads for the word ouós. The tenor of the passage seems clearly to imply that the sound

of the word was to be changed in the recitation, not that a new explanation was to be applied to a sound which remained unchanged. Εγένετο μὲν οὖν ἔρις τοῖς ἀνθρώποις μὴ λοιμὸν ὠνομάσθαι ἐν τῷ ἔπει ὑπὸ τῶν παλαιῶν, ἀλλὰ λιμόν, ἐνίκησε δὲ ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος εἰκότως, λοιμὸν εἰρῆσθαι. οἱ γὰρ ἄνθρωποι πρὸς ἃ ἔπασχον, τὴν μνήμην ἐποιοῦντα. ἢν δέ γε, οἶμαι, ποτὲ ἄλλος πόλεμος καταλάβη Δωρικὸς τοῦδε ὕστερος, καὶ ξυμβῇ γενέσθαι λιμὸν, κατὰ τὸ εἰκὸς οὕτως ᾄσονται. Τα

Of the fragment of Cratinus, which is so frequently quoted in this controversy, the Macedonian professor has found little difficulty in disposing to his own advantage. orp

στολες με Ὁ δ' ηλίθιος ὥσπερ πρόβατον βῆ, βῆ λέγων βαδίζει.

As the bleating of sheep makes a much nearer approach to beh, beh, than to vi, vi, we suppose this ancient fragment to afford an argument in favour of the Erasmian mode of pronouncing ẞ aş well as . This impression is by no means removed by the arguments of Mynas; and a more compendious method of discussion was once adopted by another Greek, of whom we had some personal knowledge. On the subject of pronunciation, he was engaged in a dispute with the late Greek professor at Edinburgh and on being reminded that the cry of sheep was not vi, vì, but beh, beh, he briskly replied, "Of Scotish sheep perhaps, not Athenian sheep. One of the arguments of Mynas refers to the measure of the verse, concerning which he has started some unne. cessary doubts and difficulties. endaside out ife of bun

vers;

"Je leur demande de me déterminer exactement la mesure de ce vers est-il un antispaste tétrametre catalectique?... Donc il n'y a aucune raison de plus que ẞi, ẞn, ne soit pas écrit Be, Bé, parce qu'on a la licence d'employer dans ces sortes de vers les conjugaisons lambiques, trochaïques et spondiaques, et même d'analyser une syllabe longue en deux brèves." port o met died yet

The verse is evidently an iambic tetrameter Ὁ δὲ ἠλίθιος | ὥσπερ | πρόβατον [ βῆ, βῆ Of the same denomination, this is by no which deviates from Porson's canon, that the admit an iambus or a tribrachys. *

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Porsoni Supplem. ad Praef. in Euripidis Hecubam, p. xlii.

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ART. IV.-1. Observations du General Clauzel sur quelques actes de son Commandement à Alger. 8vo. Paris, 1831.

2. Alger sous la domination Française, son état present et son avenir, par M. le Baron Pichon, Conseiller d'Etat, ancien Intendant civil d'Alger. 8vo. Paris, 1833.

3. M. de Rovigo, et M. Pichon, par M. Carpentier. Paris, Mai, 1832. 8vo.

4. Mémoire presenté à M. le Marechal Duc de Dalmatie sur les moyens d'assurer la securité du territoire de la Colonie d'Alger, par le Général Brossard. 8vo. Paris, 1833.

5. Mémoire sur la Colonisation de la Regence d'Alger, par le Baron de Ferussac. 8vo. Paris, 1833.

6. Voyage dans la Regence d'Alger, ou description du pays OCcupé par l'armeé Française en Afrique, par M. Rozet, Capitaine d'Etat Major, Ingenieur Geographe. 3 vols. 8vo., avec Atlas in 4to. Paris, 1833.

WHEN, in a former number of this Journal,* we gave an account of the French expedition against Algiers, in 1830, we expressed satisfaction at its success. Since that time we have watched with feelings of curiosity and interest the course pursued by the French authorities in Northern Africa, in hopes of seeing something like a permanent system of social intercourse established between the conquerors and the native population of that extensive country, by which humanity and civilization might be gainers. We have said in hopes," for we are not among those who envy our neighbours their possession of Algiers; on the contrary, it was our wish that they might make a good use of its acquisition. We regret to say however, that hitherto, our hopes and wishes have been alike disappointed.

By the capitulation of the 4th July, 1830, the French became possessed of" the city of Algiers, and the forts depending on it." No mention was made of the provinces, or of the native tribes. The Dey capitulated as commander of a military garrison, not as sovereign of an extensive kingdom. The natives had been told by the French, in their proclamations, that they had come to deliver them from the Turkish yoke, and to restore them to their independence. The Turks were in fact aliens to the country; their power was that of pirates by sea and usurpers and marauders by land, and the French might just as well pretend to

*No xvii., Jan. 1832.

inherit the one as the other of these attributes. The French became possessed by conquest of Algiers, Oran, Bona, and one or two more points upon or near the coast. The Moors and other mixed races who inhabit these became, by the capitulation, subjects of France. The interior of the country remained, both de jure and de facto, in possession of the natives. These natives are of two races: the Arabs and the Kabyles. The Arabs are the descendants of the great Eastern conquerors of the time of the Caliphs; their tribes are scattered all over northern Africa; they are mostly shepherds, live under tents, and tend their flocks in the plains. The Kabyles, so called by the Moors, are the real aborigines, the descendants of the old Numidians; they are the cultivators of the soil, live in villages called dashkrahs, and constitute the great majority of the interior population of the Regency of Algiers. They are evidently of the same race as the Berbers of Morocco, but with neither of these names are they acquainted. They call themselves Mazigh, and their language Showiah, although many of them speak also the western Arabic. Much confusion prevails in the common way of denominating these people. For instance, the French often confound the Arabs and the Kabyles under the first of these appellations, whilst others call them both Bedoweens, which name was heretofore more particularly applied by travellers to the wandering and plundering Arab tribes of the desert. On their part the Arabs of the plains of Algiers often apply the term Bedoweens to the Kabyles of the mountains. In fact Bedoween seems to be an appellation of bad import. Several of the Arab tribes near Algiers paid tribute to the Turks, in order that their cattle might graze safely in the plains; but the Kabyles seldom or never entered into such agreements; they lived independent in the numerous parallel ridges and valleys of the Atlas, which cover the greater part of the surface of the country, and their own sheiks and marabouts administered justice; the Turks only extorted any thing from them by sending detachments to surprise the villages, or kidnap their young men, and making their parents pay a ransom. Such was the sovereignty of the Turks over nine-tenths of the territory of the Regency. When the French landed, the Arabs abandoned the cause of the Turks, as soon as they could do it with safety, and by their defection, and the intelligence they brought to the French camp, materially facilitated the success of the invaders. They had promised the French general to maintain neutrality, on condition of being protected against the vengeance of the Turks.

"In consequence of this, after the capitulation, and on the very day the French entered Algiers, all the authorities dependant on the Dey

were abolished, without any other being substituted. Thus all at once the Arab tribes found themselves independent."-Brossard, pp. 14, 15.

Soon after, however, seeing the French settled at Algiers, the Arabs began to consult about their future relations with them; a variety of opinions existed among their tribes, but they agreed to assemble a council of the chiefs at Belida or Bleda, a town about twenty-five miles distance from Algiers, at the foot of the little or Maritime Atlas.

General Bourmont, instead of sending to this palaver some shrewd negociators, or employing a small part of the treasure found in the Cassauba, to gain over some of the chiefs, marched upon Bleda with a column of two thousand men. The Arabs, seeing the French approach the place of their meeting, became alarmed; the peacefully inclined departed, but those who were hostilely disposed remained on the ground, and by them an attack on the French column was resolved upon. Bourmont entered Bleda on the 23d July; the next day, he advanced a few miles beyond the town, to reconnoitre. The Arabs and Kabyles, who had formed an ambuscade, immediately attacked the troops left at Bleda, in consequence of which the general was obliged to hasten back, and begin his retreat towards Algiers, followed by the enemy, who harassed him in his march through the plain, pressing closely on his rear and flanks. When afterwards Bourmont, perceiving his error, attempted to negociate, it was too late; the chiefs of the tribes answered him that," since the victory of Bleda, there was not a herdsman in all Africa who would think of treating with the French." Brossard, p. 17. The French possessions were therefore limited to the city of Algiers and its immediate vicinity.

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General Clauzel, an officer of distinguished reputation under the empire, was sent by the government of Louis Philippe to supersede Bourmont. He arrived in Algiers on the 2d of September. The tricoloured flag had already been substituted for the white, under which the conquest had been effected. The impression produced by this sudden change, and by the reports from France, upon the natives, must have been one of increased ispicion towards the foreigners. The Arabs and other Mussulmans are already inclined to look upon Europeans in general as mutable, capricious beings. Of our constitutional quarrels and liberal theories they can form no distinct idea. They only understand the patriarchal rule of their sheiks, or the law of the sword exercised by the Turks.

General Clauzel having secured the allegiance of the army, and the possession of Algiers, first recommended in his despatches to the government at home to form "an important colony at

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