"MUCHAS gracious," as the Spanish are not sold on the corners of every thor say, for your package of nice Bos-oughfare at the low price of two and four ton papers which I found awaiting me at cents. There are several papers printed in this famous place. Every one in the ward- this city, but, as they use Arabic characters room has overhauled them, and then return to form the words, we are not very fond of ed them to me in a shipwrecked condition. perusing them unless we want to take a siesI gave them to my assistants in the engine- ta after lunch. room, and they passed them to the crew, and if you please you can assure the publishers of those journals that they were well read, at least out here, where newspapers We have one officer who was fired with a noble ambition to learn to read and speak Arabic. He is now under the care of the surgeon, and is threatened with softening of die if I thought that I had got to be slob bered over by a score of gushing girls, all with dark eyes, and jealous hearts, and all ready to snap your head off if you should even hint that Laura Maria was good look must have his time pretty well employed, if he is appealed to, and has to settle some of the female quarrels in his exclusive paradise. the brain. It is a sad case, as there are not less than three young ladies in the States who are anxiously awaiting his return in the hope of having homes of their own, as he made some sort of promises that women look upon as serious. Those germans at Washing and finely formed. The holy Prophet ngton, with brilliant costumes, bright lights, vin de lar premiére cuvée, are enough to turn the hardest heads in the United-States Navy, and girls snap a fellow up, bon gré mal gré, before he knows what he is about, and only a three-years' cruise can bring a blue jacket to his senses, and make him realize that, if he was fool enough to marry, his wife would have nice times leading the german with some dashing fellow, who has lots of money, and plenty of opportunities to spend it. I am not much on the marry myself; and don't intend to, until I have retired from the service, and been placed on a pension, so that I can buy a sea-shore residence, and ten acres of land, enough to keep a cow, horse, two dozen hens, a pig, and two children, boy and girl. Then I can afford to smile at the navy department, - at rotten ships, poor machinery, and fussy captains, and boisterous lieutenant commanders. But this is a dream that cannot be realized for many years, as I am not yet primed for retiring, and my steam gauge marks high pressure with every movement of my life. But belle dépéche to such thoughts, and let us return to Constantinople. Why, even here, in this famed city, where some of the Pachas have a dozen or twenty wives, and the commander of the faithful between seven and eight hundred, there is not that domestic peace and quietude which a family man would expect in the bosom of his family, and it is said that there is hairpulling and much shrill vociferation when the old fellows take off their slippers, coats, and feiz, and look in upon their women folks for a quiet after-dinner chat. It is a barbarous custom this locking up of women, so that not even an honest-hearted sailor can have a glance at one; and the man who will persist in taking more than one female helpmate deserves the warmest condemnation of a free and frank tar all the remainder of his life, and if our people should lend themselves to such degradation they would de serve But let us shut off steam, for, if I mistake not, there are some zealous Mormons in our part of the world, and there plurality of wives is allowed by custom if not by law, so let us leave the Turks and their paradise alone until we have plucked a large beam out of our eyes. As I said before, we were sent here to look after the interests of the Christians; for the latter are always in trouble in Tur key, and always want assistance and protection, and the right to make money and to cheat the Turks if possible; the Greeks cheat everybody, and the Jews cheat Turks, Greeks, and every one that trades with them, and then the Turks squeeze all when money is wanted, and perhaps each nationality is about even when the books are bal anced at the end of the year. The sultan always wants money; his wives will have it; his ministers have an itching palm, and don't scruple to help themselves when they have a good chance to sell a contract, or to keep We were ordered here from Naples by the admiral of the station, who said that we were to suppress the fiery enthusiasm of the Turks in case they were intent on hanging or cutting off the heads of our countrymen, or other Christians, located at the Golden Horn. The Turk is an excitable gentleman, and when he thinks the infidel dogs impose on his good nature, by taking away his territory, he cares but little whether he injures friends or foes. He calls upon "Allah! Allah!" and hits to the right and left, and then apologizes if he has made a mistake. He is very gentlemanly after his wrath has spent itself, and can explain away all mistakes in six different languages; but when you ask for damages you will find that one language is enough for his ordinary use, and the more you talk to him, and the more cor-back the army's pay, and put it in their own respondence you undertake, the greater number of lies he can entertain you with. To deceive a Frank is not a crime in the eyes of the followers of the prophet. It is a virtue, and entitles them to a dozen darkeyed houris in a certain Paradise that the Turks have laid out for their own use, and walled around, so that an unbelieving dog can't enter at any price, even if he wanted to. I prefer my Paradise without any Turks, and one woman gives us enough trouble in this world without wishing for a dozen in the next. I should not want to pockets; the court officials pick up a good many dollars by selling profitable offices; and the governor of provinces make all they can out of their subjects, and squeeze Jew and Gentile with strict impartiality, so that in a few years the Pacha of a flourishing district can lay aside enough for an indolent life for the remainder of his days, unless the sultan should happen to be a little suspicious, and squeeze his subject out of all that he has made, in consideration of a respite from the silken bowstring, which always hangs over the heads of the officials of the commander of the faithful, so that they never really know whether their lives are worth the trouble of preserving. Of course we could not do much good in Constantinople, for close to us was lying a fleet of Turkish iron-clads, as fine ships as a sailor could desire to see, and any one of them could have blown us higher than a kite, if so inclined, or if we had been disposed to act as "bad men." But we were not so disposed. In fact, we smiled serenely on all who came on board, and gave the faithful chanpagne; and they drank it, too, as though they knew that the prophet was wrong when he told his people not to touch the juice of the grape. In fact, so well did we treat our visitors that they insisted we should visit the sultan, and see the light of his august countenance. I should have preferred looking at his harem, but that was not to be, so we put on our nicest uniforms, brightest of swords, freshest of chapeaux, and most brilliant of gilt buttons, and then landed and were conducted to the palace in awful solemnity; passed through a line of soldiers who scowled at us, and looked as though they would like to spit on our new uniforms, if they had not feared the bastinado on the soles of their feet for their impertinence. But no indignity was offered us, that we noticed, and then with a clang of brass instruments, wild and peculiar, like the favorite "Turkish Patrol" (you may have heard of it), on we filed into a large hall, and were arranged around the room according to our rank, with the captain and American minister in the centre, to receive all the glory, and the frowns, if the latter should disturb the countenance of the sultan by reason of a row in his harem or indigestion. But the face of the sublime Porte was as pleasant as any man's could be who had seven hundred women to look after, and keep in shawls and grub: but he did look a little bored; and when the minister said that he took pleasure in presenting to him some of the most magnificent specimens of Americans that our country ever produced, he did n't show by his actions that the minister was giving him a large dose of "taffy," but merely bowed and sighed as though he envied us our large appetites and broad shoulders. We were all presented in turn, and when it came to my chance to bow to the sultan he said a few words which sounded like "good boy," but merely meant you are welcome. Now I should like to write you that the old fellow said he knew all about Boston, and read BALLOU'S MAGAZINE every month, and paid his subscription like a man, in advance, and did n't want a premium with every number. If he had said anything of the kind I should have been pleased to record his words; and it would have been a good head of steam for you; but I don't believe the man reads your valuable publication, and I don't think he would let his women folks peruse number to save your lives; for they would go wild over your love-stories, and bold, noble-looking heroes, with lovely mustaches, and passionate kisses, and all such confounded stuff, good enough in execution, but bad for poor females and sailors to read about, especially when the latter are so far away from home. Now let me tell you about Constantinople, as it is today. Well- Confound it! we are "beat to quarters," and I must close. Wait until the next time. The engraving speaks better than my words. THE LIVERPOOL AND THE MERSEY. HE name of no foreign city is more familiar to the American people than that of Liverpool, which is the chief market, abroad, for the agricultural and mechanical productions of this country. It is one of the greatest commercial cities in the world, and is situated on the Mersey, along which it extends for more than seven miles. For nearly the whole of this distance a line or chain of docks runs parallel with the river, and from these, at intervals, streets extend at. right angles tolerably direct to the bounda ry. These are crossed by streets more or | less parallel to the river; but, as the town grew up rather suddenly, no great attention was paid to regularity. The boundary line from where it touches the river at the south to its termination at Bootle Bay, embraces a circle of somewhat more than eight miles. In early times the town was called indifferently Lirpool, Litherpool, Lithpool, and Liferpole. "F" and "y" were commutable; but in the most ancient records the name is written sometimes Lithepol, sometimes Lithepole. It was originally only a small fishing village; for the Mersey, up to a re cent period, was remarkable for its supply of salmon and other fish. The first authentic record of the town is in a charter of Henry II., in the year 1173, declaring that "the estuary of the Mersey shall be forever a part endowed with all the liberties belonging to a port of the sea, and that the men of Lyrpul, near to Toxteth, may come and go from each side of the sea with their ships and merchandise free and without obstructions." It is supposed that his majesty in this charter had reference to the Conquest of Ireland; for, not content with the bestowal of a barren privilege, he erected dwellings called burgagi houses, the tenants of which were the primitive freemen of Liverpool. These houses continued to yield a rental to the crown till the time of Elizabeth, and constituted, to a great extent, the dwellings of the inhabitants. In 1750 Liverpool had only twenty sailing vessels engaged in continental trade. Now she has an immense merchant navy, comprising, besides sailing vessels, fleets of screw steamers which constantly visit every port of the Mediterranean, and render the Mersey a medium of communication be tween France, Belgium, Holland and America. She has almost monopolized the Aus tralian trade. Her clipper ships are admitted to be the finest in the world, and consequently the emigration to the antipodes is the largest from this port, and the return cargoes the heaviest; for, necessarily, the market. To remedy this an immense landing-stage constructed by Mr. Cubitt, was placed at St. George's Pier, and this has not only promoted the comfort of the passengers, but served as a very popular promenade. An other landing-stage, the Princess', has been built, three times the size of the former, at a cost of £150,000. Great facilities have been afforded for carrying on this large trade. In 1715 the first dock was constructed with an area of three and one-half acres. From 1830 to Until 1826 there were few warehouses on 1842 eight new docks were added; and, from the dock quays. They were generally at 1845 to 1852, fourteen docks and basins some distance away. This was a great inwere constructed. The river wall is five convenience to the merchants, and at length miles and two hundred yards long. No other the Albert Dock was constructed, and surport can present anything to compare with rounded, like St. Katherine's Dock, London, these docks. One serious inconvenience, with piles of ponderous warehouses. Stanhowever, is, that running along the river ly Dock was afterward surrounded in the wall, they interrupt the approaches to the same way, and a little later the new Wapferries, and, when the gates are opened, ping Docks. Extensive as this dock accomstop intercourse for a short time aitogether.modation is, it is not adequate to the wants of the port. The corporation has purchased Birkenhead Dock and estates for £1,143,000, which to be made available required a further outlay of £800,000. There are several eminent ship-builders in Liverpool; but of late the greater part of the trade has been in the repairing and building iron ships. There are five shipyards on the Lancashire side of the river, and three on the other. Those on the Cheshire side combine graving with building docks; and, although there are several graving docks on the Liverpool side, they are inadequate to the needs of the port. As might be expected, a large trade is carried on in ships. Next to London the corporation of Liverpool is decidedly the richest in the United Kingdom. With the increase of trade and wealth, the mode of doing business underwent a great change. At the beginning of the present century the merchant had his counting-room and warehouse behind his dwelling. These mansions may now be seen in Hanover Street, Duke Street, Seel Street, and others, still bearing in their architecture evidences of cost and taste, although now mostly devoted to meaner uses. Thirty years later the mercantile offices began to gather about the Exchange; mean buildings were transformed into lordly edifices; and as much as eight hundred and a thousand pounds a year is now paid for a suite of rooms on a single floor. Such rents are a temptation to an increase of buildings; and, in 1856, fortyseven pounds a square yard was paid for building-land near the town-hall. All the opulent classes live in the environs. Until 1833 New Brighton was a sand-hill, without a tenement on it; now it is covered with villas. These elegant suburban residences cover the hills and crowd the gorges from the Red Noses to Rock Ferry, while on the Lancashire side, Aigburth, Allerton, Woolton, Old Swan, Knotty Ash, West Derby, Litherland, Waterloo, and Bootle have been entirely occupied by the mansions and villas of the wealthy people of Liverpool. The present town-hall, a noble structure, stands nearly on the site of the original Market Cross. The interior of the building is very fine. There are a spacious hall, a council-room, treasurer's office, and townclerk's office on the basement story. A splendid staircase leads to a suite of draw ing-rooms, a very fine dining-room, an immense ball-room, with a small one attached. On the first landing of the staircase stands Chantrey's statue of Channing, considered one of that great artist's masterpieces. In the reception-rooms is a portrait of Channing by Lawrence, and one of George III. by Shee, and also portraits of the Duke of Kent, George IV., and William IV. In the council-chamber there are portraits of various gentlemen who have passed through the mayorial chair. The town-hall is made to form one square of the Exchange. This noble pile was commenced in 1803. The cost was estimated at £80,000; and, although no one was allowed to take up more than ten shares, the whole sum was subscribed in less than two hours. The building was completed in 1809, at the cost of £110,840. |