may yet be long, very long, ere that sword be quiet.

Sunday, Oct. 26, 1823-This morning, notice having been previously given to the Frank Consuls and Residents in Beirout, that there would be Divine Service in Italian at the British Consul's Gardenhouse, we assembled to the number of twenty. Mr. Fisk read portions of the Sacred Scripture, and prayed; after which I preached from Matthew xviii. 20. Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

SOME ACCOUNT OF BEIROUT.

The following day closed my residence, for the present, in Mount Lebanon.

In order to give, at one view, the whole of my observations in this part of the country, in this place may very properly be subjoined the few additional remarks which I made on my return hither at the close of the year.

The population of Beirout I endeavoured to estimate as nearly as possible, by the enumeration of houses. Within the walls of the city, there may be about three thousand souls. Without the walls, to a distance of half-a-mile in various directions, are many country houses, some of which consist of but one or two rooms: yet such a dwelling often suffices for the residence of a whole rustic family. In summer, they scarcely seem to need the covering of a house; and, in winter, their only plan to keep themselves warm is, to crowd many into a small space. These country-houses I as nearly as possible counted: they may be in number about

three hundred; and probably contain a population of two thousand souls. Thus the whole of Beirout would give a population of five thousand. The houses in the city are exceedingly close, dirty, and ruinous; and the streets very offensive.

Besides the English Consul, there are Vice-Consuls, or Agents, representing the French, Austrian, Russian, Neapolitan, and Prussian Governments.

They have a curious method of tanning leather here, making every passenger contribute to the operation. The skins of animals are first stretched, and then laid flat upon the bare ground or rude pavement. Thus the rain, the mire, and the feet of the passenger, of the camel, of the horse, and of the ass, all contribute to cure them. It becomes necessary to step with caution; and, indeed, notwithstanding the utmost care, a few slips, and even falls, are the consequence of this public nuisance. After this seasoning, the skin becomes a rude kind of leather, fit for ordinary uses.

The houses in the suburbs are, in general, more slightly built, than those in the city. In summer, the inconvenience of this is not felt; and their airiness is extremely grateful. I occupied a room, the dimensions of which were about ten feet by seven, and which had six windows, and was entered by a trap-door. In winter, however, I found, by bitter experience, how much these flimsy structures must contribute to fever, ague, and rheumatism. Being constructed of only one thickness of stone, and that of a very porous quality, and very thinly if at all stuccoed within, they absorb the moisture greatly. When the heavy rains from the south set in, the whole of the south side of the house in which we

were living became, in the course of three tempes tuous days, soaked through like a sheet of blotting paper..

STATE OF THE WINDS AT BEIROUT.

- In this country, the same general rule holds, as was declared more than three thousand years agoThe north wind driveth away rain (Prov. xxv. 23). Tempestuous weather, on the contrary, is from the south and west. The south-west wind seems here to have the same effect, as, in Malta, the southeast; so well known to every resident in the Mediterranean by the name of the Sciroc Wind. Whether it may be that the African Continent mainly contributes to this hazy and dispiriting wind, and therefore in Syria it comes from a direction westward of south, is doubtful; for there seems good reason to expect a similar effect from the Deserts of Arabia, which are to the south-east: but it is most probable, that Beirout and the whole of this line of coast is screened from such a quality of south-east wind by the high range of Lebanon, now (January 1824) covered with snow. And thus the direction of the Sciroc influence veers a few points, coming from south, and even south-west. It has here precisely the same effect as in Malta, moistening and softening every thing, rendering the spirits languid, and detecting every weak point in the body. I am now speaking of its operation in the winter months. I do not remember to have noticed it in autumn.

STATE OF THE CHRISTIANS OF BEIROUT.

During the former part of my residence of fifty days, from December 22d, to the following Fe

bruary 9th, in Beirout, which was spent in the house of the friendly American Missionaries, we had a visit of many days from Hanna Doomani, from Deir el Kamr. It was our daily practice to read the Arabic Scriptures in the family circle. In the evening, frequently, some neighbours would drop in; and, on what we read, much interesting conversation ensued. Yet it was affecting to see among professing Christians, who were otherwise intelligent enough, a great deal of ignorance on most essential points of Christian Theology. Sometimes, the prevailing superstitions of the country fell under the censure of the passage which we read; or these Native Christians, of their own accord, brought them into discussion. It was not always easy to keep them calm, for they disputed against one another. The only method which ever succeeded, and indeed it would be difficult to find any other which would succeed, was to bring them round again to Scripture.

One of our visitors was Father Simeon, an aged Maronite Priest, who lived in a neighbouring house. His account of the state of the Christians in this place was, that there are about a hundred families of Maronites in Beirout; of whom thirty or forty reside in the city, and the remainder in the countryhouses without the walls: for these, there are four Priests, three of whom (himself being one of them) are married: one lives in the city; the rest in the suburbs. He has three sons and one daughter: this last is entered at the Nunnery at Antoura. This Priest was, for many days, very friendly-read in the Sacred Scriptures with us--and received copies for the purpose of selling them; but a painful cir

cumstance, at length, interrupted the distribution of these books, although not his friendliness.

This was an Order which was read, under the authority of the Maronite Patriarch, on the 6th of January, prohibiting his flock from purchasing or using the Arabic Bibles or Testaments printed in London. This has embarrassed the Priest, and many others; who are favourable, in the main, to the distribution of the Sacred Scriptures: and, for a season, it may retard their circulation; only, however, for a season. It seemed to me not a little remarkable, that the festival, on which this Patriarchal Order was appointed to be read in the Churches, should be that which celebrates in their Church, as in ours, the Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles.

What connection there may have been between this public order and a visit which we had the next day, I know not; but, in the afternoon of January the 7th, three Maronites, one of them a youth, came and sat in the court of the house two hours; the chief part of which time they spent in reading aloud to themselves, all together-one in the Arabic Old Testament, the other in the New Testament, and the boy in the Psalter. They came several times afterward, being neighbours; and, in this way, neighbours often are willing to come. They said that they possessed the Testament at home: the entire Bible they occasionally begged leave to borrow for an evening.

MANNER OF READING IN SYRIA.

Their way of reading aloud brings to my mind some remarks which I have often made on the cus