by. You haven't forgotten Fannie ?' As if those violet eyes were not always haunting him on guard, washing dishes, drilling, every where.

'But why don't you look at it, say it's pretty, and send her your compliments?'

Just then the drum beat.

Time for dress-parade!' exclaimed Charlie, and he rushed into his tent to equip himself. Some of his mess-mates said they saw him quickly press something to his lips, and then as quickly drop it into one of the capacious pockets of his trowsers. The next morning a little rosette appeared upon his breast; and it took so much of his attention during drill, that the captain threatened to order him to wear it on his back.

Very few were the words of advice that his father gave him as he was about to return home.

'Serve your flag!' A mist came before his eyes, and he said no more. And Charlie went back to his drilling and dish-washing.

'Captain, I do n't think I am well enough to go on guard to-day.' 'Why, boy, you never complained before. What's the matter?'

'Nothing serious, I guess. I was in the rain last night, and caught cold. Billy Reed was taken sick on his post, and I relieved him.'

'Well, go to the hospital.'

This was said in a light tone, but there was a cloud upon the captain's brow when he turned away; for he was somewhat skilled in physic, and Charlie's flushed face and bright eye did not suit him at all. The rest is soon told. Charlie's disease was what the learned call pleuro-pneumonia, and its hand was laid upon him with ever-tightening grasp. In vain did the good old doctor exhaust his skill; in vain did rough hands, but hearts warm with womanly tenderness, minister to every want.

It was a quiet Sabbath evening, about two months after he had enlisted, when he lay upon his cot, rational for the first time in many days. Beckoning to his side his attendant — Billy Reed, who had scarcely left him since he had been taken sick - he whispered faintly:

'That rosette.'

It was placed in his hand, and he looked at it for a long time in silence. As he gazed upon it, its colors seemed to call to his mind the proud emblem of our country's glory, and he repeated many times, almost inaudibly, the closing lines of Drake's immortal poem:

"FOREVER float that standard sheet,

Where breathes the foe but falls before us;

With Freedom's soil beneath our feet,

And Freedom's banner waving o'er us!'

Then, turning his eyes upward, as though he heard the silken rustling of its emblazoned folds, he said distinctly:

'Serve your flag!'

They were his last words.

With solemn step and slow the sad procession followed him to the grave

they had made for him on the bank of the beautiful river, where the soft plashing of the ripples upon the beach, and the low sobbing of the winds through trees, would sound his requiem. Gently they lowered him into the ground, the guard of honor fired the funeral salute, and he was left among the pale sleepers. Only a few atoms of dust transferred from the earth's surface into its bosom, that is all; and the great world moves on unheeding.

And yet of Charlie Marsh, no less than of the martyred Ellsworth, of Winthrop, Lyon, and Baker, there is written above, the golden record:

'DIED FOR HIS COUNTRY.'

Reader, young man, despair not because you are unknown to fame; because your name is not upon the tongues of men. The fate of Charlie Marsh may be yours; it may be mine. But though yours or mine may not be

'ONE of the few immortal names,

That were not born to die;'

yet let us stand up bravely in the ranks, doubting not, earnest in purpose, ever remembering poor Charlie's dying injunction:

'SERVE YOUR FLAG!'

THE TURK IN SYRIA.

BY JOHN P. NEWMAN, D. D.

SOME one competent to the task would advance the science of government and the higher purposes of Christianity, by writing the political history of Syria, from the reign of Titus to the demise of the late Sultan, Abd-ul-Medjid. Such a history would bring to light, crusades of martial ambition, the most chivalrous and ruinous; political schemes the most reckless and degrading; and religious systems the most fanatical and corrupting the sun has ever witnessed. Such a work would be the echo of the prophetic voice, uttered centuries ago, and would be an unanswerable vindication of the statement that the present physical and moral condition of the Land of Promise is the result of misrule, and of a stupendous system of oppression, extortion, and fanaticism. Especially would the astounding fact be proved, that the Turk is the enemy of good government, of national greatness, of social and intellectual refinement, and of domestic and individual purity. The reign of the Turk is the reign of ruin. Suited best to the excitement of battle, and to the plunder and murder of the vanquished, in times of peace his unrestrained passions drive him to vices as destructive to himself as they are blighting to good society. In the camp and on the field he has always prospered; but when unimpelled by the excitement of war, his vigor has disappeared, and he has been a leech on the body politic, and a drone

in the community. Whether in Europe, Asia, or Africa, he has run a regular course of rapid attainment of power by bloody wars, and then as regularly declined, from the moment the conquerors sat down to reap the fruits of victory. The Turk and Islam are identical; the former is the embodiment of the latter, and the latter is exterminating to all who submit not to the sway of the false prophet, and annihilating to every thing which does not subserve the ends of his religion. No country has risen to greatness under its influence; and those which were great in national resources, in the grandeur of architecture, in the wealth of agriculture, and the superiority of science and art, have utterly perished or dwindled into insignificance under its deteriorating power.

Palestine is a striking and deplorable instance of national wretchedness, to which one of the fairest lands on the globe has been reduced under the reign of the Islamitic Turk. From the Arab invasion, in 633 A.D., under the famous Khâled and Abu Obiedah, to the present time, the cultivation of the soil has been neglected, commerce limited, and government perverted to the meanest and basest of purposes. Sixteen years after that invasion, the crescent waved from the shores of the Atlantic to the confines of India. Of the then nine flourishing cities, Damascus alone remains in part, the fanaticism of the Turk having culminated, in May, 1860, in the murder, captivity and dispersion of twenty thousand of its noblest citizens, and in the destruction of more than a third of its most magnificent mansions. Under the heroic Godfrey, the Crusaders, in 1099, recovered the much-abused land from the cruelty and neglect of the Turk; and for three-quarters of a century, the Land of Promise was restored to comparative prosperity. Under those Christian rulers, the resources of the country were developed to an astonishing degree; the fleets of Pisa, Genoa, and Venice, traded along its shores, and populous cities sprung up as if by magic. But in 1187, the battle of Kurûn Hattîn decided the fate of the Crusaders; Jerusalem was retaken by Saladin; the Franks were driven out of Palestine; and four years subsequently, the celebrated Melek-ed-Dhâher placed all Syria under the domination of the Turks. And from that time to the present, the Holy Land has been the prey of Mohammedan adventurers, and is now a dependency to the Porte, divided into three Pashalics, those of Sidon, Aleppo, and Damascus. The neglect and destruction of more than six centuries prove that the Turk is not only not the fostering patron of the useful and beautiful arts, but is the enemy of agriculture, commerce, manufactures, and public works of every kind. When, in the twelfth century, the Christians were expelled, the magnificent and fertile plains of Sharon, Phoenicia, Esdraelon, and Muknah were fruitful fields, yielding golden harvests, the reward of honest husbandry; but now those plains are the encamping grounds of the wild Arab, who feeds his flocks at liberty, and then mounts his fleet steed to scour the whole country in search of plunder, robbing the poor peasant of the little harvests on which he had hoped to subsist during winter. The Crusaders left to their conquerors large and flourishing maritime cities, with a lucrative commerce with Europe and the Levant; but under the Turkish rule, those commercial towns are poor and filthy Arab villages, without harbors, without vessels, without mariners, and without a trade. The inhibition of the Koran, as to the making of any thing

like that which is in the heavens above, or the earth beneath, has not only left Syria without a picture, without a statue, and without temples, but has led to the wanton destruction of the splendid edifices of medieval times. The knights of the middle ages had rivalled the Romans, and even Herod, in the erection of temples, and palaces, and churches. In Ramleh, Zudd, Jerusalem, Beeroth, Bethel, Samaria, Sidon, Tyre, 'Akka, and especially in Athlît, the Castellum Peregrinorum of the Crusaders, were structures worthy to adorn any age; but, content with a shade-tree, under which to whiff his nahguleh, and an ill-formed, secluded shanty for his many wives, the Turk has allowed to crumble to ruins, or has ruthlessly destroyed, those magnificent buildings. Excepting the great mosque in Damascus, which was once a Christian church, and the grand mosques of Omer and Alakea, in Jerusalem, the latter also once a church, erected by Justinian, the Turk's posterity will never sit among the splendid ruins of their ancestors, as do the modern Greeks and Romans.

Islamism is no less objectionable in the administration of justice, than in the patronage of art and science. The present government is a stupendous system of fraud, from the grand vizier down to the sheikh of the pettiest town. Political preferments and all offices are offered to the highest bidder; wealth prevents the commitment of any criminal, and secures the liberation of any prisoner; and the decision of the judge is rendered in the favor of the plaintiff or defendant, according to the amount offered in bribery.. It is now commonly believed, that the terrible massacres of 1860 were instigated by the government officials, with the double hope of exterminating both Druzes and Maronites, and in the failure to realize such a result, to receive large bribes to become the ally of the one or the other. There is no security afforded to life and property, and if either is lost, there is no redress. Travellers are safe in visiting the sacred scenes of the Holy Land, only when attended by an armed escort, for which they must pay a large sum, which, in fact, is but a choice of evils-to be plundered according to contract, or be robbed without one. During our tour of ninety days, we were stoned thrice, robbed twice, and assaulted by banditti once; but could never obtain satisfaction from the government, without the promise of an enormous bakhshîsh. Such facts simply illustrate what a failure Islamism is, not only as an elevating religion, but also in practically securing the ends of justice.

THE political condition of the Holy Land is so interwoven with its moral destiny and religious hopes, as to warrant a remark upon the future politics of the country. Syria is evidently in a transition state, and there are indications that some great political change is at hand. Significant among the signs of the times, are the sectional feuds and intestine broils, which portend some eventful change. The present inhabitants are a mixed race, and consist of Arabians, Syrians, and Europeans. They are designated by their religion, rather than by their nationality, and are known as Moslems, Druzes, Maronites, Greeks, Catholics, Arminians, and Jews. These religious appellations are party names, and the symbols of reproach, fear, and power, according to the strength of the

several parties. The deadliest enmity exists between these rival sects; extermination is the war-cry, and no stratagem is too despicable not to be adopted. Patriotism is a virtue unknown in all this land, and were the best of its citizens banished, they would never sing with the Jewish captives: If I forget thee, O Jerusalem! let my right hand forget her cunning.' Most of the government officials are foreigners, who have received their appointment to office in consideration of a larger sum than their rivals would give, and who administer justice upon the same principle. Impelled by the love of plunder, the inhabitants go armed to the teeth, every man's hand is against his fellow, and the generous feelings of humanity, and the higher motives of public good, are excellences of character wholly unknown. Governed by no nobler principle, the religionists are content in waging an exterminating war against their rivals, and of establishing a universal system of fanaticism and bigotry. Three of the most numerous of these sects represent three of the Great Powers, Russia, France, and Turkey, and by intrigue, and bribery, and fanaticism, will inevitably involve these mighty nations in a bloody strife for the Holy Land. Palestine is again to be contended for by the nations of Western Europe, and the plain of Esdraelon once more become the battle-field of nations. At present, most of those powers have large landed possessions in Syria, and are daily making new purchases. On the hill Akra, to the south-west of Jerusalem, Russia has inclosed a vast area, surrounded with walls as high and strong as those about the old city; within is a monastery, which in time of war, will answer all the purposes of a fortress, and the inclosure bears the name of 'New Jerusalem.' Prussia has a large hospice in Jerusalem, and several flourishing religious and literary institutions. France is in possession of the ancient church of St. Anne, and has recently purchased the land adjoining it; she has bought the old castle in Bierûte, and has constructed a magnificent macadamized road from Bierûte to Damascus, with the right of way for fortynine years. And on Mount Zion, England has a consulate building and a church of which any nation might be justly proud. Already the eagles of war have gathered where the carcass is. The harbor of Bierûte is more like a blockaded port than the port of a peaceful city. France has eight line-of-battle ships anchored in the bay; Russia has four, Sardinia two, and England nine. The interest all Europe takes in Palestine is best seen in her unrest till the completion of the disembarkation of the French; and now, since the eagles of France have been driven from the prey, the other vultures of Europe are only waiting the auspicious moment to pounce upon it.

The great Emperor of the West has failed to establish that magnificent kingdom in the East, of which his renowned uncle dreamed. Regarding them as a horde of adventurers, the Turks have cursed them from morning till night, and through the vigilance of English diplomacy, they have succeeded in freeing themselves from those whom they thought to be their foes. While but little honor is due to the intentions of Napoleon, in the occupation of Syria, less honor is due to the policy England has pursued in securing the disembarkation of the French. She has followed the same double-handed game she is now pursuing in regard to the United States, and her time-serving policy has cre