Oriental Zigzag ; or, Wanderings in Syria, Moab, Abyssinia, and
Egypt. By Charles Hamilton. (Chapman and Hall.)—The real object of Mr. Hamilton's book is to obtain redress for a great wrong which he believes himself to have suffered. His travels have not been over new ground, nor has he the art of giving novel impressions of the old. But.he was, it seems, dangerously beaten by a mob of fanatics or ruffians in Egypt, and he wants to get a Parliamentary Committee to inquire into the circumstances of the case. He could not have a better chance than now. There never was such a Government for granting Committees ; it is about the only thing they seem able to do. Only he must make haste, or else all the available Members will be used up. Of course, a gentleman with a grievance of this kind has not much love for the Government from which he seeks compensation. We must, therefore, take cum grano his declaration that if slavery is to be really abolished in Egypt, the government of the country must be taken out of the hands that now hold it. But it looks like the truth. The social life of Mohammedanism seems to make slavery a necessity. "There aro but few women here," he says of some Abyssinian village ; "they have been drained off to fill Egyptian establishments." And so it will be wherever the military skill and valour of European adventurers spread the sway of Egyptian despots.
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