JANUARY MAGAZINES.*
Fraser opens the New Year with a collection of papers unusually varied, fresh, and vivacious. Dip in anywhere and you are almost sure to find either amusement or instruction or both. The last place in the world where one might hope to meet with mirth would be a paper on "Ticket-of-leave." Yet a writer in Fraser is grimly merry on the subject, and even finds in transportation itself an clement of bitter jollity. Here is a sweeping if not altogether discriminating condemnation of what is called "the ticket-of-leave system." "We will venture to say, that there was no experienced practical man— no man who knows how difficult it is for a convict to reform and take his place as a good citizen, if he is inclined to do so—who did not at once see that this system must be a failure, followed by the worst consequences. With a preventive Continental police, such as we hope never to see m England, such a system might work ; here it is impossible. But ours is a preventive police, as we have heard it said. It is no such thing ; and with our institutions it cannot ho. It may prevent the trundling of hoops on the pavement and the pedestrian sale of oranges, but it does not prevent the burglary or the murder. A foreigner once said to us—' I don't understand your police. Our police-officers Low all the.foryats and bad characters, and pounce upon them before they commit thew projected crime. Yours wait till the house is robbed or the murder committed before they apprehend the criminal ; and when they have got the offender, he has every chance of escape. You have no regularly-appointed public prosecutor ; he has generally astute legal advocates ; and if he has not, officials, whose duty it is to pursue criminals, furnish him with one.' This is but too true ; and the only answer was, that he did not understand our Anglo-Saxon trim—that such a police would doubtless be more protective than ours, but that such a protection as his in his own country would be purchased at the expense of our liberties. And here lies the danger. The public is aware that most if not every one of the ticket-of-leave men who have spread the reign of terror in this well-lighted and crowded metropolis, are in the black list of the police, and wants to know why they are not taken up." The writer's remedy is the ordinary one—to find a proper place "For the Queen to send her thieves to."
Passing over a charming paper on "Tuscan Proverbs," and an instructive summary of American politics, entitled "The Triumph of Barbarism, by a Now Yorker," turn to quite a new field— farming in Asia Minor. The writer of this paper gives a simple narrative of a visit to a farm near Smyrna, the property of a Mr.
" The farm of Arab-Tchiftilick was purchased by the father of the present proprietor, fifteen years ago, for 1000/. It contains about ten thousand acres, four thousand of which are now in cultivation. There are two villages on the estate, one on the South and the other on the North side of a promontory ; the population of the two together is about fifteen hundred. The village on the North side is the more flourishing, on account of its position it being situated on the shores of the Bay of Ali-Agha. • * * * The road from Smyrna to Arab-Tchiftilick is nearly a level all the way. In the
Northern village are large stone stores capable of containing fifty thousandbushels of wheat; there is also a good stone wharf and a strong wooden pier. The houses in the village are now built of mud ; but a new village is being planned, in which the buildings will be of stone, which is plentiful; and in a few years there will be a flourishing town, The inhabitants are all Greeks; the kavasses or guards, ten in number, only being Turks. There is also a Turkish customhouse-officer, for the Government of the Sultan levies an export-duty of nine per cent. This amounts here to about 300/. per annum. The number of acres in cultivation is—wheat, 1500; barley, 500; vines, 100; garden crops, 2100. The land is cropped every alternate year. Of live stock there are—sheep, 4000; cattle, (horned,) 400; horses, 200. The land produces about eighteen bushels of corn per acre. The land is let in small farms of 30, 60, and 90 acres, for corn or barley ; and half the corresponding number of acres for garden produce. The seed is given by the landlord, who receives one-half of the produce in kind; one-tenth in kind is paid to the Government as a land-tax. The average price of wheat is as. 6d. a bushel."
A farm of thirty acres produces 144/. 10s. ; of this sum 72/. goes to the landlord, 71, eis, to the Government, and 65/, to the farmer. A farm of ninety acres yields a profit of 156/. 10s. "Sheep are taken upon the following terms. The owner gives the sheep • ;Vanes Magazine, No. 325. Published by Parker and Son. Blackwood'., Aiinbaroli Magazine, No. 495. Published by Blackwood and Sons. and grazing-ground, receiving twenty-five per cent in cash on the value of the sheep yearly. The farmer is bound to return an equal number of sheep at the expiration of the contract. Wool averages 44. per pound in grease. The average price of a flock of sheep is 108. a head. The male lambs are sent to the butcher, and fetch on an average 7s. a head at five months old. The ewes are milked; the sheep are penned at night. One acre is considered sufficient to feed a sheep. Mixed herds of cattle average 268. a head; the general weight is from three to four cwt. The price of butcher's meat is 2.d. per lb. Mr. B— has expended a large sum on his property; indeed, nearly all the revenues derived therefrom for the last ten years. In the Southeth village he has built a handsome Greek church, capable of containing four hundred persons at a cost of 2500/. He has also established schools in the villages. The police costs 300/. per annum. So far as I was able to judge from the short period I remained at .Arab-Tchiftilick, the villagers appeared to be in a more prosperous condition than that of any of the labouring classes I have yet seen in this or in any other country, with the exception perhaps of New South Wales. The requirements of the people are few ; drunkenness is a crime but little known ; their food consists mostly of olives and bread. The situation of the villages is very picturesque and healthy ; the population is rapidly increasing. The land in cultivation increases every year; and Mr. B— has just apportioned about one hundred acres for the purpose of making vineyards, for which he takes no rental for five years. The village has a priest and doctor, but no lawyer. The intendant arranges small disputes • graver eases are referred to lir. B—, who settles them on the occasion IA his periodical visits ; and if I can judge from his decisions in general by those given on the occasion of my visit, I should say they were satisfactory to all, as both parties appeared to go away contented. It is needless to add that.Mr. B— is beloved by his tentuitry. The rentals of the estate are now between 2000/. and 3000/. a year."
The writer recommends farming in Asia Minor, if not too expensively conducted, as a speculation sure to lead to the realization of handsome profits. He denies that "there is no security for life or property in Asia Minor " ; and is of opinion that "the Eastern problem is only to be worked out by the introduction of the Anglo-Saxon race.'" Blackwood puts on the prophet's robe, and in an article of wide scope, " European Politics," deduces a striking view of the political future of Europe from the tendencies of the present. In assuming the prophet's mantle, the writer lays aside party distinctions; and in treating of the contingencies that may beset Great Britain, he passes beyond the bounds of Queen Victoria's dominions, and includes the leading elements of action and progress throughout the world. He desires more especially to show the Peace party of this country—the only country that has a Peace party—what elements of strife are contending in Europe, what chances there are of collision, not only in the vexed question of the "nationalities," but in the conquering and colonizing operations of France, England, and Russia. Thus, France tends to the Isthmus of Suez by North Africa, Russia by Persia and the Valley of the Euphrates, while England is virtually master of the route and must remain so.
"We have spoken of the wondrous expansion of the Anglo-Saxons—those lords of the sea, and colonizers of ultra-oceanic regions. The Russian empire will play a similar but less marvellous part by land. It will yet wage a desperate war of principles with 'Western Europe ; but its grand and lasting, because territorial triumphs, await it in the East. Destined to be kept in check by the dense populations of an equal race in Europe, its desire for territorial expansion will find full vent in the vast regions of the Asiatic continent, thinly peopled by races which cannot contend on equal terms with the European
"The Russians dream of one day dictating the terms of peace to us at Calcutta. But the British and Muscovite powers will have come into collision in another quarter of Asia before their battalions can meet in mortal strife on the banks of the Indus. The peninsula of Syria is the key to the British possessions in the East. Moreover, in the future it will be the most important commercial position in the whole world. It is towards this region that Russia will in the first instance seek to make her way. The hosts now assembling on the shores of the Caspian are not so much designed to measure swords with the British in Afighanistan, as to consolidate Russian influence and power in Persia, in order to secure a basis for future operations. The Russian Government is the most patient and wary in the world. It rarely misses its game by springing at it too soon. Raving consolidated its power in Persia, and influenced the Kurdish tribes of Anatolia, it will then press down into the valley of the Euphrates, and measure its strength with us in right good earnest '
"Thus again are we brought back to the frontiers of Syria. Starting from most opposite points, the march of extra-European conquest is bringing Russia, France, and Britain, into contact on that most important of all regions, the great Isthmus of the Old World. The necessity of speedy communication with our Indian empire—and with our Australasian colonies, destined to become a most puissant confederacy of states—renders it indispensable that Great Britain secure to herself a passage either across Egypt or Syria. And yet this portion of the earth is the very point towards which both Russia and France are advancing as the goal of their expansion. It is the cynosure of their extra-European policy."
This paper, which though last in the number may be called the leading article of Blackwood, presents an able summary of the probable causes of international contention which lie between us and the dream of that millennium universal peace. The advice addressed to England at the close is expressed in the maxim of Cromwell—" Trust in God, and keep your powder dry."
Among the other articles is an elaborate defence of a muchabused public servant—" Routine " ; in treating which, the author would have been more successful if he had been more succinct. He throws the blame for recent and present shortcomings on the men, rather than the system—the living instruments, not the dead forms. The moral is, that proper men could be found for all departments if we had a standard of selection sufficiently high, and if we gave the "proper encouragement" in the shape of pay. Not very new, by the way. Another of the more noticeable articles is one that concerns the lovers of nature, and bears the title of "New Facts and Old Fancies about Sea Anemones."
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