d scandal to society. It is extraordinary that in this 19th century,
even of the Christian world, such an abomination should be suffered to
exist in Europe. It is equally extraordinary that it exists in every
country but England, and she can have no prouder distinction. The
habeas-corpus and her free enlistment, are two privileges without which
no real liberty can ever exist, and which, in any country, it would be
well worth a revolution, or ten revolutions, to obtain. Hers is the only
army into which no man can be forced, and in which every man is a
volunteer. And yet she has never wanted soldiers, and her soldiers have
never fought the worse. It is true, that when she has a militia they are
drawn by ballot from the population; but no militiaman is ever sent out
of the country; and as to those who are drawn, if they feel disinclined
to serve in this force, which acts merely as a national guard, ten
shillings will find a substitute at any time. It is also true that
England has impressment for the navy; but the man who makes the sea his
livelihood, adopts his profession voluntarily, and with the knowledge
that at some time or other he may be called upon to serve in the royal
navy. And even impressment is never adopted but on those extreme
emergencies which can seldom happen, and which may never happen again in
the life of man. But on the Continent, every man except the clergy, and
those in the employment of the state, is liable to be dragged to the
field, let his prospects or his propensities be what they may. In every
instance of war, parents look to their children with terror as they grow
up to the military age. The army is a national curse, and parental
feelings are a perpetual source of affliction. If the great body of the
people in Europe, instead of clamouring for imaginary rights, and
talking nonsense about constitutions, which they have neither the skill
to construct, nor would find worth the possession if they had them,
would concentrate their claims in a demand for the habeas-corpus, and
the abolition of the conscription, they would relieve themselves from
the two heaviest burdens of despotism, and obtain for themselves the two
highest advantages of genuine liberty.

One of the curiosities of Cairo is the hair-oil bazar. The Egyptian
women are prodigious hairdressers and the variety of perfumes which they
lavish upon their hair and persons, exceed all European custom and
calculation. This bazar is all scents, oi