necessary prelude. On his Highness' questioning me
as to the safety of the instruments during such an
operation, I assured him that the means of ascent
should be so sure, that I should be much gratified in
conducting him up, an invitation which he declined
with hearty laughter. On leaving the Seraï— from
a window of which I had made a concerted signal to
the Adventure— I walked through the town, and on
the opposite side met my boats landing. The two
kites were flying in a moment, nor was it long before
one of them conveyed a small line exactly over
the capital. With this we hauled up a rope, and
with the rope a hawser: a set of shrouds was speedily
formed, set up, and well rattled down; and on the
following morning I was able to place a very efficient
instrument on the summit. In the mean time, such
was the density or the turbaned crowd, that it
appeared as if all the inhabitants of the city, and the
crews of the fleets, had congregated to gaze on our
movements; but they quietly toed the ring which
we chalked around the pillar, and which was paced
by our marines, with fixed bayonets, as steadily as if
on their own barrack parade.

On descending when the observations were
completed, I saw a young Sidi whom I had known in
Tripoli standing in a group of Turkish officers; and,
calling to him by name, I invited him to mount the
shrouds. He at once accepted the offer, for hundreds
of eyes were upon him; and, on his gaining the
summit, the pleased spectators saluted him with a
hearty round of shouts. At the request of some of
the magnates, I allowed the rigging to stand two or
three days, during which great numbers of the
officers and seamen of the several fleets ascended;
and the whole transaction passed in general
concord.

Admiral Smyth, however, was not the first to
gain the summit of Pompey's Pillar. The feat
was first accomplished for a wager more than a
hundred years ago by the skipper of an English
merchantman. He ascended by means of a kite,
and drank a bowl of punch on the capital! The
savans of the French expedition mounted in
1798 for scientific purposes. Their ascent was
also accomplished by means of a kite. In the
Magasin Pittoresque for the year 1834, there
is an account of this ascent, but it adds
nothing to the information afforded in the
extract from Admiral Smyth's work. By
the way, the writer of the article gives our
countrymen the following well-merited "rap on
the knuckles:"

"Plus récemment, quelques gentilshommes
anglais ont inscrit leurs noms ignorés, en lettres
d'une longueur démesurée, vers le haut du fût
de la colonne. C'est là une malheureuse
habitude d'une certaine classe de voyageurs:
écrivez votre nom sur le rocher dans l'espoir que
quelque jour un ami viendra, s'arrêtera, surpris
et ému, et donnera des rêveries, des regrets, des
larmes à votre mémoire; mais ne portez votre
main qu'avec plus de choix et plus de discretion
sur les Å“uvres qui consacrent de grands noms ou
de grands souvenirs: n'en troublez pas la
majesté, n'en brisez pas l'unité d'impression, ne
cherchez pas à y consacrer de force votre
individualité inconnue; respectez ceux qui
viendront après vous au même lieu élever leur âme;
humiliez votre égoïsme devant les monuments
du génie, comme vous vous taisez dans le silence
du temple sous la pensée de Dieu."

For the benefit of those who do not understand
French, it maybe thus translated:

"Of late years some English gentlemen have
inscribed their unknown names in letters of inordinate
length, on the shaft of the pillar. It is an
unfortunate habit of a certain class of travellers.
Write your name" (if you please) " on the rock,
in the hope that one day a friend, should he come,
will stop, surprised and touched, and give
thoughts, tears, and regrets in memory of you.
But be careful how you put your hand on works
which consecrate great names and great events,
and do not disturb their majesty. Do not break
the unity of impression. Do not endeavour, by
force, to immortalise upon them your unknown
individuality. Respect those who come after
you, on the same place, to elevate their souls.
Sacrifice your egotism before those monuments
of genius, just as you would be silent amidst the
silence of the temple devoted to the service of
God."

It is greatly to be feared, as well as
regretted, that no amount of remonstrance will
ever deter some people from indulging in
this miserable propensity, If there be no
work of art at hand to deface, resort is had, with
a diamond ring, to the glass windows of hotels
and railway carriages. It is on the sly that
they scratch their vulgar names on them, for, if
detected in the act, they are liable to be made to
pay for the panes they have disfigured. We are
prone to laugh at the Americans for their passion
for " whittling" with a knife. But is it anything
like so obnoxious or so mischievous as this
scratching of names on glass with a diamond ring?

Is it ever the intention of the British
government to bring to England Cleopatra's
Needle? If it be not, surely the suggestion of
an American merchant, either that it be given
to some other nation, or offered to some first-class
showman, ought to be adopted. Why waste it,
or worse than waste it? Why suffer it to lie
there and be broken to pieces, and bit by bit
carried off to adorn the mantelpieces or
drawing-room tables of travellers who are brutal
enough and vulgar enough to hammer at it?
Anything more rational and more worthy of a
naval officer of distinction could scarcely be
conceived than that proposal of Admiral Smyth, to
"bring it home, and have inscribed on its base
' Nelson and the Nile,' ' Abercrombie and
Alexandria,' "—that proposal which was met by a
remark from a British minister which any British
Workman would be ashamed of.

If it be not the intention of the British
government to remove the needle, why not inform
the present Pasha of Egypt that it is at his
disposal? There can be no doubt that he would
immediately set his French engineers to work,
and have it erected on the spot where it
originally stood the spot where it fell and where
it is now lying at the mercy of vulgar, sacrilegious
hands.

Is there no member of the House of Lords
or Commons sufficiently interested in this