des, remember
our friend the Seraph."

This Seraph was of no higher than terrestrial order, being no other than
the Armenian to whom we had the letter commendatory. What the word in
their application means, I cannot say exactly, but believe it to be
descriptive of the sordid occupation of a basqua; at any rate, it is a
common style and title [Greek: Armenikos].

In the confidence of this our possession, we allowed the European to
pass on without giving him any hint of our forlorn condition, and
without craving any direction for our conduct. He evidently thought that
we had some bosom friend ready to receive us, or at any rate that we
were fully up to all the ways and means of the country--as well he
might, seeing us roam about in such _degage_ style. We were far too
jealous of our dignity to betray any symptoms of indecision, or having
been taken aback; and our adieux were waved to him with a perfect air of
being at home and comfortable.

"Now then for an Armenian at home! How fortunate that fellow should be
out of the way, for now our friend the Seraph will be sure to insist on
our honouring his roof."

"Capital spreads, too, they give--judging by the samples one sees laid
out of an evening in their halls."

"Hospitable people; are they not, K----?"

"Oh, very. Not that ever I have been in one of their houses."

"Nor I--any farther than having a pipe with old John the Dragoman at his
porch."

"Nor I."

Here was a crown to our adventure! An untrodden city, an unvisited
people, a welcome to the mysterious bosom of Armenian hospitality!

* * * * *

DIRECT TAXATION.

"Free Trade," say the Americans "is another word for direct taxation,
and direct taxation is another word for repudiation of states' debts."
The Americans are right; it is so: and the strongest proof of these
propositions is to be found in the conduct of the Americans themselves.
The subject, however, is one not less interesting on this than the other
side of the Atlantic. It involves the fortune and the temporal
prosperity of every man in the united kingdom; and we do not hesitate to
say that, on the embracing of just and reasonable views on this
all-important subject by the constituencies of the united kingdom, the
maintenance of the public credit,--the upholding of the public
prosperity,--the ultimate existence of England as an independent nation,
must come to depend.

We hear much, in the popular phr