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pended, and gloom and terror reigned over the devoted city. Churches, school-houses, and lodge-rooms were turned into hospitals, and the able-bodied were all physicians, nurses, and undertakers. The sympathies of the country were strongly excited by this distressing state of things, and very liberal contributions were made in New York, Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Charleston, and other cities, in behalf of the sufferers. Of the scenes witnessed during the prevalence of the scourge, we have a vivid description in the language of one of the New Orleans journals: "In every street were long processions, tramping to the solemn music of funeral marches. In the countenances of plodding passengers were the lines of anxiety and grief; and many a door was festooned with black and white hangings, the voiceless witnesses of wailing and of sorrow. On the one hand swept the long corteges of the wealthy, nodding with plumes and drawn by prancing horses, rejoicing in their funeral vanities; on another, the hearse of the citizen-soldier, preceded by measured music, enveloped in warlike panoply, and followed by the noisy tread of men under arms; while there again the pauper was trundled to his lone home on a rickety cart, another morsel contributed to the grand banquet of Death. Now among the steeples was heard the chiming of bells, mingling their hoarse voices as in a chorus of gratulation over the ranks of fallen mortality; anon from some lowly tenement thrilled the low wail of a mother for the child of her affections. At the gathering points carriages accumulated, and vulgar teamsters, as they jostled each other in the press, mingled the coarse jest with the ribald oath. At the gates of the cemeteries the winds brought intimation of the corruption working within. Not a puff but was laden with the rank atmosphere from the rotten corpses, which inside were piled by fifties, exposed to the heat of the sun. Long ditches were dug, and coffins laid in them showed their tops above the surface of the earth. Economy of space was the source of cunning calculation in stowing away the dead."

Early in the year 1853, Turkey became engaged in a difficulty with Russia, upon the question of the right of the latter to exercise exclusive control over the interests of the Greek Church in the Turkish dominions; and the misunderstanding assumed so hostile an aspect, that war was deemed inevitable. While the dispute was still raging, intelligence was received in this country of an affair which occurred in Smyrna, in the dominions of the

Sultan, on the 23d of June, directly involving the rights of American citizenship, and coming within the scope of the observations so emphatically enunciated upon this subject in the President's Inaugural. It appears that a Hungarian refugee, by the name of Martin Koszta, who visited this country as one of the followers of M. Kossuth, and while here had adopted the necessary measures to become an American citizen, by declaring his intentions and taking the oath of allegiance, was, on the day before-named, seized by the officers of an Austrian vessel-of-war in the port of Smyrna, and confined in irons on board the ship, with a view of being transported to Austria. On the next day the United States sloop-of-war St. Louis came into port, and her commander, Captain Duncan N. Ingraham, learning of the circumstances of the seizure and of the relation that Koszta sustained to this country, at once demanded the release of the prisoner from his tyrannical confinement. The Austrian declined acceding to the request, notwithstanding Koszta, it seems, had with him an American protection from the minister of this government at Constantinople. Captain Ingraham immediately determined to take efficient steps to vindicate the honour of his country, and prevent the wrong sought to be accomplished, and therefore gave the Austrian commander a limited number of hours in which to surrender his prisoner, or abide the result. Meantime, to evince his earnestness in the matter, the decks of the St. Louis were cleared for action, and the crew stood ready at their guns to obey the order to open upon the enemy. Before the time had expired, the Austrian commander concluded to deliver up Koszta, who was seen to be taken over the sides of the ship, and conveyed in a boat to the shore. The scene was witnessed by thousands of the population, whose interest had been intensely excited in view of what would be the result of the affair, and shouts of approbation, in honour of the American commander and of the nation whom he represented, ascended as the prisoner reached the land. Writes an eye-witness: "With shouts of joy our officers were surrounded, a thousand hats flew in the air, and the people would have almost carried us on their shoulders." The prompt and energetic conduct of Capt. Ingraham in this matter was the theme of general commendation in the liberal press throughout Europe. It was cited in honour of the American name, and pointed at as an evidence of the inviolability of the rights of American citizenship. At home it received the entire approval of the government, as being but the fulfilment of its expressed policy. A

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663 formal protest was made by the Austrian government against the rightfulness of the course of the commander of the St. Louis, and the representatives at Washington of other monarchical governments in Europe have been instructed to unite in this protest. The question thus became one of international importance, and has deeply interested the people at large. Koszta was, however, soon afterwards released.

E have already alluded in these pages to the misunderstanding between Russia and Turkey, in regard to certain rights claimed by the former and denied by the latter, touching the control of the affairs of the Greek Church within the Turkish dominions. On the rejection by Turkey of the demands of the Czar, the latter directed his armies to occupy the Turkish provinces, known as the Danubian principalities; and this done, there ensued several weeks of diplomatic effort on the part of the four powers-England, France, Prussia, and Austria-to effect a peaceful solution of the difficulty between the opposing parties. The fear of a general European war seems to have prompted to these exertions. At length, Russia still persisting in her occupancy of the Turkish provinces, and refusing to accede to a peaceful settlement, a declaration of war was issued from the Porte, and hostilities soon after commenced.

CHAPTER LV.

CANADA UNDER THE BRITISH.

HE history of Canada under the French has been given in a previous part of this work; and for an account of its conquest by the British, the reader is referred to Chapter XXV. The population at the time of the conquest was about seventy thousand, divided in a poor yet much respected nobility, and the cultivators-a race frugal, industrious, and moral. General Mur

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ray was appointed governor, and during his administration the rights of the old settlers were faithfully guarantied to them. In fact, the British government, immediately after the conquest, exercised toward the Canadians a policy at once liberal and wise. The habitans, as they are now called, were secured in their property, invested with the rights of citizens, and allowed the free enjoyment of their religion. The laws of England, both civil and criminal, including trial by jury, were also introduced, and though the French still preferred, in many cases, the customs reconciled to them by habit, they did not fail to appreciate most of the improvements introduced by the new government.

At the time of the conquest, the British residents of Canada, exclusive of military men, were few and weak. Some five hundred traders, mostly of small capital, were scattered through the provinces. They seem to have been but ill-fitted for their station, often exhibiting a bigoted spirit, and an unjustifiable contempt of the French population. But owing to the firmness of the governor, the latter were protected by all the means at his disposal; and by this impartiality not only were many collisions between the two races avoided, but the old inhabitants became attached to the governor, and respected his government.

Little of historic interest occurred in the colony from this time until the revolt of the Thirteen colonies south of Canada. The importance of maintaining the Canadians in a state of loyalty was well understood by the mother country; and in order to gratify national partialities, Parliament, in 1774, passed the Quebec Act, by which the English civil law was superseded by the old French code, which had existed before the conquest. The only reservation was that of the criminal branch, which continued similar to that of England. The French language was to be used in the courts; but no provision was made for a national representation. It is probably owing to the latter cause, that this act, designed to effect a complete reconciliation between the two races, failed to accomplish that object. But during the struggle between Great Britain and her revolted colonies, the Canadians steadily maintained their allegiance. This was the more singular, from the fact that the American Congress and other republican bodies issued stirring appeals to the inhabitants, exhorting them to join against the common foe. Yet the British, as though confiding in the fidelity of the Canadians, withdrew almost all their troops from the province, in order to employ 'hem in the south.

The Americans, failing in their attempts to enlist the Canadians in their cause, adopted the bold resolution of invading Canada with a view to its conquest. Of the daring manner in which the invasion was con