gives a concert; think of my chagrin at being obliged to decline the host of invitations that daily overwhelm me, merely for want of a pair of breeches! Oh, Allah! Allah! that thy disciples could come into the world all be-feathered like a bantam, or with a pair of leather breeches like the wild deer of the forest! Surely, my friend, it is the destiny of man to be forever subjected to petty evils; which, however trifling in appearance, prey in silence on his little pittance of enjoyment, and poison those moments of sunshine, which might otherwise be consecrated to happiness.

The want of a garment, thou wilt say, is easily supplied; and thou mayest suppose need only be mentioned, to be remedied at once by any tailor of the land little canst thou conceive the impediments which stand in the way of my comfort; and still less art thou acquainted with the prodigious great scale on which every thing is transacted in this country. The nation moves most majestically slow and clumsy in the most trivial affairs, like the unwieldy elephant which makes a formidable difficulty of picking up a straw! When I hinted my necessities to the officer, who has charge of myself and my companions, I expected to have them forthwith relieved; but he made an amazing long

e, told me that we were prisoners of state, that

we must therefore be clothed at the expense of government; that as no provision had been made by congress for an emergency of the kind, it was impossible to furnish me with a pair of breeches, until all the sages of the nation had been convened to talk over the matter and debate upon the expediency of granting my request. Sword of the immortal Khalid, thought I, but this is great!-this is truly sublime! All the sages of an immense logocracy assembled together to talk about my breeches! Vain mortal that I am!-I cannot but own I was somewhat reconciled to the delay, which must necessarily attend this method of clothing me, by the consideration that if they made the affair a national act, my "name must of course be embodied in history" and myself and my breeches flourish to immortality in the annals of this mighty empire !

"But pray, said I, "how does it happen that a matter so insignificant should be erected into an object of such importance as to employ the representative wisdom of the nation; and what is the cause of their talking so much about a trifle ?” "Oh," replied the officer, who acts as our slavedriver, "it all proceeds from economy. If the government did not spend ten times as much money in debating whether it was proper to supply you with

breeches, as the breeches themselves would cost, the people who govern the bashaw and his divan would straitway begin to complain of their liberties being infringed; the national finances squandered! not a hostile slang-whanger, throughout the logocracy, but would burst forth like a barrel of combustion; and ten chances to one but the bashaw and the sages of his divan would all be turned out of office together. My good mussulman," continued he, "the administration have the good of the people too much at heart to trifle with their pockets; and they would sooner assemble and talk away ten thousand dollars, than expend fifty silently out of the treasury; such is the wonderful spirit of economy that pervades every branch of this government:" "But," said I, “how is it possible they can spend money in talking; surely words cannot be the current coin of this country?" 66 Truly," cried he, smiling," your question is pertinent enough, for words indeed often supply the place of cash among us, and many an honest debt is paid in promises; but the fact is, the grand bashaw and the members of congress, or grand-talkers-of-the-nation, either receive a yearly salary or are paid by the day." "By the nine-hundred tongues of the great beast in Mahomet's vision but the murder is out;-it is no wonder these honest men talk so much about,

nothing, when they are paid for talking, like day-laborers." "You are mistaken," said my driver, "it is nothing but economy !"

I remained silent for some minutes, for this inexplicable word economy always discomfits me ; and when I flatter myself I have grasped it, it slips through my fingers like a jack-o'lantern. I have not, nor perhaps ever shall acquire, sufficient of the philosophic policy of this government, to draw a proper distinction between an individual and a nation. If a man was to throw away a pound in order to save a beggarly penny, and boast at the same time of his economy, I should think him on a par with the fool in the fable of Alfanji; who, in skinning a flint worth a farthing, spoiled a knife worth fifty times the sum, and thought he had acted wisely. The shrewd fellow would doubtless have valued himself much more highly on his economy, could he have known that his example would one day be followed by the bashaw of America, and the sages of his divan.

This economic disposition, my friend, occasions much fighting of the spirit, and innumerable contests of the tongue in this talking assembly.Wouldst thou believe it? they were actually employed for a whole week in a most strenuous and eloquent debate about patching up a hole in the

wall of the room appropriated to their meetings! A vast profusion of nervous argument and pompous declamation was expended on the occasion. Some of the orators, I am told, being rather waggishly inclined, were most stupidly jocular on the occasion; but their waggery gave great offence, and was highly reprobated by the more weighty part of the assembly; who hold all wit and humor in abomination and thought the business in hand much too solemn and serious to be treated lightly. It is supposed by some that this affair would have occupied a whole winter, as it was a subject upon which several gentlemen spoke who had never been known to open their lips in that place except to say yes and no. These silent members are by way of distinction denominated orator mums, and are highly valued in this country on account of their great talents for silence ;—a qualification extremely rare in a logocracy.

Fortunately for the public tranquility, in the hottest part of the debate, when two rampant virginians, brim-full of logic and philosophy, were measuring tongues, and syllogistically cudgelling: each other out of their unreasonable notions, the president of the divan, a knowing old gentleman, one night slyly sent a mason with a hod of morta., who in the course of a few minutes, closed up the