THE LETTER-WRITER, CAIRO

THIS has been a favourite subject with painters, and Wilkie made studies in the East of such groups as were thus presented to him. The letter-writer is usually found in the market-place, or in known stations, where those who are unable to write can with his aid communicate their joys and their sorrows to those far distant from them. The woman in this group, a Copt or Christian, is pouring into the ear of the old man the news to be conveyed to those whom the imagination can supply, - a husband, a son, or a brother, torn perhaps from her by the hatred and cruel conscription, an exercise of power the most remorseless in its rigour ever exercised by Mehemet Ali.

This business of a letter-writer is not confined to the East. In Italy public scribes are to be found in every city, but more especially in Rome and Naples; travellers in Spain have also noticed them; and, unless very recently become extinct, even in Paris sage-looking old men are intrusted with the secret correspondence of those whose education has not extended tot the accomplishment of writing.

Roberts's Journal.