26 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS

The Dreamers of Jerusalem

From a conversation between a Quern of Abyssinia

and James Bruce, discoverer of the source of the Nik,

SEE, see, how every day of our life furnishes us with proofs of the
perverseness and contradiction of human nature,

You are come from Jerusalem, through vile Turkish governments
and hot unwholesome climates, to see a river and a bog, arid you even
take it ill when I discourage you from the pursuit of this fancy, in
which you are likely to perish.

I, on the other hand, mother of kings, who have sat on the
throne of this country more than thirty years, have for my only wish
night and day that, after giving up everything in the world I could
be conveyed to Jerusalem, and beg alms all my life after, if I could
only be buried at last in the street within sight of the gate of that
temple where our blessed Saviour lay.

A Passport for the Barbarians

ME GLADSTONE told us of a Chinese despatch which came under
his notice when he was at the Board of Trade, and gave him food
for reflection,

A ship laden with grain came to Canton. The administrator

wrote to the Central Government at Peking to know whether the ship
was to pay duty on its cargo.

The answer was to the effect that the Central Government of the
Flowery Land was quite indifferent as a rule to the goings and
comings of the Barbarians ; whether they brought a cargo or brought
no cargo was a thing of supreme unconcern, ** But this cargo, you
say, is food for the people. There ought to be no obstacle to the
entry of food for the people, so let it in* Your Younger Brother
commends himself to you.1* Morley's Life of Gladstone

These Two

\Y7HEKEVEB> vou are*
W ever dear Lord Marl ; and wherever I am I should only kill the
time wishing for night that I may sleep and hope the next day to hear
from you, Sarah Jennings to her hmband
the Duke of Marlbormgh in 16S9
TF I were young and handsome as I was, instead of old and faded as 1
I am, and you could lay the empire of the world at my feet, you
should never share the heart and hand that once belonged to John*
Duke of Marlbomi^bu Sarah Jevmings when her hand
was sought % the Duke of Somerset