Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals. * * * * * BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. NO. CCCCXXXI. SEPTEMBER, 1851. VOL. LXX. CONTENTS. A CAMPAIGN IN TAKA, 251 MY NOVEL; OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE. PART XIII, 275 DISFRANCHISEMENT OF THE BOROUGHS, 296 PARIS IN 1851.--(_Continued_,) 310 MR RUSKIN'S WORKS, 326 PORTUGUESE POLITICS, 349 THE CONGRESS AND THE AGAPEDOME.--A TALE OF PEACE AND LOVE, 359 EDINBURGH: WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, 45 GEORGE STREET; AND 37 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. _To whom all communications (post paid) must be addressed._ SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH. BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. NO. CCCCXXXI. September, 1851. VOL. LXX. A CAMPAIGN IN TAKA. _Feldzug von Sennaar nach Taka, Basa, und Beni-Amer, mit besonderem Hinblick auf die Völker von Bellad-Sudan._--[Campaign from Sennaar to Taka, Basa, and Beni-Amer; with a particular Glance at the Nations of Bellad-Sudan.]--VON FERDINAND WERNE. Stuttgart: Königl. Hofbuchdruckerei. London: Williams and Norgate. 1851. Africa, the least explored division of the globe's surface, and the best field for travellers of bold and enterprising character, has been the scene of three of the most remarkable books of their class that have appeared within the last ten years. We refer to Major Harris's narrative of his Ethiopian expedition--to the marvellous adventures of that modern Nimrod, Mr Gordon Cumming--to Mr Ferdinand Werne's strange and exciting account of his voyage up the White Nile. In our review of the last-named interesting and valuable work,[1] we mentioned that Mr Werne, previously to his expedition up the Nile, had been for several months in the Taka country, a region previously untrodden by Europeans, with an army commanded by Achmet Bascha, governor-general of the Egyptian province of Bellad-Sudan, who was operating against refractory tributaries. He has just published an account of this campaign, which afforded him, however, little opportunity of expatiating on well-contested battles, signal victories, or feats of heroic valour. On the other hand, his narrative abounds in striking incidents, in curious details of tribes and localities that have never before been described, and in perils and hardships not the less real and painful that they proceeded from no efforts of a resolute and formidable foe, but from the effects of a pernicious climate, and the caprice and negligence of a wilful and indolent commander.