THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



contemptuous auger to issue the famous decree that " whosoever 

 shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days," save 

 of the king, should be cast into the den of lions. The sequel 

 is well known ; the sorrow of Darius when he found where the 

 punishment fell ; the endeavours he made " till the going down 

 of the sun, to deliver him ; " the envious insistance of the 

 Madian and Persian princes upon the law of the Medes and 

 Persians which altereth not ; and how " the king commanded, 

 and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions." 

 The religious sympathy between the king and his great subject, 

 the common belief they had in the might and goodness of a 

 God who was King of kings and Lord of lords, was distinctly 

 and clearly shown in the speech of Darius : " Thy God whom 

 thou servest continually, he will deliver thee." 



Soon after the delivery of Daniel from the lions' den, 

 Oyaxares, who was sixty-two years old at the time of the capture 

 of Babylon, died, and was succeeded in the sovereignty by 

 Cyrus, B.C. 534. Cyrus, who had carried the Persian arms to 

 tho borders of Egypt, and but for the need of his army for 

 refreshment might have done as his successors did to that 

 country, devoted several years to consolidating at home the 

 power he had won. Among tho very first of his governmental 

 acts was the issue of a decree that the Jews whom Nebuchad- 

 nezzar had brought into captivity should be free to return to 

 their native land and to rebuild tho walls of Jerusalem. This 

 magnanimous act was duo not only to gratitude for the help ho 

 had received from Daniel, but to an appreciation of the value 

 which the Jewish civilisation had boon to the half-barbarous 

 ^oople with which it had been so long in contact ; it was tho 

 generous act of a truly liberal mind, which could agree to forego 

 tho manifest advantages of the Jews' presence out of deference 

 to a belief that their compulsory residence in the land of their 

 whilom conquerors was an oppressive -and undesirable thing. 

 For seven years he ruled with much satisfaction to his people 

 and with glory to himself, and is said then to have been slain 

 with a large number of his warriors in an expedition against 

 the Scythians. > 



Cambyses succeeding in tho year B.C. 529, invaded Egypt, 

 overran it, and, inheriting the rancour of Cyrus against tho 

 sacerdotal castes, almost annihilated the Egyptian priesthood, 

 at the same time that he restrained the priesthood in other 

 parts of his dominions. Trying to penetrate too far into the 

 African continent, ho met with some grievous disasters, and 

 returned home to find that, though he had put his own brother 

 to death to prevent his being troublesome, there was a usurper 

 in the field who claimed the crown. He died of an accidental 

 wound from his own sword, and the usurper, a nominee of tho 

 magi and of the old Median party, was destroyed by tho Per- 

 sians, who raised Darius Hystaspes, one of their own nobles, to 

 the throne. Darius carried out the old policy of Cyrus and 

 Cyaxares so far as the home government was concerned, and 

 crushed severely all attempts on the part of the Babylonians to 

 regain their freedom. His foreign wars were carried on by 

 himself in person, and were extended across the Danube into 

 Scythia, where Cyrus had been killed, into Greece, and beyond 

 the confines of India. It was the nascent period of the Greek 

 dominion. Even on the return of Darius from his Scythian 

 campaign, which nearly proved as fatal to himself as Cyrus' 

 expedition into Scythia had been to him, the Greeks, under 

 some of their ablest early generals, ventured to cross swords 

 with him, and found, though defeated, that they had hopo of 

 learning from him how to conquer. The policy of the Greeks 

 was to splifr up so overshadowing a power as that wielded by 

 the Persian king, and they used every opportunity of carrying 

 out this policy. Wars frequent and bloody were the conse- 

 quence, and the strength of Persia, crippled as it was by 

 Miltiades at Marathon (B.C. 4DO), was gradually undermined. 

 AJ tho inferior civilisations had given way to the Persian, so 

 that was now to give way to the superior civilisation of tho 

 Greeks. Prodigious as the efforts of Xerxes, tne successor of 

 Darius, were, enormous as were the cost and equipment of his 

 fleeta and armies, they failed to make an impression upon the 

 rock-founded states of Greece. Xerxes himself, after collecting 

 such armies as had never before been heard of, after three years 

 spent in preparations against the inevitable, returned home 

 covered with disgrace ; and the army he had left to cover his 

 retreat, and to make a show of military dignity in retiring, was 

 completely destroyed at the battle of Platica. 



From that time the Persian power toppled on the brink of 

 ruin. Artaxerxes, the successor of Xerxes, who was murdered 

 by his guards, for a few years revived the fading splendour of 

 the empire ; but he likewise in the end passed under the waters 

 of adversity, and was compelled to sign treaties which Cyrua 

 would not have touched with the tip of his sword. Another 

 hundred years of fitful existence, and then the end came. 

 Alexander of Macedon, gathering the reins of all Greek govern- 

 ment into his own hands, was the incarnation of all that was 

 strongest and wisest in the counsels of nations. At Issus and 

 Arbela he completed the work which Miltiades began; and 

 three hundred and thirty years before Christ, the Persian power, 

 which had been all but universal, was laid low by those who in 

 turn, succumbed to the Latin race they once affected to despise. 



LESSONS IN BOOKKEEPING. XX. 



FOREIGN TRADE (continued). 



October 1st. 



Paid for Dock Dues, etc., on Sugar per the Ballarat . .5 19 6 



2nd. 



Paid Tuelon and Co. their Bill of Parcels . . . 33 10 



Received discount at 2j per cent, on do. . . . 16 9 



Paid William Phillips his Bill of Parcels . . 256 15 6 



Received discount at 5 per cent, on do. . . . 12 16 9 



Paid Thomas Barker his Bill of Parcels . . . 250 16 6 



Received discount at 5 per cent, on do. . . . . 12 10 10 



3rd. 

 Received of Peter Hutchinson and Co., of Liverpool, the 



following Remittances in Bills : 



No. 613, dated Aug. 12 on T. Salomons, due Oct. 15 . 100 



614, J. Sidney, . 150 



615, 18 L. Dixon, 21 . 120 7 6 



616, W. Turner, . 170 



617, 20 B. Hoole, 23 . 200 



618, D. Hughes . 140 



4th. 



Paid W. Silver and Co. their Bill of Parcels . . . 87 10 

 Received discount at -.V per cent, on do. . . . 239 



4th. 

 Received in Cash for Bill No. 560, on N. Johnson . . 1260 



5th. 

 Accepted a Bill drawn this day by W. Smith and Co., No. 



150, payable to J. Masterman and Co. at 4 months . 675 12 



Gth. 

 Received of John Roberts, of Jamaica, the following 



Remittances in Bills : 

 No. 619, dated Aug. 20th, on R. Payne, at 3 months . 200 



620, T. Bevan, 200 



621, N. Allison, 200 



622, Sept. 1st. S. Stone, 350 



623, B. Hulrne, 400 



624, W.Alexander . 576 10 



8th. 

 Sold per William Knight and Co., at public sale, 7 hhds. 



of Sugar per the Ballarat, net 78 cwt., at 60s. . . 231 

 Due too them for Brokerage at 1 per cent. . . . 269 



8th. 

 Received in Cash for Bill No. 611, J. Harris . . . 580 



10th. 

 Paid for freight of Coffee per the Wellington . . 42 15 



llth. 

 Received in Cash for Bill No. 561, on W. Benson. . 1000 



12th. 

 Paid for duties and fees on Coffee per Wellington . . 3 4 6 



12th. 



Accepted a Bill drawn by Schofield, Halse, and Co., of 

 Jamaica, dated 30th July, 1881, No. 151, payable to W. 

 Bright, London, at 90 days' sight .... 175 10 



14th. 

 Paid dock dues, etc., on Coffee, per Wellington . . 12 11 1 



15th. 



Received cash for Bill No. 613, on T. Salomons . . 100 

 Do. do. 614, J. Sidney . . . 150 



16th. 



Accepted a Bill drawn by Fox, Tennant, and Co., dated 

 Liverpool, 7th Oct., 1881, No. 152, payable to J. Halifax, 



London, at 15 days' date 73 15 



18th. 



Accepted a Bill drawn by R. Heathfield, on account of T. 

 Ellis and Sons, dated Liverpool, 15th Oct., 1881, No. 

 153, payable to S. Cattley, London, at one month . 132 10 



* 



