of La Venteux. She was observed by La Loire fri-income derived from the funds, in favour of persons gate, commanded by Captain Maitland, off the isle of enjoying a small income from any other source. Bas, moored close under the batteries of the isle of Mr. Addington has admitted a clause to remedy this Ras. It was resolved however to attack her by the defect, from the motive of obtaining unanimity. ship's boats, and these were accordingly dispatched, Another part of Mr. Pitt's speech, if it is reported commanded by lieutenant Temple. One of them fairly in the news-papers, is a little unaccountable. unfortunately rowed heavy, and fell behind. The He seems to blame the tax upon the funds; he talks other two notwithstanding proceeded on their destina- of public faith being pledged for the integrity of the tion with all possible dispatch. La Venteux was interest to be paid to the public creditor; yet he does manned with 82 men, perfectly prepared, and all upon not speak clearly. The answers of the ministers to deck, and besides was covered with two heavy bat- all objections of this kind are satisfactory. A separate teries. The crews of the two boats hesitated not a tax, say they, charged upon the dividends to the pubmoment to board her, and after a desperate strugglelic creditor, would be contrary to the terms on which of ten minutes accomplished the enterprize. the loan was contracted. But a general contribution Of the strange things which have appeared in the to be levied fairly and equally upon every class of French Papers, the two following are none of the men in the community, is a different thing. It is not least curious; first, the Address of the Prefect of a tax upon the funds; it is part of a general tax upon the Somme to Madame Bonaparte:--Exalted by the mass of income in the nation, from which it your august husband to the highest rank, you have would be unjust in the stock-holders to expect explaced happiness by the side of glory. Glory! Hap-emption. That it should be levied at the Bank, and piness! Rare association, reserved for the hero of not demanded as tax upon their income, is only to faFrance, as the wisest of men, and formed by you cilitate the collection, but does not affect the amount. madam, by you, who have become a model to all women. Every attribute of your sex, which embellishes the life of man, personal graces, mental fascination, sweet and sympathising tenderness, these and all other gifts you have received from nature. You have cultivated them with care, and each day you employ them to the noblest ends." The second particular to which we alluded, is the publication of the following toasts, at a dinner lately given at Calais, by M. Mengaud to the new Prefect :-1. To the man who shall execute the vast project of placing France and England in their due and respective positions.-2. To the Assessor Storch, at Petersburgh, intends to publish Barrack-master who shall issue the first billets of Annals of the Reign of Alexander I. a work which cannot lodgement at Dover.-3. To the first Review of the but be highly interesting to politicians and men of letters. French Troops in St. James's Park.-Beside the Each volume is to contain the transactions of a whole year, bustle for the Invasion of England, great movements and the first to appear at the end of the present. The auhave been making of the French troops toward Italy, thor being obliged to attend the Court of the Empress chiefly toward the southern part of it. A hundred Dowager, during her summer residence at Palowska, is thousand men in arms are said to be under the com-thereby prevented from publishing sooner the first volume of his important work. mand of the French in that country.` At home Mr. Tierney has gained his election after a violent struggle. A plan has been presented to the house of commons for supplying the city of London with fresh fish, at a cheaper rate, and in a more regular manner, than has hitherto been done. This highly desirable measure we trust will be duly matured, and not abandoned on account of the interested or mistaken opposition of any set of individuals. The clergy residence bill has been passed. A sum of £20,000 has been voted for forming a navigable canal through the highlands of Scotland. It has been announced that Mr. King, the gentleman who lately gave so much satisfaction here, as ambassador from the United States of America, is to be supported by the federalist party in opposition to Mr. Jefferson, at the next election for the presidentship. In the discussion in the House of Commons on the tax upon property, the first direct step of opposition to the conduct of ministers was taken by Mr. Pitt. He objected, and as appears to us with reason, that the same exemptions were not made with regard to NOTICES. LITERARY. Mr. Adolphus is about to publish The History of France, from 1798, to the end of the late War. A Treatise on the Laws for the Relief and Settlement of the Poor, by Michael Nolan, Esq. is in preparation. Dr. Thos. Thomson, of Edinburgh, has in the press an enlarged edition of his valuable System of Chemistry. The celebrated Antiquary, Mr. Koeler, aulic-counsellor at Petersburgh, has prepared for the press, a highly interesting work, on the ancient coins of the Crimea. It contains not only an explanatory account of all the coins of that memorable country, already known, but also a description of seventy hitherto non-descripts, the illustration of which by a gentleman of Mr. Koeler's ingenuity and erudition, cannot but prove extremely valuable and instructive. Mr. Olof Lindborg, at Stockholm, has edited in the Swedish language, the first volume of a Dictionary of Antiquities, which is to consist of four large volumes in quarto, and to contain an explanatory account of the institutions, manners, religion, and worship of the Greek and Romans, and other ancient nations, of their countries, cities, seas, lakes, and rivers, with their present and ancient names, coins, measures, weights, &c. The author states in the preface, that he has spent 25 years in the composition of this work, and collected his materials from the works of upwards of 250 Greek and Roman writers, he has perused for that purpose. The first volume comprizes no more than six letters, and contains a great deal of matter, superfluous and out of place. Dr. F. K. Alter, at Vienna, has published a very valuable work on the Tagalian language, spoken by the Tagatans, the original inhabitants of the Philippine islands. It is converted into a heap of ruins. It appeared like a luminous chiefly intended to supply the deficiencies of the Vocabula-ball, of considerable magnitude; and on coming in contact rum comparativum, published at Petersburgh; and the with the house, exploded with a great noise, and a very author states he has derived much important information oppressive sulphurous smell.-Some fragments of this ball from a MS. Spanish and Tagalian dictionary, found in were found near the spot, and have been subjected to chethe library of Count Wrobna at Vienna, mical analysis by a gentleman in the neighbourhood, who has found them to consist of one half silicious clay, 35 parts of oxidated iron, 12 of magnesia, and a small portion of nickel, with some sulphur. The surface of these stones, is of a dark colour, and varnished as if in a state of fusion, and bearing numerous globules of a whitish metal, containing sulphur and, nickel-from, some indentures on the surface, it appears probable that the ball was soft when it, descended, and it was obviously in a state of fusion, as the grass, etc. is burnt up where the fragments fell.-Its motion, while in the air was very rapid, and apparently parallel to the horizon. Professor Nicolas and Doctor Guedeville, at Caen, have published an instructive work on Saccharine Diabetes, entitled," Recherches ct Expériences médicales et chimiques sur le Diabète suaré." It deserves the particular attention of medical men, not only from the great variety of facts and observations it contains, but also from the chemical analysis of the urine of persons afflicted with that disease, made by the authors, from which results, that independent of sugar, which such urine was found to contain in a pretty large proportion, it possessed properties altogether different from those which belong to common urine. Mr. Louis Frank, "Ex-médecin de l'Armée d'Egypte," has edited at Paris, Mémoires sur le commerce des Negres au Kaire, et sur les maladies auxquelles ils sont sujets en yarrivant." This work contains the most instructive account, which has hitherto fallen under our consideration, of the countries of Sennaar, Darfur, and Fezzan, the only paris of Africa from whence negroes are transported, to Egypt, of the different ways in which the poor negroes are made slaves; of the caravans and sales of negroes; and lastly, of their diseases, and the best methods of curing them. Don A. I. Cavanilles has published, at Madrid, "Generos y especies de Plantas, demonstradas en lecciones, publicas de 1801-1802." Genera and species of Plants, demonstrated in Public Lectures, delivered from 1801 to 1802, in 2 vols. 8vo. A considerable part of the first volume is devoted to the theory of botany, and explains the technical terms, the physiology of plants, and the reform of the sexual system reduced to fifteen classes. The practical part contains the description of 1168 species, of which several are new; the generic affinities are pointed out with great precision, and explanatory notes are added, which contain much useful information. Doctor Joseph Izarn, at Paris, has published a collection of a variety of observations on stony bodies, fallen from the atmosphere, communicated by Pictet, Sage, Darcet, Vauquelin, &c. with a theoretical essay on the formation of those stony bodies, under the title " Lithologie atmosphérique, présentant la marche et l'état actuel de la Science sur le phénomène des pierres de foudre, pluies de pierres, pierres tombées du ciel, &c. Lately was published, at Paris, the first Number of the Journal du Galvanisme, de Vaccine, &c. edited by Doctor F. Nauche, President of the Galvanic Society, etc. It contains researches on the causes which disengage the electric fluid in galvanic apparatuses, by M. Gauterot; twelve experiments on the same subject; experiments on sheep, inoculated for the small-pox, as a preservative against the scab, by M. Godine, junior; on the character of the cow-pox in sheep, etc. Mettra, printseller at Berlin, has published the first Number of a collection of engravings of the most eminent productions of the fine arts in Germany, under the title "Les tablettes d'un Amateur des Arts." Price to subscribers £2 for 12 numbers, containing 48 prints, with an explanatory description of each engraving. PHILOSOPHICAL. On the 4th inst. a ball of fire struck the White-Bull public-house, kept by John Hubbard, at East-Norton: the chimney was thrown down by it; the roof in part torn off; the windows shattered to atoms; and the dairy, pantry, &c. As the instructive account of the composition of the Gadolinite, which you have given in the twenty-sixth. Number of your useful miscellany does not contain the result of Dr. Eckeberg's recent experiments, which both from the purity of the mineral analyzed and the manner in which the experiments were conducted, appear to me the most memorable of all the analyses of that mineral, which have hitherto been made, I beg leave to communicate to you the result of his interesting experiments, translated, from Dr. Crell's Chemical Annals for the present year. linite to be as follow :- 23 Silica. 55.5 Yttria.. 4.5 Beryllina 16.5 Attractive oxide of iron. 0.5 Volatile parts.. Under the latter is comprised some part of manganese, the real quantity whereof, which Vauquelin calculated at 2 in 100 parts of Gadolinite, Doctor Eckeburg does not venture to determine.. The Office published at Hanau, in the Electorate of Hesse Cassel, for the exchange of minerals, has prepared two small oryctognostic cabinets of minerals; the first, containing from. 160 to 170 different genera and species, with 30 to 40 in-structive varieties of single genera of the mineral kingdom; the second exhibits specimens of 180 to 190 genera and species, and 30 to 36 varieties. The pieces which compose the former are 1 inch, and those of the latter 2 inches in, length, and proportionally thick, and broad.. Price, three guineas and a half for both cabinets, with correct and descriptive catalogues of the minerals they contain. The instructive geognostic cabinets of minerals, by the Rev. Mr. Heim, may also be had at the same office. We learn by a letter of Lalande, inserted in the last Number of the Journal de Physique, &c. &c." that Méchain, on the 26th of April, set out for Spain, where he is to measure a triangle of ninety-three thousand toises, ending in the Balearic islands, and which is to complete the great and important measurement of the meridian, made some years ago, by Messrs. Méchain and Delambre. He is attended by Messrs. Le Chevalier, Dezauche, and Mchain, junior. POLITICAL.. that nearly one half of the new force will be composed of substitutes. Tell him that as an old militia officer,. I can say, that 1000 principals were as many as were ever found among 30,000 of the original establishment, and of those not 100 were good soldiers.-I was upwards of fifteen years in the Berks militia, and in that time remember only one balloted man made a corporal.". The Imperial Russian Court Calendar, which was sup pressed under Paul I. has again made its appearance under the title-" Almanack de la Cour pour l'Année 1803." It is deserving of peculiar notice, not only on account of departments, which took place in September 1802, but also the new organization of the privy-council and ministerial in a political point of view. The number of Knights of the orders of St. Andrew, St. Catharine, Alexander Neuski, St. George, St. Wolodimir, (which was abolished by Paul I. St. John of Jerusalem, amounts to 7050. The Russian and re-established by the present Emperor,) St. Anne, and Grand Priory of the last Order contains 16 grand crosses, 19 commanders, 135 knights, 10 family-commanders, 3 convent-commanders, 3 convent-chaplains, 300 honorary commanders, and 224 honorary knights. Among the Knights of St. Andrew, Louis XVIII. is named in the folXVIII."—In the genealogical list, the article France is lowing manner:-" Sa Majesté le Roi de France Louis conceived in these terms: Rel. Coth. Napoleon Bonaparte, premier Consul de la République, né le 4 Août, 1769."-Without entering into any comment on these two articles, we conceive they render it tolerably evident, that Alexander I. does not feel strongly inclined to flatter the boyish petulance and wild ambition of the Sultan of St. Cloud. Nothing is of more service to the Politician, or can afford greater interest to readers in general, than a comparison of past events with the present important crisis. With this idea we give the following extracts from Mr. Coxe's excellent memoirs of Lord Walpole, respecting the French invasion in 1743-4. (Page 256.) "Soon after the decease of Fleury the principal administration of affairs was committed to Cardinal Tencin, who, elevated to the purple on the nomination of the Pretender, displayed his gratitude by fostering the national animosity against England. The ministers who had served under Cardinal Fleury were gradually removed, and Tencin, whose violent disposition Mr. Walpole compared with that of Lord Carteret, succeeded in exciting the French Cabinet to attempt the restoration of the Pretender, by invading England. Eighteen ships of the line, with a proportionate number of frigates, carrying on board 4000 land-forces, appeared suddenly off the Isle of Wight, and, meeting with no English squadrons, dis- Mr. Von Rusanov, Imperial Russian Counsellor of State patched orders to hasten the embarkation at Dunkirk and and Knight, has been appointed by His Imperial Majesty, the other ports of France, with a full assurance of sticcess. Envoy Extraordinary to the Court of Japan. Captain Kru Several thousand troops actually enibarked, and the son of senstern is to convey him to his place of destination, and the Pretender, with Marshal Saxe, who commanded afterwards to pursue the intended voyage of discovery. The the land-forces, came in sight of the English coast; but a Emperor has purchased for that purpose, of the West-Amesudden storm drove many of the transports on shore, dis-rican company, one of the ships destined for that voyage, persed the others, and frustrated the plan. The French and ordered it to be fitted out at his expence. squadron returned to the ports of France, after escaping the * See p. 833, vol. i. English fleet under the command of Sir John Norris, either by singular good fortune, or through the incapacity and dilatory spirit of the admiral. The danger incurred from this threatened invasion was almost past before the report was circulated in England; but terror and indignation had an instantaneous effect on the nation at large. Loyal addresses were presented by both houses, the city of London, and the principal towns in Great Britain; and 520 merchants subscribed their names to support public credit, and hazard their lives in defence of his Majesty's sacred person and government, and for the security of the protestant succession. The most vigorous preparations were made throughout the kingdom; the divisions in the cabinet were suspended; the Earl of Stair and the Duke of Marlborough, conscious that the clamour against the Hanoverian troops had encouraged the invasion, set a noble example of loyalty, by tendering their services in any station. Their offers were gratefully accepted, and their example was followed by persons of all ranks; the war against France became popular, and the parliament voted larger supplies than had perhaps been ever granted before at one period." One of the principal aid-du-camps of Bonaparte is an officer of the name of Dumousier, who received his education in this country, at Tunbridge School, under Dr. Knox. Dumousier was one of the first officers of the Staff who had leave during the Peace to visit England. A friend writes thus to the Editor-- "The observations of your political writer on the ballot for the militia are perfectly just. He says, we are not going too far to say, TO CORRESPONDENTS. · VOLUME II.] THE LITERARY JOURNAL. LITERATURE. REVIEWS OF BOOKS. AUGUST 1, 1803. Travels through the Southern Provinces of the Russian Empire, in the Years 1793 and 1794. Translated from the German of P. S. Pallas, Counsellor of State to his Imperial Majesty of all the Russias, Knight, &c. 4to. vol. 2d. With many coloured Vignettes, Plates, and Maps. 1803. pp. 523. THE HE first volume of this work was published some time since. The subject of the present volume. however, is entirely distinct, and forms a whole by itself. We shall treat of it, therefore, without any reference to that which preceded. That subject is the famous peninsula which projects into the Black Sea, and nearly joining with the opposite shore, forms the Cimmerian Bosphorus, and cuts off the sea of Azoph from the Black or Euxine Sea. This peninsula, now distinguished by the titles of Crim Tartary, the Crimea, and Taurida, is the celebrated Chersonesus Taurica of the ancient Greeks. Its peculiarly happy situation, in a delightful climate, and in the midst of a sea, which affords it a direct communication with the richest shores of Europe, Asia, and Africa, its ancient importance, and the dark, and long obscurity in which it has been buried, render it an object of great curiosity. Our author is not the only person who has attempted to gratify that curiosity. Baron Tott and Lady Craven have both preceded him in accounts of the Crimea. And we have lately received additional information from Mrs. Guthrie, and the Author of the History of the Embassy from Petersburg to Constantinople, in 1793. The earliest accounts we have of this peninsula are from the earliest of historians, Herodotus. He tells us, that the inhabitants, denominated Tauri, were not ranked by the Scythians, who surrounded them, as of the same race with themselves, and that they were distinguished by some very barbarous customs. "All strangers shipwrecked on their coasts, and particularly every Greek who falls into their hands, they sacrifice to a virgin. The sacred personage to whom this sacrifice is offered the Taurians themselves assert to be Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamem non."* "On that inhospitable shore," says Mr. Gibbon,t "EURIPIDES, embellishing with exquisite art the tales of antiquity, has placed the scene of one of his most affecting tragedies. The bloody sacrifice of Diana, the arrival of Orestes and Pylades, and the triumph of virtue and religion over savage fierceness, serve to represent an historical truth, that the TAURI, the original inhabitants of the peninsula, were, in some degree, reclaimed from their brutal manners, by a gradual intercourse with the Grecian colonies, which settled along the maritime coast." [NUMBER 2. The first expedition of the Greeks into the Black Sea, was the celebrated Argonautic expedition, which taught them what riches might be obtained on its shores. Seventy years after, a colony was actually planted at the mouth of the Danube, by Neoptolimus the son of Achilles. This enterprizing and active people, who colonized so large a portion of the globe, continued and extended their settlements, till they covered the whole shores of the Euxine Sea. An active and important trade was carried on between these colonies and the mother country. And the shores of the Euxine exhibited some of the most cultivated and opulent countries of all antiquity. The riches of the kingdom of Colchis were represented by the fable of the Golden Fleece. The splendour and power of the kingdom of Pontus, whose monarch, Mithridates, kept the Romans at bay for so zenith of their power, many years, when in the very is known to every reader of ancient history. And the provinces of Bythinia, Paphlagonia, and Mæsia, were among the finest portions of one of the most favoured spots on the globe, Asia Minor. These provinces on the southern shores, with the Crimea on the northern, and the rivers Tanais, Boristhenes, Bogue, Dniester, and Danube, which brought down the raw productions of the northern nations, rendered the Euxine sea one of the busiest scenes in the ancient world. This trade was vastly increased by the transit of all the commerce from the East, brought thither by the channel of the river Oxus, the Caspian sea, and the rivers Cyrus and Phasis. By this were some of the largest and finest cities in the ancient world, Sebastopolis, Serapanis, and others, raised and maintained. These Grecian colonies were first conquered by Mithridates, and fell into the hands of the Romans, when they destroyed that monarch, and extended their sway over his dominions. They gave their freedom to most of the Greek cities, and trade flourished. In the time of Arrian, who visited the country, he says the city of Phasis, at the mouth of the river of the same name, was a vast emporium of trade, containing whole companies of merchants, with their warehouses and dwellings all arranged along the banks of the river Phasis, on which the city stood. He thought it, in short, a place of so much importance, that though already garrisoned with 400 Roman soldiers, it deserved to be still farther secured by a double trench cut all around it. Under the military Romans, however, who left trade to their slaves, commerce flourished less than under the more industrious and elegant Greeks. When the degeneracy of the Roman people had brought their power to the last stage of decrepitude, the commerce of the Euxine fell into the hands of the Italian republics, who now began to practise the arts, and to reap the fruits of industry. The Venetians and Genoese, contended for the monopoly of this E the co-operation of Russia, and perhaps even inde- trade, and at last the Genoese, by obtaining possession | lieve it is in the power of Great-Britain, at least with of the suburb of Pera or Galata, at Constantinople, prevailed over their rivals. "From this colony," says Mr. Gibbon," the Genoese engaged with superior advantage in the lucrative trade of the Black sea; and their industry supplied the Greeks with fish and corn; two articles of food almost equally important to a superstitious people. The spontaneous bounty of nature appears to have bestowed the harvests of the Ukraine, the produce of a rich and savage husbandry; and the endless exportation of salt-fish and caviar, is annually renewed by the enormous sturgeons that are caught at the mouth of the Don or Tanais, in their last station of the rich mud and shallow water of the Mæotis. The waters of the Oxus, the Caspian, the Volga, and the Don, opened a rare and laborious passage for the gems and spices of India, and, after three months march, the caravans of Carisme met the Italian vessels in the harbours of Crimea. These various branches of trade were monopolized by the diligence and power of the Genoese. Their rivals of Venice and Pisa were forcibly expelled; the natives were awed by the castles and cities, which arose on the foundations of their humble factories, and the principal establishment of Caffa was besieged with-he chiefly confines himself to the geographical and out effect by the Tartar powers. Destitute of a navy, the Greeks were oppressed by these haughty merchants, who fed or famished Constantinople, according to their interest. They proceeded to usurp the customs, the fishing, and even the toll of the Bosphorus; and while they derived from these objects a revenue of two hundred thousand pieces of gold, a remnant of thirty thousand was reluctantly allowed to the emperor. The colony of Pera or Galata acted in peace and war as an independent state; and, as it will happen in distant settlements, the Genoese podesta too often forgot that he was the servant of his own masters." Pallas has adopted the mode of writing travels of which a specimen has been given by our eminent countryman, Arthur Young, in his travels in France. The first part of the work is a journal of his route through the Crimea, and the second is a detailed account in distinct chapters of the particulars which he accounted most worthy of consideration, in the state of the country, and of the inhabitants. In his journal physical description of the country. He paints the external aspect and appearance of the different districts, the varieties of mountains and valleys, and the bearing and form of each. The nature of the soil and of the climate is described. The natural history of the country, as far as relates to mineralogy and botany, is particularly attended to, and from the knowledge which the author possesses in these branches of study, we have no doubt is very fully explained. The external appearance too of the cities and villages is described in the part of the work which we call the journal part. The remains of antiquity which the country possesses, form another of the particulars noticed in this part. And every thing which comes under the denomination of natural curiosity is here described, such as the salt-lakes in the northern part of the peninsula; some remarkable caverns; certain appearances of locusts and scorpions, &c. On the fall of Constantinople, before the Turks, the Genoese were expelled from the Euxine sea. The Venetians were admitted in their stead, on the express condition that fire-arms, and gun-powder, should constitute a part of every cargo. The politic Mahomet, as soon as he had obtained a sufficient quantity, shut up the Thracian Bosphorus; and for 300 years the As far as the art of composition is concerned, Euxine has been barred against Venice, and all other Pallas is not a great author. Even in the English nations. During that period its shores have expe- dress it is an ill-written book, there is nothing lively rienced the effects of despotism, sloth, poverty, ig- in the description, or elegant in the phraseology. The norance, depopulation; and squalid misery, and bar- translator complains grievously of his original in this barity, now cover the scenes which formerly diplayed respect; and says, that often the sentences were so the brightest trophies of human ingenuity and pros-long, so involved, and so careless, that he found it perity. The wretched and cruel traffic of female beauty is almost the only species of trade known in places where a great part of the business of the world was centered. We have been thus minute in our account of the ancient fortune of the shores of the Euxine, to point out the great importance of that revolution with regard to them which gave occasion to the present work; we mean the acquisition of part of them by a new and enterprising nation. The degradation of the Turkish power, and the introduction of the Russians into the Black sea, may, and ought to open the Thracian Bosphorus to the ships of all nations. We beVol. II. c. 63. very difficult to determine what to make of them. It is in fact, except for the importance of the information, a heavy, dull book. The author has confined himself in his narrative too exclusively to objects physical; and if he had introduced us a little more to his own company, and the company of those with whom during his tour he had occasion to associate, we should have been much more interested in his journey. In fact, to accompany a man in a tour merely to look at the component parts of mountains, and to pick up the rare plants that grow upon or between them, is but a dry task to any one who is not an enthusiast in mineralogy and botany. We have no animated description of the picturesque beauties of the |