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LETTER I.

I

LETTERS FROM LONDON. tion, that I candidly told her all my plans, and begged to know whether I could gain admission into any literary MAY this, the commencement of our first correspon- circles in town. She assured me nothing was easier. dence, find my beloved sister in health, and may this, my need only read for about three weeks, at the rate of a scifirst absence from her and my native home, prove pros-ence a day; as, by the modern way of getting up books, perous. At least it is better than idleness in Wales, and time was the last thing necessary for knowledge. Or, if an income so reduced as our's has lately been. With I should not chuse to take this trouble, I might make a an introductory letter from the governess at the great collection of periwinkles, or any thing-no matter what house, to her aunt in Bond Street, I am secure of friends so nobody else could show one like it.. Or I might set and a bed. Then, (thanks to my deceased father), I am out as an enthusiast in insects, or a devotee to fossils, or well versed in the Classics, both ancient and modern; a worshipper of statues without heads. Thus qualified, and though the rest of my reading is rather desultory, I should be certain of getting introduced at coteries and though I have often read second volumes without the institutionary lectures, where, she says, they shew you the first, and books of refutation without the books they prettiest tricks in nature, with pipkins, detonation and a refute, yet still, as I know house-keeping, and retain all vacuum; and where any thing abominable may be talked, the primitive manners and morals of that dear village provided it be put scientifically. where we have passed our lives, no doubt I shall be most eagerly received as a governess, into any genteel family I may fancy.

This wonderful woman stopped at Bristol, but gave me her address in London, and half hinted something about making me her amanuensis.

As for marriage, I disclaim all thoughts of it. I remem- After she had left us, the gentleman began (just ber, many years ago, when we were both young enough, think!) to ridicule her ignorance; and then, by way of we used to rally each other on being old maids; but shewing his own learning, uttered a set of the most glaring somehow, the joke grew flat by repetition; and in fact, falsehoods I ever heard fall from a tongue. He actually for these ten years past, we have never renewed it. Per-affirmed, that the philosophers have invented a mode of haps 'tis now too late. Not that I mind the matter myself, setting fire to the air, and of lighting up their houses with but I would not, on any account, dishearten you. it! Conceive his effrontery. But this was nothing to what When I got into the coach at Cardiff, I found two of followed. He swore roundly, that they are about paving the seats occupied by a gentleman and a lady. The con- a whole street with iron, that they have got iron shafts to versation began with the weather-a subject, which, I their carriages, and iron cables to their ships; in a word, understand, is in great request among people who meet if you believe him, this is the iron age. for the first time. Nothing could be more agreed than Here he might, perhaps, have stopped; but, unfortuour opinions upon it; and even if we had differed, there nately, we were at breakfast, so the steam of the teapot was the weather itself, before our faces, ready to decide set his fancy to work again. And what was the result, the dispute. think you? Why that oars and sails are now found to be The gentleman, however, suggested, that our rainy sea-superfluous, and that the latest pattern of a ship goes quite son might proceed from certain eruptive spots, which had swimmingly upon wheels, with just a little help from a lately broken out on the sun's face, and which, by with- pot of boiling water! Steam, he says, steam does the holding some of the solar light, might at last injure vege-business. Steam, a vapour that I could disperse with my tation, and bring on agricultural distress.

"That does not follow;" said the lady, 'because, light and caloric being capable of separation, the sun may still dispense his warmth, though he withdraws his radiance." "In which case," observed the gentleman laughing, "the world must necessarily be stuck all round with rows of lamps: the farmer himself must plough by torch-light, and Damon sitting at a pastoral brook with his Daphne, must clap a candle to her face while he praises it."

fan, carries a great hulking vessel through waves and winds all the world over! Thus has this fellow, with an ease that would shock you, turned air into fire, made iron lighter than wood, and overcome hurricanes with an exhalation.

Other passengers soon joined as, and relieved me from his impertinence. They were all of the first quality: at least if one might judge by their conversation; as every soul of them had heard a Lord say something or other. But even then," resumed the lady, "he could not There was one young man, however, who seemed to have praise her rosy cheek or auburn hair. For, as solar light heard a sentence from every nobleman in England; till, is the origin of colours, both cheek and hair would soon after dinner, undertaking to divide the bill, he ran through become a complexionless blank; and in process of time, pounds, shillings and pence so adroitly, and cut his figures commentators would puzzle themselves, not so much with such commercial nimbleness, that I asked him, by about the punctuation of Shakespeare's green one red,' way of jest, whether he was not a clerk? To my surprise, as whether green and red were like the sound of a trumpet. he confessed he was a Banker's assistant; so, as it was In short, if you wish for a complete list of what would now clear, that he had only picked up the chit-chat of happen, read Byron's poem on Darkness." noblemen, while they were lodging or drawing money at Sister of my bosom, what a treasure is travelling! Not the counting house, he declined quoting them any more. three miles from home, a middle-aged gentlewoman, in Indeed, afterwards, he made an effort to re-establish his a plain bonnet, has already made my blood run cold, by consequence, by shewing that he was, at least, upon good her speculations on a little spot, millions of miles dis- terms with bruisers; and they, he assured me, were upon the very best terms with Lords.

tant!

She talked much in the same style, for two hours, and at length left me so much impressed with her erudi

Being only a few hours in London, I have hitherto remarked nothing extraordinary, but the ridiculous accent

of the people. They too laugh at mine; not because it is, is of the greatest importance to prevent diseases, since the in itself, worse than their own, but because it is not spo-cure of them by physic is so very precarious. ken where there are a great number of houses. If the that the quantum of each is to be judged of, not by time or by In considering the different kinds of exercise I have thought Londoners adopted broad Scotch, broad Scotch would distance, but by the degree of warmth it produces in the body: then be considered the standard of purity. If the Court thus, when I observe if I am cold when I get into a carriage in chose to call for winegar, every one else, under pain of a morning, I may ride all day without being warmed by it; vulgarity, must purse up their mouths to the pronuncia- that if on horseback my feet are cold, I may ride some hours tion; and a meeting between the teeth and the lip in V, before they become warm; but if I am ever so cold on foot, would be thought to disfigure the finest face at St. James's. cannot walk an hour briskly, without glowing from head to It is now no more than two days since I left home, and foot by the quickened circulation. I have been ready to say, yet it appears almost ten. When one changes, on a sud-using round numbers without regard to exactness, but merely to make a great difference) that there is more exercise in one den, from still life to busy, the time, as it passes, seems mile's riding on horseback, than in five in a coach; and more short, because novelty occupies the mind; but on looking in one mile's walking on foot, than in five on horseback; to back at it, we fancy it long, because we measure its dura- which I may add, that there is more in walking one mile up tion by the number of incidents. and down stairs, than in five on a level floor. The two latter exercises may be had within doors, when the weather discou pinched for time, as containing a great quantity of exercise in a rages going abroad; and the last may be had when one is handful of minutes. The dumb bell is another exercise of the latter compendious kind: by the use of it I have in forty swings quickened my pulse from sixty to one hundred beats in a minute, counted by a second watch and I suppose the warmth generally increases with quickness of pulse. B. FRANKLIN. In apposition with these practical rules of good sense, we cannot make a more appropriate selection than in the following observations on true Science, and the inconve

I shall write every week, and, as I become acquainted with the town, give you some account of its customs, manners and literature. Meanwhile remember me to friends at Sully. Say the kindest things for me to dear puss, and tell Lion that I kiss his paw. Adieu.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS.

PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE OF BENJAMIN FRANK-niences attending all situations in life.
LIN;-now first published from the Originals, by his
Grandson, William Temple Franklin, 4to.

It gives us much pleasure to commence this important department of our Journal, with the effusions of a writer so eminent as Dr. Franklin.

Dear Sir,

To Dr. PRIESTLEY.

Passy, February 8, 1780. but very lately, the bearer having staid long in Holland. Your kind letter of September 27th, came to hand I always rejoice to hear of your being still employed in experimental researches into nature, and of the success you meet If Biography be useful towards the knowledge of man, with. The rapid progress true science now makes, occasions epistolary correspondence is its best illustration. The ray regretting sometimes that I was born so soon: it is impospresent volume is, indeed, intended literally to be illustra-sible to imagine the height to which may be carried in a tive of the biography of its writer, since it is the second thousand years, the power of man over matter; we may perin order, though not in course of publication, to the me- them absolute levity, for the sake of easy transport. Agriculhaps learn to deprive large masses of their gravity, and give moirs of a man whom we must esteem as ranking in the ture may diminish its labour and double its produce: all diseases first classes of philosophy, literature, and politics, even in may by sure means be prevented or cured, (not excepting even spite of political differences. If, however, he were still an that of old age,) and our lives lengthened at pleasure, even enemy, we might be content to learn from his genius and beyond the antediluvian standard. O that moral science were from his experience-fas est et ab hoste, &c.: but by his writ-in as fair a way of improvement, that men would cease to be ings he has become one of our best friends, showing us learn what they now improperly call humanity! wolves to one another, and that human beings would at length that it is possible to unite the milder avocations of life with I am glad my little paper on the Aurora Borealis pleased. even the heat of political contest, and the diplomatic chi-If it should occasion further inquiry, and so produce a better canery of the bureau and portfolio. In this point of view hypothesis, it will not be wholly useless.

we hail the appearance of these Letters, which have thus I am ever, with the greatest and most sincere esteem, dear been brought forward to gratify public curiosity, during the preparation of the memoirs.

Sir, &c.

B. F. (Inclosed in the foregoing Letter, being an answer to a separate paper received from Dr. Priestly.)

The Editor has very judiciously divided these Epistles I have considered the situation of that person very atteninto three series. The first is miscellaneous, and com- tively: I think that with a little help from the Moral Algebra mences in 1753, bringing to our recollection, many old he might form a better judginent than any other person can acquaintances, in Whitfield, Priestley, Burke, Washing-form for him. But since my opinion seems to be desired, I ton, Ingenhauzs, &c. To enumerate the subjects only, on which FRANKLIN playfully, yet energetically, treats in this division of the work, would occupy our limits; we must therefore confine ourselves to our plan of giving only a few specimens.

give it for continuing to the end of the term, under all the present disagreeable circumstances; the connection will then die the separation, and of course no offence taken at reasons given; a natural death. No reason will be expected to be given for the friendship may still subsist, and in some other way be useful. The time diminishes daily, and is usefully employed. To Governor FRANKLIN, New Jersey. All human situations have their inconveniences, we feel those London, August 19, 1772. that we find in the present, and we neither feel nor see those In yours of May 14th, you acquaint me with your that exist in another. Hence we make frequent and troubleindisposition, which gave me great concern. some changes without amendment, and often for the worse.. The resolution, you have taken to use more exercise is ex-In my youth I was passenger in a little sloop, descending the tremely proper; and I hope you will steadily perform it. It River Delaware. There being no wind, we were obliged when

the ebb was spent, to cast anchor, and wait for the next. The suits, from an opinion that Providence would in every instance heat of the sun on the vessel was excessive, the company favour truth and right with victory, they were excusable. At strangers to me, and not very agreeable. Near the river side present they decide nothing. A man says something, which I saw what I took to be a pleasant green meadow, in the middle another tells him is a lie. They fight, but whichever is killed the of which was a large shady tree, where it struck my fancy I point in dispute remains unsettled. How can such miserable could sit and read (having a book in my pocket), and pass the sinners as we are entertain so much pride, as to conceit that every time agreeably till the tide turned; I therefore prevailed with offence against our imagined honour merits death? These petty the Captain to put me ashore. Being landed, I found the princes in their own opinion would call that sovereign a tyrant, greatest part of my meadow was really a marsh, in crossing who would put one of them to death for a little uncivil lanwhich, to come at my tree, I was up to my knees in mire: and guage, though pointed at his sacred person. Yet every one of I had not placed myself under its shade five minutes before the them makes himself judge in his own cause, condemns the muskitoes in swarms found me out, attacked my legs, hands, offender without a jury, and undertakes himself to be the exeand face, and made my reading and my rest impossible; so cutioner. With sincere and great esteem, I have the honour that I returned to the beach, and called for the boat to come to be, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, and take me on board again, where I was obliged to bear the heat I had strove to quit, and also the laugh of the company. Similar cases in the affairs of life have since frequently fallen under my observation.

B. F.

The Second Part of this interesting Correspondence is interwoven, in respect to dates, with the foregoing; comI have had thoughts of a college for him in America; I the secret Political History, both of the facts and opinions mencing in 1767: and is most importantly iliustrative of know no one who might be more useful to the public in the in- of that period of incipient revolution. Here we become struction of youth. But there are possible unpleasantnesses in that situation: it cannot be obtained but by a too hazardous familiar with Lord Shelburne, Governor Pownall, Drs. voyage at this time for a family; and the time for experiments Cooper and Price, and many other public characters would be all otherwise engaged. down to 1788, in reference to all the political events of The active philanthropy, as well as the particular be- American Independence. nevolence of our author, is well exemplified in a short

note to a friend, and may afford an agreeable and an use-nected with them, form the basis of the Third Part; in ful hint to many.

Dear Sir,

To MR. BENJAMIN WEBB.

Passy, April 22, 1784.

The Negociations for Peace, and the subjects conwhich La Fayette, Fox, Shelburne, Oswald, Secretary Townshend, Hartley, and many other names of political I received yours of the 15th instant, and the me-rian, nay to the living politician, this part forms a mine renown, cut a conspicuous figure. To the future histomorial it enclosed. The account they give of your situation of information and amusement, but selection would be as grieves me. I send you herewith a bill for ten louis d'ors. I do not pretend to give such a sum; I only lend it to you. difficult as our limits render it impossible; we must thereWhen you shall return to your country with a good character, fore close our criticism, recommending the whole to the you cannot fail of getting into some business that will in time perusal of our readers. enable you to pay all your debts: in that case, when you meet with another honest man in similar distress, you must pay me NARRATIVE of a RESIDENCE in BELGIUM, during by lending this sum to him; enjoining him to discharge the the Campaign of 1815; and of a Visit to the Field of Waterdebt by a like operation when he shall be able, and shall meet loo. By an Englishwoman. 8vo. pp. 350. with such another opportunity. I hope it may thus go through mauy hands before it meets with a knave that will stop its FORTUNATELY for our fair country-women, whilst progress. This is a trick of mine for a deal of good with a lit-Europe was desolated by war, towns and cities sacked, tle money. I am not rich enough to afford much in good works, and so am obliged to be cuuning and make the most of a little. With best wishes for the success of your memorial, and your future prosperity, I am, dear Sir, your most obedient servant, B. F.

and female delicacy insulted, they knew naught of the din of battle but from the glare and splendour of rejoicings for victory; except when British valour came in contact with the foe, and brilliant eyes were dimmed with sorrow As FRANKLIN's ideas, on any subject, cannot fail to Chance, however, or rather an unexpected coincidence of for those who slept in the arms of Conquest and of Death! be interesting-for his manner, if not his matter, is new, circumstances, led one of our amiable compatriots to the even upon the most common themes-we subjoin a letter to the founder of the Philosophical Society at Manchester, never-to-be-forgotten field of Waterloo. A slight sketch very verge of bloodshed and military suffering, at the on a custom against which moralists have argued and of the circumstances connected with that glorious event divines have thundered, but in vain. Perhaps he will be nearest the truth who allows it to be an unavoidable evil, even in the highest state of civilization and the purest state of morals—but we will allow the Doctor to speak

for himself

To DR. PERCIVAL.

she presented to the world under the title of " Circumstantial Details by a near Observer;" and having seen it for the press, this more circumstantial "Narrative" of go through ten editions, she has been tempted to prepare, events prior to, and connected with that bloodstained day. Dear Sir, Passy, July 17, 1784. Those who have read the former work will be prepared to I received yesterday by Mr. White your kind letter expect the same sprightliness of diction that gave a glowof May 11, with the most agreeable present of your new book. ing tint even to the sombre scenes of her former sketches, I read it all before I slept, which is a proof of the good effects to look for the same turn of thought that gave a tone of your happy manner has of drawing your reader on, by mixing pleasure to the soul, even whilst our feelings were startled little anecdotes and historical facts with your instructions. Be with the horrors of the ruthless carnage! nor will they be pleased to accept my grateful acknowledgments for the plea- disappointed; but, we predict, be even more delighted It is astonishing that the murderous practice of duelling, with the soft, yet accurate pencil of this interesting del which you so justly condemn, should continue so long in neator. To appreciate her merit fully, her progressive vogue. Formerly when duels were used to deterinine law-description of the hurried and rapidly accumulating

sure it has afforded me.

events ought to be read through; any extract from them ed, which succeeds extremely well. Works are printed at would be incomplete: but not so with a happy specimen Philadelphia in the English, French, and German lanof her taste for the picturesque which we select at an early guages; and as the lovers of reading become more numerpage, describing her route, on a summer's evening, from ous, with the increasing wealth and desire of intellectual a becalmed packet to the sandy beach of Ostend. improvement in the higher classes, the books printed in "The tide was running strong against the rowers, and night America meet with a considerable sale in the country. closed in, long before we approached the shores; but though The trade to England in Americar books is extending; the light of the heavens had faded, the ocean was illuminated and the arrival of many learned English and Frenchmen with that beautiful phosphoric fire, so well known in warmer is thought to have contributed to increase the number of latitudes. The most brilliant magic light played upon the sur-publications. There may be said to be a total want of face of the waters, and marked the path of our little vessel German writers, though works printed in the German through the deep, with the softest, purest radiance; the oars

seemed to be moving through liquid fire, and every drop, as it language, and adapted to the prevailing free popular dashed from them, sparkled like the blaze of a diamond: the spirit, would certainly meet a ready sale, particularly in little ripling waves, as they curled their heads, were covered Pennsylvania. There are now, in Philadelphia alone, 31 with the same transparent ethereal fire, which would mock the Printing Offices, which employ above 150 presses. It may powers of the poet's fancy, in glancing from heaven to earth, be calculated, say the American Papers, that 50,000 vofrom earth to heaven, to embody or describe. It is more like lumes are annually printed in Philadelphia, not including the pale beam the glow-worm sheds from his evening lamp the numerous pamphlets; but we must deny their asserthan any thing on earth, but ten thousand times more bright tion, that an author is in a more favorable situation in the and more beautiful. By such a light Oberon and his Queen, attended by their band of tiny sprites, might have held their United States than elsewhere, because he can deliver his midnight revels, amidst the bowers and halls of fairy land; and opinions freely, and there is no place where people write by such a light, enchanted spirits, in happier worlds, might be with such liberty. During the late war with Great Britain, supposed to slumber." a stamp duty was laid on the Newspapers and Journals, in the same manner as in England and France; but peace being restored, this tax was abolished. The Newspapers and Journals have since greatly increased, so that it is supposed there are more in America than in Great Britain. Their number in the United States is reckoned at 300, among which are several in the German language.

But we must break the "fairy spell" in sober sadness, and close our review of a work whose pages dimmed the eye until the pen became invisible, and swelled the heart until reflection and reason were drowned in feeling!

VARIETIES.

TRAVELS OF HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCESS TYPE-FOUNDING. Considerable improvements have OF WALES.-We have reason to expect a satisfactory recently been made in this art, so interesting to the Bibaccount of the Treasures of Art acquired by the Prin-liographist, by Henry Didot, of that family which has an cess in her tour to Palestine and Syria in 1816, which hereditary claim to respect from all lovers of Literature. was short, but, being supported by great resources, was very These improvements have been for some years in proproductive. The account is to be accompanied by a gress, and may now be considered as nearly completed. recital of the adventures of the little Caravan. A Young The first projected alteration, reduced to practice about Physician in the suite of the Princess is said to have kept ten years ago, was the substitution of the mechanical mothe Journal. It is also said, that she, herself, is resolved to tion of a rammer for the customary motion of the mould communicate her own observations to the Historiographer or matrix of each single type in the hand of the workman, of the voyage, and by the most liberal support to give and placing the matrix, no longer in the hand, but on a all becoming splendor to the work, which will contain form for the purpose. Even then the letters were cast many plates of Antiquities. All the acquisitions in Na-singly; but Didot's method now enables him to cast 100, tural History and the Arts, are brought to her magnificent or 150 at once, by means of a casting box about a foot Villa, near the Lake of Como, where was the country long, and composed of several pieces. Over this there is house of the younger Pliny.

EXTENSION OF LITERATURE.-The German Literati affix great importance to the present attempts for the diffusion of Sacred knowledge amongst the Eastern regions of the European Continent. Contemplating with energetic satisfaction the transmission of Holy Writ to so many different nations, and its translation into so many different dialects, they look forward with the most sanguine hope to interesting discoveries in the genealogy of language, and expect that the gifts of Religion and Civilization will be amply repaid by tributes to the treasury of Classical Science, as rich in value as pleasing in investigation, and novel to our world of refinement.

a cover, through a hole in which the metal is poured and forced into the vertical moulds by means of a lever; and the types produced are not only of an elegant character, but also sold at a reduced price.

The King of FRANCE has granted an annual pension of 2,400 francs to the widow of the celebrated poet DELILLE, whom the French writers entitle the Virgil of France.

The Parisian theatres have been enriched, in the year 1816, with no fewer than 175 new dramatic pieces; in 1815 there were 130, of all which eight only can now be said to exist.

NORTH AMERICAN LITERATURE.-The Americans LEOPOLD VON BUCH." This celebrated Mineralnow boast, that Literature and the Book Trade are every ogist, Buch, returned to England last summer from his year more and more encouraged in Philadelphia, and in Mineralogical Voyage of Discovery to the Canary Islands, general throughout the United States. The number of and afterwards visited the Highlands of Scotland, the Heauthors also increases; and a book fair has been establish-brides, particularly Staffa, and the whole west coast of

England. We may expect with confidence, that he will have rightly indicated, he caught an infectious fever in soon continue the examination begun in his Journey the morasses and wildernesses of that desolate country, through Norway and Lapland, and find new proofs for which in a few days terminated his life. He has left pathe system of Volcanic Geology, to which he is attached, pers and drawings of the greatest importance to the arts in those immense masses of basalt which there rise from and sciences, which have been happily preserved. the ocean. What we find in the 2d Vol. of the Transac- SWEDISH LITERATURE has been this year enriched tions of the Geological Society, in Mr. Henry Grey Ben- with translations, said to be good ones, of the Iliad, Æneid, nett's Remarks on the Pico of Teneriffe, and its Volcanic and Paradise Lost. Origin, that the Pico as well as the whole Island is the product of an immense Crater, which extends in subterraneous branches under the sea, called by the Spaniards Las Canales, will be placed in a clearer light in Von Buch's representation, and brought by a general connexion quite to Staffa:"

ORIGINAL LETTERS.

DAVID HUME TO THE COMTESSE DE BOUFFLERS.1 "MADAM, It is not easy for your Ladyship to imagine the pleasure I received from your letter, with which RICHTER'S TRAVELS.-" The untimely death of the you have so unexpectedly honored me, nor the agreeable learned and inquisitive traveller, Otto Von Richter, is a visions of vanity, in which, upon that occasion, I indulged most afflicting circumstance for the scientific world, as myself. I concluded, and, as I fancied, with certainty, that well as his numerous friends in Germany and Russia. In a person, who could write so well herself, must certainly company with the accomplished Swedish Traveller, Lind-be a good judge of writing in others, and that an author, man, he had travelled in 1815 through all Egypt and who could please a Lady of your distinction, educated in Nubia, and discovered beyond Philoe, on the spot where the Court of France, and familiarized with every thing the ancient state of Meroe was situated, considerable re-elegant and polite, might reasonably pretend to some demains of ancient Architecture which had hitherto escaped gree of merit, and might presume to take his rank above notice. The Grand Signor's firman procured him protec- the middling historians. But, Madam, it is but fair, that I tion every where as far as Nubia; and, according to a who have pretended, in so long a work, to do justice to letter from him, dated Damietta, August 14, 1815, he all parties and persons, should also do some to myself, and met with a most friendly reception from Aly Bey, Gover-should not feed my vanity with chimeras, which, I am nor of Damanhur. The Governor of Syene accompanied sensible in my cooler moments, can have no foundation in him in person, through the desert as far as Ell Heiff, reason. When I had the pleasure of passing some time in (Philoe). Near Assuan, (Syene), the Eastern arm of the France, I had the agreeable experience of the Polite HosNile, being unusually low, the traveller was able to wade pitality by which your nation is distinguished; and I now through it, to get to the island of Elephantine. By the find that the same favorable indulgence has appeared in care of Ibrahim, Governor of Upper Egypt, he was your Ladyship's judgment of my writings. And perhaps enabled to continue his journey up the Nile, to Idrim, your esteem for the entire impartiality which I aim at, and the capital of Nubia, which belongs to the Turks. Though which, to tell the truth, is so unusual in English Historians, he was much pleased with the mode of living of the inha-has made your Ladyship overlook many defects, into which bitants, a handsome race of people, which in many of the the want of art or genius has betrayed me. conveniences of life resembles that of the Europeans, he In this particular, Madam, I must own that I am inclined found it advisable to set out upon his return to Cairo on to take your civilities in their full latitude, and to hope that the 9th of June, 1815. In fact, immediately after his I have not fallen much short of my intentions. The spirit departure from Turkish Nubia, a destructive civil war of faction, which prevails in this country, and which is a broke out between three brothers, who, nominally depen-natural attendant on civil liberty, carries every thing to dent on the Pacha of Egypt, govern Nubia to the farther extremes on the one side as well as the other; and I have side of the great Cataracts, and as far as Dongola. When the satisfaction to find, that my performance has alternately Richter and Lindman returned to Cairo at the end of given displeasure to both parties. I could not reasonably July, and were ready at the beginning of August to tra- hope to please both. Such success is impossible from the verse the Delta in all directions, a mutiny broke out nature of things: and next to your Ladyship's approbaamong the Arnouts, who are now the only infantry of tion, who, as a foreigner, must necessarily be a candid Mehmed Aly, Pacha of Egypt. The travellers now changed judge, I shall always regard the anger of both as the surest their plan, and proceeded by sea from Damietta to Jaffa. warrant of my impartiality.

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At Acre, Lindman parted from Richter. The latter hav- As I find that you are pleased to employ your leisure ing taken a cursory survey of the deserts of Tyre and hours in the perusal of History, I shall presume to recomSidon, proceeded to Balbec, (Heliopolis), whither the mend to your Ladyship a late work of this kind wrote by Pacha of Acre had given him letters to one of the prin- my friend and countryman, Dr. Robertson, which has met cipal chiefs. The sight of the highly ornamented remains with the highest approbation from all good judges. of Balbec was much more pleasing to our traveller than It is the History of Scotland during the age of the unthat of the immense masses of ruins at Luxor and Carnac. fortunate Queen Mary; and it is wrote in an elegant, Afterwards he travelled in safety through Syria to the top agreeable, and interesting manner, and far exceeding, of Lebanon, examined the principal monasteries, and the We have been favored with some most interesting Epistoroad of Antonine over the mountains, and visited Aleppo, lary remains of our late admired Historian and Philosopher, adDamascus, and even Tadmor, (Palmyra), in the desert. dressed to this celebrated Lady; and it is our intention to avail Whilst exploring the scite of the ancient Ephesus, which ourselves of the permission granted to us to present our readers neither Choiseul Gouffier nor the modern English travellers with a few Extracts in succession.

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