judicious remarks on the fubject of virtù and the fine arts, which are introduced in many of the letters from Italy. An ob. fervation of another kind, dated from Rome,and relative to the Pope,may now, when the French are advancing with fuch rapidity towards that territory, be confidered as an evidence of the Author's fagacity: "The age of the Holy Father may poffibly fecure to him a peaceful demife; and thus the fingle niche in the Vatican now remaining, may receive the ftatue of Pius VI. But I cannot prevail upon myfelf to believe that another niche will ever be carved; or that the keys of St. Peter will have the virtue of a fceptre in the hands of a fucceffor." In the 19th Letter there is a very fenible character of Baron Trenck; which ought to be read by all thofe who wish to appreciate properly the character of that violent and unfortunate foldier. We cannot but repeat, what we have already obferved concerning thefe Letters, that the ftyle in which they are written is fingularly claffical, accurate, and perfpicuous. A few inftances, however, cccur of hafty compofition; "piled into heaps of faby clay :-no town vapours me fo much as Berne." Mr. O. has a valuable exchequer of words, but it is very rarely on living authors that the public confers the honour of being mafiers of the mint. ANECDOTES OF THE AUTHOR. Mr. O. was educated at the Univer fity of Cambridge, where he diftinguished himself very honourably in the examination for his firft, or Batchelor of Arts degree; the great period of exertion and emulation in that feminary of learning. He was afterwards elected Fellow of Bene't College, where he had been originally admitted, and was invefted about the fame time with the clerical function. In this employment he obtained great credit, very shortly after ordination, by difcourfes delivered without notes, and with confiderable fluency, correctness, and felf-command. His travels on the continent were first occafioned by an engagement of the tutelary kind; but they were continued, we believe, for feveral months after his feparation from his charge. He has lately relinquished his Fellowship. in confequence of marriage, and is now fettled upon a curacy in the neighbourhood of the metropolis, exerciling, we have no doubt, his talents and his dili gence in the most laudable and most ufeful of all employments. R. R. Letters from Scandinavia, on the Past and Prefent State of the Northern Nations of Europe. pp. 940. 8vo. 2 vols. 149. Robinfons. 1795. (Continued from Vol. XXIX. Page 182.) THE Northern kingdoms of Europe, and above all the Ruffian Empire, from the northern migration of Science, Arts and Empire, have come to attract. a very general attention. They emerge from the torpor of Hyperborean climates, and are animating by the genius of warmer fkies. Travellers, for fome years back, have made, accordingly, the tour of Northern as well as Southern Europe. We have had feveral travel lers of late who have travelled, or rather made excurfions and rambles into the Northern Kingdoms, but few, fince the times of Mr. Maillet, who have thrown fo much light on thofe parts, particularly Ruffia and Poland, as the anonymous Author of the Scandinavian Letters-few to be compared with this Writer for hiftorical refearch, profound reflection, various obfervation, and animation as well as energy of style. for the amufement of our Readers, we STATE OF SOCIETY AND IMPROVE- "I ought to except the prefent Em prefs from any fhare in the cenfure which I think due to the fovereigns of Ruffia, for having neglected the mafs of the people, in their endeavours to civilize their empire. She has bestowed her chief attention on the lower orders of her fubjects. The inftruction of the higher claffes had already been fuffici ently provided for.. But it remained for her to procure the means of improvement for thofe who had neither money nor leifure to attend the feminaries which had formerly been inftituted. Accordingly the has established a number of fchools, in various parts of her dominions, at which the children of I juftification of this Criticifm, and the lower claffes are inftructed in the cle elementary parts of knowledge fuited to their ftation. "Many circumstances, however, make it probable that, with all the fupport Government can beftow, the progress of knowledge will not fpeedily become extenfive in Ruffia. The state of the Country is highly unfavourable to its general diffufion. The flavery in which the peasants are held checks the fpirit of improvement in that numerous body of men. A man who can gain nothing by becoming wifer than his fellows, will hardly be tempted to take much trouble in acquiring fuperfluous accoinplishments, or in beftowing them on his children. A Ruffian peafant has nothing that can fimulate him to the purfait of knowledge. He fees himself fixed to a particular fpet, from which he can have no hope of removing; and furrounded with beings ignorant and brutish like himself. His indufry, if he has any, is ftrictly and permanently appropriated. So many days in the week, and fo many hours in the day, he knows he muft labour for his mailer: and, be his own neceflities what they may, he is fenfible that this portion of his time must not be encroached upon. If he pollefs herfes or cows or inliruments of his occupation, a large portion of what he can earn by them goes to the ufe of his mafter. If he has a wife and children, these also are but parcially hisown: his mafter may command their vices whenever, and in whatever manner, he pleafes. He is hardly per mited to ftir from his hut without his master's leave, nor can he earn a single mrfel of bread without his permiffion. If his children are to be taught any trade, it is the mafter who orders what that trade fhall be, and who is to be the teacher if they are to go to fchool, the mafter fends and removes them at his pleature; and if they wish to marry, they must do it agreeably to his commands. In a word. a Ruffian peafant depends on his matter for every thing. He cannot, it is true, be fent cut of the world without the forms of law; but, by the negative which every mafter pofffles against the marriage of his people, he may be prevented from cothing to it; and when once he has got in, his life may be made as burdenfome as tyranny and caprice can defire. "It is to be expected that a power thus thamefully unlimited will be often as thamefully abufed. Accordingly the dominion of the nobles over their flaves is leaft pernicious when it is leaft active→→ when it leaves the peafant to vegetate. in hopeless indolence. If it is exerted to inspire him with industry, it confe ders him merely as a machine which does more werk according as it is impelled with a greater force or as a beaft. of burden, which is forced to exert its ftrength by the fpur and the whip. The improvement of the minds of the peafants is a project which has not yet entered into the plan of the Ruffian landholders; it is a project that would be generally confidered by them as chimetical, if not pernicious. The villainouspolicy of defpotium has commonly laboured to degrade, thofe whom it would govern; and to guard, with the mot jealous circumfpection, every approach through which light may break in on thofe when it dooms to bondage and darkness. In confequence of this odi-. ous fyftem, the peasants are trained to confider themselves as beings of an inferior nature; as mere infiruments in the hand of their mafter, who ought to have no will but what he dictates, no industry but what he infpires, no emulation but what he excites. I will not indeed fay, that this is the univerfal character of the Ruffian peafantry (for the peasants of a few noblemen, as well as thefe of the crown, are fortunately an exception); but I may fay, with truth, that this character is very general, through this miferable race of beings. "The great body of the peafantry being thus completely shut cut from the paths of knowledge, not only is the general progrefs of improvement retarded, but the chance of the appearance of individual talents is alfo extremely nar-. rowed. In every country, the number of inen of genius who arife to refine the public tafte, and improve the na tional character, will be in proportion to the rumber of thofe who have the means of knowledge in their power; together with the profpect of extending their reputation, and improving their fortune by their acquirements. In Ruffia this number is extremely fmall, Herce Rulia has produced very few men of diftinguished abilities in any line. Her maft celebrated academicians have all been foreigners. She has produced, hiftorians and poets and painters; but their works will not bear a comparifon with the firft of the fame kind, which, mof other nations in Europe can boat .gress **It would feem that, in the pro grefs of fcience, the acquiring of a juft conception of the proper object of litera ture is not one of the first attainments of the learned. Great literary labour, and that too fuftained by confiderable talents, has been wafted, by fome individuals in this country, on subjects of fingular inutility. authority of the crown is now rather nominal than real, and powers merely nominal do not long furvive their independence the kingdom of Poland, at the prefent moment, naturally calls back our attention to the viciffitudes of its history and government. "Poland in the changes it has reA Ruffian bishop has spent a great cently undergone, and in the fituation part of his life in tranflating the Encid in which it now appears, presents an ininto Greek verfe. Had he tranflated it terefting fubject of enquiry to the phi into Ruffian verfe, his country would lofopher and the politician. About a have been indebted to him but little, century ago, it was one of the moft repraife, furely, is due to the efforts which fpectable Powers in Europe. It now aim only at erecting a monument to of preferves little more than a nominal extentation. You will not, I am pertence, as an independent nation. Dur fuaded, find in the prefent age, another country in Europe, where induftry could have been fo ftrangely mifapplied. The labours of this learned prelate ought, in justice to the fruitlessnefs of their object, to be claffed with the manufactures of thofe poetical artifts who worked their verfes into the figure of hearts, and wings, and altars, and mamy other ingenious devices. "It may be made a general obfervation, that the few natives of Ruffia who have devoted their lives to study have attained only the praife which is due to the middle clafs of the learned; they have by no means equalled those who stand in the highest ranks of literature. "If the condition of the pealants be fo highly unfavourable to the progrefs of improvement, the fituation and character of the clergy are equally unfriendly to it. Afmall number of the fuperior clergy may be found eminent among the Ruifans for learning and virtue; but, with this abatement, the order confifts of men either ignorant, or profligate, or both the one and the other. "A great proportion of the regular clergy confifls of the lowest of the free people, who have taken fanctuary from the business of their ftations in the torpor of the monasteries.” We shall prefent our Readers with an extract from the hiftory which this Author has given (in a feries of letters, dated chiefly at Memel, 1792,) of Poland, from the commencement of the kingdom to its final difmemberment in 1794. This Hiftory, concife and rapid as it is, contains more particulars truly interefting, and gives greater and more complete fatisfaction than any thing that has yet been published in any form, on the fubje&t. "The kingdom of Poland verging towards its final diffolution-for the ing the courfe of the prefent century it has exhibited an almost uninterrupted fcene of diforder and calamity. Sometimes overrun and pillaged by foreign enemies, and generally diftracted by internal diffentions; peace and fecurity and fettled government have been al moft unknown. Kings have been raised to the throne, and precipitated from it. Conftitutions have been established, and altered, and overthrown, and renewed. Some of its fineft provinces have been difmembered; and foreign armies eftablifhed in the republic, either to per petuate its miferies, or to complete its fubjugation. The fituation of the country exhi bits the most striking impreffions of thefe convulfions. The principles of diforder, long ago incorporated into the frame of the conftitution, have been matured and perfected by the habits of party diffenfion, heightened by religious animofity, and fomented by the infidious policy of the neighbouring States. Law and juftice have been filenced by the ftrife of faction, or overwhelmed by the preffure of foreign force. The people, reduced to the loweft fate of degradation and oppreffion, have no intereft in the meatures of government, and no incitement to induftry. The practice of telling the crown to the highest bidder has introduced an almost univerfal venality among the nobility. Amidst the violence of faction, honour and principle have been fwept away) and while almost every nation of Europe has been advancing in improvement and civilization, Poland appears to have been long stationary; if it has not ra ther returned in a contrary progrefs. "It would require both greater abilities and more leifure than fall to my thate, to trace the operation of the va rious caufes which have concurred to pro produce these remarkable effects. As, however, the fubje&t is interefting, and as it may tend to give you a more distinct idea of the fituation of the country, I shall endeavour to give you a fhort view of the principal circumfiances which have deprived the republic of Poland of its wonted energy, and reduced it to the state of weakness in which it appears at the period of which I propofe to give you fomne account. "The nature of the Polish government is certainly the great fource from which the misfortunes of this country have taken their rife. In fupport of this opinion, I begin with an hiftorical ketch of the government of Poland, from which you will fee the weakness of the ftate keeping pace with what the Poles are pleafed to call the freedom of the conftitution. "The first part of the hiftory of Po land, like that of most other nations, cannot be confidered in any other light than as a mafs of fable, illuminated with fome fcattered rays of truth. Little, therefore, can be certainly known re. pecting the origin of the Polish government. There are, however, feveral circumstances to dire& our opinion. The defcription Tacitus has left us of the tribes from whom the Poles are, molt probably, defcended; the analogy of other northern nations, and the generai tenor of the Polish hiftory, tend to prove, that the great body of the people enjoyed an high degree of freedom, as well as a confiderable influence on the measures of government. Although the fovereign power was generally continued in the fame family, there was no eftablished rule of hereditary fucceffion. If a free election did not take place on every vacancy, the confent of the nation, expreffed in a general diet, was always neceflary to confirm the nomination of a fucceffor to the ducal dignity. While the government remained on this footing, the people were in fact free; and yet the fovereign power appears to have been fubject to no conftitutional restrictions. Neither the perogatives of the duke, nor the privileges of the people, were defined by pofitive law. Cuf tom feems to have formed the only restriction to either. The fovereign carried his power as far as he thought he could depend upon the fubmiffion of the nation; and the people sometimes exerted their right of expelling a tyrannical mafter, and afferting their freedom by force." From the account of what we may call the dying ftruggle of Poland, the patriotism and heroifm which it produced, but the triumph over thefe of accumulated numbers and brutal force, which has awakened all the fenfibility of our Author, and given unusual energy to his ftyle, never feeble ;-from this animated and interefting narrative we at firft intended to make other extracts-but we find that we have already trefpaffed on the plan prescribed by our limits. A Journey Over-land to India, partly by a Route never gone before by any European. By Donald Campbell, of Barbreck, Efq. who formerly commanded a Regiment of Cavalry in the Service of his Highness the Nabob of the Carnatic. In a Series of Letters to his Son: comprehending his Shipwreck and Imprisonment with Hider Alli, and his fubfequent Negociations and Tranfac tions in the East. In One Volume. Quarto. l. is. Cullen and Co. (Concluded from Vol. XXIX. Page 333. ) THE deftitute and difaftrous fituation in which we left the unfortunate Traveller on the close of our laft Review of this interefting narrative, will excite the hopes and aların the fears of every tender mind. A brave, enterprifing, generous fpirit ftriving to fur, mount the accumulated difficulties by which its progrefs was retarded, thrown naked, moneyless, and without a friend upon an unknown and perhaps inhofpitable thore, on the eve of reaching its defired goal, prefents a picture of "difwefs and difficulty that cannot be con templated without horror and dismay. Great, however, as his perils were, they did not terminate with this event, for on recovering from the fwoon into which he had fallen, he found himself a captive to the troops of HYDER ALLI, who, to increafe his miferies, plunged him into a deep and loathifome dungeon. "Here," fays Mr. Campbell, "I had full room for reflection, and could meditate e'en to madness: the whole of my fituation appeared before me with all its aggravating circumftances of horror; and to any one who con. fiders fiders it, I believe it will appear that it was hardly potable to fill the bitter cup of calamity fuller." While he continued in this fituation, the companion of Is thipwreck, MR. HALL, became his companion in captivity, and after expe. riencing great cruelty they were march. ed up the Country by a long and cir. cuitous route, lodged in a priton at Branore, examined before the Jemadar in full Durbar, exhorted to enter into the fervice of Hyder All, and again com mitted to connement. During this period MR. HALL reJated the Hiftory of his Life to his brother captive, inferted in another department of our Magazine, a Hiftory uncommonly interefting, and related with equal fpirit, good fenit, and feeling. The limits of our Review prevent us from purfuing the fequel of Mir, CAMPBELL'S adventures to particularly as we intended. The threats, perfuafions, and remonstrances, which were made ufe of to induce him to accept of a command in the armies of the enemy, were used in vain; his attach ment to his country and family rofe paramount to all other confiderations, and he gave the agent of Hyder, the celebrated Hyat Sabie, a peremptory decifive refufal. The feverities of confinement were, of courfe, increased; and foon put a period to Mr. HALL'S existence, while he and Mr. CAMPEELL were chained, arm in arm, to each other. Mr. Campbell was at length releafed from prifon, and conducted, under a guard, farther up the country. "When we had got," fays he, peating his orders a fecond time in a firm and decifive tone of voice and man. ner, they all ran off. "As foon as we were alone, he revealed to me, that he had all along known who I was had oft heartily pitied my fufferings, and privately en. terialued the moft anxious wishes to ferve me, but could not venture to in terfere the leaft jealouty, when once awakened, being there always followed up by fummary vengeance. He then mentioned his name, informing me that he was the fon of a Nabob uear Vellore, whole domimons had been wrested from him by force, and united to the Car natic that his family had received great favours from my father, in return for which he felt himself bound to de me every service in his power; but that having been, after the misfortuna which befel his family, taken into the fervice of HYDER, and holding then a place of confequence under him, he was difqualified from demonftrating his gratitude and efteem in the way he withed: he added, he had jutt come from the fummit of the Ghauts, where he left the English army posted, after their having bear the Cirear troops, and carried all the trong works which had been erected for the defence of the paffes, and were deemed from their fituation impregnable; that the Jeme dar, HYAT SAMIR, had gone thither to encourage the troops, and animate them to one grand effort of refittance, and would remain there ull the fucceeding day. Here he stopped, and feemed much agitated; but, recovering hinfelf foon, faid, in a folemn and alarming manner, "This day I heard Ilvar SAHIB give orders to bring you before him, in order that he might fitriate his revenge by your death How nappy am I in having an opportunity to recue you! I will carry you back with me, therefore, to Bidanure, and place, you in a fate of fecurity with my fas mily." about á mile froin the fort, we met a perfon attended by three others, all on horfeback. He was a man of confiderable rank in that Country, and I recollected to have feen him at the Jemadar's Durbar, where he had manifefted a fagour. able difpofition towards me, looking always graciously, and nodding to me, which, confidering my cucumdances and his, was not a little extraordinary, The moment he recognized me, he scaped from his horie, apparently in great agitation: then turning to the guards, ordered them to leave me im mediately; faying at the fame time that he would be answerable for the confequences. They feemed at first to heft tate whether they would obey him or not; but on his thaking at them bistributed to put the important garrifun fword, which was all along drawn in his hand, and imeared with blood, and re Soon after this event our Hero, for furely the fortitude with which he en dored his multiplied fufferings well entitles him to that appellation, was mate the inftrument of negociation between GENERAL MATHEWs and TIPPOO SAHIB, who had fucceeded to the throne of his father [YDER ALLI; and by his panagement he con of BIDANORE into the hands of the, Company without the lofs of a fingle |