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Spice Islands are purchasing peace with nutmegs; when enormous tributes of green tea and nankeen are wafted into Port Jackson, and landed on the quays of Sidney; who will ever remember, that the sawing of a few planks, and the knocking together a few nails, were such a serious trial of the energies and resources of a nation?

The government of the colony, after enjoying some little respite from this kind of labour, has begun to turn its attention to the coarsest and most necessary species of manufactures, for which their wool appears to be extremely well adapted. The state of stock in the whole settlement, in June, 1801, was about 7000 sheep, 1300 head of cattle, 250 horses, and 5000 hogs. There were under cultivation at the same time between 9000 and 10,000 acres of corn. Three years and a half before this, in December, 1797, the numbers were as follows:-Sheep, 2500; cattle, 350; horses, 100; hogs, 4300; acres of land in cultivation, 4000. The temptation to salt pork, and sell it for govern. ment store, is probably the reason why the breed of hogs has been so much kept under. The increase of cultivated lands between the two periods is prodigious. It appears (p. 319), that the whole number of convicts imported between January, 1788, and June, 1801 (a period of thirteen years and a half), has been about 5000, of whom 1157 were females. The total amount of the population on the continent, as well as at Norfolk Island, amounted, June, 1801, to 6500 persons; of these 766 were children born at Port Jackson. In the returns from Norfolk Island, children are not discrimLet us add to the imported popuinated from adults. lation of 5000 convicts, 500 free people, which (if we consider that a regiment of soldiers has been kept up there), is certainly a very small allowance; theu, in thirteen years and a half, the imported population has increased only by two-thirteenths. If we suppose that something more than a fifth of the free people were women, this will make the total of women 1270; of whom we may fairly presume that 800 were capable of child-bearing; and if we suppose the children of Norfolk Island to bear the same proportion to the adults as at Port Jackson, their total number at both settlements will be 913: a state of infantine population which certainly does not justify the very high eulogiums which have been made on the fertility of the

female sex in the climate of New Holland.

The governor, who appears on all occasions to be an extremely well-disposed man, is not quite so conversant in the best writings on political economy as we could wish; and indeed, (though such knowledge would be extremely serviceable to the interests which this Romulus of the Southern Pole is superintending), it is rather unfair to exact from a superintendant of pick-pockets, that he should be a philosopher. In the 18th page we have the following information respecting the price of labour.

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"The settlers were reminded, that, in order to prevent any kind of dispute between the master and servant, when they should have any occasion to hire a man for any length for a quarter, half year, or year, and to make their agreeof time, they would find it most convenient to engage him ment in writing; on which, should any dispute arise, an appeal to the magistrates would settle it.'

This is all very bad; and if the governor had cher ished the intention of destroying the colony, he could have done nothing more detrimental to its interests.

The high price of labour is the very corner-stone on which the prosperity of a new colony depends. It enables the poor man to live with ease; and is the strongest incitement to population, by rendering children rather a source of riches than of poverty. If the same difficulty of subsistence existed in new countries as in old, it is plain that the progress of population would be equally slow in each. The very circumstances which cause the difference is, that in the lat ter, there is a competition among the labourers employed; and, in the former, a competition among the occupiers of land to obtain labourers. In the one, land is scarce, and men plenty; in the other, men are scarce, and land is plenty. To disturb this natural Some representations having been made to the governor order of things, a practice injurious at all times, must from the settlers in different parts of the colony, purporting, be particularly so, where the predominant disposition that the wages demanded by the free labouring people, whom of the colonists is an aversion to labour, produced by they had to hire, were so exorbitant as to run away with a long course of dissolute habits. In such cases, the the greatest part of the profit of their farms, it was recom- high prices of labour, which the governor was so demended to them to appoint quarterly meetings among them-sirous of abating, bid fair not only to increase the selves, to be held in each district for the purpose of settling

the rate of wages to labourers in every different kind of work; that, to this end, a written agreement should be entered into, and subscribed by each settler, a breach of which should be punished by a penalty, to be fixed by the general opinion, and made recoverable in a court or civil judicature. It was recommended to them to apply this forfeiture to the common benefit; and they were to transmit to the head-quarters a copy of their agreement, with the rate of wages which they should from time to time establish, for the governor's information; holding their first meeting as early as possible.'

agricultural prosperity, but to effect the moral reformation of the colony. We observe the same unfortunate ignorance of the elementary principles of com merce, in the attempts of the governor to reduce the prices of the European commodities, by bulletins and authoritative interference, as if there were any other mode of lowering the price of an article (while the demand continues the same) but by increasing in quantity. The avaricious love of gain, which is so feelingly deplored, appears to us a principle which, in able hands, might be guided to the most salutary

And again, at p. 24, the following arrangements on purposes. The object is to encourage the love of lathat head are enacted :

bour, which is best encouraged by the love of money. In pursuance of the order which was issued in January the best timber on the estates as government timber. We have very great doubts on the policy of reserving last, recommending the settlers to appoint meetings, at Such a reservation would probably operate as a check which they should fix the rate of wages that it might be proper to pay for the different kinds of labour which their upon the clearing of lands, without attaining the ob farms should require, the settlers had met and submitted to ject desired; for the timber, instead of being immedithe governor the several resolutions they had entered into, lately cleared, would be slowly destroyed, by the neg

by Captain Vancouver, situate in the latitude of 35o 03′ south and longitude 118° 12'east; and it is to be hoped, that a few years will disclose many others upon the coast, as well as the than Bass Strait dismembers New Holland.'-(pp. 192. 193.) confirmation or futility of the conjecture, that a still larger

lect or malice of the settlers whose lands it encumbered. Timber is such a drug in new countries, that it is at any time to be purchased for little more than the labour of cutting. To secure a supply of it by vexatious and invidious laws is surely a work of su pererogation and danger. The greatest evil which We learn from a note subjoined to this passage, the government has yet had to contend with is, the that, in order to verify or refute this conjecture, of the inordinate use of spirituous liquors; a passion which existence of other important inlets on the west coast puts the interests of agriculture at variance with those of New Holland, Captain Flinders has sailed with two of morals; for a dram-drinker will consume as much ships under his command, and is said to be accompa corn, in the form of alcohol, in one day, as would sup-nied by several professional men of considerable abiply him with bread for three; and thus, by his vices, lity. opens a market to the industry of a new settlement. The only mode, we believe, of encountering this evil, is by deriving from it such a revenue as will not admit of smuggling. Beyond this, it is almost invincible by authority; and is probably to be cured only by the progressive refinement of manners.

To evince the increasing commerce of the settlement, a list is subjoined of one hundred and forty ships which have arrived there since its first foundation; forty only of which were from England. The colony at Norfolk Island is represented to be in a very deplorable situation, and will most probably be abandoned for one about to be formed on Van Dieman's Land, though the capital defect of the former settlement has been partly obviated, by a discovery of the harbour for small craft.

The most important and curious information contained in this volume, is the discovery of straits which separate Van Dieman's Land (hitherto considered as its southern extremity) from New Holland. For this discovery we are indebted to Mr. Bass, a surgeon, after whom the straits have been named, and who was led to a suspicion of their existence by a prodigious swell which he observed to set in from the westward, at the mouth of the opening which he had reached on a voyage of discovery, prosecuted in a common whale boat. To verify this suspicion, he proceeded afterwards in a vessel of 25 tons, accompanied by Mr. Flinders, a naval gentleman; and entering the straits between the latitudes of 39 and 40 south, actually circumnavigated Van Dieman's Land. Mr. Bass's ideas of the importance of this discovery we shall give from his narrative, as reported by Mr. Collins.

The most prominent advantage which seemed likely to accrue to the settlement from this discovery was, the expediting of the passage from the Cape of Good Hope to Port Jackson; for although a line drawn from the Cape to 44° of south latitude, and to longitude of the South the Cape of Van Dieman's Land, would not sensibly differ from one drawn to the latitude of 409, to the same longitude; yet it must be allowed, that a ship will be four degrees nearer to Port Jackson in the latter situation than it would be in the former. But there is, perhaps, a greater advantage to be gained by making a passage through the strait than the mere saving of four degrees of latitude along the coast. The major part of the ships that have arrived at Port Jackson have met with N. E. winds, on opening the sea round the South Cape and Cape Pillar, and have been so much retarded by them, that a fourteen days' passage to the port is reckoned to be a fair one, although the difference of latitude is but ten degrees, and the most prevailing winds at the latter place are from S. E. to S. in summer, and from W.S.W. to S. in winter. If, by going through Bass Strait, these N. E. winds can be avoided, which in many cases would probably be the case, there is no doubt but a week or more would be gained by it; and the expense, with the wear and tear of a ship for one week, are objects to most owners, more especially when freighted with convicts by the run.

"This strait likewise presents another advantage. From the prevalence of the N.E. and easterly winds off the South Cape, many suppose that a passage may be made from thence to the westward, either to the Cape of Good Hope, or to India; but the fear of the great unknown bight between the South Cape of Lewen's Land, lying in about 35 south and 113 east, has hitherto prevented the trial being made. Now, the strait removes a part of this danger, by presenting a certain place of retreat, should a gale oppose itself to the ship in the first part of the essay; and should the wind come at S.W. she need not fear making a good stretch to the W.N.W.; which course, if made good, is within a few degrees of going clear of all. There is, besides, King George the Third's Sound, discovered *It is singular that government are not more desirous of pushing their settlements rather to the north, than the south of Port Jackson. The soil and climate would probably improve, in the latitude nearer the equator; and settlements in that position would be more contiguous to our Indian colonies..

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Such are the most important contents of Mr. Col. lins's book, the style of which we very much approve, because it appears to be written by himself; and we must repeat again, that nothing can be more injurious to the opinion the public will form of the authenticity of a book of this kind, than the suspicion that it has been tricked out and embellished by other hands. Such men, to be sure have existed as Julius Cæsar; but, in general, a correct and elegant style is hardly attainable by those who have passed their lives in action; and no one has such a pedantic love of good writing, as to prefer mendacious finery to rough and ungrammatical truth. The events which Mr. Collins's book records, we have read with great interest. There is a charm in thus seeing villages, and churches, and farms, rising from a wilderness, where civilized man has never set his foot since the creation of the world. The contrast between fertility and barrenness, popu lation and solitude, activity and indolence, fills the mind with the pleasing images of happiness and increase. Man seems to move in his proper sphere, while he is thus dedicating the powers of his mind and body to reap those rewards which the bountiful author of all things has assigned to his industry. Neither is it any common enjoyment to turn for a while from the memory of those distractions which have so recently agitated the Old World, and to reflect, that its very horrors and crimes may have thus prepared a long era of opulence and peace for a people yet involved in the womb of time.

WITTMAN'S TRAVELS. (EDINBURGH REVIEW, 1803.)

Travels in Turkey, Asia Minor, and Syria, &c. and into Egypt. By William Wittman, M. D. 1803. London. Phillips.

DR. WITTMAN was sent abroad with the military mission to Turkey, towards the spring of 1799, and remained attached to it during its residence in the neighbourhood of Constantinople, its march through the desert, and its short operations in Egypt. The military mission, consisting of General Koehler, and some officers and privates of the artillery and engineers, amounting on the whole to seventy, were assembled at Constantinople, June 1799, which they left in the same month of the following year, joined the grand vizier at Jaffa in July, and entered Egypt with the Turks in April, 1801. After the military opera tions were concluded there, Dr. Wittman returned home by Constantinople, Vienna, &c.

which begins and concludes with the events which we The travels are written in the shape of a journal, have just mentioned. It is obvious that the route described by Dr. Wittman is not new: he could make no cursory and superficial observations upon the people whom he saw, or the countries through which he passed, with which the public are not already fami liar. If his travels were to possess any merit at all, they were to derive that merit from accurate physical researches, from copious information on the state of medicine, surgery, and disease in Turkey; and above all, perhaps, from gratifying the national curiosity which all inquiring minds must feel upon the nature of the plague, and the indications of cure. Dr. Wittman, too, was passing over the same ground trodden by Bonaparte in his Syrian expedition, and had an ample opportunity of inquiring its probable object, and the probable success which (but for the heroic, defence of Acre), might have attended it; he was on the theatre

of Bonaparte's imputed crimes, as well as his noto- | of the victims? If Dr. Wittman received any such rious defeat; and might have brought us back, not evidence, why did he not bring it forward? If he never anile conjecture, but sound evidence of events which inquired for such evidence, how is he qualified to must determine his character, who may determine write upon the subject? If he inquired for it and our fate. We should have been happy also to have could not find it, how is the fact credible? found in the travels of Dr. Wittman a full account of the tactics and manœuvres of the Turkish army; and this it would not have been difficult to have obtained through the medium of his military companions. Such appear to us to be the subjects, from an able discussion of which, Dr. Wittman might have derived considerable reputation, by gratifying the ardour of temporary curiosity, and adding to the stock of permanent knowledge.

Upon opening Dr. Wittman's book, we turned with a considerable degree of interest, to the subject of Jaffa; and to do justice to the doctor, we shall quote all that he has said upon the subject of Bonaparte's conduct at this place.

This author cannot make the same excuse as Sir Robert Wilson, for the suppression of his evidence, as there could be no probability that Bonaparte would wreak his vengeance upon Soliman, Aga, Mustapha Cawn, Sidi Mahomet, or any given Turks, upon whose positive evidence Dr. Wittman might have rested his accusation. Two such wicked acts as the poisoning and the massacre, have not been committed within the memory of man ;-within the same memory, no such extraordinary person has appeared, as he who is said to have committed them; and yet, though their commission must have been public, no one has yet said, Vidi ego. The accusation still rests upon hear

say.

After a breach had been effected, the French troops storm-cusation has been over Europe, it is extraordinary that At the same time, widely disseminated as this aced and carried the place. It was probably owing to the obsti- it has not been contradicted in print: and, though Sir nate defence made by the Turks, that the French commanderin-chief was induced to give orders for the horrid massacre Robert Wilson's book must have been read in France, which succeeded. Four thousand of the wretched inhabitants that no officer of the division of Bon has come forward who had surrendered, and who had in vain implored the mercy in vindication of a criminal who could repay increduof their conquerors, were, together with a part of the late lity so well. General Andreossi, who was with the Turkish garrison of El-Arish, (amounting, it has been said, to First Consul in Syria, treats the accusations as confive or six hundred,) dragged out in cold blood, four days after temptible falsehoods. But though we are convinced the French had obtained possession of Java, to the sand hills, he is a man of character, his evidence has certainly about a league distant, in the way to Gaza, and there most inhumanly put to death. I have seen the skeletons of these un- less weight, as he may have been speaking in the mask fortunate victims, which lie scattered over the hills; a modern of diplomacy. As to the general circulation of the reGolgotha, which remains a lasting disgrace to a nation calling port, he must think much higher of the sagacity of itself civilized. It would give pleasure to the author of this multitudes than we do, who would convert this into a work, as well as to every liberal mind, to hear these facts con- reason of belief. Whoever thinks it so easy to get at tradicted on substantial evidence. Indeed, I am sorry to add, truth in the midst of passion, should read the various that the charge of cruelty against the French general does not histories of the recent rebellion in Ireland; or he may, rest here. It having been reported, that, previously to the re- if he chooses, believe, with thousands of worthy treat of the French army from Syria, their commander-inchief had ordered all the French sick at Jaffa to be poisoned, Frenchmen, that the infernale was planned by Mr. I was led to make the inquiry to which every one who should Pitt and Lord Melville. As for us, we will state what have visited the spot would naturally have been directed, re- appears to us to be the truth, should it even chance specting an act of such singular, and, it should seem, wanton to justify a man in whose lifetime Europe can know inhumanity. It concerns me to have to state, not only that neither happiness nor peace. such a circumstance was positively asserted to have happened, but that, while in Egypt, an individual was pointed out to us, as having been the executioner of these diabolical commands.' -(p. 128.)

The story of the poisoning is given by Dr. Wittman precisely in the same desultory manner as that of the massacre. 'An individual was pointed out to us as the executioner of these diabolical commands.' By how many persons was he pointed out as the execu tioner? by persons of what authority? and of what credulity? Was it asserted from personal knowledge, or merely from rumour? Whence comes it that such an agent, after the flight of his employer, was not driven away by the general indignation of the army? If Dr. Wittman had combined this species of informa tion with his stories, his conduct would have been more just, and his accusations would have carried greater weight. At present, when he, who had the opportunity of telling us so much, has told us so little, we are rather less inclined to believe than we were before. We do not say these accusations are not true, but that Dr. Wittman has not proved them to be true.

Now, in this passage, Dr. Wittman offers no other evidence whatever of the massacre, than that he had seen the skeletons scattered over the hills, and that the fact was universally believed. But how does Dr. Wittman know what skeletons those were which he saw? An oriental camp, affected by the plague, leaves as many skeletons behind it as a massacre. And though the Turks bury their dead, the doctor complains of the very little depth at which they are interred; so that jackals, high winds and a sandy soil, might, with great facility, undo the work of Turkish sextons. Let any one read Dr. Wittman's account of the camp near Jaffa, where the Turks remained so long in company with the military mission, and he will immediately perceive that, a year after their departure, it might have been mistaken, with Dr. Wittman did not see more than two cases of great ease for the scene of a massacre. The spot plague: he has given both of them at full length. which Dr. Wittman saw might have been the spot The symptoms were, thirst, headache, vertigo, pains where a battle had been fought. In the turbulent in the limbs, bilious vomitings, and painful tumours in state of Syria, and amidst the variety of its barbarous the groins. The means of cure adopted were, to evainhabitants, can it be imagined that every bloody battle, with its precise limits and circumspection, is accurately committed to tradition, and faithfully reported to inquirers? Besides, why scattered among hills? If 5000 men were marched out to a convenient spot and massacred, their remains would be heaped up in a small space, a mountain of the murdered, a vast bridge of bones and rottenness. As the doctor has described the bone scenery, it has much more the appearance of a battle and pursuit than of a massacre. After all, this gentleman lay eight months under the walls of Jaffa; whence comes it he has given us no better evidence? Were 5000 men murdered in cold blood by a division of the French army, a year before, and did no man remain in Jaffa, who said, I saw it done-I was present when they were marched outI went the next day, and saw the scarcely dead bodies

cuate the primæ viæ; to give diluting and refreshing drinks; to expel the redundant bile by emetics; and to assuage the pain in the groin by fomentations and anodynes; both cases proved fatal. In one of the cases, the friction with warm oil was tried in vain; but it was thought useful in the prevention of plague: the immediate effect produced was, to throw the person rubbed into a very copious perspiration. A patient in typhus, who was given over, recovered after this discipline was administered.

The boldness and enterprise of medical men are quite as striking as the courage displayed in battle. and evince how much the power of encountering dan ger depends upon habit. Many a military veteran would tremble to feed upon pus; to sleep in sheets running with water; or to draw up the breath of fever. ish patients. Dr. White might not, perhaps, have

marched up to a battery with great alacrity; but Dr. | distinguish between systematic energy, and the exWhite, in the year 1801, inoculated himself in the cesses of casual and capricious cruelty; the one awes arms, with recent matter taken from the bubo of a pes- them into submission, the other rouses them to retiferous patient, and rubbed the same matter upon dif- venge. ferent parts of his body. With somewhat less of courage, and more of injustice, he wrapt his Arab servant in the bed of a person just dead of the plague. The doctor died: and the doctor's man (perhaps to prove his master's theory, that the plague was not contagious), ran away The bravery of our naval officers never produced anything superior to this therapeutic heroism of the doctor's.

Dr. Wittman has a chapter which he calls An Historical Journal of the Plague; but the information which it contains amounts to nothing at all. He confesses that he has had no experience in the complaint; that he has no remedy to offer for its care, and no theory for its cause." The treatment of the minor plague of Egypt, ophthalmia, was precisely the method common in this country; and was generally attended with success, where the remedies were applied in

time.

Dr. Wittman, in his chapter on the Turkish army, attributes much of its degradation to the altered state of the corps of Janissaries; the original constitution of which corps was certainly both curious and wise. The children of Christians made prisoners in the predatory incursions of the Turks, or procured in any other manner, were exposed in the public markets of Constantinople. Any farmer or artificer was at liberty to take one into his service, contracting with gov. ernment to produce him again when he should be want ed: and in the mean time to feed and clothe him, and to educate him to such works of labour as are calcu lated to strengthen the body. As the Janissaries were killed off, the government drew upon this stock of hardy orphans for its levies; who, instead of hang. ing upon weeping parents at their departure, came eagerly to the camp, as the situation which they had always been taught to look upon as the theatre of Nothing can be conceived more dreadful than was their future glory, and towards which all their pas the situation of the military mission in the Turkish sions and affections had been bent, from their earliest camp; exposed to a mutinous Turkish soldiery, to in- years. Arrived at the camp, they received at first fection, famine, and a scene of the most abominable low pay, and performed menial offices for the little di filth and putrefaction; and this they endured for a vision of Janissaries to which they were attached: year and a half, with the patience of apostles of peace, 'Ad Gianizaros rescriptus primo meret menstruo sti rather than war. Their occupation was to teach dispendio, paulo plus minus, unius ducati cum dimidio. eased barbarians, who despised them, and thought it Id enim militi novitio, et rudi satis esse censent. Sed no small favour that they should be permitted to exist tamen ne quid victus necessitati desit, curu ea decuria, in their neighbourhood. They had to witness the cru- in cujus contuernium adscitus est, gratis cibum capit, elties of despotism, and the passions of armed and ig- eâ conditione, ut in culinà reliqoque ministerio ei denorant multitudes; and all this embellished with the curiæ serviat; usum armorum adeptus tyro, cnedum fair probability of being swept off, in some grand en- tamen suis contubernalibus honore neque stipendio par gagement, by the superior tactics and activity of the unam in sola virtute, se illis æquandi, spem babet: enemy to whom the Turks were opposed. To the utpote si militiæ quæ prima se obtulerit, tale specimen filth, irregularity, and tumult of a Turkish camp, as it sui dederit, ut dignus judicetur, qui tyrocinio exemptus, appeared to the British officers in 1800, it is curious to honoris gradu et stipendii magnitudine, reliquis Gianioppose the picture of one drawn by Busbequius in the zaris par habeatur. Quá quidem spe plerique tyrones middle of the sixteenth century: Turcæ in proximis impulsi, multa præclare audent, et fortitudine cùm ve campis tendebant ; cum vero in eo loco tribus mensi- teranis certant.-Busbequius, De Re Mil. cont. Turc. bus vixerim, fuit mihi facultas videndorum ipsorum Instit. Consilium. The same author observes, that castrorum, et cognoscendæ aliqua ex parte disciplinæ; there was no rank or dignity in the Turkish army, to qua de re nisi pauca attingam, habeas fortasse quod which a common Janissary might not arrive, by his me accuses. Sumpto habitu Christianis hominibus in courage or his capacity. This last is a most powerful illis locis usitato, cum uno aut altero comite quacun- motive to exertion, and is, perhaps, one leading cause que vagabar ignotus: primum videbam summo ordine of the superiority of the French arms. Ancient gov cujusque corporis milites suis locis distributos, et, ernments promote, from numberless causes, which quod vix credat, qui nostratis militiæ consuetudinum ought to have no concern with promotion: revolutionnovit, summum erat ubique silentium, summa quies, ary governments, and military despotisms, can make rixa nulla, nullum cujusquam insolens factum; sed ne generals of persons fit to be generals: to enable them nox quidem aut vitulatio per lasciviam aut ebrietatem to be unjust in all other instances, they are forced to emissa. Ad hæc summa mundities, nulla sterquilinia, be just in this. What, in fact, are the sultans and nulla purgamenta, nihil quod oculos aut nares offende-chas of Paris, but Janissaries raised from the ranks? ret. Quicquid est hujusmodi, aut defodiunt Turcæ, At present, the Janissaries are procured from the lowaut procul à conspectu submovent. Sed nec ullas est of the people, and the spirit of the corps is evapo compotationes aut convivia, nullum aleæ genus, magnum nostratis militiæ flagitium, videre erat: nulla lusoriarum chartarum, neque tesserarum damna norunt Turcæ.-Augeri Busbequii, Epist. 3. p. 187. Hanovia. 1622. There is at present, in the Turkish army, a curious mixture of the severest despotism in the commander, and the most rebellious insolence in the soldier. When the soldier misbehaves, the vizier cuts his head off, and places it under his arm. When the soldier is dissatisfied with the vizier, he fires his ball through his tent, and admonishes him, by these messengers, to a more pleasant exercise of his authority. That such severe punishments should not confer a more powerful authority, and give birth to a better discipline, is less extraordinary, if we reflect, that we hear only that the punishments are severe, not that they are steady, and that they are just; for, if the Turkish soldiers were always punished with the same severity when they were in fault, and never but then, it is not in human nature to suppose, that the Turkish army would long remain in as contemptible a state as it now is. But the government soon learn to

One fact mentioned by Dr. Wittman, appears to be curious-that Constantinople was nearly free from plague, during the interruption of its communication with Egypt.

pa

rated. The low state of their armies is in some de gree imputable to this; but the principal reason why the Turks are no longer as powerful as they were is, that they are no longer enthusiasts, and that the war is now become more a business of science than of per sonal courage.

The person of the greatest abilities in the Turkish empire is the capitan pacha; he has disciplined some ships and regiments in the European fashion, and would, if he were well seconded, bring about some im portant reforms in the Turkish empire. But what is become of all the reforms of the famous Gazi Hassan? The blaze of partial talents is soon extinguished. Never was there so great a prospect of improvement as that afforded by the exertions of this celebrated man, who, in spite of the ridicule thrown upon him by Baron de Tott, was such a man as the Turks cannot expect to see again once in a century. He had the whole power of the Turkish empire at his diposal for fifteen years; and, after repeated efforts to improve

This is a very spirited appeal to his countrymen on the tremendous power of the Turks; and, with the substitution of France for Turkey, is so applicable to the present times, that it might be spoken in Parliament with great effect.

:

the army, abandoned the scheme as totally impracti- move round the sun for if so a ship bound from Jaffa cable. The celebrated Bonneval, in his time, and De to Constantinople, instead of proceeding to the capit Tott since, made the same attempt with the same suc-al, would be carried to London, or elsewhere. We cess. They are not to be taught; and six months after cannot end this article without confessing with great his death, every thing the present capitan pacha has pleasure the entertainment we have received from the done will be immediately pulled to pieces. The pre- work which occasions it. It is an excellent loungingsent grand vizier is a man of no ability. There are book, full of pleasant details, never wearing by prosome very entertaining instances of his gross igno- lixity, or offending by presumption, and is apparently rance cited in the 133d page of the Travels. Upon the the production of a respectable worthy man." So far news being communicated to him that the earth was we can conscientiously recommend it to the public; round, he observed that this could not be the case; for any thing else, for the people and the objects on the other side would in that case fall off; and that the earth could not

Non cuivis homini contingit adire, &c. &c. &c.

SPEECHES, LETTERS, ETC.

CATHOLIC CLAIMS.

A Speech at a Meeting of the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of the East Riding of Yorkshire, held at Beverley, in that Riding, on Monday, April 11, 1825, for the Purpose of Petitioning Parliament, &c.*

animosity between us, could not, and would not fail to increase my regard and respect for him.

I beg leave, sir, before I proceed on this subject, to state what I mean by Catholic eman cpation. I mean eligibility of Catholics to all civil offices, with the usual exceptions introduced into all bills-jealous safeand for the regulation of the intercourse with Rome guards for the preservation of the Protestant church, and, lastly, provision for the Catholic clergy.

I object, sir, to the law as it stands at present, beimpolitic, because it exposes this country to the greatcause it is impolitic, and because it is unjust. It is Can you believe, sir, can est danger in time of war. any man of the most ordinary turn for observation, beLieve, that the monarchs of Europe mean to leave this country in the quiet possession of the high station which it at present holds? Is it not obvious that a war is coming on between the governments of law and the governments of despotism?-that the weak and totter

MR. ARCHDEACON,-It is very disagreeable to me to differ from so many worthy and respectable clergymen here assembled, and not only to differ from them, but, I am afraid, to stand alone among them. I would much rather vote in majorities, and join in this, or any other political chorus, than to stand unassisted and alone, as I am now doing. I dislike such meetings for such purposes-I wish I could reconcile it to my conscience to stay away from them, and to my temperament to be silent at them; but if they are called by others, I deem it right to attend-if I attend I must say what I think. If it is unwise in us to meet in taverns to discuss political subjects, the fault is not mine, for I should never think of calling such a meet-ing race of the Bourbons will (whatever our wishes ing. If the subject is trite, no blame is imputable to me: it is as dull to me to handle such subjects, as it is to you to hear them. The customary promise on the threshold of an inn is good entertainment for man and horse.—If there is any truth in any part of this sentence at the Tiger, at Beverley, our horses at this moment must certainly be in a state of much greater enjoyment than the masters who rode them.

It will be some amusement, however, to this meeting, to observe the schism which this question has occasioned in my own parish of Londesborough. My excellent and respectable curate, Mr. Milestones, alarmed at the effect of the pope upon the East Riding, has come here to oppose me, and there he stands, breathing war and vengeance on the Vatican. We had some previous conversation on this subject, and, in imitation of our superiors, we agreed not to make it a cabinet question. Mr. Milestones, indeed, with that delicacy and propriety which belong to his character, expressed some scruples upon the propriety of voting against his rector, but I insisted he should come and vote against me. I assured him nothing would give me more pain than to think I had prevented in any man, the free assertion of honest opinions. That such conduct, on his part, instead of causing jealousy and

I was left at this meeting in a minority of one. A poor clergyman whispered to me, tnt he was quite of my way of thinking, but had nine children. I begged he would remain a Protestant.

of the French, by plunging them into a war with Engmay be) be compelled to gratify the wounded vanity land. Already they are pitying the Irish people, as you pity the West Indian slaves-already they are Will they wait for your tardy wisdom and reluctant opening colleges for the reception of Irish priests?— liberality? Is not the present state of Ireland a premium upon early invasion? Does it not hold out the if the flag of any hostile power in Europe is unfurled in most alluring invitation to your enemies to begin? And will not hasten to join it ?-and not only the peasantry, that unhappy country, is there one Irish peasant who sir; the peasantry begin these things, but the peasantry do not end them-they are soon joined by an order å little above them-and then, after a trifling success, a still superior class think it worth while to try the risk: men are hurried into a rebellion, as the oxen were pulled into the cave of Cacus-tail foremost. The mob first, who have nothing to lose but their lives. of which every Irishman has nine-then comes the shopkeeper-then the parish priest-then the vicar-general if the French were to make the same blunders respect. -then Dr. Doyle, and, lastly, Daniel O'Connell. But ing Ireland as Napoleon committed, if wind and weather preserved Ireland for you a second time, still all your resources would be crippled by watching Ire. land. The force employed for this might liberate Spain and Portugal, protect India, or accomplish any great purpose of offence or defence.

War, sir, seems to be almost as natural a state to mankind as peace; but if you could hope to escape

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