abandon him to your just indignation; but he is dead, never to revive. Deign to restore your esteem to him who now writes to you. He cannot do without it, and will never deserve to lose it. Asa guarantee for this he has, not his reason, but his situation, which will in future exempt him from violent paffion. Although I neither ought, nor with, Sir, to trouble you farther about Duchefne's business; and although I defire still less to justify myself in regard to him, I cannot avoid faying, that if it were true that he had proposed to fend me the clean sheets only, volume by volume, all my alarms, and the noise I have made about them, would then be not only the acts of a madman, but of a knave. I must also confefs to you, Sir, that I dare not write to Madame la Maréchale. Not knowing to what degree the may be irritated, I know not how to go about making my peace. TO M. DE MALESHERBES. Motiers, October 26, 1762. PERMIT, Sir, a man so often honoured with your favours; but who never asked any of you that were not just and honourable, to folicit one more. Laft winter I wrote you four successive letters concerning the difpofition, and state of my mind, the tranquillity of which, I hoped, would not again be difturbed. I defire exceedingly to have a copy of those four letters, and I think that the fentiments that dictated them deferves this complaifance on your part. I therefore take the liberty of asking for a copy; or if you prefer sending me the originals, I will only request fufficient time to transcribe them, and will, if your defire it, return them in a few days. I shall be the more sensible of this favour, because it will prove to me that my misfortunes have not diminished your kindness and esteem, and that you do not judge of a man by his destiny. Accept, Sir, the affurance of my profound respect. My address is at Motiers-Travers, Comté de Neufchâtel, parPontcartier. The postage of letters which are not franked must be paid as far as Pontcartier. "Hor preparing plants to complete your tus Siccus." Being unable to live without the assistance of my labour, I never thought (notwithstanding the pleasure it would give me) of offering you my time without retribution. I will even confefs, that I should have been very happy to intermix with the tiresome and fedentary labour of copying, an occupation more to my taste, and more conducive to my healththat of collecting plants for the numbet of cabinets of natural history, which are forming at Paris; and in which, according to me, the third kingdom, though totally unattended to, is not less neceffary than the other two. The making of several of these collections together would have been more lucrative to me, and would better have defrayed the expence, which distant excursions, and admiffion into curious gardens, sometimes require. But the Freach have, in general, such false ideas of botany, and so little taste for the study of nature, that it is vain to hope that this charming part of it will ever tempt them to make collections of this kind. This is therefore a refource that I must not look to. As to you, Sir, who join to knowledge of every kind, a perpetual desire to increase it, I trust you will not deprive me of the pleasure of contributing to your amusements. Send me a memorandum of what you defire, I will collect all I am able; and will receive payment, without reluctance, for whatever I may furnish. With respect to the small specimen I have already sent you, it is quite a different affair: it confifted of plants that belonged to you. Those I substituted in place of fuch as were fpoiled were not collected for you: I had only the trouble of taking them out of my own collection; and as I did not offer to bear any part of the expence you were put to by my botanizing, when in your company, it seems to me, Sir, that you ought not to offer payment for what picked up together, nor for my amufing myself, by putting them in fome fort of order, before I fent them away. we Notwithstanding the good accounts you give me of your present state of health, I am affured that it is not yet perfectly re-established; and unfortunately the enfuing feafon is not favourable for pedestrian exercise, which I think as beneficial to you as to myself. Winter, as you know, Sir, offers to the botanist plants of a peculiar kind: namely, mosses and lichens. There must be in your parks very curious things of that kind; and I earnestly ex* J. J. Roufleau supported himself by copying mufic. * A bookfeller at Paris. hort 1799.] Extracts from the Port Folio of a Man of Letters. hort you, when you have time, to examine those species upon the spot, and in the proper season. Your refolutions, Sir, being fuch as you mention, I certainly am not the man to difapprove them: an agreeable leifure so obtained is highly honourable. To perform great duties in elevated fituations; such is the task imposed upon men of your profeffion, and endowed with T 471 your talents; but when an individual, after offering to his country the tribute of his zeal, finds it no use, he may certainly then be permitted to live for himself, and to content himfelt with being happy. [These letters, so characteristic of the mind of their celebrated author, will be occasionally continued.] Extracts from the Port Folio of a Man of Letters. HE laws of Spain justify killing in self defence, gravely stating, that it is better that a man should defend his own life, than to leave his death to be avenged by his relatives "mayor mientras que vive que se defenda, que dexar que lo venge depoys su morte." The laws of Japan, a country which seems to be as far distant from others in its opinions, as in its fituation, allow no indulgence for felf defence, The only difference they make between that and the most atrocious murder is, that if the aggressor be killed, the survivor shall be allowed to be his own executioner. A case, upon this point, occurred in Scotland, about 50 years ago, which does no great honour to the judges of that country. A Mr. Cumming was tried in the court of justiciary for the murder of a foldier. The jury found a special verdict, which stated, That the prifoner and two friends met some foldiers in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and cafually asked them what it was o'clock : that one of the foldiers having returned an impertinent answer, Mr. Cumming faid, "is that an answer to give to a gentleman?" that, thereupon the foldiers drew their bayonets, and the gentlemen their swords, and a scuffle enfued: in which Mr. Cumming, in defending himself, killed one of the foldiers. The court, upon this verdict, adjudged Mr. Cumming to be hanged! which was put in execution! This decision, however, had some good effect in Scotland. A trial foon after occurred of Mr. Carnegy of Finhaven, for killing the Earl of Strathmore. Carnegy and the Earl had been at the funeral of a relation. In returning from dinner, where the company had drank pretty freely, Mr. Lyell, one of the party, used much insulting language to Mr. Carnegy, and at last pushed him into a dirty ditch:-On getting up, Mr. Carnegy drew his fword, and made push at Mr. Lyell, when he ran behind Lord Strathmore, who received the thrust and was killed. On the trial, Mr. Dundas (the father of the secretary of state). who was Mr. Carnegy's counsel, strongly pressed it upon the jury, not to return a special verdict, as had been there the cuftom, and which, in the cafe of Cumming's, had been so shamefully abused; but at once to declare the prifoner guilty or not guilty. His eloquent and judicious, reasoning had the effect, and the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. Mr. Locke, in his " Effay on Civil Government," (book 11. ch. xviii.) puts a fingular case with regard to justifiable homicide: "A man, with his sword in his hand, demands my purse in the highway, when perhaps I have not twelvepence in my pocket : this man I may lawfully kill. To another I deliver 100l. only whilft I alight, which he refuses to restore me when I am got up again, but he draws his fword to defend the poffeffion of it by force, if I endeavour to retake it. The mischief this man does me is a hundred, or poffibly a thousand times worse than the other perhaps intended me (whom I killed before he really did me any), yet I may lawfully kill the one, and cannot so much as hurt the other." Among the many accounts of the difference in the price of provifions in old times, and at present, none is more remarkable, and certainly none more authentic, than the following:-but in this, as well as all other details on that fubject, the proper confideration is to be made of the comparative value of money in those times and now. In the year 1314, a parliament was held on purpose to fix the price of provifions, which was so enormous that the people could not fupport themselves. The following were the prices fixed by the legiflature. A stall or corn-fed ox 11. 4s.; a grafs fed, ditto, 16s.; a stalled, or cornfed cow, 125.; a grass fed cow, 10s. ; a fat sheep, with the wool on, is. 8d.; ditto, with the wool shorn, 1s. 2d.; a fat hog, two years old, 3s. 4d.; a fat goose, 2d.; ditto, in the city of London, 3d. a fat capon, 2d.; ditto, in the city of London, 24.; a fat hen, Id.; ditto, in the city of London, 1d.; two chickens, Id. ditto, in the city of London, 1; four pigeons, Id.; three, ditto, in the city of London, id.; twenty-four eggs, id.; twenty, ditto, in the city of London, Id. The following curious passage from prefident " Henault's History of France" will give fome idea of the value of money in the ninth century. "Pour juger de prix de l'or et de l'argent d'alors, il suffira de rapporter deux faits. Au concile de Toulouse, tenu en 846, la contribution que chaque curé étoit tenu de fourni à fon êveque, savoir un minôt de frument, un minôt d'orge, un mésure de vin, et un agneau, étoit valué deux fols: le second fait c'est que Charles le chauve fit un edit 864, pour une nouvelle fabrication de monnois; comme par cet edit l'ancienne monnoie étoit décriée, il ordonne qu'il fut tiré cinquante livres d'argent de ses coffres pour être répandues dans la commerce." en et JOHAN DE MEHUN, author of the celebrated " Romance de la Rofe," about the year 1530, bequeathed to a monastery in France, a chest supposed to contain articles of great value. On opening it, however, the friars found it filled only with vetches; and in their rage on the ridicule and disappointment, they would not fuffer the body of the unfortunate bequeather to have a Chriftian funeral. The following passage from “Piers Plowman's Vifion, thew that fuch things in old times were not unknown in England. "The friars followed folke that were riche, And folke that were poor at little price they fet; "And no corse in the kirke-yard ne kirke was buried, "But quicke he bequeathed them ought, or quit part of his debt." And Chaucer says of a friar : "Full sweetly heard he confeffion, "And pleafant was he's abfolution; "He was an eafy man to give penance "There as he wist to have a good pittance." In the Philippine Isles a certain proportion of the dower is paid to the intended wife, after liberty of converfing with her; a farther share for the permiffion to eat with her, and the remainder upon confummation. In Turkey, bakers convicted of felling bread under weight, are hung up at their own door; and a traveller in that country mentions that notwithstanding executions for this offence are so frequent that a perfon can hardly walk along the streets without rubbing against the bodies, yet even these incessant rigorous punishments do not put a stop to this nefarious practice. Ben Jonson says, "Princes learn no art truly but that of horsemanship; the reason is, the brave beast is no flatterer; he will throw a prince as foon as his groom." The adulation which princes receive in all countries, from their infancy, is certainly ill calculated to make them know truly their duty as sovereigns. To those in the habits of attending a court, this is perfectly well known: to fuch as are accustomed to courts, the following passage from Fabian's Chronicle, may afford at once information and amufement-" Henry the Sixth, when eight months old, fat in his mothers's lap, in the parliament chamber; the speaker made a famouse prepofition, in which he faid much of the Providence of God, who had endowed the realm with so toward a prince and fovereign governour. The coronation of a king is at all times the occafion of splendor, shew and expence. The stile of expence was however formerly very different from what it is in these days. In the time of Edward the First, every sheriff within 150 miles of London, was obliged upon this folemn occasion to send 60 oxen and cows, 60 hogs, 2 fat boars, 60 fat sheep, and from 3 to 5000 hens and capons. By the Charta Foreste we find that before that time to kill one of the king's deer was punished with the loss of life or limb, at the same time that a murderer paid only a weregild or was entitled to benefit of clergy. From Crantz's account of Greenland we learn that the Greenlanders shew their resentment for injuries by giving their adversaries notice, that they will, at a particular day, publicly recite a libel against them; and it is reckon'd a want of fpirit if the adversary does not appear and give a fluent answer-what barbarians! not to have recourse to duel. CURIOUS ORIGIN OF THE NINE The muses originally confifted of only three in number; Mnemosyne, Memory, Melete, Meditation, Aede, Song. They were augmented to the number of nine, because 1799.] Correct List of New Publications. 473 because the inhabitants of their ancient to select the three most perfect statuestown, defirous of placing in the temple but then nine, were so beautiful, that it of Apollo the statues of the three Muses, was agreed to take them all, 'and to place and they being of extraordinary beauty, them in the temple, and call them the nine they ordered three of the most skilful sculp- Muses. From this accident, they detors to execute, each, the statues of these rived their origin, and the fix other attrithree muses, which made up the number butes of poetry were given to the addiof nine; and from which it was proposed tional sister. A CORRECT LIST OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. The following is offered to the Public as a complete Lift of all Publications within the Month.-Authors and Publishers, who defire an early Notice of their Works, are intreated to transmit copies of the fame. Family Distress; or Self Immolation, a Play in three Acts, by Augustus Von Kotzebue, as it is now performing verbatim from this tranflation, with applause, at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket; translated from the German, by Henry Neuman, Esq. 28. Phillips. The Prisoner; or the Resemblance, a Comic Opera, as Reading by Le Texier and Nugent; translated from the French, by Henry Heartwell Esq. Is. Cadell and Davies, The Forresters, a Picture of rural Manners, a Play, translated from the German of Iffland, by Bell Plumptre. 28. Vernor and Hood. The most interesting Collection of Theatrical Pieces, being a Continuation of " Recueil des Pieces de Theatre Nouvellement lues," par M. Le Texier; and containing fom of Molier's Chef d'Œuvres, with the best Plays lately acted at Paris, 4 vols. 8vo. 11. Is. Dulau, and Co. Pizarro in Peru, or the Death of Rolla, translated from the German of Augustus Von Kotzebue; with Notes, &c. by Thomas Dutton, 2s. 6d. ENGRAVINGS. Weft. HERALDRY. Kearsley's Peerage of England, brought down to January 1799.9s. boards. Kearsley. LAW. The Practice of the Court of King's Bench, in penal actions. A new Edition, (2d.) 2 vols. 8vo. 11. 1s. boards. Brooke and Rider. The Crown Circuit Companion, with Additions, Improvements, and modern References, by Thomas Dogherty. A new Edition. (7th.) 8vo. Brooke and Rider. Sanders on Ufes and Trusts, and on the Nature of Conveyances, 2 vols. 8vo. A new Edition, (2d.) gs. boards. Brooke and Rider. Lord Thanet's Case considered, as to the Question-Whether the Judgement be specific or arbitrary? With Reports of Cafes, by W. Frith, Efq. of Lincoln's Inn. Js. Butterworth. The Ram's Horn sounded; alfo Remarks on Thomas Paine's Age of Reafon, by Jobn Boufell, of Norwich. 6d. Richardfon. The Inspector, or select literary Intelli 3 P gence gence for the vulgar A. D. 1798, but more correct A. D. 1801, being the first Year of the 19th Century, 5s. boards. White. Letters from the Continent, containing Anecdotes relative to the present state of Literature in Germany; and to the celebrated German Literati, including three Letters of Gray's never before published in this Country: tranflated from the German of Frederick Mathison, by Miss Plumptre, 8vo. 8s. boards. Longman and Rees. Letters written during a Residence in England, translated from the French of Henry Meister, containing curious Remarks on English Manners, Government, &c. together with a Letter from the Margravine of Anspach to the Author, 8vo. 6s. boards. Longman and Rees. The Balnea, or a Description of all the popular watering places in England, by George S. Carey, 2d Edition, confiderably enlarged, 3s 6d. West. Obfervations upon the Vindication of Homer, and of the Ancient Poets and Historians who have recorded the Siege and Fall of Troy, 4to. 4s. Payne. The Margate New Guide for 1799. 2s. 6d. Dutton. MEDICAL. Reports of a Series of Inoculations for the Cow-pox; with Remarks and Obfervations on this Disease considered as a Substitute for the small-pox, by William Woodville, M. D. Physician to the Small-pox and Innoculation Hospitals, 3s. 6d. Phillips. A Detection of the Falacy of Dr. Hull's Defence of the Cæfarean Operation, by W. Simmons, Surgeon to the Manchester InfirVernor and Hood. mary, 2s. 6d. Essays on Electricity, by the late George Adams, fifth edition, corrected, &c, by W. Jones, in 1 vol. 8vo. price 8s. boards. W. and S. Jones, Holborn. Memoirs of Medicine, including a Sketch of Medical History, by Richard Walker, Esq. Apothecary to the Prince of Wales, 8vo. 58. *boards. Johnfon. The Medical and Physical Journal, conducted by Drs. Bradley and Willich, No. 5. to be continued Monthly, price 2s. Phillips. NOVELS. Albert, or The Wilds of Strathnaven, by Elizabeth Helme, 4 vols. 14s. fewed. Low. The Gipfey Countess, by Mrs. Gunning, 4 vols. 12mo. Longman and Rees. The young Exiles, or Correspondence of some Juvenile Emigrants, from the French of Madame de Genlis, 3 vols. 12mo. boards. Symonds. Battle Bridge, an Historical Tale, 2 vols. 7s. fewed. Cawthorn. The Witch and Maid of Honour, by the Old Woman, 2 vols. 78. boards. Longman and Rees. The Valley of St. Gothard, by Mrs. Parfons, 3 vols. 12mo. boards. Wallis. The Fairy of Misfortune, or the Lover of The Old English Gentleman, by the Rev. R. Polrwhele, 6s. boards. Cadell and Davies. The Unfexed Females, a Poem, addresled to the Author of the Pursuits of Literature, 2s. 6d. Cadell and Davies. Pursuits of Happiness, a Poem, addressed to a Friend, 4to. 2s. 6d. Faulder. The Hop Garden, a didactic Poem, by Luke Booker, LL. D. 3s. sewed. Rivingtons. The Pleasures of Hope, with other Poems, by Thomas Campbell, 12mo. Plates, 6s. boards. Longman and Rees. Fables by the Duke of Nivernois, translated into English Verse, 5s. boards. Cadell and Davies. POLITICS. What is our Situation and What our Prospects? or a Demonstration of the infidious Views of Republican France: by an American. Black. The Hiftory of the Union of Scotland and England, by the Rev. Ebenezer Marshall, 5s. boards. Longman and Rees. The Rife, Progress and Consequences of the new Opinions and Principles lately introduced into France; with Observations, 5s. boards. Wright. An Address to the Royal Volunteer Corps of Great Britain, by Robert Hardy, M. A. 12mo. 2s. boards. Rivington. The Neceffity of destroying the French Republic proved by Facts; translated from the French, 1s. 6d. Debrett. |