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"The country about Tongchoo foo, for feveral miles, is level and fertile. Some of the English gentlemen were fupplied with horfes, to ride about in the neighbour hood. The horfes were strong and bony. The breed does not feem to have been improved by care. Mules bear a greater price than common horfes, as fubfifting on lefs food, and capable of more labour. Many of the horfes were spotted as regularly as a leopard. Such were fo common, as to remove the fufpicion of any fraud by artificial colouring. The race of those spotted horfes is fuppofed, among other means, to be obtained by crofling thofe of oppofite hues. The faddle furniture differed as much from the neatnefs of what is made in England, as the cattle themselves from Arabian courfers. The riders met feveral Chinese on horfeback, who, on approaching, alighted in civility to the ftrangers. This is a mark of refpect fhewn here always to fuperiors, and the cuftom has been extended to other parts of the Eaft. The Dutch governor and counfellors of the Indies exact, in imitation, that kind of homage from all perfons refident in Batavia. It appeared indeed, from feveral inftances, in Java, Sumatra, and Cochin china, that China gives the ton to the countries bordering on the Chinese feas. The diftinction of yellow colour, for example, by the Emperor, is affected by every fovereign in the eastern part of Asia.

"The mixture of eaftern and western customs, is to be feen fometimes in China. Thus in the neighbourhood of Tong-choo foo, the feafon of the harvest gave occafion to obferve, that the corn is fometimes thrashed with the common fail of Europe, and fometimes preffed out by cattle treading on the fheaf, as is defcribed by Orien

tal writers. A roller is likewife moved over it by the Chinese. For thefe operations a platform of hard earth and fand is prepared in the open air. A machine has been always ufed here for winnowing corn, exactly fimilar to that which has been introduced, within this century, it is faid, in Europe. It is probably a Chinese invention.

"Indian corn and fmall millet formed, in this place, the principal produce of the autumn crop. There were few inclofures, and few cattle to make them neceffary. Scarcely any fields to be feen in pasture. The animals neceflary for tillage, or for carriage, and thofe deftined to ferve for food, were mostly fed in ftalls, and fodder collected for them. Beans, and the finer kind of ftraw cut finall, composed a great proportion of the food for horfes. The roots of corn, and coarfer ftems, are frequently left to rot upon the ground for the purpofe of manure.

"The houses of the peafants were scattered about, instead of being united into villages. The cottages feemed to be clean and comfortable: they were without fences, gates, or other apparent precaution againft wild beafts or thieves. Robbery is faid to happen feldom, tho not punithed by death, unless aggravated by the commiflion of fome violent affault. The wives of the peafantry are of material affiftance to their families, in addition to the rearing of their children, and the care of their domeftic concerns; for they carry on moft of the trades which can be exercifed within doors. Not only they rear filk-. worms, and spin the cotton, which laft is in general ute for both fexes of the people; but the women are almoft the fole weavers throughout the empire. Yet few of them fail to injure their healths, or at least

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that he thought the motion perfectly regular, and that it ought to be granted.

"Judge Afton then began to recant. He faid, that he was always glad to be convinced of a mistake, and happy in having an early opportunity of acknowledging it; that from what his brother Yates and fir Fletcher Norton had faid, he faw clearly that his firft opinion had been erroneous, and that he agreed the motion ought to be granted.

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"Lord Mansfield then, in great confufion, faid, that he fhould take time to confider of it.' To this fir Flether Norton replied, that, as two of the three judges were of the fame opinion, the motion muft be granted; but that, for his part, if his lordship wanted any time to confider, whether, when a fubject applied to the court of King's bench for redrefs, he was or was not to be referred to a foreign minifter, or to an attorney-general, he had no objection to allowing

him all the time he wanted.

"Thus wickednefs and folly were defeated, and the unhappy foreign minifter, in fpite of the law of nations, was obliged to comply with the law of nature, and to provide for his child."

"The conduct of lord Mansfield on the queftion concerning literary property is well known. He gave a judgment in the court of King's-bench, by which the London bookfellers were induced to believe they had a permanent property in what they bought; and when the matter came to be argued in the houfe of lords, upon an appeal, and he was firmly attacked by lord Thurlow, (then attorneygeneral, and counfel for the appellant), and all his doctrine reprobated by lord Camden, he had not

courage to rife up in his place and defend his own judgment. He faid

not a word.

"If he was ambitious of being thought a Maecenas, which was fuppofed, that may be pretended to be fome excufe for his judgment on this queftion in the court of King's-bench, but cannot apologize for abandoning his own character in the houfe of lords.

"By his patronage of fir John Dalrymple, who compiled

The Memoirs of Great Britain,' already mentioned in the preceding chapter; and of Mr. Lind, who wrote fome tracts entitled,' Letters on Poland,' in which the late king of Pruffia is treated with great alperity; and fome tracts against America, during the American war, in fupport of the miniftry; and of fome other writers of the fame principles; perhaps he flattered himself with the hopes of being efteemed an encourager of literary men. But avarice was his ruling paflion. He used to say, thofe who purchafed eftates, preferved their principal but received no intereft; thofe who bought in the funds, had intereft but no principal. He laid out his money in mortgages, and good fecurities, by which he had both principal and intereft.

"His lordfhip was also ambitious of being thought a ftatesman. Upon one occafion only he thone as a politician: this was his attack on the Sufpending and Difpenfing Prerogative in the Year, which was undoubtedly made with great ability, but the cafe may be faid to have been more a matter of jurifprudence than politics, and although he gave to his eloquence all the ad-. vantages he had acquired by a long exercife, yet the merit of the attack is leilened, when it is recollected that lord Camden had maintained

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upon the Bofton Port Bill, in reply to lord Dartmouth, at that time iecretary of ftate for the colonies. His lordfhip faid, the fword was drawn, and the fcabbard thrown away. We had paffed the Rubicon;' alluding to Cæfar's march to Rome. This was not lefs a prophetic and dreadful denunciation to the interefts of Great Britain, than the infeription on the bridge over the Rubicon was to the fate of Cæfar, and the liberties of Rome.

the neceffity of a fufpending power in a cafe of imminent danger of famine, which was the fact, and that lord Mansfield warmly embraced this opportunity of upholding a true conftitutional doctrine, to gratify his envy and hatred of lord Camden. His motive was founded in perfonal rancour, not in conftitutional. All thofe who are acquainted with the hiftory of the time will not hesitate to admit this diftinction. But the tract which was publifhed, called A Speech a- "Montefquieu, in confidering gainst the Sufpending and Difpenf- the caufes of the grandeur and deing Prerogative, and contained all clenfion of the Romans, obferves, that lord Mansfield advanced in his that policy had not permitted arfpeech upon this fubject in the houfemies to be stationed near Rome, for

of lords, was not written by his lordfhip, although generally believed to have been his production, nor was he privy to the writing or publication. The pamphlet was written by lord Temple, and lord Lyttelton, and a gentleman who was prefent at the debate, and states in the form of one fpeech all the arguments on that fide. However, lord Mansfield's motives may be excused, if the feverity of his attack makes minifters more affiduous in their duty, for they had information. of the approaching danger, and did not attend to it; if they had, fuch attention would have prevented the Receffity of reforting to fo violent a remedy.

"Of his lordship's political opinions and conduct, it would have been happy for his country if they had been founded in thofe juft principles of all government, which make the honour of the ftate and the interests of the people perfectly the fame. His political ideas were like thofe of lord Bute; they were contracted, fplenetic, and tyrannical. No better proof need be given than his memorable apoftrophe in the house of lords, in the year 1774,

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this reafon confiderable forces were kept in Cifalpine Gaul; but to fe'cure the city of Rome against those troops, the celebrated Senatus Confultum was made, ftill to be feen engraven on the way from Rimini to Cefena; by which they devoted to the infernal gods, and declared to be guilty of facrilege and parricide, thofe who fhould with a legion, with an army, or with a cohort, país the Rubicon.' Montanus gives the infcription at length, which is ftronger than Montefquieu ftates, and fays that Aldus Manutius, in the year 1565, in his way from Venice to Rome, faw this inferip tion, and carefully tranfcribed it. When Cæfar, in his march for Rome, had advanced to the Rubicon he paused a few moments at this infcription, but his ambition prevailing, he paffed over the bridge and then exclaimed, the lot is

caft, let the gods do the rest!.

"Whoever knows lord Mansfield's influence in the British cabinet, will fay this was the die of A-. merica."

In the progrefs of the American war, lord and general Howe, had hot the fuccefs which his lord

fhip expected, and he could not field faid, the Howes had no help expreffing his difappointmentheads;' to which fir

Clay

at dinner at one of the Surrey af- ton neatly replied, then what fizes; the fubject of conversation will become of the heads of those being the American war, lord Mans

'who sent them?"

ANECDOTES of the REIGNING SULTAN, and of the RULING CABINET at the OTTOMAN COURT.

[From CONSTANTINOPLE ANCIENT and MODERN, &c. by JAMES DALLAWAY, M. B. F. S. A. late Chaplain and Physician to the British Embaffy to the Porte.]

“A

FEW anecdotes of the fultan and the prefent ruling cabinet, which I offer as genuine, may not be unacceptable, as varibus caufes feem at this juncture to confpire, by which the Ottoman court may take a more active part on the great political theatre of Europe. Sultan Selim III. is the eldeft male defcendant of the house of Ofman, who in 1299 established the fth dynafty of the kalifes. At the death of his father Muftafa III. in 1775, he was fourteen years old. According to the known precedent amongst the Turks, Abdul-hamid, his uncle, fucceeded to the throne; for they difdain to be governed either by a woman or a boy.

"At his acceffion Abdul-hamid had reached the age of forty-nine, and during the fifteen years' reign of his brother Mustafa had endured a ftate imprisonment, which the jealous policy of the feraglio had long ordained. As a folace of his confinement, he cultivated literature and the arts of peace. His difpofition, mild and beneficent, induced him to forego the ancient prejudice, and to fuperintend the education of fultan Selim, giving him every liberal indulgence. Sultan Muftafa

and fultan Mahmood, the fons of Abdul-hamid and the only remaining heirs of the empire, are both minors. They experience a generous return for their father's kindnefs, and are treated with fuitable refpect. Each has his feparate fuite of apartments, and fixty attendants, amongft whom are thirty elderly female flaves, with an annual reve nue of £.5000 fterling. The good mufulman, who laments the poffible extinction of the imperial family, is comforted by the aftrologers, who have publicly declared, that after he has attained to forty years, fultan Selim will be bleffed with a numerous progeny.

"His countenance is handfome and impreffive, and his figure good; he is affable, and poffeffes much fpeculative genius, is not ill informed of the characters and feparate interefts of his contemporary princes, and has every inclination to reconcile his fubjects to the fuperior expediency of European maxims, both in politics and war. But it is dubious if he be capable of that energetic activity, and that perfonal exertion, which are requir ed in an abfolute prince to re-model a people whofe opinions are not

to be changed but by an univerfal
revolution.

Peter the Great and Charles
XII. in their plans of regenerating,
or conquering the Ruffians, did not
depend folely upon the agency of
minifters for fuccefs.

"The curiofity of Selim refpecting the other nations of Europe originated in frequent converiations with Rachìb Effendi, the prefent historiographer-royal, who was for fome time envoy at Vienna, after the last war. Thofe who have gained his confidence fince the commencement of his reign, have confulted that inclination, and improved every opportunity of extending his intelligence on thofe fubjects. I have heard it afferted that the young men in the feraglio are now inftructed in the French language by his command; and his partiality to French wine is no fecret amongst the well informed.

"The firft efforts towards improvement have been applied to the army and marine. Forts have been erected on the Bosporus, regiments have been trained to European difcipline, chiefly by French officers, and the fleet will become in a certain degree formidable.

"When he has leifure to render his vast territory, at leaft in the vicinity of his capital, more refemblant of civilized nations, he will probably establish a poft, which may facilitate communication between diftant provinces. During the laft war many places of importance were taken, or evacuated, weeks before the miniftry were in poffeffion of the fact.

"The only imperial works now feen in his dominions are mofques, aqueducts, and fountains; he may hereafter turn his attention to great roads, now barely paffable, which would be as ufeful monuments of his fame.

"Mehmet Melèk Pafha, the late favourite, in his youth, of Mustafa vifier, refigned in 1794. He was a III. who gave him his fifter in marriage, and the appellation of Melek, or the Angel, on account of his fintake their furname from fome perfongular beauty; for the Turks ufually al excellence or peculiarity. After having enjoyed fome of the most lu crative governments in the empire he returned to Conftantinople, and was called to the vifirate, at the advanced He has retired to his palace on the age of ninety years, in 1789. Afiatic fide of the Bofporus, and, as an extraordinary fact in natural hiftory, has had a fon born to him whofe legitimacy cannot be invalidated.

ment aims at the fuppreffion of the "The prefent fyftem of governformer fole authority of the vifier, and has reduced him to a mere the fultan takes a more active flare member of the cabinet council. As than his predeceffor in public af fairs, and liftens to more advisers, it feems to draw to an end. vifier now in office is likewife a harmless old man, fo that they may probably foon fit ftate-ftatutes only.'

The

fent day are, "The ruling perfons of the prekiayah, or high-fteward to the ful1. Yusuf Agha, tan's mother, who retains a very decided influence with him. Yusùf's private life has been marked by uncommon circumftances. He is a native of Candia, and was originally a writer to a fhip, from which employment he paffed into the fervice of Abdullah Patha, beglerbey During ten years he fo ingratiated of Anatolia, refiding at Kutayah. himself with the pafha, that he determined to fecure to him his great wealth in his life-time. Accordingly he gave him intire poffeffion, ordering him to fly to the Porte,

and

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