were fpecially employed in tranfcribing the works of the claflic authors. He relates, at the fame time, many particular circumftances which he finds preferved in the ancient writers, tending to confirm the opinion of the great a vidity with which the ancients collected books, the trade carried on in them, and the accuracy with which they collated the copies: he mentions the names of feveral ancient bookfelLers, points out the places in Rome where they kept their fhops, and a number of other curious particulars with regard to this matter.

Afterwards, during the revolutions of the empire, the author marks the changes brought about at each period with regard to letters and the commerce of books: he conducts the reader through the melancholy interval of the dark ages, and fhews him that, in in the midst of the univerfal corruption, learning continued to be cultivated, especially at the court of the Popes, and among the Monks; and that it is to these last that we owe the prefervation of the ancient writings, and of the most precious monuments of ancient genius. Ignorance, however, and depravity of taste, did not extend to the Greeks: they always had libraries, and a traffic in books flourished among them till the ferocious Muffulmans made themfelves mafters of Conftantinople. To the ruin of the capital, the western parts

of Europe are indebted for the restoration of letters and of arts. Many Grecks fled thither, carrying with them, and introducing the knowledge of their arts among the Italians, as a reward for the protection they received. At this time appeared Petrarch and Bocaccio; manufcripts were anxioufly fought for amongst the rubbish of libraries, and fome were found, This taste continued till the time of Laurence de Medicis, and of Nicholas V. who made many valuable acquifitions, and whofe example was fol. lowed by several individuals of that time, fuch as Marfilius Ficinus, Angelo Politianus, Francis Filelfus, Gio Tortelli, Laurentius Valla, Eneas Sylvius, Piccolomini, the Cardinal Bessarione, and many others.

With thefe learned investigations, the author at laft brings us down to the era of the invention of Printing, an art that was the beginning of a new fort of commerce, and of a new order of things, the common effect of great difcoveries: after which, he confiders the hiftory of the trade in books with regard to the prices that were anciently paid for them. On this subject he details many ingenious ideas, which we are unable to follow in an extract. He concludes, by fuggesting to modern bookfellers an attention to certain practices adopted by the ancients, which made the profeffion in thofe days ufeful and refpectable.

tour, as it must be illuftrated with at leaft thirteen plates; and he remained here scarcely a month before he fet off for Ireland, in which kingdom he is now employed in vifiting the prifons; but his papers, he informed me, were ready for the prefs. Happily he had duplicates of his remarks, and these were kept in different trunks. With thefe he travelled fafely through different regions, till he arrived in Bishopfgate-street, London; and juft as he got out of the stage to take a hackneycoach, into which he was removing his trunks, one was stolen, and has never fince been recovered: befides a duplicate of his travels, it contained twentyfive guineas and a gold watch. A friend of mine, who vifited Newgate the next day, was told by a convict (fuch intelligence and communications have they) that the papers were all burnt. Of the Lazaretto at Marseilles he had no duplicates, and luckily the drawings were in the preserved trunk. Mr Howard told me, he valued them fo highly, that, had they been ftolen, he would have returned to Marseilles to acquire new ones. To enter this place is forbidden by ftrangers; and it was by a fingular ftratagem that he got in nine days fucceffively, without being difcovered. Having heard at Marfeilles, that an English Proteftant was confined in a prifon at Lyons, into which the intrusion of a stranger was always punished with confinement to the gallies for life, the difficulty of accefs only ftimulated the enthufiafm of Mr Howard. He learned, as well as he could, the different turnings and windings that led to the prifoner he more particulatly wifhed to vifit. How ard is a little man, of extenuated features, who might pafs for a Frenchman. He dreffed himself like one, with his hat under his arm, and passed haftily by twenty-four officers, and entered the very apartment he wished to fee, without fufpicion. He difclofed the fecret to an English minifter at Lyons, who advised his immediate de

N

parture, as he would inevitably be difcovered if he remained at Lyons all night. He therefore departed haftily, and got to Nice.

When he arrived at Paris, it was almost eleven o'clock at night. He had concluded to depart at three in the morning by the Bruffels stage, and to the inn he fent his baggage, and, hoping to get an hour or two's fleep, he went to bed. He had fcarcely fallen afleep, before his room-door was forced open, and in stalked a formaldreffed man, preceded by a fervant bearing two lighted candles, and solemnly interrogated him in French to this purpofe :-"Are you John Howard?""I am," replied the Englishman. "Did you travel with fuch a perfon ?"-" I do not know any thing of him," faid Mr Howard. The question was again repeated; and the fame reply, but with fome warmth, was given to it. The perfonage left the candles on a table in the room, and departed. Immediately Mr Howard dreffed himself, and ftole to the Lyons hotel: he heard of two meffengers in purfuit of him; but he ar rived at Bruffels undiscovered.

"At Vienna he proposed to remain two days; but the Emperor Jofeph, hearing of his arrival, defired to fee him: but as he had found his prifons upon a bad plan, and badly conducted by perfons in high truft, Mr Howard evaded an interview at firft; but Jofeph fending him a meffage, that he fhould chufe his own hour for an interview, the Englishman confented to the Emperor's requeft. The moment Mr Howard's name was announced, he quitted his fecretaries, and retired. with him into a little room, in which there was neither picture nor lookingglafs. Here Jofeph received a man who never bent his knee to, nor kissed the hand of any monarch; here he heard truths that aftonished him; and often did he feize hold of Mr Howard's hand with inexpreffible fatisfaction and approbation. "You have 2 prifoners,"

prifoners," faid Mr Howard, "who have been confined in dungeons without fecing day-light for twenty months, who have not yet had a trial; and, fhould they be found innocent, your Majesty has it not in your power to

make a compenfation for the violated rights of humanity." To the honour of this great Prince, let it be remembered, that alterations were made in the prifons before Mr Howard's departure.

I

IN the cities, the Moorifh women ftay much at home, and when they go abroad, which is but once in the week, they are always veiled: the old women cover themselves up with great care; but others, who have an intereft in beeing feen, are more indulgent, particularly to ftrangers, for they anxioufly conceal themfelves from the Moors. Hufbands do not know their wives on the streets, and it is even uncivil in them to eye any woman as fhe paffes; fo different are the cuítoms of nations!

There are fome fine women among the Moors, especially in the interior part of the empire: thofe towards the North are deficient in gracefulness and beauty; but for this no phyfical caufe can be aligned. As the women of warm climates come foon to maturity, they likewife foon fade. It is probably on this account that polygamy has been fo generally adopted in thefe

countries.

The women in general are not very referved; the climate, which has a great effect on the temperament, renders them peculiarly difpofed to gallantry: but this vice produces not among them fuch cruel effects as it does among other people, which is owing to the heat of the climate and their fobriety and moderation in other refpects. In the Southern parts, the women are in general handfome: they are faid to be fo circumfpect, and fo watchful, that even their relations, of the other fex, do not enter their houfes or tents: but fuch are the various customs of mankind, that in these very provinces

there are tribes who confider it as a duty of hofpitality to offer their women to a traveller; perhaps fome women devote themselves to this practice as to an act of benevolence; for it is impoffible to mark all the fhades that vary human opinions, or to trace the wanderings in which the human imagination is apt to indulge.

The women who inhabit the towns are here, as every where elfe, more folicitous about their drefs than thofe that live in the country: but as they feldom go abroad oftener than one day in the week, they are but rarely feen in their beft apparel. As they do not receive vifits from men, they are, when occupied in household affairs dressed in the lighteft difhabille, often wearing nothing befides a fhirt, and a coarser one over it bound with a girdle; their hair is difpofed in treffes; they have a bonnet their head, and fometimes nothing at all. When they are in drefs, they have a wide fhirt of fine linen, embroidered at the breast with gold; a caftan of rich stuff, of cloth or velvet, alfo embroidered; their head is furrounded with one or two folds of gauze, ftriped with gold or filk, which they tie behind, and the ends, being interlaced with the treffes of the hair, fall down to the girdle. Some have a ribbon over this about two inches broad, which is embroidered with gold or pearls, and encompaffes the head like a crown. They wear on their caftan a belt of crimson velvet embroidered, or of the knit-stuff manufactured at Fez, held faft by a gold or filver buckle. The women wear yek

low

low flippers, a fort of stockings made of very fine linen fomewhat full, tied below the knee and at the ankles: these stockings are not fo much intended to adorn the leg, as to enlarge it, for plumpnefs is one of the characteristics of beauty among the Moors. They take infinite pains to become fat, and when they are marriageable they are fed with a food particularly prepared, a certain quantity of which is given them daily in fhort, the Moors take as much pains to increafe the flesh of their young women as we do to fatten poultry. The reafon of this perhaps may be, that from the nature of the climate, and the quality of their food, the inhabitants are conftitutionally of a dry temperament. What is called in Europe a delicate fhape, or well-turned leg, would be imperfections in this part of Africa.

:

The Moors give their women trinkets of gold, filver, or pearls; few of them are in poffeffion of precious ftones. They wear rings and earrings of gold or filver in the fhape of a crefcent, five inches in circumference, and in thickness like the point of the little finger. In order to fafhion the ear for this ornament, after it is pierced, they introduce a roll of paper, which is every day increafed, till at laft the perforation is large enough to contain the kernel of a date of the fize of the ear-ring. They have bracelets of folid gold and filver, and rings of filver, fometimes of great weight, round the small of the leg.

A few of the women improve their complexion with a little rouge, but never ufe any other paint, they, however, tinge their eye-brows and eyelafhes, which gives their countenance more expreffion, and their eyes more fire. They ftain their feet, the palm of the hand, and the points of the fingers, with the fafron-coloured juice of the henna. When they come abroad, or make vifits, they wrap themfelves up in a neat and fine cloak, with a hood which covers the head and

face, fo that they can fee without be ing feen. When they travel, they wear ftraw hats to defend them from the fun in fome provinces they put on thefe hats when they make vifits; but this is peculiar to those tribes that have come from the South and have preferved their customs; for the Moors never forfake thofe ufages which they have once adopted, and that multipli city of fashions which, in Europe, fucceed one another with fo much rapidity, is utterly unknown to them.

Between the Moors and the Jews, who compofe the bulk of inhabitants in the empire of Morocco, there is an intermediate clafs of men, who, like amphibious animals, feem to have a connection with both elements; I mean the renegadoes, thofe who have renounced their own religion for Ma. hometanifm. In that clafs of fubjects, a great number of them have been o◄ riginally Jews; they are held in little eftimation by the Moors, and would be held in abhorrence by the Jews, if they durf freely exprefs their averfion. Thefe apoftates intermarry only with one another: for, as an old Chrif tian in Spain would think himself degraded by giving his daughter to a new convert, fo a Moor of the old ftock would never confent to take a renegado for his fon-in-law. The families of apoftate Jews are very numerous, and are called Tournadis; as they have never mingled with the Moors, their blood has not degenerated; and one can diftinguish, merely by the countenance, the defcendants of those who have anciently embraced Mahometanifm. The Chriftian renegadoes are not numerous; they confift almoft entirely of fugitives from the Spanish governments, or of perfons who have expofed themfelves to dif grace, and who, hurried by mifconduct, or driven by defpair, have paffed from a ftate of unhappiness to the most defpicable and deplorable of all fituations: there is not one of them that does not repent of having turned Moor,

and