rank little higher than that of a common foldier on the coaft of Barbary.

These great reverses of fortune, and calamities of men in high ftations, at the fame time that they are hardly ever known to difcourage men of ability and fpirit from undertaking the public fervice, when regularly called to it, may juftly make perfons who are born to private flations, and who have no opportunity of rifing above them, content with their fituation. The many who have abdicated royalty, as Chriftina queen of Sweden, Charles V, emperor of Germany, Victor Amadeus, king of Sardinia, John Cafimer, king of Poland, and others, convince us that crowns do not always fit eafy; and that persons in high stations have need of a strong fenfe of honour and integrity to make their fatigues and misfortunes tolerable.

It is no unufeful fentiment that we collect from reading that Richlieu thortened his days by the uneafinefs with which he was devoured in the fulness of his power. What Voltaire fays of Lewis XIV, is an excellent memento to the ambitious; that he faw all his family perith by premature deaths; that though toward the clofe of his life, he appeared in public as ufual, in private the pain of his many misfortunes pierced him to the heart, and threw him into convulfions; that he met with domeftic loffes at the conclufion of an unfuccefsful war, and before he was fure of obtaining a peace, and at a time when a famine had wafted his kingdom; and that he loft in the minds of his fubjects, during the last three years of his life, all the refpect and efteem he had gained by his great actions.

The advantage of preferring a private fituation, efpecially to entering into the views of faction, we see in the security and long life of Atticus, in the most distracted times of the Roman hiftory; and in Richard Cromwell, who lived to a great age contented and happy, whereas his father never knew what happiness was. The hiftory of very few great ftatefmen can match that of Cardinal Fleury, of whom we read, that his fchemes were crowned with fuccefs from the year 1726 to 1742; that he lived ninety years, and preferved his faculties unimpaired to the laft; which makes the hiftorian fay, that, if ever there was a happy man upon earth, it was doubtlefs Cardinal Fleury.

Laftly, Thote obfervations on the tem-, pers and manners of men, which we may collect, every day from common life, affect us much more ftrongly when we fee them exemplified in the hiftory of great perfonages. We fee, for inftance, every day, that almoft all perfons who are intrusted with power abufe it. But this is better exemplified in kings, and minifters of fate. We ice again that men in low circumstances

are apt to be defpifed, and that court is always paid to the great and the powerful. But this maxim receives a ftronger confirma tion, and makes a deeper impreffion, than any occurrence in private life could occafion, when we think that court was paid to Oliver Cromwell, by all the princes of Europe, while Charles II; then in exile, could not obtain an interview with the minifters of either France or Spain, at the treaty of the Pyrenees, though he made a journey on purpofe to obtain it.

It is a common and juft obfervation, that through the inconftancy of our nature, men are liable to conceive hafty and unreasonable difguft at their fituation, and yet, when they have changed it, wish to refume it; and this we fee exemplified in private life almost every day. But ever fo many examples of this kind do not make fo great an impreffion upon us, as the hiftory of Victor Amadeus king of Sardinia, who abdicated the crown through mere caprice, but found, as fome hiftorian fays, that the company of his miftrefs, who was become his wife, devotion, and the tranquillity of retirement, could not fatisfy a foul occupied during fifty years with the affairs of Europe. He was defirous of regaining the throne even by force, and afterwards died in confinement.

How incapable riches and power are to fatisfy the mind of man, is an obfervation which few perfons, in the courfe of their own experience, have not feen occafion to make. But the fentiment makes a deeper impreffion upon us when we fee it exemplified in the hiftory of fatefmen and conquerors; and as it is beautifully exhibited in a converfation which paffed between Pyrrhus and his minifter Cyneas, before their expedition into Italy. The minifter afked the king what he proposed to do when he had subdued the Romans? He anfwered, pafs into Sicily. What then? faid the minifter. Conquer the Carthaginians, replies the king. And what follows that? fays the minifter. Be fovereign of Greece, and then enjoy ourfelves, faid the king. And why, replied the fenfible minifter, can we not do this laft now?

To add one inftance more: we fee the

vanity of the living in their boundlefs provifion for futurity, in the diffipation of the large fortunes of covetous perions, by the extravagance of their heirs. But it does not affect us near fo much as when we are reading in hiftory, that the riches which Sixtus V amaffed in his pontificate, and thofe which Henry IV, of France, had with great difficulty faved, were squandered away within lefs than a year after their deaths' allo that the treasure which Henry VII, of England, had raised, by every art of extortion, went almoft as fait.

The

putting this scheme in execution, never arriv ed. My mother, for I will call her by that name, did not live to do that kindness for her

child

About a year before her death fhe took me to Lifle, in Flanders, in order to give a polifh to fome part of my education. Here we ftayed fome months, and then removed to St. Omer's. A young man of fashion, who was an officer in the regiment of , then in garrifon, at Life, happened to lodge in the fame houfe with us, and a general communication of civilities foon ripened into an intimacy which produced a moft ardent, but respectful paffion, on his part, for me.

As my views in life had been directed to an home fettlement, and as my inclinations, some how or other, were not in a train to be partial to a French lover, he received no encouragement from me; and my mother, who regarded me with a never ceafing vigilance, was continually encouraging my natural prejudices in favour of my native country.

But he was ftricken deep, and of an age when hope and fancy combine to caft down every obftacle between us, and the object of our happiness. He was the only fon of a rich and noble family. He had an uncle who was a bishop, and aunt who was the head of an abbey. Nevertheless, he thought it not impoffible that he fhould reconcile his family to a marriage with an English woman of no fortune, of uncertain birth, and of a religion averfe to his own. This dream of a love ftricken fancy, he had communicated to my mother. She combated it with all her pow. er, and though fhe had prevented his mak ing any declaration to me, the thought it right to quit a fituation which might be at tended with danger.; and we therefore removed to St. Omer's where we remained about three months, the laft fortnight of which Monf. de contrived to join us, and his arrival there haftened our return to England. Monf. de was of a figure, manner, and mind, to captivate any woman, and though his attentions had not made any fenfible im preffion on my heart, while he was with us, I had not been long in my own country, be fore I began to feel that it looked for its molt pleafing object of reflection on another.

On a comparison with the very few men I now faw, Mont de always bore away the palm in my opinion; and as my mind rather cherifhed the idea of his fuperiority, that paffion infenfibly increased, which has been fince attended with fuch fad eircumftances of affliction and calamity. Here then I am to commence the narration of that hiftory which began in rapture-the rapture of one fhort year, and has ever fince been difcoloured with uch variety of melancholy events as have feldom combined to agitate and convulfe the kumen heart.- How they have agitated, and

how they have convulfed mine, will be the bufinefs of the following pages to explain, if 1 fhould have refolution to travel over the path in which foul fortune has led me.

The death of my mother was the first affliction I ever felt-the expired in her chair, without explaining that part of my history which it certainly was her intention to have unfolded to me, without having a few minutes of fenfe and ftrength to inftruct me in the future courfe of my life, and without giving me a parting bleffing to confole me, when I was in fo much need of consolation.

Her fifter immediately took poffeffion of her effects, gave the neceffary orders for the conduct of her funeral, and transferred me to her care, which, without being fuch as I had any reason to di approve, was not of the same kind I had fo lately experienced. Indeed, had I been formed as the other young women were, I fhould have preferred my new to my former fituation; for I was now no longer hid from the world, and confined to continual inftruction and improvement; on the contary, I was indulged with an entire liberality of conduct. My mafters were all difmifled; for inftead of gaining additional accomplishments, I was, it feems, to discover thofe I had to the world; and I was foon hurried into as much of the buftle of it, as was fuited to the circumflances of the lady who had now taken the guardianship of me.

But though the pofition of my life was changed, its myftery was not unveiled. My mother's papers were never granted to my reiterated requests; and whenever I asked for an explanation of my concealed hiftory, I was recommended to patience, and the course of events,

My prefent guardian did not with, like her predcceffor, to keep me back from infpection; and the public places were at this time much frequented by us; I may now fiv, when my bloom is paffed and forrow has planted its wrinkles on my countenance, that I was then poffeffed of attractive graces, and that, wherever I went, the eye of admiration was upon me. Enquiries were made concerning me, and thofe enquiries were encou raged where they ought to have been fuppreffed. However, I will haften to the period that fnatched me from what I have fince confidered as a fituation of danger, though I was then infenfible of it. In the early part of Vauxhall feafon, we met Monfieur de, my French admirer (for whom I have already mentioned a growing partiality.) At that place of public diverfion he did not hesitate to join our party, and foon had an opportunity to tell me that I was the object of his journey, and that there was no proof he was not ready to give of the fincerity and honour of his paffion,

In short, he had permiffion to visit me

was

Covetous as he appears to have been of wealth, Sidi Mahomet will leave little to pofterity, except thefe monuments of his devotion, his charity, and his precaution. More humane, more acceffible, and lefs exigent than his anceftors, Sidi Mahomet has ever treated the Chriftians whom the fate of war has put into his power with compaffion, and on fome among them he has bestowed marks of his confidence. After the taking of Mazagan, he fent thirty-eight flaves to the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta. Character of the prefent Emperor of Mo Tufcany, and the Grand Mafter returned a who were fubjects of the Grand Duke of

IDI Mahomet, endowed with penetration Quick and penetrating, this Emperor has and judgment, would have been fufcep- often made very juft obfervations on the chatible of all the high qualities neceflary to racters of nations, judging by the flaves govern men, had education brought to per- whom he had in his poffeffion, and who fection thole gifts which nature has bellow- happened to be about his perfon. Perceiv ed. His age is fomewhere about feventy- ing how active the French were in their la fix, his height five feet eight inches, his bours, he chofe them in preference for the Tymmetry tolerable; he fquints a little, execution of any fudden project; obferving, which gives his afpect fome feverity; hit the fame time, that they were restless and confutution being naturally ftrong, and his mode of life fober and frugal, his body is become very capable of fupporting the fatigue of life fo laborious as the govern

vernment, flaves have been worked to excefs; it will likewise be perceived that monarchs, who number the ransom of slaves as one part of their revenues, have an interest in their prefervation.

During thirty years that Sidi Mahomet has fat on the throne, his reign has been happy. It would be rafh to prophefy what fhall happen after his death: although it be true that fimilar caufes will produce fimilar effects, we must not always judge of the future by the paft; the smalleft difference of circunftances, either in the times, or the characters of thofe men who head infurrections, will change the fate of things, and decide on the deftiny of nations. Nevertheless, when we behold in Morocco a multitude of princes, each defirous of governing, each having nearly an equal claim to govern, it thould feem that like diffentations may well again be feared, and like revolutions to thofe which under preceeding reigns, fo often have rent this empire.

The fucceffion is not fixed in Morocco, either by law or custom, but depends entirely on concurring accidents. It is well underfood, among the Moors, that the eldest fon ought to inherit the crown, becaufe that his experience renders him the molt proper to govern; but as there is no determinate law on this head, and as there is neither Divan nor Council in the empire to deliberate on affairs of ftate, the election of the Emperor depends entirely on chance, on the character of the candidates, the opinion of the people, the influence of the foldiery, the fupport of the provinces, and moft particu

larly on the poteffion of the treafury. He who has money may have foldiers, and he who has foldiers can make himself feared.

We have feen that, under Muley Abdallah, one province and one faction would elect this fovereign, another that; and like anarchy may well be expected, whenever there are a great number of candidates for the throne; at leaft, unleis the governors of provinces fhould all unite to protect ohe alone. This is a thing moft difficult to be accomplished, among the Moors, where men do nothing, and where Providence requlates all.

Of ten or twelve male children, to whom the Emperor is father, there are leveral who at capable of government; nor can doubt but that, informed as they must be of former revolutions, they all afpire with equal confidence to that crown to which birth, the voice of the people, or a concatenation of incidents, may give each an equal right.

neighbourhood of Whitehaven, who died a fortnight ago, had, by induftry and parfimony, accumulated a fum twenty times a large as he durft enjoy the intereft of. the age of fixty he made his will, and ler the bulk of his riches to a favourite relation That relation, fome time after, incured his difpleafure in fo great a degree, that he determined to cut him off from every pofthumous advantage.-While he lived, no per fon had the shadow of reason to hope.—But here an infuperable objection appeared.The country ferivener, who had framed the will, had charged the enormous fum of eighteen pence for his labour, and the frugal teftator, equally defirous of keeping his pro perty from an undeferving perfon, and anxious to have the business done as low as poffi ble, deferred the fecond edition of his laft will and teftament, in expectation that the terms would be reduced as the profellors were multiplied. In short, he deferred it for twelve years; but among the increased number of scholars, who fprung up in the neighbourhood, none could be found to execute the inftrument on his terms. At length, (at the age of feventy-two) he found what anfwered all his purposes-he faved threepence three farthings, by travelling fix hours in the rain- -but he loft his life!

Some Remarkable Circumftances in the Life of Louis de Steinman, major of drageens in the Pruffian fervice, who was born a Turk.

Turkmen Ogly, my father, was a

native of Natolia, and held the office of Boluky Bafchy. He refided at Choczim in Moldavia, and had by my mother Fatima Curter, four daughters, and one fon, viz. Eve, Emina, Rafia, Afia, and myfelf Muftapha, the laft of his five children, and his only fon. Rafia and Afia died, Eve married a Tartar of Crimea, named Ofman Aga, and refided at the diftance of four or five leagues from Choczim, on an eftate called Kouboultfchni.

I was only about feven years of age when my father died; his office being hereditary, fhould have devolved upon me. In 1739, being then in my tenth year, Count Mumich, Field Marshal in the Ruffian fervice, having taken Choczim, all the families which belonged to the Turkish army were made prifoners of war. Among this number were my mother and two fifters, who, together with myself, were conducted to Kyow beyond the Dnieper. A diforder with which I was there attacked procured me the acquaintance of Major Manstein, adjutant to Field Marshal Count Munich. He often visited the Turkish children who were fick, and, as I underfood the Turkish, Wallachi