of Junius were produced by a juvenile writer, who had not formed his ftyle, upon any model nor by any rule." He fpeaks (P. 15.) of the "balderdash of Junius, who expatiates on trifles, fwells infignificance by amplification, fubftitutes fophiftry for fenfe, and verbofity for found." Yet Mr. Chalmers, (P. 30.) fpeaking of the letters of Junius, describes them as "Epiftles which required the attention of years, uncommon capacity, and peculiar habits to write." He alfo, fpeaking of the fame Junius, fays that the compofition of his letters was a task which required the greatest activity and vigour; which shew (fhews) extraordinary exertions of intellect, and uncommon flashes of genius." There is one paffage more that we muft notice relative to an anecdote which Mr. Chalmers confiders as "decifive evidence," to prove that Wilkes was not Junius. Horne fays, in one of his letters, "I would have fought him (Charles the First,) through the ranks, and, without the leaft perfonal enmity, have difcharged my piece into his bofom rather than any other man's." "On this paffage," fays Mr. Chalmers," Mr. Wilkes wrote the following obfervation: (in Wilkes's Clarendon, in the poffeffion of Mr. Chalmers) Mr. Horne copied this from a MS. marginal note on Mr. Wilkes's Clarendon.'"We, hereby, fee," continues Mr. Chalmers," how readily Mr. Wilkes reclaimed his own. Had Junius, when he was hard preffed for an answer to Mr. Horne, known this to be a plagiarism, how he would have triumphed over his powerful antagonist." Surely Mr. Chalmers's ufual fagacity has deferted him on this occafion, for if Junius were Wilkes, and confequently did know of the plagiarism, he could not have detected it without discovering himself to Mr. Horne, to whom he had lent his Clarendon, containing the MS. note. We could fay much more about Junius and Hugh Boyd, but, we fuppofe, our readers are tired of a subject upon which they never can arrive at certainty. ART. IX. An Account of an Embassy to the Court of the Tefhoo tended to enlarge the stock of our knowledge refpecting the countries countries fituated in the vicinity of our Indian territories. Cap tain Turner's Embaffy took place in the year 1783, during the vigilant adminiftration of Mr. Haftings; it was occafioned b a difpute refpecting the occupation of an extenfive but uncultivated plain, covered with woods and funk in moraffes, which forms a natural divifion between Bengal and Bootan. The Raja of Bootan had feized upon it fome years before, but was fpeedily difpoffeffed by the company's troops. This district is called Cooch Bahar, and the author gives a most unfavourable account of it. "In the diftrict of Cooch Bahar an ufage of a very fingular kind has prevailed from remote antiquity, and I was affured by many of the inhabitants of its actual exiftence at this day. If a Reiat, or peafant, owes a fum of money, and has not the ability to fatisfy his creditor, he is compelled to give up his wife as a pledge, and poffeffion of her is kept until the debt is difcharged. It fometimes happens, as they affirm, that the wife of a debtor is not redeemed for the space of one, two, or three years; and then if, during her refidence and connection with the creditor, a family fhould have been the confequence, half of it is confidered as the property of the perfon with whom the lived, and half that of her real husband.* "The country has a moft wretched appearance, and its inhabitants are a miserable and puny race. The lower ranks without fcruple difpofe of their children for flaves, to any purchafer, and that too for a very trifling confideration; nor yet, though in a traffic fo unnatural, is the agency of a third perfon ever employed. Nothing is more common than to fee a mother dress up her child, and bring it to market, with no other hope, no other view, than to enhance the price fhe may procure for it. Indeed the extreme poverty and wretchedness of these people will forcibly appear, when we recollect how little is neceffary for the fubfiftence of a peasant in these regions. The value of this can feldom amount to more than one penny per day, even allowing him to make his meal of two pounds of boiled rice, with a due proportion of falt, oil, vegetables, fish, and chili.† "It is not poffible for a traveller, paffing rapidly through a ftrange country, to catch the manners, or judge of the influence which cuftom, or a sense of honour, may have on the natural propenfities of the people. We may conclude that this bias must be very strong in a community where fuch a law continues to exift; fince in any other, which should adopt it as a novel inftitution, the creditor would have a very infecure hold on the probity of his debtor, not lefs, perhaps, from the reluctance of the latter to recover his wife, than to part with his money. The law would not fubfift, if it was not known to be effective of its purpose." "A kind of red pepper, in univerfal use, made from the capficum annuum of Linnæus." The "The fituation of this district exhibits a melancholy proof of different facts too frequently united, the great facility of obtaining food, and, at the fame time, the wretched indigence of the lower order of inhabitants." After traverfing this uninviting diftrict, Captain Turner and his fuite entered upon the mountainous country of Bootan, of which he gives a very particular and interefting description, that occupies the whole of the first part of the volume. He defcribes not only the country itfelf, and its various productions, but the difpofition, the manners, the customs, and purfuits of its inhabitants, a hardy and hofpitable race, strangers alike to moft of the arts, and to nearly all the comforts and conveniences, of civilized life. By his long stay at Taffisudon, (from May to September) the feat of government, and the refidence of the Daeb Raja, whofe obliging and communicative difpofition facilitated all his researches, Captain Turner was enabled to collect much curious information, which, from a mere paffage through the county, he would have been unable to acquire; and the further advantage of being accompanied by fo able a draughtfman, as Lieutenant Davis, and fo fkilful a botanift as Mr. Saunders, afforded him an opportunity of giving a more adequate idea of the fublime scenery of Bootan, and the beauty of its natural productions, than any which the pen alone could convey. Of their perfons we have the following account: "The Booteeas have invariably black hair, which it is their fashion to cut close to the head. The eye is a very remarkable feature of the face: fmall, black, with long pointed corners, as though ftretched and extended by artificial means. Their eyelashes are fo thin, as to be fcarcely perceptible; and the eyebrow is but flightly fhaded. Below the eyes, is the broadeft part of the face, which is rather flat, and narrows from the cheek bone to the chin; a character of countenance appearing first to take its rife among the Tartar tribes, but is by far more ftrongly marked in the Chinese. Their skins are remarkably fmooth, and most of them arrive at a very advanced age, before they can boaft even the earliest rudiments of a beard: they cultivate whiskers, but the best they produce, are of a scanty ftraggling growth. In this heroic acquifition I quickly furpaffed them; and one of my Mogul attendants, for the luxuriancy of his, was the ad miration of them all. Many of these mountaineers are more than fix feet high; and, taken altogether, they have a complexion not fo dark by feveral fhades as that of the European Portugueze." A houfe was affigned to Captain Turner, for his refidence, at Taffifudon, which commanded a pleafing view of a valley, with a river running through it, and encircled with a variety NO. XXV. VOL. VI. X of of agreeable objects. He thus defcribes a manufactory of paper, fituated in this valley. "In our perambulations down the valley, I often refted at the place where the chief manufacture of paper is established, which was made, I found, by a very eafy and unexpenfive process, of the bark of a tree, here called Deah, which grows in great abundance upon the mountains near Taffifudon, but is not produced on thofe immediately bordering on Bengal. The method of preparing this material, as well as I could learn, is as follows. When a fufficient quantity of bark is collected to employ the labourer, it is divided into small fhreds, and fteeped and boiled in a lixivium of wood afhes; it is then taken up, and laid in a heap to drain; after which it is beaten upon a ftone, with a wooden mallet, until it is reduced to an impalpable pulp; it is then thrown into a refervoir of water, where, being well ftirred about, and cleansed from the coarse and dirty part which floats upon the furface, it is ftill further depurated in another large refervoir of clean water. When the preparation is complete, the parts are finely broken, and that which finks in the water apappears mucilaginous to the touch. All that now remains is to form it into fheets, which is done upon fmall reeds fet in frames. The labourer dips the frame in the water, and raises up a quantity of the pulp, which, by moving the frame in the water, he fpreads, until it entirely and equally covers the furface of the reeds; he then raises the frame perpendicularly, the water drains off, and the frame is hung up till the fheet is nearly dry it is then taken off, and suspended upon lines. The paper thus prepared is of a much stronger texture than that of any other country with which I am acquainted, as it is capable of being woven, when gilt by way of ornament, into the texture of filk and fatins, to which ufe I have feen it frequently applied in the manufactures of China." During his refidence in Bootan, Captain T. was witness to a formidable rebellion against the Raja, and from the windows of his houfe, commanded a view of the battle that was fought between the rebels and the Raja's troops, his account of which fets the military skill of the Booteeans in a very contemptible point of view. The rebellion was fpeedily crushed. A confiderable part of this extraordinary people are Gylongs, or Monks, who lead a life of abstemiousness and celibacy. "The religious of this defcription are numerous in Bootan. Their fole occupation lies in performing the duties of their faith. They are exempt from labour; enjoined fobriety and temperance; and interdicted all intercourfe with the other fex. Though many become voluntary members of this establishment, yet its numbers depend most upon the custom, which obliges every family that confifts of more than four boys, to contribute one of them to the order: and the fame rule, under particular circumstances, extends fometimes to all the males of a village. At the age of ten, they are received into the affociation, and commence their tutelage. Their first years are paffed in learning the rudiments of their profeffion, and in performing a variety of fervile offices to their inftructors; in which drudgery, unless elevated by fuperior talents, they continue beyond the age of twenty. However, though cut off from the enjoyment of fome of the most exquifite pleafures of life, there are yet many advan tages annexed to this clafs. They are certain of a liberal education C and, as their minds are more cultivated than the reft of their countrymen, they have the best profpect of being felected for public offices: and, in fact, the greater part of all, who are employed in fuch fituations, are chofen from among them. Yet whether the following peculiarity be imputable to early tuition, inability, or disgust, I cannot determine. It very frequently happens, that thofe who have long enjoyed pots of honour, or emolument, take the fudden refolution of retiring for ever from the bufinefs and the cares of life; afterwards, under the fanction of a religious impulfe, the inspired devotee chooses fome folitary ftation, perhaps the fummit of a mountain, where he builds himself a cottage, and having depofited a hord of grain in it, fhuts himself up, determined never again to return into the world, or hold any intercourfe with mankind. "Thus fecluded from fociety, if, in confequence of an erroneous calculation, he fees his stock of food about to fail, while life maintains its poft in full vigour, and is by no means inclined to quit its hold, the fole reliance of the retired devotee, for future fupport, must then reft on the adventitious vifits of fuch, as hold converfe with the buried living. The benevolence which thus minifters to his ne ceffities has alfo its appropriate merit; fo that the reclufe may yet exift, for months or years, upon the bounty that places his daily food at his door, without the leaft knowledge of the hand that feeds him; till at length the feeble principle that animates the human frame, and preferves it from diffolution, ceases to perform its functions, and the individual is no more. It is true, he might long have ceafed to be of any earthly importance, whatever fpiritual efteem is attached to the devotee, the hermit, or the mifanthrope, term him which you will yet this fingular bent of character, all circumstances confidered, is not very much to be wondered at. Let it be re ance. membered, that, in the first career of life, by a continuance in a state of celibacy, the Booteea is recommended to diftinction; as on the contrary, any matrimonial contract proves almost a certain hindrance to his rife in rank,' or his advancement to offices of political importHaving therefore made the firft facrifice to ambition, and remained long fingle, in the hope of attaining to higher dignities and emoluments; chagrined, at length, by a feries of disappointments, if a bare competency has been the fruit of his long fervice, he withdraws himself from public life: being at the fame time fomewhat advanced in years, his paffion for connubial connection is weakened, and his natural apathy confirmed. Having been detached by early habit from fociety, uninfluenced by ties of duty or affection to family or friends, his most prevailing impulfe is the love of `case ; X 2 and |
