manufactures. In 1696 Peter (called the Great) became sole czar and monarch of the Muscovite empire. His lordship's opinion of this man is very different from that generally entertained.

"This reign forms the grand æra of that reformation which, though much more extensive than the preceding, is falsely believed to have totally changed and civilised the whole Russian nation. Peter, though endowed with strong natural abilities, and with wonderful talents, yet, like most Russians I have met with, he possessed not the discriminating faculty, that divine sagacity which explores the diamond in the mine, seizes its value, and at once decides amidst various degrees of excellence which is most excellent.

"To the want of this power are to be attributed all the imperfections which his plans were attended with: for, in the ardour of alteration and improvement, he indiscriminately adopted a thousand foreign customs and institutions, without regarding time, place, propriety, or circumstance: instead of forming his people. upon originality, he moulded them into imitators, and injudiciously deprived them of their ancient character, without ascertaining the practicability of giving them a better." P. 53.

The following trait unfolds the genuine features of the Russian character.

"On the 6th December, 1741, Elizabeth Petrowna mounted the throne of her father. This princess reigned upwards of twenty years, and enjoyed during her lifetime a much higher reputation than she merited. Equally ignorant of the principles of government, and of the character of her subjects, capricious and unjust, she abolished capital punishment, and yet retained the use of the torturé. Her tender mercies were cruel.

Though she affected the praise of humanity, and was even 10 vain as to order Elizabeth The Clement to be inscribed on her medals; she by no means merited that illustrious title; for under her reign, and by her order, the most barbarous and wanton scene of cruelty was acted that ever disgraced the annals of any nation, and which sufficiently disproves the pretended civilisation of this. Two ladies of the highest rank, eminent for their wit and extraordinary beauty, guilty of no real crime (whatever was pretended), were exposed almost naked to the public view on a scaffold, suffered the most inhuman infliction of the knout, and had their tongues cut out with every circumstance of the most outrageous brutality. This horrid tragedy was performed at St. Petersbourg, day of 1743, by the command of Elizabeth The

on the

Clement !!

"The princess had all the extremes of female pride and weakness; she was vain of her own charms beyond all credibility, and 30 jealous of those of others, that at her court beauty was an unpardonable crime. Abandoning herself to every excess of intemperance and lubricity, she was inflexibly severe to those who,

imitating her example, permitted themselves the same indulgences; prodigal, pusillanimous, vindictive, and inconstant. Such is the real character of Elizabeth, which has been so much mistaken, and misrepresented by many, who have not had opportunities of being truly informed. It is not to gratify malignity, or from an affectation of singularity, but merely from a love of justice, that I have painted this princess in these colours; I would not wantonly tear the chaplet from her brows; but the incitements to virtue are destroyed, when we adorn vice and folly with the wreaths of honour." P. 57.

The religion of the Russians is that of the Greek church, and is not very dissimilar to that of Rome, although it is unquestionably more ancient. At the time our author composed this work, the whole of the ecclesiastics in Russia, including friars, nuns, and the families of the clergy, amounted to 335,782 souls. They hold the doctrine of the Trinity, but that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father only; and they pay a secondary adoration to the Virgin Mary, the Apostles, and a vast multitude of saints. They use only painted figures of their gods, whereas the papists use graven images. The doctrines of predestination and transubstantiation are common to both. The Russians cross themselves with the thumb, first, and second finger (as emblematical of the Trinity), on the forehead, breast, and each shoulder, thus making the figure of the cross. They keep four great fasts or lents in the year, during which neither flesh, milk, eggs, nor butter are eaten; but only vegetables, bread, and fish fried in oil. The ceremony of baptism is not a little curious.

"As soon as a child is born, unless it be too weak, it is carried to church by the god-fathers and god-mothers, where being met at the door by the priest, he signs the child with the sign of the cross on the forehead, and gives it the benediction, saying, The Lord preserve thy going out and thy coming in.' They then walk up together to the font, which is placed in the middle of the church; round the edge of which the priest fastens four lighted wax-candles delivered to him by the sponsors, whom he incenses, and consecrates the water by dipping the cross into it with a great deal of ceremony: then begins a procession round the font, the clerk goes before with the image of St. John the Baptist, being followed by the sponsors with wax-candles in their hands; thus they go about it three times, while the priest reads the service. The procession being over, the sponsors give the name of the child to the priest in writing, which, among the common people, is usually that of the saint of the day, or within eight days nearest it, either preceding or following; but this is not much observed among the gentry, who choose to keep family names; the priest

puts the name upon an image, which he holds upon the child's breast, and asks the sponsors, Whether the child believes in God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost?' Having answered 'Yes' three times, they all turn their backs to the font, as a sign of their aversion to the three next questions to be asked by the priest; viz. • Whether the child renounces the devil? whether he renounces his angels? whether he renounces his works?' The sponsors answer I renounce,' distinctly to each question, and spit three times upon the ground, as a mark of detestation. Then they turn their faces to the font again, and being asked by the priest, Whether they promise to bring up the child in the true Greek religion? the exorcism begins; the priest puts his hand upon the child, and blows three times, saying these words: Get out of this child thou unclean spirit, and make way for the Holy Ghost.' He then cuts off a lock of the child's hair, and wraps it up in a piece of wax, and throws it into the font; after which the child is stripped quite naked, and the priest takes it in his arms, and plunges it in the water three times, pronouncing the words of the sacrament, I baptise thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.'

Immediately after the immersion, he signs it with the sign of the cross, with an oil consecrated by a superior bishop, on the forehead, on the breast, on the shoulders, on the palms of the hands, and on the back. This is another sacrament called the chrism, or baptismal unction, and by virtue of this it is supposed the child receives the Holy Ghost. The priest having put a corn of salt in its mouth, puts a clean shirt upon it, and says, Thou art as clean and clear from original sin as thy shirt.' He then hangs about its neck a little cross of gold, silver, or lead, which is strictly preserved by the Russians, who deny Christian burial to such as have not one about them when they die: in cases of necessity, the midwife or any other person, except the parents, can administer baptism. Those who are sponsors for the same child are looked upon as so nearly related, they are not permitted to intermarry." P. 70.

From the ignorance, vulgarity, and immorality of the clergy, as well as the people, his lordship concludes;-

Upon the whole, it may with justice be said, there is amongst them the greatest degree of superstition, and bigotry, the lowest notions of the duties of morality, and the most idolatrous ideas of the adoration of the Deity imaginable: for it is thought, that building a church, performing a pilgrimage, giving alms, or abstaining from meat, is a compensation for any breach of the moral law; and it is as certain as natural, that the pictures and saints of the priests are the gods of the vulgar; who cannot salve their idolatry with art and distinction, but worship with their heart what they behold with their eyes. And to those of superior rank and better education, especially such as have travelled, if they have discovered the absurdity of their earlier principles, and surmounted those prejudices, they have generally stopped at

that point, and are, for the most part, sceptics, without any religion at all, and commonly without knowing why they are so; taking up their infidelity upon trust, from those with whom they have chanced to converse abroad, or from a few foreign books they have read; and following those guides as implicitly, as others follow the superstitions of their ancestors."

P. 80.

There are twenty-five bishoprics and one hundred and fifty-seven monasteries in Russia; and the whole number of monks, who are all of the order of St. Basil or St. Anthony, is two thousand eight hundred and forty-two: there are sixty-seven nunneries, and 1366 nuns: the secular priests, with their wives and children (for they are not confined to celibacy, like the papists), are estimated at 168,519 males and 163,263 females; and the officiating priests at twenty-five thousand. All sects are tolerated but Jews and Jesuits, and even some of these are connived at.

The "Short Sketch of the Political History of Ireland, by a late Chief Secretary of that Kingdom" in 1773, is the least valuable article in this volume, as the civil constitution, especially in what relates to the Roman Catholics, is totally changed since that period. Besides, the view of Irish affairs here given must have been designed for a particular purpose, and not for the public eye. The anecdotes and facts, however, relative to the principles and conduct of the Ponsonbys are particularly interesting, and prove that there is a great similarity between them and the Grenvilles, at least in an insatiable desire of pensions and places, without any regard to the general welfare of their country.

The last article is Lord Macartney's Private Journal of his Embassy to China in 1792, 1793, and 1794, with an Appendix. The principal facts in the Journal have already been laid before the public by Sir George Staunton; but the Appendix containing his lordship's remarks and observations on the manners, customs, and characters of the Chinese, are new and important. That solidity of judgment which characterises all his lordship's productions is here displayed to great advantage.

"A little before that period [the conquest of China by the Western or Mogul Tartars in the 13th century], the Chinese had reached their highest pitch of civilisation: and no doubt they were then a very civilised people in comparison of their Tartar conquerors, and their European contemporaries; but not having improved and advanced forward, or having rather gone back, at least for these hundred and fifty years past, since the last conquest

by the northern or Mantchou Tartars, whilst we have been every day rising in arts and sciences, they are actually become a semibarbarous people in comparison with the present nations of Europe. Hence it is that they retain the vanity; conceit, and pretensions that are usually the concomitants of half-knowledge; and that, though during their intercourse with the embassy they perceived many of the advantages we had over them, they seemed rather surprised than mortified, and sometimes affected not to see what they could not avoid feeling. In their address to strangers they are not restrained by any bashfulness or mauvaise honte, but present themselves with an easy confident air, as if they considered themselves the superiors, and that nothing in their manners or appearance could be found defective or inaccurate.

"Their ceremonies of demeanor, which consist of various evolutions of the body, in elevating and inclining the head, in bending or stiffening the knee, in joining their hands together and then disengaging them, with a hundred other manoeuvres, they consider as the highest perfection of good breeding and deportment; and look upon most other nations, who are not expert in this polite discipline, as little better than barbarians. Nevertheless having once shown off and exhausted all these tricks of behaviour, they are glad to relapse into ease and familiarity, and seem never so happy as when indulging in free conversation with those whom they do not distrust; for they are naturally lively, loquacious, and good-humoured. They were certainly much surprised to find us so mild, sociable, and cheerful.

The court character is a singular mixture of ostentatious hospitality and inbred suspicion, ceremonious civility and real rudeness, shadowy complaisance and substantial perverseness; and this prevails through all the departments connected with the court, although somewhat modified by the personal disposition of those at their head; but as to that genuine politeness, which distinguishes our manners, it cannot be expected in Orientals, considering the light in which they regard the female world.

"Among the Chinese themselves, society chiefly consists of certain stated forms and expressions, a calm, equal, cold deportment, studied, hypocrital attentions, and hyperbolical professions. Morality is a mere pretence in their practice, though a common topic of their discourse. Science is an intruder, and gaming the An attachment to this vice accompanies even the lowest Chinese wherever he goes. No change of country divests him of it. I have been assured that the Chinese settled in our new colony at the Prince of Wales's island, pay no less than ten thousand dollars per annum to the government for a licence to keep gaming-houses and sell opium." P. 413.

resource.

It appears that the Chinese have no idea of the moral obligation of truth, and that they promise every thing without the least intention of performance. The Mandarines treat their servants with great familiarity, yet expect and receive unremitted attention and obedience: