Thofe perfons who have talked of the French Government to you, have doubtlefs, my dear Voltaire, exaggerated many things. I have had an opportunity of getting at the true state of the revenues and of the debts of that kingdom. Its debts are enormous, its refources exhausted, and its taxes multiplied beyond bounds. The only method to diminish in time the load of thefe debts, would be to put its expences within certain limits, and to retrench every fuperfluity. But, alas! this I fear will never be done; for, inftead of faying, I have fuch an income, and I can afford to spend fo much of it, we are but too apt to fay, I muft have fo much money, find out expedients to procure it for me.

Thofe rogues of Monks fhould be made to bleed pretty freely. This, however, would not be fufficient (though it would undoubtedly afford fome refources) to pay off the debts in a fhort time, and to procure for the people of France all that affiftance for which they have at present so great an occafion. This diftrefsful fituation took its rife in the preceding reigns, which contracted debts for the payment of which they had made no provision.

It is this derangement of its finances which fo materially influences every`part of its Government. It has put a stop to the wife projects of M. de St. Germain. It has prevented its Administration from having that afcendancy in the affairs of Europe, which France has been ever used to take fince the reign of Henry the Fourth. With refpect to your Parliaments, as a thinking man, I have conftantly condemned the revocation of that of Paris, as contrary to every principle of logic and of good sense.'

"Is it then any wonder, that when M. de Malherbes came to request his difimiffion from Adminiftration, the King exclaimed, I can, indeed, grant you your difmiffion. I wish I were able to procure my own!'

"His fhort-fighted Minifters, in thefe diftrefsful circumftances, engaged him to

"On an application made to him by Tippoo Saib, not long before he suffered, to assist him in taking poffeffion of some Provinces in India from the English, and annexing them to the Crown of France, Louis nobly refused his affent, and said, In the American War, my Minifters took advantage of my youth and inexperience. Every calamity that we have fuffered in France took its rife from that event.'

"During his infamous mock trial, this Prince was afked, What he had done with a certain fum of money-a few thousand pounds. His voice failed him, and the tears came into his eyes at this question; at last he replied, J'aimais à faire des beureux.-I had a pleafure in making other people happy.' He had given the money away in charity.

"On the night preceding his execution he faid to M. Edgeworth, I do not know what I have done to my cousin the Duke of Orleans, to induce him to behave to me in the way in which he has done; but he is to be pitied; he is ftill more wretched than I am; I would not change fituations with him.'

"A few hours before he died, he faid to the fame Gentleman, How happy I am to have retained my faith in religion. In what a terrible ftate of mind should I have been at this moment, had not the grace of God preferved this bleffing to me.

Yes, I fhall now be able to fhew my enemies that I do not fear them.'

"As this Monarch, the most benevolent, the beft intentioned Prince, and the most affectionate lover of his people † that Time has ever produced, was afcending the fcaffold to fuffer the fentence inflicted upon him by his unprincipled and infamous Judges, his virtuous and intrepid Confeffor exclaimed, with all the energy

of it."

of

dear to my heart, that we became conftant and infeparable companions: his name is Harry T- After having paffed fome years together at College, in the most perfect friendship, I folicited and procured of my uncle the living of P -dale for my friend; his natural pensiveness, as well as his want of fortune, having inclined him to the church. We retired from College together; Harry to his living at P---dale, and myself to the beautiful manfion of my uncle, fituated about four miles on the oppofite fhore of the lake. Harry's houfhold confifted of himself, a widowed mother, and a lovely fifter, whose name was Harriet (here the stranger fighed): our family was compofed of my uncle, my fifter Amelia, and myself.

Our time was principally paffed in each other's fociety; either in parties upon the lake, or among the delightful fcenery which furrounded the manfion of my uncle. In a fituation fo favourable to the nurture of the tender paffion, and with a heart by no means a ftranger to the fenfibilities of life, it is not furprising that I became enamoured of the lovely fifter of my friend; or that Harry fhould not be infenfible to the attractions of Amelia. As we concealed nothing from each other, our mutual feelings, on a fubject which fo much interested us both, were moft freely communicated. The communication, if poffible, cemented our friendship still clofer, and rendered our parties on the lake, and our rambles in the woods, ftill more interefting. On mentioning to my uncle my attachment to Harriet, he, with a noblenefs natural to his character, applauded my choice; but, as he deftined me to be the heir to his great eftate, he, previous to my fettling in life, wifhed me to make the tour of Europe; that I might enrich my mind with every thing worthy the purfuit of a Gentleman and a fcholar, fo as to qualify me to enjoy, with elegant delight, the retirement of which I was fo

fond.

The laft words of Harriet ftill vibrate in my ear, at this diftant moment. When I handed her from the boat to the shore, fhe preffed my hand with tenderness; and, with the emphatic folemnity of a departing fpirit, faintly articulated, "Remember me!" The looks which accompanied these words are scarcely ever abfent from my imagination.

I left Amelia to pass the evening with Harriet, and rowed back again across the lake alone, with a heart almost broken by the painful fituation in which I had left the object of all my hopes. On the morrow I tock leave of C―― park; and in the following week emI croffed France, barked for Calais. and made the complete tour of Switzerland; the wild and romantic scenery of which greatly interested me. Having paffed Mount Cenis, I haftened with the moft ardent curiofity towards Italy. My winter was divided betwixt Florence, Rome, and Naples. My route home I purpofed to make across the Tyrol, and down the Rhine. During the courfe of my tour, I had received the most pleasing accounts from Amelia; and every day which brought me nearer to the clofe of my travels, illumined my imagination with the idea of the bright prospect which awaited me at home. However, on my arrival at Venice, every hope was blafted for ever!-I found the following letter from the brother of my Harriet:

"Dear Charles, I am diftracted! I am about to communicate to you a fcene, which will give the darkest colouring to every hour of my future life! and how fhall I unfold it to my friend?—Oh, Charles! now fummon all your philofophy, all your fortitude, all your religion. But, alas! if I find these fo feeble to my own fupport, how inefficacious will they be to you!-How shall I write it?-How can I bear to tell the difmal tale?--Harriet is dead!"

The circumftances of the death of this lady are related, and the confequent refolution of Charles to pass the remainder of his days in a Convent.

Our Traveller paffes on to Venice, of which he relates many fingularities; goes up the Brentia to Padua; vifits Ferrara and Bologna; croffes the Appenines to Florence; and from thence proceeds, by Montefiefcone, Bolfano, and Vitabo, to Rome. "As he was waiting in his carriage at the gate of the Farnefe, a little circumftance occurred that diverted us greatly :-A child about feven years old, who happened to be paffing,

had

had occafion to stop at the gate to tie up her garter. Her hair was full dreffed and powdered; fhe had on a deep veil, and a fan-in her hand. Her womanly appearance induced Mr. S. to remark to me the early maturity of females in this country, compared with thofe in a more northerly climate. As foon as the little gipfey turned round and obferved us to notice her, the reclined her head on one fhoulder, and with a look of wickedness that could not have been furpaffed by the most hackneyed of the Cyprian tribe, ran off, exclaiming, Non c'e niente di videre la fignori !" As the little creature was too much of a child, for our attention to have been at all attracted towards her garter, my friend, at this speech, expreffed the utmost astonishment; and, as he is a great enquirer into caufes and effects, he declared he would spend

another month in Rome, to investigate the cause, why both vegetable and animal nature fhould ripen earlier in Italy than in most other countries in Europe.

From Rome our Traveller made excurfions to Naples, Herculaneum, Pompeija, Puzzuoli, Baja, and other places.. He returned to Florence; paffed from thence to Pifa; and, embarking on board a Spanish veffel bound for Gibraltar, vifited Cadiz and Lisbon.

Though there be very little novelty in thefe fketches, yet they are written in a pleafing, good-humoured manner; and with good fenfe and juft obfervation, The Tour is very extenfive; and though there is not much in it that is not quite familiar to readers of fuch books, there is an intereft kept up by the frequency of the tranfitions, and the rapidity of the narration.

THE Author of this Work, who refided many years at Rome, committed his Remarks to writing for his own private amufement. But having fhewn them to several of his friends, in whofe taste of learning he has much confidence, he now ventures to prefent them to the public. He has corrected many mistakes that various Authors have fallen into, and carefully cited his authorities. The Work might have admitted of an extenfive number of Engravings; but thefe would have greatly increased its price, and thereby rendered it, though more fplendid, lefs univerfally useful.

This is the fubftance of the Author's apology for this publication. What he fays of Engravings is perfectly fatiffactory. As to the utility of the book, it is confined within a very narrow circle a few enthufiafts, who carry their curiofity to an extreme degree of minutenefs; and, in the true fpirit of Antiquarianifm, almost to ridicule. To fuch minute enquirers this Work may be of fome advantage; for Mr. Lumifden is the most minute in his enquiries, on feveral points, of all the writers on the Antiquities of Rome that have yet fallen into our hands. He appears to be a man of tolerable erudition, of plain good fenfe, and great fincerity and candour of difpofition. Rome awakens in fuch men

as Thomson the Poet, and Gibbon the Hiftorian, the fire and the fancy of genius, which calls forth various images by various affociations of ideas: the mere Antiquarian applies his microscope to the least as well as to the greatest objects, and creeps, like a purblind mole, through ruins, without ever glancing at others with which they may be in different ways related. This conftitutes the difference between the Philofopher and the Poet, and the man of true industry. It is in the latter class that we rank Mr. Lumiiden his Work is, however, far from doing him difcredit. Perhaps books of this kind may be thought to derive new importance from the present devaftations of Italy, not yet terminated ş for books fo flimfy in their texture, yet form the most durable monuments of fame.

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ANECDOTES OF THE AUTHOR. Andrew Lumifden, the Author of this Work, is the eldest son of the late William Lumifden, of Inner Gully, Fifefhire; to whom we find him addreffing a letter on the Ruins of Herculaneum, published in an Appendix. Our Author joined the Pretender in Scotland, in 1745; he afterwards accompanied him to Rome, where he lived at his Court, fuch as it was, in the character of his private Secretary.

Travels

IN thefe Travels the Author is chiefly attentive to fubjects of Natural Hiftory, particularly to Minerology and Botany, but without neglecting the ftate of the Arts and of Society. He appears, from different tenets and allufions in this Work, to have received his phyfiological education at the University of Edinburgh; and to have imbibed not a little of the ardour of inveftigation which has for half a century diftinguifhed that feminary. It is dedicated to Mr. Dundas; through whom he afpires to an appointment, for exploring the Natural Hiftory of India.

Dr. Townfon fets out from Vienna, after defcribing its libraries, public inftitutions, amufements, and other objects, defcribed by every traveller. Having croffed the Leitha, he entered Hungary at Wimpaffing, where is an Hungarian Cuftom house. "As an order had a fhort time before been published by the Auftrian Government, prohibiting any Frenchman from refiding in the diftant provinces, or going indeed beyond a certain diftance from the capital, I expected to have been examined; but I paffed on unquestioned. The Aufirian Government was very careful to prevent French principles and opinions from being diffeminated in the provinces in the capital the French emiffaries were more eafily watched; and there, to judge from the general indignation of all ranks (a few pfeudo-philofophers excepted) on the news of the murder of Louis the Sixteenth, they had little hopes of fuccefs. On this atrocious act being made known, many of the French refiding here (fome probably of quite different principles) were ill-treated; they hardly dared to thew themselves; fome of the traiteurs and innkeepers would not receive a Frenchman into their houses; the French language, fo general here, was laid aside. "Thefe expreflions of difapprobation were indeed only momentary, though the

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Hungary is defcribed as an uneven country:" It is well cultivated; chiefly corn land, and fome pafture. Its gentle elevations fit it for the Vine, which is planted on the banks expofed to the Sun."

Dr. Townfen came to an old town, "called Edinburg, which ferves for the winter refidence of many of the neighbouring Nobility. Its population is given at about 12,000; and it mult carry on a confiderable trade in hogs and cattle. Mr. Korabinsky fays, that in 1781, there was 2,300 weight of honey fold; and the fale, in 1782, of its own wine, which is chiefly fent into Silefia, amounted to 28,000l. fterling. The celebrity of this wine, which, according to my tafte, is but indifferent, led to a fingular mistake: In travelling through Bohemia, I saw, in a list which was hung out at a wine cellar of the wines which were on fale, Edinburgh (in which manner the name of this city is fome times written) as the place of growth of one of them. This furprifed me much; for, though I knew that Scotland was noted for its cakes, I had never yet heard of its wine. I therefore conjectured it was whisky; but, to prevent an error, I got off my horfe and enquired, and then learned that it was an Hungarian wine.”

The following will convey to our readers an idea of the prefent condition of the peasants or country people in Hungary; which has also been, at one period, that of every Nation in Europe:

"The management of an eftate in a country where the gleba adfcriptio exists, and where the rents of lands are paid in perfonal fervices and the produce of the foil, is very different from, and far more trouble fome than the management of one where the cultivators are free, and where money is the fubftitute for both. This is not the cafe here; and the management of an Hungarian estate is

hardly