Mr Rouffeau rofe in perfect health, to all appearance, on Thursday morning at five o'clock, (his ufual hour in fummer), and walked with his young pupil. About feven he returned to his houfe alone, and asked his wife, if breakIt was ready? Finding it was not, he tad her, he would go for fome moments to the wood, and defired her to call him when breakfaft was on the table. He was accordingly called, returned home, drank a difh of coffee, went out again, and came back a few minutes after. About eight, his wife went down thairs to pay the account of a smith; but fcarcely had the been a moment below, when the heard Mr Rousseau complain. She returned immediately, and found Lim fitting on a chair, with a ghaftly countenance, his head reclining on his hand, and his elbow sustained by a defk. What is the matter, my dear friend," fid the," are you indifpofed?"-"I feel," anfwered he, "a painful anxiety, and the keen pains of a cholic." Upon this Mrs Rouffeau left the room, as if the atended to look for fomething, and fent to the caftle an account of her hufband's illaefs. The Marchionefs, on this alarning news, ran with the utmost expedition to the cottage of the philofoper; and, that the might not alarm him, said the came to inquire, whether the mufic that had been performed during the night in the open air before the cattle, had not disturbed him and Mrs Rousseau ?—The philofopher replied, with the utmost tranquillity of tone and aspect, "Madan, I know very well that it is not any thing relative to mufic that brings you here:-I am very fenfible of your goodBefs:- but I am much out of order; and I beg it as a favour, that you will leave me alone with my wife, to whom I have a great many things to fay at this inftant." Madame de Girardin immediately withdrew. Upon this Mr Rouffean defired his wife to fhut the door, to lock it on the infide, and to come and fit by him. I fhall do fo, my dear friend," faid fhe; "I am now fitting - how do you find your

befide you:

--

Ruff. My dear, it was always my earneft defire, that it would please God to take me out of the world before you : my prayer has been heard, — and my wish will foon have its accomplishment. Look at that fun, whofe fmiling afpect feems to call me hence! - There is my God,-God himself, who opens to me the bofom of his paternal goodness, and invites me to tafte and enjoy, at laft, that eternal and unalterable tranquillity which I have fo long and fo ardently panted after. My dear fpoufe, do not weep,you have always defired to fee me happy, I am now going to be truly fo! - Do not leave me: I will have none but you to remain with me,—you, alone, shall clofe my eyes.

Mrs Rouf. My dear,-my good friend, - banish thofe apprehenfions, and let me give you fomething. I hope that this indifpofition will not be of a long conti

nuance!

Rouff. I feel in my breaft fomething like tharp pins, which occafion violent pains. My dear, if I have ever given you any uneafinefs and trouble, or expofed you, by our conjugal union, to misfortunes which you would otherwise have avoided, I hope you will forgive

me.

Mrs Rouff. Alas! my dear friend, it is rather my duty to afk your pardon for any uneafy moments you may have fuffered on my account, or through my means.

Rouff. Ah! my dear, how happy a thing is it to die, when one has no rea fon for remorse or feif-reproach! — Etermal Being the foul that I am now going to give thee back, is as pure, at this moment, as it was when it proceeded from theex render it partaker of thy felicity! - My dear, I have found in the Marquis of Girardin and his lady the marks of even

parental

Rouff. I fhall,-fince you defire it. Ah! I feel in my head a ftrange motion! -a blow which I am tormented with pains. Being of beings! God! (here he remained for a confiderable time with his eyes raised to heaven). My dear spouse! let me embrace you !-help me to walk a little."

Here his extreme weakness prevented his walking without help; and Mrs Rouffeau being unable to fupport him, he fell gently on the floor; where, after having remained for fome time motionlefs, he fent forth a deep figh, and expired.

Four and twenty hours after his deceafe, his body was opened, in prefence of a competent number of witneffes; and an inqueft being held by the proper officers, the furgeons declared upon oath, that all the parts of the body were found; and that a ferous apoplexy, of which palpable marks appeared in the brain, was the caufe of his death. [40. 389.]

The Marquis de Girardin ordered the body to be embalmed; after which it was laid in a coffin of oak, lined with lead, and was buried in the Isle of Poplars, which is now called Elyfium. The fpot is charming, and looks like an enchanted region; it is of an oval form, fifty feet in length and thirty-five in breadth. The water which furrounds it, flows in a filent ftream, and the winds feem unwilling to ruffle its furface, or to augment its motion, which is almoft imperceptible. The fmall lake that is formed by this gentle current, is furrounded by hillocks, which separate it Monthly Review.

from the other parts of nature, and fhe on this retreat a mysterious kind of f lence, that diffuses through the mind the fpectator a melancholy propenfity the humane kind. Thefe hillocks ar covered with trees; and are terminate at the margin of the lake, by folitar paths, which are now and will be lon frequented by fentimental vifitors, caft ing a penfive look towards Elyfium.

This feat of Ermenonville belonge formerly to the famous Gabrielle d'E trées, whofe charms the love of Hen ry IV. has rendered immortal; and is a bout four leagues diftant from Chantil The Marquis, whofe exquifite taste ha fo happily improved this noble feat, ha confecrated the wild parts of it to Roul feau, even before he became perfonall acquainted with that fingular man. A mong other objects of curiofity to be fee in this feat, there is, on a rifing ground a temple dedicated to PHILOSOPHY which is not yet entirely finished. Th interior of this edifice is adorned wit five columns; on each of which there i an infcription, as at the bottom of th page. If the philofophers fhould thin Voltaire too hardly dealt with in the infcriptions, it may be obferved, in justi fication of M. Girardin, (or at leaft as a alleviation of his fault), that how vari ous foever the literary talents of M. d Voltaire may have been, yet the difting tive and predominant lines of his genius and even of his character, were wit and pleafantry. It is beyond all doubt that for one movement of admiration that he excited by his graver talents, h has excited one hundred fits of laughte (or imiles thereunto approaching) by hi merry ones. Even his moft ferious phi lofophical difcuffions were tinged with drollery, and an habitual grin was alway lurking under the moft folemn modifica tion of his countenance.

When Mr Rouffeau was called to in habit a mansion invifible to us, the Mar quis de Girardin was building for him a neat dwelling at Ermenonville, remark able for its elegant fimplicity and the beauty of his fituation: his prefent occupation is the erection of a fepulchral monument to cover the remains of his departed friend, in the Isle of Poplars.

GREAT BRITAIN.

THE interval that elapsed during the recefs of parliament in 1776, was not much checkered with such domestic events as could greatly excite the attention of the public. As war feemed now 23 inevitable as it was fully provided for, the narrow alternative which was lodged in the hands of the Commiffioners affording little room for other expectation, the attention of the nation was fufpended for the prefent, and people only looked forward to the confequences of that erent. Those who approved of hoftility faw their defires now gratified to the utmoft, and those who differed with them in opinion found it ufelefs to repine. Thus, all former fubjects of debate and difcuffion being swallowed up in the final decifion, public affairs feemed to be fcarcely thought of, and a degree of stillnes prevailed among the people, perhaps unequalled in any country or age, during the rage of a foreign or domeftic warfare. War is feldom unpopular in this country; and this war was attended with fome circumstances which feldom have accompanied any other. The high language of authority, dignity, and fupremacy, which had filled the mouths of many for fome years, fed the vanity of thofe who could not eafily define, or who perhaps had never fully confidered, the extent of the terms, or of the confequences which they were capable of producing; and the flattering idea of leffening the national burthens by an American revenue, whilft it was fitted to the comprehenfion of the meaneft capacity, was not lefs effective in its operation up. on those of a fuperior clafs and order. To the powerful principles of national pride and avarice, was added a laudable difpofition to fupport thofe national rights which were fuppofed to be invaded, and a proper indignation and refentment to that ingratitude and infolence which were charged upon the Americans, and to which only the prefent troubles were attributed by thofe who were most active in fomenting the principles of hoftility, which at that time pre valled, far more than they had done at the beginning of this conteft.

In fuch circumstances, it is not to be wondered at, if a majority of the people gave at least a kind of tacit approbation to the war but as it was not attended VOL. XLI.

petition for glory, they did not feel themselves fo much interefted in its fuccefs, or altogether fo anxious about its consequences, as they would in those of another nature. On the other hand, that great body of the people who had at all times reprobated the measures which led to the present troubles, and who confidered them as not lefs danger.. ous to the conftitution, than ruinous to the power and glory of the nation, could not be fuppofed fanguine in their wishes for a fuccefs which they deemed liable to more fatal confequences than any loss or defeat. The great diftance of the feat of war alfo rendered its effects lefs interefting: for diftance produces in fome degree the effect of time with respect to fenfibility; and the flaughter, cruelties, and calamities, which would wring the heart, if they happened in the next county, are flightly felt at three or four thoufand miles diftance. The distance alfo prevented all apprehenfion of immediate danger; the expences of the contest were not yet fenfibly felt; and the bulk of mankind never think of remote confequences.

From these, and other caufes, a ge neral, and perhaps blameable careleffnefs and indifference prevailed throughout the nation. Nor was it eafily roused from this drowsy apathy, which like all other habits was confirmed by time. For when at length the American cruisers, not only fcoured the Atlantic ocean, but fpreading their depredations through the European feas, brought alarm and hoftility home to our doors; when the deftruction which befel the homeward bound richly laden Weft-India fleets poured equal ruin upon the planters in the islands and the merchants at home;" when an account of the failure of fome capital houfe in the city, was almoft the news of every morning; even in that ftate of public lofs and private diftrefs, an un fual phlegm prevailed, and the fame tranquil countenance and carelefs unconcern was preferved by thofe who had not yet partaken of the calamity: A circumftance which is not fufficiently accounted for, even from the vast numbers who thought themfelves officially or by connection bound to give a countenance to the war as a favourite court-measure, nor the till greater of those who profited by its continuances

B

cot.

Whatever wisdom there might be in this measure, or however great the fu ture benefits to be derived from it may be, it certainly tended much to lower the Eaft-India company in the eyes of the natives, and to relax that force of opinion which forms the principal inftru. ment in the government of mankind throughout every part of the globe. Totally ignorant of, and totally incapable of comprehending the diftinct diftributions of power which are allotted to the different parts in a mixed government like ours, and that complicated series of connection and dependence which form their union, they only looked up to the company in the grofs, as the greateft ag. gregate body of power of which they had any knowledge. They faw that her fimple and avowed fervants far exceeded their greateft princes in power. They had heard of the King of Great Britain, and they had alfo heard of the Stadtholder of the United Provinces; thefe were titles, the nature of which they neither understood, nor gave themfelves the trouble to inquire into; but they had long experience, that the English and Dutch companies were in the full poffeffion and exercife of all the powers of fovereignty.

But when these people difcovered, that those whom they had hitherto been accuftomed to confider as the princes of the earth, were in reality the there fub

jects of a great monarch, (a ftate which they could not feparate in their ideas from the moft abject flavery), that they had not even the honour of being his fervants; when thefe agents, to give the greater efficacy to their commiffion, led them into all the moft hidden arcana of the company; when they perceived with amazement, that even its delegated powers were to expire in a few years, and that they were to look elsewhere for all future interefts and connections, they awakened as from a dream; and they regarded with an indignation and contempt equal to the fuppofed impofition, thofe whom they had lately revered as the firft of mankind. Some conception may be eafily formed, how the pride and felf-importance of thefe new-made princes was fwelled, when, instead of abject dependents on the company, they found themselves confidered as friends, allies, fovereigns, and equals, by that mighty and over- ruling power with whom they had till then been in a manner unacquainted.

or

In this ftate of affairs, and in poffeffion, it is faid, of the power, wealth, and qualities, which we have described, Mahommed Ali Cawn is reprefented, as applying them with such art and fuccefs, that he obtained an over-ruling, if not boundless influence, in the English councils at Madrafs. If fuch was his defign, he certainly thewed himself equal to the purfuit; for laying by the jealous ftate and diftant pride of an Eaftern defpot, he feemed to become, as nearly as it could poffibly be admitted, an inmate, and member of the British community at that fettlement, making the outward, Black town, as it is called, the principal feat of his refidence, where his palace adjoins to the walls of the English fortrefs or town. By thefe means he is faid to have been in conftant poffeffion of every transaction that paffed, and even of every propofal or defign that originated in that fettlement. Undoubtedly it feems an extraordinary degree of confidence in the faith of an Eastern prince, to admit of fo close and intimate a connection. Thofe who were jealous of, or enemies to the Nabob's power and greatnefs, have not failed to fuggeft, that fuch a degree of nearness could not be unattended with danger if any evil was intended. For as it is in the power of this prince to draw great bodies of troops at all times into the fettlement, as customary guards B 2

and