scarely less curious respecting Paul Cuffee, the African navigator. We shall present our readers with the substance of these

accounts.

The last accounts of Mr. Park, from himself, were from San sanding on the Niger, whence he transmitted his journal to the government. The institution are about to publish this immediately, for the benefit of his unfortunate family; and we cannot sufficiently felicitate the public on the propriety with which the care of this publication is committed to the real friends of Africa, instead of being left, like the former travels, to the advocates of the slave-trade.* Let us, in passing, entreat every one of the readers of this Review, for the sake of justice and humanity, to contribute their mite to the publication; so that a fund, worthy of the cause in which he fell, may be raised for the family of the most enterprizing traveller of the age. Along with Mr. Park's journal, will be published that of Isaac, a native Mahometan, who having accompanied him to Sansanding, was after wards sent by governor Maxwell to procure some account of his fate. He returned to Senegal after an absence of twenty months, and made his report in writing. From it, we extract the following account of Mr. Park's death, as given to Isaac by Amadee-Fatouma, who accompanied him from Sansanding on board a large schooner-rigged canoe, in which he had undertaken the navigation of the river to its mouth. Amadee-Fatouma accompanied him till two or three days after he had reached the kingdom of Haoussa.

Next day,' says he, Mr. Park departed, and I slept in the village (Yaour). Next morning I went to the king, to pay my respects to him. On entering the house, I found two men, who came on horseback. They were sent by the chief of Yaour. They said to the king, "We are sent by the chief of Yaour to let you know, that the white men went away, without giving you or him (the chief) any thing. They have a great many things with them, and we have received nothing from them: and this Amadee-Fatouma, now before you, is a bad man, and has likewise made a fool of you both. The king immediately ordered me to be put in irons, which was accordingly done, and every thing I had taken from me. Some were for killing me, and some for preserving my life. The next morning, early, the king sent an army to a village called Boussa, near the river's side. There is before this village a rock across the whole breadth of the river. One part of the rock is very high: there is there a large opening in that rock, in the form of a door, which is the only passage for the water to pass through: the tide current is here very strong. The army went and took possession of the top of this opening. Mr. Park came there after the army had posted itself:

* The first volume was edited, and in part written by Bryan Edwards.

he, nevertheless, attempted to pass. The people began to attack him, throwing lances, pikes, arrows, and stones. Mr. Park defended himself for a long time: two of his slaves, at the stern of the canoes, were killed. They threw every thing they had in the canoe into the river, and kept firing; but being overpowered by numbers and fatigue and unable to keep up the canoe against the current, and no probability of escaping, Mr. Park took hold of one of the white men, and jumped into the water. Martin did the same; and they were drowned in the stream in attempting to escape. The only slave remaining in the boat, seeing the natives persist in throwing weapons at the canoe, stood up and said to them, Stop throwing now; you see nothing in the canoe, and nobody but myself; therefore cease. Take me and the canoe, but don't kill me.' They took possession of the canoe and the man, and carried them to the king.

'I was kept in irons three months. The king then released me, and gave me a female slave. I immediately went to the slave taken in the canoe, who told me in what manner Mr. Park and all of them had died, and what I have related above.' p. 22-24.

Of course, the directors do not vouch for the accuracy of this narrative, but give it as they have received it from Isaac.With respect to captain Paul Cuffee, he is an American black, who having, from the condition of a poor slave, raised himself to ease, and even affluence, by his unwearied industry and abilities, came over to England in his own vessel, the Traveller, manned by blacks entirely; and had several interviews with the directors and other friends of African civilization, in order to ascertain in what way he could best contribute to the improvement of his countrymen. He had first gone under license to Sierra Leone, and from thence came to Liverpool last July. His information was very material; and his conversation left the most favourable impression of his intelligence and integrity on all who knew or saw him. The directors have taken the proper steps to profit by his communications, and by his important assistance in the prosecution of their great work.

We now conclude this article with once more offering the sincere and hearty tribute of our good wishes to so laudable an institution, as that whose proceedings have been before us. It has already done much; but we trust that it may yet do so much more towards the happiness of the race, and the diffusion both of important knowledge and good principles, as will throw its past history into the shade. We shall most anxiously await the appearance of the promised travels of Mr. Park and his guide, and shall lose no time in exhibiting an account of them to our readers.

22

Tales of Fashionable Life. By Miss Edgeworth, Author of Practical Education, Belinda, Castle Rackrent, &c. &c. 3 vols. 12mo. pp. 1450. Johnson, London. 1812.

[From the Edinburgh Review, for July, 1812.]

THE writings of Miss Edgeworth exhibit so singular an union of sober sense and inexhaustible invention-so minute a knowledge of all that distinguishes manners, or touches on happiness in every condition of human fortune-and so just an estimate both of the real sources of enjoyment, and of the illusions by which they are so often obstructed, that it cannot be thought wonderful that we should separate her from the ordinary manufacturers of novels, and speak of her Tales as works of more serious importance than much of the true history and solemn philosophy that comes daily under our inspection. The great business of life, and the object of all arts and acquisitions, is undoubtedly to be happy; and though our success in this grand endeavour depends, in some degree, upon external circumstances, over which we have no control, and still more on temper and dispositions, which can only be controlled by gradual and systematic exertion, a very great deal depends also upon creeds and opinions, which may be effectually and even suddenly rectified, by a few hints from authority that cannot be questioned, or a few illustrations so fair and striking, as neither to be misapplied nor neglected. We are all no doubt formed, in a great degree, by the circumstances in which we are placed, and the beings by whom we are surrounded; but still we have all theories of happiness-notions of ambition, and opinions as to the summum bonum of our own-more or less developed, and more or less original, according to our situation and character-but influencing our conduct and feelings at every moment of our lives, and leading us on to disappointment, and away from real gratification, as powerfully as mere ignorance or passion. It is to the correction of those erroneous theories that Miss Edgeworth has applied herself in that series of moral fictions, the last portion of which has recently come to our hands; and in which, we think, she has combined more solid instruction with more universal entertainment, and given more practical lessons of wisdom, with less tediousness and less pretension, than any other writer with whom we are acquainted.

When we reviewed the first part of these Tales which are devoted to the delineation of fashionable life, we ventured to express a doubt, whether the author was justifiable for expending so large a quantity of her moral medicines on so small a body of patients and upon patients too whom she had every reason to

fear would turn out incurable. Upon reflection, however, we are now inclined to recal this sentiment. The vices and illusions of fashionable life are, for the most part, merely the vices and illusions of human nature-presented sometimes in their most conspicuous, and almost always in their most seductive form; and even where they are not merely fostered and embellished, but actually generated in that exalted region, it is very well known that they drop upon the place beneath,' and are speedily propagated and diffused into the world below. To expose them, therefore, in this their original and proudest sphere, is not only to purify the stream at its source, but to counteract their pernicious influence precisely where it is most formidable and extensive. To point out the miseries of those infinite and laborious pursuits in which persons who pretend to be fashionable consume their days, would be but an unprofitable task; while nobody could be found who would admit that they belonged to the class of pretenders; and all that remained therefore was to show, that the pursuits themselves were preposterous; and inflicted the same miseries upon the unquestioned leaders of fashion, as upon the humblest of their followers. For this task, too, Miss Edgeworth possessed certain advantages of which it would have been equally unnatural and unfortunate for her readers, if she had not sought to avail herself.

We have said, that the hints by which we may be enabled to correct those errors of opinion which so frequently derange the whole scheme of life, must be given by one whose authority is liable to no serious dispute. Persons of fashion, therefore, and pretenders to fashion, will never derive any considerable benefit from all the edifying essays and apologues that superannuated governesses and preceptors may indite for their reformation;nor from the volumes of sermons which learned divines may put forth for the amendment of the age;-nor the ingenious discourses which philosophers may publish, from the love of fame, money, or mankind. Their feeling as to all such monitors is, that they know nothing at all about the matter, and have nothing to do with personages so much above them; and so they laugh at their prosing and presumption-and throw them aside, with a mingled sense of contempt and indignation. Now, Miss Edgeworth happens fortunately to be born in the condition of a lady,-familiar from early life with the fashionable world, and liable to no suspicion of having become an author from any other motives than those she has been pleased to assign.

But it is by no means enough that we should be on a footing, in point of rank, with those to whom we are moved to address our instructions. It is necessary that we should also have some

relish for the pleasures we accuse them of overrating, and some pretensions to the glory we ask them to despise. If a man, without stomach or palate, takes it into his head to lecture against the pleasures of the table--or an old maid against flirtationor a miser against extravagance, they may say as many wise and just things as they please-but they may be sure that they will either be laughed at, or not listened to; and that all their dissuasives will be set down to the score of mere ignorance or envy. In the very same way, a man or woman who is obviously without talents to shine or please in fashionable life, may atter any quantity of striking truths as to its folly or unsatisfactori ness, without ever commanding the attention of one of its vota ries. The inference is so ready, and so consolatory-that all those wise reflections are the fruit of disappointment and mortification that they want to reduce all the world to their own dull level-and to deprive others of gratifications which they are themselves incapable of tasting. The judgment of Miss Edgeworth, however, we think, is not in any very imminent danger of being disabled by this ingenious imputation; and if we were to select any one of the traits that are indicated by her writings as peculiarly characteristic, and peculiarly entitled to praise, we should specify the singular force of Judgment and self-denial, which has enabled her to resist the temptation of being the most brilliant and fashionable writer of her day, in. order to be the most useful and instructive.

The writer who conceived the characters, and reported the conversations of Lady Delacour-Lady Geraldine—and Lady Dashfort (to take but these three out of her copious dramatis persona), certainly need not be afraid of being excelled by any of her contemporaries, in that faithful but flattering representa tion of the spoken language of persons of wit and politeness of the present day-in that light and graceful tone of raillery and argument and in that gift of sportive but cutting medisance, which is sure to command such unbounded success in those circles, where success is supposed to be most difficult, and most desirable. With the consciousness of such rare qualifications, we do think it required no ordinary degree of fortitude to withstand the temptation of being the flattering delineator of fashionable manners, instead of their enlightened corrector; and to prefer the chance of amending the age in which she lived, to the certainty of enjoying its applauses. Miss Edgeworth, however, is entitled to the praise of this magnanimity;-for not only has she abstained from dressing any of her favourites in this glittering drapery, but she has uniformly exhibited it in such a way as to mark its subordination to the natural graces it is sometimes allowed to eclipse, and to point out the defects it