But the dancing women, who are the votaries of pleasure, are taught every qualification which they imagine may tend to captivate and entertain the other fex. They compofe a separate clafs, live under the protection of government, and according to their own particular rules. In the code of Gentoo laws and customs, it is faid: "If a dancing girl commit a crime that renders her property liable to confifcation, the magiftrate thall confifcate all her effects, except her cloths, jewels, and dwelling. In the fame manner, to a foldier shall be left his implements of war; and to a man exercifing any profeffion, the implements of that profeffion fhall be exempted from the conAleation of the rest of his property.” The dancing women eat meat of any kind, except beef. They even drink fpirituous liquors, which perhaps may have led the Greeks who accompanied Alexander to imagine that the other Hindoos did the same. They appear in a variety of dref fes. Befide thofe that have been already mentioned, they fometimes wear trowsers, like the Perfians: a Jamma of wrought muflin, or gold or filver tiffue; the hair plaited and hanging down behind, with fpiral curls on each fide of the face; and to the gold or filver rings on the ankles, in fome of their dances they attach fmall bells of the fame metals. The figures of the Bacchantes, that are to be met with in antique paintings and bas reliefs, may ferve as exact reprefentations of fome of the dancing women in Hindoftan. No religious ceremony, or feftival of any kind, is thought to be performed with requifite order and magnificence, unless accompanied by dancing; and every great temple has a fet of dancers belonging to it. An abhorrence to the thedding of blood, the offspring of nature, nurfed by habit, and fanctified by religion, the influence of the most re gular of climates, which leffens the wants of life, and renders men averfe to labour, perhaps alfo the moderate ufe of animal food, and abstinence from fpirituous liquors, contributed to render the Hindoos the mildeft, and probably the most enervated, inhabitants of the globe. That they fhould poffefs patience and refignation under calamity, is perhaps not much to be wondered at, as the fame caufes that tend to damp exertion may produce. these qualities; but befide theft, we have numberlefs inftances of firmness and active courage that occafion a confiderable degree of furprife. The gentie and generally timid Hindoo, while under the influence of religion, or his ideas of duty and honour, will not only meet death with indifference, but embrace it by choice. An Englishman, whilst on a hunt. ing party, haftily struck a Peon, for improperly letting loofe a grey-hound. The Peon happened to be a Rajahpout, which is the highest tribe of Hindoo foldiers. On receiving the blow, he started back with an appear ance of horror and amazement, and drew his poignard. But again compofing himfelf, and looking steadfally at his mafter, he faid, "I am your fervant, I have long ate your bread;" and having pronounced this he plunged the dagger into his bofom. In thofe few words he furely patheti cally expreffed, "The arm that has been nourished by you, fhall not be employed to take away your life; but in fparing yours, I muit give up my own, as I cannot furvive my difhon our." Some fepoys in the English fervice being condemned to death on account of a mutiny, it was ordered that they fhould be blown off from cannon in front of the army. Some of the offenders being genadiers, on feeing others, who were led forth to fuffer, they cled out, "As we have generally fhewn the way on fervices of danger, why fhould we be denied that diftinction now?" They had, without making any reply, he gave himself a wound with his poignard, of which he almost instantly expired. walked towards the guns with firmnefs and compofure; requested to be fpared the indignity of being tied; and, placing their breasts to the muzzles of the cannon, were fhot away. Though feveral had been condemned, the behaviour of thefe men operated fo ftrongly on the feelings of the commanding officer, that the rest were pardoned, The Rajah of Ongole having been driven from his poffeffions, after fome fruitless attempts, he resolved to make a last effort to recover them. He accordingly entered the province at the head of thofe who had ftill accompanied him, and was joined by many of his fubje&s. The Englifa officer who commanded at Ongole for the Nabob of Arcot, marched to oppofe him. They met : in the engagement the Rajah was killed by a mufket fhot; and most of his principal followers having alfo fallen, the reft were broken, and fied. The English commander, being informed that a relation of the Rajah was on the field wounded, went up to him with an interpreter, to offer him his protection and affistance. He found him lying on the ground, and speaking to an attendant, of whom he was enquiring whether the Rajah's body had been carried off. Being informed that it When a Hindoo finds that life is near its end, he will talk of his diffolution with great compofure; and if near to the Ganges, or any other facred river, will defire to be carried out to expire on its bank; nor will he do any thing to preferve life, that may be in any way contrary to the rules of his caft or religion. One of the natives, who was employed in an eminent poft at an English fettlement, being prevailed on in a dangerous illness to receive a vifit from an European doctor, it was found that by long abstinence, which in fickness the Hindoos often carry to excefs, the ftomach would no longer retain any thing. The diforder being of a putrid kind, the doctor wifhed to give the bark in ftrong wine; but the Hindoo pofitively refused to take it, notwithstanding many arguments that were used both by the doctor and the governor who accompanied him, and who had confiderable degree ofinfluence over the Hindoo. They promised that it should remain an inviolable secret; but he replied with great calmness, that he could not conceal it from himself, and a few days afterwards fell a vic tim to his perfeverance,' Extras from Burke's Letter to a Member of the National Affembly, in a Anfwer made to his Book. NE would think, that after an houcft and neceffary Revolution (if they had a mind that theirs thould pafs for fuch) your masters would have imitated the virtuous policy of thefe who have been at the bead of revolutions of that glorious character. Burnet tells us, that nothing tended to reconcile the English nation to the government of Kirg William fo much as the care he took to fill the vacant bishoprics with men who had attracted the public efteem by their learning, eloquence, and piety, and above all, by their. known moderation in the state. With you, in your purifying Revolution, whom have you chofen to regulate the church? Mr Mirabeau is a fine fpeaker-and a fine writer, and a fine-a very fine man;-but really nothing gave more furprize to every • Lieutenant Clonel Fletcher. body body here, than to find him the fupreme head of your ecclefiaftical affairs. The reft is of courfe. Your Affembly addreffes a manifefto to France, in which they tell the people, with an infulting irony, that they have brought the church to its primitive condition. In one respect their declaration is undoubtedly true; for they have brought it to a fate of poverty and perfecution. What can be hoped for after this? Have not men (if they deferve the name) under this new hope and head of the church, been made bishops, for no other merit than having acted as ioftruments of atheis; for no other merit than having thrown the children's bread to dogs; and in otder to gorge the whole gang of ufurers, pe lars, and itinerant Jew-difcounters at the corners of streets, ftarved the poor of their chriftian flocks, and their own brother paftors? Have not fuch men been made bishops to adminifter in temples, in which (fthe patriotic donations have not already Atapped them of their veffels) the Churchwardens: ought to take fecurity for the altar plate, and not fo much as to trust the chalice in their facrile. gious hands, fo long as Jews have affignats on ecclefiaftic plunder, to exchange for the filver ftolen from churches? to France, to fill the new epifcopal threnes; men well verfed in fwearing; and who will fcruple no oath which the fertile genius of any of your reformers can devife. In matters fo ridiculous, it is hard to be grave. On a view of their confequences it is almoft inhuman to treat them lightly. To what a state of favage, ftupid, fervile infensibility muft your people be reduced, who can endure fuch proceedings in their church, their state, and their judicature, even for a moment! But the deluded people of France are like other madmen, who, to a miracle, bear hunger, and thirft, and cold, and confinement, and the chains and lafh of their keeper, whilft all the while they fupport themselves by the imagination that they are generals of armies, prophets, kings, and emperors. As to a change of mind in thefe men, who confider infamy as honour, degradation as preferment, bondage to low tyrants as liberty, and the practical fcorn and contumely of their upftart masters, as marks of refpect and homage, 1 look upon it as abfolutely impracticable. Thefe madmen, to be cured, maft firft, like other madmen, be fubdued. The found part of the community, which I take to be large, but by no means the largest part, has been taken by furprize, and is disjointed, terrified, and difrmed. That found part of I am told, that the very fons of fuch Jew-jobbers have been made bithops, perfons not to be fufpected of any fort of Chriftian fuperftition, the community muft firft be put infit colleagues to the holy prelate of Autu; and bred at the feet of that Gamaliel. We know who it was that drove the money-changers out of the temple. We fee too who it is that brings them in again. We have in London very refpectable perfons of the Jewish nation, whom we will keep but we have of the fame tribe others of a very different defcription, -houfebreakers, and receivers of ftolen goods, and forgers of paper currency, more than we can conve niently hang. Thefe we can fpare S VOL. XIV. No. 80. to a better condition, before it can do any thing in the way of delibera, tion or perfuafion. This must be an act of power, as well as of wisdom; of power, in the hands of firm, determined patriots, who can diftinguish the milled from traitors, who wil regulate he ftate (if fuch fhould be their fortune) with a difcriminating, manly, and provident mercy; men who are purged of the forfeit and indigeftion of fyftems, if ever they have been admitted into the habit of their minds; men who will lay the founda tion tion of a real reform, in effacing every veftigeof that philofophy which pretends to have made difcoveries in the terra auftralis of morality; men who will fix the ftate upon thefe bafes of morals and politics, which are our old, and immemorial, and, I hope, will be our eternal poffeffion. This power, to fuch men, myft come from without. It may be given to you in pity; for furely no nation ever called fo pathetically on the compaffion of all its neighbours. It may be given by thofe neighbours on motives of fafety to themfelves. Never fhall I think any country in Europe to be fo fecure, whilt there is eftablished, in the very centre of it, a ftate (if fo it may be called) founded on principles of anarchy, and which is, in reality, a college of armed fanatics, for the propagation of the principles of affliation, robbery, rebellion, fraud, faction, oppreffion, and im, ie ty. Mahomet, hid, as for a time he was, in the bottom of the fands of Arabia, had his fpirit and character been difcovered, would have been an object of precaution to provident minds. What if he had erected his fanatic ftandard for the deftruction of the Chriftian religion in luce Afie, in the midft ofthe then noon-daysplendour of the then civilized world? The princes of Europe, in the beginning of this century, did well not to fuffer the monarchy of France to fwallow up the others. They ought not now, in my opinion, to fuffer all the monarchies and commonwealths to be fwallowed up in the gulph of this polluted anarchy. They may be tolerably fafe at prefent, because the comparative power of France for the prefent is little. But times and occafions make dangers. Inteftine troubles may arife in other countries. There is a power always on the watch, qualified and difpofed to profit of every conjuncture, to eftablifh its own principles and modes of mifchief, where ever it can hope for fuccefs. What mercy would these ufurpers have on other fovereigns, and on other na tions, when they treat their own king with fuch unparalleled indignities, and fo cruelly oppress their own countrymen? The king of Pruffia, in concutrence with us, nobly interfered to fave Holland from confufion. The fame power, joined with the rescued Holland and with Great Britain, has put the emperor in the poffeffion of the Netherlands; and fecured, under that prince, from all arbitrary innovation, the ancient,hereditary conftitution of thofe provinces. The chamber of Wetzler has restored the bfhop of Liege, unjustly difpoffeffed by the rebellion of his abjects. The king of Pruffia was bound by no treaty, nor alliance of blood, nor had any particular reafons for thinking the emperor's government would be more mifchievous or more oppreffive to human nature than that of the Turk; yet on mere motives of policy, that prince has interpofed with the threat of all his force, to fnatch even the Turk from the pounces of the imperial eagle. If this is done in favour of a barbarous nation, with a barbarous neglect of police, fatal to the bu man race, in favour of a nation, by principle in eternal enmity with the Chriftian name; a nation which wil not fo much as give the falutation of peace (Salam) to any of us, nor make any pact with any chriftian nation beyond a truce if this be done in favour of the Turk, fhall it be thought either impolitic, or unjuft, or uncharitable, to employ the fame power, to refcue from captivity a virtuous monarch (by the courtefy of Europe confidered as Moft Chriftian) who, after an intermiffion of 175 years, had called together the ftates of his kingdom, to reform abuses, to establish a free government, and to firengthen his throne; a monarch, who at the very outfet, without force, even without folicitation, had given to his people fuch fuch a Magna Charta of privileges, as never was given by any king to any fubjects Is it to be tamely borne by kings who love their fubjects, or by fubjects who love their kings, that this monarch, in the midst of thefe gracious acts, was infolently and cruelly torn from his palace, by a gang of traitors and affaffins, and kept in clofe prifon to this very hour, whilft his royal name and facred character were used for the total ruin of these whom the laws had appointed him to protect? The only offence of this unhappy thonarch towards his people, was his attempt, under a monarchy, to give them a free conftitution. For this, by an example hitherto unheard of in the world, he has been depofed. It might well difgrace fovereigns to take part with a depofed tyrant. It would fuppofe in them a vicious fympathy. But not to make a common cause with a juft prince, dethroned by traitors and rebels, who profcribe, plunder, confifcate, and in every way cruelly opprefs their fellow citizens, in my opinion is to forget what is due to the honour, and to the rights of all virtuous and legal government. An Hiftorical Account of the Dignity of Emperor: With Memoirs of Leopold II. the prefent Emperor of Germany. THE 'HE word Emperor (in Latin Imperator) fignified among che ancient Romans, the general of an army, who, for fome extraordinary fuceefs, had been complimented with this appellation. Thus Auguftus, having obtained no less than twenty famous victories, was as often faluted with the title of emperor; and Titus was derroninated emperor by his army, after the reduction of Jerufalem. It came, afterward, to denominate an abfolute monarch, or a fupreme commander of an empire. In this fenfe, Julius Cæfar was called emperor; the title defcended with the dig. nity, to Auguftus, Tiberius, and Ca. ligula; and, afterward, it became elective. In ftritnefs, the title of emperor cannot add any thing to the rights of fovereignty: its effect is only to give precedence and pre-eminence above o ther fovereigns; and as fuch, it ra fes thofe invefted with it to the fummit of human greatness. The emperors pretend, however, that the imperial dignity is more emiment than the regal; but the founda S 2 tion of fuch prerogative does not appear. It is certain, that the greatest, moft ancient, and abfolute monarchs, as thofe of Babylon, Perfia, Affyria, Egypt, Macedonia, &c. were called by the name of Kings, in all languages; both ancient and modern. It is difpured, whether emperors have the power of conferring the regal title. It is true, they have fometimes taken upon them to erect kingdoms; and thus it is that Bohemia and Poland are faid to have been railed to the dignity; thus, alfo, the emperor Charles the Bald, in the year 877, gave Provence to Pofon, puting the diadem on his head, and decreting him ro be called king. The en peror Leopold I. moreover, erected the ducal Prufha into a kingdom. in favour of the elector of Brandenburg; and though feveral of the kings of Europe refufed, for fome time, to acknow. ledge him in that capacity, yet, at laft, by the treaty of Utrecht, in 1712, they all acquiefced in it. In the east, the title and quality of emperor are more frequent than they are among us; thus, the fovereign princes |