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his innocence; though his fecret larder perhaps at that very time contained a brace of bucks. He had always he faid a quick market for his venifon; for the country is as ready to purchase it, as thefe fellows are to procure it. It is a foreft adage of ancient date, non eft inquirendum unde venit venifon

The incroachments of trefpaffers, and the houses and fences thus raifed on the borders of the foreft, though, at this time, in a degree connived at, were heretofore confidered as great nuifances by the old foreft-law, and were very feverely punished under the name of purpreffures, as tending at terrorem ferarum---ad nocumentum forefte-and, as might be added, at this time, by the neighbouring parithes, ad incrementum pauperum. When a franger therefore rears one of thefe fudden fabricks, the parish-officers make him provide a certificate from his own parish, or they remove him. But the mifchief commonly arifes from a parishioner's raifing his cottage, and afterwards felling it to a ftranger, which may give him parifh-rights. Thefe encroachments, however, are evils of fo long standing, that at this day they hardly admit a remedy. Many of thefe little tenements have been fo long occupied, and have paffed through fo many hands, that the occupiers are now in fecure poffeffion.

Where the manor of Beaulieu-abbey is railed from the foreft, a large fettlement of this kind runs in fcattered cottages, at least a mile along the rails. This neft of incroachers the late Duke of Bedford, when Lord warden of the foreft, refolved to root out. But he met with fuch furdy, and determined oppofition from the forefters of the hamlet, who amounted to more than two hundred men, that he was obliged to defiftwhether he took improper measures, as he was a man of violent temper, -or whether no measures, which he could have taken, would have been.

effectual in repreffing fo inveterate an evil.And yet in fome circumftances, these little tenements (incroachments as they are, and often the nurseries of idleness) give pleasure to a benevolent breast. When we fee them, as we fometimes do, the habitations of innocence and industry; and the means of providing for a large family with eafe and comfort, we are pleafed at the idea of fo much utility and happiness, arifing from a petty trefpafs on a waste, which cannot in itfelf be confidered as an injury.

He

I once found, in a tenement of this kind, an ancient widow, whofe little story pleafed me,-Her folitary dwelling ftood fweetly in a dell, on the edge of the foreft. Her husband had himself reared it, and led her to it, as the habitation of her life. had made a garden in the front, planted an orchard at one end, and a few trees at the other, which in forty years had now fhielded the cottage, and almost concealed it. In her early youth fhe had been left a widow with two fons and a daughter, whose fender education (only what the herfelf could give them) was almost her whole employment: and the time of their youth, the faid, was the pleafanteft time of her life. As they grew up, and the cares of the world fubfided, a fettled piety took poffeffon af her mind. Her age was oppreffed with infirmity, fickness, and various affictions in her family. In these diftreffes, her bible was her great comfort. I vifuted her frequently in her laft inefs, and found her very intelligent in fcripture, and well verfed in all the gofpel-topics of confolation. For many years the every day read a portion of her bible, feldom any other book;

Just knew, and knew no more, her bible

true;

And in that charter read with sparkling

eyes,

Her title to a treasure in the skies.

Whea

When she met with paffages fhe did not understand, at one time, or other, fhe faid, fhe often heard them explain ed at church. The ftory feems to evince how very fufficient plain fcripture is, unaffifted with other helps, except fuch as are publicly provided, to adminifter both the knowledge and the comforts of religion even to the lowest claffes of people.

The dialect of Hampshire has a particular tendency to the corruption

of pronouns, by confounding their cafes. This corruption prevails thro' the country; but it feems to increase. as we approach the fea. About the neighbourhood of New-foreft this Dor ric hath attained its perfection. I have oftener than once met with the following tender elegiac in church yards.

Him fhall never come again to we
But us fhall furely, one day, go to he.

Anecdotes of General Washington.

The

THE moment I arrived at Alex- farmer, conftantly employed in the andria I was eager to repair to management of his farm, in improving Mount Vernon, a beautiful feat of his lands, and in building barns. He General Washington, fituated ten fhewed me one not yet finished., It miles lower down the river.-On the is a vat pile, about a hundred feet road to it we pafs through a great long, and still more in width, defign deal of wood; and after having mount- ed as a florehouse for his corn, pota ed two hills we difcover the houfe, toes, turnips, &c. Around it are elegant, though simple, and of a plea- conftructed ftables for all his cattle, fing afpect. Before it is a neat lawn his horfes, his affes, the breed of on one fide ftables for horfes and which, unknown in this country, he Cattle: on the other a green-house, is endeavouring to increase. and buildings where the negroes work, plan of the building is fo judiciously In a kind of yard are perceived ducks, contrived, that a man may quickly fill geefe, turkeys, and other poultry. the racks with hay or potatoes, with The house commands a view of the out the leaft danger. The General Potowmac, and enjoys a most beauti- informed me, that he had built it af ful profpect. On the fide towards ter a plan fent him by the celebrated that river it has a large and lofty por- English husbandman Arthur Young, tico. The plan of the houfe is well- but which he had confiderably improconceived and convenient. With- ved. This building is of brick made out, it is covered with a kind of varon the fpot; and every part of it, exnish, a cement that renders it almoft cept the joists of the roof, and the impenetrable by the rain.It was fhingles that cover it, which for want evening when the General arrived, of time he was forced to buy, is the fatigued by a tour through a part of his produce of the estate. He told me, eftate, where he was tracing out a that it did not colt him above three road. You have frequently heard hundred pounds.In France it would him compared to Cincinnatus: the have coft upwards of 80,000 lir. comparison is juft. The celebrated [3,3331.] That year he had plantGeneral is now no more than a good ed feven hundred bufhels of potatoes. 3 A 2

From Briffot's Travels in North America.

All

All this was quite new to Virginia, where there is neither barns nor provifion for cattle.

His horfes, his affes, his mules, were wandering in the neighbouring paftures. He told us, that it was his intention to fet his country the example of cultivating, artificial meadows, fo rare in it, yet fo neceffary, as in winter the cattle are frequently in want of fodder. He had a noble ftallion, which will keep up the breed of good horfes in the country, and fhowed us two fine affes from Malta and Spain.

His three hundred negroes were diftributed in log-houfes fcattered over the eftate, which in that part contains upwards of ten thousand

acres.

Colonel Humphreys, the poet of whom I have already Ipoken, and who lives with him in the quality of his fecretary affured me, that his poffef fions in different places confifted of more than two hundred thoufand

acres.

The General had invited over from England a good English farmer, with his family, and placed him at the head of his husbandry.

Every thing in the General's houfe is fimple. His table is well fupplied, but without oftentation. Mrs Washington fuperintends every thing, and with the qualities of an excellent farmer's wife unites that fimple dignity which ought to diftinguish a woman whofe husband has filled the greatest ftation. To thefe he adds alfo that fweetnefs, and that attention to ftrangers, which renders hofpitality fo agreeable. The fame virtues are poffeffed by her engaging niece, whofe health, unhappily, appears to be very delicate.

You have heard me blame Mr Chaftelleux for having difplayed fo much wit in the portrait he has given of the General. An artful portrait of an artless man is totally out of character. The General's goodnefs beams

in his eyes. They have no longer that fire which his officers found in them when at the head of his army; but they brighten in converfation. In his countenance there are no ftriking features; whence it is difficult to catch a likenefs of him, for few of his portraits refemble him. All his anfwers difcover good fenfe, confummate prudence, and great diffidence of himfelf; but at the fame time, an nnalterable firmness in the part he has once embraced. His modefty cannot but be particularly aftonishing to a Frenchman. He fpeaks of the American war as if he had not been the conductor of it; and of his vičtories with an indifference with which no stranger could mention them. I never faw him grow warm, or depart from that coolness which characterises him, except when talking on the prefent ftate of America. The divifions of his country rend his foul. He feels the neceffity of rallying all the friends of liberty around a central point, and of giving energy to the government. To his country he is ftill ready to facrifice that quiet which conftitutes his happiness. Happiness, faid he to me, is not in grandeur, is not in the buftle of life. This philofopher was fo thoroughly convinced of the truth - . of this, that from the moment of his.. retreat he broke off every political connection, and renounced every place in the government; yet in fpite of fuch a renunciation, of fuch difintereftedness, of fuch modefty, this aftonishing man has enemies! He has been vilified in the newspapers, he has been accufed of ambition, of intrigue, when all his life, when all America, can witnefs his dif.tereftednefs, and the rectitude of his conduct Virginia is perhaps the fole country where he has enemies; for no where elfe have I heard his name pronounced but with refpect, mixed with affection and gratitude. You would think the Americans were fpeaking of their father. It would

be

be wrong perhaps to compare Wath- he knew, on the other, their profound idolatry for their ancient government and their monarchy, the inviolability of which appeared to him ridicu

ington with the moft celebrated warriors: but he is the model of a republican; difplaying all the qualities, all the virtue of one.

He spoke to me of Mr la Fayette with tenderness. He confidered him as his fon; and faw with joy, mixed with anxiety, the part he was about to play in the revolution preparing in France. Of the iffue of that revolution he had his doubts: if he knew, on the one hand, the ardour of the French in rufhing into extremes,

lous.

After having fpent about three days in the houfe of that celebrated man, who loaded me with civilities, and gave me much information, refpecting both the late war and the prefent fituation of the United States, I returned with regret to Alexandria.

Anecdotes of Count Cagliostro *.

SINCE the death of Jofeph Francis Borri, the celebrated chemift, hereftarch, phyfician, and prophet, who ditinguished himself about the beginning of the feventeenth century, by his uncommon capacity and numerous impoftures, Europe has not, perhaps, produced fuch an extraordinary character as Jofeph Balfamo, commonly known by the name of Count Cagliof.

tro.

In a memoir published by himself while in England, being defirous to conceal the fecret of his origin beneath an impenetrable veil of mystery, he pretended that he could not speak pofitively as to the place of his nativity, nor in regard to the parents from whom he derived his birth. This circumftance gave an ample fcope to the imagination of his followers, fome of whom pretended that he was the offfpring of the grand mafter of Malta, by a Turkish lady, taken captive by a galley belonging to that ifland; while others, with equal probability, affert ed that he was the only furviving fon of that Prince, who about thirtyfive years ago fwayed the precarious

fceptre of Trebifond! To infufe into this ftory a greater portion of the marvellous, it was added, that a revolution taking place, in confequence of which, the reigning fovereign was facrificed to the fury of his feditious fubjects, his infant fon was conveyed by a trufty friend to Medina, where the Muffulman Sherif had the generofity to educate him in the faith of his Chriftian parents. He himself af ferted, that at an age, when he fift became confcious of his exiftence, he found himself in the city of Medina, was called Acharat, had a perfon of the name of Alturas for his governor, was 'attended by two eunuchs, who treated him with the utmoft deference and refpect, and refided in the house of the Mufti Salaahym.

This account, which, it must be acknowledged, has all the air of a romance, could neither fatisfy nor impole upon the inquifition. The holy fathers accordingly made the ftrictest fearch after the origin of Cagliostro, and at laft difcovered, that this pretended prince and heir apparent to the kingdom of Trebifond, was the fon

From his life, lately published,

of

of Peter Ballamo and Felicia Braco- nativity, on account of having duped a goldfmith of the name of Morano, out of about fixty pieces of gold, by taking advantage of his avarice. The exafperated jeweller not only applied to a magiftrate for juftice, but allo threatened to revenge his wrongs by means of his ftiletto, and to avoid thefe impending calamities, Caglioftro thought proper to withdraw himself from his vengeance.

nieri, both of them perfons of mean extraction, and that he was born at Palermo on the 8th of June, 1743. His father happening to die during his infancy, his maternal uncles took him under their protection, endeavoured to inftru&t him in the principles of religion, and gave him an education fuitable to his years and their own fituation; but from his earliest infancy he is faid to have fhewn himfelf fo averfe to a virtuous courfe of life, that he would not remain at the feminary of St Roch at Palermo, where he had been placed for his inftruction.

At thirteen years of age he was fent to a convent ar Caltagirone, where he affumed the habit of a novice, and being placed under the tuition of the apothecary, he learned from him the first principles of chemifuy and medicine. He did not continue long in this afylum; during his ftay, however, if we are to put implieit confidence in his right reverend biographers, he exhibited fo many new fymptoms of a vicious character, that the religious were often under the neceffity of chaftifing him. It is recorded, among other things, that being employed to read during meals, as is cuftomary in all holy communities, he could never be prevailed upon to recite what aappared in the book before him, but, on the contrary, he would repeat whatever occurred to his own imagination: nay, he has even confeffed, that in reading the martyrology, he ufed to fubftitute the names of the most famous courtezans of the aime, instead of thofe of the female faints!'

Having foon after abandoned his conwent on account of the rigour of its difcipline, and the fevere mortifications he was expofed to, the friar-cleat returned to Palermo. There he was frequently feized and imprifoned on account of his conduct, and at length was forced to fly from the place of his

We shall not follow this celebrated adventurer through the feveral capitals of Europe, nor recapitulate the various deceptions by which he pro-" cured immenfe fums of money. Hi connexion with Cardinal de Rohan, and with Madame de la Motte, in the memorable affair of the diamondnecklace purchafed in the name of the Queen of France, his two journies to England, and his tricking a quaker, during his refidence in Logdon, out of a fum of money by the agency of his wife, are all detailed at full length. The fecrets too of his Egyp tian mafonry, and his fuccefsful impofitions by means of a pretended intercourfe with the world of fpirits, are related and commented upon.

After committing a multitude of frauds in various kingdoms, and ef caping from the hand of juftice in almoft every capital of Europe, Caglioftro at length, by uncommon fatality, was arrested in his career, and condemned to death in the only metropol lis, perhaps, in which he could not have been convicted of a breach of the moral obligations that connect man with fociety. Having repaired to Rome in 1789, be endeayoured to procure difciples, and even infiituted a lodge of Egyptian mafonry. The papal government, jealous of its authority, and terrified, left this affociation fhould plot agamit the fafety of the ecclefiaftical ftate, ordered him to be feized on the evening of the 27th of December in the fame year, and, after an exact inventory of his moveables had been taken and sealed

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