'as this to take away the crown om my fon? Mine enemies, as I elieve, withed not at all that the -own fhould be made fure to him; nd on that account are very connt, that he fhould keep it by the lawful violence of fome traitours, nemies from all antiquity to all our amily. Was this then to feek for ftice upon the paft offences of the aid traitours, which my clemency as always furpaffed? But an evil onfcience cannot ever be affured, arrying continually its fear in its ery great trouble within itself. Vas it to with a change in the repofe f the country; to procure it by a ild pardon of every thing paft, and happily united to you, it may quit this captivity, to fet forward towards him, whom I pray to infpire you happily upon my very juft and more than reafonable complaints and grievances. At Sheffield this 28. of November one thousand five hundred eightytwo. Your very difconfolate nearest relation and affectionate coufin MARIE R. -ANECDOTES. [Tranfmitted by T. W.] I. SEA ENGAGEMENT. general reconciliation between all STRANGE OCCURRENCE DURING A : onour. Ah! will you, Madam, let your Celf be fo blind to the artifices of mine enemies, as to establish after you, and perhaps against yourself, their unjust pretenfions to this crown; will you fuffer them in your lifetime, and look at them, while they are ruining and fo cruelly deftroying hofe, who concern you fo near both in heart and in blood? What advantage and honour can you hope for, in fuffering them to keep us, my fon and me, fo long feparated, and him and me from you. Refume the antient pledges of A SHORT time after the engagement commenced between fir George Brydges Rodney and monfieur Guichen, in the Weft Indies, a game cock that had been principally fed upon the main deck, and was much careffed by the failors, immediately after the firing began, flew upon the quarter deck, and took his ftation near fir George Rodney and general Vaughan. The feathered hero feemed not only to enjoy the conflict, but endeavoured, by every means in his power, to infpire all within hearing of him with the love of glory; for every five or fix minutes he was fure to fet up a loud crow, and continued to ftrut the deck, and conduct himfelf in this manner during the whole of the engagement. Sir George, pointing to the phenomenon, called out to the general in the heat of INCENTIVE TO VIRTUE! A PRINCE of Oetingen in Germany, never required audience from his miniftry or counfellors; but, taking them up to a window in his palace, prefented to their view a gallows. "Now, gentlemen," faid the prince," you have your choice: you may either, by your good actions, obtain my regard and protection, or, by your bad ones, have the honour of a fwing upon yonder tree." This prince was remarkably well ferved by his ministry. ANECDOTES. [Tranfmitted by Adolefcens.] I. OF FREDERIC THE SECOND, LATE KING OF PRUSSIA. A VERY ftriking inftance of the freedom which the great Frederic fometimes permitted, once occurred previous to a review. Two regiments were in the field; that of general was one of them. This officer, being fond of company, paffed more of his time in the fociety of ftrangers, and with the foreign ministers, than most others in the Pruffian fervice. Something, it is probable, had chagrined the king that morning: for, while the regiment advanced in a line, he faid to the general, who stood near him-"Votre regiment n'eft pas alignè, Monfieur pas fuprenant, vous jouez tant aux cartes!" The general called out inftantly, with a loud voice, to the regiment" Alte!" and they im et ce ne INSTANCE OF MILITARY ARDOUR IN A GERMAN OFFICER. AT a certain parade, where the fovereign himself was prefent, and many officers affembled, a corpulent general officer started fuddenly, as if he had feen fomething preternatural. He immediately waddled to the ranks with the utmost expedition. It could not be conceived what had put his excellency into fo great a commotion, which little fuited to his years and habit of body. While all the fpectators were on tiptoe to observe the iffue of this ftrange conduct, he arrived at the ranks; when, in great wrath, which probably had been augmented by the heat acquired in his courfe, he pulled off one of the foldier's hats, which, it feems, had not been properly cocked, and adjusted it to his mind. Having regulated the military dif cipline in this important particular, he returned to the prince's right hand, with a ftrut, expreffive of the highest felf-approbation. the finalinefs of the fum it contained, as being too poor a reward for his courage. Next morning the grenadier repaired to the prince with a couple of diamond rings, and other jewels of confiderable value. "Sir,' faid he," the gold I found in your purfe, I fuppofe your highnefs intended for me; but these I bring back to you, having no claim to them." "You have, foldier!" answered the prince; "you have doubly deferved them-by your bravery, and by your bonefty; therefore they are your's!" II. OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA, PREDE you have brave troops in England; but would an equal number of your countrymen, do you think, beat thefe" "I will not take upon me abfolutely to fay that," replied his excellency; "but I dare be bold to fay, that half their number would try!" III. RELIGION. James II. came to the crown, a IN the year 1685, when king motion was made in parliament, and put to the vote, "Whether his majefty fhould be permitted to employ Popish officers in his army, or not?" This important queftion, on CESSOR OF THE GREAT FREDERIC which the establishment of the Pro II. AND LORD HYNDFORD. THE old king of Pruffia was remarkable for an extravagant humour of fupporting, at a vaft expence, a regiment of the tallest men that could be picked up throughout the whole world; and would give a fellow of fix feet and a half high, or more, perhaps EIGHTY or ONE HUNDRED guineas advance, befides the charge of bringing him from the moft diftant part of the globe, if it fo happened. One day, when his majefty was reviewing his favourite regiment, attended by all the foreign ambaffadors, and most of the great officers of rank both in the court and army, he took occafion to afk the French minifter, who stood near him, If he thought his master had an equal number of troops, in his fervice, able to engage thefe gallant men? The Frenchman, who was no foldier, faid, He believed not. The king, pleafed with fuch a reply from a native of the vaineft nation in the world, afked the emperor's ambaffador the fame question. The German frankly declared, That he did not believe there was fuch another regiment in the world. "Well, my lord Hyndford," said his majefty to the British ambaffador; " I know teftant or the Popish religion in these kingdoms depended, came to a fingle vote, and was carried in favour of the former by a providential accident. A courtier, who was to watch every voter where the member had any employment under the king, obferved one, who had a regiment, about to vote against the court; and therefore warmly put him in mind of his regiment. But he made anfwer, "My brother died last night, and left me feven hundred pounds a year!" This fingle vote gained a majority. by people who affect to treat Hanno's fragment as fpurious. In countries, fuch as thofe that we have been now defcribing, and fuch as Hanno was then failing by, when he made the remark, there is no twilight. The ftars, in their full brightnefs, are in poffeffion of the whole heavens, when in an inftant the fun appears without a harbinger, and they all difappear together. We fhall fay, at funriting the thermometer is from 48° to 60°; at three o'clock in the afternoon it is from 100° to 115°; an univerfal relaxation, a kind of irrefiftible languor and averfion to all action takes poffeffion of both man and beast; the appetite fails, and fleep and quiet are the only things the mind is capable of defiring, or the body of enduring: cattle, birds, and beafts all flock to the fhade, and to the neighbourhood of running ftreams, or deep ftagnant pools, and there, avoiding the effects of the fcorching fun, pant in quiet and inaction. From the fame motive, the wild beast ftirs not from his cave; and for this, too, he has an addi-, tional reafon, because the cattle he depends upon for his prey do not troll abroad to feed; they are afleep and in fafety, for with them are their dogs and their fhepherds. But no fooner does the fun fet, than a cold night inftantly fucceeds a burning day; the appetite immediately returns; the cattle fpread themselves abroad to feed, and pass quickly out of the fhepherds fight into the reach of a multitude of beats feeking for their prey. Fires, the only remedy, are every where lighted by the fhepherds to keep thefe at a refpectful distance; and dancing, finging, and mufic at once exhilarate the mind, and contribute, *This fenfation of the favage in the heart of Africa seems to be unknown to the enemies of the flave-trade; they talk much by alarming the beafts of prey, to keep their flocks in fafety, and prevent the bad effects of fevere cold *. This was the cause of the obfervation Hanno made in failing along the coat, and it was true when he made it: juft the fame may be observed fill, and will be, fo long as the climate and inhabitants are the fame. II. WE faw, fays that bold navigator, when rowing clofe along the coaft of Africa, rivers of fire, which ran down from the highest mountains, and poured themfelves into the fea; this alarmed him fo much, that he ordered his gallies to keep a conliderable offing. After the fire has confumed all the dry grafs on the plain, and, from it, done the fame up to the top of the highest mountain, the large ravines, or gullies, made by the torrents falling from the higher ground, being faded by their depth, and their being in poffeffion of the laft water that runs, are the latest to take fire, though full of every sort of herbage. The large bamboos, hollow canes, and fuch like plants, growing as thick as they can stand, retain their greenness, and are not dried enough for burning till the fire has cleared the grafs from all the rest of the country. At laft, when no other fuel remains, the herdfmen on the top of the mountains fet fire to these, and the fire runs down in the very path in which, fome months. before, the water ran, filling the whole gully with flame, which does not end till it is checked by the ocean below where the torrent of water entered, and where the fuel of courfe ceafes. This I have often feen myfelf, and been often nearly inclofed in it, and can bear witness, of heat, without knowing the material fuffering of the negro is from cold. that, that, at a distance, and by a ftranger ignorant of the caufe, it would very hardly be diftinguished from a river of fire. REMARKABLE OATH ANECDOTES. [Tranfmitted by J. S.] I.. IN the wealds of Kente lived a TAKEN ON THE THIRD OF AUGUST yeomane of goode faime, havinge BY THE INHABITANTS OF MOUNT WE swear, not on our tilling in ftruments, but on our fpears, and iron forks, feven feet high, and the few fire-arms we are poffefied of, that on the leaft fufpicion or appearance of being attacked, we fhall, first of all, invite the Savoyards to drink with us Succefs to Liberty, and to put in their bonnets the na tional cockade. 2dly, If they fhould refuse, no more of their needles or bad ink, which they fell us too dear, fhall be confumed in this country. 3dly, We fwear to employ them no more as chimney-fweepers. 4thly, They fhall be fuffered no more to lie, when benighted, in our hay-lofts, nor to steep their crufts in our broth, as they conftantly did gratis: we fwear, in fhort, to be no longer hofpitable to them, if they dare to come and trouble our peace, and meddle in our affairs with wicked intentions. Laftly, if they should be fo bold as to enter the precincts of Jura, in a body, and with arms, we promise them to make ufe of every means of defence our prudence and danger fhall fuggeft to us: we fhall lie in ambush on our mountains and in our woods, and then fall on them fuddenly and unperceived, in order to harass them on every fide; we fhall cut off all conveyances of provifions; and hope, by our addrefs and our courage, to prevent any one of them from returning with the unwelcome news to his country. The above was figned by the mayor and municipal officers of the town of Clancey, in the diftrict of Lons-le-Saulnier. withal a brave ftomache, and beein to fuppe alonge with another yeomane in the neighbourhoode, who beein advised of his needie appetite, did provid acordiulie a buttoc of fatte beeve, the wich he ate to stay his ftomache; and after his loun chin, he did moreover devoure a whole hogge barbicued, a puddin containin two pecks of damefens and a quantitye of flummerie; and, bye way of deferte, he did likewife digeft foure baskets of strawberries, a quarte of crame, befide a large loave, a nue chees, and two pounde of frefhe buttur: and because the hous afforded no more, he went away very ille fatisfied! and 11. SPIRITED CONDUCT OF GEORGE T. JUDGE D- -r had married the fifter of Mr. P, who vilely murdered a gentleman. The judge applied to George the First for his relation's pardon; though he acknowledged that nothing could be urged in alleviation of the crime, but he hoped his majesty would fave him on account of the infamy which his execution must bring on the family. "So! Mr. Juftice," faid the king, "what you propofe to me is, that I fhould transfer the infamy from you and your family, to me and mine!" |