printed, fo as to form feparate handsome Volumes; and will in timebe found a complete Hiftory of England, decorated with a profufion of mafterly COPPER-PLATES, from original Defigns.-That period of hiftory with which this work commences, is certainly one of the moft interefting in the annals of the British nation; and the merit of the author, Sir THOMAS MOOR, is univerfally acknowledged by every modern writer of reputation. To enumerate all the eulogiums in his favour, would exceed the limits of our present design. The learned Mr. Harris fays, "Sir THOMAS MOOR was eminent for his fpeculations and his literature." And Mr. Hume, who fpeaks difrefpectfully of the learning of this age, ranks Sir THOMAS as the first, if not the only perfon, who had any pretenfions to claffic knowledge. Mr. Warton fays, "Sir THOMAS MOOR is reverenced by pofterity, as the fcholar who taught that erudition which civilifed his country, and as the philofopher who met the horrors of the block with that fortitude, which is equally free from oftentation and enthusiasm; as the man whofe genius overthrew the fabric of false learning, and whofe amiable tranquillity of temper triumphed over the malice and injuftice of tyranny." Indeed, the utility of this plan, whether feparately or generally confidered, appears fo ftrikingly obvious, that what is already faid may probably appear unneceflary. But as we feriously intend to exhauft our beft endeavours, both in the internal and external decoration of the HISTORICAL MAGAZINE, our fincerity emboldens us to declare, that it is neither by profeffions nor promifes, that we mean to obtain fuccefs and approbation. We admire a faying of ADOLPH, Earl of Naflau, who was elected emperor of the Auftrians in 1291, and no doubt the public will concur with the maxim Animus eft qui divites facit It is the mind, not the purfe, which makes men rich. However great our confidence and our refources, we do not mean to set the usual communications of correfpondents at defiance: on the contrary, we shall with much pleasure receive whatever is confiftent with the principles and the plan of this hiftorical Mifcellany. THE THE Historical Magazine; O R, CLASSICAL LIBRARY OF REMARKABLE EVENTS, MEMOIRS, AND ANECDOTES. NUMBER I. HISTORICAL FRAGMENTS. ANECDOTES, FROM VOLTAIRE'S HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. OF SWEDEN. A FTER the battle of Pultawa, where Charles the Twelfth of Sweden was completely defeated by the Czar, he with much difficulty escaped to Turkey, having with him only about eighteen hundred men. He was treated with every poffible mark of refpect by order of the Grand Seignior: he did not lodge in any town, but rather chofe to encamp near Bender. Here Charles employed himfelf in the exercife of his foldiers: he generally rose before the fun; and fo fond was he of riding, that he would frequently tire three horfes in a day. Such of his attendants that were folicitous to gain his favour, attended him during thefe excurfions, and were particular in always keeping on their boots. One morning, going into the houfe of his chancellor, Mullern, who was afleep, he ordered his attendants not to difturb him, chufing rather to wait in the antichamber, where there was a large fire in the chimney, and near it feveral pair of choice fhoes, which the chancellor had received from Germany for his own wear. The king, waiting here fome little time, at length obferved the shoes, which he took up, threw into the fire, and then went away. When the chan cellor awoke, he perceived the smell of the burut leather; and being told the occafion of it, he exclaimed, "What a ftrange king! that would have his chancellor always booted!” Charles, in his compulfatory retirement at Bender, found plenty of every thing about him; a happiness very rarely enjoyed by a vanquished and fugitive prince. Befides provifion more than fufficient, and five hundred crowns a day which he received from the Ottoman munificence, he drew money alfo from France, and borrowed of the merchants at Conftantinople. Part of this money was employed in carrying on intrigues in the Seraglio, in purchafing B 2 purchafing the favour of the vifirs, or in endeavouring to procure their ruin; the rest he profufely diftributed among his officers, and the Janiffaries of Bender. Grothufen, his favourite and treasurer, was the difpenfer of his liberalities; a man who, contrary to the custom of per fons in fuch ftations, was as much pleafed with giving as his mafter. He brought him one day an account of fixty thoufand crowns in two lines: Ten thoufand given to the Swedes and Janiffaries, by the generous orders of his majesty; fifty thoufand-fpent by myfelf." 66 See," fays the king," how I like my friends fhould give in their accompts! My chancellor makes me read whole pages for the fum of ten thousand livres. But I like Grothufen's laconic ftile much better." This generofity, however, often re difcover him, and fo went off difappointed. But the young lady proved with child; and Williamfon, to take off the scandal, wedded her in fome time after. This Williamfon married five or fix wives fucceffively, and was alive in the reign of Queen Anne; at which time, fays the captain, I faw him preaching in one of the kirks at Edinburgh. It is faid, that King Charles the Second, hearing of this man's behaviour in Lady Cherrytree's houfe, wifhed to fee one that had discovered fo much courage while his troopers were in search of him; and, in a merry way, declared, that when he was in the Royal Oak, he could not have kissed the bonnieft lafs in Christendom! INSTANCE duced him to fuch ftraits, that he OF UNCOMMON AFFECTION, REhad not wherewithal to give. ANECDOTE, FROM SWIFT'S LIFE OF CAPTAIN M CREICHTON. Y first action, fays the captain, after having been taken into the guards, was, with a dozen gentlemen more, to go in queft of Master David Williamfon, a noted covenanter. I had been affured, that this man did much frequent the houfe of my Lady Cherrytree, within ten miles of Edinburgh: but when I arrived first with iny party about the house, the lady, well knowing our errand, put Williamfon to bed to her daughter, difguifed in a woman's night-drefs. When the troopers went to fearch in the young lady's room, her mother pretended that fhe was not well, and Williamfon fo managed the matter, that when the daughter raised herself a little in the bed, to let the troopers fee her, they did not LATED BY MR. COXE, IN HIS ACCOUNT OF THE PRISONS AND HOSPITALS IN RUSSIA, SWEDEN, AND DENMARK. WITHIN WITHIN the court of the prifon of the police in Mofcow a gentleman is confined, who, alone, of these prifoners, is refused the privilege of ever coming out: and yet this punishment is scarcely ade quate to the enormity of his crime having whipped feveral of his peasants in fo cruel a manner, that they died in confequence of the stripes. In Ruffia, the lords have great power over their peasants; but the fate of this tyrant fhews that they are amenable for any wanton abuse of it. A mark of attachment in a domeftic once belonging to this man, muft ftrongly interest the feelings of humanity. Clofe to the prifon-door of this unhappy wretch, an old woman of about feventy years of age has built a miferable fhed, that fcarcely repels the common violence of of the weather: there fhe refides from pure motives of compaffion to the prifoner: fhe had been his nurfe, and continues with him (at leaft at the time when Mr. Coxe travelled into the northern king doms) in order to render him all the fervice which might happen to be in her power. Such another inftance of affection, fays Mr. Coxe, is not to be met with; for it must be abfolutely difinterested, as the prifoner, confidering the greatnefs of his crime, can never have any hopes of being releafed nor can She ever expect any recompence but what the derives from her own feelings. Mr. Coxe gave her a fmall piece of money, and the immediately handed it to the prifoner. INSTANCE OF EXTREME OLD AGE. AFFEUS, who wrote the of doubt: for, by the ftrength of his memory, he was a kind of liv ing chronicle, relating diftinétly and exactly whatever had happened in the compafs of his life, together with all the circumstances relating to it. "This wonderful man had often loft and renewed his teeth; his hair, both on his head and beard, grew infenfibly grey, and then as infenfibly turned black again. The first age of his life he paffed in idolatry; but, during the two laft centuries of his life, had regularly continued a Mahometan. The fultan had allowed him a penfion for his subsistence, the continuance of which he begged from the general; the fame motive remaining which had induced the king of Cambaya to grant him a subsistence, that is to say, his great age, and the extraordinary circumstances which had attended his life; these prevailed on the general to grant his request."-It may M'hiftory of the Indies, which be very easily conceived, that fo has been always efteemed a model of veracity, and an elegant compofition, gives the following account, (Hift. Ind. lib. xi. cap. 4.) after having related the death of the Sultan of Cambaya, and the conqueft of his kingdom by the Portugueze. "They prefented," fays he, "at this time to the general a man born among the ancient Gangards, now called Bengalars, who was three hundred and thirty-five years of age. There were various circumftances which took from this account all fufpicion of falsehood. In the first place, his age was confirmed by univerfal tradition; all the people avering, that the oldeft men in their infancy fpoke of this man's age with aftonishment; and that he had then living in his own houfe a fon of ninety years old. In the next place, his ignorance was fo great, and he was fo abfolutely void of learn ing, that this removed all ground ftrange a ftory as the above, related by fo faithful an hiftorian, must have created many enquiries, and must have either funk in the world, or, in confequence of thofe enqui ries, received abundance of concurrent teftimonies. We fhall, there fore, add fome farther remarkable particulars concerning this celebrated long-liver, from another Portugueze writer, Ferdinand Lopez de Caftegneda, who was hiftoriographer royal. He fays, in his hiftory of Lufitania, lib. viii. "In the year 1536,. Nunio de Cugna, who was then three hundred and forty years of age, was prefented to the viceroy of the Indies. He remembered that he had feen the city in which he dwelt, then one of the most populous in the Indies, a very inconfiderable place. He had changed his hair, and recovered his teeth, four times; and when the viceroy faw TH HE following anecdote helps to prove, that, even among the prefent Greeks, in the gloomy day of fervitude, the remembrance of their ancient glory is not totally extinct. When the late Mr. Anfon (Lord Anfon's brother) was upon his travels in the Eaft, he hired a veffel to vifit the ifle of Tenedos. His pilot, an old Greek, as they were failing along, faid with fome fatisfaction, "There it was our fleet lay!" Mr. Anfon demanded "What fleet?" What fleet!" replied the old man, a little piqued at the question; "why our Grecian fleet at the ficge of Troy." the name of Gyges, to whom he was chiefly attached, and in whom he placed the most unlimited confidence. In one of their private converfations, boasting as ufual on the beauty of his wife, the king contended that Gyges could not have an adequate idea of her charms while fo much of them was concealed by the incumbrances of drefs; and, to convince him of the truth of what he afferted, infifted that he fhould have ocular demonftration, by concealing himself in the chamber, where the undreffed to go to bed. It was in vain that Gyges remonstrated against the indifcretion of his royal mafter; in vain he laid before him the probability of a difcovery, and the fanctity and veneration in which female modefty fhould be held; the king remained inexorable, and Gyges reluctantly confented. This highly-favoured courtier was conducted by his mafter to the place of concealment, and in fecurity and at leifure he contemplated the naked beauties of his royal mistress. In retiring, however, he did not escape the notice of the queen; who, aware of this peculiar foible in her royal husband, immediately fufpected the contriv ance; but neither gave an alarm, nor indicated her indignation by any token whatever. The following day, however, Gyges received a meffage to attend the queen; and, unfufpecting what was to be the nature of the conference, immediately obeyed. The queen briefly explained the reasons why he had commanded his attendance, and concluded with offering him a choice, either to kill Candaules and to poffefs her and the empire, or to die himself: for faid fhe-"The man who betrayed and expofed me, must be facrificed; or you, who have witnessed my shame and dishonour." Aftonish |
