handfome and fprightly, de Choifeul referred her to the king, and gave her an opportunity of prefenting her perfon and her petition; but the former produced only a flight, if any effect; and the plan totally mifcarried, but not without being made known to the counters, who now entered more deeply than ever into the politics of the times, with a determined refolution to remove the two de Choifculs; and in this The fucceeded, to the great difhonour of the king, and to the regret of all the true friends of France. In the year 1771, while the neceffary preparations were making in England, to repel force by force, in cafe a negociation for fatisfaction fhould prove unsuccessful, it is confidently afferted, that the court of Spain actually intended to break with England, if France had been ready to fecond her; and that the Spanish miniftry applied to the court of Verfailles to know her intentions; to which de Choiseul returned for anfwer, without the king's knowledge, "That the king, his mafter, would be always ready to fupport the honour of the house of Bourbon, and to fulfil the folemn engagements he had entered into by the Family Compact." A difpatch to this purport, which had been forwarded to the French ambaffador at Madrid, was copied by a fecretary in the intereft of the duke d'Aguillon, and tranfmitted home; this epistle was, by the chancellor, put into the hands of the countefs de Barré, with inftructions to fhew it to the king in one of his gloomy hours, and to paint to him, in the strongest colours, all the horrors of war, to be commenced at a time when the finances were in great disorder, the whole kingdom in a ferment concerning the parlia, ments, and the poor alinost starved for want of bread.

At the fame time the duke d’Aguillon circulated a general rumour

without doors; that de Choifeul was going to involve the nation in a war with England, on account of a miferable iiland (Falkland's) in South America. The people caught the alarm, and, to teftify their inclination to peace, the general cry at Paris was, "Point de guerre! point de Choifeul! No war! no Choifeul!"

The difmiffion of the minifter was foon after refolved upon by the king, and took place the beginning of January 1771. His majesty, in the letter de cachet (which ordered him to refign his employments, and to retire to his feat at Chanteloux) expreffed in ftrong terms his difapprobation of his conduct latterly; but he was fearce gone into exile, when the eyes of all Paris were opened, and it was now plainly difcovered, that he was facrificed to the refentment of the countefs, to the ambition of the duke d'Aguillon, and to a deep-laid scheme of the chan cellor, to fubvert the ancient conftitution of the kingdom, It was publicly known likewife, that the difpatch which had raifed fuch a clamour against him, contained inftructions to the French ambaffador, to diffuade the court of Madrid from breaking with England; though it was added, that France was bound in honour to fupport the interefts of every branch of the houfe of Bour bon; but the former part of the letter was artfully fuppreffed.

The difmiffion of de Choifeul was followed by a revival of most arbitrary proceedings against the parliament of Paris, who continued their deputations, and defired the king either to withdraw his edict, and pers mit the law to take its course with the duke d'Aguillon, or to accept their employments and their lives, which they were willing to facrifice to the prefervation of the conftitu

tion.

the countefs, to different villages; and a new tribunal was conftituted, vefted with the fame powers as the late parliament, though the princes of the blood, and several other peers of France, protefted against thofe anticonstitutional proceedings. The king foon after made the duke d'Aguillon prime minifter, who conducted himself with great inveteracy against all who had made complaints

of him and the countefs.

When the king was feized with his last fickness, the brother of de Barré had obtained a confiderable poft in the army; but refigned it as foon as the monarch's death was known; and just before that period the unhappy woman, who had loft him in the esteem of his subjects, was removed from the palace, and took refuge in a convent near Paris. Madam de Barré appears to have been a woman of fpirit without parts; to have made money and rank her principal objects, without ever confulting either the honour of the monarch the influenced, or the public good. A character by no means uncommon among the ladies who have had any flare in regulating the political tranfactions of Europe.

A TERRIBLE INSTANCE OF THE SEVERITY OF THE CHI

NESE GOVERNMENT.

A Man of letters, called Ouangfi-Heou, lived in the country as a philofopher, amufing himself with writing and ftudy. To enliven his works, and make them more read, he fometimes inferted in them too bold expreffions, and reprehenfible ideas, He was fixty years old, and had acquired wealth and reputation by his labours, when, in 1777, an enemy or a rival accufed him. He was arrested, tried, and found guilty of the four following crimes. 1. The having dared to make an abridgment of the great dictionary of Kang-hi,

and even in fome places contradict it It is to be obferved, that Kang-hi was an emperor, by whom, or by whofe direction, the dictionary was made. 2. In the preface of this abridgment he has had the audacity to ufe the little names of Confucius, and of the ancestors of the emperor: a want of refpect, fay the judges, that makes us tremble. We must add, that, in fpeaking of the emperors of China, it is not permitted to use the names they bore before their acceffion to the throne: thefe names are ineffable in China. 3. The author has pretended to be a defcendant of Hoangti, by the family of Tcheou, This is the fame thing as if a man in Europe fhould pretend to be defcended from one of the patriarchs. 4. Laftly, in his poems he has again infinuated this pretended defcent, using reprehenfible expreffions, in which he appears to have evil defigns. In his defence he obferved, that he had abridged the dictionary of Kang-hi, becaufe, confifting of a great number of volumes, it was ex penfive and inconvenient: that he had inferted the little names of the emperors in it, to make youth ac quainted with them, that they might not use them through ignorance; but that, perceiving his fault, he had omitted them in the fecond edition: and that his pretended defcent was but the momentary whim of poetic vanity. The judges reply, that, being a man of letters of the fecond clafs, he could not be confidered as one of the vulgar, wha might have finned through ignorance: that confequently what he had done and written must be deem ed offences against his Imperial ma jefty, and high treafon; and that according to the laws of the empire, he must therefore be cut in pieces, his goods confifcated, all his relations above fixteen years old put to death, his wives, his concubines, and his children under fixteen ba

nified,

incurable distemper, his growing infirmities admonished him to retire ; nor was he fo fond of reigning as to retain the fceptre in an impotent hand, which was no longer able to protect his fubjects, or to render them happy that, instead of a fovereign worn out with disease, and fcarcely half alive, he gave them one in the prime of life, accustomed already to govern, and who added to the vigour of youth all the attention and fagacity of maturer years: that if, during the course of a long administration, he had committed any material error in government, or if, under the preffure of fo many and great affairs, and amidst the attention which he had been, obliged to give them, he had either neglected or injured any of his fubjects, he now implored their forgivenefs: that, for his part, he should ever retain a grateful fenfe of their fidelity and attachment, and would carry the remembrance of it along with him to the place of his retreat, as his fweet eft confolation, as well as the best reward for all his fervices; and, in his Laft prayers to Almighty God, would pour forth his ardent wifhes for 'their welfare.

A few weeks after this, Charles, in an affembly no lefs fplendid, and with a ceremonial equally pompous, refigned to his fon the crowns of Spain, with all the territories depending on them, both in the old and in the new world. Of all thefe paft poffeffions, he referved nothing for himself but an annual penfion of an hundred thousand crowns, to defray the charges of his family, and to afford him a small fum for acts of beneficence and charity.

INSTANCE OF SUPERSTITION.

[Related in Page's Travels.] THE terror of a high rolling fea prevalent in the Streights of Ormus, has given rife to a very fingular cuf

tom practifed by the Indian mati ners. On a certain day of the year they construct, as a prefent for and in order to appeafe the wrath of Mamouth Salem, a small veffel, which upon entering the Streights they launch into the waves, fatiffied that by this fymbolical fhipwreck they elude the fury of that vengeance which was pointed again ft themfelves. To this rite of fuperftition fucceeds a mock naval engagement, in which the brave exertions of the natives to defend the entrance to their feas against the inva◄ fions of the enemy, are meant to be reprefented; when the former, after difplaying many feats of heroic valour, are conftantly victorious.

TRAITS.

OF CHARLES THE FIFTH.

THIS prince was preffed very much to violate the fafe conduct he had given to Martin Luther. He very nobly replied, that he would not, as his predeceffor Maximilian (who had done fo with John Hufs and Jerome of Prague), be unable to look any one in the face. This great prince was extremely fond of Titian the painter, and employed him very much. Titian one day in painting before him dropped his pencil. Charles picked it up, and gave it to him, replying very gra cioufly and elegantly, "Apelles's pencil fhould be picked up by Cæfar alone."

Roger Afcham, in a letter dated Augsburgh, 20 January 1551, thus defcribes the emperor: "I have feen the emperour twice; firft fick in his Privy Chamber at our first coming. He looked fomewhat like the parfon of Eparstone. He had on a gown black taffety, and a furred night-cap on his head, Dutch like, having a feam over the crown, like a great cod-piece. I ftood hard by the em perour's table. He had four courses.

of

He

He had fod beef, roaft mutton, baked hare. These be no fervice in England. The emperour hath a good face, a conftant look; he fed well of a capon. I have had a better from mine hoftefs Barnes many times in my chamber. He and Ferdinando eat together very handfomely, carving themfelves where they lift, without any curiofity. The drank the best that I ever emperor faw. He had his head in the glafs five times as long as any of us, and never drank lefs than a good quart at once of Rhenifh wine. His chapel fung wonderfully cunningly all the dinner-while.

"Ferdinando is a very homely man, gentle to be spoken to of any man, and now of great power and riches, The prince of Spain (afterwards Philip the Second) is not all in fo wife as his father.

"England need fear no outward enemies; the lufty lads verilie be in England. I have feen on a Sunday more likelie men walking in St. Paul's Church than I ever yet faw in Augufta, where lieth an emperor with a garrifon, three kings, a queen, * Ferdinando, king of the Romans, the emperor's brother,

three princes, a number of dukes, &c.

"The general council fhall begin at Trident the first of next May. Cardinal Pole fhall be prefident there, as it is commonly faid. I have feen the pope's bull already for it."

ANECDOTE

OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. [By nearly a contemporary Author.] TO the late queene of famous memorie, a courtier who had great place about her majestie, made fuite for an office belonging to the law. Shee told him he was unfit for the place. He confest as much, but promifed to finde out a fufficient deputy. "Do (faith fhe), and then I may bestow it upon one of my ladies, for they by deputation may execute the office of chancellor, chief justice, and others, as well as you.' This anfwered him, and I would it would anfwerall others; that fit men might be placed in every office, and none, how great foever, fuffered to keep two. They fhould take offices for the commonwealth's benefit; but they take them like farme to enrich themselves.

ference between the dress of the two fexes, except in the colour of the handkerchief, and the jewels employed to adorn the head of the female. The abe of the women ferves for a complete veil to the face, there being only fuch a finall aperture for the eyes, as is neceffary for ufe; but in many parts of these deferts the Arabs of both fexes go entirely naked.

One day M. Pages went on a vifit to the Bedouin camp entirely alone. -About the distance of forty paces from their tents I was accosted by a fingle Arab, who defired to know

B

my