of so many private letters, which evidently were never intended to meet the public eye.

"The candid reader will not fail to recollect, that the following letters were not meant for the public eye; that they were generally written in the greatest haste, and under circumstances the most. unfavourable. Even had Mr. Tweddell allowed himself leisure for more full and elaborate compositions, it would have been hazardous to transmit important or particular intelligence, while the disturbed state of the continent prevented both facility and safety of communication. The author therefore contented himself with a correspondence general in its nature, and colloquial in its style; carefully and laboriously storing up in his journals the result of every day's research and information." P. 20.

Upon the whole, though some letters in the collection, and parts of others, would have been perhaps judiciously omitted, we recollect few instances of a private correspondence, written without the least view to publication, which will bear a severer scrutiny, either in point of good sense, elegant taste, or honourable sentiments. Full of candour and discrimination, Tweddell pourtrays with great spirit the manners and customs, and characters of the different nations he visited, imbued with classic lore, and blessed with a fine imagination, he paints in glowing colours the magnificent scenery of nature in her wildest regions, and throws a double interest over the deserted relics of antient art; educated in the strict principles of morality and religion, by the most excellent of parents, he repays their care and solicitude by the strong and vivid sentiments of attachment displayed throughout his whole correspondence, which is undefiled by a single sentence of a licentious tendency. Unfortunately, minds like his, of the highest class and of the finest sensibility, as they are susceptible of the most enthusiastic affection, when they meet with congenial virtues in the other sex, so are they liable to proportional depression if the keen breath of misfortune blast their early hopes. To a calamity of this kind, which he met with before his departure from England, and to which he not unfrequently alludes, is to be ascribed the despondency which pervades many of his letters. At times the pleasures of society lost their relish for him, and the aspirings of ambition were extinct; his excellent principles alone and his sense of duty determined him to persevere in the pursuit of useful knowledge, to mix in the circles of society, and dedicate his talents to the service of mankind. In this point of view, assiduity became to him not only a duty but a source of happiness; he laboured to improve his talents and turn to account every opportunity of acquiring knowledge, he so regulated his diversions and

amuse

amusements, that even by recreation he refreshed his own strength and encreased the satisfaction of others, he armed himself with cheerfulness against the disappointments and vexations to which a traveller is constantly subject; he so resisted the temptations of luxury and vice, as to acquire the esteem of the good and virtuous wheresoever he went; in short, he beheld virtue and utility in the most attractive light, and engaged in their cause all the energies of his soul. In one place, giving his mother an account of his occupations," you see," he observes, "that my time is fully employed, and I hope very profitably; the surest promise of its continuing to be so is, that I am never comfortable when it is not."

We shall now follow him through the several stages of his interesting tour until death untimely arrested his progress and deprived society of one of its most promising ornaments. His first five letters are dated from Hamburg, where he arrived October 5th, 1795. Here he remained three months, in order to acquire a knowledge in some of the continental languages, a thing too much neglected by many of our English youth, who, as soon as they set foot upon a foreign shore, and feel them. selves free from the restraint of tutors and guardians, and the inspection of those whose presence is always some check upon their conduct, pick up just as many phrases of French, German, or Italian as will suffice to abuse a postmaster or assail the virtue of a chambermaid, and then by the help of an accomplished valet they scour the continent in search of pleasure and vice, read now and then a gazette in a coffee-house, and call it studying the policy of a government; buy a few modern antiques, and call it patronizing the fine arts; run to see some remains of antient magnificence while the horses are changed, and fancy themselves complete antiquarians. Thus are the manners and customs of the continent learnt in brothels and taverns, and they then return home, ignorant of other countries, and despising their own; degraded in moral principle, and without the acquisition of a single particle of useful knowledge. Let these young gentlemen read the correspondence of Tweddell and blush, if the power to blush still remains.

Mr. Tweddell occupied also his time at Hamburg in forming the best connexions, and frequenting the most polished society, whence he not only received immediate instruction and gratification, but procured introductions which proved a source of infinite advantage to him in his subsequent travels. His curiosity was here gratified by an acquaintance with the illustrious Klopstock, the Milton of Germany, with the republican General Dumourier, the Comte de Rivard, the Abbé de Montesquieu, Madame de Genlis, and many other personages who had played

considerable parts on the great theatre of life: nor did his fashionable engagements cause him to neglect to acquire a knowledge of the trade and commerce of this once-flourishing emporium of the north, or to seek the society of its most eminent merchants, to whom he had been strongly recommended by our celebrated countryman Matthew Boulton, of Birmingham. In the third letter to his mother, he observes that he has just commenced anew with a French master, and letter the fourth, addressed to his friend Mr. Digby is composed in that elegant language, of which we shall extract a specimen, as well to shew our readers the rapid progress he made in his acquirements, as that it contains a most interesting account of a personage who has lately been much the subject of conversation, and whose subsequent conduct has not belied the promise of his early years.

"J'ai recu les details suivants de ce qui est arrivé au jeune Duc D'Orleans. Ils peuvent vous interesser. Ils m'ont été communiqués par une personne qui est trop étroitement liée avec lui pour être trompée elle-même, et qui est trop bonne & trop sincere, pour qu'elle sache tromper les autres. Aussi vous pouvez compter sur la vérité du récit. Lorsqu'apres avoir éprouvé un decret d'arrestation, le jeune Duc D'O. se decida à passer hors de France, ce ne fut jamais avec l'intention de porter les armes contre sa patrie; et meme lorsque l'Archduc Charles, lui offrit d'entrer au service de Empereur avec les honneurs dûs à son rang, le grade, et les appointemens de lieutenant-général, il s'y refusa, ne resta à Mons que le tems d'avoir un passeport (environ 24 heures), et partit pour la Suisse avec à peu près cent louis, qui etoit tout ce qu'il possédoit. Dès qu'il fut arrivé en Suisse les aristocrates l'y persecuterent; sachant aussi que ROBESPIERRE vouloit rendre sa famille responsable de son émigration, il resolut de disparôitre si parfaitement, qu'on put croire en France, qu'il n'existoit plus. Il se retira donc dans les montagnes les plus elevès de la Suisse. N'osant point aller dans les endroits frequentès par les curieux, il a fait un voyage d'autant plus interressant, qu'il avoit necessairement pour but les lieux les moins connus. Comme il avoit laissé à sa sœur le peu d'argent qui lui restoit, c'est au milieu des plus grandes privations qu'il à passé quatre mois. Les grand jours, les jours des fêtes, il depensoit 30 sols pour son gîte, sa nourriture, et celle d'un ancien valet, qui n'avoit point voulu le quitter. Celui ne possedant plus qu'un louis, il fut obligé de se separer de ce dernier serviteur, de cette derniere consolation: et ayant appris qu'il vaquoit une place de professeur de géométrie, dans un college des Grisons, il fut s'y presenter. Il y resta six mois, sans que personne sut qui il etoit, se faisant si bien chérir par les ecoliers, respecter par les mâitres, qu'un des Messrs. DE SALIS, qui l'avoit persecuté comme Duc D'O. frappé de la sagesse et du merite du jeune professeur, lui fit proposer d'ètre précepteur de ses enfans. Le jeune Duc D'O.

s'y

s'y refusa, resta dans son collège à montrer la géométrie en allemand, et ce ne fut qu' après la mort de Robespierre, que ne craignant plus pour sa mère et ses frères, il sortit de sa retraite, reclama l'attachement de quelques amis, et depuis il a toujours veçu dans une petite ville de Suisse avec la même simplicité, et aussi inconnu. Dans ce moment il est decidé à aller dans l'Amerique Septentrionale jouir de la liberté pour laquelle il a tant souffert. C'est là, c'est au milieu des forêts, qu'il achevera une éducation que le malheur a si bien commencé. Je ne doute point qu'il n'y déploie encore ce courage simple et grand, qui l'a toujours rendu superieur à le bonne et à la mauvaise fortune. C'est avec la même pureté des mœurs, la même grandeur d'ame, qu'on l'a vu, Prince à 16 ans sans orgueil; Gênéral d'armée à 17, raillant trois fois les troupes à Gemappe; professeur de géométrie à 20, comme s'il eut consacré de longues années à l'etude des sciences; et partout, dans toutes les circonstances, comme s'il fut né pour l'etat qu'il remplissoit. Enfin, je ne puis mieux peindre la force et en même tems le modération de son caractère, qu'en vous donnant copie d'une lettre, qu'il écrivoit l'autre jour à un Americain qui lui avoit proposé des terres incultes à défricher; Je suis tres disposé à tra vailler pour m'acquerir l' independence; le malheur m'a frappé, mais, graces à Dieu, ne m'a pas abattu, trop heureux dans mes revers, que ma jeunesse m'ait empêche de contracter des habitudes difficiles à rompre, et que la fortune m'ait été ôté avant que j'ai pu en user ni en abuser.' Dites-moi, qu'en pensez vous. P. 41.

The date of his first letter from Berlin is January 23d, 1796. He was now in the midst of the Carnival, the noise and bustle of which seems not to have well suited the state of his mind; the Court, however, at this time was particularly attractive, and his reception from the chief members of it was extremely flattering. We shall extract his character of the Prince Royal, now Frederick William the Third, and an anecdote of his beautiful and accomplished consort, the unfortunate victim of Buo naparte's brutality, and the never-ceasing regret of her affectionate husband.

"I have been at court almost every other day since I came here, and have been at two or three suppers at the king's and the prince royal's. With the latter I have had several long conversations. He is not extremely popular: they find him here too grave and unbending. He appears to me, however, to have a character, and to think for himself. He is a passionate admirer of the late king, but no zealot of the present ministers-at least it is supposed so (for he does not avow it). He thinks that the military, which composes the great strength of this government, has been too much slighted; and that, by a neglect of the finances, which are not at present ably conducted, trouble may be occasioned to the state upon his succession." P.54.

"Royalty

"Royalty has been extremely civil to me. Last Sunday night at the queen's one of the princes engaged the lady whom I meant to have danced with: at that time almost every other lady was engaged, and I was for a moment without a partner. The Princess Royal asked me why I did not dance, and upon telling her the circumstance, asked me to dance with her. You see to what honours a traveller may advance! She is really a charming woman, much the handsomest in Berlin." P. 60.

For the benefit of Monmouth-street, we must not omit a note of profound erudition by the learned editor, which occurs p. 51, and is introduced in the plenitude of information, as a commentary upon a suit of English uniform.

"Lappel is called in French revers; being merely the reversing or turning back of the front lining: facing seems to be the proper equivalent in English; lappel applying more specifically to the cut or outline than to any difference of colour." P. 51.

This is really forcing knowledge down our throats. Britannicus, and Grangæus, and Heinsius, and all the Scaligers, vanish into nothing, and even gentle Lubin hides his diminished head. Neither must we forget our grateful acknowledgments for the information so kindly communicated, that by Carnival is meant the season of flesh-diet. In serious justice, however, we ought to remark that, with these and a few other exceptions, the value of the volume is much encreased by the notes, especially the biographical ones, which the editor has liberally interspersed through it.

From Berlin we trace our traveller to Dresden and Vienna; at this latter place his residence was rendered particularly delightful to him, by a most familiar intercourse with the amiable families of the Marshal Prince de Ligne and of the Duke de Polignac; to the Duke he seems to have attached himself by the strongest ties of friendship: he appears, indeed, to have taken the utmost advantage of the strange and awful times, during which he resided on the Continent, when the French Revolution, confounding all classes of society, and sparing none, had driven from the bosom of their country many of the most distinguished and affluent families and individuals, and reduced them to a state of compara. tive degradation. Under these circumstances, many were found who rose superior to their adverse fortune, and proved by the energy of their minds and the dignity of their principles, that the lustre of true nobility is not so easily extinguished. Among these bright examples, none shine with greater lustre than the families of Polignac and De Guiche, and no part of Tweddell's correspondence will be read with greater pleasure and interest

than