that floated on the furface, without indulging even the hope that it could fave them. M. MANDRILLON commenced his political operations by a letter to M. Van Berkel, Penfionary of Amfterdam, dated Oct. 24, 1784. He tells this gentleman that, during his residence at Berlin, he had an opportunity of knowing the sentiments of the king with regard to the republic; and he advifes the ftates. to fend commiffioners to the Pruffian court, in order to request bis Majefty's mediation, toward effecting a reconciliation between them and the Stadtholder. This offer was treated with filent contempt, and our politician continued an inactive spectator, till May 1787, when he became a member of the patriotic fociety in Amfterdam; on which occafion he compofed a fpeech, which his friends advised him not to deliver, but which he has taken this opportunity of publishing. It might, without any great lofs, have been entirely fuppreffed; as it is a mere declamatory harangue, in which the republics of Greece and Rome are preffed into the fervice of the orator; who, in a defultory manner, expatiates on general ideas and commonplace topics, without attending to thofe particular circumstances, which indicate a knowlege of the nature of liberty and the means of fecuring it. In June 1787, M. MANDRILLON commenced his correfpondence with Prince Frederic, by a letter, in which he urged the fatal confequences that must refult from the civil war, with which the republic was threatened; and requested a letter of introduction to the Stadtholder, that he might have an opportunity of perfuading him to a reconciliation with the ftates. His Highness's answer was polite and favourable; it concluded with thefe words: "Repair as fpeedily as poffible to the Prince of Orange; make my compliments to him; fhew him this letter; tell him, in all our names, how much, from affection to him, to his illuftrious confort, and to his family, as well as from a regard for the interefts of humanity, we wish that you may fucceed in terminating, in a friendly manner, thofe unhappy differences, which give pain to all who are attached to him, and. who have the welfare of mankind at heart." In confequence of this letter, our fanguine politician applied to the leaders of the patriotic party; and, though they rejected his propofed mediation, he thought fit to wait on the Prince, and to write to the Princefs, of Orange, as if he had been invefted with powers to effect an accommodation of all differThe vifit and the letter were equally difregarded; nor could they be fuppofed to claim any attention, as they could impart nothing more than the vain advice of an officious individual, at a time when, it is probable, the most decifive mea ences. fures fures were refolved to be adopted, both by the court of Berlin and by the Prince and Princefs of Orange; for, only two days after his audience, her Royal Highnefs was arrested by the Commiffioners of Defence, and prevented from completing her intended journey to the Hague. On the march of the Pruffians into the United Provinces, M. MANDRILLON went to the Hague, where he had a private interview with fome of the members of the affembly of the ftates of Holland; by whom he was defired to apply to the Duke of Brunfwic to prevent the advance of his army; and, if he should not fucceed in this attempt, to go to Berlin, and try his intereft with the King. He afferts that the Duke feemed to liften to his arguments, and infpired him with hopes of fuccefs: but that these were fruftrated by the Princefs: however this may be, it is certain that the Pruffians marched from Nimeguen, on their way to the province of Holland, on the very day after his interview with their commander. On this, our author proceeded to Berlin, and prefented a memorial to the King; whofe answer was, "I know the memorialift; he is a worthy man; I am forry, for his fake, that he was fent too late." Such are the principal facts, which this collection of letters offers to our confideration; and, from thefe, our readers will, we believe, conclude that M. MANDRILLON was not the deep politician, nor the man of importance, that he imagined himfelf to be. His endeavours feem, however, to have been well intended; and there was a time, when a reconciliation might have been effected, but non tali auxilio. The remainder of the volume confifts of letters, that are of no importance to the public, and of defultory oblervations on the late revolution, on the prerogatives of the Stadtholder, and on the conduct of the prefent Prince of Orange; of whom the author is by no means an adherent, and whofe restoration, by a foreign potentate, though it has for the prefent established his power, has by no means contributed to increase his popularity, nor to diminish the number of his fecret enemies. To attain this defirable end, he must embrace every opportunity of convincing the people that he makes their caufe his own, and will employ all his influence in the protection of their liberties. This, we hope, is his inclination; and we are fure it is his intereft. In the late difputes, the first oppofition to the Stadtholder arose, as in former times, from the ariftocratical party, who fpared no pains to render him odious to the people: but when they found that the latter proceeded farther than fuited their defigns, and had laid a plan of reform not lefs inimical to their ambition, than to the power of their rival, they altered their conduct, and entered into a coalition with the Prince; which, though highly advantageous to him, was not very honourable to them. Remarks made during a ART. IX. Aanteekeningen, &c. i. e. Journey through Turkey, Natolia, the Years 1784-1789. 8vo. pp. 470. In the Year of the Hegira 1206. AMONG the feveral fpecies of travellers, enumerated by Yorick, we do not find any, to which the author of these remarks can properly be faid to belong; therefore, as the first naturalist who inveftigates a non defcript animal, has a right to give it a name, we fhall take the liberty of diftinguishing this writer by the appellation of the eccentric traveller. In fhort, he is what the French call Un E'tourdi; who, with good natural parts, and with the advantage of what is generally styled a learned education, (which, by the way, is often the knowlege of words rather than of things,) is resolved to make his countrymen ftare at his oddities. Affecting to defpife all criticism, he boldly decides on every thing, and feems to take a pride in faying whatever he happens to imagine to be true, without being very nice with refpect either to the matter or to the manner of bis expreffions: he difplays humour rather than wit, and pertnefs oftener than either. In his abrupt and digreffive ftyle, he feems to have taken Sterne for his model: but ex quovis ligno non fit Mercurius; it is only in his faults that he resembles this lively original. After all, the book is not deficient in information, however oddly communicated; and the reader is often provoked to laugh, though rather at the author, than with him. It is an anonymous publication: but the portrait, which fronts the title-page, notwithstanding the difguife of a Turkish habit, is very well known to be that of a Dutch phyfician, who is more celebrated as a follower of Comus, than as a difciple of Æfculapius. Scorning the ufual forms by which writers endeavour to gain the attention of the public, he introduces himself to his readers by a collection of unconnected paragraphs, which he calls Fragments of a loft Preface; and in which he fays to them, Indeed, ladies and gentlemen, (for I write only for people of rank,) to a with propriety the part of a writer of travels, is a thing fooner faid, than done. If, like a fober honest citizen, he relates nothing but common facts, as that butter is made by churning milk, or if he treads in the beaten path of Linné, and, like a grave storekeeper of dame Nature, gives a new inventory of the old lady's stock in trade, he will be told by his yawning readers, that this work is neither new nor interefting; this the very learned profeffors A. B. C..... Z. have abundantly experienced: fhould he haye recourfe to the uncommon or marvellous, and fay, for inftance, that at Varna, on the Danube, the peasants have traditions among them, which mention the sweetness of Ovid's finging, who, about feventeen hundred years ago, trudged into thofe parts, with more mind to cry than than to fing, in vain would he offer to fign his narration with his blood; and the more butle he made in order to gain the confidence of his readers, the more fufpicious would they be. If he should take the liberty of finding fault with what occurs to him, his work will be called a libel:-applaufe is fufpected of exaggeration or of adulation, and feldom meets with fuccefs among my countrymen. In short, he must be a clever fellow, that clears his way with fafety amid all these precipices.-I fcorn to deceive any one. I purposely call my work not a Journey, but only Remarks. It would indeed be highly impertinent to call that a journey, in which, from one end of the volume to the other, I fcarcely make the reader rife from his chair this must be a grievous disappointment to him, if he fhould happen to be remarkably fond of pofts, poftilions, roads, wind, weather, inns, and fuch interefting particulars:-but if it fhould please the fates that this brat fhould ever have a brother, for which, as father, I can give no fecurity; or, in other words, if ever a fecond volume fhould fee the light, and my reader chufes to accompany me in my pilgrimage through Afia, he will probably have a little more exercise.' After boafting of the number of perfons of rank and power, whofe patronage he might have obtained for this literary bantking, he fays, the reafon of his not doing this, is that the brat is at times too naughty to be dandled in another person's arms:' this is terally true; and therefore the father must not take it amifs, if we think that it fometimes deferves the rod. After a few random obfervations on travelling, he informs the reader that he fhall ftep over, at once, from Amfterdam to Conftantinople: it is, however, a moft gigantic ftride; for, between these two cities, lies a parenthesis of above four pages, containing the particulars of his paffage. The approach to Conftantinople, from the fea, is defcribed, we apprehend, very justly, as the most beautiful that can be imagined, and as greatly fuperior to that of Naples, Lifbon, Bourdeaux, and Peterfburg *. The defcription of this metropolis, given by Mr. Gibbon, in his Hiftory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, is fo greatly admired by this author, that he has tranf lated and inferted it, as exhibiting a juft and beautiful view of the city and its environs. He afterward takes a walk with his reader through the principal ftreets of Conftantinople, and of its fuburbs, Tophana, Galata, and Pera. On this excurfion, he is an entertaining and intelligent Ciceroni: but we cannot fpare time to accompany him in his perambulation. On paffing the custom-houfe, he takes occafion to reprobate the treatment This advantageous idea of the approach to Conftantinople, by fea, is strongly confirmed by Capt. Sutherland, in his agreeable "Tour up the Straits:" fee Rev. New Series, vol. iv. p. 299. There is a remarkable affinity in the language of the two travellers, of passengers by the custom-house officers in England; and we acknowlege that the rapacity and infolence of these gentry, in the feveral ports, are by no means calculated to inspire strangers with favourable ideas of our nation and government: the custom of fearching the perfons, as well as the baggage of travellers, is peculiar to our country; and the indecency, with which this ceremony is often performed, with regard to women, is a difgrace to a civilized people. The author tells us that the expreffion of Horace, Mare tabulatum navibus, can never be so justly applied as to the harbour of Conftantinople: from fun-rife to fun-fet, it fwarms with fhips, barges, and boats: the number of the laft is aftonishing; nothing but the velocity with which they are rowed, and the dexterity of the rowers, could prevent thofe accidents, which a ftranger would think inevitable, from the construction of thefe veffels, as well as from the crowd of them: they are very neatly built of walnut-tree wood, richly ornamented with gilt carving, and the heads of the nails covered with red wax: but, at the fame time, they are fo crank and flight, that any confiderable inequality of motion must overset them, and the leaft thock ftave them. Among the authors who have published accounts of Turkey, the remarker praifes none, except the Chevalier D'Obsson, M. Peyfonel, and Sir James Porter, who, in the year 1768, pubJifhed two anonymous volumes, entitled Obfervations on the Religion, Laws, Government, and Manners, of the Turks. Baron De Tott, and Elias Habefci, whose Present State of the Ottoman Empire was printed in London in 1784, are condemned, as full of errors and falfehoods: nor is he very ceremonious with respect to Lady Craven; of whom he is pleased to say, that her accounts of Petraki and the Capudan Pacha or Admiral, with his lion, are fuch that, were it not for her Ladyfhip's fex and rank, he fhould have concluded that her intelligence had been picked up at a barber's fhop *. In his fecond chapter, the author confiders Conftantinople in a moral and political view: here we find him strongly disposed to be the apologift of the religion, manners, and government, of Turkey: but to every one, who perufes his book, the caufes of this partiality must be evident: one is, the defire of maintaining his reputation as an eccentric mortal, by thinking, or at least talking, differently from other people, no matter whether right or wrong; the other ground for this preference is, that the Turks have not the misfortune to be Chriftians; and, which * The reader will find accounts of the above mentioned works, by confulting our General Index, under their refpective titles. |