The city of Cairo is particularly defcribed, and the manner in which the inhabitants live is much enlarged on. We are also presented with an excellent description of the endemic and other difeafes of the country; and the Travels through Egypt conclude with defcribing the ruins and pyramids. Leaving Egypt by the ifthmus of Suez, which feparates Africa from Afia, and following the coaft of the Mediterranean, M. Volney entered Syria; of which country he gives the geography and natural hiftory, defcribing its general appearance, its mountains, rivers, lakes, &c. The eruptions of volcanos and earthquakes are particularly attended to, as are likewife the climate, the qualities of the air, water, and winds. We then proceed with our traveller to fome very pertinent obfervations on the winds, clouds, rains, fogs, and thunder-ftorms in Syria. We Quitting his philofophical inquiries, through which we have followed him with pleasure, M. Volney proceeds to describe the feveral inhabitants of Syria, and their manner of living. might here entertain our readers with many curious extracts from the accounts which the Author gives of these people, whofe domeftic history is fo little known to us. Speaking of the Druzes, and their remarkable hofpitality, he fays, Whoever presents himself at their door, in the quality of a fuppliant, or paffenger, is fure of being entertained with lodging and food, in the most generous and unaffected manner. I have often feen the lowest peasants give the laft morfel of bread they had in their houfes to the hungry traveller; and when I obferved to them that they wanted prudence, their anfwer was, God is liberal and great, and all men are brethren.' There are therefore no inns in this country, any more than in the rest of Turkey. When they have once contracted with their gueft the facred engagement of bread and fait, no fubfequent event can make them violate it; various inftances of this are related which do honour to their character. A few years ago, an Aga of the Janiffaries, having been engaged in a rebellion, fed from Damafcus, and retired among the Druzes. The Pacha was informed of this, and demanded him of the Emir, threatening to make war on him in cafe of refufal. The Emir demanded him of the Shaik Talhouk, who had received him; but the indignant Shaik replied, When have you known the Druzes deliver up their guests? Tell the Emir, that, as long as Talhouk fhall preserve his beard, not a hair of the head of his fuppliant fhall fall!' The Emir threatened him with force; Talhouk armed his family. The Emir, dreading a revolt, adopted a method practifed as juridical in that country. He declared to the Shaik, that he would cut down fifty mulberry trees a day until he should give up the Aga. He proceeded as far as a thoufand, and Talhouk ftill remained inflexible. At length, the other Shaiks, enraged, took up the quarrel, and the commotion was about to become general, when the Aga, reproaching himself with being the caufe of fo much mischief, made his escape, without the knowledge even of Talhouk.' In the next chapter, the Author gives the hiftory of Daher, fon of Omar, who, in our time, has given fo much trouble to the Porte. It is long fince Syria has beheld among her chiefs fo great a character. After Sultan Selim I. had taken Syria from the Mamlouks, he fubjected that province, like the reft of the empire, to the government of Pachas or Viceroys, invefted with unlimited power. The more effectually to fecure his authority, he divided the country into five pachalics, viz. thofe of Aleppo, Tripoli, and Saide, which was lately removed to Acre; that of Damafcus; and, laftly, that of Paleftine, the feat of which is fometimes at Gaza, and fometimes at Jerufalem. In the five following chapters, each of these diftricts is defcribed, and a circumftantial detail is given of the most interesting particulars of their prefent ftate; fuch as their revenues, productions, forces, remarkable places, &c. Anrong a variety of interesting matter which occurs in this part of the work, are the descriptions of ancient Tyre, and of its commerce; of the cities of Tabaria, Safad, and Balbek, of the ruins of which laft place we have a neatly engraved view, and a plan of the Temple of the Sun. The description of the city of Damafcus, and its commerce, is alfo interefting; and the ruins of Palmyra (of which there is an engraving), and other cities on the frontiers of the defart, will afford no fmall entertainment to the antiquary. In this part of the work, our Traveller feems to have been much obliged to his predeceffors, Meff. DAWKINS and WOOD. Having finished these particular descriptions, our Author refumes his general hiftory of the political ftate of Syria. From what is here advanced, it appears that the revenue which the Sultan receives from Syria is 312,500l. fterling; the regular troops 3400 horse, and 2300 foot; the number of its inhabitants, 2,500,000. Syria contains 47,250 fquare miles; whence 53 inhabitants to each fquare mile. So few people, in fo excellent a country, is aftonishing; efpecially when we confider its ancient state of population. In the relations of ancient hiftorians, a multitude of miftakes, in refpect of numbers, may doubtless have happened; and there may be alfo great errors in copying: but, without appealing to the pofitive teftimony of hiftory, there are innumerable monuments of the great population of ancient Syria. The vast quantity of ruins difperfed over the plains, and even in the defarts, are inconteftable proofs of the number, as well as of the wealth, of the inhabitants. What an idea must we form of the grandeur of the country, when we are told, that, among the ruins of Palmyra, there is one fingle colonade above 2600 yards long, the bafes of the Corinthian columns of which exceed the height of a man: and yet this row is only a small part of the remains of the whole ! APP. Rev. Vol. LXXVII. M. Volney M. Volney proceeds to defcribe the government of the Turks in Syria; the adminiftration of justice; the state of religion; of the peasants, and agriculture; of the artifans; of trade and commerce; and of the arts and fciences; and the work concludes with a general character of the inhabitants. The following account of their commerce is interefting. Almoft the whole commerce of Syria is in the hands of the Franks, Greeks, and Armenians; formerly it was ergriffed by the Jews. The Mahometans take little part in it; not that they are prevented from engaging in it by the prejudices of their religion, or by indolence, as fome political writers have imagined; but from the obstacles thrown in their way by their own government. The Porte, conftant to its ufual fyftem, inftead of giving a decided preference to the Turkish fubjects, finds it more lucrative to fell their rights and induftry to foreigners. Some of the European ftates have, by treaties, obtained a diminution of cuftom-houfe duties to three per cent. while the merchandise of the fubjects of the Sultan pays strictly ten, or, when favoured, feven per cent. Befides this, the duties once paid in any port, the Frank is not liable to pay a second time in another. But the cafe is different with the Ottoman fubject. The Franks, too, having found it convenient to employ Latin Chriftians as agents, have procured them a participation of their privileges, and they are no longer fubject to the power of the Pachas, or amenable to Turkish justice. They cannot be plundered, and whoever has a commercial procefs with them, muft plead before the European Conful. With fuch difadvantages, is it furprizing that the Mahometans fhould relinquish commerce to their rivals? Thefe agents of the Franks are known in the Levant by the name of Baratary Drogmans; i. e. privileged Interpreters. The Barat, or privilege, is a patent, of which the Sultan makes a prefent to the Ambaffadors refiding at the Porte. Formerly thefe Ambaffadors, in their turn, made prefents of them to particular perfons in each factory, but, within the last twenty years, they have been made to underftand, that it is more lucrative to fell. them. The prefent price is from five to fix thousand livres. Each Ambaffador has fifty, which are renewed on the death of the poffeffor, and form a pretty confiderable perquifite. France has the greatest trade to Syria of any European nation. Her imports confift in five principal articles; 1ft, The cloths of Larguedoc; 2d, cochineal; 3d, indigo; 4th, fugars; and, 5th, Weft-India coffee. The returns confift almoft wholly in cottons, either fpun or raw, or manufactured into coarse stuffs; in fome filks of Tripoli, the others being prohibited; in galls, copper, and wool.'— We fhall now take leave of this entertaining and inftructive Traveller, who has exhibited, in one view, the prefent ftate of the country, and the nature of its government. A tribute of praife is due to his political talents; and he is no lefs entitled to our thanks for the difplay he has given of his knowledge of mankind, by explaining, in many inftances, the mode in which the highly complicated political machine ads, and in difcovering the caules of the events and facts which he hath related. ART. ART. XVIII. Familiar and friendly Correfpondence of Frederic the Second, King of Pruffia, with U. F. de Suhm, Privy Counsellor of the Elector of Saxony, and his Envoy extraordinary to the Courts of Berlin and Petersburg. 8vo. 6s. Boards. Robson, &c. 1787. REDERIC the Second of Pruffia-or, as he is ufually ftyled, the great Frederic-may be confidered as a pattern for fucceeding monarchs. To an innate and conftitutional love of glory, he united the focial virtues in an eminent degree—. "In peace there's nothing fo becomes a man As modeft ftillness and humility: But when the blaft of war blows in our ears, So fays the poet; and the Northern hero muft have thought the fame. In the wars in which he was engaged, in the rule and government of his people, we difcover the fkilful foldier and the politic prince. In his feveral literary productions, and in the letters now before us, we fee the accomplished fcholar, and the benevolent man. The Correspondence of the King of Pruffia with the Privy Counsellor, M. de Suhm, is certainly not very interefting to readers in general, on account of the subjects on which it touches, and of which we have spoken in our Review of the original work. It is, however, curious, and worthy to be tranf mitted to pofterity. We obferve in it the firft traces, the dawnings, of that fuperior genius which afterward fhone so conspicuoufly in this paragon of Kings. His attachment, at an early age, to philofophy and the belles lettres, living too in the court of his father, an implacable enemy to every one who should "Woo fair Science in her humble cell," is fufficient to confer on him immortal honour; and we will venture to prophecy that his name will not perish but with the extinction of time. The character of Frederic II. before his acceffion to the throne, as drawn by M. de Suhm, in the year 1740, and which is prefixed to the prefent publication, proves that the writer was a man of discernment, and well acquainted with the human His prediction of the future greatnefs of the prince has been verified in a long and profperous reign. We will now present to our Readers the truly pathetic letter of M. de Suhm, written a day or two before his death. It is addreffed to the King of Pruffia, who had recently afcended the throne, and who had preffed him, with the ardour of true friendship, to haften to the court of Berlin. M. de Suhm was * See Appendix, vol. Ixxvi. p. 577• then then at Petersburg, and inftantly began his journey. Warfaw for fome political reafon, was taken in his way, in which city he breathed his last. Warsaw, Nov. 3, 1740. • Sire, "It is in vain I am yet flattered with hope; it is in vain that the love of life, and the powerful attractions, which the fmiling perfpective opened before me yet added to it, feek to nourish the illufions of my heart by the ardour of its defires: it is in vain, in one word, that I fhould wish to hide it from myfelf; every hour, every inftant makes me feel it more deeply, and warns me that the end of life approaches. Whatever defire I might have had to fpare your Majefty the grief of this news, were it even poffible that it fhould never reach his ear, nor ever trouble for one inftant the peace of his great and fenfible heart, yet a duty too important and too facred is attached to it, to think of hiding it from him. Yes, Sire, it is but too certain! After many ufelefs cares to prolong my days, I find myself at laft on the brink of the grave. Alas! I am shipwrecked in the harbour. Heaven permits not you the time to execute your benevolent defigns in my favour. Without doubt the happiness I was going to enjoy was too perfect to become my lot on earth, and it is-yes, I hope it firmly, as a dying good Chriftian, and with that tranquillity which the witness of a good confcience infpires-it is to make me participate it in another life, that the Supreme Mafter of our deftinies is going to withdraw me from this. Yet a few days, perhaps a few hours, and I fhall be no more! For this reason, Sire, I think it my duty, and am defirous to write once more, that I may recommend to you my poor family, before death comes to freeze my blood and clofe my eye-lids. I am convinced, Sire, and I die tranquil in the firm affurance, that you will not abandon them, that your care of them will be equal to the friendfhip and gracious benevolence, with which you deigned to honour me, from the moment I had the happiness of being known to you. Those whom I take the liberty of recommending, are four children, three boys and one girl, with which Heaven has bleffed me, and a fifter whom I love, and who merits it, as much for her own perfonal worth, as for the true maternal care she has taken of my children fince my widowhood. I fhould defire, Sire, that the fame difpofition might fubfift at Berlin after my death, by the support and under the protection of your Majefty; and that my fifter, who fills up the place of mother to my children, might be treated by your Majesty as if the had been my widow, and that you would deign to put her in a fituation to fupport the education of my family. It is fufficient, without doubt, Sire, to have fhewn to you the wishes of a paternal heart, to hope with confidence that they will be granted. And, indeed, I am, after this laft and painful act of my trembling hands, as fatisfied refpecting the fate of my family, as I am refpecting my own, in this awful moment, when I am going to remit my foul into the hands of that infinitely good Being, by whom it exifts, and who did not, without doubt, call it into existence but for its felicity. Nothing now remains to do, but to detach my heart from the earth, to turn it towards the Eternal Source of all life and bleffednefs.-Ah! it is in this moment that I feel all the force of that sweet affection |