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of 300 livres, and a filver one of the fame kind, to be allotted in 1788.

The fame year, after St. Louis's day, M. Chriftian's double prize, relating to the arts, will be allotted. To fix on vegetable and animal matter, or on their webs, in fhades equally lively and variegated, the colour of lichens, and particularly of that which produces the archil: that is, to dye fuch substances with thefe materials, fo that the colours fhall be pronounced good. Specimens of the procefs, and proofs of each part of it, must be produced, fo as to enable the Academy to judge that it will bear the action of the air or of washing. The prize is 600 livres.

Defcription generale de la Chine; ou, Tableau de l'Etat actuel, &c. i.e. the Prefent State of the Chinese Empire, &c. By the Abbé Groffier. Paris.

REfearches concerning the Chinese have been the em

ployment of many learned men in Europe, during the laft and prefent century. A country where the man of letters is fuperior to a foldier, nruft naturally intereft the literati; and this may be fuppofed one principal motive with them, for having praised the Chinese fo highly. Some, however, have fpoken with great contempt, of that nation, as of a people ceremonious to excefs, artful, cowardly, and difhoneft. Both thefe opinions cannot be true; the first have feen the good only, and the latter only the bad ones: truth lies in the medium, A more juft opinion may be formed from the prefent work, and which is equally valuable as an introduction or a fupplement to the voluminous hiftories of the Chinese which have hitherto appeared,

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Thefe hiftories have one general inconvenience; the difficulty of reading and remembering names, with which they abound, compounded of many monofyllables, and of founds and words. conveying no idea to Europeans. The abbé Groffier appears to have confulted the belt memoirs the miflionaries have publifhed thefe difficult names are ufed much more fparingly; and his book contains almost every thing interefting to European nations concerning that vaft empire.

The inhabitants do not call it China, but Tchong-Kooai, or the middle monarchy. Before their commerce with the Europeans, they imagined China was placed in the centre of the earth; and that all the other kingdoms, which, according to them, were feventy-two in number, were difpofed like petty iflands furrounding their empire, and, as fo many fatellites, dependent on their planet, They were much astonished at the knowledge of the Europeans in the arts and sciences, nor could they conceive how it might have been attained without the help of Chinefe literature. They foon became more modeft; for, after having long fuppofed themfelves the only people on whom nature had bestowed the gift of fight, and that all others were

blind, they were, at length, obliged to confefs the Europeans,. at least, had one eye.

According to calculations, extracted from a work published by command of the prefent emperor, the population of China should amount to two hundred millions. There is no other country in the world where fo vaft a number of fouls are united under one name, and governed by the fame laws. The moft. obvious causes of this exceffive population are, 1. Filial piety and paternal prerogative, which is fuch, that a fon is the molt valuable, and the moft unalienable of a father's property. 2. The fhame affixed to the memory of those who die with-. out offspring. 3. The marriage of children, which is the thing of moft confequence to parents. 4. The frequent adoptions which alleviate the grief of families for the lofs of children, and perpetuate their different branches. 5. The marriage of foldiers. 6. The immutability of taxation, which is always laid on land, and falls only indirectly on commerce and the arts. 7. The profound peace which the empire enjoys. 8. The exemption from vain prejudices of dishonourable alliances. 9. Their public decency, and ignorance of European gallantry, &c.

Pekin, the capital of the empire, is a regular fquare, and divided into two cities; the first occupied by Chinese, the fecond by Tartars; and, without including the fuburbs, is fix full leagues in circumference. The ftreets run very ftrait, about a hundred and twenty feet wide, a league in length, and lined with fhops. Here, as in all other great cities, may be feen, a vast concourfe of people and carriages, quacks, jugglers of all kinds, thieves, and juftice watching their motions. Women, however, are not seen here; they remain fhut up in the interior parts of their houses. The filence and tranquillity which are fo predominant in this immenfe city, after the clofe of day, is another fingularity; the ftreets may be faid to be barricadoed, and no perfon is fuffered to leave his house, but on very preffing occafions: violence and murders are therefore very uncommon.

As Chinese architecture has only attained a certain degree of perfection, the very palace of the emperor is remarkable for nothing but the extent of ground it occupies, and the magazines it incloses, which are his property; for the public trea fure is confided to the care of a fovereign tribunal,

Although the province of Pe-tcheli only extends to the fortyfecond degree of North latitude, the rivers are all fo much frozen, during four months of the year, that horfés and carriages with the most burthenfome loads may cross them. What may appear extraordinary is, that, during thefe hard frofts, the fame piercing cold is not felt here as in Europe. It will be difficult to explain this phænomenon, unless we attribute it to the quantity of nitre this province contains, and the ferenity.

of the sky, which, even during winter, is very feldom obfcured by a cloud.

We fhall forbear to follow the author in his description of other provinces, but shall felect fuch curious circumflances as may appear moft worthy of notice.

The walls of Nan-king form a circumference of between fifteen and fixteen leagues, two thirds of which are not in habited. Here are no public edifices correfponding to the reputation of a celebrated city, if we except its gates, which are very beautiful, and fome temples, among which is the famous porcelain tower; it is two hundred feet high, and divided into nine ftories, by fimple boards within, and without by cornices and fmall projections, covered with green varnished tiles. The firft ftory is afcended by forty fteps, the others by twenty-one each.

Yang-tchioo is one of the moft agreeable cities in the province of which Nan-king is the capital. The farmers of the falt revenue have built a pleasure-houfe there, for the emperor, which occupies more ground than middle-fized European cities. It is a collection of little hills, rocks raised by men, vallies, canals, fometimes wide, fometimes narrow, bordered in fome places with carved ftone, and in others with rude rocks, fcattered indifcriminately, a multitude of buildings, each different from the other, of halls, apartments, courts, galleries, open and inclosed; gardens, parterres, cafcades, handfome bridges, bowers, and triumphal arches. Nothing is fublime, but the multiplicity of objects is striking, and obliges us to say, at laft, this is the habitation of a mighty mafter.'

One of the cities of the province of Ho-nan is celebrated for the tower which the famous Tcheoo-korg built as an obfervatory. There is ftill an inftrument to be feen, which he employed to measure the shadow at noon, in order to find the elevation of the pole. This aftronomer lived a thousand years before Chrift, and the Chinese pretend that he invented the compafs.

Vines grow in the province of Shan fi, and produce the best grapes found in that part of Afia. The Chinese might eafily make good wine of them, but they prefer drying them, and felling the raifins in the other provinces of the empire. Its mountains, alfo, furnish great quantities of coal; the inhabitants pound and form it into paste, which kindles with difficulty, but when kindled produces a ftrong and durable fire. It is particularly used for their floves, which are built with brick as in Germany; but the Chinese give thefe ftoves the form of little beds, on which they fleep during the night.

The city of Kang-tcheoo-foo, the capital of the province of Kang-tong, is called Canton by the Europeans, and is one of the richest and most populous in all China. It is their emporium for Indian as well as European commerce. The immenfe quantity of money, which foreign veffels daily bring to that city, draws thither a continual multitude of merchants from all the

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provinces; fo that there is a certainty of finding, in its ftorehoufes, the richest productions of the country, and the most valuable of the Chinese manufactures. This city has the advantage of being fituated on the banks of a navigable river, which, by the means of canals, has communication with all the provinces: its banks, the country, and hills on each fide of it, are cultivated, fo as to afford the most agreeable profpect. An infinite number of boats of all fizes, which day and night cover the river, form a kind of floating city. These boats touch each other, are ranged like ftreets, and their innumerable inhabitants have no other dwelling. Each boat contains a family, with their children and grand-children. At day-break these families depart, either to fish or to cultivate their fields of rice, of which there are two harvests every year. About four or five leagues from Canton is the celebrated village of Fo-fhan, faid to be the most populous in the world, and called a village becaufe it is not enclosed by walls, nor has a particular governor, although its commerce is immenfe, and it contains more houses and inhabitants than even Canton itself. It is said to be three leagues in circumference, and to contain a million of inhabitants *.

Among other people fubjected to the Chinese, are the Miaotfai, half-favage mountaineers, who inhabit the frontiers of Kang-tong. These people have been the moft difficult of any to fubdue; nor were they entirely fubjected till 1776, which was effected by the wife and perfevering emperor Kien-long. The Miao-tfai gave many proofs of valour in defence of their country and their liberty; the very women fought with defperate obftinacy. The following tale is related of one of thefe patriotic women. Force and artifice had been employed, more than two months, to get poffeffion of a fort, built on a very high rock, without fuccefs. Early one morning some centinels, hearing a noife, as of a perfon ftepping with caution, perceived fomething moving; and two or three of the nimbleft, by the help of cramping-irons fixed to their feet, climbed a little way up the rock, where they discovered a woman drawing water. They seized her, and commanded her to inform them who it was that had been fo long obftinate in defence of the fort; to which the answered, I. I am in want of water, and came by day-break, without fufpecting I fhould have met you here." She then discovered a fecret path to them, by which they were conducted into the fort, where he had fingly remained, and was in fact the whole garrifon; fometimes firing her fufee, and at others, rolling down large ftones on the foldiers, who vainly endeavoured to climb the rock.

[To be continued.]

* We can fcarcely conceive it poffible for a town which is only three leagues in circumference to contain a million of inhabitants, and especially when we recollect the low manner in which the Chinese build their houfes

MONTHLY

MONTHLY CATALOGUE.

POETRY.

The Protection of Providence: an Ode. Sacred to the Fame of Mr. Howard. 4to. 15. 6d. Cadell.

N the froft-arrested tide

ON

Alone, unarm'd, as Howard trød,

A famifh'd monster by his fide
Growling crav'd his food from God.
The ftill voice of Heaven call'd;
The devourer flood appall'd.

He faw the man, and howling ran
Back to his native wood.

The trav❜ller pafs'd-with repercuffive roar

Deep Volga burfts his chains, and rolls along the thore." In illuftration of this paffage two texts of Scripture are quoted, which inform us that

"The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God." Pfalm civ.

Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and dragon fhalt thou trample under feet." Pfalm xci.

Notwithstanding thefe Scriptural explanatory notes, we do not fully comprehend the meaning of this allegorical tranfaction: but, if the reader approves of it, we recommend the poem to him, as containing fome other paffages equally ingenious. Blenheim, a Poem. To which is added, a Blenheim Guide. Infcribed to their Graces the Duke and Duchefs of Marlborough. By the Rev. William Mavor. 4to. 35. Cadell.

This noble monument of national gratitude, and the country adjacent, affords ample materials for imagery and pathos. Places where a Chaucer wrote, an Alfred and Edward studied, a Henry the Second loved, and an Elizabeth had been confined, give a most extenfive fcope for fancy and reflection. Thefe illuftrious characters are here introduced, and pourtrayed in no inelegant manner. The firft duke of Marlborough, too much neglected both by the poet and hiftorian, and his prefent fucceffor, are likewife defervedly celebrated. A part of the encomium on the latter we fubmit to the reader, as no unfavourable specimen.

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Wealth, power, and titles-pageants of a day,
Ungrac'd with merit, fhed a feeble ray.

Soon finks the fame, not rais'd on true defert,
And all the praise, that lives not in the heart;
Soon finks the pride from ancestry that flows:-
The fplendid villains are but public shows;
Awhile they blaze, and catch the fimple eye,
Then melt in air, like meteors in the sky!

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