In the middle of the granaries of Revel, a triumphal arch of wood, erected in honour of that Catharine, who, at Pruth, faved the Czar and the Empire, and was worthy to fucceed Peter the Great, iurprized me not a little. The taste of the architecture, and the ftile of the infcriptions, reminded me, in thefe northern regions, of the South of Europe. I was likewife not a little furprized to find here a fort of tea, exquifitel well flavoured, and of which the flowers were ftill upon the stalk: it was easy to judge that it could not be a production of this country, which was fcarcely delivered from the fnows, and, though in the middle of June, trees hardly begin to be in fap. This tea comes from China to Petersburgh by the caravans; that is faid to be what keeps it fo fresh as it is a very delicate plant, the fmell of the hold of a fhip always corrupts it a little. I tend you a fample of it, my lord, as to a lover, I might fay a profeffor, of tea; and I embark again in the pinnace, to return on board, and continue our voyage.' The following ftrictures are plaufible, but we apprehend they will make no part of the fyftem of politics at Petersburgh: Every prince who has men, can foon make foldiers of them. A labourer, a peafant, becomes easily accustomed to marches, to heat, to cold, to the fatigues and exercifes of war. Sailors are not fo fpeedily created; they must have been habituated almoft from their very infancy, to the air of the fea, to another element, to a new kind of life as it were; which made a very fenfible gentleman fay, that the marine was the only thing a great prince could not make. Therefore the Ruffians, who do not poffefs a very extenfive maritime country, and who neither have, nor can have a Cromwell's act of navigation, fhould be content to share with the Turks the empire of the land, and confine themfelves to that through neceflity, as their neighbours have done out of choice.' The accounts of the caravan-trade, and of a Ruffian auction, are entertaining: Of all the nations of Europe, the Ruffian is the only one that traces by land with the Chinefe; and alfo the only one from which thefe laft take goods in exchange for theirs: they do not deliver them to any other but for real bullion. However, what they do take confifts in peltries, which are neceflary in the northern parts of that empire, which extends from the fummer tropic to the fiftieth degree of latitude. This branch of trade amounts to feventy thousand rubles a-year, and the profit of it is, if I may be allowed the expreffion, for the Empress's pinmoncy. To go from Petersburgh to Pekin, to make purchases there, and to return back, the caravan employs three years. It paffes through Tobolski, the capital of Siberia, where it ftops. It after afterwards turns off through the county of the Tongufki, of Irtufki, and croffes the lake Baikal, and the defert which leads to the great wall. It is received in the defart by a Chinese mandarin, at the head of fome hundreds of foldiers, who escort it to Pekin. I owe all these particulars to one Baron Lang, who was Seven or eight times the conductor of the caravan; and who, for his reward, has just been appointed vice-governor of Irtufki; that is to fay, of a province much larger than France, and which contains fewer inhabitants than the smallest parish in Paris. Do not imagine, my lord, that the Ruffian traders, when arrived at Pekin, have liberty to go and come, and follow their bufinefs: they are fhut up in Caravanferais, where they are kept guarded within fight, nearly as the Dutch are in Japan. When the Chinese think it is time, they carry them tea, a little gold, raw filks, old ftuffs, pagodas, and porcelaine of the worst fort; the whole confifting chiefly of refufe goods, and the rubbish of their warehouses, and then they with them a good journey. Now I leave you to judge, my lord, whether the Chinese, the greatest tricksters in the world, ayail themselves of the diftrefs and neceffity of these poor Ruffians. In the fale that was made the other day of the goods brought by the laft caravan, I faw an old clock of Tampion's, quite shattered, and in a condition never more to mark the time of the day. It was literally a dead body, as the Chinese term it. You know, my lord, that, with all their dexterity, they haxe not yet learnt to make thofe ingenious machines in which we imprison time. They buy them of your nation, and it is the only European production that is admitted at Canton. When a clock is out of order, they fay it is dead, and lay it afide till the arrival of an Englifh fhip. They immediately carry it thither, and exchange it for a live one, giving or receiving fomewhat to boot according to circumftances. English, who have always fome journeyman watch-maker on board, eafily revive the dead, and then fell them as fresh arrived from their country. This is, I believe, the only kind of induftry in which we have the advantage over the Chinete. Tompion's dead body was purchased very dear by a German Baron, who is in the Ruffian fervice, and who intended thereby to pay his court to the Emprefs. She is always prefent at the auctions of Chinese goods, which are held in a great hall of the palace, called the Italian. When a piece of filk, a piece of porcelaine, or any other thing is put up to fale, the Empress herself often bids for it; every one of her fubjects is there allowed to contradict her, each endeavours to out-bid her, each wishes to hear his name proclaimed for fome lot or other, and he he who pays dearest for it, thinks he has well employed the day. We ourselves were permitted to be of the number of purchafers.' The natural, religious, and political advantages of the Ruffians, as a warlike people, are thus related: • Certain it is, that there does not feem to be any nation fitter for war than the Ruffians. Defertion is abfolutely unknown among them; a circumftance owing to their attachment to their religion, of which they know they would not find even a veftige in other countries. Their patience under anverfity, and untoward events, will bear any trial, as will also their docility. Accustomed, in their excurfions at home, to change inceffantly their climate; they are ftrangers to the feveral diftempers which new countries and long marches occafion elsewhere; and they can moreover fay with the antient Latins, . 'Durum à ftirpe genus, gnatos ad flumina primum Deferimus, favoque gelu duramus & undis. For comment on these lines, you must know, my lord, that it is the custom of this country to throw their children, from an oven in which they are kept a certain time, into cold water or among ice. By this means they become inured to heat and cold, and are rendered more invulnerable to the effects of the weather, than Achilles was to thofe of fpears and arrows. Yet every foot foldier, befides his arms, carries always a cloak, a veftment almost continually neceffary in thefe frozen regions. They twift it up, and pass it from the fhoulder to the oppofite hip, in the manner that the fword-belt was formerly worn. In cafe of need they unfurl it, and wrapping themselves up in it, they fleep upon the fnow as comfortably as in the best bed. Neither is there need of much cookery here to feed the foldiers. A certain quantity of meal is diftributed among them, and as foon as they are encamped, they dig ovens in the ground, where they bake their bread, which they make themselves. When it is intended to treat them, they have a fort of very hard bifcuit, which they break into little bits, and boil with falt, and a few herbs which they find every-where. The greatest part of the time they are ftrictly abftemious, because, though difpenfed from the lents and fafts, which engrofs more than half of the year with the Greeks, they nevertheless choose to faft. Such foldiers would have been fit for Cromwell; who, it is faid, ordered a faft to be proclaimed throughout his army, when he was in want of provifions. Allow too, my lord,. that Machiavel, who obferved in Switzerland many remains of the manners of the antients, would have found at least as many among the Ruffians, who befides remind one, in fome manner, of the grandeur of the Roman empire. As a farther confirmation of this thought, I might likewise inftance here their firm belief, that they fly to eternal glory in dying for the Emprefs; which anfwers to the Roman citizen's love for his country: and their dexterity at ufing the hatchet, with which alone they perform things which our workmen would not be able to execute without a great number of tools. in the last war against Sweden, the Ruffian foldiers built gallies, as Labienus's legionaries did fhips, for Cæfar's expedition to England. Very lately, peafants, to whom it was only faid, "Go to the foreft, cut down trees, and make a thing like this," built a score of them. The carvers whom we faw at Cronftadt, cutting out all forts of Arabic figures, in the Anne Iwanowna, were likewife only peasants, provided with no other tools than a hatchet. In a word, every Ruffian foldier is a carpenter in case of need. You fee, my Lord, what great utility results from thence, from mending of waggons, repairing the carriages of the artillery, making of bridges and fuch like works, which are wanted every moment in military expeditions. It is the whole of this taken together that conftitutes the bafis of a good infantry; and that of the Ruffians, difciplined and commanded as it now is, deferves to be looked upon as the best in the known world. Not. fo their cavalry. This vaft empire does not produce horses fit to mount the Cuiraffiers; they must be fetched from Holstein: thofe of the country are not ftrong enough even for dragoons. In all this part of the North, to which may be added Sweden and Poland, the horses are small, and proper only for huflars. With regard to light horfe, the Calmucks and Coffacks fill them as abundantly. The government can raise fixty thousand of them; and, though it gives them no other pay than leave to plunder the enemy's country, one may be perfectly easy about their fubfiftence. They are of great ufe to go upon a difcovery, to fteal a march upon the enemy, or a change of pofition, and to moleft and harrafs them inceffantly. With all this, however, they often do almoft as much hurt to the army on which they depend, by the ravages they commit. Like locufts, they spread deftruction around them wherever they go, and even their chiefs cannot reftrain them; it being impoffible to fubject them to that exact difcipline, the firft foundation of which is the regular pay of the foldier. The Ruffians think, and with reafon, that the infantry is the finew of an army: accordingly, in the day of battle, their cuftom is to make the greateft part of their cavalry difmount and fight on foot.' It is certain that the Turks go to war with the Ruffians at a great disadvantage. The empire of the former may fall, but that of the latter is invincible. It would be impoffible for all the powers of Europe to penetrate into Petersburgh through the gulph gulph of Finland: and as Count Algarotti obferves, Ruffia is equally fecure on the part of the Turks. They cannot attack ber on the fide of the Ukraine, which is the most fouthern, the Eneft, and the most fertile province in Europe; they are feparated from it by an immenfe defart, where one often goes feveral days journey without being able to find any water. It is true, indeed, that the Boryfthenes defcends from Kiovia, the capital of the Ukrajne, to Oczakow, which is a Turkish frontier but the cataracts of that river render it next to impoffible for even a boat to go up it.' The fecond volume contains feveral speculative and defcriptive letters, together with an agreeable but fomewhat fanciful account of the empire of the Peruvian Incas: to which our Readers must be referred. MONTHLY CATALOGUE, For DECEMBER, 1769. Art. 9. A Fair Trial of the important Queftion, or the Rights of Election afferted; against the Doctrine of Incapacity by EXPULSION, or by RESOLUTION; upon true conftitutional Principles, the real law of Parliament, the common Right of the Subject, and the Determinations of the Houfe of Commons. In which, two Pamphlets, entitled, The Cafe of the late Middlefex Election, confidered; and, Serious Confiderations upon a late important Determination, are fully examined and answered. 8vo. 2 s. 6 d. Almon. 179. Tin, of this pal arguments advanced on the court-fide THE greateft part of this very important trial, contains a ftrict ex of the question, by the writers of the two pamphlets mentioned in the title; to which the Author of the prefent elaborate investigation has added fuch general reflections as naturally arofe from his very critical researches into the grounds of this deep and difficult controverfy. His performance is certainly a capital one, and will at least be confidered as one of the principal productions on what is called the popular fide of the debate. The learned Author admits the right of expulfion, though he fpeaks of it with a freedom which indicates no very great refpect for it, in many parts of his long and ample differtation, of near 250 pages, clofely printed. Perhaps he thought the time not yet arrived for, laying the axe to the root of the matter; or, poffibly, his view might be confined to the narrower purpose of merely determining the prefent grand question, viz. "Whether expulfion, ipfo jure, docs create an incapacity of being re-elected into the fame parliament" A queftion which he has determined in the negative, in a very mafterly manner, on the principles of law, the nature of the conflitution, and the determinations of parliament. It would, however, be a bold thing to fay, that his arguments are irrefragable. It is not for us to pronounce decifively on a fubject of fo much confequence to the liberty and happiness of this country. But we rejoice τα |