voured to deferve well of their country, by writing honor and labor, for honour and labour, red for read in the preter-tenfe, fais for fays, repete for repeat, explane for explain, or declame for declaim. Of these it may be faid, that as they have done no good, they have done little harm; both because they have innovated little, and because few have followed them.' Authour for author Mr. W. writes on the authority of Johnson himself, but here the world is against him, and even the great Lexicographer muft yield to custom:

Quem penes arbitrium eft et jus et norma loquendi."

This publication is the more valuable for being of a portable and convenient fize. It is fuch as may easily be read, as an antidote to modern whims, and being read, can hardly fail to produce a good effect.

ART. X. A Narrative of the British Embaffy to China in the Years 1792, 1793, and 1794; containing the various Circumftances of the Embaffy, with Accounts of the Cuftoms and Manners of the Chinese; and a Defcription of the Country, Towns, Cities, &c. &c. By Eneas Anderfon, then in the Service of his Excellency Earl Macartney, K. B. Ambassador from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China. 4to. 302 pp. 11. 1s. Debrett. 1795.

OTHING more strongly excites curiofity than concealment. It is the very nature of that paffion, as well as of fome others, to be inflamed by obftacles; and the more eagerly to feek gratification the more pertinaciously it is denied'; nor will knowledge ever be defpifed among men, unless it fhould become, by any means, too generally obvious and attainable. The coy referve of China refpecting its customs and inftitutions, and its unwillingness to admit the intercourfe of ftrangers, are exacly calculated to raife the enquiring minds of Europeans to the boiling point of ardour; and fince the publication of Du Halde in 1735, nothing very important has been obtained for their fatisfaction. It could not be doubted that an event fo out of the common line of occurrences, and fo exactly tending to this point, as an Embaffy to China, would excite a moft active curiofity, refpecting the difcoveries which this miffion would produce; and any incidental delay of gratification would increase rather than fupprefs the defire. Thus calculated, without doubt, the framers of the prefent work: but when they imagined that informa;

tion from the lowest quarter would be received as good and valuable, they furely calculated without their hoft, the public. Mr. Eneas (or, more properly, Angus) Anderson was, we understand, a livery fervant in the fuite of the Ambaffador, and by no means in a confidential fituation. Such a perfon, it is true, would have the use of eyes and ears; and all that fuch organs could report of a country, the language of which was totally unknown, might fairly be told by him, could we fuppofe in him the habit either of viewing accurately, or relating judiciously; but all beneath the furface, the causes of all procedures, the meaning of forms and cuftoms, the transactions of any importance, between the principal men of the two nations, must be fought for in vain in a narrative thus originating. Accordingly, if we were to say that the work before us contains much information or entertainment, we fhould fail in our duty, and offer an infult to the judgement of the public. It feems, indeed, strange to us that advantage should by any one have been expected from a work fo replete with abfurdities, and grofs miftakes, to detect which it is by no means neceffary to vifit China.

How fuch a publication is formed may be eafily fupposed.— Among the many individuals who in fuch a voyage keep memorandums of what happens, fome one is found whofe fcruples, if he has any, may be vanquished by adequate confiderations a perfon verfed in the art of writing is then employed to give a readable form to these crude materials, and if a fufficient quantity to make a book, with the affiftance of broad margins and large fpaces cannot be obtained, it must be eked out by common fhip journals, or any other matter that may tolerably fuit, at the difcretion of the compiler. The perfon who executes this task ought, however, to do it with a conftant recollection of the character under which he writes, that of the fuppofed author, which in this publication has not always been regarded. The prodigious pomp of the preface, particularly its exordium, is ill fuited to the fituation of Eneas; and though he there fays what is true, he does not. fay it in a manner becoming fuch an author.

"Inde toro pater Æneas fic orfus ab alto."

"It is not for me," he fays, " to examine those writers who have preceded me on the subject of China; it is not for me to point out their contradictions, or difplay their fabulous interpolations (blefs us! what words!)-my only bufinefs is to relate what I faw in the course of this embaffy, in every part of which I had the honour to attend Lord Macartney, who" &c. Many entertaining inftances of this fublime style might

This, indeed, is observed in the book itself, p. 173.

be

be produced." In the courfe of my excurfions through the city, I endeavoured to make myself acquainted with the nature of its municipal Government. Of this important fubject it is not to be fuppofed that I could learn much: I was, however, in one way or other, made to understand," &c. p. 93. "The time is approaching when this ftupendous monument of perfevering labour (the Chinese wall) when this unparalleled effort of national policy, will become an enormous length of ruins, and an awful example of decay: many parts of it are already fallen down, and others threaten to encumber the plain they were reared to defend." p. 132. (Dr. Johnfon in China!) "I muft, however, acknowledge that, after all, this renowned barrier of China did not altogether fatisfy my expectations." On the departure of the embally he fays," But though we might, in the first moments of furprife, be difpofed to feel fomething for ourselves, fuperior confiderations foon fucceeded, and we forgot the trifles of perfonal inconvenience, in the failures of a political measure, which had been pursued with fo much labour, hazard, and perfeverance." &c. p. 178.

"Quid domini facient, audent cum talia fures ?”

But we shall proceed to give our readers fome fpecimens of the accuracy of this narrator. In his confused account of an expedition to the Peak of Teneriffe, he fays," the foot of the Peak was entirely covered with fnow fix foot in depth, notwithstanding which we find that "a kind of rude pavilion was formed by a fail, which produced a comfortable apartment." The truth is that in the vale of Oratava, at the foot of the Peak, the thermometer has never been known to fall below 70*. In one place we find it 11 or 12 miles from Santa Cruz, and in the fame page it is twenty miles. We do not remember to have heard of the Peak " difemboguing flames from a volcano," except in this publication, fince the eruption by which the town and port of Carachica were detroyed. How "the natives of Cochin China," who were found on the fmall island of Pulo Condore, became acquainted with "the Tartar language," we are at a lofs to conceive. The following account alfo is remarkable:

"We for the first time faw fome plantations of the tea-tree, of a dwarf fize, with a narrow leaf refembling myrtle. It was the feafon when these trees were in bloffom, which the Chinese pluck and dry, and the younger the bloffom is, when plucked, the higher the flavour of the tea is confidered, with which it is mixed." P. 73.

We have always understood that the tea-plant grows about the centre of the Empire, and is never met with in the province of Pe-tche-li, and that, inftead of the "bloffoms of

i. c. 38 degrees above the freezing point.

tea,"

tea," the Chinese mix the flowers of the Olea Odoratiffima with the tea to give it a fine flavour: and this we do, and shall continue firmly to believe, unless it thould be contradicted by better authority than that of Mr. Anderson.

We are told that Lord Macartney and his fuite were lodged in a temple at Tong-tchew, whofe altars and images are defcribed, which afterwards turns out to be the "houfe of a timber-merchant." Pekin, it is faid, is "twelve leagues," instead of twelve miles, in circumference. But we are totally at a lofs to comprehend the following fentence: "There is a grand gate in the center of each angle, and as many leffer ones at each corner of the wall." p. 102.

"Tuesday, Oct. 22. The water-mills, of which we saw several at work, appear to be in a great measure the fame as those used in Europe; they were corn-mills, as we were informed, and were fituated in the midst of very extenfive fields of that grain, which was almost ready for the fickle." p. 188.

By that grain the author evidently means corn, though it is awkwardly expreffed; but we should conceive that the 22d of October would be a wonderfully late harvest for corn in the middle of China. As a fpecimen of the value of the Appendix we shall give the fecond article, which is like the greater part

of the rest.

"Tuesday, 6. Ditto weather. Adam Bradshaw, a Light Dragoon, departed this life, and his body committed to the deep, A. M. Washed the lower and orlop decks, fumigated the fhip with devils, washed the fides of the beams with vinegar."

After producing fuch proofs of the inaccuracy of this traveller, in matters which even he might have known better, we fhall not think it neceflary to give any fpecimens to our readers. There are very few things recorded here that are worthy of repetition, and even on those few we know not how to depend. But we are forry to obferve a difpofition pervading the whole to reprefent the embally as improperly treated, and as failing in all its objects, both of which reprefentations we believe to be falfe. Ignorance of the cuftoms of the country, and the want of judgement to expect differences from known customs, and to make allowances for them, might occafion a great part of this error; but it is evidently mixed with a malignity, which has appeared in many publications fabricated here. We are happy to fee a work advertised, which will doubtlefs make us amends for our difappointment in this volume. Such a view of China as was taken by the principals in this voyage, has not before been in the power of Europeans; and though we cannot reft satisfied with accounts from the lowest retainers to the embaffy, we shall haften with avidity to

thofe

thofe of fuch men as will then be the reporters of the narrative. One bad confequence of the prefent difgraceful publication may be the effect produced by it in China, whither it will probably find its way. Its contents being reported to the Emperor, who can have no notion of the licence of our prefs, it may appear to him, from its form and fize, to be an authorized mifreprefentation of the reception given to our Amballadors, and a public calumny against him.

ART. XI. An Elegiac Poem, facred to the Memory and Virtues of the Honourable Sir William Jones, one of the Judges af the Supreme Court of Judicature in Bengal; containing an Hiftorical Retrofpect of the Progrefs of Science and foreign Conqueft in Afia. By the Author of Indian Antiquities. to. 2s. 6d. Faulder. 1795.

THE

fame of Mr. Maurice as a Poet is not now to commence; his earliest juvenile productions were all of a poetical kind, at which time, Netherby, and feveral other poems, obtained a well-deferved applaufe, and denoted all thofe qualities of mind which the Mufes delight to favour. Immerfed, fince that period, in the moft ufeful, but at the fame time laborious ftudies and refearches, he inay be expected to have loft fome part of his youthful fire, but we are happy to announce, that though the Parnaflian, like other ladies, do not in general show themfelves remarkably propitious to perfons involved in antiquarian purfuits, they certainly have not difcarded Mr. Maurice.

He writes, indeed, in his feverer compofitions with that energy and vivacity of ftyle which mark a poetical genius; and even in the midst of his devotion to very different objects, cannot forget the lovely forms which originally captivated his youthful mind. Hence is it that, though in the garb of forrow, he comes forward now with the fplendour of poetical imagery, and ftrews over the grave of his departed friend the richest flowers of fancy.

Sir William Jones had too much merit of his own not to distinguish and esteem it in another, he had therefore ftepped forward with zeal to befriend and patronize Mr. Maurice, and particularly favoured and efpoufed his great works, on the Antiquities and Hiftory of India. Under fuch circumstances, no more proper perfon could affume the tafk of recording the public. regret on the death of so great a man, or of paying those ho

nours