bers of the constituted legislative authorities.' Ilustrious and first government of a free people wouldst thou be supported, encouraged, and defended, support, encourage, and defend the sincere friends and the virtuous adherents of the constituted republic. The republic does not consist in its territory, nor in printed sheets, but in the mind, in the bosom, and in the courage of free men. Imitate the governments of antiquity:-they encouraged talents and eloquence, which are the elements of civil excellence, rather than the elements of military excellence; because they knew that eloquence has no interest in the establishment of despotism, and that liberty is most frequently in danger from military preponderance. Imitate, then, the nations of free Greece. Nationalize, like them, an implacable hatred against those who should attempt the overthrow of the republican institutions: thus you may provide a basis of security and of preservation in the opinion of the people, in the national mind, in the arms and in the hearts of the republicans. Nationalize but this public spirit, and against every foe to its form the government shall prevail. Were royalty, were anarchy, again to attempt a return on our soil, so gloriously freed from their yokes of steel and blood, soon would they fit thence and vanish before your annihilating frown :-but your first care must be to remove from the path of liberty those public evils, those political scourges, those rapacious combinations, that shameful venality, and all those sins of office, which the secret agents of des. potism and tyranny are so busy in heaping before the steps of the republic, in order that the people may mistake the lingering abuses of monarchy for grievances of the new system, and may impute to it their wrongs. There is a mode of gradually removing from the road of the constitution those remnants of royalty, this rubbish of the revolution, but it is slow and difficult to organize. I mean a rational education, and the morals and manners grafted on that stock.'

To these subjects are devoted the nineteenth and the long and valuable twentieth chapter, subscribed Of Institutions. It is a common error of the friends of liberty in this country, to view every species of institution with apprehension or horror; with Adam Smith, to place the duty of the Magistrate in doing nothing; or, with Godwin, to identify the idea of a perfect government with that of a peaceful anarchy. BARÈRE, rightly, as we think, attributes the cohesion of a community, and the quality of its character, to the wise selection of its institations.

The 21st chapter discusses Public Support. The state of France and the state of Ireland are, either of them, sufficient proofs of the expediency of enacting Poor-Laws. These have been the real guardians of our internal tranquillity, the true props of our old constitution against the arietations of democracy.

The 22d chapter relates to finance; the 23d to agriculture, industry, and commerce; the 24th to commissioners; the 25th to factions; the 26th to the obstacles to republicanism; the

27th

27th to the expediency of general allegiance; and the 28th and last, to the pacification of Europe.

There is no modern writer among the French who exemplifies, so well as BARÈRE, the improvement which the language of France has undergone during the late revolution. Independ ently of the increase of its political vocabulary, the precise correlative terms introduced by the more free formation of privatives, and the novel rapidity of expression obtained by extended* analogies, furnish to it new supplies of phrase which have not only varied and enriched its array, but have bestowed. on it a greater suppleness and energy. In richness, brevity, and correctness of antithesis, much has been gained. It is true that many of the newer writers are too uniformly inflated, and too designedly obscure: but a simpler taste in writing will naturally return with a more temperate state of the national mind; and a good writer will in future be able greatly to excel an equally skilful writer of the age of Louis XIV.

ART. XVI. Anecdoten aus dem Privatleben, &c. i. e. Anecdotes of the Private Life of the Empress Catharine, Paul the First, and his Family. 8vo. pp. 167. Hamburgh, 1797.

THE

'HESE anecdotes are extracted from the papers of a young Polish officer, who served several years as adjutant in the corps commanded by the grand-duke Paul Petrovitch himself; and who consequently had frequent opportunities of observing the various features in the character of the present emperor, the style of living in his family, and the occurrences of his private life. It does not appear from them, that they are published to serve any particular views of interest or spleen. He delivers his anecdotes with frankness and impartiality; he relates indifferently the good and the bad; he gives instances of personal weakness as well as of Imperial magnanimity; and this fair and unreserved way of dealing is somewhat at least of a voucher for his accounts, and renders them the more interesting in the perusal. We shall select an anecdote or two,

After having related two or three acts of private injustice committed by the favourites of Catharine, and her readiness to rectify and compensate them, this author says:

In no respects was her majesty more deceived by her favourites, than in the tricks which, through their connivance, were played by substantial shopkeepers, to the injury of the lower class of people. To keep the necessaries of life at a moderate price was one of the

* By none more remarkably than the verbs in iser, nationaliser, utiliser, despoliser, &c.

004

things

things that the empress had most at heart. In regard to that body of her subjects, she particularly shewed sentiments truly maternal; and it is well known that she never inquired so frequently and so earnestly concerning any of the particulars of her domestic government, as about the price of provisions.. Accordingly, the accounts that

mere brought were always highly satisfactory, and she was con

vinced of no one thing in the world more than that the common people were contented and happy in regard to these matters. She had no reason for doubting the truth and sincerity of the accounts which she received, as her favourites took care to prevent any information to the contrary from reaching her ears. This opinion was the more confirmed by the cheerful licentiousness in which the vulgar class indulged on all the public festivals which she gave. What was she to conclude from all that she saw and heard, but that they fared very well, and that, at least, they suffered no oppressions of this nature? Besides, in the small circle to which the amusements of her social hours were confined, no subject was more frequently discussed than the happiness of even the lowest of her people. Of these conversations, and the delight received by the empress from the fond conceit in which she was encouraged, her grandchildren the young grand-dukes and grand-duchesses, whom she tenderly loved, were more than once the witnesses, and would have opened the deluded sovereign's eyes on this subject, if the favourite had not been too powerful for them.

The grand duke Constantine, second son of the present emperor Paul Petrovitch, a fine spirited lad of about 16 or 17 at that time, took it into his head one day to inquire a little nearer into the truth of these boasted assertions. Without attendants, quite alone, wrapped up in a great-coat, he strolled into the common market, and at one of the bread-stalls took up a little loaf: "How much?" "Five copeeks*." Astonished at this palpable proof of the imposition that was continually put on his grandmother, he resolved to convince her of it: for which purpose he contrived the following little plan. With his little miserable loaf in his pocket, he went immediately to the empress. "Grandmother," said he with that familiarity which she always encouraged, "I feel hungry."-" It is thine own fault, Constantine, if thou art hungry long together. What wilt thou have to eat?" The grand-duke said that he could like some common Russ bread. The empress smiled at his droll conceit :-but, as he insisted on it, she was curious to see how he would relish this coarse fare. It was therefore ordered; and, as the lacquey that bought it had picked out the best, it looked very well. Catharine asked the price; to which the man, a creature of the favourite, an. swered, two copeeks-which was the price of it in the time of Peter the Great, when all provision was incomparably cheaper. Catharine's countenance brightened; she saw that the loaf, for that price, was good and large, and expressed her joy at the comfort which it must be to the common people.

* A copeck is about a halfpenny: a hundred make a ruble.

The

The young grand-duke, manifestly convinced how his grandmother was deceived, bit of the bread with great seeming dislike, and shewed in his face the signs of vexation. The empress, observing it, thought that his palate, used to nicer things, did not readily take to this coarse food, and therefore, with a smile, asked him what was the matter? "I am quite angry, Grandmother," said the sly prince," that the fellow at the shops has cheated me, and you must punish him. I have nothing more to say, than that I have been just now to the market, and bought just such a loaf. Here, see!" pulling the loaf out of his pocket-" it cost me five copeeks, and is much worse and smaller than that which cost only two copeeks." The empress was much amazed at hearing this, and was about to make the lacquey sensible of her displeasure, when the favourite, who happened to be near, stepped up and turned the whole matter into a joke, by saying: "The fellow at the shops certainly knew your imperial highness, and thought it would be an affront to ask a person of so exalted a rank any thing less than a five-copeek-piece." The empress laughed, and thought that the baker acted very naturally in making her grandson pay for wanting to get the bread cheaper by putting on a disguise, and the young prince saw his good intention of undeceiving his grandmother for that time frustrated.

It is well known that Catharine lived with her son Paul Petrovitch not on the most friendly footing. The reason of this was partly to be found in the character of the empress, and partly in that of the grand-duke. It went so far that she even took away his children from him; who, as every body knows, were brought up under her eyes. Not one of them dared even to visit him without her express permission. Prince Constantine, however, had such a strong affection for his father, that, being but seldom allowed by his grandmother to see him, he would go by stealth, let what would be the consequence, and accordingly was sometimes punished for it by being put under home-arrest. In his 17th year he was, by his own choice, to be married to the princess of Saxe-Coburg. The empress, on this occasion, gave him 50,000 rubles, to lay out in presents for his young bride: but, knowing the slender income of his father-for he received from the empress nothing more than the bare allowance fixed by Peter the Great, and which was very small for a grand-dukethis excellent young prince carried all the money, that was given him in order to be spent in jewels, to his father, with this declaration: "that his kind grandmother had heaped on him and his amiable bride already such superabundant testimonies of her munificence, that to lay out the present would be no better than mere prodigality, and that he knew not how to bestow it more fitly than to put it in his father's possession. He hoped that his fatherly magnanimity would not reject this testimony of filial love and attachment, and not refuse him the joy of being for ever obliged to him by the kind acceptance of it." The father, much affected at the generous action of his son, accepted this beautiful mark of duty and love, on condition that he should be allowed hereafter to repay it; and thus the young grandduke thought the whole affair was over, and enjoyed the delightful sentiment of having actually shewn his tender attachment to his

worthy

worthy father, in perfect silence; as he had not told a word of the matter to his intended bride.

In the mean time, the latter being with the empress, her majesty asked her what sort of a noble present she had received from her future husband? The princess, unacquainted with the generous act of Constantine, directly answered, that she had received nothing, nor expected any thing, perfectly satisfied in the possession of his love. Catharine was astonished, and considered with herself what her grandson, whom she knew to be no spendthrift, could have done with the money which she gave to him. Just at this moment he entered the apartment. He was immediately interrogated, in the presence of the young princess, how he had disposed of the fifty thousand rubles which had been presented to him? "I gave them," answered the prince, in his frank and open manner, "to a man who was more in want of them than I was." "I know your good-natured disposition," said the empress: "but fifty thousand rubles was rather too large a sum to be given away in alms. To whom did you give it To my father. I hope your majesty will not be angry.' I am not angry," replied the empress; and turning to her writingtable, while the young princess was affected so as to shed tears, she wrote an order on the treasury for the sum of one hundred thousand rubles. "There," added she, " take that, and you need not bestow it in the same manner; I shall see that he shall not be more in want of it than you." The next day, she wrote a very affecting letter to her son Paul Petrovitch, [the present Emperor,] inviting him to a private conference, and shortly afterward was perfectly reconciled with him. Constantine had a present of a magnificent palace at St. Petersburg, with a considerable estate in the country; and, at the same time, full liberty was granted to him and his brother and sisters to see their father as often as they pleased.'

"No;

The reader will be able, from these specimens, to judge of the entertainment which he may expect from the contents of this little work.

ART. XVII. Katharine II. vor dem Richterstuble der Menschheitz i. e. Catharine II. at the Bar of Humanity. Small 8vo. pp. 59. St. Petersburg. 1797.

PRINTE

ENTED at St. Petersburg! we need only to read the motto to be doubtful of this circumstance: Initium turbandi omnia à fæmina ortum est.-Livius; and the preface is dated Jan. 26, 1797; that is, not three months after Catharine's decease! However, this is not our business: let us see what the author proposes in his preface.

The manner (says he) in which the death of Catharine has been announced to the world in most of the public prints, and the brilliant panegyrics which have been already in several periodical works offered to her manes, must excite in the mind of every calin inquirer after truth, the wish that people would not be so hasty in

writing