the fleeves and front of fine French cambric, richly worked or trimmed with crape of the fame colour to match. Head-drefs, a fquare handkerchief of crape, or muilin of the fame colour, confined within a rich gold band: gloves and fhoes to correfpond.

A long train drefs of foft white fatin, elegantly worked and embroider ed in a border of green and gold; the front of the drefs to correfpond, and the fleeves of entire lace. Headdrefs, a tiara of gold, fet with rubies, raifed on the right fide, and floping down toward the left ear. Necklace of gold chain; white kid fhoes and gloves.

Parifian Fashions.

ROBES of pale blue, and feathers of the fame colour, are much worn, at Paris: yellow is ftill, however, in great request. The feathers are worn flat, and very long, and falling downward. Feathers are worn in full drefs with the coiffure en cheveux: or the negligé veils are worn, falling equally on both fides. Befides blue, drefs robes of white fatin, bordered with black pluth, are alfo common.

Prefatory Letter.

MR. EDITOR,

AT this period, when under the afpiring profperity of Bonaparte, the kingdom of Portugal has engaged his attention, and may probably ceafe to exift, I thought it might afford amufement to many of your readers, to view the rife and progrefs of this once wonderful nation; and having met with a work published in France in 1803, purporting to be an elementary hiftory of the Portuguefe, which concifely difplays the fubject I propofe, I determined to tranflate it, and with your approbation, to prefent it to the public, in this, and about half a dozen more papers, through the

medium of your valuable publication.

It is a hiftory, which offers much intereft to the eye of the obferver. What can be more truly grand and wonderful, than to fee this fmall nation, fcarcely emerged from a state of barbarifin, and but a fhort time releafed from the oppreffion of the Moors, as it were in a moment, ufing the most active measures, and in a few years, changing the political fyftem of the univerfe, fpreading navigation and commerce to an extent unknown before, and gaining fuch a degree of wealth and power, to which no other nation had ever arrived?

The splendour of the Portuguese, arofe from the talents of a great prince, and from the refult of a fuc ceffion of the most happy circumflances.

But all this fplendour was of a fhort duration : Portugal fhared the fate of thofe fmall kingdoms, which fand oppofed to the interests of great empires, without having a fufficient force to contend with them. The Spaniaids, Dutch, and English, en vious of its fituation and power, ftripped it of most of its poffeffions.

This firft paper contains an ac count of the original ftate of Portugal, its government and laws; in the next will be given an account of the rife of the marine of Europe, including Portugal, Some panegyrics upon the government of Bonaparte, may perhaps be found in this paper, which forming part of the hiftory of the Portuguese court, could not be difpenfed with. I have the pleafure to be, fir, Your obedient fervant,

Oct. 21, 1807. J. ADAMSON.

Original State of Portugal; its Laws, its Manners, its Ancient Govern

pared with any of thofe, which at prefent come under our notice. This ftate at its origin bore not the leaf refemblance to the political focieties, with which we are now acquainted; its first navigators, its difcoveries, its fuccefles, its conquefts, its pover ty, its riches, its virtues, bear a perfonal character, not applicable to any modern government.

A nation, which had been fo many years under the dominion of bar barians, could not be civilized; we naturally imbibe the fentiments of thofe with whom we live. Thus it was, that Portugal was not acknow ledged as a kingdom of Europe, until its laws, politics, manners, and customs, were no longer blended with thofe of the Moors.

There can be no ftronger proof that the manners of thofe times were totally strange to the Portuguese, than what immediately followed; for no fooner had they thrown off the yoke of thefe tyrants, than the germs of civilization, which the oriental government of their conquerors had obliged them to relinquifh, began to reappear.

The government of Portugal was conducted with a degree of wifdom, when the major part of the governments of Europe was deficient in this refpect; a circumstance which demands our confideration, without which we might imagine, that the men of one age were different from thofe of another.

republic. Repofe is equally neceffary to ftates and individuals, for the well conducting their affairs.

Portugal had no ftimulus to prompt it to engage. This kingdom poffeffed every thing which could contribute to the happinefs of a nation; a fky always ferene, a fine healthy climate, the ground fertile and abundant; it could do without any intercourfe with foreign nations, having in itself whatever it could want. But the moft confiderable of its advantages was its fmalinefs: a kingdom of moderate extent has this fuperiority, that the prince who governs it, may immediately extend his arms to any difaffected part, and curb the vices as they rife. That fyftem of government, which is capable of eradicat ing the corruption of the people, forms the happiest conftitution. Hiftory affords us fufficient examples, that the greateft empires were not the moft flourishing in commerce.

The prince of a kingdom of wide extent, refembles the father of a family, who having extenfive domains, and a great number of children, is under the neceffity of entrufting the care of fome part of them to another, who often does not fufficiently fulfil the fanctions of his office: in the firft place, because this family is not his own; and fecondly, thefe duties do not particularly interest him. This is a general rule, that every government not directed by thofe immediately interested in its welfare, The overthrow of the Roman em- being of little concern to the adminipire having every where diffeminated ftrators, is not fo well conducted, troubles and confufion, all. Europe and that a king who governs for himwas in a ate of anarchy. Portu- felf, will do more good for his peogal, after the expulfion of the ple in a luftrum, than his minifters Moors, efcaped this general revolu- in an age.

tion; retired in a corner of Europe, One of the chief caufes of the at a distance from great empires, profperity of this kingdom was, that which are always the most agitated, its first kings were citizens, and it was admirably fituated to conceal had lived in the republic, before they it from the general difcord; and not mounted the throne. In the cftablith-. obliged to engage in the warfare, ment of a government, it is the citi which deluded this almoft univerfal zens who decide the power or weakFebruary, 1808. M

nefs

ness of the empire; in general the people have no leading character, ftill Tefs inclination; they are whatever the government would with them to be.

In a monarchy, every thing refts with the forereign, he poffelles a coercive power, which renders every thing dependent on him; he is the fun which warms every mind, the light that illuminates every foul, forms the taste of his fubjects, and makes them embrace one condition in preference to another.

The king, who wishes his fubjects to be foldiers, need only take up arms and engage in battles; if he with them to be citizens rather than warriors, let him remain at peace; if he is a lover of the fciences, he will be furrounded by learned men; if he is a patron of the arts, he will fee talents fpring up about him if he fhews a particular regard to juftice, his courts will be juft; if he withes his minifters to be men of probity, and knows how to diftin. guifh the felf-interefted man, from him who acts but for the good of the ftate, we fhould fee expunged from the government that fet of men, wanting in real refources, who come forward to fuccour the ftate, and yet deftroy it; who demand fums of money, which the fubjects muft pay, and who may be compared to fo many hammers, friking at the foundation of the flate. If we follow the virtues of a prince, we fall be more apt to imitate his vices; therefore if he is foud of expence and luxury, feafting and protution will be every where adopted; if he is inactive, his fubjects will not be vigilant; if he purfues his pleasures, his people will have their pleasures alfo; but if on the contrary his household is well regulated, that of the nobles will be fo, and the general mals will imitate them.

When we advance that men are whatever the heads of a government with them, we advance the truth,

we advance the fentiments of the beft hiftorians. Solor, Lycurgus, Romulus, rendered virtuous a fet of men, who before had been robbers and vagabonds, attached to every fpecies of vice; this obfervation extends even to the more modern umes. Attila enforced order and difcipline during the barbarity of his govern ment. Charlemagne reformed his em pine; and in our own times Louis XIV. prefented a new genius to France; even Cromwell, in the midft of tyranny and oppreffion, raised the Englifh nation to that fate of grandeur, from which it has never fince defcended; plainly pointing out that the heads of a fociety regulate thofe who compofe it.

The first kings of Portugal treated their fubjects in the fame manner, with this difference, they were virtu ous, wife, and poffeffed of fuperior talents, having no other inclinations than what their duty prompted. When an affair of confequence was to be decided, they never determined it themselves, thinking that the king in council was only one man, The ftates. were affembled, where every free citizen affifted in perfon, and not by his representative, who fel dom fulfils his duty in the manner he ought; an enlightened council decid ed the affairs brought before the throne. A fpecies of mixed govern ment is the belt, because the evils arifing from the revolutions, which environ a throne, are prevented. The greatest kings have their moments of ambition, after which relaxation, effeminacy, and love of pleasure fucceed to the greateft enterprises; then it is that the principles of the state difappear, and the popular vices take piecedence of the royal virtues. To what glory would France have rifen under Louis XIV. had the latter years of his reign correfponded with the former. This prince faw his power languish, even in the midft of thofe eftablishments, which before had Contributed

1

contributed to its grandeur. At the latter part of his reign, he never brought an army into the field that was not unfuccefsful; viciffitudes fucceeded viciffitudes, and misfortunes crowded on misfortunes: the ditorder of the treafury was fo great, that Colbert was obliged to fell by retail the revenues of the crown to raise money. Louis no longer faw men in the fame light, and the age, which extinguished his noble paffions, poffeffed him with others weak and languifhing, devoid of that enthusiasm neceffary to conduct great actions; it was at this unfortunate time that he wanted energy to retrieve his govern ment, by creating falutary laws, even from the dust and relaxation of manners, in which it was buried.

his profeffion, if he dil not conceal from his prince, that, which is of most confequence to him to know; the truth.

In a government where principles are virtuous, those of the fecond clafs will have few vices; one man is an example for another. What most contributed to the profperity of Portugal, was, its being detached from the rest of Europe.

Plato, in his republic, ftrongly opposes the introduction of foreigners, and it is well-known that this philofopher had a thorough knowledge of the human heart, how apt it is to be tainted with those manners and cuftoms which are strange to it.

An Anecdote.

The firft laws of Portugal difplay a greatnefs of character: in all or moft of them, morality was blended with politics, and to aggrandize the ftate, it was only necellary to keep them in force. They inherit not the virtues of their ancestors, the virtues of thofe who had defcended to the tomb, rofe no inore; the dead have no communication with the living; virtue buried, is virtue annihilated. Efteem and confideration derive their confequence from war, being Pray,' faid a Frenchman, 'can not only the most honourable, but you make which fide you please allo the most neceffary profeffion; victorious?' the other qualifications belong to the citizens; military qualifications belong to a political ftate, of which they are the defence and fupport.

RETURNING from Paris to London, I met a certain Englishman at Calais, who had been exhibiting at fome towns in France and Flanders with a fwarm of bees, which he pretended to have under his command. Among other manœuvres, he faid he could make two fwarms of thefe animals engage in battle with each other; an English fwarm, for example, with a French one.

To acquire great military honours, it was requifite to have atchieved fome great exploit: a noble who infulted a woman, degraded himself. A grandee, who took a falfe oath, or did not at all times fpeak the truth, was no longer heard in court, A gentleman, who told a falfehood before the king, was banished his prefence. Such a fet of laws in these times, would be fufficient to drive all the flatterers from the courts of Europe, a courtier now-a-days, would pus for a man who knew nothing of

'I could not,' replied the other, gravely, give the victory to the French, unless they were a little more than double the number of the

English; becaufe an English bee is precifely equal to two French ones.

Do you really believe, fir,' faid the Frenchman to me, that there is fuch a difference between the French and English bees??

Perhaps, answered I, coldly, the bee-man may have gone too far; but I am inclined to believe, that two English bees would be a pretty good match for three French.' Ah! montieur,faid the French man, complaifantly, cela peut éter; (that may be).'

A Statifical Survey of Pruffia in September, 1806. From the latest and beft Authorities.

Chief Towns and their Population.-Berlin, 178,308-Warschau, 74,591 -Breflau, 60,950-Konigsberg, 60,000-Dantzig, 46,213-Magdeburg 37,451-Pofdam, 26,980-Stettin, 22,335-Pofen, 21,473-Halle, 41,350-Elbing, 18,805-Erfurt, 17,684-Frankfurt, (on the Oder) 17,571

13

46,000

3,538

562/

119,562

2,108

49

99,040

2,020

50

98,407

1,969

120

493,000 4,108

622

270,000 4,502

574

223,000 3,906

16

47,900 2,902