and the majority decreed that every tenth man, with his family, fhould evacuate the country. Lots were caft; and thofe on whom they fell quitted their native feats, amidst the cries and lamentations of their friends and kinfmen: the mothers, in deep difmay, led out their helps lefs infants. In three bands, under three leaders, came forth fix thou. fand hardy gigantic men, with their wives, children, and most valuable effects. They fwore never to forfake each other; and prayed to God to grant them a land like that of their forefathers, where they might graze their cattle, without fear of moleftation or oppreffive power. God brought them to a vale in the Alps, where they built Schwitz. The people increased in number. They fpared no labour in clearing away the woods; but when the vale could no longer contain them, fome went over to the black mountain*, and some to the white landsti? I thefe traditional fongs be compared with what we learn from more cre ditable hiftorianst, it appears well-attefted, that this original race gra dually spread itself all over the high mountainous tract between Schwitz and Gruyeres. The date and circumftances of this migration are not known: people like thefe, paid little attention to the lapse of times; and the traditional accounts of famines in the north are frequent, and common to various countries: nor can the names and incidents related in thefe fongs, fince the ancient language of the Swifs has been gra dually difufed, afford any clue to the industrious antiquary onsı b "The earliest of these songs boast of an abfolute independence; and it is attefted by records, that this people voluntarily applied for, and readily obtained the protection of the Emperor. This fingular dif tinction was peculiar to the Swifs, and by no means extended to the in habitants of the neighbouring valleys." P. 83 melong bags 1 As the famous hiftory of William Tell has been variously related by prior authors, we fhould certainly difappoint our readers if we did not lay it before them in the more correct narrative of the prefent work. It can hardly be neceffary to premife, that the incroachments of Albert of Auftria, and the tyrannical conduct of his bailiffs, particularly Gefler, caufed the first fermentation in the minds of the high spirited moun taineers of Swifferland. This was in the year 1307? or wi In the night preceding the eleventh of November, came Furit, Melchthal, and Stauffacher, with each ten affociates, men of approved worth, and who had freely declared their abhorrence of the unwar. ranted oppreffions of the bailiffs. These three and thirty undaunted Mount Brunig in Underwalden. lake of Thun. Paul Warnefrid, Etterlin, Bertin, &c. Events are frequently blended together in old traditions, though thousands of years may have intervened. traditions, though " || Sponte noftrum et imperii dominium legistis, fays the Emperor Frederick the Second, in a charter of the year 1240." patriots, patriots Heeply impreffed with the fenfe of their hereditary freedom;: and firmly united by the dangers ahat threatened their country, being thus met in the field! Rodi, fuffered neither the vindictive wrath, nor the whole formidable power of the house of Hapfourg to divert them from their purpose, but with one heart and mind refolved that in this great enterprize none of them would be guided by his private opinion: that none would forfake his friends; but that they would all jointly live and die in the defence of the common caufe: that each would, in his own vicinity, promote the object they had in view, trafting that the whole nation would one day have cause to bless this friendly union that the Count of Hapfborg fhould be deprived of none of his lands, vaffals, or prerogatives; and that his bailiffs, their officers and attend ants, fhould not lofe one drop of blood: but that the freedom they had inherited from their forefathers they were determined to affert, and to hand down to their pofterity, untainted and undiminished.” Thus fixt in their refolve, while, with tranquil countenances and ho-~ neft hands, each beheld and clafped his friend; while at this folemn hour they were wrapt in the contemplation that on their fuccefs de pended the fate of their whole progeny; Werner, Walter, and Arnold, held up their hands to heaven, and in the name of the Almighty, who has created man to an inalienable degree of freedom, fwore, jointly and ftrenuously, to defend that freedom. The thirty heard the oath with awe, and with aplifted hands, arrested the fame God and all his faints, that they were firmly bent on offering up their lives for the defence of their injured liberty. They then calmly agreed on their future proceedings; but for the prefent, each returned to his hamlet, obferved profound fecrecy, and tended his cattle. Meanwhile the progrefs of wanton oppreffion put a period to the life and cruelties of the Bailiff Herman Gefler, Prompted either by reftlefs fufpicion, or by fome intimation of a meditated infurrection," he felolved to mark thofe who bore his yoke with most reluctance, and had recourfe to an expedient which, perhaps, had been practifed by the ancestors of this people before they left their northern featst. He railed a hat on a pole at Uri, to which he commanded all paflengers to pay obeifance. William Tell of Burglen, in the valley of Uri, fonin-law to Walter Furt, a man in the full vigour of life, of an undaunted fpirit, and one of the fworn friends of liberty, fcorned to pay the refpect Getler had ordained to this fymbol of his ufurped authority. An unguarded declaration of his contempt for this badge of fervitude, balausbau vodi bas shut oil The word Patriot, when this was written (Anno 1798) had incurred an odium, because it had been mifapplied. The day, it is to be hoped, will yet return, when a true friend of his country may refume that name without a blush." "+ Graffer, a Swifs writer, has pointed out fome refemblance between various incidents in Tell's history, and thole of, Tocco a Scandinavian, whole feats are recorded by Saxo. The popular tale of the. apple which Tell was ordered to fhoot at on the head of his infant fon, is wholly omitted by Muller." induced 2 3. induced the bailiff to feize his perfon; and thinking it unfafe, on ae count of the many friends and relations he had in his native valley, to detain hi there, he refolved (contrary to the privilege of the people, which forbad their being fent to foreign prifons) to convey him acrofs the lake. They had not navigated far beyond the Ratli, when on a fudden a boisterous fouth wind burst forth from the inlets of St. Gothard, and raised the waves on the lake to a tremendous height. The bailiff, juftly alarmed at his own danger, ordered Tell, whom he knew to be an expert boatman, to be freed from his fetters, and intrusted with the helm. They rowed in anxious fufpenfe under the towering precipices on the right of the lake, till having approached the Axelberg, Tell fteered clofe to a projecting cliff, fprung on fhore, and leaving the boat to contend with the rocks and raging billows, climbed up the fteep, and fled to Schwitz. The bailiff lifewife efcaped the ftorm, and landed at Kufnacht near the lower extremity of the lake; but Tell, aware of his own danger while fuch a foe furvived, met him in a hollow road, and hot him with an arrow. Such was the end of Herman Gefler. He fell before the appointed hour for the deliverance of the country, without any co-operation on the part of the indignant people, but [ merely by the provoked refentment of a free, high-minded individual. The deed, it is true, cannot be juftified on legal principles; and Tell has more than once been branded with the opprobrious appellation of confpirator and affaffin: but it was a deed fimilar to many which have been highly extolled in hiftory: nor is it at all expedient, or neceffary, towards a well regulated government, that oppreffion fhould have no limits, and that tyrants fhould have nothing to fear. This deed of William Tell cheered the hopes, and animated the courage of the fworn affociates; but many feared left the anticipation might roufe the vigilance, and call forth all the efforts and precautions of the furviving bailiff. They, however, continued carefully to conceal their project: and thus ended the year one thoufand three hundred and feven*.. "One of the confederates, a youth of Underwalden, who was paying his addreffes to a maid fervant in the caftle of Rofsberg, was frequently admitted to nightly vifits in her chambert. One of thefe vifits he "The name of Tell, except at a meeting of the community of Uri, in 1339, when an aid was voted for Berne, occurs no more, in the hiftory of this country. He appears to have returned to his house at Burglen, upon the fite of which a chapel has fince been erected, as well as on the spot where he leaped on fhore. He is faid to have been drowned in 1354, in an inundation: two fons of his are mentioned, William and Walter. His male ifsue became extinct in 1684, and the female not before 1720. No honours, or rewards whatever, were conferred on him or his progeny; nor indeed on any of those who, on this occafion, freed their country. All their defcendants lived in obfeurity; fame are even faid to have died in hofpitals. Such difinterestedness did their ancestors combine with fo much heroifm! " "Thefe vifits were then, and have long after continued to be customary, when a youth seriously intended to marry a young woman; he paid at the first hour of the year thirteen hundred and eight, when he afcended by a rope to one of the windows of the caftle. No fooner had he been introduced, than twenty of his companions, who lay con cealed in the moat, were likewife drawn up, and entered at the fame window. Thefe immediately fecured the keeper, his four foldiers, and all his attendants; took poffeffion of the gate, and obferved ftrict filence. Soon after daybreak, twenty other men of Underwalden came to Sarnen wish their usual new-year's gift to the bailiff, which, on this occafion, confifted of a large number of calves, goats, and lambs, and abundance of poultry and game. Landenberg, whom they met on his way to church, commended their liberality; and ordered them to con vey the prefents to his caftle. Being arrived at the gate, one of them blew a horn, and each drew out a pointed weapon, and fixed it on his faff. Thirty more of the confederates haftened from a neighbouring wood; and thefe jointly took poffeffion of the caftle, and fecured all thofe they found within its walls. The appointed fignal being now given, and inftantly repeated from alp to alp, the whole country of Underwalden rofe in arms. The men of Uri feized on Geffer's op probrious tower; and the Schwitzers, led by Stauffacher, flew to the lake Lowerz, and poffeffed themselves of the cattle of Schwanan. So punctual and expeditious were all thefe movements, that the metengers who reciprocally conveyed the tidings of the fucceffes, met near the middle of the lake. Landenberg, aware of his danger, endeavoured to efcape across the fields between Sarpen and Alpenach, but was orertaken and feized. He and all the keepers, officers, and, foldiers found in the castles, were conducted to the frontiers; where, after they had taken a folemn oath never to return within the confines of the three cantons, they were difmiffed without the leaft hurt or moleftation. The blind father of Melchthal, on this memorable day once more biefled his exiflence: the chafte wife at Alzelen exulted in the fafe return of her gallant hufband: Walter Furft publicly extolled the courage of his: fon-in-law; and the wife of Stauffacher received with joyful feftivity, in her houfe at Steinen, all the brave and trafty friends who had accompanied her husband to the Rutli and the lake Lowerz. The consciousness of returning liberty exhilarated every mind; and yet, amidst all the tumult and confufion that ever attends popular cominotions, all the exultation that unavoidably fucceeds the happy ifuc of fo hazardous an enterprize, it is well atretted that, in this instance, not one drop of blood was fhed, and no proprietor whatever had to lament the lofs of either a claim, a privilege, or a fingle inch of land. Landenberg repaired to King Albert; and the Swifs met on the next fucceeding Sunday, and once more confirmed by oath their ancient, and (as they have ever fondly named it) their perpetual league. P. 153, 1 and never implied the leaft fufpicion of immorality. A praciife not unlike this in North America, and deemed as innocent, has long been the fubject of mirth and wonder among more refined but lefs continent nations. As it is impoffible for us to do juftice to this extenfive workin a tingle article, we thall referve our further remarks to a future opportunity.. ART. II. Prize Essays, and Tranfactions, of the Highland Society of Scotland; to which is prefixed, an Account of the Inftitution and principal Proceedings of the Society, by Henry Mackenzie, Efg. Vol. I. 8vo. 515 pp. 75. Cadell and Davies, London; Creech, Edinburgh. 1799. IF the focieties which are inftituted for the mere improvement of fcience, deferve the refpect of civilized nations, thofe whofe object is to fupply the wants, and to diminish the hardships of the human fpecies, where nature has not been, very! liberal of her gifts, are undoubtedly entitled to the grateful admiration of every benevolent mind. The Highland Society of Scotland, which has been inflituted and incorporated by Royal Charter fince the year 1784, is of the latter kind. The liberal plan upon which it is established, the many illuftrious names which are reckoned amongst its mem bers, its laudable objects, its proper regulations, and, the useful knowledge, which they have already collected and published in the prefent first volume of their Tranfactions, render it of the first refpectability; and we are fure our readers, will concurwith us, in wishing it all the success that so humane an institu»," tion can poffibly attain.: The limits of our publication not allowing us the fatisfaction: of particularly describing the plan of the institution, the regu lations and other particulars, relative to that Society, we shalt only endeavour to give our readers a flight account of the Effays which are contained in this first volume of their Tranfactions, annelions to q'sx In the first place, this publication contains an account of the inftitution and principal proceedings of the Highland Society, together with fix Appendixes under the following titles: No. I. Royal Warrant for a Charter incorporating the Highland Society of Scotland at Edinburgh. No II. Lift of: Members of the Society. No. III. Premiums to be given by the Highland Society for Effays and Communications, andencouraging Improvements in Agriculture, and omending the Breed |