lord What-then looking upon Amazan for a moment, faid, how d'ye do? which, by the way, is a phrafe without any meaning. After which he fell a fmoking as ufual. The traveller took occafion to inform him that he brought his unicorns from the country of the Gangarids.-My lord remained dumb for another quarter of an hour; after which he asked his companion, a second time, how he did, and whether they had any good roast beef among the Gangarids. Amazan answered, that they did not eat their brethren on the banks of the Ganges; and then explained to him the Pythagorean fyftem of philofophy. But my lord fell asleep in the mean time, and made but one nap of it till he came to his own house. He was married to a young and charming woman, on whom nature had bestowed a foul as lively and fenfible, as her husband's was dull and ftupid. She had none of the aukward, affected stiffness, or falfe modefty, with which the young ladies of Albion were then reproached. Never was a woman more engaging. She received Amazan with a grace and politeness that was quite natural to her. Dinner being served, The placed Amazan at her fide. His beauty and ftrength, the manners of the Gangarids, the progress of religion, arts, and government were the fubjects of their converfation, which lafted till night; during which, my lord What-then did nothing but push the bottle about, and called for the toast. After dinner, the young ftranger entered into a long converfation with a member of parliament, about the laws, cuftoms, &c. which made his country fo repectable. The difcourfe of the member is to this effect. For a long time we went fark-naked; we were likewife for a long time enflaved. by a people from the ancient country of Saturn, watered by the river Tiber. But the mifchiefs we have done one another, have greatly exceeded all that ever we fuffered from our firft conquerors. One of our princes carried his daftardlinefs to fo high a pitch, as to declare himself the subject of a priest, who dwells alfo on the banks of the Tiber, and is called the old man of the feven mountains. To these times of infamy, fucceeded the ages of barbarity and confufion. Our country has been ravaged and drenched in blood by our civil difcords; many of our crowned heads have perished by a violent death; above a hundred princes of the royal blood have ended their days on the fcaffold, whilft the hearts of their adherents have been torn from their breafts, and thrown in their faces. In fhort, it is the province of the hangman to write the hiftory of our ifland. But But to crown thefe horrors, it is not very long fince fome fellows wearing black mantles, and others who caft white fhirts over their jackets, having been bitten by mad-dogs, communicated their madness to the whole nation. Our country was then divided into the murderers and the murdered, and all, in the name of God. Who would have imagined from this horrible abyss, this chaos of diffention, a government fhould at last spring up, the most perfect, it may be faid, now in the world? yet fuch has been the event. A prince honoured, wealthy, all-powerful to do good, without any power to do evil, is at the head of a free, warlike, commercial nation. The nobles on the one hand, and the reprefentatives of the people on the other, fhare the legislature with the monarch. We have seen diforders, civil wars, anarchy and wretchednefs lay waste the country, when our king's aimed at arbitrary power, whereas tranquillity, riches, and univerfal happiness have only reigned among us, when the prince has remained fatisfied with a limited authority. Our victorious fleets carry our glory over all the ocean; our laws place our lives and fortunes in fecurity; no judge can explain them in an arbitrary manner and no decfion is ever given, without the reafons affigned for it. We fhould punish a JUDGE as an affaffin, who fhould condemn a citizen to death, without declaring the evidence which accufed him, and the law upon which he was tried. Our author is not lefs free with the pope, and takes a fingular pleasure in fhewing his enmity to intolerants; after giving us a defcription of France, Italy, and Germany, he concludes his reflections with this obfervation, "the Germans are the grey-heads of Europe; the people of Albion are men formed; and the inhabitants of Gaul are the children." After bringing Amazan and Formofante together, he concludes with a very fpirited and facetious addrefs to those who have treated his former works with any degree of feverity: and seems rather merry than angry with their criticisms. The tranflation from whence we have drawn this sketch, is, in many places very wrong, and wrote in fo bad a stile, that the writer feems to have loft his English, by reading the French. SIR, I ON CORRUPT JUDGES. Remember to have heard a wag fay, that the great dealers in law have more than once wanted to fell the whole national ftock of it together. And, however ludicrous the expreffion may appear, that facts have warranted the fatire, is an indifputable truth. During the reign of James the Firft, perhaps, no one so much fcandalized the bench as the celebrated lord Verulam. But, under his fucceffor, the lamb-skins appeared to be hung upon wolves, for then the difpenfers of law became the grofs violators of all juftice. It is true, that at firft, there did appear to be fome men of confcience upon the bench, for we read, that Sir Randolph Crew was difplaced, in the year 1626, about the bufinefs of the general loan, the inftructions to the commiffioners for the raifing of which were drawn in the true fpirit of an inquifition but, by difplacing him, and, perhaps, fome others, in the following year, we find, that when the gentlemen who had been imprisoned for refufing to lend the king money, Vol. III. : K fued |