The DEATH of KOULI KILAN.
THE Habitable World DESCRIBED.
Inscribed by Permission to His Royal Highness Frederick DUKE OF YORK, &c. &c.
HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE
LONDON: Published as the Act directs, by the Author, No . 62, Wardour-Street, Soho.
1788.
THE HABITABLE WORLD DESCRIBED, OR THE PRESENT STATE OF THE PEOPLE IN ALL PARTS OF THE GLOBE, FROM NORTH TO SOUTH; SHEWING The Situation, Extent, Climate, Productions, Animals, &c. of the different Kingdoms and States; Including all the new Discoveries: TOGETHER WITH The Genius, Manners, Customs, Trade, Religion, Forms of Government, &c. of the Inhabitants, and every thing respecting them, that can be either entertaining or informing to the Reader, collected from the earliest and latest Accounts of Historians and Travellers of all Nations;
With some that have never been published in this Kingdom;
And, nothing advanced but on the best Authorities.
WITH A great Variety of MAPS and COPPER-PLATES, engraved in a capital Stile, the Subjects of which are mostly
new,
and such as have never yet been given in any English work.
BY THE REV. DR. JOHN TRUSLER.
VOL. VIII.
LONDON.
Printed for the AUTHOR at the LITERARY-PRESS, No. 62, WARDOUR-STREET, SOHO; and sold by all Booksellers.
M DCC XC.
PERSIA.
From SIR JOHN CHARDIN, who was there in the last Century; ELTON, who travelled through the Northern Provinces, in 1739; JONAS HANWAY, who did the same in 1744; and WILLIAM FRANKLIN, who resided eight months at SHIRAUZ, in 1786 and 1787.
CHAP. III.
Continued.
THE baths in Persia are very commodious, and well worth the attention of a stranger. They consist generally of two large apartments, one of which furnishes a place for undressing, the other is the bath. On the side of the first are stone benches, raised two feet from the ground, covered with mats and carpets, where the bathers sit to undress, and thence they proceed to the bath, through a long, narrow passage. The bath is a large room, of an octagon form, with a cupola at top, through which the light and air are admitted. On the sides of this room are small platforms of wood, raised about a foot from the ground, on which the people, who enter to bathe, perform their devotions, a ceremony the Persians always previously observe. At the upper-end of the room is a large bason, or reservoir of water, built of stone, well-heated by means of stoves, made at the bottom, with iron gratings over them; and adjoining is another of cold water, of either of which the bather has his choice. In the morning, before day, a servant goes to the terrace, on the top of the house, and sounds a shell, or horn, to give notice that the bath is ready. When any person comes to bathe, he undresses himself in the front room, as was said, ties a cloth about his middle, which reaches down to his knees, and proceeds to the stove. When he comes out of the hot bath, which is generally in the space of ten or twelve minutes, the people of the house stand ready to perform the operation of rubbing, and, to effect this, he is laid on his back, at full length, with a pillow to support his head; a brush made of camel's hair is then used, which completely cleans the body. After some time rubbing, they rinse the whole body with several basons of warm water, and the person is reconducted to the dressing-room, where he shifts, and dresses at leisure, receiving a calean to smoke.
Chardin
says, that the servants of the bath rub the bather from head to foot, in so rough a manner, that those, who are not used to it, think he is about to flea them. Afterwards he shaves the person's head and face, if he desires it, cuts his finger and toe-nails, handles his body, squeezes and rubs it, and stretches every finger and limb, as if he was about to dislocate them, and this takes up a quarter of an hour. After the person has been thus stretched and squeezed, he plunges into the bath again, and, being wiped dry, returns to the dressing-room, and puts on his cloaths. The time for the men's bathing is from day-break to four in the afternoon, and that for the women, from four till midnight. When it is the women's turn to bathe, the male servants of the bagnio withdraw, and are succeeded by girls. The ladies are never so finely dressed as when they come to bathe. This is the only opportunity they have of vying with each other in the article of cloaths; and their perfumes and essences are enough to stifle one who is not used to them.
Great men have bagnios in their own houses; and those of a lower rank have them adjoining to their houses, reserve them to themselves at certain times, but let them out to others, on condition only of keeping a constant fire, with vessels and other implements necessary for bathing.
The Persians are much more scrupulous than any other eastern nation, in permitting foreigners to go into their baths, which, if attempted without their knowledge, they prevent, alledging, in excuse, that if it was known that they admitted a
Ferengy
(this is the word they express christians by) they should lose both their custom and reputation, as the bath would be thereby deemed polluted.
During the spring, the baths are dressed out in great finery, a custom distinguished by the natives under the name of
Gul Reàzee,
or the scattering of roses, from the vast quantity of those flowers strewed in the apartments. This ceremony continues a week, or ten days, during which time, the guests are entertained with music, dancing, coffee, sherbet, &c. and the dressing-room is decked out with paintings, looking-glasses, streamers, and other ornaments, at the expence of the master of the
humaùm,
or hummum, as we call it, who compliments his customers on the occasion, though a small present is made by them to the musicians. In Shirauz the baths are used alternately by men and women, every other day.
In the centre of the city of Shirauz is a large building, called by the Persians
Shàh Cheraùg,
or the King's lamp, and is considered as a place of the greatest sanctity, being the mausoleum of the mother of one of their Imaums, or heads of the faith: it is a place of high antiquity, but the exact date of its foundation cannot be ascertained. The tomb of the celebrated and deservedly admired Hafiz, one of the most famous of the Persian poets, stands about two miles from Shirauz. Here government has erected a most elegant aivan, or hall, with apartments adjoining. No cost has been spared to render it agreeable. It stands in the middle of a large garden. In the front of the apartments is a stone reservoir, with a fountain in the centre. In the garden are many cypress trees, of extraordinary size and beauty, as well as of great antiquity. Under the shade of these trees is the tomb of Hafiz, of fine white marble, from Tauris, eight feet long, and broad, covering the original tomb. On the top and sides are select pieces from the poet's own works, most beautifully cut in the Persian Nustaleek character. During the spring and summer season, the inhabitants visit this spot, and amuse themselves with smoaking, playing at chess, and other games, reading also the works of Hafiz, whom they esteem more than any of their poets, and whom they venerate almost to adoration, never speaking of him, but in the highest terms of rapture and enthusiasm. A most elegant copy of his works is kept upon the tomb, for the purpose and inspection of all who go there. The principal youth of the city assemble here, and shew every possible mark of respect for their favourite poet, making plentiful libations of the delicious wine of Shirauz to his memory.
Sadi's tomb, another of their famous poets, who flourished about five hundred and fifty years ago, is also in being, though out of repair. It is situated at the foot of the mountains that border the plain, or valley, of Shirauz. It is a large square building, at the upper-end of which are two alcoves, or recesses in the wall. That on the right is the tomb of Sadi, just in the state it was in, when he was buried, built of stone, six feet long, and two and a half broad. On the sides are engraved many sentences in the old Nuskhi character, relating to the poet and his works. On the tomb is placed, for the inspection of all who visit it, a manuscript copy of his works, most elegantly transcribed. And this place the people of Shirauz visit occasionally, as they do the tomb of Hafiz.
Not far from Hafiz's tomb, is a magnificent building, called
Heft Tun,
or seven bodies, erected in commemoration of seven dervises, who came from a great distance, to reside in this country, and took up their abode on this spot, and there continued till they all died, each burying the other successively, until the only survivor was buried there by the neighbours. This hall is lined one third of the height with white Tauris marble, and the cieling ornamented with blue and gold enamel. It has some tolerable paintings executed in the Persian style, amongst which, is one of Abraham's offering up his son Isaac, and another of Moses, when a boy, tending the flocks of his father-in-law, Jethro. Over the doors are the portraits of the two celebrated poets Hafiz and Sadi, at full length; that of Hafiz habited in the old Persian dress, painted with a rosy complexion, and a large pair of whiskers, apparently about thirty-six years old. Sadi is the figure of a venerable old man, with a long beard, turned white with age, in a religious dress, with long flowing robes, holding a small crook, or ivory staff in his right hand, and a charger of incense in the other.
Derbend is the capital of Shirvan, and situated in 42 degrees of north latitude; it is a city of great antiquity, and the only place now standing on the shores of the Caspian sea, which has any thing to boast of. It seems to be admitted, that the greatest part of it was built by Alexander the Great. Derbend has often changed its masters, having been several times in the hands of the Turks. The Tartars are said to have had possession of it. The Russians kept possession of it for several years during this century, but it is now again in possession of the Persians. It is about three English miles long, but not more than half a mile broad, extending from the verge of the shore due west, up to the foot of a lofty mountain, the whole in a declivity, and its natural situation, is such, as to form in strict propriety, the gates of Persia, on this side; for there is no passage to the westward, without going deep into the mountains, which are guarded by their proper inhabitants, who have not submitted to the Persian yoke. Here is a citadel (with a governor) that mounts 40 pieces of cannon. This city is divided into three parts, each part having its distinct wall; the upper town, which is half a mile square, constitutes the citadel; and no person can enter it, but the soldiers of the garrison.
The walls of the middle town are about 30 feet high, 20 feet thick at the base, and from 12 to 15 at top, having a breast-work, with port-holes three feet thick. It is defended also by about six flanking bastions. The walls are of a shelly stone, strongly cemented. How nature has produced these, or whether they have remained since the deluge, must be left to the curious to determine; we can only observe, that such shells do not appear on any of the Caspian shores. The rocks about the town are of the same composition.
The city gates are very strong, and well made arches, with sliding holes to shoot arrows, or throw down stones, from. The streets are not regular, nor were they paved in 1746, though they had been so formerly. It was in this year that the Russian ambassador made his entry into Persia; and Mr.
Van Mierop,
who accompanied him, tells us, that though many of the houses are supported on one side by the hills, numbers were fallen down, and the greatest part in ruins. It is hardly possible to describe the miseries which this place suffered about four years before, when
Nadir Shah,
the Persian King, came in person against the Lesgee Tartars. We saw a specimen of it, says he, by the carcases of horses and other animals, which was suffered to remain in the streets, and ruined houses. We found in this town near 500 men whose eyes
Nadir Shah
had caused to be put out at one time. Here is a very magnificent mosque, whose roof is supported by 84 arches,
Nadir
converted it into a barn, and we rode into it, without giving offence. Here are also several caravanseras belonging to the Armenians.
The eastermost part of the lower town is washed by the sea; the walls are guarded by two round bastions, without which was formerly a harbour for small vessels.
Nadir
built a palace here; caused several streets, or houses to be erected, and made it a free port, with a view of establishing a great commerce, but it came to nothing, and this part of the town is uninhabited.
On the south side of Derbend are many vineyards and gardens, for an extent of eight miles; but these, as well as their arable lands have partaken the common fate of war. As the neighbourhood of this city is the country of the Lesgee Tartars, and as we had not an opportunity of speaking of them, when describing the vast extent of Tartary, the reader will doubtless not be displeased at having here some little account of them, particularly, as it will relieve him from a continued dry description of towns and places.
These Tartars are known to be some of the bravest people in the world. Their country extends south from near the latitude of Tarku, about 40 leagues, and 25 westward. They are under different chiefs, who in case of danger to their own common liberty, unite their forces. Some few have been subjected to the Persians; but those to the north and west of the Persian dominions, have never submitted. They are able to bring 30 or 40,000 men into the field. They have had frequent wars with the Persians; and, lastly, with
Nadir Shah,
who with 15,000 men pursued a great body of them into the hills, but was at last obliged to retreat with a considerable loss.
Though these Tartars, in flying parties, pillage the Armenians and Georgians, if any stranger travelling into their country, or on the borders of it, seeks their protection, and chuses a guide from among them, let him meet never so strong a party, it is enough, if the guide declares he is his guest. They are hardly ever known to violate the laws of hospitality, in any instance of this nature.
In their persons, they are well-made, of good stature, and extremely active; their countenance is swarthy, their features are regular, and their eyes black, and full of life.
Their dress resembles the Greek or Arabian manner, many of them wearing the same kind of drawers, reaching to their ancles. Their caps are not so lofty as those of the Persians; neither do all of them wear their beard, some preferring whiskers only.
They live after the manner of Persians, professing the Mahomedan religion. Their vallies are exceedingly fertile, producing plenty of wheat, barley, and oats, with abundance of sheep, and their hills are covered with vines. They are ingenious in several manufactures of wool and camels hair; and none of the neighbouring nations equal them in making fire-arms, which they fell to the Persians. They deal largely in madder. The Armenians trade with these Tartars, and these Tartars with the Russians.
I must not omit Tauris, supposed to be the ancient Ecbatana. It is called, by the Turks and Persians,
Tabriz,
and was the metropolis of Media.
Diodorus Siculus
is of opinion, it was founded by
Semiramis,
who, with incredible labour, brought water there from the mountain Orontes; whilst
Josephus
assures us, that it was built, at least a royal palace in it, by the prophet
Daniel.
It was formerly best known by the name of Ecbatana, and was then in the greatest splendor. The ancients say, it was 15 miles about, and had walls 70 cubits high and 50 broad: but there is now little or nothing left, either of the walls or palaces. However, Tauris is still a considerable town, being five miles round, populous, and a place of great trade. The inhabitants amount to about 80,000.
Tauris, like most other cities in Persia, stands in a plain, surrounded by mountains, from whence there falls a small stream, which runs through the middle of it; but, when the snows melt, is increased to a torrent. Here are several noble meydans or squares, one of them almost equal to the royal meydan at Ispahan. They have also their covered streets or exchanges, where abundance of rich merchandize is exposed to sale; and their mosques and bagnios are much after the model of those in other cities already described.
The city of Tauris has also often changed its master. Sometimes the Turk, and at others the Persian has possessed it; but, as the citizens seem attached to the Persians, the Turks have several times burnt and plundered it. Tauris stands about 400 miles north of Ispahan, which the caravans usually travel in 24 days. Its latitude is 38 degrees odd minutes. From the towns and buildings already described, it will be easy to form a judgment of the rest. I will proceed, therefore, to mention
Teflis, which is the capital of Georgia, and supposed to be the Acropolis of the ancients, which was taken by Pompey, but under the dominion of the Persians, though inhabited chiefly by christians, there being 14 christian churches, and not one mahomedan mosque, except that in the castle, which stands on an eminence in the center. It is a bishop's see, and has a handsome cathedral, built in form of a cross. The other churches belong partly to the Georgians, and partly to the Armenians. These, as well as the other public buildings are built of stone, as are their bazars, caravanseras, bagnios, &c. which are after the same model with those in other towns of Persia. It is large, well peopled, and the houses built with brick.
The climate of this country, (Georgia,) is soft, not very different from that of Italy. The men are remarkably tall, comely, robust, and well-made, ostentatious, and proud of a splendid appearance. The women, under the name of Circassians, are celebrated for their beauty all over Asia. I have already treated of Circassia, which lies much further to the north-west than Teflis, and have spoken of the women of this country.
Teflis is situated in 44 degrees of north latitude, on the river Kur or Cyrus, at the foot of a mountain; it is not of very large extent, but elegantly built. On the south side, on the declivity of the mountain, stands the castle, once a place of strength, but hardly tenable at present.
The next place I shall notice is Gombron, a sea-port town, most resorted to of any in the Persian dominions, and where the East-India Company had a factory above 100 years. It is situated in 27 degrees 30 minutes north latitude, about 300 miles from Shirauz, is two or three miles round, and stands on a level ground, close to the sea, the narrowest part of the Gulph of Persia, the country almost insensibly rising, every way, for some miles, without any considerable hill, except towards the north. The coast of Arabia lies opposite to it, at about 10 leagues distance; but it does not seem to be further over than from Dover to Calais. Besides the natives, it is inhabited by English, Dutch, Portuguese, Arabs, Jews, Armenians, Banians, and several other nations, of which the Armenians and Banians are much the greatest merchants. It has a wall towards the land; and towards the sea there are three small forts, mounted with five guns each, and a platform of eight. There is also a castle, mounted with 35 guns, for the security of the road. The houses in many of the streets are falling down, the people having the same humour here as in other parts of Persia, to let those of their ancestors drop, and erect new ones for themselves, through a superstitious opinion, that if the person who inhabited a house, was, in their conceit, unlucky; the next inhabitant of the house will be unlucky also.
The best houses are built of stone, brought from the islands of Kishee or Larrak; but they are generally built of brick
, sun-dried. They have sometimes two stories, and a wooden contrivance to strike the wind down into the lower rooms. These machines are about 10 feet high, and look like towers. The houses belonging to the English and Dutch East-India companies, are as well built as any in the town. But the English Factors, are most of them removed to Bossora, at the bottom of the Gulph, in the Turkish territories, which is the last city I shall take any notice of.
Bossora, or Bussora, is situated in latitude 31 degrees 30 minutes north, on the banks of a fresh-water river, which is a branch of the Euphrates. The city is a large one, but indifferently fortified. A mud-wall encircles the town, with mud-bastions and turrets. It had formerly a wet fosse, which is now dried up in many parts; but notwithstanding these disadvantages, it held out upwards of eight months in 1777, when besieged by the Persians. Here is a grand mosque, and a convent of Italian missionaries. Although the Great Desart extends to the walls of the city, the banks of the river, on each side, are very fertile and pleasant. Their fields produce corn, pulse, rice, and several European fruits; and the country round abounds in game.
Having mentioned the principal cities in existence, I will mention one now in ruins; but for its antiquity and grandeur, better worth a description than any we have dwelt on. This is the famous city of Persepolis, where are found the noblest ruins, of an ancient palace or temple, that are now to be seen on the face of the earth. Even Rome itself, they say, is nothing, compared with these venerable remains of antiquity. The place at this day is called
Chilmanar
or forty pillars. It is situated about 50 miles north-east of Shirauz.
It is seated at the foot of a mountain, at the north-east end of that spacious plain, where Persepolis once stood, and generally held to be part of the palace of
Darius,
who was conquered by
Alexander
the Great. It stands on a rising ground; and the adjoining mountains encircle it in form of an amphitheatre. We ascend to the pillars, by a grand flight of steps of blue stone, 104 in number, 30 feet in length, and 20 inches broad, so that a horse may easily go up or down them.
Mr.
Herbert
says, it was built upon a mountain of dark coloured marble, and the steps hewed out of the solid rock; but those who have viewed it more accurately since, observe that the steps are composed of large stones fifteen or sixteen feet long, and of such a thickness that six or seven steps are cut out of one stone; and the whole being so artificially joined, that they appear to be but one piece.
The staircase divides, as you ascend, one flight winding to the right, and the other to the left, having a wall on each side, and a ballustrade on the other. Afterwards both flights, or branches, turn again, and end at a square landing-place, from whence you go into a portico of white marble, 20 feet wide. On it are carved in
basso relievo
two beasts, as large as elephants, but their bodies like horses, with the feet and tails of oxen. Ten feet farther stand two fluted columns of whitish stone, about six feet high, beside their capitals and bases, and as thick as three men can fathom round. A little farther, stand two pillasters, embellished with two sphinxes of an immense size, dressed out with a profusion of bead-work, represented standing. On the sides above are inscriptions of an ancient character, which no one yet hath been able to decypher. Beyond this portal, is another flight of steps, leading to the grand hall of columns, on its sides, or walls, are a variety of figures in
basso relievo,
a kind of triumph, consisting of a great train of people, in distinct companies, some carrying banners, others offerings; after all, comes a car drawn by several horses, with a little altar on it, from whence fire seems to ascend. At the head of the stair-case is another
basso relievo,
representing a lion seizing a bull, cut with great exactness, and close to this, are other inscriptions in ancient characters. On the top of the second staircaise is a square place, which has been surrounded with columns, to which the name of forty pillars has been given. Although a vast number of ages have elapsed since the foundation of this building, fifteen of the colums remain yet entire; they are from seventy to eighty feet in height, and are masterly pieces of masonry; their pedestals are curiously worked, and appear little injured by the hand of Time; the shafts are fluted to the top, and the capitals are adorned with a profusion of frieze-work.
From this hall we proceed eastward, till we arrive at the remains of a large square building, to which we enter through a door of granite. Most of the doors and windows of this apartment are still standing; they are of black marble, and polished like a mirror: on the sides of the entrance are bass-reliefs of two figures at full length, representing a man stabbing a goat: over another door is the representation of two men at full length; behind stands a domestic, holding a spread umbrella. At the south entrance of this room, are two large pillars, on which are cut four figures dressed in long garments, holding in their hands spears ten feet in length. Vast numbers of broken pillars, shafts and capitals are scattered over a considerable extent of ground, some of them of such enormous size, that it is wonderful how they could have been brought whole, and set up together. Indeed, every part of the remains of these noble ruins indicate their former grandeur, truly worthy of being the residence of a great and powerful monarch, and whilst viewing them, the mind becomes impressed with an awful solemnity. When we consider the celebrity of this vast empire, once the patron of the arts and sciences, and the seat of a wise and flourishing government; when we reflect on the various changes and revolutions it has undergone; at one period, a field for the daring ambition of an
Alexander,
at another, for the enthusiasm of an
Omar;
we must feel the strongest conviction of the mutability of all human events. There are the remains of other buildings, reaching up the side of the mountains, equally magnificent and beautiful in their ruins, with human figures cut on the walls, carrying bows and arrows and spears in their hands, all of them with caps in the form of turrets, which was the mode of headdress among the ancient Medes. Sir
John Chardin,
and Mr.
Le Brun,
have given it as their opinion, that this place was the sepulture of the ancient kings of Persia. The modern natives call this place the assembly of king
Gemsheed,
and say, that prince used to visit it, with the nobles and great men of his court, in order to enjoy a delightful view of the adjacent country, of which there cannot be a finer prospect than from hence. In another place, close by, we ascend by a stone staircaise, into a magnificent court of a quadrangular form, several pedestals of pillars, and the remains of two grand portals, all of granite, are still visible, and the cornices of the portals are perfect. On many of the broken pieces of the pillars are ancient inscriptions. In several parts of this palace are stone aqueducts, cut under ground, eight feet deep, and a half broad, made with a design to carry off the water running down from the mountains.
These venerable ruins have suffered much from the ravages of time; but what still remains of them are as hard and durable as the soil they stand on; they are covered with inscriptions, Mr.
Niebur
has given them all in his second volume, most elegantly and accurately copied; but the most learned, and best acquainted with the eastern languages have been baffled in every attempt to make out their meaning. It is one of the most considerable difficulties to solve, when, and by whom, this palace was originally built. The Grecian historians have given very imperfect accounts of it; and the Persians no less so. By the present natives, Mr.
Franklin
says, the place is called
Tukht Gemsheed,
or the throne of King
Gemshed,
who they affirm built it, between three and four thousand years ago. It is related in Grecian history, that
Alexander
the Great, set fire to, and destroyed, the whole city of Persepolis, the noblest and wealthiest city in the world, with this rich and splendid palace, about the year of the world 3724, or 280 years before Christ; instigated to it in a fit of debauchery, by the celebrated courtezan
Thais,
the Athenian, in revenge for the towns the Persian emperor had stroyed in Greece. But this story, says Mr.
Franklin,
though it has the sanction of history, if we reflect on what still remains of these ruins, any one on viewing them would suppose such an event impossible to have taken place. He might have burned the city, but of such a nature are the remains of the palace, that all the fire that could be applied to them, would not make the smallest impression on these huge masses of stone, equal in point of durability and hardness to the solid rock.
It is to be remarked, that in the figures throughout the whole of the palace, the rules of art are not attended to. The muscles of the figures are wanting; yet the drapery is finely done; and the proportions, in general, are well kept up, though the contour is only observed, which gives a sameness to the whole. Sir
John Chardin
says, whoever was the architect, was ignorant of Grecian and of Roman architecture, and supposes the defects I have mentioned, were occasioned by finishing the work in a hurry; but, on the other hand, it is more natural to conceive the work altogether to have been the
ne plus ultra
of those days, as the ornaments of the palace of Shirauz, are in the same stile as these at Persepolis, and as the architecture of the present Persians, is similar to that of ancient times.
The materials of which the ruins consist, are chiefly hard, blue stone; but the doors and windows of the apartments are all of black marble, and so beautiful and highly polished, that we may see our faces in them. One of the principal things worthy admiration, is the immense strength of the foundation. The whole of the palace takes in a circumference of 1400 square yards. The front is 600 paces from north to south, and 390 from east to west. The height of the foundation, in front, is in several parts from 40 to 50 feet, and consists of two immense stones laid together. It is much to be feared that in the course of a few centuries, earthquakes may destroy the columns, and remaining apartments; but, whatever may be their fate, the foundations must endure, until the rock on which it is built shall cease to exist.
CHAP. IV.
Of the People.
PERSIANS
The women about Shirauz have, at all times, been celebrated over those of other parts of Persia, for their beauty, and not without reason. They are tall and well-shaped; but their bright and sparkling eyes is a striking beauty. This, however, is, in a great measure, owing to art; for they rub their eye-brows and eye-lids with the black flower of antimony, which adds an incomparable brilliancy to their natural lustre. As the women in Mahomedan countries are, down to the meanest, covered with a veil from head to foot, a sight is never to be obtained of them in the street; but living, as Mr.
Franklin
did, in the family of a Persian, he had many opportunities of seeing them unveiled. The females, says
Hanway,
who do not labour in the field, are seldom seen abroad, except in a morning, before the sun rises, and then they are covered with veils, which reach to their feet. When they travel on horseback, every lady of distinction is not only veiled, but has generally a servant who runs, or rides, before her to clear the way; and on such occasions the men, even in the market-place, always turn their backs till the women are past, it being deemed the highest ill manners to look at them. The care which they take to conceal their faces, to avoid the imputation of acting indelicately, and contrary to custom; has made so strong an impression on them, that if a woman was accidentally surprized, she would shew her whole person rather than her face.
The dress of the women is simple, differing from the men, rather for the distinction of sexes, than otherwise. They wear neither turbans on the head, nor sashes about their waist, and their coats or vests reach almost down to their heels. They adorn their arms with bracelets, and their heads with jewels of several kinds: one of these is composed of a light, gold chain-work, set with small pearls, with a thin, gold-plate pendant, about the size of a crown-piece, on which is engraved an Arabian prayer; this is fixed to the hair at the upper part of the temple, and hangs upon the cheek, below the ear, or is bound round the arm. They have large ear-rings, and some, bordering on India, wear gold rings set with pearls in their nostrils. The poorer sort wear the same things in baser metal. Their hair hangs in tresses, falling down the back. Their shirts, as well as the men's, are of a thin manufacture of silk and cotton; but these are open at the breast, in the manner of men's shirts in Europe, whilst the men's are supported on the left shoulder by a small button: the women also wear drawers and slippers as the men.
Some girls wear a stiffened cap upon their heads, turned up before like a hunting cap, with a heron's feather in it. Neither men nor women wear gloves, but their fingers are full of rings, as their arms are of bracelets. They wear necklaces of gold or pearl, hanging down on the bosom, with a locket full of perfume.
As black hair, and large, black eyes are most common, so are they most in esteem, and the thickest and broadest eye-brows are thought the finest. The women, if their eye-brows be not black, will, as I have observed, colour them; and are accustomed to paint their faces, and rub their hands and feet with Hannay, a kind of orange-coloured pomatum.
As the cloaths, both of the men and women, are of the richest flowered and brocaded silks, it appears that dress is no inconsiderable article in Persia, particularly as persons of small fortune endeavour to vie with their superiors, and will have fine cloaths, though they want food. Those who wear sables, which they will not be without, if they can purchase them, seldom pay less than an hundred pounds for a close-bodied coat. All this, with the rich trappings of their horses, when they ride, which they do almost every day (if they go but a stone's throw) must amount to a vast sum; and this keeps them poor. However, as there are no where more personable men, finer horses, or richer equipages, the Persians are allowed to make as splendid a figure as any people whatever. Poverty may prey on them at home, but they are loaded with gold and jewels abroad; and as they have always a clear sun-shine and bright heaven, these cast a more than ordinary lustre on their persons; and their finery is set off to the greatest advantage.
In point of dress, the Persians differ remarkably from the Turks; for in Turkey any person who is not a Seiùd, or descendant of the prophet, wearing the least green upon his garments, would most probably be stoned: whereas in Persia, green is the general and favourite colour, even to their shoes. A Turk also thinks himself defiled by the touch of a christian, even on his garments. The Persians, on the contrary, will eat out of the same plate, drink out of the same cup, and smoak out of the same calean.
The Persians, in their dispositions, says Mr.
Franklin,
are much inclined to sudden anger, are quick, fiery, and very sensible of affronts, which they resent on the spot; but they are not vindictive; and yet, if their kindness to their best friends happens to be turned by the fortune of war into enmity, they often become insensible: this seems to be more owing to a custom of cruelty, than a revengeful disposition. On the other hand, there are not many instances of the placable temper which the christian religion so strongly recommends. In theory, however, they are friends to this virtue, and apparently exceed the christians in the duty of resignation. They are of a sedentary turn, and delight in sitting still and musing. I never found any of them, says
Hanway,
walk in their apartments, as the English often do. A Turk being on board an English man of war, enquired very seriously, if the people were troubled with an evil spirit, because, says he, they are never at rest.
The Persians are certainly a brave and courageous people; but their frequent wars have much depraved their ancient urbanity of manners, and introduced a strife peculiar to the lower class of people: when two persons begin fighting, it always raises a great croud, who generally enter into the contest, and the whole presently becomes a scene of tumult and confusion, until the arrival of the Dàroga, or judge of the police, who puts an end to the fray. Hospitality is a part of their religion. On occasions of the least intercourse, men of any distinction invite strangers as well as their friends to their table, and it is remarkable how they pride themselves in other testimonies of respect.
They are naturally inclined to temperance, and, with regard to diet, seem to be more in a state of nature than the Europeans. By way of amusement, they use opiates, but not near so much as the Turks. The following is their mode of living. They always rise at day-break, in order to perform their devotions. Their first prayer is said before sun-rise, after which they breakfast: this consists of grapes, or any other fruits of the season, with a little bread, and cheese made of goats-milk; they then drink a cup of very strong coffee, without milk or sugar; and then the calean, or pipe, is introduced, the smoke of which is contrived to be drawn through a bason of cold water; for the Persians of all ranks smoak tobacco.
Their second time of prayer is repeated when the sun declines from the meridian, soon after which they dine. Their dinner consists of curds, bread, and fruits of various kinds, animal food not being usual at this meal. The third hour of prayer is about four o'clock in the afternoon.
The fourth hour of prayer is after sun-set. When this is finished, the Persians eat their principal meal, or supper. This generally consists of pilau, which is boiled rice, well buttered and seasoned, with a fowl, a piece of mutton, or a kid, served up with it, and sometimes coloured with saffion, or curry; sometimes they eat roast meat. When the meal is ready, a servant brings notice of it, and at the same time brings an ewer and water to wash their hands, which is an invariable custom with them, both before and after eating. They eat very quick, conveying their food to their mouths with their fingers, knives and forks being unknown in Persia, and grease their chins and beards as much as their fingers. Sherbets of different sorts are introduced, and the meal concludes with a desert of delicious fruits. The supper being finished, the family sit in a circle, and entertain each other by relating stories, (of which they are excessively fond,) and also of repeating passages from the works of their most favourite poets, and amusing themselves at various kinds of games; and it is worthy of remark, that when the oldest man in company speaks, though poor, and at the lower-end of the room, he is always attended to. The fifth, or last, prayer is said about an hour after supper.
Mr.
Hanway
supped once with a man of distinction, and describes it as follows: Supper being brought in, a servant presented a bason of water, and a napkin hung over his shoulders. He went to every one in the company, and poured water on their hands to wash. In the court-yard stood a lamp, which was supplied with tallow, and in the middle of the room, upon the floor, was one large wax candle, which they snuffed with scissars into a tea-cup of water. A large salver; in form of a tea-board, was set for every person, covered with a plate of Pilau, in which was a small quantity of mince-meat, mixed up with fruit and spices. There were also plates of comfits, several china basons of sherbets, as sweet, sour, and other waters, with cakes of rice, and others of wheat-flour, on which were sprinkled the seeds of poppies, and others of the like nature. As they esteem it an abomination to cut either bread, or any kind of meat after it is dressed, these cakes are made thin, that they may be easily broken with the hand, and their meat, which is generally mutton or fowls, is so prepared that they divide it with their fingers. Pork is never eaten here, nor veal, and beef but seldom; nor do they eat hares, or other animals forbidden by the Jews. They use no beaten pepper, only whole pepper. They never salt their meat, nor is salt ever brought to table. They dress their meat and fowls the day they are killed, and put by nothing to be cold. They sit down on the floor, cross-legged, at their meals, and a cloth is spread on the carpet. In common families, the person who has the provision before him, distributes it to the company. They use no spoons, except for soups or liquid, and take up their rice by handfuls, as do the people in India. They wash their hands, before and after meals, and wipe them in their handkerchiefs. Common people at Ispahan, seldom dress their food at home, but when they have shut up their shops, go to an eating-house, and buy Pilau for their families. It is remarked of the Persians, that so far from shutting their doors at meal-times, they invite all to eat, that come to their houses at that time, remembering to this day the hospitality of
Abraham,
and observing, that, had he not been of a hospitable disposition, he, probably, had missed the honour of entertaining three angels: every man may retire from an entertainment, without ceremony, and what they leave, of meats, is always given to the poor.
When a person makes an entertainment, it is usually a supper; notwithstanding which the guests generally come at 9 or 10 in the morning and spend the whole day. They discourse, they smoak, eat sweat-meats, and pass away the time, in a thousand amusements. Sometimes they hear heroic poems, in honour of their prince. Sometimes singing-women are introduced, who sing, dance, and play, and shew a number of antic tricks, to divert the company, and if any of the guests are disposed to withdraw with any of these dancing girls, they are shewn into a private room, and when they return, no one takes any notice of it. Wine they have none, but their usual drink is sherbets and water, cooled in summer-time with ice. The officers of the army will indulge with wine, and other persons drink under a pretence of doing it for their health, but the chief of what is here made, is transported to neighbouring countries, or drank by christians in Persia. But they raise their spirits with opium. Mankind seem generally to confess that they cannot sustain the cares and inquietudes of life, without some such expedient. What is tobacco but an opiate? It is not the smell or taste we are enamoured with, but it lulls men into pleasing thoughts. Within an hour after they have taken a pill of opium, it begins to operate; and a thousand pleasant scenes present themselves to their imagination, they laugh, they sing, and say abundance of droll things, like men intoxicated with wine; but when the effect of it is gone off, they find their spirits exhausted, and grow pensive and melancholy, till they repeat the dose; and the longer they have been used to it, the greater proportion they must take to answer the purpose, so that some take as much at one time as would destroy half a dozen Europeans. A decoction of poppy-seed is sold also in most cities in Persia, and in these houses we shall see people eating and talking as ridiculously as men do when they are drunk. If there is any reason in the prohibition of wine, it is to prevent people playing the fool, and injuring their health, which is as effectually done by opium as by wine.
In their conversation, the Persians aim much at elegance, and are perpetually repeating verses and passages from the works of their most favourite poets,
Hafiz, Sàdi,
and
Jàmi,
a practice universal from the highest to the lowest; for those who have not the advantages of education, make shift thus to bear their part in conversation, by remembering what they hear. They delight also in jokes and quaint expressions, and are fond of playing upon each other, which they sometimes do with great elegance and irony. There is one thing much to be admired in their conversations, which is the strict attention they pay to the person speaking, whom they never interrupt on any account.
They are so accustomed in their common discourse to use extravagant and hyperbolical compliments, on the most trifling occasions, that it would, at first, inspire a stranger with an idea, that every inhabitant of the place was willing to lay down his life, shed his blood, or spend his money, in his service; and this mode of address (which in fact means nothing) is practised not only among the genteel people, but even among the meanest artificers. Freedom of conversation is a thing totally unknown here; as, that walls have ears, is proverbially in the mouth of every one. The fear of chains, which bind their bodies, has also enslaved their minds; and their address to men of superior rank to themselves, is marked with signs of the most abject and slavish submission, while, on the contrary, as all men of this stamp are, they are as haughty and overbearing to their inferiors.
The Persians, with respect to outward behaviour, are certainly the Parisians of the east. Whilst a rude and insolent demeanor marks the character of the Turkish nation towards foreigners and christians, the behaviour of the Persians would, on the contrary, do honour to the most civilized nations. They are kind, courteous, civil, and obliging, to all strangers, without being guided by those religious prejudices so prevalent in every other mahomedan country. They are fond of enquiring after the manners and customs of Europe, and, in return, very readily afford any information in respect to their own country. Hospitality is, with them, so great a virtue, that a man thinks himself highly honoured, if you will enter his house, and partake of what it affords; whereas, going out of a house, without smoking a calean, or taking some refreshment, is a high affront. They say, that every meal a stranger partakes with them brings a blessing on the house.
The ancient Persians are recorded to have taught their children a most exact reverence for truth; but the present generation are as notorious for falsehood; they poison with a sweet-meat, in always saying what is pleasing, whether it be true or not.
Franklin
says, they are the greatest liars in the world, practising the most improbable falsities with the gravest air imaginable, and so far from being abashed by a detection, they always endeavour to turn it off with a laugh; and even confess themselves, that they think there is no harm in telling a lie, provided it turns out of any benefit to themselves; and they will always, in every business they are engaged in, first endeavour to bring it about by lying and knavery; which if unsuccessful in, (those with whom they have to deal being fully as expert as themselves,) they will then conclude the bargain with truth and honesty; but either way to them is equally indifferent. In their dispositions, they are chearful, but rather inclined to seriousness than loud mirth.
They are very eager to gain money, and are lavish in expending it. When they have furnished themselves with an equipage, a house, and gardens, agreeable to their wishes, they will, rather than lay by their money, lay it out in building caravanseras, mosques, and on other public occasions, insomuch that travellers observe, that there are no people in the world that take less thought for the morrow. A man to whom a fortune of 10,000
l.
shall fall, will in a few months lay it out in purchasing wives and slaves, cloaths and furniture, without considering where he is to get more, and in two or three months after this, will dispose of what he has bought, for present subsistence. This
Chardin
assures us, he has seen in a thousand instances.
Another charge against the Persians is, that they are much addicted to women, and the reason alledged is, that they have several wives and concubines; but whether any other people would not have as many, if their laws permitted them, is a question, especially if they were taught, as the mahomedans are, that the enjoyment of women will constitute a great part of their happiness in the next world, as well as in this. Surely those nations may, with more reason, be charged with lasciviousness, who break through all restraints both civil and religious, and fly at the whole sex, even the wives and daughters of their most intimate friends and acquaintance. But if it be true that the Persians admire boys, and that every great man has his
Ganymede,
it is a crime, they are justly to be detested for. This, however, seems to intimate that they have less respect for the fair sex than they ought, and contradicts the former charge.
The notion which the Persians have imbibed concerning the female world, prevents their being involved in the distresses of love, such as losing their senses for the sake of a woman, though they are betrayed into many improprieties of conduct on this account. Jealousy, which generally prevails in the warmest climates, is not unknown to the heart of a Persian; the nearer approach to the sun may affect mahomedans as well as christians; but as, in the politer countries of Christendom, women are generally considered on an equality with men, and, in Persia, as much inferior to them, there must, consequently, among christians, be a greater regard to conjugal love. The difference in religion, as well as in the customs and manners of countries, will hardly admit a comparison; but as jealousy sometimes occasions the infidelity of women in Europe, it is always a safeguard to them in Asia, where they are never constituted the guardians of their own honour.
We find custom has a great influence on the manners of mankind in all countries. In France, there is a more liberal indulgence to women than in England; and yet, contrary to this rule, it is beyond dispute, that English wives greatly exceed the French in chastity. This I take to be owing to the natural gaiety of the French, which puts them more off their guard, whereas a more serious turn of mind creates an awe, and keeps the enemy at a distance. On the other hand, in Portugal, and other countries in the south of Europe, where jealousy most abounds, and where the least confidence is reposed in women, there is the most incontinence; so that it is hard to say, whether jealousy has tended most to this immorality, or this immorality established jealousy as a kind of natural vice.
In short, whether it is from jealousy, or what other cause, there is no part of the world where the women are so strictly guarded as in Persia. Even in the Indies and Turkey, neighbouring kingdoms, they live in freedom in comparison with these. For though a husband should have the greatest indifference for his wife, yet the reflection a wife's imprudent conduct casts upon her husband, is more than he is able to bear; and as a woman is here considered as polluted, if she suffers a man to cast but an eye upon her; and both her and her husband's honour is lost by her appearing in public, it is no wonder their apartments are so strictly guarded. If this furious love and jealousy, was the consequence of the climate, it would at all times have been the same; but we find, in the days of the patriarch
Abraham,
who lived on the confines of this country, the women enjoyed as great a liberty as with us, or
Sarah's
beauty would not have brought her husband's life in danger. We find also
Ahasuerus,
king of this very country, left
Haman
in the room with his beloved queen, whilst he retired to his garden; and
Esther
made entertainment for the great lords of the court, and was there in person; which sufficiently shews that they allowed the ladies as great liberties in Persia, in those days, as in any part of Europe at present.
The Persians give this reason, among others, for shutting up their women, that their prophet was heard to say, in his last moments, whilst dying,
Take care of your religion, and your wives.
And great care they take of them indeed, for their Harams are not inclosed with a single wall, but frequently have two or three, and these of an extraordinary height, The men are taught also, as they value their salvation and the glory of God, never to cast an eye on their neighbour's women, or even the places where they are kept; and if they should meet the camels that carry them in the streets or on the road, though they are shut up so close that it is impossible to see them, yet the men turn aside their faces as they pass by, or go out of the way. And the women are taught, that their honour and virtue does not consist in preserving their chastity only, but in preventing their being seen, or seeing any man but their lord; and they are accordingly prohibited from conversing with their brothers or nearest male relations. We are speaking now of the women kept in the Harams of great men, so great a particularity not being always preserved with other women.
As the Persians hold, that women were made only for their pleasure, and for the continuance of the species, and that there is no manner of occasion for them in the management of the affairs of the world, as in business of any kind whatever, they suffer them to pass their lives in idleness and luxury. Accordingly we see them, almost all the day, lolling on carpets, with their little slaves rubbing and chafing them, which is the common amusement in the east. Sometimes they take opium, or smoke their country tobacco, which is so mild, that it may be taken from morning till night, without disturbing their heads. Their food is dressed by their slaves, and their cloaths also made and washed by them, so that they have nothing to do but to indulge themselves, and please their tyrants.
The women of the Haram are attended chiefly by eunuchs, and there are a vast number of them dispersed throughout the whole kingdom of Persia, especially in the king's palaces, and those of the quality, where they have almost every thing of value entrusted to their care; and, in a manner, govern the affairs of their masters. The women never stir abroad without them, either on a visit, or even to the bath: but they are not permitted to interrupt their privacy in their chambers.
The eunuchs also teach the children of the family to read and write, and instruct them in the principles of their religion, till it is thought fit to put them into the hands of the learned; and even then they have the care of the young gentlemen, not suffering them to be at any time out of their sight; and as to the king's children, who never stir out of the Haram till they come to the throne, they have no other masters. Some few of these eunuchs, are versed in the liberal and mechanic arts; and it is happy where the prince who succeeds falls into the hands of such a one; for, otherwise, he comes to the throne a meer novice.
Eunuchs are generally cut between seven and ten years of age; if not done till they are fifteen, not one in four would survive the operation. An eunuch between eight and sixteen years of age is sold, in Persia, for 100
l.
English money, at least, and sometimes for 200
l.
according to their capacities. People chuse to buy them, in order to train them up to their wishes, which done, they seldom change their masters whilst they live. Not having any friends or relations which they know, their sole dependence is on their lord, and they make it their whole business to please him, and generally manage matters so as to obtain the government of the family. They are brought from the coast of Malabar. Few persons have any white eunuchs, except the king, who has seldom less, of one sort or other, than three or four thousand. Men of the first rank have usually half a dozen in their houses; those of inferior quality two or three. As these unhappy men are not taken up with amorous pursuits, and can have no views to the raising of families of their own, they are generally very diligent in their respective employments, and faithful to their masters.
CHAP. V.
Of their Customs, &c.
THE usual salute, in this country, is bowing the body a little, and clapping the right hand to the breast; but men never stir their cap or their turban. Those who are more familiar, press the palm of your hand, between both theirs, and then raise them to their forehead, to express the high and cordial respect they have for you. Before the king, the viceroys of provinces, and other great men, they bow their faces three times to the ground, as they approach them. As to Europeans, if they are not clothed in the Persian dress, they expect them to take off their hats, and to be treated with the same marks of respect, as are shewn to men of quality in their own country. The awful manner in which the Persians treat their superiors in rank, scarce having any voice or opinion whilst in their presence, is a specimen of the genuine growth of arbitrary power, and a despotic invasion of the common sense, as well as the common liberty, of mankind.
Upon any occasion of mourning, or rejoicing, the Persians never fail to visit each other; and people of condition always expect the compliments of their dependants on such occasions. They are introduced into a large hall, where coffee and tobacco is set before them, and with which they refresh themselves, till the great man appears. As soon as they see him, every man rises up, and stands in his place. Having bowed to them, as he passes by, every one bows much, lower to him again; and after he has taken his seat, he makes a sign to the company to sit. If the master of the house be already in his hall, the visitor comes in softly, and, stepping to the next vacant place, stands gravely with his feet close together and his hands across, till the master of the house makes a sign to him to sit down. If a person receives a visit from a superior, he acts different from the English custom, in placing him on the right hand, it being a mark of respect, in Persia, to place a person on the left hand.
The Persians are not much addicted to gaming, indeed most of the scrupulous ones, consider all games of chance to be unlawful; but there are those who play at cards, dice, tables, chess, and other games, not in use among us. The King, and persons of rank, divert themselves sometimes with the fights of wild beasts as in India, and the common people are amused, at times, with tumblers, rope-dancers, and jugglers, as with us. They have, also, martial and rural amusements. The former I will speak of by and by, the latter consists in hunting and coursing.
Their greyhounds are something like our Irish greyhounds, but the stags and antelopes they course are so swift of foot, that the dogs cannot come up with them, without the assistance of hawks, of which, they have various kinds brought from Circassia, Muscovy, and the northern parts of the empire. These hawks are taught not only to fly at partridges, quails, rabbits, hares, &c. but even at deer, and wild beasts; and to train them up to this, they stuff the skin of these animals, fasten a piece of flesh on the head of it, with which they feed the hawk, drawing the stuffed skin along upon wheels, to use them to fix themselves on the head whilst it moves. When they have used the young hawk to this for some time, they carry him to the sport with some old staunch hawk that is used to the game. The dogs being let loose, the hawks are soon after thrown off, who pursue the deer, fastening on its nose, striking their talons into the flesh, and keep beating their wings about his head, so that he cannot see his way, and thus gives the dogs an opportunity to come up with him. The gentlemen usually carry a little kettle-drum at their saddle-bow, to call off their hawks. Some of them, it is said, have formerly been taught to fly at men.
Chardin
tells us, that the governor of Tauris, whom he was particularly acquainted with, used to divert himself with this sport, sometimes not sparing even his friends; that one day he let his hawks fly at a gentleman, and they tore his face and eyes in that manner, that he died of it, which the King being made acquainted with, resented it so far, that he turned him out of office.
When the King, or the great
Omrahs
or lords go a hunting, the country people, for ten or fifteen leagues round, are ordered to drive all the wild beasts, and game, into a certain place surrounded with strong nets or fences, and, when thus inclosed, every one of the company shoots at which he pleases, and a horrible slaughter is made of them. Many hundreds are often killed at one of these hunting matches, but they usually wait till the men of the greatest rank in the field come up, and discharges an arrow, after which every one shoots as fast as he can, there being a strange medley of deer, antelopes, wild hogs, wolves, foxes, hares, &c. all driven in a crowd together. As for hounds, and hunting by scent, they know nothing of it; indeed their country seems too dry for this kind of sport, even had they proper dogs. They frequently, however, train up panthers and leopards to hunt the game, or rather to surprize it, for these animals creep from one cover to another, 'till they can jump upon their prey, as a cat does on a mouse, but never run after it in a continued course.
About Astrab
d, the peasants support themselves by catching wild ducks. They go in boats on the Caspian, during the night near the marshy banks, which are covered with rushes, and carry great lights on the stern; then ringing a number of small bells, the birds are confounded, and fly to their very hands.
Music seems to be no part of their genius. Both singing and dancing are considered, in Persia, as disgraceful. People of condition will not suffer their children to learn either the one or the other; but it is left, almost entirely, as it is all over the east, to common wenches and prostitutes. It is reckoned an indecency, in people of any reputation, to sing, and would render a man contemptible, who should attempt it in company. They call their singing-women
Caine,
intimating that they derive their skill from the daughters of
Cain,
who, they pretend, were the first inventors of singing and music in the east. They sing and play by rule, though they make but poor harmony, at least such as is pleasing to an European ear, yet they are much delighted with our music. There is no such thing as singing in parts, but sing one after another, and generally to some strung instrument, as the lute, or the viol. Their men sing better than the women, but there are not many of them that practise it, music being prohibited by their religion. Their ecclesiastics and devotees will not so much as be present at such entertainments, which is one reason that the science is not arrived at a greater perfection there. They have a great number of instruments both of strung and wind music, some in shape like our hautboys, and flutes, others, like the viol, harp, virginals, kettle-drum, and trumpet. But the strings of their instruments are not made of gut, touching any thing belonging to a dead animal, especially the entrails, being held a pollution; the strings, therefore, are made of twisted silk or brass-wire.
Their trumpet is the most monstrous instrument for size and sound that can be met with; it is commonly seven or eight feet long and proportionably wide at the great end, and as much as a man can hold up. These, and their drums, in a manner drown all other sounds, and, indeed, their music, as it is called, serves chiefly, instead of clocks, to let people know the time of day or night, sounding constantly at certain hours. Bells they have none, and when the King, or any great man, goes out of his palace, notice is always given of it by the sound of drums and trumpets, placed over the palace-gates, or in some balcony, or gallery; and their noise is so great, that it may be heard at a vast distance. In some places, music and dancing girls make part of a great man's equipage, and run before him when he goes abroad; but, in general, the performers are a ragged, strolling rabble, and, except some of the King's, are scarce worth hearing. However, on any festival, as the circumcising of a child, or other joyful occasion, they come and play before people's doors, and usually have something given them for their pains.
Hanway
says, that the King's secretary invited him at Amul, (where there is a palace, and which city is said to have been founded upwards of 4000 years,) to hear his music, of which, one instrument resembled a flute, another a kettle-drum, and a third a guitar, to which an old man and two boys sung and danced. The boys moved their heads, legs, and arms, whilst singing, in a very extravagant manner. A priest was next sent for, remarkable for being a good singer; and this man, raised his voice to a degree of amazement, his quavers were mixed with a very harsh guttural sound, and the distortions of his visage such as created rather horror than delight.
I will take the opportunity here, of saying something of their mode of travelling. There are no wheel-carriages in this country, but all persons travel on camels, horses, mules, or asses. The women, who are to be concealed as much as possible, are put into a square wooden machine, a kind of covered chair, called
Kedgavay,
about three feet deep, and just high enough for a person to sit down in. Over head are three or four hoops, like those which support the tilt of a waggon, with a cloth thrown over them. These are hung over the back of a camel like a pair of paniers. Their asses are much larger and swifter of foot than ours, and will trot ten miles at a pretty good rate, but are very obstinate and unlucky, and frequently throw their riders. But if travellers have any great distance to go, they perform their journey with caravans, or
Cafilas,
as they are called in Persia. A Cafila is composed of camels, horses, and mules, the whole of which are under the direction of a
Cheharwa Dàr,
or master. It is to him the price of a mule or camel is paid, and he stipulates with the traveller to feed and take care of the beast during the journey. He has, under him, several inferior servants, who help to unload the beasts of burden, water them, and attend them. Whilst on the journeys, the Cafila keeps as close as possible, and, on its arrival at
Munzil Gah,
or place of encampment for the day, each load is deposited on a particular spot, marked out by the master, to which the merchant who owns the goods repairs. His luggage forms a crescent; in the centre are placed the bedding and provisions, a rope, or line made of hair, is then drawn round the whole, at the distance of about three yards each way, which serves to distinguish the separate encampments. During the night, the beasts are all brought to their stations, opposite to the goods they are to carry in the morning, and are made fast to the hair-rope above mentioned. At the hour of moving, which is generally between three and four in the morning, they load the mules and camels; and the passengers are awakened by the jingling of the bells tied round the necks of the beasts, in order to prevent their straggling during their march. When all things are ready, the master orders those nearest the road to advance, and the whole moves off in regular succession. Where there are caravanseras, travellers find their lodging gratis, and can there purchase provisions at the best hand.
Though the roads, in this country, are steep and mountainous, yet such care is taken in laying bridges and causeways, and to level and open the ways, that a traveller seldom meets with any difficulties, but what are easily surmounted.
Here are no general posts, but if any person has letters to send, he dispatches a
Shater
or footman express, who will travel a thousand miles in 18 or 20 days, and not ask more than 20
d.
or 2
s.
a day English. They carry with them a bottle of water, and a little bag of provision, and this serves them for thirty or forty hours. They generally leave the high road, and cross the country the nearest way. There are families which make this their only employment, and breed their children up to it, practising them to run from their infancy.
The king, and all the great men, have several of these shaters, or running-footmen in their retinue; but before a man can be admitted one of the king's footmen, he must give sufficient proof that he wants neither heels nor breath, for he must run from the great gate of the palace, to a place a league and a half from the city, twelve times in one day, and each time bring an arrow, which is delivered him by those who stand at the end of the race, to shew he has run the whole course; and this he performs between the rising and setting of the sun, being no less than a hundred and eight miles. It is always some favourite servant of the king's who is admitted to this honour. On the day of trial, the elephants and horsemen are drawn up in the royal square, with drums and trumpets sounding, as if it were some festival. The great men give presents to the shater, and some ride the course with him, to ingratiate themselves with the prince, and the mob hail him every time he returns with shouts and acclamations. The chams and viceroys, who admit of a shater into their service, make him run the same number of miles, and they are caressed and presented by all their dependants in the same manner the king's shaters are, though not so largely; for it is usual for the shater to receive a thousand pounds on such an occasion.
CHAP. VI.
Of their Marriages, Births, Funerals, &c.
AS the women are never to be seen in Persia, a man is obliged to be contented with such an account of his mistress's beauty and accomplishments as he receives from others. They are allowed four legal wives, with whom they may enter into formal contracts before the civil magistrate (who is also an ecclesiastic); but they are generally contented with one, and she seems to be taken on political views, on account of the distinction or interest of her family, or to serve as a governess or mistress to the rest of the women who wait upon her, and rank only as concubines, notwithstanding they have the honour of their master's bed and their issue are equally legitimate; for there is no such thing as a bastard in Persia. Those born before, and those after marriage, have the same privileges; nor is it any disavantage to a son, in regard to his inheritance, to be born of a concubine, or even of a black slave.
Love is the least motive for entering into a contract with a lawful wife, as she is called, especially among the great, nor does she expect much of it; but it is the number of slaves, the cloaths, the equipage, and figure the man makes in the world, which are the great inducements for a woman, or her friends, to ally herself to any family. If the wife is so unfortunate as to be in love with her husband, she is usually very unhappy; for she will frequently have the mortification of seeing him leave her bed for that of a slave, and perhaps for a common strumpet, and, in return for her passion, may possibly be presented with the venereal disease; and if she shews any resentment, will probably see another wife introduced into the house, to govern in her stead. For if a man should be discontented with his wife, after marriage, (which is sometimes the case here as in other countries,) he is at liberty to divorce her; a man being always, by the mahomedan law, enabled to put away his wife at discretion. This is performed by giving her every thing he had previous to the marriage, (which after her death goes to her children, if she has any,) and by re-demanding the contract of his wife's relations. The ceremony of divorce is called by the Persians
Telaàk.
If again, after the divorce, the husband should be inclined to take his wife back, he is at liberty so to do, and this for three times successively; and when it so happens, the contract must be renewed each time; but, after the third time, he is expressly forbidden to re-marry the same woman; but it seldom happens that a man who is divorced from his wife, is inclined to take her back again; those who do so, being in little estimation with their neighbours: and with respect to the number of wives a man has, that person is most esteemed who attaches himself to one.
Contracts of marriage in Persia, as well as in many other places in the east, are often made between families at a very early period; and although consummation does not take place till many years after, yet the woman contracted cannot divorce herself, or be absolved from the contract, unless with the consent of her betrothed husband, except on forfeiture of a considerable sum of money, the same also binding on the part of the man.
The usual suggestions for a woman to obtain a divorce are, that her husband is impotent, or spends too much of his time with his female slaves and concubines, and does not pay her attention sufficient; in either of which cases the magistrate will grant a divorce, and both parties are at liberty to marry elsewhere.
A widow is obliged to wait four months after the death of her husband, before she is permitted by law to marry again; but the concubine of a person deceased, may go to another as soon as she pleases.
When the parents of a young man have determined upon marrying him, they look out amongst their kindred and acquaintances for a suitable match; having succeeded, the young man's father, mother, or sister, assemble a company of their friends, and go to the young woman's house, and propose the match. If her father approves the proposals, as a token of compliance, he orders sweet-meats to be brought in, and the company at that time take their leave. Some days after, the females of the man's family assemble at the house of the intended bride, when the terms of marriage are settled, and the customary presents on the part of the bridegroom promised. These, if the person be in middling circumstances, generally consist of two complete suits of apparel of the best kind, a ring, a looking-glass a small sum of money, about ten or twelve tomans, which sum is called
Mehr a Kawèèn,
or the marriage-portion, it being given for the express purpose of providing for the wife, in case of a divorce. There is also provided a quantity of household furniture of all sorts, as carpets, matts, bedding, kitchen-utensils, &c. After this, a writing or contract is drawn up, in the presence of and witnessed by, the
cadi
or magistrate, or, in his absence, by an
akhund
or priest, which is signed and sealed, and deposited in the hands of the bride's father. This ceremony being finished, the marriage, by the mahomedan law, is deemed perfect. But, prior to the contract, the person of the man is examined by the parents or friends of the woman, and that of the woman by the mother or other relations of the man. Nothing now remains, but to celebrate the wedding, which generally takes place the second or third day after signing the contract. The night before the wedding, the friends and relations of the bride assemble at her house, attended by music, dancing girls, and other signs of festivity. This night is distinguished by the appellation of
Sheb Hinna Bundee,
or the night on which the hands and feet of the bride are stained with the herb of hinna, well known all over the East. Previous to the ceremony, a large quantity of this herb is sent by the bridegroom to the house of the bride, and, on the day of staining, she is first conveyed to the bath, where, having bathed, she is brought back to her own house, and her hands and feet are stained with hinna, and her eye-brows and forehead painted with the antimony powder called
Surma.
This being finished, the remains of the herb are sent back to the bridegroom, where the like operation is performed upon him by her friends. The wedding night being come, the friends of both parties, men and women, assemble at the house of the bride in order to convey her to her husband. They are attended with all sorts of music, singers, and dancing girls, and all are dressed in their smartest apparel, each of the women having on a veil of red silk. The presents which the bridegroom has made are all put into trays' covered with red silk, and carried on men's shoulders. After waiting at the door for some time, the bride is brought forth, covered from head to foot in a veil of red silk or painted muslin; a horse is then presented for her to mount, sent by the bridegroom; and, when mounted, a large looking-glass, is held before her by one of the bridemaids all the way to the house of her husband, as an admonition, that it is the last time she will look into a glass as a virgin, being now about to enter into the cares of the married state. The procession then sets forward in the following order: First, the music and dancing girls; next, the presents on men's shoulders; then follow the relations and friends of the bridegroom, all shouting and making a great noise; next to these comes the bride, surrounded by all her female friends and relations, one of whom leads the horse by the bridle. Being arrived at the house of her husband, they are met at the door by his father and mother, and from thence conducted up stairs. The bride then enters the room, and the bridegroom, who is at the upper end, makes a low obeisance and then advances, takes her in his arms and embraces her; soon after they retire to a private chamber, and, on their return to the company, it causes great rejoicing. All then sit down to supper in separate apartments, the men eating with the bridegroom in one room, and the women with the bride in another. The supper is prolonged to a late hour in the night, with cheerfulness and festive mirth; and the rejoicings continue eight or ten days.
The Armenians, who were originally of the Greek church, though now differing a little from it, are subjects of Persia, marry their children usually in their infancy, to prevent their being carried into the harams of the great men; for either the Persians are so just, as not to take any man's wife from him, or too nice to take women who have been in the possession of another. But, though the parties are frequently contracted at four or five years of age, the marriage is seldom celebrated till they are eight or ten, and the bridegroom every year at Easter sends the bride a fine vest suitable to her rank; that is, the parents transact all these matters among themselves, the consent of the young people being asked only for form sake when they are brought to church.
On the day of marriage, the bridegroom being richly dressed, mounts his horse, and, attended by his nearest relations, comes to the house of the bride's father, when she also gets on horseback, being dressed in the finest silks, but covered with a veil, and accompanied by her friends and relations, with lighted torches in their hands, proceeds to the church. Being alighted from their horses, the bride and bridegroom go up to the altar, where, standing pretty close together, face to face, the bishop resting his book upon their heads, reads the service, and, having received their consent, gives them his blessing, whereupon the drums and trumpets sound, the music plays, and they return to the bridegroom's house in the same order as they came, unless they hear mass, and receive the sacrament, as they frequently do on these occasions; for then the bride is carried back to her father's house, and the wedding is not consummated till some days after. The guests are splendidly entertained on these occasions as in other countries, only that the men and women eat and drink in separate rooms. In the evening, the bride and bridegroom are conducted to the nuptial chamber, and the company retire after a profusion of rose-water being thrown about, and a thousand wishes for the happiness of the new-married couple.
Some days after the wedding, the bridal portion is sent to the husband's house, consisting of fine cloaths, gold, silver, and jewels, according to the rank of the parties; some choice fruits and sweet-meats are usually added, all carried in fine boxes and cabinets, attended by such music as the country affords.
There is still another people in Persia, who go under the name of christians, but whose religion seems to be composed of christianity, judaism, and mahomedanism. They are called christians of St. John, and inhabit near the gulph of Persia, in the province of Chusistan, where it is computed there are not less than 20,000 families of them. Their marriages, if travellers do not impose upon us, have something very particular in them; but as all who speak of this people agree in their accounts, I will venture to give the relation as I find it. It seems, the priests and relations of the bridegroom go, in the first place, and demand of the bride whether she be a virgin. If she answers Yes, they make her swear to it; and not contented with this, she undergoes an examination by the priest's wife. Afterwards the bride and bridegroom are brought to a river, where the priest baptizes them; then the bridegroom leads the bride home to his house, where, being seated close together, the priest reads a long service upon the occasion. He next takes a book of divination, and casts lots to discover the happy hour for consummation. The bridegroom having bedded his spouse, goes with her to the bishop, acknowledges that he is satisfied of his wife's virtue, and the bishop, in consequence, performs the remainder of the marriage ceremony, putting rings on their fingers, and baptizing them again. But if the husband will not vouch for the honour and virtue of his wife, the bishop will have no concern in the celebration of the marriage, but leaves it to an inferior priest, and the woman loses her reputation.
At the naming of children, among the Persians, the following ceremony is observed. The third birth-day after the child is born, the friends of the lying-in woman assemble at her house, attended by
and dancing girls hired for the occasion. After playing and dancing some time a mullah or priest is introduced, who, taking the child in his arms, demands of the mother what name she chuses the infant should be called by: being told, he begins praying; and, after a short
, w
pers in the child's ears, telling it distinctly three times, and calling it by its name, to remember and be obedient to its father and mother, to venerate the Koran and the prophet, to abstain from those things that are unlawful, and practise those things which are good and virtuous. Having repeated the mahomedan profession of faith, he re-delivers the child to its mother: after which the company are entertained with sweet-meats and refreshments, a part of which the females carry away with them in their pockets, firmly believing it will be the means of their having children themselves.
The ceremony of the
Sunnut,
or circumcision, is generally performed within 40 days from the birth of the child, as being the safest time; but it is unlawful if not performed before the boy is fourteen years old. The operation is performed by a barber with a razor, there being no surgeons in Persia, after the Jewish ritual, and in the manner practised by the mussulmen in India; and at such times the parents of the child invite their friends to an entertainment, Sir
John Chardin
says, that in some parts of Persia they circumcise old women. With great men this ceremony is uncommonly splendid. Mr.
Franklin
tells us, he was an eye-witness of the rejoicings made by the inhabitants of Shirauz, in honour of the King of Persia's son, who was circumcised on the 27th of April, 1787.
On the 20th, great preparations having previously been made, the bazars, or covered market-places, were splendidly illuminated, particularly the grand bazar, which was adorned throughout with lustres of party-coloured lamps, suspended from the roof about half way down. The shops of the merchants, on each side, were dressed out in great finery, with silver paper, rich hangings, &c. the walls on each side, to a considerable height covered with tapestry, looking-glasses and many paintings, done in the Persian style, most of them representing the ancient kings of Persia and India, in the different dresses of their respective countries, as well as designs taken from their admired poets. Bands of music and dancing women, were constantly performing night and day, throughout the different bazars, on scaffoldings erected for that purpose; and the whole was a scene of festivity for seven days and as many nights. Among several ingenious things observable on this occasion, the sight presented at the arsenal was most worthy of notice. In the center of this building, the armourers had suspended in the air a brass-mortar of 800
lb.
by some hidden means, as nothing appeared to support it either above or below, the only visible thing being a number of coloured bottles sticking to it, as if to keep it buoyant in the atmosphere. I was told, however, says Mr.
Franklin,
that it was effected by means of a wire passed from the roof of the place to the mouth of the mortar, but not being visible to the spectators, it gave it a very ingenious effect. The decorations on this occasion cost the shop-keepers and tradesmen considerable sums; as, besides the illumination, they were obliged to make a handsome
pieshcush,
or present, to the King and his son, who also, on this occasion, gave a grand entertainment in the citadel, to which the principle men in the city were invited; and the whole was concluded by a magnificent display of fire-works.
The funerals of the Persians are conducted in a similar manner to those in other mahomedan countries. On the death of a mussulman, the relations and friends of the deceased, being assembled, make loud lamentations over the corpse. They are generally interred the evening of the day on which they die. They are always washed before they are buried. For this purpose there are reservoirs; but the poorer sort are commonly taken to the nearest pond. Being washed, the body is wound up in a cotton cloth, on which are stamped several passages of the Koran, and it is thus carried to a place of interment, attended by some of the relations of the deceased, and a priest, singing some parts of the Koran, all the way to the grave. Should any mussulman chance to meet the corpse during the procession, he is obliged, by the precepts of his religion, to run up to the bier, and offer his assistance to carry it, crying out, at the same time,
Làh illah ill Lìllah!
that is, "there is no God but God." After the interment, the relations of the deceased return home, and the women of the family make a mixture of wheat, honey, and spices, which they eat in memory of the deceased, sending a part of it to their friends and acquaintance, that they also may pay him a like honour. This custom seems to be derived from very great antiquity; for we read in
Homer,
of sacrifices and libations being frequently made to the memory of departed souls.
CHAP. VII.
Of their Trade and Manufactures.
MANUFACTURES and trade are, at present, greatly decayed in Persia, owing to the long civil wars; but, as the Persians are very ingenious, industrious, and of quick capacities, there is little doubt, but if a regular and permanent government was once again to be established, they would flourish as other nations do. They work in fillagree and ivory remarkably well, and are good turners. At Shirauz, they have a glass manufactory, where they cast great quantities, and convey it to all parts of Persia. They have neither iron, brass, nor pewter, in their kitchen-furniture; most of their utensils, being copper, tinned, and their braziers and tin-men are good workmen.
Kom is remarkable for excellent sword-blades, and their armourers damask them, as well as any European. Their fire-arms are but ill contrived; and the locks are made by Europeans, the Persians not having ingenuity sufficient to make these, any more than clocks, and watches, which they purchase from other countries; but all sorts of cutlery goods, they are expert in. The art of making looking-glasses they do not understand, but use little convex steel mirrors, which, owing to the dryness of the air, seldom rust or grow dull. As the use of the bow, is what they value themselves much upon, no country produces better. They are made of wood and horn, bound round with sinews, and painted as fine as possible. The bowstring is made of twisted silk, the size of a goose-quill, and their quivers are leather, worked with silk or embroidered.
Embroidery they excel in, both in gold and silver, either on cloth, silk, or leather; they almost cover their saddles and housings with it; and their stitching of leather is beyond any thing we can do. They ride with their stirrups short, and where we use brasses about the trappings of our horses, their men of rank have gold.
Silks are the principal manufacture of the country, wrought and unwrought; the wrought are taffeties, tabbies, satins and silk mixed with cotton, or camels and goats hair; brocades, and gold tissue. Of brocades they have a hundred sorts, some of them the richest any where met with; and the gold velvet here wrought is admirable. All their rich stuffs are very durable. The gold and silver does not wear off or tarnish whilst the stuff lasts, but keeps its colour and brightness. The finest looms for these stuffs are at Ispahan, Cashan, and Yesd. The Turkey carpets which we have in England, and the Turkey leather are both made in Persia, but called Turkey, because they are brought to us through that country. Shagreen comes also from Persia, which,
Chardin
says, is made of the skin of an ass's rump. Camelhair stuffs are made in Carmenia. These are as soft and smooth, and almost as fine as those made of beaver wool, but are not very strong. There is some calicoe here, which they figure and dye, but they are not equal to the India callicoes.
Earthen-ware is another manufacture in which the Persians excel, much beyond the Dutch. Some say it is equal to China. Their gold wire-drawers and thread-twisters are capital in their way.
Chardin
says, they will draw a dram weight of gold into a wire 300 yards long. Their dying is preferable to any thing of the kind in Europe; but this is not so much ascribed to the artist as the air; which being, as I have observed, uncommonly dry and clear, gives a brightness to the colours and fixes them.
Persian taylors work very neatly; and as the men's cloaths are made of the richest flowered and brocaded silks, which they make to fit so very exact as to do them great credit their sewing is incomparably beyond any thing we can boast of. They work flowers also upon their carpets, cushions, and window-curtains so well, that they seem as if painted. With the taylors, we must not forget to mention their barbers, who are no less excellent in their way, for they will shave the head almost at half-a-dozen strokes, and have so light a hand, that you scarce feel them. They use only cold water and hold no bason under the chin; but have their water in a cup like a tea-cup. After they shaved a man, they cut the nails of his feet and hands with a little iron instrument like a bodkin, sharp at the end; which done they rub and chafe his flesh and stretch his arms, a refreshment which is as agreeable to Europeans as the natives in this hot country.
The goldsmiths in Persia are bunglers, they do best in filligree work; they also make stone-rings, and engrave tolerably. Watches and clock-work they are totally ignorant of, or any thing which requires springs.
Paper is made of rags, silk and cotton; is very thin, smooth, and will bear but on one side. It is not so white as ours, nor in any respect comparable to it. Their ink is made of galls, vitriol, the rind of the pomegranate, with burnt rice powdered, which being made into a cake, is dissolved in gum. Instead of quills they use a reed, somewhat larger than a quill; their characters are Arabic. The mahomedans consider paper as sacred, think it wrong in any one to burn or tear it, or put it to any improper use: for say they, the name of God may be written on it, and it would be impious to prophane it; if it be not written on, it is designed, they say, for writing matters on, which concern religion, the laws either divine and human, and other venerable purposes, and ought not to be put to common use.—They have not the art of printing, all their books are manuscript; and writing is considered as a liberal art. In their rings they wear agates, which serve for seals, and on which is often engraved a verse from the Koran.
Trade, in Persia, is generally carried on by brokers and stock-jobbers, who are a very cunning, subtle geneneration. After they have agreed at the seller's house, they ascertain the price, with their fingers, putting their hands under a cloth. The end of the finger stands for one, the bent finger for five, and the strait for ten, the hand open for a hundred; and, if shut, a thousand: during this reckoning, they carry so steady a countenance as to render it impossible for a stranger to gather any thing from it. The mahomedans, though possessed of the governing part of the country, are not the greatest foreign traders. The Armenians engage the European trade; for the religion of the mahomedan Persians forbids them to touch the food, or even the persons, of those whom they look upon to be polluted. Government find themselves under a necessity to protect and encourage their christian subjects; for they value their foreign trade, and the revenue attendant on it; of course, suffer them to live happy and easy. Towards Georgia are many christians; and the great towns of Julpha and Ispahan are inhabited altogether by christians. But of all nations, the Russians are most advantageously situated to trade with Persia, the intestine broils of that country have often contributed to its advantage; for, besides cloth and other European goods, the Russians export red leather, furs, &c. and receive, in return, raw-silk. Hence arose their jealousy of the British traders; for the Russian merchants, particularly those of Moscow, and the trading towns on the Wolga, no sooner observed that the Persian markets were glutted with European goods, by the Russian company of England, than they began to murmur, resolving to make remonstrances to the Court on the subject. The Armenians extended their trade to the north of Persia, far beyond the Russians, for, by means of their credit in Holland, joined to their own capitals, they employed in commerce about 100,000
l.
This stock was even insufficient to support them; for the excessive glut of the market in Ghilan, and the terrible oppression of the Persian government, stopped the circulation of their trade, and consequently sunk their credit in Holland. At length, they were all constrained to abandon Persia, and, in 1745, they retired to Astrachan, to wait with their effects, till there should be a fair opportunity of returning thither. Whilst the Russia company were in security, they could not be insensible of the benefits of buying raw-silk of the peasants of Ghilan, but advantages may be over-rated, and cease to be such, when attended with vexations and inconvenience, like those which the Caspian traders experienced.—It was not, however, the less ungrateful to observe the Armenians, a people in themselves despicable, and of no consequence to Russia, in competition with the British nation, supported and protected in this trade, when measures were so apparently taken to wrest it from the English.—The Russians do indeed alledge, that many of these Armenians are subjects of their country, and it is true in general, that such of them as are engaged in the Caspian trade do put themselves under the protection of that empire. These people are educated in all the servilities of Asia; and understanding how to accommodate themselves to indignities, which the genius of a free nation will hardly submit to, are, in some measure, the better qualified to carry on a commerce through foreign dominions. The commencement of our traffic with Persia happened in 1561, in the third year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and factories were first established at Shirvan. In 1567, the Turks conquered the western coasts of the Caspian Sea, and in great measure prevented the advancement of that commerce, which the merchants naturally flattered themselves would happen, in consequence of a favourable decree, obtained from Abdallah Khan, then King of Shirvan and Hyrcania, which last is now called Ghilan. Several English merchants were employed in this traffic, of whom, one Thomas Alcocke was murdered in Persia. Afterwards, Christopher Burrough went into Persia in 1579, and returned home in 1581. He built a vessel on the Wolga, at Niezaro-Vogorode in which he transported several kinds of merchandise as far as Baku. At Niezabad his vessel was stranded, and great part of his cargo lost. At Derbend, he sold a part of his goods, to the Turks, and bought another vessel to bring home his returns of raw silk; but either through want of experience, or constrained by necessity, he came to Russia, so late as the month of November, which occasioned his ship to be cut to pieces by the ice; the cargo, however, was saved in a boat, which floating out to sea, with the ice, and being in great danger of perishing, was, at length, frozen up; the crew left their boat, and the cargo, and went in search of assistance; but losing their way, their lives were much endangered by hunger, as well as by a shower of arrows, from a flying party of Najai Tartars. At last, they had the good fortune, to bring their cargo safe to Astrachan, and thus ended the British, Caspian commerce.
Occasional voyages have since been made by British subjects, under the Russian protection, in the close of the last century, but not with any view of establishing trade.—I shall finish this short view of the trade of Persia, by giving a general idea, of the different kinds of European goods, which the Russians and Armenians now send into the northern provinces of that kingdom. The chief demand, next to Dutch cloth, is for British woollens, Glocester and ordinary Yorkshire cloths; likewise, indigo, cochineal, and, in good times, rick silks, gold and silver lace, velvets and other rich manufactures.
With regard to the quantity of goods imported by the Persians over the Caspian sea, whilst the port of Gombroon, was open to the several nations of Europe; the Caspian traders, could but ill form an idea, of the general consumption in that kingdom. The Russian company, was the mere sanguine in it's expectations, from a knowledge, that in the beginning of this century, the factors of the East-India company, had extended their trade as far as Tauris on the Western-coast of the Caspian, where they sold great quantities of the woollen manufactures of Great-Britain; but when the British factors of Ghilan, whose situation was now so much more advantageous, would have made an experiment of the like nature, they discovered that city, and it's confines, in so ruinous a state, as blasted their hopes of doing any business in those quarters.
When Persia enjoyed repose, the agent of the East-India company of England lived in splendor, the regal government being held in great veneration, in that empire; he acted, as immediately under the crown of England; and from thence derived an influence, which he could not otherwise have possessed; his pompous manner of living, had some good effects, but the expence was too considerable, to be long grateful to the company.
The advantages which the East-India company of England, enjoyed beyond the Russia company, were such, as will hardly admit of a comparison, nor indeed, is it material to my present purpose. I shall pass over in silence, the trade of Great-Britain, to the gulph of Persia, as also that between Persia and India; observing only, that after the Portuguese had settled themselves in the East-Indies, they took the island of Ormu, and, being masters of the sea, carried on the trade between those countries.
CHAP. XLVIII.
Of their Army and Navy.
THE standing forces of Persia, were never fixed at any determinate number, but were computed in the reign of
Nadir,
at 200,000 men, besides attendants; the pay given to soldiers, was about 100 crowns, a year, one with another, besides the allowance, which chiefly consisted of rice; but the dearness of provision, and the expensive manner of living in camp, rendered this large pay, absolutely neceessary. It has been observed that soldiers generally fight best, when they have something to lose, if their wealth does not involve them in effeminacy.
Alexander
encouraged the Macedonians, by representing the Persian riches, as an object of plunder, and consequently as a motive to exert themselves; but under
Nadir,
we do not find that any of their enemies, considered the valuable effects of the Persian soldiery in that light. This method served also, to keep them dependant, by their being obliged to spend their money in articles of vanity. The late king of Portugal,
John
I. humbled his nobility by indulging their pride; and, other Christian princes have done the same by their subjects, with great success. The riches of a Shah's camp, consist in horse-furniture,
Nadir
(says
Hanway,
) had four complete sets, one mounted with pearls, another with rubies, a third with emeralds, and the last with diamonds, most of which were of so prodigious a size, as hardly to merit belief, for many of them appeared as large as a pidgeon's egg.
Franklin
speaks, of a famous jewel, of
Nadir Shah
's, called
Dereau Nour,
which has been carried out of Persia, by some Armenian merchants, and sold to the Empress of Russia, for eighty thousand pounds. Beautiful as their diamonds are, their lustre is greatly lost, by the barbarous manner in which they are set. Some of them are bored through, after the manner of the Asiatics, who often spoil their precious stones by this method.
It is usual with the Persian kings, to encourage the army, in the use of costly furniture. The officers and even soldiers of rank, have the bridles of their horses mounted with silver, with a mane-piece of plate and an ornamental chain; likewise their sword, belts, and other accoutrements, are mounted with the same metal. The handles of their battle-axes, are studded, or covered with thin silver-plates, and in their sashes about their waist, they wear a knife, the handle and case of which, is covered with silver, but the workmanship is bad. Officers and persons of distinction, are obliged to wear gold-cased knives, and some of the great men, have silver stirrups.
Nadir
particularly encouraged expensive ornaments among the soldiers, he had the policy to oblige some by presents, which led to a general vanity throughout his army, for all were desirous of costly trappings, and readily expened their money, to gain the good opinion of their commander.
The Persian troops not being incumbered with bagbage, or artillery, make prodigious swift marches, and fall upon the enemy in their camp, with incredible fury, when they least suspect such a visit. At other times, they will cut off their provisions, and turn the waters from their usual course; and having harrassed them through a desart country, attack them when they are fatigued and weary. When an enemy makes head against them, they will fly, till they have got an advantageous ground, and then return, and charge again. Like the Parthians, they shoot more arrows in their retreat, than when they advance. They never throw intrenchments round their camps, but chuse a mountain or difficult pass, for that purpose; but in sieges they intrench, and usually take a place by undermining it; and it is thought no people, understand mining or subterraneous works better than the Persians.
In their camps, a general regularity is observed, as far as is agreeable to the size and shape of the ground; it being a rule constantly pursued, to place the tents of certain principal ministers, and officers in the front, or to the right or left of the Shah's quarters, that some of them may be always near him. The circuit of the quarter allotted to the Shah's own tents is very large; the entrance consists, on one side, of a line of uniform tents, serving for guard-rooms; and on the other, of the tents, in which the affairs of chancery, and the like public concerns, are transacted. About 200 yards beyond this avenue, is the pavillion, in which the Shan usually sits to give audience, and transact business: it is generally oblong, supported by three poles with gilded balls at the top, the covering of a cotton cloth, of a brick-colour, and the lining of clouded silk; the floor covered either with carpet or cloths, and the body of the pavillion, having on each side a kind of alley, through which the attendants walk round. Sometimes the Shah sits upon a large sopha or chair, cross-legg'd, and sometimes on the floor. The hind-part of his tent, is divided into small apartments, where the officers, who do not appear in his Majesty's presence, attend. There is nothing sumptuous in this pavilion, the front of which is always open, even in the worst of weather; when it is extremely cold, several pots of lighted charcoal, are placed in the middle. At a considerable distance behind, are placed the. Shah's private tents, to some of which he retires at his meals; and in order to render them warm, there are Indian pannels, which are occasionally set up; but to these he only admitts his secret emissaries, when they have any remarkable intelligence to communicate. Contiguous to these, are the tents of the Shah's ladies, which differ from the others, in having several curtains, that form separate apartments, one without another. The boundaries of the Shah's quarters, are, generally, occupied by his eunuchs, and female slaves, and almost this whole circuit, particularly towards the residence of the women, are surrounded by a strong fence of net-work, round which the night-guard patroles, and severely punishes all intruders. As there are no lights in these parts, nor any tents near them, it frequently happens that people who coming to the camp by night, ignorantly straggle thither, are sure to be ill-treated, when that happens. None but officers in immediate waiting, are permitted to enter the royal pavilion. The officers of state and people in business, stand in the open air, in all weathers, forming a semi-circle in front of the tent. If they are brought to answer for their conduct, they are held under the arm, by a proper officer to prevent their escape, or committing any other acts of violence. The same ceremony is observed towards foreign embassadors, and great men, under pretence of respect; but, in truth, it is done to prevent any accident, or attempt being made on the Shah's life. The tents of persons of distinction, are, for the most part, oblong, and are supported by three poles, the outside of coarse, cotton cloth, which is glazed, to prevent the rain from penetrating; the inside, lined with woollen or silk, according to the different seasons of the year, and the circumstances of the owner. The ground is spread, with a thick cotton cloth, or matt, and over that is laid a carpet, or woollen, printed cloth, of several colours, and of British manufacture; besides this, the floor is laid with felts, which supply the place of bedsteads and feather-beds, though some have their beds raised above the ground, to avoid the damps. The top and sides of the tents of great officers, are sometimes lined with pannels, on which flowers, and a variety of figures are wrought. The back is appropriated for women, but such grandees as have several women, place a set of tents at a distance from their own, which are surrounded with cotton-cloths, to prevent their being seen. The part of the camp call'd the camp market, begins at the end of the square, fronting the guard-room, and is near half a mile long; it consists of tents on each side, like a street, running as direct as the nature of the ground will admit, the tents are filled with provisions, apparel, horse-furniture and other necessaries brought for sale, together with a vast property arising from the daily confiscations of the Shah. The care of the market is committed to an officer, who rides up and down, to keep order, and when any disputes arise, they are brought before the
Deroga Bazar
or superintendant of the market, who acquires a considerable income from rents, fees, presents and extortions. The shop-keepers are little better than common sutlers; but such as carry on great business, are under the protection of the principal courtiers, who are the grand dealers in flower of rice, of which there is always a great consumption: and as these courtiers have frequently supernumerary servants, camels and mules, they send them to the distant provinces that produce rice, which they bring to the camp for sale and make great profits. But if the shop-keepers, or traders, interfere with them in these branches of trade, they generally mark them for destruction.
Nadir
us'd frequently to enquire the price of necessaries, reduc'd them as he thought proper, and fin'd the market-people upon every transgression, but the most notorious instance of injustice, to shop-keepers was his obliging them, when his tents and their appurtenances were grown old, to take them and pay him the value of new ones.
We having had frequent occasion to mention this wonderful tyrant,
Nadir,
the reader, will not be displeased, to have a slight sketch of his character, and remarkable exploits, particularly as he has been considered by all the world, as a second
Alexander:
it will serve to enliven and relieve the mind from the tediousness of dry description and give a further insight into his military conduct
To
hmas Kouli Khan,
or as he afterwards called himself,
Nadir
Shah, was born in the year 1687, at a village, or more probably in a tent, a few days journey to the south east of Mesched, not far from Kaelat. He was descended from the Affhars, a tribe of Tartars, subject to Persia, that live by husbandry, and supply the Persians with horses and cattle.
Nadir's
father earned his bread, by making caps, and sheep-skin coats, which is the apparel of the lowest order of common people in Persia.
Nadir
was bred to no other employment than that of a shepherd, and being only thirteen years of age, when his father died, was left in so poor a condition, that he was obliged to gather sticks in woods, for the support of himself, and mother, and carry them to market, on an ass and a camel, which were his only patrimony.
It is recorded of him, that when he returned, in triumph, from his conquest of India, he chanced to pass the place of his nativity, where he made a set speech to his chief captains, and particularly mentioned his father's camel, concluding to this effect,
You now see to what a height, it has pleased the Almighty, to exalt me; from hence learn not to despise men of low estate.
When he was seventeen or eight
en years of age, the Ousbec or Usbec Tartars, made an invasion into Khorasan, or Chorassan; they put many of the inhabitants to the sword, and reduced others to slavery; among the last,
Nadir Kouli
and his mother: she died in captivity, but he made his escape, in 1708, and returned to Chorassan. From this time we hear no more of him, 'till, with some of his companions, he stole a flock of sheep; the money which this produced, enabled him to retire to the mountains; he, however, did not continue the profession of a robber, but entered into the service of a Bey or lord, by whom he was employed as a courier, and was once sent, with dispatches of importance, to the Persian court of Ispahan, in company with another courier. Whether
Nadir
was ambitious, of being the sole carrier of these dispatches, or whether his fellow-courier did not travel fast enough, or for what other secret reason, it is unknown, but he killed him. After his arrival at Ispahan, he told his story so well, as to procure admittance to the Ministers, of Shah Sultan
Hussein,
to whom he assigned such plausible reasons for his conduct on the road, that he was not only acquitted, but received presents, and was sent back with answers, to the letters he had brought. His master received him with such a countenance, as gave reason to suspect he meditated his destruction.
Nadir
perceived it, and resolved to kill him also, and he was the more induced to this, from a violent passion he had conceived for his daughter, whom he had demanded in marriage, but was refused. After the murder was perpetrated, he took the lady away, and retired to the mountains. The effect of this enterprize, was the birth of
Riza Kouli Myrza,
whose genius and disposition, so much resembled his father's. This action acquired him the reputation of courage, and being joined by some of the domestics of his late master, he became a robber, and continued so for some time, at length, he offered his services to
Babulu Khan,
governor of Chorassan, by whom he was accepted, in the capacity of gentleman-usher.
It may appear strange, that the chief of a gang of robbers, should have an honourable office bestowed on him, by the governor of a province; but when it is considered, that personal courage, was the greatest recommendation, and more prevalent, than virtue, or any polite accomplishments; it may somewhat reconcile the conduct of the governor of Chorassan. In 1717, the distresses of Persia began to increase, and he had not been long in the service of
Babulu Khan,
before the command of an army was given him, to proceed against the Tartars, who were making vast inroads on the frontiers of Chorassan; many of the officers refused to serve under their new general, and their places were filled by those whom
Nadir
approved of.
Nadir
was successful in his expedition, and elated with victory, returned, in triumph, to Mesched, where he was received with joy. The fire of his ambition blazed, and he demanded to be confirmed in his office of general, under the command of
Babulu Khan:
who assured him he would write to the court, in his favour, and that nothing should be wanting on his part, to reward his merit. Whether
Babulu Khan
deceived him, or whether the weak administration of Shah sultan
Hussein
evaded the promotion of
Nadir,
is uncertain, but he retired from Mesched with chagrin, and sought new adventures, after having been beaten, on the soles of his feet, by order of the Khan, for abusing the governor; declaring it his opinion, that he had not acted as a man of honour.
Nadir
was again turned loose into the world, and sought to retrieve his fortunes, and to obtain revenge; but we shall pass over the various and many wonderful vicissitudes of his life, and give only his general character, and a few of his transactions, after he was created king.
NADIR SHAH CROWNING HIMSELF
On the 11th of March, 1736, under the name of
Nadir
Shah, the people paid him homage, and he accepted the crown, with an air of dignity, mixed with arrogance. An Armenian patriarch, performed part of the ceremony, but the plume and diadem, he changed from the left side, to the right, to shew, that to his own arm only, he was indebted for his exaltation. This instrument of divine wrath, now accomplished his end, and reached a point which
Caesar
could not obtain, though in valour, generosity and strength of mind, this celebrated Roman was not inferior to the Persian usurper; yet he excelled him in learning politeness and humanity, to which
Nadir
had never any pretensions.
Cromwel
was baffled in many of his attempts, and neither, by skill or valor, could he succeed. Rome, though corrupt in the extreme, and ripe for a change of that form of government, by which she had arrived at so high a pitch of glory, had yet some honest spirits, who thought the killing of a tyrant warrantable, or at least not so great an evil as slavery. In England there were numbers, whose principles were untainted, and who saw the error committed, in attempting to change the monarchy, into a republican government; but in Persia, ignorance, prevailed with corruption of manners, and prepared the necks of the people, for the yoke, to which they then submitted; and in a few years after, they saw pyramids of human heads erected on the spot, where they chose their king.
(See the plate, Persians.
Nadir,
being at the summit of his glory and ambition, tempered the natural fierceness of his disposition, with some acts, of munificence; he entertained the people, and among other amusements, was that of shooting an arrow at a gold plate, which was fixed on a lofty pole; those who shot down the mark, were to receive it for their skill, together with a coat of honour. The motto he chose for his seal was this, "As the jewel was fallen out of the king of fame and glory, so God has restored it in the name of
Nadir.
" the coins struck, had these inscriptions, "
Nadir
king of kings and glory of the age," another was, "Coins proclaim throughout the earth, the reign of
Nadir,
the king who conquers the world."
Being now at the height of his ambition,
Nadir
thought of nothing but to enrich himself; accordingly he prepared for an expedition against India; his success was rapid, like
Caezar,
he came, he saw and conquered; victory now seemed to court the ambitious
Nadir,
and elate with the hope of giving laws to that vast empire, he affected a more than common state, observed a strict administration of justice, and attended regularly to business; kept people to proclaim his victories, and a considerable number of young men, with standards of red silk, were ordered to attend on particular occasions. The preparations to oppose his progress at the court of the Mogul, seemed to give him no concern; on the contrary, he prepared himself, to receive homage from the Indian lords. Having given battle to the Indian forces, and subdued them, he sent a letter to their general, saying that he knew the Mogul's treasure, and added, "I had intended to put your emperor and his troops to the sword, but I will favour them; go and tell him to come to me, and we will make up our quarrel in a convenient manner."
Mahomed Shah,
the Indian king, was conducted to his tent, and placed by his left side; he then addressed him, saying, that riches were his chief object, he wished not deprive him of his empire, and assured him that his life should be secure; that after he had received the subsidy he demanded, and which must be paid, he would leave him in quiet possession of his dominions.
Mahomed Shah
heard his determination, with sorrow and confusion; for language so foreign to a court, could not but touch the heart of a king, whose weakness did not amount to insensibility.
Nadir
had nothing to fear from his military power, for his own army amounted to near one hunhundred and sixty thousand men; he suffered him therefore to retire to his own camp.
Mahomed Shah
gave orders for the dead bodies of his soldiers, which were spread for near twelve miles, to be interred; and at the same time, gave up the military chest to
Nadir,
with all it's treasures.
Nadir Shah,
like
Alexander,
was victorious wherever he went; the Indians gave way at his approach, and quietly submitted, a prey to his unbounded avarice. He marched his troops through all their chief cities, where after the manner of the East, every house and shop was shut; not a soul appeared in the streets, but a mournful silence every where prevailed, as if it presaged some dreadful calamity. If the unhappy Indian ventured to defend himself, he was instantly killed, or in torture suffered to linger, with the loss of his nose and cars. So barbarous was
Nadir,
that the people often went in a body, and, in tears of anguish and distress, prostrated themselves and begg'd for bread. The inhabitants of any consideration, were obliged to declare under their hand-writing, what money and effects they were possessed, of, and if they concealed any thing, they were punished with the utmost severity.
Nadir
aimed the shaft at all, and millions felt the wounds he inflicted; amidst the din of war, all sense of humanity was confounded, and every noble sentiment, yielded to his insatiable thirst of accumulating riches.
Nadir,
in imitating the celebrated Macedonian here, forgot his virtues; like him, he was the idol of his soldiers, until his cruelties became too enormous, but he never possessed the generosity of
Alexander;
where the one was beloved, the other was feared, and where compassion is due to the memory of
Alexander, Nadir's
can only excite our hatred and raise our indignation. The natural greatness of mind in men, born to empire, seems to find no object adequate to it, except in conquest, but, to lead to true greatness, the mind should be cultivated by an enlightened education, which
Nadir
never experienced; and even if he had, his heart was by nature, too depraved, to reach the summit of perfect heroism.
His cruelty was extreme, and his avarice, no less so; for, according to
Hanway,
he took from the Indians, eighty seven millions, five hundred thousand pounds, of English money; of which sum, seven milmillion, five hundred thousand pound, was in gold and silver, the remainder in the plate, rich manufactures, &c. of the great Mogul and the Indian lords. Cruelty was a kind of diversion to
Nadir,
and was excited by his avarice, and jealousy of his own security, as well as a habit of insensibility: yet, he was remarkable for his love of women, and in India he caused the bellies of eighty soldiers, to be ripped open, for no other crime, than being present, when one of their comrades, forced an Indian woman. He is said to have had a virgin brought to his bed, every night, for some years before his death, but contented himself, at the close of his life, with thirty-three. In his wars in Turkey, he often carried his seraglio with him. No king ever inflicted punishments in a greater variety, or with circumstances, more studied or reversed than
Nadir;
they are too shocking and numerous to relate, but an instance or two may not be unacceptable. Two persons of distinction wrote to him several times, complaining of each other, he sent for them to the camp, and pronounced them both rascals.
And since, said he, you are so fond of troubling me with epistles, I will spoil your sport;
and accordingly he ordered their eyes to be put out. His wantonness in cruelty was not less apparent, when he ordered a man's teeth to be pulled out, for no other reason, than their being buck-teeth. But amidst all his cruelty, he still could feel, and his savage ferocity could yield to the dictates of nature; for when his son,
Riza Kouli,
attempted his life, and told him to his face, he was a tyrant, and ought to die, and that the most he could do, was to kill him, for an attempt upon his life; the afflicted
Nadir
intreated him to think of his crime, and ask pardon.
Consider, says he, I am your general, your sovereign, your friend, your father; consider the duty you owe me, in these several relations; reflect, on the small acknowledgements which I require of you; you are in my power, but I would not have you perish; live, be happy, and a king, whenever Providence shall take me from the earth.
He then employed his principal officers, to persuade his son to repentance, but he remained inflexible; and said, he had done no wrong, in attempting his father's life.
Nadir
being informed of his obstinacy, between rage and tenderness, said,
I will not take away your life, but I will make you an example, to all the princes of the earth. I will cut out your eyes.
—
Riza Kouli,
with a fierceness peculiar to himself, replied, "Cut them out, and put them into—." The indecent mention of a woman of honour and distinction, is no less disrespectful in Persia, than in the polite parts of Europe; consequently, it is the highest indignity, to mention, in gross terms, the favourite wife of a king; and
Riza Kouli
's expression was the most insulting he could use.
A similar punishment, was likewise, inflicted on the soldier, whom
Riza Kouli
employed, to kill his father: when he was at the pass, where
Alexander
pursued
Bessus,
the Bactrian traitor, he was wounded in the hand, and would have been assassinated, but for the intrepidity of the eunuchs round him; the soldier made his escape, and was not taken, till above a year after the fact; when seized, he was led to the camp, and confessed what he had done.
Nadir,
said to him
You are a very brave fellow, but to prevent your taking such good aim again, you must lose your eyes.
Though necessity obliged
Nadir,
to deprive his darling son of his sight, he lamented at passing so harsh a sentence, repugnant to his sentiments of affection, and with a mixture of paternal tenderness, admired his genius, and intrepidity, and hoped to have preserved him, to continue the diadem in his family; hut finding him still unshaken, he never after permitted him to have any women, nor would he trust him, in any place, but under his own eye. As he grew old, his avarice and cruelty seemed to vie with each other, for at Ispahan, he committed barbarities, beyond any of the former years of his reign.
This ancient city, which the civil wars had nearly reduced to ruin, he seemed determined to complete; he made heavy exactions, put numbers of the inhabitants, to death, and burnt many of the Indian and Armenian merchants alive; restrained by no ties of justice, nor the tears of the miserable; by no regard of hospitality, nor the protection due to strangers, he tortured and put to death, by the most inhuman methods he could devise. Such oppression, barbarity and tyranny, must ever meet with untimely fate, and though
Nadir,
used frequently to say, he considered himself sent by Providence, to correct the wickedness of men, and made that a plea for his inhumanity, yet neither his own intrepidity, nor the vast power he commanded, could protect him from that Providence he had insulted; for, soon after his departure from Ispahan, he fell a victim to his own oppression, and was killed in the act of the most sanguine violence. On the plains of Sultan Meydan, about twenty-four miles from Mesched, he called together the chiefs of the Ousbegs, Turkumans, and Tartars, who composed his army, and, having sworn them to secrecy, disclosed a design of putting to the sword, all the Persians in his camp, and that he would fire a sky-rocket, as a signal for the massacre; and when this work was done, he would load them with money and great honors, purposing after he had erected a huge pyramid of Persian heads, to retire and end his days at Kaelat. A Georgian slave in
Nadir's
tent accidentally overheard part of this bloody plot, and discovered it to another, who at night sent to the principal of the Persian officers, and communicated the intelligence. Minds, tinctured with jealousy soon caught the alarm, and belief was soon confirmed; under so fatal an extremity no resolution could be taken, but that
Nadir
himself should die.
Saleh Beg,
an officer of courage, and colonel of a body of Afhars, offered his service for that purpose, and demanded only four chosen men as followers. The time of
Nadir,
going to rest was past, and it was but a few hours before the signal for the intended massacre was to be given.
Saleh Beg
and his followers, under a pretence of urgent business, passed the guard and, rushing into the outward partition of the Haram, met an eunuch whom they dispatched, from thence they proceeded through the Haram and, in their way, met an old woman, whom they killed likewise. They knew not where
Nadir
slept, till by the light of a lamp they discovered jewels; here they rushed in and found him. When the assassins approached him,
Nadir
drew his sabre, and demanded what business they had;
Saleh Beg
made no reply, but cut him with his sabre on the left side of his collar-bone; this did not prevent the Shah's collecting himself sufficiently, to kill two of the the soldiers, who came up to finish their leader's business; he was then going, from the tent, when the cords of it tripped him up, and
Saleh Beg,
gave him a mortal wound.
Nadir
cryed "Mercy and I will forgive you all," to which this officer replyed,
You have not shewn mercy, therefore merit none.
Saleh Beg
having performed this business, cut off
Nadir's
head; but, the Tartars, to whom the tyrant had always shewn a preference, began to revenge his death, and fell on the Persians with incredible fury, so that before day-light, above five thousand men on both sides were slain; the Tartars were shewn the slaughtered body, but insisted on seeing his head also, when being satisfied he was dead, the whole remaining army instantly dispersed.
This ended the life of a man, whose actions made such a splendid figure, even in the European world; had he been consigned to his grave, instead of being destined for a diadem, many a stream of blood, many a million of treasure, had been saved to his country; but we must leave him to revise his own actions, since he is in the hands of that Judge, whose law it is our honor and happiness to obey, and whose counsels it is impiety to scrutinize. As we have before observed, it is not our intention to dwell long or enter minutely, into the motives of his actions, and to unravel the foldings of a heart, mixed and composed of qualities, unintelligible upon common principles.—The reader, will however not be displeased with our digression, and will forgive the following little narrative, taken from
Hanway,
since it has been remarked, that ballads, and the simple tales of the inferior part of mankind, often mark the character and spirit of the times, with as much energy as the labor of the historian. Mr.
Otter,
of the academy of Paris, received this remarkable speech, from a peasant of Persia, on his being questioned, why he did not cloath his daughter better. "You (says the Peasant) ask this question much at your ease, but I fancy you do not know
Nadir Shah.
Instead of thinking of our cloaths, it is well if we can get a morsel of bread; are we not obliged to sell all we have, to find him money, and prevent our being bastinadoed to death? They now demand of me three Tomans, (30 Crowns) I know not where to get them: my cattle, my flocks and my moveables, are already carried off, by the Shah's collectors. I have only two or three sheep left, whose milk serves to nourish me, and this poor, little girl, whom I would gladly sell, even to a foreigner, If I could get for her the sum they demand of me; she can never be in a worse condition than she is here, especially if she should have the misfortune to lose me, which must infallibly happen, if I am not in a condition to pay this money." But, to return to our subject.
The Persians have very little maritme strength. In the gulph of Persia, they once had between 30 and 40 ships, some built in Europe, and some in Pegu and Surat, but they were generally navigated by Indians and Portuguese. Their ship-carpenters are mostly Indians, who perform their business with neatness, but are very slow, and unfit for large work, neither do they understand much of the structure of vessels, or the manner of navigating them. They have a sea-coast of 300 leagues to the southward, and the Caspian-Sea, to the North, where they formerly built ships to protect themselves against the Cossacks. The Muscovites generally transport Persian merchandize in their own vessels, and have the navigation of the sea nearly to themselves; which has rendered their conquests easy, on that side, and if the coast was fortified, and could be constantly supplyed with ammunition from Muscovy, it would be difficult for the Persians to remove them.
CHAP. IX.
Of their Revenue.
THE lands of Persia, are either such as are in occupation, or such as are not; that is, such as are cultivated, or such as are uncultivated, of which the latter, are ten to one more than the former. The lands are of four kinds; the lands of the state, the demesne lands, the lands of the church, and those of private men. The lands of the state, are in the possession of the governors of provinces, who receive from them, their own revenue, and assign the rest for the payment of their officers, and the troops they are obliged to maintain; for, every soldier has his pay assigned him, on some village or farm.
The demesne lands are the king's estate, out of which the officers of the houshold are paid, and the supernumerary troops, which the king maintains; the residue, is given among the courtiers and favourites, or managed by the vizirs and intendants, who remit the produce of them into the treasury. The lands of the church, are the donations of their princes, or private men, and are accounted sacred; they are never taxed, on confiscated for any crime; and, after a year's possession, the title of them cannot be called in question. The lands of private gentlemen, are holden of the crown, for the term of ninety-nine years, paying an inconsiderable, annual rent, and at the expiration of the above term of years, they are allowed to renew, by advancing one year's income. If a person wishes to build on unoccupied lands, he must obtain a grant from the Crown, for ninety-nine years, and pay a small annual rent. So that all ranks of men derive their estates from the Crown, as amongst us, and there seems little other difference, but that the Persians have a term renewable at pleasure, and our free-holders have an inheritance; but both acquire a perpetuity, by payment of their fines; and accustom'd rents. The King has a right to a third of the produce of the lands, and the grain of Persia being subject to much injury from hail, locusts, and other insects, the tenants insist on an abatement in such cases, and assemble in multitudes of seven or eight thousand, round the palace at Isphan. The court send orders to the Receivers, to make such allowances as the case requires, and and to investigate the truth of the complaints; but the court is always defrauded; for the country-men so well understand the force of bribes, that they commonly make a purse and procure a favourable representation of the case, from the King's officers. The king has likewise a third of the husbandman's cattle. Governors of provinces, are obliged, from time to time, to make large presents to the court, of the best the country affords, whether silk, grain, fruits, cattle, or whatever is in esteem amongst than, and these are sent in gratuities, sufficient for the king's household, and therefore may be accounted a considerable part of the revenue. The King has also the seventh fleece, and the seventh of the breed of the cattle of those lands, which are not appropriated to his use, which adds greatly to the revenue; for the shepherds of Persia, like the ancient patriarchs, possess vast flocks and herds, on which they constantly attend; living in tents, and removing from one place to another, as they can find pasture; for lands, unoccupied by particular persons, are free for all men to graze on, and are deemed the King's; the payment of the seventh beast is an acknowledgement of his dominion and property. The King has an officer in every province, to inspect the shepherds, and to secure the seventh of the cattle for his service; of horses, he is entitled only to every third colt.
Minerals and precious stones belong to the King only; and he has two
per cent.
of all money. The money that is raised by the waters increases the revenue; for every person must pay for its being let into his fields and gardens; the country being so parched, nothing will grow without such assistance. The tribute of a ducat is paid to the Crown, by those who are not of the religion of the country, whether natives or foreigners. The customs and port-duties belong to the revenue; but those do not amount to much; for they have no considerable port, except Gombroon. Merchandize, carried in and out of Persia, pays only a small sum for a camel's load, and in proportion for every mule or ox, without examining the packs. There is a tax of ten-pence on every shop of working trades, and twenty-pence on the rest. All handicraft trades pay no duty to the Crown, but they are obliged to work for the King, when he requires it, without pay, which saves the treasury a great deal of money, and which may well be esteemed a part of the revenue: but that which exceeds all, is the benefit arising from contingencies; namely, what is derived from the confiscation of estates, and the presents made by lords, governors of provinces, &c. and particularly those on new-years-day. They present the King with wrought silks, horses, asses, beautiful boys and girls, gold, silver, precious stones, perfumes, and every thing rich and curious, or that may contribute to luxury, and the pleasures of life. The people are not oppressed or impoverished by these presents, but appear in easy circumstances; and there are few, either tradesmen or husbandmen, who do not wear rings on their fingers and arms. There is no poll-tax in Persia, except on those who are of a different religion. It is not easy to ascertain the amount of the revenue of the Crown, it depending so much on contingencies; but it may, one year with another, be reckoned at four millions sterling; which, considering that their troops are paid from the lands of the state, is very considerable. But, as the splendor and magnificence of the Persian court is much beyond what we see in Europe, little remains at the end of the year. The court, with the women, the eunuchs, and other officers and servants, seldom consists of less than ten thousand persons, which belong to the houshold; and, including the troops of the great men, and their dependents, it must require an immense sum to maintain them.
All bargains in Gombroon are made for
shahees,
and the Company keep their accounts in them, reckoning them worth four-pence each; though that coin is rarely met with, but, in its stead,
coz
and
mamoodas
are current every where; ten coz being equal to one shahee, and two shahees equal to one mamooda; two hundred shahees make a
toman,
equal to 3l. 6s. 8d. English. Horses, camels, houses, &c. are generally sold by the toman; and they usually reckon their estates this way. Such a one, they say, is worth so many tomans, as we say pounds, in England.
The Persians have five seals, which are used in five several branches of business; one concerns the demesne lands; a second is used for commissions, letters patent, &c. a third, for military affairs; a fourth, for the revenue; and another, for things relative to the houshold. There are no arms engraven on them; but on one, are the names of the twelve Imans, or Patriarchs; on another, a scrap of the Alcoran; or some pious expression, shewing their dependence on God, and his prophet Mahomet. They are made of turquoises, rubies, emeralds, or some precious stone, about the size of a crown-piece. The principal seal the King always wears round his neck, and on Fridays, all instruments, which require the royal seal, are carried to the palace, and impressed before the King, on a kind of thick ink.
CHAP. X.
Of their Government, Laws, &c.
THE government of Persia is monarchical, and, in every branch of it, strictly despotic. The favor of the Prince, and of those on whom his authority devolves, is essential to the security of foreign merchants; and this is best procured by proper and timely presents, by a good appearance, and a resolute, discreet support of their own dignity. The Persians are not unskilled in the laws of justice and humanity; but war having been, for many years, their only study, and a fondness for outward shew their predominant passion, their laws are but little regarded, when they interfere with their inclinations: hence a good horse, a silver-mounted bridle, and a girl, will generally induce a Persian to violate justice, and even to commit that, for which he is morally certain of death.
The usual title of the king of Persia is
Shah,
or
Patshaw,
the Disposer of Kingdoms; which is the highest in Asia, and equivalent to that of Emperor, in Europe. They add also to the king's titles, those of Sultan, and
Caun,
or
Cham,
which is that of the Tartar Sovereign. To acts of state, the Persian monarch does not subscribe his name; but oftentimes, in his patents, enumerates the several kingdoms and provinces under his dominion. His subjects address him, as The most renowned of all men living; The source of power, majesty, and glory, equal to the sun, substitute of heaven, Object of all men's vows, Master of the conjunctions, Head of the most excellent religion, Prince of the faithful, Shadow of the Almighty God, Father of victory, Lord of the revolutions of the world, Disposer of thrones and crowns. With these, or such like titles, petitions are given to the throne; but, when they speak to the King, they usually stile him, The Lieutenant of God, or "the Prince, through whom God dispenses his grace and favor to men." Those of the blood Royal, are stiled
Mizza,
which signifies, the Son of a Prince.
The Persians, like the Romans, prefer all men indifferently to posts in the state, and in the army. The gown-men sometimes command as generals, and soldiers sit as judges in the courts of justice; and the same person has been prime-minister and high-priest: but they generally take care to prefer the native Persians to civil and ecclesiastical employments. The highest ecclesiastic in every town is a judge, and tries civil causes under the governor, who generally refers the parties to him; and, upon the receipt of his verdict, the governor gives a final judgement. There is seldom any regard paid to a person's birth or fortune in his promotion; but the King disposes of places, as he apprehends his subjects are qualified for them. They enjoy their posts during life, and sometimes their children after them, when they have behaved well; and there are instances where a government has continued in a family for many generations; but, as the favourites of the court are always endeavouring to promote their own creatures, this seldom happens.
The first minister in the kingdom is the
Atamandoulet,
a word which signifies the support of the empire: when he is addressed, he is stiled the grand Vizir. No business of consequence is transacted in the state, but by the direction of this minister, nor any grant or act of state of the king's, held to be valid, till counter-sealed by him. The reason is, that their kings, being bred up with women, are perfectly ignorant of affairs of state; it is therefore necessary for the welfare of the people and the good order of government, that their commands should be considered by a wise minister before they are are inforced. The king is a mere cypher, and of no other use, but to sanction the publick acts, the prime minister being, in reality, the king; who when his age renders him unfit to attend public business, is permitted to retire to his family, and end his days in peace. The second post in the government is that of the
Divan Bey,
whose office may be compared to that of our lord chief justice, and sometimes to that of our lord chancellor, but have
Divans,
or a council, to whom the administration of justice is committed; these magistrates decide on all causes, civil, or military, except when the king in person sits in judgement. The Divan Bey, or Lord, can command any cause to be removed to his tribunal, from any court in the kingdom; and, during the late reigns, no king has been known to concern himself, in examining the decrees of the Divan Bey. In the third rank come the generals; and next, the secretary of state, who registers the public acts, and has the care of the records. He appoints also a deputy in every province of the empire, who transmits all affairs of consequence, to be laid before the ministry. The last great officer is the
mirab,
or lord of the water, who superintends the aquaducts. Every province has its mirab; for, in so dry a country, it is necessary all should have an equal share of water. Ambassadors, and foreigners, transact business with the
nazir,
or treasurer and steward of the household; who possesses great influence, but is not permitted to pay any money from the treasury, unless the order bears the seal of the prime-minister, the chief justice, and two other officers of the revenue. The master of the horse has studs of horses in every part of the kingdom, and appoints officers to superintend them. The royal-huntsman is not less powerful, having a thousand huntsmen and falconers at his command. They breed for the chase, lions, ounces, panthers, and dogs; and have hawks, and birds of prey, which are bred to attack wild beasts, as well as birds.
After these, the principal physician holds his seat; together with the astrologer, which are places of great honor and profit. There is also a high-chamberlain, who always stands behind the king. A white eunuch likewise attends his majesty, who has greater influence than any round the court. He serves the king on his knees at table, tastes his meat, dresses and undresses him, commands his wardrobe, and has the government of the eunuchs of the palace; he never leaves his majesty, but when he visits the ladies. He carries a little box, covered with precious stones, in which he has two or three fine handkerchiefs, opium, perfumes, and cordials, with which he serves him, whenever he may call for them. He is very powerful, because he has so many opportunities of ingratiating himself; and is equally feared and respected by his majesty's ministers.
In every province of Persia there is a governor, who is often as despotic as a sovereign prince. Military causes are always tried by these governors, who, though they are accountable for all their actions, and have often their ears cut off, and noses slit, and are severely beaten on the back, bastinadoed on their feet, till their nails come off, and not unfrequently strangled, yet, they seldom abstain from acts of violence and oppression; so great is their love of cruelty, and their fondness of shewing the extent of their power.
The governors, in their respective provinces, live in almost as much state as their sovereign, having the same kind of officers as the king. They enjoy the same titles, and there is scarce any difference, but in their numbers, and their pensions. The governor commands the militia of the province, and assigns lands for their maintenance; he reviews them, and sees they are fit for service; examines their arms and horses, and observes their manoeuvres. There are officers under them, appointed to watch their conduct, and to oppose them, if they commit any thing against the state. If a governor returns from his command, which he never does, but by express order of the court, he waits without the gate of the palace, and gives notice of his arrival, by some friend; who reports, that he attends, to throw himself at his majesty's feet. Orders are then given for his admittance, unless he has been guilty of great misconduct; in which case, he is not suffered to appear, but an order is dispatched from the prime-minister, and sealed by the king, for his immediate execution. The person who bears the mandate, cuts him in pieces with a sabre, crying out, when he falls on him, "By the king's command." Whenever a minister is disgraced, his whole estate is withheld; and he experiences so great a reverse of fortune, until the king's pleasure be known, that no man dares give him, even a cup of water. If he is acquitted of the charge against him, he is restored again to his family and property.
The civil and canon-laws of the Persians are blended together. Mahomet contrived this, in imitation of the law-givers of old; who, to enforce their laws, pretended their injunctions were the dictates of heaven. This great Imposter had an eye to the Jewish law, especially the book of Leviticus, where the civil law and ceremonies are mingled together. According to the principle of the Mahometans, the same person bears the spiritual and temporal sword, and is both high-priest and king; he commands in war, and administers justice, explains the articles of faith, and regulates the ecclesiastical dicipline, as the patriarchs of the Jews did; and, as the patriarch of their religion, and his successors, used to do for the first five ages.
According to the Persian doctors, the civil magistrate ought not to concern himself in the administration of justice, any further than to execute such sentences as the clergy pronounce. But the temporal power retains its authority, and does not allow the clergy any other share in the supreme court of justice, than to give their opinion in difficult cases. The Alcoran is their chief law-book; and if their decision is not clear, by the precepts it contains, they refer to
"The sayings, and acts of Mahomet;"
and afterwards to those of the
Imans;
but in general they do not consult books, determining, without any regard to the writings of the Alcoran. The laws of the Persians are not always strictly observed; for, if they were, Christians would not be able to live in Persia, any more than Jews and Pagans; but would be every day subject to abuse and plunder, from the precepts of the Alcoran; at least, as they are explained and interpreted by their doctors; for it is impossible to prevent the insults of the vulgar, who are frequently so bigotted to their superstition, and incensed by the clergy, against all who differ from them, that there have been instances of outrages committed on foreigners, purely on account of religion; and the influence of the priests is sufficient to screen from punishment, all offences committed against Christians, as well as Pagans.
The Imans teach, that no faith is be kept with those of another persuasion, and that it is lawful to deprive Infidels of their goods and estates. From hence, probably our dissenters derive their favourite tenet, that "Dominion is founded in grace; and the world, with its abundance, was intended only for the godly;" so that, with impunity, they defraud and plunder, and think they are fulfilling the decrees of heaven, and doing a meritorious act, when robbing their fellow-creatures. Such baneful doctrine did our dissenters avow, in the days of
Cromwell!
But, notwithstanding the bigotry of a few affected puritans, the generality of the Persians respect us greatly, and think there is no nation, whose merchants are more just, or honorable in their dealings.
All facts are proved in court by living testimony, and a man is at liberty to claim his right. Even the party's own deed will not exclude him, if he can prove any force, fraud, or imposition. Where there are no witnesses, an oath is tendered to the person who denies the charge; and he is sworn upon the Alcoran with great solemnity, the judge first kissing the book, which is enclosed in a linen cloth, and touching it with his forehead, presents it himself to the person about to swear, who puts his hand on, it when opened, and swears to speak the truth. If he is of a different religion, the judge sends an officer with him to a priest of that religion. If a
Christian,
he swears by the gospel; if a
Jew,
by the old testament; if an
Indian Idolater,
by his adored cow; and if a
Gaur,
or a worshiper of fire, he swears by the flames. The reason they never swear an unbeliever by the Alcoran, is because he does not consider it as a divine book, and they fear he should profane it; of course, forbid him even to touch the cover of it.
The women plead their own causes, and it is but decent they should. They are veiled, that they may acquire more assurance; and set secluded from the court, collecting their arguments, and enforcing them with the most bitter cries and lamentations. They never appear, but to sue for a divorce, and the usual plea is impotence of the husband; sailing not most bitterly to bewail and lament, and to deafen the judge with cries and clamour.
In criminal causes the civil magistrate never interferes, neither is the ecclesiastical law at all consulted. They are left entirely to the temporal courts, which determine according to the nature of the offence, and former presidents. These courts consist of three persons, the president of the divan, the governor of the city, and the nazir. They have no public prison, and consequently no sheriffs or jailors, who have the custody of prisoners but every magistrate confines the criminal, in his own house, until he is brought to trial, which is within twenty-four hours after he is taken, and sentence is no sooner passed, than it is executed. The servants of the judge perform the office of executioner. Criminals of state have the
Carcan,
or three-cornered yoke, round their necks, to which the right hand is fastened, and the king in person, sits in judgement, against such offenders. All tumults and riots are severely punished in Persia, and of course seldom happen; so that murder and house-breaking is very unfrequent. If a person
so unfortunate as to kill another, and the fact be proved before the judges, the offender is not punished by the court, but is delivered to the friends of the deceased, who put him to death, in what manner they please; all the relatives of the deceased assemble, and with loud cries, demand the ancient privilege of having the blood of him who had murdered their kinsman, which the magistrate seldom fails of promissing them; but sometimes the murderer, by presents to the judge, and by giving money to the relations, obtains his pardon. If the relations persist in having his blood, the judge gives him up, with these words. "I give you the murderer, according to ourlaw; make yourselves satisfaction with his blood; but remember, God is merciful." The judge's servants are then ordered to observe the directions of the prosecutors, and guard him to the place they desire; whither they accompany him, with curses and abuse. When he arrives at the place of destination, he is left to their mercy, and they often inflict the most cruel tortures on the miserable wretch; even the women stain their hands with the murderer's blood: but, should it so happen, that life should still remain in the offender after their departure, they cannot, by their laws, again return to complete the execution.
Ordinary crimes are usually punished by fines, if the parties are men of substance; if not, they give them a number of blows on the soles of their feet, not less than thirty, nor exceeding three hundred. Their feet are often very much swollen with the blows, and turn black, and sometimes the nails of their toes come off. The remedy they use, is to set the unfortunate man in warm horsedung, almost up to the middle, for several days; after which, they foment the parts with spirits of wine. Pick-pockets, and pilfering rogues, are marked with a hot iron in the forehead, and house-breakers have the right hand cut off. The same punishment is inflicted on those who counterfeit money, for the first offence, but, for the second, their bellies are ripped open.
For capital offences, the criminal's feet are tied to a camel, and, his head hanging down to the ground, his belly is ripped open, and his bowels hang over his head; after being dragged through the streets, he is hung on a tree, by his heels, and is often several hours before he expires. They have other modes of punishing for capital crimes, by impailing, casting from a rock, and many more too horrid for the feeling mind to dwell on.
In Persia the decision of causes cannot be protracted, to a tormenting or devouring length. Why they should be more tedious, in limited, than in absolute monarchies, appears strange, unless, in certain instances, slavery is prefered to liberty, or the name of liberty, to the reality of it. The law is certainly an excellent, and necessary profession, but two many are bred up to it; consequently, in pursuit of support, they deviate from the original design, by perplexing, with injurious refinements, that which it is their duty to renderplain and intelligible.
CHAP. XI.
Of their liberal Arts, Learning, and Language.
THE Persians, at this period, know little of painting or statuary. Their relegion, indeed, discourages painting, & the rigid Imans forbid the representation of every created animal. Like the Chinese, they attempt to imitate nature; but she is pourtrayed in so barbarous a manner, that they appear to have considered her as deformed. The Europeans far excel them in every liberal art; yet, their antiquities are somewhat curious, and evince a genius superior to the artists of modern times. All the Mahometans are averse to statues and pictures, and are more set against them, than the most rigid of our dissenters. A Mohemetan would not, for his life, perform his devotions in a room of paintings; and, in this instance, they greatly resemble the primitive Christians, who, through their abundance of sanctity, covered the pictures of their saints, whenever they were in company with their mistresses; thinking thus to veil themselves from their observation. Their pictures are seldom drawn with a full face, because they have not the smallest idea of giving life to their performances, by the judicious disposition of light and shade. Their flowers are better painted; and they have the advantage of us in the brilliancy of their colours, which are vivid to a degree of beauty, which cannot be preserved in damp climates. However, the Persians have a few good paintings, and preserve the portraits of their celebrated poets, Hafez and Sadi. They are represented at full length, and habited in the old Persian dress.
Poetry is held in great esteem in Persia, and it is customary, in common discourse, to introduce moral sentences, and poetical narrations, from their writers; and a Persian never thinks he entertains his guest, unless he quotes different passages, and moral precepts, from some favourite poet. They still preserve the spirit of poetry, and have many traces of that fertility and strength of imagination, for which, in times past, they were deservedly famous.
They have a number of schools in every town, where Arabic is taught, which is considered a learned language; but the Alcoran is the standard of good language, both as to grammar and rhetoric. Men of fortune prefer private tutors for their children; and no nation is more attentive to the education of their young men, and to the training them to manly exercises. After they have been some time at school, they finish their education at college, where they are instructed in the principles of their religion. Their colleges are large, and are very richly endowed: the largest of them have fifty or sixty apartments, and to each of them are two chambers. At Ispahan there are fifty-seven colleges, most of them of royal foundation; where there are professors of every science, who are paid annually by the scholars: but many read lectures, and teach the liberal arts,
gratis;
and these are generally great officers, who have been discarded, or have voluntarily retired from court. These frequently give books and paper to their pupils, and often entertain them at their houses, and by this means endeavour to regain their reputation; for, nothing adds more to the dignity or honour of a Persian nobleman, than to instruct young men at their own expence, and be thus patrons of learning, and of learned men. They have no public disputations, or lectures, as in England; but, when the collegians have made considerable progress in the sciences, they dispute with their tutors.
The Turkish language is the most common in Persia, and prevails on the southern part of the Caspian, as well as in those provinces which were formerly conquered by the Turks. The pure Persic is little known, but in the southern parts, on the coast of the Persian gulph, and the confines of Arabia, and particularly at Ispahan. In matters of learning, they use Arabic; in which is deposited, the greatest part of that knowledge, for which the Persians were once distinguished; and the polite people are fond of Arabian words, which renders their discourse the less intelligible to men of inferior rank. The learned languages, familiar to Europeans, are not known amongst them. As time seems to have made no change in the customs of Asia, but the same manners remain, as we read of two thousand years ago; so the language, particularly the Persian, has the same ideom, and sublimity of expression.
They write, as the Hebrews did, from the right to the left, and often range their lines in an arbitrary manner, so that, upon one leaf of paper, they sometimes write in ten different directions, and this only to show the writer's ability, in observing the proportion of words and lines in each.
The language of the Persians is extremely beautiful; and, it is to be lamented, it is not introduced as an essential accomplishment, in the system of our education. It is a melancholy reflection, that whilst years are bestowed in acquiring an insight into the Greek and Roman authors, that those very writers should have been neglected, from whom the Greeks evidently derived, both the richness of their mythology, and the peculiar tendency of their expressions. Mr.
Richardson
has entered into this subject with great ability; and happy is it, for the advancement of learning, when men of genius differ in opinion, on themes of fair and reasonable investigation; for they shew us, it is not impossible, either to doubt with modesty, or to dissent with candour.
Sir William Jones
has published a beautiful hymn, addressed to the God
Camdes,
which reflects much light on literary information. This God is the same as the
Eros
of the Greeks, and the
Cupid
of the Romans. His bow-string is composed of swarming bees, and his arrows are tipped with flowers delicious to the smell, but fatal to the taste.
To the eastern
Krishen
and
Gopia,
which are likewise mentioned in the above most elegant composition, are we indebted for the names of
Apollo
and the Muses. But, it is not amidst the tender shades of poetry alone, that the Persian scholar may find pleasure and instruction. History and philosophy stand ready to receive their welcome guest, and to refresh his weary steps with whatever is curious or interesting. The etymologist too, will find an ample field in the study of the Oriental tongue; and we hope to see the auspicious moment, when the majesty of ancient knowledge shall be again confessed by mankind; for, learning has its link in the golden chain, with which providence has bound every thing together; and we cannot make a more noble or amiable use of our abilities, than by wiping away that rust of indolence, which has so long defiled its beauty.
When, under the pretence of commerce, we became the cruel invaders of another's right, was it not reasonable to suppose, we should at least have made ourselves acquainted with the language of the conquered; but, private avarice shut up the gates of public virtue. Victory disdained to twine around her sword, the wreath of science; and, although the Persian language is the language in which all business is necessarily transacted, yet, there never was any advancement made by us in such literature, till the publication of Sir
William Jones,
who is now placed at the head of a learned society at Bengal, and has it in contemplation, to publish annually, an Asiatic Miscellany. What is there we may not hope from his benevolent exertions.
The Persian
Gazel,
or ode, is very similar to that of
Anacreon
's—"dropping odours, dropping wine;" and, whether
Anacreon
borrowed the gaity of his odes from the Gazel, or whether the divine
Hafez,
inirched his native language, by an imitation of the
Trean
bard, it is not easy to determine. The similarity of sentiment is oftentimes wonderful; and it may with equal truth be said of both, that they wrote not so much to the understanding, as to the heart.
The curious reader will find much entertainment, in the perusal of the very elegant translations of the Persian Gazel, published by Mr.
Nott,
and to whom I am principally indebted, for the foregoing ingenious observations on the Persic poetry.
Having conducted our readers over the regions of poetry, the connexion leads us to consider music, the sister art; but here we find no dulcet tones to sooth the pensive ear, but a barbarous mixture of sounds that little suits, the extreme tenderness and delicacy of their poetry. The tuneful muse seems to have trembled at their religion, which forbad her to be wooed by the nobles of Persia. Under such oppression has the music of this poetical country ever laboured. It is true, they have a number of different instruments, which are so rudely constructed, as to afford but indifferent harmony. They have no professors of the science; and consequently, its refinement, being in the hands of the inferior class of people, can make but little progress.
Astrology is much studied in Persia; and particularly by the natives of Chorasanwho are celebrated for this art. They teach the art of divination, and interpret dreams; they have charms for all disseases, and take their spells, and authorities, from the Alcoran, which they render as they please, according to the nature of the circumstance. They have a number of physicians, who, with the astrologers, do great injury to the country, insomuch, that they are become proverbial. Yet, so great is their authority and influence over all, that even the King entertains vast numbers in his pay; and they are no less feared than respected.
The Persians make use both of the solar and lunar year; the last, for their festivals, which are appointed on certain days of the month, and for their religious ceremonies. Their months begin, and end, with the moon, and consequently, their years are shorter than ours, by eleven days. But their solar year consists of 365 days; which is of an ancient date, for
Quintus Curtius
speaking of
Darius
's train, says, that the
Magi
were followed by 365 particular persons, according to the number of the days of the year, which, consisting of 12 months, seven had thirty days, and five thirty-one days, a piece, which compleated the 365
The year begins at the time of the equinox; and it is the part of the astrologer to make an exact observation, by the astrolabe, of the very minute when the sun, coming to the equator, enters into Aries. This day they call
Naurus,
or
Neurus;
that is, the new day; and when they are to make any computation of their age, they say they have lived, or compleated, so many Nauruses, or years. Their epoch begins with the Hegyra, or flight of
Mahomet,
which is coincident with the 10th of July, 622 years after the birth of our Saviour.
The Persians have fallen into a great absurdity in their manner of instructing. It is common to see boys, reading lessons out of the Koran, in Arabic, which they do not understand; and, to add to this farce, as they sit, they make a motion with their head, and body, alledging, that this helps study. Thus does affectation supply the place of real learning. They acknowledge, that the Europeans have an universal skill in arts and sciences, to many of which they are entire strangers; and their present mode of education is not likely to remove this evil.
Thus the revolutions of time, and the changes to Which human affairs are subject, in consequence of men's iniquity, have involved those nations in ignorance, who once enjoyed all the advantages which could grace and adorn human nature; and who were distinguished as patterns of learning and politeness.
CHAP. XII.
Of their Religion, Superstition, &c.
ZOROASTER,
the founder of the ancient Persian religion, appeared in the year of the world, 2860. This great philosopher was struck with the demonstration of the perfections of that self-existing Being, who is the author of all good. Being at a loss to account for the introduction of evil into the world, he imagined there were two principles; one, the cause of good, which he represented by light; the other, that of evil, which he figured to himself by darkness. He considered light as the most perfect symbol of true wisdom, and intellectual endowment; and darkness, the representative of things hateful and destructive. From hence he was led to inculcate an abhorence of all images, and to teach his followers to worship God, only, under the form of fire, considering the brightness, purity, and incorruptibility of that element, as bearing the most perfect resemblance to the nature and perfection of the good Deity. For the same reason, the Persians adore the Sun, and think the throne of die Almighty is seated in it. In the composition of this world, good and evil, being mixed together, they believed they would continue till the end of all things, when each should be seperated and reduced to it's own sphere. The ancient Persians erected no temples, but offered their sacrifices in the open air, and generally on the top of a hill; for they esteemed it injurious to the majesty of the God of heaven, to shut up, in walls, Him to whom all things are open, whom the world cannot contain, and to whom the whole earth, with regard to man, should be esteemed a house, or temple.
Another philosopher, of the name of
Zoroaster,
arose about 600 years after the former, near the conclusion of the reign of
Darius,
the son of
Hyestaspas,
who undertook to reform the articles of their religion. He maintained, there were two angels, one, of light, the other, of darkness, who were at perpetual variance with each other; and that, where the angel of light prevails, there good arises; and where the spirit of darkness, there evil predominates. He affirmed, that this opposition would remain till the close of the world, when there would be a day of judgment, on which all would receive a just retribution according to their works; after which, the angel of darkness, and his followers, would be seperated, to eternity, from light; and those who cultivated and cherished the spiritual nature, and obeyed the angel of light, should go into a world, triumphant, amidst everlasting brightness, and should receive rewards due to their good deeds. These opinions, in some sort, are still preserved; and many of the ancient Persians, still hold a strict veneration for fire. To the everlasting fire, near the city of Baku, pilgrims continue to flock, to expiate their own sins, and those of others, marking their foreheads with saffron, wearing very little apparel, living on wild celery, or a kind of Jerusalem artichoke, and keeping one arm, in some particular position, they remain unalterably fixed in their attitude.
The Persians acknowledge the Koran, as first promulged, to be the great law of their prophet
Mahomet;
but they trace their ecclesiastical divisions and inveterate animosities, as high as his immediate successor
Ali-way, Mohomet
's brother's son, and married to
Fatima,
the daughter of that false prophet. From this, the Persians naturally infer his right to the succession, which was invaded by his uncles,
Abubker, Omar,
and
Osman,
the brothers of
Mahomet;
whose usurpation, both, as kings and Prophets, is approved by the Turks. At length,
Ali
succeeded, and the dispute might have been lost in oblivion, had he made no difference in the Koran: yet, this produced no extraordinary effects till the 14th century, when
Sheffie,
a man of exemplary life, who pretended a regular descent from
Ali,
began to teach and expound the Mahometan law, and the doctrine of
Ali
's followers, in preference to the Turkish doctors of divinity. This revived the remembrance of the injury done to
Ali,
by his uncles, whom the Persians began to curse in their public prayers. They also changed the form of the Mahometan creed, by giving
Ali
the title of "the friend of God". These two sects being divided, those who maintained the succession of
Abubeker, Omar
and
Osman,
called themselves
Sunnis;
whilst the followers of
Ali
took the name of
Schias.
Experience has proved, how impossible it is, to keep mankind steady to any form of worship, even where they profess the same faith in essentials; and if this is the case, where religion is founded in truth, as in that of Christ, it is no wonder, that so absurd a doctrine as that of Mohomedanism, professed by so many millions of people, spread over such a vast tract of country, should create dissentions, with regard to ceremonials, and the construction of texts in themselves inexplicable: nor is it strange, that this should produce national, and irreconcillable hatred.
The Persians believe the Mosaic to have been the true religion before Christ; whom also they acknowledge to have been a true prophet, and teacher, sent by God; but that the religion he taught was contained in a book, which at
Mahomet
's, coming, was taken by the angel
Gabriel
into heaven, and the Koran brought down in its stead. This however they do not atattempt to prove. They say also, that
Jesus Christ
did not die upon the cross; but that another person was miraculously brought there in his place: thus confessing the truth of our Saviour's mission, but confounding it with absurd fables.
The Persians, in their prayers, acknowledge but one God;
Mahomet
is his prophet, and
Ali
his friend. They appear not to have that modesty, which prevails among christians of the best sort, who, to avoid the imputation of affectation or hypocrisy, are as zealous not to be seen on their knees, as afraid to commit any criminal action. If a bold, masculine piety, and a sincere awful sense of the supreme Being, are very consistent things, this excuse of modesty must be owing to an error in education. The reservedness of some christians, is often carried to excess. Persons, pious before marriage, have been known to be confessedly negligent in their devotions afterwards; the prejudices of education being such, as that neither party chose to be seen on their knees; and neglect, we all know, soon becomes a habit.
Not so does the enlightened
Milton
paint our first parents; not so does nature or reason dictate. Surely this is not, what our Saviour meant by desiring us to retire to our closet; and is diametrically opposite, to what may be inferred from that passage of scripture, that the unbelieving party, in marriage, is saved by the believer. Such an excess of reserve, if such is common, must be injurious to religion, and highly destructive of the advantages derived to mankind, by the example of piety; particularly in the matrimonial state.
The Persians seem to be under the influence of enthusiasm; without which, devotion, in some men, is but a languid office. Their imaginations are warm; and we must not judge of the seeming extravagance of their expressions, by our colder feelings. Their phrases and metaphors are highly just and beautiful, although they may widely differ from the coolness observable in the English mode of devotion. Passion, in matters of religion, is certainly necessary; and it should be left to nature herself to determine how far it should prevail: but a happy mixture of hope, love, and fear, under the influence and guidance of reason, constitute that passionate warmth, which is not only warrantable, but, in many minds, essential.
"Let thy words be few;" is an admonition well suited to the weakness of human nature; and the observance of it at the same time shews the strength of the understanding. But the Persians, in contradiction to this precept, and the experience of mankind, make long prayers. After washing themselves, and combing their beards, they often count beads, like some christians, who probably learnt it from them. At certain parts of their prayer, they stand; at others kneel; and prostrating themselves on the earth, set their forehead on a bit of clay, near the size of a crown piece, supposed to be brought from Mecca, and consequently to have a charm. This they always carry with them, tied to the upper part of the arm. They have stated hours of prayer, are punctual in their observance of this duty, and, to all appearance, perform it with more attention than christians generally do: and although they are extremely immoral, they give one proof of religion greatly superior, to the christians, for they seldom mention the name of the supreme Being, except, on solemn occasions, or at least in a respectful manner. The Persians possess some Jewish rites amongst them; and, when they pray, never permit the image of any sensible object to be before them; nor is it allowed to pray, with any thing of gold about them, as if it was esteemed an object of idolatry. They invoke the intercession of the departed souls of some of their prophets and pious men.
It is wonderful to consider, in how many instances, the Persians demonstrate the highest superstition. Sneezing is held a most happy omen, especially when repeated often. The hands, with the fingers, interchanged, and some particular posture of the body, are considered as full of magic power, and, if used maliciously, of dangerous, consequence. As their minds are tainted with a fondness of whatever is marvelous, and the belief of the agency of invisible power, on the most trival occasions; they think the meteor that resembles the falling stars, and which are vulgarly called so, are the blows of the angels on the heads of the devils, who would pry into the secrets of paradise. Cats are held in great esteem, but dogs in abomination; so that a dog is never permitted to come into a room; yet, they use them for a, diversion. The Turks are not much behind them in this folly. In the reign of
Shah Abas,
the grand seignior sent to that prince, to desire, that as none but their prophet, and his children, had been dressed in green, none of his subjects might be permitted to wear that colour; especially in stockings. To this
Shah Abas,
who was a man of sense, made answer, that, if the grand Seignior would prevent the dogs pissing on the grass, in Turkey, he would comply with his request. Innumerable are the instances of their absurdity in the belief of invisible agents, and of their superstition in the usual occurences of life; but, it has ever prevailed, and has been common in a greater or less degree, to mankind of all religions, and in all countries. Happy it is for those people, who profess a religion, which teaches them to acquiesce in things superior to the reason and comprehension of mankind. Our condition does not permit us to know every thing; it is against the laws of our nature, and consequently a crime to attempt it. Thus, where our understanding is puzzled, in the fearful investigation of the things which belong to God, we should pay our adoration and submission to the great author of nature, and place our humble and firmest confidence in him.
A Map of
POLAND,
with its
Dismembered Provinces
A Description of POLAND, From
Busching, Cox, Marshall,
and others.
CHAP. I.
Of the Country, Climate, Productions, &c.
THE word
Pole,
in the Polish language, signifies a flat, level country; but that the kingdom, and the whole nation, derive their name from that origin, cannot be affirmed with any certainty. This large kingdom, from east to west, is two hundred German, or geographical miles, in length; and one hundred and forty in breadth, each mile being about four miles and a half English. Towards the north, it borders on Prussia, Courland, Livonia, and Russia; and towards the east, on Russia, and Little Tartary. To the south, it is bounded by Moldavia, Transylvania and Hungary; to the west, by Silesia, Brandenburg, and Pomerania. The air is somewhat cold, but salubrious, and more temperate than might be supposed, from its northerly situation. The country is, for the most part, level, and has but few hills. On the Carpathian mountains, which seperate Poland from Hungary, the air is very cold; for it snows there in the midst of summer; and, in some parts the snow never melts. The
Belsciattan
mountains are a continuation of the
Carpathian
hills. The kingdom of Poland consists of three principal provinces, Great Poland, Little Poland, and the grand duchy of Lithuania. This division is of great utility, with regard to the public law of Poland; according to which, the nation consists of three distinct people.
The soil of this country is extremely fertile, and yields plenty of grain; of which there cannot be a greater proof, than that near 400 vessels and floats, most of which are laden with corn, annually pass down the Vistula, to Dantzick. In Podolia, Volkinia, and Ukraine, and the province of Russia, corn grows in vast plenty, and with little; culture or manure. In great and little Poland, agriculture receives more attention and labour; but the harvests make ample amends for the care of the industrious peasants; The soil of Lithuania is as fruitful as that of Podolia and Samogitia; though it was formerly very woody, and the greatest part of it lay uncultivated, but having enjoyed much tranquility, and the advantages of agriculture, it is become prodigious fertile, and produces a great quantity of wheat, and other corn, besides hemp and flax: it is likewise famous for honey. The meadows and pastures afford nourishment for numerous flocks and herds; and the sheep yield fleeces of superior excellence. Podolia abounds with a fine breed of horses, and horned cattle; but, in all ages, this country has been exposed to the inroads of barbarous nations, which, living on plunder, have often ravaged it in the most cruel manner. So fruitful are its meadows, that grass often grows to a wonderful height, and sometimes a person cannot see the horns of the cattle that are grazing in the meadows. As an instance of the plenty of every kind of provisions, it is a fact, that from the year 1701 to 1718, during which time there were several armies in Poland, there was not the least scarcity of bread. Polish Prussia, is likewise a very fruitful country, and is remarkable for excellent pasturage. Peat, oker of all kinds, chalk, belemnites, agates, chalcedonies, cornelians, onyxes, opals, jasper, fine rock chrystal, amethysts, granite, topazes, sapphires, and even rubies and diamonds, are found in Poland. This country also affords,
Marienglass,
or
Muscovy
glass, talc, allum, salt-petre, amber, pit-coal, and an inexhaustable quantity of chalk, which is hewn out of the rocks in large blocks, and salt springs; also spar, quicksilver,
lapis calaminaris,
iron, lead, a small quantity of tin gold, and silver; but there are no mines of the two last metals wrought in Poland. They have manna, which is produced from an herb that grows in the meadows and fenny grounds, and is gathered, in great quantities, from June, till the end of July. The Polish kermes berries are always gathered in May, before they are quite ripe, for in the month of July they swarm with insects, which leave a kind of protuberance behind them, so that the berries are rendered
unfit, either for dying or medicine. The country abounds in mines of salt, which is of different colours; but, when pounded, is of a dirty ash-colour, like what we call brown salt. The principal mines are at Boenia and Wieliczka; in the latter, are many subterraneous passages, and in some of them are chapels and altars, hewn out of the salt-rock. In the chapel, crucifixes, and the images of saints, are set up, carved of salt, and a light is burning perpetually. The places where the salt is hewn out of the mine, and the empty cavities from whence it has been taken, are called chambers; and some of them are so spacious, that a large church might be erected in them. In these chambers are ware-houses for the reception of salt casks, and magazines for the fodder of horses; and stables, which contain numbers of horses employed in the mines. In some places the tops and bottoms of the chambers are covered with thick mountains of salt chrystals, which, by the light of the candle, reflect the most surprizing lustre, and the most beautiful rays. Pieces of coal, and petrified wood, are occasionally found buried in the salt. The rocks of salt are so stupendous, and of such an enormous mass, that they exhibit a wonderful phenomenon, in the natural history of the globe. It is supposed, that this spot was formerly covered with the sea, from the appearance of the uppermost bed of the earth, as the surface immediately over the mines, is sand; the second, clay, mixed with sand and gravel, and containing petrifactions of marine bodies; the third, is of calcarious stone. From hence, naturalists seem to agree, that it is a gradual deposit, formed by the evaporation of its waters. They trace back the working of these amazing, inexhaustable mines, above 600 years. How much earlier they were known, cannot be ascertained.
Their profits are immense, and are appropriated to the King's privy purse, the annual average amounting to £.97,222 4s. 6d. sterling. They now belong to the Emperor, being situated within the province which he dismembered from Poland; but are far from yielding a revenue equal to that which they afforded the King of Poland; for the Austrian commissioners imprudently raised the price of salt, from a notion, that Poland could not exist, without obtaining that commodity, as usual, from Wielitska; and would therefore be obliged to receive it at any Price. This mode of proceeding offended the Poles, and the King of Prussia, with his usual sagacity, did not neglect this opportunity of extending his commerce. He immediately imported large quantities of salt, which he procured chiefly from Spain, to Dantzic, Memmel, and Koningsburg; from whence it was conveyed up the Vistula, into the interior provinces: by these means he furnished great parts of Poland with salt, at a cheaper rate than the inhabitants could procure it from the House of Austria; and, in 1778, the mines of Wielitska only supplied the districts which immediately border upon Austrian Poland.
The most common way of manuring the ground, is by bur
g; and, as they have vast plains which lay un
vated, and over-run with long grass, this is done without much labour. When the heart of one piece is worn out, they pursue the same method with another; being under no necessity of continually ploughing the same. Their ploughs are nearly such as ours, but are made of wood. The reason iron is not used, is, that they fear it will damage their crops. Their ground is tilled, with small horses, or oxen, two of which are sufficient; and wheat is generally sown, because it is more profitable than Barley. Poland abounds in wood, such as oak, beech, pine, and fir-trees. It also yields abundance of honey and wax; and a great quantity of mead is made of the former; which liquor derives its name from the Polish word miode, signifying honey.
Great numbers of cattle are fattened in Poland, and sent for sale into Germany. The horned breed abound so much, that 80 or 90,000 oxen, are annually driven out of the kingdom. Their horses are very strong, swift, and beautiful, and every where prolific. The forests contain, deer, hares, wolves, foxes, bears, elks, wild-asses and oxen; and, in Ukraine, near Nieper, sheep and horses are found wild. The wild ox, was formerly very common in Europe; but exists no where but in the Lithuanian forests, in some parts of the Carpathian mountains, and in Causalus. The Bison, or wild-ox of America, is supposed to be the same, but rendered different by a change of climate. They have likewise an extraordinary creature, called Bohac, which much resembles the Guinea pig, but is more of the nature of the beaver. They dig holes in the earth, which they generally inhabit in the month of October, and seldom quit them but for food, till April. They have different apartments for their lodgings, provisions, and their dead; and live together, by ten and twelve in a herd.
In the rivers are innumerable shoals of fish, and in the the country great quantities of tame and wild fowl. Their partridges, it is said, often turn white in winter, in the north part of Lithuania, the same as they do in Muscovy. The eagle and vulture are very common among the birds of prey. Lithuania is remarkable for the beauty of its birds; and possesses the
remiz,
or small species of titmouse, called
parus pendulinus.
It is curious in the structure of its nest, which is formed with wonderful art; the shape is like a purse, composed of gos-a-mer, and minute fibres, and lined with moss. The entrance is on the side, very small and round; and so constructed, as to preserve the eggs, or little ones, from the smallest injury. It is suspended on the twig of a willow, or at the most slender extremity of some other tree, over a river; and seldom lays more than four or five eggs.
There are many capital cities in the three provinces of Poland; Warsaw and Cracow, which are the principal in the province of Great Poland. Warsaw stands on the Vistula, and in the centre of the kingdom, and is the royal residence. It is surrounded by a moat, and double wall; and consists, of the old and new town, with two handsome suburbs. It possesses several elegant stone buildings, and palaces, a great number of beautiful convents, and churches, an hospital, an arsenal, and a statue of King
Sigismund
III. The valuable library of Count
Zuluski,
opened in the year 1746, is said to contain about 200,000 volumes, and is both an ornament, and advantage to the city. Some years since, an academy, for military exercises, and a literary society, were instituted at Warsaw. The number of inhabitants are computed at 80,000; among which, there are many foreigners. It wears rather a melancholy appearance, though its situation is pleasant, being built on an eminence, from the banks of the Vistula, and occupies a vast extent of ground. The streets are broad and spacious, but ill-paved. The palaces of the nobility are numerous and splendid, but the greater part of the houses, are ill-constructed wooden hovels, particularly those of the suburbs. On the whole, it exhibits a confused scene, with the strong contrast of wealth and poverty, luxury and distress. A provincial assembly, or diet, and a court of judicature, is held here, on which account it is far preferable to Cracow, which city disputes the honor of pre-eminence with Warsaw, for it was formerly the capital of Poland, where the Kings were elected and crowned; and was once near the centre of the Polish dominions, but is now, a frontier town.
The royal palace is a noble edifice, beyond comparison, the finest building in Poland. The apartments are well fitted up, and furnished in the English manner; being executed by the London artists, and brought from there at the King's expence. The room called the hall of victory, from formerly having been a hall, is converted into a saloon, hung with tapestry from Brussels; the ceiling, pannels, door-cases, and window frames, are all neatly executed in white carving, gilt. The rooms are very numerous, and all the offices, for a court, extremely convenient.
The fortifications at Warsaw are sufficient to prevent the towns being insulted by flying parties, or small armies, but could not stand a siege of any duration, against an army well provided. Its walls are good, and flanked with bastions, and tolerably lined with artillery; the ditch is broad and deep, and the waters of the Vistula may be let in at pleasure; but the extent of these fortifications is too great, to be defended effectually, with less then eight thousand men. Warsaw is populous, it being the capital of Poland; and the miserable state of most of the other towns throughout Poland, has contributed greatly to its increase. There are many Polish families reside in it, which were once in affluence, but now reduced to live in a very mean way. Speaking of Warsaw, the residence of the present King of Poland, and the city where the court is held; we will take the opportunity of mentioning the court, as described by Mr.
Coxe,
in his entertaining travels with Lord
Herbert.
"The English minister being absent, in the country, we carried our letters of recommendation to Count
Rzewuski,
great marshal of the crown, who received us with much civility, and appointed Sunday morning to present us to the King, at his levee.—At the hour appointed, we repaired to the court, and were admitted into the audience-chamber, where the principal officers of the crown were waiting for his Majesty's appearance. In this chamber, I observed four busts, placed by order of his present Majesty; namely, those of
Elizabeth,
queen of England;
Henry,
IV. of France;
John Sobiesky,
and the present Empress of Russia. At length the King made his appearance, and we were presented. His Majesty talked to each of us a considerable time, in the most obliging manner; he said many handsome things of the English nation, mentioned his residence in London, with great appearance of satisfaction; and concluded, by inviting us to supper in the evening; of which honour we had before had previous intimation from the great marshal. The King of Poland is handsome in his person, with an expressive countenance, a dark complexion, roman nose, and penetrating eye; he is uncommonly pleasing in his address and manner, and possesses great sweetness of condescension, tempered with dignity. He wore a full dressed suit; which circumstance I mention, because he is the first King of this country, who has not worn the national habit, or who has not shaved his head, after the Polish custom. His example has, of course, had many imitations: and I was much surprised to see so few of the nobility in the national garb. The natives in general are so attached to this dress, that in the diet of convocation, which assembled previous to the election of his present Majesty, it was proposed, to insert in the
Pacta Conventa,
an article, whereby the king should be obliged to wear the Polish garment; but this motion was over-ruled, and he was left at liberty to consult his own taste. At his coronation, he laid aside the ancient regal habit of ceremony, and appeared in robes of a more modern fashion, with his hair flowing upon his shoulders.
The levee being ended, we went over the palace, which was built by
Sigismund
III. and which, since his time, has been the principal residence of the Polish monarchs. The palace stands upon a rising ground, at a small distance from the Vistula, and commands a fine view of that river, and the adjacent country. Next to the audience-chamber, is an appartment fited up with marble, which his majesty has dedicated, by the following inscription, to the memory of his predecessors, the kings of Poland,
Regum memoriae dicavit Stanislaus Augustus bocce momentum,
1771. The portraits of the sovereigns are ranged in chronological order: the series begins from
Boleslaus,
and is carried down to his present majesty, whose picture is not finished. These heads are all painted by
Bacciarelli,
and well executed. The portraits of the earlier kings are sketched from the painter's imagination; but that of
Ladislaus
II. and most of his successors, are copied from real originals. Altogether they produce a pleasing effect, and may be considered as an agreeable species of genealogical table. In the adjoining apartment are hung the heads of the members of the king's literary society.
The court days do not exhibit any great circle of Polish lords. The most considerable in the kingdom are not only in opposition to the crown, but even in open arms against it: but the officers, who are obliged to attend the nobles of the king's party, together with foreign ministers, and Russian officers, fill the room pretty well.
Cracow stands on a spacious plain, near the Vistula, and occupies a vast extent of ground. The inhabitants scarcely amount to 16,000, so badly is it peopled. The houses are, for the most part, of stone; and many of them well built, and were once richly furnished, and very magnificent; but most of them, at this period, are uninhabited, or in a melancholy state of decay. The town exhibits the remains of ancient magnificence; and, from the numbers of falling and fallen houses, it appears as though it had been lately sacked, and looks like a great capital, in ruins. The marks of grape-shot, and cannon, are discernible on its walls, from the fury of
Charles
XII. who beseiged it, and caused great devastation at the commencement of the present century: but it has suffered still more by the repeated sieges it has undergone, when alternately in the possession of the Russians and confederates. It is surrounded with high brick walls, fortified with round and square towers, after the old manner of fortification. The streets are broad and handsome; but almost every house wears the appearance of ruined grandeur; yet the churches have retained their original splendor. This city is famous for a university, founded and endowed by
Cassimer
the Great, and finished about the year 1401, and improved and completed by
Ladislaus Iaghellon.
The cathedral is a noble building, and is dedicated to St.
Stanislaus,
formerly bishop of the see, whom
Bolislaus
II. killed at the altar with his own hands, because the good bishop's admonitions were grown insupportable to him. The remains of St.
Stanislaus
are inclosed in a silver shrine; and masses are continually performed, day and night, in this church. In the treasury of the cathedral, among other things of great value, the regalia, namely the crown and scepter, are deposited; and, on this occasion, the treasurer of the kingdom has the care of it. The kings of Poland are always crowned, and their remains are interred, in this church.
Toward the southern part of the town, near the Vistula, rises a small eminence, upon whose top is a palace, surrounded with brick-walls, and old towers, which form a kind of citadel to the town. It was founded by
Ladislaus Jaghellon;
the greatest part of it was demolished by
Charles
the XII, in 1702, when he entered the town in triumph, after the battle of Clissow. There are some remains of the old structure, consisting of a few apartments which remain in the state they existed in the last century. The walls of the apartments are painted with tilts and tournaments, and some represent the coronations of the kings of Poland, others are painted with grotesque shapes, and carved heads of extraordinary appearances. They are all of large dimensions, and shew the remains of ancient magnificence, but are intirely without furniture. Since the year 1300, the laws of Poland have expressly enjoined, that Cracow should be the place of coronation, and such has been the superstitious attachment, of the Poles, to this custom, that when
John S
liesky,
was desirous of being crowned at Leopold, on account of its vicinity to the army, which he was to command, against the Turks, at the time of his election, the Polish patriots strongly opposed any innovation, and he was obliged to repair to Cracow for the performance of the ceremony. Since
Ladislaus
all the succeeding Kings, except the present, have been cons
ciated at Cracow. It has often been consumed by fire, and was once visited by the plague, in 1707 and 1708, which swept away several thousands of the inhabit
nts. The city is supposed to have been founded by a Polish or Bohemian prince, of the name of
Cracus,
in the year of Christ 700, from whom it takes its name; here is likewise the burial place of
Cracus.
Not far from the city, is another, of his daughter
Venda,
who, it is said, drowned herself in the Vistula, that she might not be compelled to marry a person, for whom she had entertained an aversion.
The houses in Poland consist chiefly of ground-floors, for they seldom live up stairs, neither are their buildings united, but the dwelling house is over against the gate, the kitchen and offices on one side, a round or square court, and the stables, on the other, which are all generally built of wood. Some there are who affect to imitate the Italians, and build much higher with stone or brick; and, some of their towns are very regularly built, and are three or four stories high. The rooms are usually hung with tapestry, and the rest of the furniture is proportionably rich, except where they are liable to the incursions of the Tartars, and there they keep as little furniture as possible. The houses of the peasants are no better than huts, built with poles, in a round form, and open on the top, to let out the smoke; they are covered with boards, or thatch; and, as they seldom consist of more than one room, the people and their cattle sleep together.
CHAP. II.
Of the People, their Customs, Manners, &c.
POLES
The common food of Poland, is beef or veal; mutton is not in much esteem; venison, wild-fowl, and river fish, they have in great plenty, but no sea-fish. They eat but little bread, though there is such a quantity of corn, preferring roots, which they dress various ways: soup and broth they do not regard, neither are they send of roasting their meat too much; in their, sauces they use a great deal of saffron, and spices, and season their dishes very high. They are immoderate lovers of bacon. Peas are reserved for the better rank of people: they are as fond of mushrooms as the Muscovites, and pickle their cabbage, and preserve it all the year round. Their usual drink is beer, which in some parts, is made only of malt, but in others of ground wheat. In Lithuania, and many provinces of Poland, they have mead, or metheslin; and, at Warsaw, they frequently mix the juice of cherries, blackberries &c. with their honey, and give it different names. But, besides the product of the country, beer and mead, they have great quantities of wine, imported from Hungary, France, Spain, Italy and Germany▪ That of Hungary exceeds the Spanish in strength; and, is brought over the Carpathian mountains, in large casks, drawn upon carriages by oxen, which renders it very dear, the best being sold for twenty shillings the Polish pot, which is three quarts. The Italian wines likewise come by land, but are not so much drank as the rest. The French and Rhenish wines come by way of the Baltic, to Dantzick, and are much weaker than the others. All their strong waters and spirits are extracted from wheat, barley, oats, cyder, &c. They are drank by the common people; though sometimes, in winter, the higher class use them, when rendered palatable with anniseed, cinnamon, and other spices. Their liquors are all, in general, very strong, and well suited to their hardy manner of living.
The Poles are an animated people, and are, for the most part, open-hearted and honest; more prone to be deceived, than capable of deceit; and not so easily provoked, as appeased; courteous, affable, and most hospitable to strangers; of great spirit, and exceed all other nations in vivacity. They use much action in ordinary conversation, apply themselves early to learning; but, having acquired a complete knowledge of the Latin language, neglect to study more. The women speak Latin fluently, and it is said, they learn it in their nunneries. The nobility and gentry are fond of arms, and possess a passion for travelling, endeavouring to qualify themselves for employments in church and state; they leave the care of trade and husbandry to common people; and are, in general, so innured to hardships, that the Germans are deemed an effeminate race, in comparison of them. Their armies have been often been known to lie abroad in the snow, all the winter, and, if they were well disciplined, their troops would be invincible.
Both men and women are fond of parade and extravagance; and in nothing do they evince their disposition for magnificence, more than in the multitudes of their servants, horses, and arms. A Polish gentleman dresses his servant equal with himself, presently reduces his estate, to keep up the idle ceremonies of his establishment. He himself has often forty different suits of clothes, the richest imaginable, but these are handed down from father to son. The nobles, and chief gentry, have all their horse and foot guards, which attend, night and day, at their gates and houses. These go before their master's coach in the streets, and they never appear in greater pomp, than when at the general diet, or assembly of the states. Their numbers vary, from four hundred to a thousand; and they esteem themselves superior to German princes; especially those of the senate, who indeed want little to distinguish them from sovereigns, in their respective districts, but the privilege of coining money. At their meals, trumpets, and music, play; and a great number of gentlemen wait on them at table. It is usual for a nobleman to give meat to his servant, as he waits behind him, which he receives, and eats standing; serving his master with the most profound respect, with wine, or whatever he may call for. This circumstance will appear less strange, when we consider, that many of the inferior nobility submit to enter into the service of the superior: which, in Poland, is considered as no disgrace; for, in general, they are treated liberally, suffered to eat at the same table, and have a peasant-boy to wait on them, But, should any of these gentlemen-servants neglect their duty, they are whipped naked, with little regard to their quality. Even this punishment is not considered as disgraceful, nor any situation they may be subject to, provided they never apply themselves to trade or husbandry, either employment being deemed infamous for a Polish gentleman.
The ladies of the Polish grandees often carry their extravagance to a pitch of refinement truly ridiculous. It is not unusual to see one of these ladies attended in her. train of servants and coach with six horses, by an old gentleman-usher, a governante, and a dwarf, of each sex, to bear a train: and, if it be night, she is surrounded with flambeaux. Her equipage the reader will have an idea of, if he figures to himself every thing that is shewy in life; every thing that is magnificent, ceremonious, and expensive. Pomp, in general, is limited only by the extent of the estate; though that, not unfrequently, falls a victim to the vanity of its owner; who, being forbidden by the rules of honour, to enrich himself by trade, is reduced to perfect beggary, or obliged to enter into the service of the nobles.
The mode of salutation among the Poles, is, by inclining their heads, and striking their breasts with one of their hands, while they stretch the other towards the ground: but, when a common person meets a superior, he bows his head almost to the earth, waving, at the same time, his hand, with which he touches the bottom of the leg, near the feet of the person to whom he pays his obeisance Men of all ranks generally wear whiskers, and shave their heads, leaving only a circle of hair upon the crown.
They are fond of society, and entertain in the most friendly manner; they find neither spoons, knives, or forks, but every person brings his own. The moment their guests enter the house, the gates are immediately shut, nor are suffered to be opened, until the company depart. Every man of distinction sets his hall apart, for the purpose of entertainment; in which is a place, railed in, where an immense quantity of plate is shewn; and over it a gallery for music, which consists of an organ, violins, &c. Those who are invited, bring their servants with them; and, although there is always a profusion of every delicacy, there is very little returned to the family; but the gentleman's servants seize what is left, and they have a napkin, on purpose to carry off the sweet-meats for their ladies. After the cloth is removed, the gentlemen usually sit, and drink a great while, and smoke tobacco, when the ladies retire. The women are always admitted to their feasts, and drink wine in bumpers, which is customary with the Poles; nor will they easily excuse the gentlemen from pledging them.
As a proof of the magnificence and elegance of the Polish entertainments, we shall add an account of a
fête champêtre,
as described by Mr.
Coxe,
and given by the princess
Zartoriski,
to lord
Herbert.
Povonski, the villa of prince
Adam Zartoriski,
is about three miles from Warsaw, in the midst of a forest. The situation is almost level, with here and there a gentle slope, which produces an agreeable variety. A river runs through the grounds, which are laid out in the English taste, with a beautiful intermixture of lawn and wood; walks are cut through the wood, and carried along the side of the water. The house, which stands upon a gentle rise, has the appearance of a cottage, constructed, like those of the peasants, with trunks of trees piled upon each other, and thatched with straw. Besides the principal building, inhabited by the prince and princess, there are separate cottages for the children and attendants,
ch of which has its inclosures, and a small garden. This group of structures bears the resemblance of a village, composed of huts, scattered at a small distance from each other. Other buildings, such as summer-houses, pavillions, rustic sheds, and ruins, are dispersed throughout the grounds. The stables are constructed in the form of a half-demolished amphitheatre. Several romantic bridges, rudely composed of trunks, and bent branches of trees, contribute to heigthen the rusticity of the scenery.
Upon our arrival, we repaired to the principal cottage, where the princess was, ready to receive us. We expected the inside to be furnished in the simple style of a peasant's hovel; but, were surprised to find every species of elegant magnificence, which riches and taste could collect. All the apartments are decorated in the most costly manner; but the splendour of the bath-room was peculiarly striking. The sides are covered, from top to bottom, with small square pieces of Dresden china, each ornamented with a sprig; and the border and cieling are painted with beautiful festoons. The expence of fitting up this apartment must have been prodigious; as I was informed there were at least three thousand square pieces of china used, each of which cost, at Dresden, three ducats, or 1l. 7s. 6d.
After having surveyed all the apartments, we proceeded to an inclosure near the house, surrounded with large blocks of granite, heaped one upon another; and fallen trees, placed in the most natural and picturesque shapes. Here we drank tea, upon the lawn. From thence we repaired to the several cottages inhabited by the children; which are fitted up in different styles, but with equal elegance. Every thing without doors conveyed an idea of a happy peasant's family; and all within, was costliness and state. Such a contrast of simplicity and magnificence can hardly be conceived. We next walked round the grounds, which are elegantly laid out, in our taste of gardening. The company then all adjourned to a Turkish tent, of rich and curious workmanship, pitched in a beautiful retired field, near the stables, which represent a ruined amphitheatre. This tent belonged to the grand vizier, and was taken during the late war between the Russians and the Turks: under it, was a settee, and a carpet, spread upon the ground. Here we staid, conversing, until it was quite dark, when the princess proposed returning. She led us, through the house, to a small spot of rising ground, where we were suddenly struck with a most beautiful illumination. A rustic bridge, consisting of a single arch, over a broad piece of water, was studded with several thousand lamps, of different colours; while the reflexion of this illuminated bridge, in the water, was so strong, as to deceive the eye, and give the whole the appearance of a brilliant circle, suspended in the air. The effect was splendid, beyond description; and considerably heightened by the gloom of the forest in the back-ground. While we continued admiring this delightful scene, a bank of music struck up, at a little distance' and amused us with an excellent concert.
We were then lead from this exchanting spot, across the illuminated bridge, to a thatched pavillion, opened at the sides, and supported by pillars, ornamented by garlands, and twisted festoons of flowers. We found within, a cold collation, and sat down to a table, covered with all kinds of delicacies, with the most costly wines, and every species of fruit, which art or nature could furnish. The evening was delightful, the scenery picturesque, the fare delicious, the company in good spirits; for, who could be otherwise, when every circumstance which the taste and ingenuity of our fair hostess could invent, conspired to heighten the entertainment? The collation being ended, we rose from table, which I concluded to be the close of the entertainment, but was agreeably disappointed. The gardens were suddenly illuminated: we all ranged about, as fancy dictated; and were gratified by the sound of wind instruments, played by persons dispersed in different parts of the grounds. We repassed the bridge, and returned into the cottage; when the two eldest daughters of the princess, who were dressed in Grecian dresses, of the most elegant simplicity, performed a Polish and a Cossac dance; the former, serious and graceful; the latter, comic and lively. The eldest son, a boy about eight years old, next performed a hornpipe, with wonderful agility; and afterwards a dance, in the style of the Polish peasants, with much humour. It was now past two in the morning. We seemed as if we could stay for ever: but, as there must be an end of all sublunary joys, we took our leave, expressing our thanks and gratitude, in language far unequal to our feelings. I can scarce form to myself a fête champêtre so elegant; and I am satisfied, it will seldom fall to the lot of the same person, to partake of such a pleasing entertainment, twice in his life.
The amusements and exercises of the Poles contribute much to their health, their diversions being warlike and manly. Hunting, and feats of horsemanship, they value themselves greatly on. Leaping, vaulting, and jumping, is much in fashion; and dancing is a favourite amusement. Music has its charms with this people, and tends much to promote the natural vivacity of their dispositions and conversation, in which they excel, and are extremely fond of it.
The Polish noblemen are assiduous to amuse; and it is considered essential in the etiquette of hospitality, to invent whatever may be novel, or will tend to the satisfaction of their guests. In their endeavours (and indeed in their houses, decorations, and furniture), they happily blend the English and French modes. Their generosity is intimately connected with their politeness; and, as they spare no expence, and have naturally a good taste, they always succeed in creating pleasure and surprize.
The Polish gentlemen generally travel on horseback; but, the country being open, and but few hills, a calash, and pair of horses, is very much used on a journey. The peasants have little wooden waggons, tilted, with a kind of basket work; and their wheels, all of a piece, without spokes. Travellers seldom meet with any thing to eat in the country inns in Poland, but are obliged to buy provisions in the towns, and carry them with their baggage. This inconveniency is somewhat obviated, in the persons of foreigners, who, if they want a supply, send to the lord of the village, who furnishes them with every necessary. Their inns are but few, and those very miserable, the inn-keepers chusing not to provide more than sufficient for their own family; owing to the want of honesty in the natives, when they travel; finding, from experience, that their guests are seldom in the mind to make any returns for their entertainment. The inns have boarded booths, at the end of which are little rooms, with a fire-place, but without furniture, where the traveller may sleep, if he pleases; but the fleas, and other vermin, will so disturb him, that he had better retire, and contentedly repose with his cattle.
Passing through forests, the traveller frequently observes the traces of former inclosures, and sometimes, even the vestiges of paved streets are discernible. He is often impeded by waters, whose bridges are kept but in ill repair; and it is necessary to be very careful in passing them; and, in winter, a sledge must be procured, for the coach, or calash, to pass over the ice. The cold is extreme in the northern parts of the country; for which reason, it is necessary to provide coats, lined with fur, and cases, to put the feet in, when riding in a calash. Horsemen line their boots, and seldom travel without a cordial dram. The horse is sometimes in danger of being frozen; against which, they use the same remedy as the Russians, by rubbing it with snow.
Mr.
Coxe
thus speaks of the roads, and of the inconvenience of travelling; "I never saw a road so barren of interesting scenes, as that from Cracow to Warsaw; there is not a single object throughout the whole tract, which can, for a moment, draw the attention of the most inquisitive traveller. The country, for the most part, is level, with little variation of surface; and is chiefly overspread with vast tracts of thick, gloomy forests; and, even where the country was more open, the distant horizon was always skirted with wood. The trees were mostly pines and firs, intermixed with beech, birch, and small oaks. The occasional breaks in the forest presented some pasture-ground, and here and there a few meagre crops of corn."
"Without having actually traversed it, I could hardly have conceived so comfortless a region. A forlorn stilness and solitude prevailed almost throughout the whole extent, with few symptoms of an inhabited, and still less, of a civilized country. Though in the high road which unites Cracow to Warsaw, in the course of about 258 English miles, we met, in our progress, only two carriages, and about a dozen carts. The country was equally thin of human inhabitants: a few straggling villages, all built of wood, succeeded one another, at long intervals, whose miserable appearance corresponded to the wretchedness of the country around them. In these assemblages of huts, the only places of reception for travellers, were hovels, belonging to Jews, totally destitute of furniture, and every species of accommodation."
"We could seldom procure any other room but that in which the family lived. In the article of provision, eggs and milk were our greatest luxuries, and could not always be obtained. Our only bed, was straw, thrown upon the ground; and we thought ourselves happy, if we could get it clean. Even we, who were by no means delicate, and who had long been accustomed to put up with all inconveniencies, found ourselves distressed in this land of desolation. Though, in most countries, we made a point to suspend our journey during night, in order that no scene might escape our observation, yet, we here preferred continuing our rout, without intermission, to the penance we endured in the receptacles of penury and filth; and we have reason to believe, the darkness of the night deprived us of nothing, but the sight of gloomy forests, indifferent crops of corn, and objects of human misery. The road bore as few marks of industry as the country it intersects. It was best where it was sandy: in other parts, it was scarce passable; and, in the marshy grounds, where some labour was absolutely necessary to make it support the carriages, it was raised with sticks, and boughs of trees, thrown promiscuously on the surface, or formed by trunks of trees, laid cross-ways."
In the marriage ceremonies, or burials of the Poles, there is little that requires a particular description, but it is observable, that they celebrate them with vast pomp and expence; and it is customary, for all at the wedding, to contribute to the portion of the bride, by giving present, which are often very magnificent. By the laws of Poland, the estate of the father, is equally divided among his children, except any of them go into a monastery, and then their portion is divided among the rest; the younger children as in other Popish countries, are encouraged by their parents to take the vow upon them, that their estates may be preserved entire for the eldest son, which would otherwise dwindle away to nothing, where there happens to be a numerous issue.
The diseases of the poles are very few; that of the
Plica,
is the most painful; and is supposed to proceed from an acrid viscous humour, penetrating into the hair, which is tubular; it then exudes either from its sides or extremities, and clots the whole together, either in seperate folds, or in one undistinguished mass. Its symptoms, more or less violent, according to the constitution of the patient, or malignity of the disease; are itchings, swellings, eruptions, ulcers, intermitting fevers, pains in the head, langour, lowness of spirits, rheumatism, gout, and sometimes with convulsions, palsy, and madness. These symptoms gradually decrease as the hair becomes affected, if the patient is shaved on the head, he relapses into all the dreadful complaints, which preceded the eruption of the plica, and he continues to labour under them until a fresh growth of hair, absorbs the ancient humour. This disorder is deemed hereditary, and is proved to be contagious, when in a virulent state. Many physical causes, have been supposed, to render the plica, more frequent in these regions, than in any other parts; and, it would be endless to enumerate the various conjectures with which each person has supported his favourite hypothesis. But, the most probable, are those assigned to Dr.
Vicat.
The first cause is the nature of the Polish air, which is rendered insalubrious, by numerous woods and morasses, and occasionally derives an uncommon keenness, even in the midst of summer, from the position of the Carpathian mountains; for the southern and south easterly winds, which usually convey warmth in other regions, are in this chilled in their passage over their snowy summits. The second is unwholesome water; for although Poland is not deficient in good springs, yet the common people usually drink that which is nearest at hand, taken indiscriminately from rivers, lakes, and even standing pools. The third cause is the inattention of the natives to cleanliness; for experience shews, that those who are not negligent in their persons, and habitations, are less liable to be afflicted with the
Plica,
than others who are deficient in that particular. In a word, the
Plica Polonica,
appears to be a contagious distemper, which like the leprosy, still prevails among a people ignorant in medicine, and inattentive to check its progress; but it is very rarely known in those countries where proper precautions are taken to prevent it spreading.
CHAP. III.
Of their Trade, Manufactures, &c.
THERE are few manufacturers in Poland, and the commodities of the country, are for the most part exported, unwrought, out of the kingdom. Religious zeal, or rather bigotry, has greatly injured the trade, and commerce of Poland; but so late as the year 1776, manufactures have been established, which seem to promise success, under the patronag, of the present amiable monarch. These manufactures, employ 3000 persons, including those dispersed in the contiguous villages, who spin linen, and worsted thread. Here are twenty foreigners, who direct, the different branches; the rest are natives, belonging to the King's demesnes. The apprentices are boys and girls, all children of the Polish peasants, who are clothed and fed, and have besides a small allowance in money. The directors, says Mr.
Coxe,
complain of their having no emulation among them, and that, although, they are better fed, and cloathed, than the other peasants, yet, they cannot excite them to industry, by any other means than force.
Nor is this a matter of wonder; for as they still continue in a state of servitude, if they acquire any unusual profit, and carry it to their parents, they are apprehensive, lest it should be taken away; it having frequently happened, that any little pittance, they had gained by their labour, has been wrested from, in order to pay the quit-rents, which their parents owed to their lords. One of the apprentices, more shrewd than than the rest, said to the director, who was trying to stimulate her industry,
What advantage shall I attain, if I follow your advice! Let me become ever so skillful in my trade, I shall always continue subject to my master: the labour, will be mine, the profit his.
—To which observation, no reply could be given. Most of them, adds Mr.
Coxe,
appeared with a settled melancholy in their countenances, as made my heart ach to see them; and, it was easy to perceive, they worked from compulsion, and not from inclination.
As some remedy for this evil, it has been proposed, after a certain time of years, to give liberty to those, who particularly excel and distinguish themselves, by any extraordinary exertions. But this humane proposal, has been rejected; from a notion, that such persons, when once made free, would do longer continue to work: and that by these means, the manufactures would be deprived of their best hands. Though this inconvenience, however, might occasionally take place, yet the encouragement of such a regulation, would beget alacrity, and excite industry, and would therefore create a greater number of artists, than it would emancipate. It would now and then occasion the loss of a manufacturer; but, it would diffuse such a knowledge of the manufacture, as to render the loss immaterial.
The manufactures are still in their infancy, but their institution reflects considerable lustre, upon his present Majesty's reign; and more particularly, as his attention was not withdrawn from them, during the civil commotions, which so lately shook his throne.
The manufactures are chiefly of linen, leather, hardware, and earthen-ware; and these are far from being improved as they might be, the better sort of people, looking upon every thing that relates to trade, or mechanic employments, as beneath their care; and the lower class, being vassals to the rest, have neither time, nor stock to make any considerable improvement.
The language of the Poles, is the
Sclavonian,
but there are so many different dialects of it, spoken in the different provinces of this kingdom, that one part of the people scarce understand the other. They all, however, agree in multiplying consonants, and if they did not sound more vowels when they speak, than are contained in the words they write, it would be impossible to utter them. The Latin is as universally spoken, as the Sclavonian, there being a school in every village, for the teaching it, and the girls learn it in their nunneries: it is spoken even by the the lower class of people, but without any regard to accent, quantity, or purity of language. From the time of King
Sigismund
I. to the reign of
Wladislaus
IV. was the interval, when arts and sciences flourished most in Poland. Since that aera, the Polish muse, seems to have drooped and languished. However, they now begin to revive, for at present, the purity and elegance of the Polish and Latin languages are studied, the new philosophy is introduced, the mathematics are taught, and natural philosophy flourishes; the learned in this country, also apply themselves, to the study of Polish history, which they cultivate and improve, endeavouring to make the good writers, of former ages, better known, and useful to the present; this, and the valuable library of count
Zaluski,
at Warsaw, opens an inestimable treasure of ancient authors. The Greek language begins to be studied in Poland, and literary correspondences are carried on with learned foreigners. It is true, the press has not produced so many books in Poland, as in other countries; but this may be imputed in a great measure, to a want of able publishers, liberal patrons of learning, and well regulated printing-houses.
There are two universities, one at Cracow, and the other at Vilna; the former, was under the direction of priests, called academicians; and the latter, superintended by the Jesuits: but in both, the course of study, was chiefly confined to Theology. Since the suppression of the Jesuits, the King has established a committee of education, composed of members distinguished either by high station, or enlightened understandings. This committee has an absolute power, in matters of education; appoints professors, regulates their salaries, and directs their studies. The advantages of this regulation, have already been experienced. The university of Cracow, has been called the mother of Polish literature, principally supplying all the other seminaries with professors, and learned men; but the removal of the royal residence to Warsaw, together, with its civil and intestine commotions, have greatly obscured its lustre. Its most flourishing period, was under
Sigismund Augustus,
in the sixteenth century, when several German reformists fled from the persecutions of the Emperor
Charles
V. and took refuge in this city. These reformists gave versions of some of the sacred writings, and other theological publications, which spread the reformed religion, over great part of Poland. The protection afforded by
Sigismund Augustus
to men of learning of all denominations, and the universal toleration, to every sect of christians, created a suspicion, that he was inclined to the new church, had publickly renounced the catholic faith, and avowed the reformed religion.
Although, says Mr.
Coxe,
from the nature of the government, learning has never been widely diffused in Poland; yet, there never have been wanting men of genius and literature, who have been an ornament to their country; and perhaps, no nation can boast a more regular succession of excellent historians, or a greater variety of writers, deeply conversant, in the laws, statutes, and constitution. Under
Sigismund
I. and his son
Sigismund Augustus,
the arts and sciences began to be greatly distinguished by Royal patronage. They were cherished by some of the succeeding monarchs, particularly
John Sobieski;
but
o prince has paid them more attention, than the present King,
Stanislaus Augustus.
His munificence, in this particular, has been attended with the happiest effects. The Polish literati, have within a few years, given to the public, a much greater variety of elegant compositions, than ever appeared in any former period of the same length. What is more material, a taste for science, has spread itself among the nobles, and begins to be regarded as an accomplishment. The enlargement of mind, derived from the licentious spirit of the nobles, from this new pursuit, has already weaned several of them, from their habits of barbarous turbulence, and greatly civilized their civil deportment. It may in time teach them, thoroughly to comprehend the true interest of their country, and the expedience of due subordination, hitherto deemed incompatible with liberty; these petty despots will, perhaps, be induced to lay aside, that contempt for their vassals; they will perceive, that the burghers, and peasants, are the true supports of their country: and that Poland, wants nothing but justice, and order, to become as flourishing as the neighbouring states.
The present King, studiously encourages all attempts to refine and polish his native tongue; and for the promotion of learning, gives a dinner every thursday to men of science and abilities; his Majesty himself presides at table, and takes the lead in the graces of conversation, as much as in rank. The persons admitted to this society, read occasionally, treatises upon different topics of history, natural philosophy, and other miscellaneous subjects. Poetry is likewise cultivated at these meetings.
The established religion in Poland, is that of the Roman catholic; and few people possibly are more zeaolus or bigotted in their way, which proceeds from the constant opposition, and the provocations they meet with, from the Lutherans and Calvinists. There is a decree, that no person shall be elected king of Poland, without first making a solemn profession of the orthodox Roman catholic religion; and that the queen must either have been brought up in that communion, or publickly declare herself a member of it. Neither Arians, Socinians, or Anabaptists, are not tolerated in Poland. The protestants by virtue of the treaty signed at Oliva, in the year 1735, solicited and obtained, a free exercise of their religion; but a great number of their churches have been taken from them, and demolished, and such open violation of the laws of justice and equity, are of late become so frequent, that the protestants at this time possess only twenty two churches in the cities and towns, and sixty-five in the villages of Poland. The Greeks are equally oppressed, with the protestants; whilst the Jews are indulged with innumerable priviliges, and abound so much, that the country is styled the
Paradise of the Jews
; it is said there are above two millions of Jews only in the villages of Poland. But to shew how great is the superiority of the Popish religion, it must be observed, that the King is stiled
Orthodoxus,
as a title of honour, that St.
Floridan,
and St.
Adalbert
are worshipped as the patron saints of Poland, that the number of monasteries in this kingdom, amounts to 176, and of nunneries to 117; besides two hundred and forty-six seminaries, and thirty-one abbeys, and lastly, the clergy are possessed of two thirds of the lands and revenues of the kingdom.
There are two archbishops, and fourteen bishops. The primate of Poland, is the archbishop of Gnesna, who stiles himself
the Pope's legate,
borne, by virtue of a decree of the council of Lateran. His power is almost equal to the King's, and has a golden cross carried before him. When he visits the King, the great chamberlain receives him at the stairs foot, and the King comes into the anti-chamber to meet him. During a vacancy in the throne, he is
Inter-rex.
Neither the regular or secular clergy of Poland, are to be admired for their morals; though the people, as in all other Popish countries, give them abundance of respect; and, in most of their courts of judicature, some of the judges are of the clergy. Pluralities are allowed, and the clergy, make no scruple of living at a distance from their cures. The laity, on the contrary, are devout, and generous in the benefactions, to their churches, and altars of the saints; but are not very compassionate towards the distressed and poor, suffering frequently their own slaves and menial servants, to perish for want of necessaries, and behaving to these unhappy wretches, as if they were of another species. Socinianism has made a great progress in this kingdom, during the last century; and there have been acts of state, in several reigns, particularly in the last, for the extirpation of all people of that persuasion; notwithstanding which, they suffer Mahometanism, and there are no less than 30,000 Tartars in Lithuania, who are allowed the free exercise of that religion. The Armenians, and others of the Greek church, have also, on the frontiers of Muscovy, and Podolia, bishops, abbots, and priests of their persuasion, with the free exercise of their religion; and, all dissidents, are permitted to have churches without bells, schools and seminaries, and are rendered capable of sitting in inferior courts of justice, and in the tribunal appointed, to receive appeals in matters of religion.
CHAP. IV.
Of their Government, Revenues, &c.
THE Poles, when considered as members of the community, are either nobles, citizens, (in which class merchants, artists and mechanics, are included), or peasants, who are mostly vassals to the nobles. It is not easy to estimate the number of inhabitants of Poland; but some have supposed the kingdom, together with Lithuania, to contain, 15,000,000, and when it is remembered that they have no colonies, have often enjoyed peace for many years, and possessing no fewer than 2,000,000, Jews, which are said to dwell in their villages, exclusive of them in their towns and cities, the calculation may not appear greatly exaggerated.
The nobles of Poland, have from time immemorial resided in the country, and each, inhabiting his own seat, or castle, manages his estate, by his vassals, or hired servants, and maintains himself, and his whole family by agriculture, breeding of bees, grazing, and hunting. Some of the nobility spend part of their time, in the cities or towns. There are among the Polish nobility,
gentes
or tribes, and these are divided into distinct families. Distinction is not owing to the different places, or provinces where they live, but are ranked according to the names and arms they bear. Though Poland has its princes, counts, and barons, yet, the whole noblesse, are naturally on a level, excepting, the difference arising from the posts some of them enjoy. Hence all those of noble birth call each other brothers.
The Polish nobility enjoy a great number of privileges, and, indeed, the boasted liberty of the kingdom, remains only with the nobles; for, they have the power of life and death over their vassals, who, on that account groan under an oppressive slavery. Every nobleman, is absolute lord of his estates; insomuch, that the King cannot demand any subsidy from him, nor oblige him to maintain, or find quarter, for any soldiers.
The peasants in Poland, as in all feudal governments, are slaves; but, they are not all in an equal state of subjection, they are distinguished into two sorts, the Germans, and the natives. During the reign of
Boleslaus
the Chaste, and particularly in that of
Cassimir
the Great, many Germans settled in Poland, who had the privilege on enjoying their own laws, and their descendants, still continue the possession of several privileges, not given to the Polish peasants. The good effects of these privileges, are very evident, in the general state of their domestic oeconomy; their villages are better built, their estates better cultivated, than those of the native Poles, they have more heads of cattle, pay their lords more punctually, and are much neater in their persons and general appearance. The native peasant has ever laboured under the tyranny and oppression of his lord, and his slavery has always been extremely rigorous, until the time of
Cassimir
the Great, when the lord could not put his prisoner to death with impunity. For in 1347,
Cassimir
levied a fine, for the murder of a peasant, and enacted, that in case of his decease, without issue, his immediate heir should inherit, and, that because he was capable of bearing arms, he should be considered as a freeman.
By such benevolent exertions and regulations, did this amiable monarch, endeavor to alleviate the miserable vassalage of his subjects; but, they have all proved ineffectual, against the power and tyranny of the nobles, who have either eluded, or caused them to be abrogated. Even now, there are above an hundred laws unfavourable to the peasants, which, among other greivances, erect summary tribunals, subject to no appeals, and impose the and impose the severest penalties on those, who quit their habitations without leave. From such numerous and oppressive edicts, to prevent their emigration, do the peasants suffer such extreme wretchedness, who cannot be detained in their native country, but by the terror of the severest punishments.
The government of Poland is, with very great propriety stiled a republic, because the king is so extremely limited in his prerogative, that he more resembles the chief of a common-wealth, than the sovereign of a powerful monarchy. The supreme legislative authority of the republic, resides in the three estates of the realm, the king, the senate, and equestrian order, assembled in a national diet. The executive power, which was heretofore intrusted to the King and senate, is now, according to the new form of government, invested in the permanent council. The crown of Poland is elective, and all order of succession prescribed: any person who endeavours to break this law, is considered as an enemy to his country, and, is liable to be punished accordingly. No person can be chosen King, but a man of noble origin, that is, any gentleman, who is a native of Poland, and possesses landed property in the kingdom.
His Majesty's titles are King of Poland; Great Duke of Lithuania; Duke of Russia, Prussia, Massorie, Samogitia, Keivie, &c. The arms of the crown of Poland, are, in the first and fourth,
gules,
an eagle
argent,
crowned and armed,
Or,
with some other bearings for the dukedoms.
The mode of election is somewhat singular. The place of assembly is in an open field, near the village of Wola, not far from Warsaw, it is surrounded with a ditch and a rampart, and has three gates, one of which is towards the east, for Great Poland; the second towards the south, for Little Poland; and the third, facing the west, is for Lithuania. The senators, or counsellors of state, are accomodated on this occasion, with a wooden-house built for that purpose; without this edi
ice, the representatives assemble in a place called
Kola,
that is a circle or crown, and those noblemen, who attend the election in person, pitch their tents at a greater distance from it. The sovereign is elected, by the spiritual and temporal counsellors of state; and, none but Roman catholics, dare appear at the ceremony. The King is elected on horseback, and in case their should be a turbulent minority, the majority immediately quell the tumult, by cut
ing them to pieces with their sabres. The King elect, then swears to observe the
Pacta Conventa,
which are drawn up in the Polish language, and administred by the states; after this, he is proclaimed King; and crowned in the cathedral of Cracow, by the arch bishop of
Gnesna.
In signing the
Pacta-Conventa,
he engages to introduce no foreigners into the army or government; so that in fact, he is little more than the president of the senate, which is composed of a primate, the arch-bishop of
Lémburgh,
the bishops, and 130 laymen; consisting, of the great officers of state, the Palatines, and Castellans. The King is not permitted to enter into war, to assemble an army, conclude a peace, or make any public alliances; neither is he invested with the power of sending envoys on any important occasion, imposing taxes, contributions or customs, or of coining money, without the consent of the states. He can make no laws, determine no religious disputes, nor can he alienate any of the royal demesnes. Neither is he permitted to undertake, or carry into execution, any matters of importance, that concern the kingdom, without the consent of the states, duly convened. His chief prerogative is, the having the disposal of the posts of honour, and royal demesnes; but, without consulting the states, he cannot increase or diminish the honorary posts, nor confer upon one person, more than one office, neither is it in his power to displace any person, when once appointed.
Should the King be absent, his place is supplied by the arch-bishop of
Gnesna,
if that see is vacant, by the bishop of
Plosko.
The constitution of Poland, is subject to so many changes, that it is difficult to speak of it with certainty, for it is new modelled, with every King, according to the
Pacta Conventa
he is obliged to sign, yet it still preserves the outlines, of a noble and free government.
The diets of Poland, are extraordinary, the former meet once in two or three years, and the latter, is summoned by the King, upon critical emergencies; but, one dissenting voice, renders all their deliberations ineffectual.
On important measures, the King sends the heads of the business that is to be treated of, which are given to the provincial diet assembled for the purpose of consultation. The
Starosts
are governors, and judges in their particular starosties, or districts, and make reports of the opinion of the assemblies.
There are ten principal officers of state, who are senators; the two great marshalls, one of Poland, the other of Lithuania; the chancellor of the kingdom, and the chancellor of the duchy; the treasurer of the kingdom, and of the duchy; the sub-marshal, or marshal of the court of the kingdom, and the same of the court of the duchy. The King presides over the public welfare, which is committed to his care, and he consults the states about every thing relative to the kingdom. He is the protector both of the laws, and his subjects, and all courts of judicature are held in his name. He grants titles of nobility, but not privileges annexed to those titles, which require the consent of the states; and, when no diet is assembled, he can consult with the counsellors, and ministers of his court, He can summon the nobility on any emergency, has the chief command of the army, and possesses many other prerogatives of less importance.
The most extraordinary characteristic, is the constitution of Poland, and, which seems peculiarly to distinguish this government from all others, both in ancient and modern times, is the
liberum veto,
or tribunal negative, that is vested in every member of a diet, or
dietine,
and which must ever be destructive of good order, and government; because, they have not only (like the tribunes of ancient Rome), a power of putting a negative upon any law, but even of dissolving the assembly. That every member of a numerous society, should be invested with such a dangerous privilege, in the midst of the most important national transactions, is a circumstance, at once incredible, pregnant with anarchy, and detrimental to the public welfare. The privilege originated under the administration of
John Cassimir,
in the year 1652, when the diet of Warsaw, was debating upon transactions of the utmost consequence, which required a speedy determination, one
Sicinski,
nuntio of Ulpita in Lithuania, cried out, "I stop the proceedings." Having uttered these words, he quitted the assembly, and repairing immediately to the chancellor, protested; that as many acts had been proposed, and carried, contrary to the constitution of the republic, if the diet continued to sit, he should consider it as an infringment of the laws. The members were thunderstruck at a protest of this nature, hitherto unknown. Warm debates ensued about the continuing or dissolving the diet, at length, however, the venal and discontented faction, that supported the protest, obtained the majority; and the assembly broke up in confusion.
From the continual revolutions, which the constitution of Poland suffers, we may easily infer, that notwithstanding their boasted liberty, the Poles are by no means a free people. Indeed, their historians, however they may differ, in many points, unanimously agree in reprobating their affectation of liberty; the shadow, rather than the reality of freedom, which is in fact, merely a turbulent system of aristocratic licentiousness, where a few members of the community, are above the controul of law; while the majority, are excluded from its protection. As a proof of this assertion, and prevailing discontent, and licentiousness, no circumstance can better evince its truth, than the following extraordinary attempt upon the life of his present Majesty. The particulars of which we beg leave to give our readers, as authentically related by Mr.
Coxe.
The story is affecting, and interesting to an Englishman, because the person of his present Majesty,
Stanislaus Augustus,
is well known to many; and his residence in England, all must be acquainted with.
The King being considered by a set of confederates, as unlawfully elected, they imputed to his fatal elevation, all the various ills, under which the kingdom groaned, from the oppression of the Russians; and formed a plan, the most daring, modern history can mention, by an attempt to assassinate him.
A Polish nobleman, named
Pulaski,
a general in the army of the confederates, was the person who formed the dangerous enterprize; and the conspirators who executed it, were about forty in number, headed by three chiefs,
Lukawski, Strawenski,
and
Kosinksi.
These chiefs had been engaged, and hired, by
Pulaski,
who obliged them by the most solemn oath, either to deliver up the King alive, into his hands if possible, or else put him to death; they were to have thirty-seven persons to assist them. On the 2d. of November, they obtained admission into Warsaw, unsuspected, or undiscovered, by disguising themselves as peasants, who came to sell hay, which they brought in waggons, the more effectually to escape detection.
On Sunday night, the 3d. of September, 1771, a few of these conspirators remained in the town; and the others, placed themselves, when his majesty was expected to pass, at his usual hour of returning to the palace. The King had been on a visit to his uncle, prince
Zartoriski,
grand chancellor of Lithuania, and was on his return from thence, between nine and ten o'clock. He was in his coach, accompanied by his aid-de-camp, and fifteen, or sixteen attendants; when attacked by the conspirators, he was only at the distance of two hundred paces, from the prince's palace, who commanded the coachman to stop, on pain of instant death. They fired several shots into the carriage, one of which, passed through the body of a Heyduc, who endeavoured to defend his master from the violence of the assassins. The aid-de-camp, together with all the remainder of the attendants, immediately fled, and endeavoured to secure themselves. Mean while the King had opened the door of his carriage, to effect his escape, under the shelter of the night, which was extremely dark; he had even alighted, when the assassins seized him by the hair, exclaiming with horrible execrations,
We have thee now, thy hour is come!
—One discharged a pistol at him, so very near, that he felt the heat of the flash, whilst another cut him across the head with his sabre, and penetrated the bone; then seizing him by the collar, and mounting him on herseback, they dragged him along the ground, between their horses, at full gallop, for near five hundred paces, through the streets of Warsaw. All was confusion and disorder, during this time at the palace, where the attendants who had deserted their master, had spread the alarm. The foot-guards ran to the spot from whence the King had been conveyed, but found only his hat, which being bloody, increased their apprehensions for his life. The whole city being in an uproar, the assassins profitted by the general confusion; and finding the King almost incapable of breathing, from the violence with which they had dragged him, they mounted him on horseback, and redoubled their speed, fearing to be overtaken. When they came to the ditch at Warsaw, they forced him to leap his horse over, which in attempting the horse fell, and broke his leg. They then mounted his Majesty on another, all covered with dirt as he was, and having crossed the ditch, began to rifle the King, by tearing off the eagle of the order of Prussia, which he wore round his neck, and the diamond cross hanging to it. He intreated them to leave his handkerchief, to which they consented; his tablets likewise escaped their rapacity. The assassins having thus plundered him, for the most part retired, with an intent, probably, to notify to their respective leaders the success of their enterprize, and the approach of the King, as a prisoner. Only seven remained, of which
Kosinski
was the chief. The night being dark they mistook their way, and, as the horses could not keep their legs, the King was obliged to follow them on foot, with only one shoe, the other being lost in the dirt. They continued to wander in uncertain paths, without getting any distance from Warsaw; and remounting the King on horseback, they were proceeding; two of them holding him on each side by the hand, and a third leading his horse; when his Majesty finding they had taken a road which led to a village called Burakow, warned them not to enter it, because there were some Russians stationed in that place, who might attempt to rescue him. Then finding himself in pain, from the inconvenience of the posture they held him in; he besought them, since they were determined he should proceed, at least to give him another horse and boot. This request was complied with, and ignorant of their way, they at length found themselves in a wood, a league distant from Warsaw. From the time they had passed the ditch, they repeatedly demanded of
Kosinski,
if it was not time to kill the King, and these demands were reiterated in proportion to the obstacles and difficulties they encountered. In the mean while Warsaw, was in the utmost confusion. The guards were afraid to pursue their sovereign, least they should be prompted to massacre his Majesty, to savour their own escape.
KOSINSKI & THE KING OF POLAND.
This reflection plunged him into new uncertainties and embarassments. "I give you my word," answered his Majesty,
that you shall suffer no harm; but, if you doubt my promise, escape, while there is yet time. I can find my way to some place of security, and will certainly direct your pursuers, to take a contrary road to that which you have chosen.
Kosinski
could no longer contain himself, but, prostrated at his feet, implored forgivness for the crime he had committed, and swore to protect him against every enemy, relying on his generosity for pardon and preservation. His Majesty assured him of his safety; but judging it prudent to gain some asylum without delay, he made towards a mill, at some distance off.
Kosinski
knocked but in vain; no answer was given; he then broke a pane of glass in the window; and intreated shelter, for a nobleman who had been plundered by robbers. The miller refused, thinking them the banditti, and continued for some time to persist in his denial. The King then approached, and looking through the broken pane, prevailed with the miller, by saying,
If we were robbers, as you suppose, it would be very easy for us to break the whole window, instead of one pane of glass.
This argument procured admittance, and the King wrote the following note to general
Coccei,
colonel of the foot-guards.
By a kind of miracle, I have escaped from the hands of the assassins, and am now at the mill of Mariemont, come as soon as possible and take me from hence. I am wounded, but not dangerously.
It was with great difficulty the King could persuade any one to carry the note to Warsaw, the people of the mill imagining, he was a nobleman, just plundered by robbers, they feared least they should fall in with the troop.
Kosinski
offered to restore what he had taken; but the King left him all, except the blue ribbon of the white eagle.
When the messenger arrived with the note, the joy and astonishment was incredible.
Coccei
instantly rode to the mill, followed by a detachment of the guards. He met
Kosinski
at the door, with his sabre drawn, who admitted him, as soon as he knew him. The King had sunk into a profound sleep, from extreme fatigue, and was stretched on the ground, covered with a miller's cloak.
Coccei
threw himself at his Majesty's feet, calling him his sovereign, and kissing his hand.
It is not easy to paint, or describe, the astonishment of the miller, and his family; who instantly imitated
Coccei
's example, by throwing themselves on their knees. The King returned to Warsaw, in the general's carriage and soon recovered the wound and bruises he had received. The diet at the request of the King, remitted the capital punishment of the inferior conspirators, and condemned them only to work for life. By his benevolent intercession, the different modes of torture, and horrible punishments inflicted on regicides, were mitigated; and both
Lukawski,
and
Strawenski,
were only simply beheaded.
Kosinski
was detained under very strict confinement, and was obliged to give evidence against his two companions.
On general
Coccei
's arrival at the mill, the first question his Majesty asked, was, whether any of his attendants had suffered from the assassins, and, upon being informed, one of the Heyducs was killed on the spot, and another dangerously wounded, his mind, naturally feeling, now rendered more susceptible by his late danger, was greatly affected, and his joy, at his own escape, considerably didiminshed.
Upon his return to Warsaw, continues Mr.
Coxe,
the streets were illuminated, and crouded with people, who followed, incessantly crying "The King is alive." When he entered the palace, the doors were flung open, and persons of all ranks were admitted in his presence, to felicitate him on his escape. The scene was affecting beyond expression, every one struggled to get near him, to kiss his hand, or even to touch his cloaths; all were so transported with joy, that they even loaded
Kosinski
with caresses, and called him the saviour of their King. His Majesty was so affected with these signs of zeal and affection, that he expressed in the most feeling manner, his strong sense of their attachment, and declared it was the happiest hour of his whole life.
The family of the Heyduc, who had saved the King's life, by the loss of his own, was amply provided for; and, his body was buried with great pomp, with an elegant inscription, expressive of the man's fidelity, and his own gratitude. The monument is a pyramid, standing upon a sarcophagus with a Latin and Polish inscription, the translation of which, is as follows.
Here lies
Henry Butzau,
who on the third of November, 1771, opposing his own breast, to shield
Stanislaus Augustus
from the weapons of nefarious paricides, was pierced with repeated wounds, and gloriously expired. The King lamenting the death of a faithful subject, erected this monument as a tribute to him, and an incentive to others.
Having spoken of the sufferings of his present Majesty of Poland, it may not be unacceptable to give some account of the remarkable partition of the kingdom, which was planned soon after the King's escape; and instigated with such profound secrecy, that it was scarcely suspected, before it was carried into execution. The King of Prussia, the Empress Queen, and the Empress of Russia, had entered into an alliance to dismember the kingdom of Poland. These allied powers, acting in concert, set up their formal pretensions to the respective district
ordering upon Brandenburg. For the King of Prussia, Polish or western Prussia had long been an object of his ambition; exclusive of its fertility, commerce, and population, its local situation rendered it highly valuable to that monarch; it lay between his German dominions, and eastern Prussia, and while possessed by the Poles, cut off, at their will, all communication between them. During the course of the last general war, he experienced the most fatal effects from the disjointed state of his territories. By the acquisition of western Prussia, his dominions would be rendered compact, and his troops in time of war, be able to march from Berlin to Koningsburg, without interruption. Almost all the southern and eastern parts of the kingdom, bordering upon Hungary, together with the rich salt-works of the crown, were marked out for the Empress Queen of Hungary and Bohemia; and a large district of country about Mohilow, upon the banks of the Dnieper, for the Empress of Russia. But though each of these powers, pretended a legal right to the territories allotted to them respectively, and published manifestoes in justification of the measures which they had taken, yet as they were conscious, that the false reasonings by which they supported their pretensions, were too gross to impose upon mankind, they forced the Poles to assemble a new diet, and threatened them if they did not consent unanimously, to sign a treaty, for the ceding of those provinces to them, the whole kingdom should be laid under a military execution, and treated as a conquered state.
In this extremity of distress, several of the Polish noblemen, protested against this violent act of tyranny, and retired into foreign states, chusing rather to live in exile, to have their landed property confiscated, than be instrumental, in signing the ruin of their country; but the King was prevailed on, to put his signature to the act, and his example was followed by many of his subjects. As the troops of the three courts, had possession of the greatest part of Poland, nothing remained towards compleating the partition, but the accession of the Empress of Russia, who regarded with a jealous eye, the introduction of foreign powers into Poland. Possessing an uncontrolled ascendancy over the whole country, she could propose no material advantage, from the formal acquisition of a part, and must purchase a moderate addition to her territory, by a considerable surrender of her authority. The King of Prussia, well acquainted with the interests of Russia, in regard to Poland, and the capacity of the Empress to discern those interests, forbore opening any negociation, on the subject of the partition, until she was involved in a Turkish war. He then sent his brother, Prince Henry, to Petersburgh, who suggested to the Empress, that the House of Austria was forming an alliance with the Porte, which, if it took place, would create a most formidable combination against her; that the friendship of that House was to be purchased, by acceding to the partition; that, upon this condition, the Emperor was willing to renounce his connection with the Grand Signior, and would suffer the Russians to prosecute the war without molestation. The Queen, anxious to push her conquests against the Turks, and dreading the interposition of the Emperor in that quarter; perceiving likewise, between the Courts of Vienna and Berlin, that it would not be in her power, at the present juncture, to prevent the intended partition, closed with the proposal, and selected no inconsiderable portion of the Polish territories for herself. The treaty was signed in Feb. 1772, by the Russian, Austrian, and Prussian plenipotentiaries.
This violent dismemberment and partition of Poland, has justly been considered as the first great breach in the modern political system of Europe, which awaited in anxious expectation, what would be the issue of this unexpected union; yet such was the secrecy with which the partitioning powers proceeded, that for some time after the ratification of the treaty, only vague conjectures were entertained, even at Warsaw, concerning their real intentions; and the late Lord
Cathcart,
the English minister at Petersburgh, was able to obtain no authentic information of its signature, until two months after the event.
It would be too tedious to enter into a detail of the pleas urged by the three powers, in favour of their several demands, and no less uninteresting to lay before the reader, the answers and remonstrances of the King and senate, as well as the appeals to the other states, which had guaranteed the possessions of Poland. The courts of London, Paris, Stockholm, and Copenhagen, remonstrated against the usurpations, but remonstrances without assistance can avail but little. Poland submitted to the dismemberment, not without the most violent struggles, and now, for the first time, severely felt, and lamented the fatal effects of faction and discord.
The conduct of the late King of Prussia, has greatly oppressed the kingdom; his exactions were enormous, and his penalties the most severe. He obliged the priests to abandon their abbeys, convents, and cathedrals; and the nobles were forced to quit their lands. From all his proceedings, it would appear, that his Prussian Majesty acknowledged no right, but his own; no pretensions, but those of the House of Brandenburg; and no rule of justice, but his own pride and ambition. Even to his death he had an eye to a change in the constitution, and endeavoured to make the crown hereditary, instead of being elective.
The revenues of the King arise chiefly from the crownlands, the salt-mines in the Palatinate of Cracow, ancient tolls and customs, particularly those of Elbing and Dantzic, the rents of Marienburg, Dirshau and Rogenhus, and of the government of Cracow and district of Niepoliomicz; but, by the late dismemberment, Poland lost nearly half her annual income. The King, however, draws from the public treasury £.74,074 sterling; which, in addition to the remaining royal demesnes, and some stariosties granted for his use, make the present income the same as before the dismemberment. Out of this income, he only pays his houshold expences, and menial servants; the salary of the great officers of state, and the other general expences, being supplied from the public fund. The whole revenue of the government, including the royal demesnes and stariosties lately granted to the King, amount to £. 443,938; out of which, when the King has received his privy purse, there remains only £. 248,938: 1
s.
a sum so small, that it hardly seems in any wise equal to the purposes for which it is designed. And yet it is nearly adequate to the ordinary current expences: for the regular army is small; the great officers of state receive little or nothing from the public treasury, being amply rewarded with the royal fiefs, which are so numerous and profitable; each palatinate pays its own officers, from its private treasury; while the several judges, justices of the peace, and other civil officers, who enjoy the territorial jurisdiction, may enrich themselves sufficiently, by extortions and oppressions, without any salary.
CHAP. V.
Of their Army, Laws, and Punishments.
THE ordinary army of the Poles consists of 36,000 men in Poland, and 12,000 in Lithuania, cantoned into crown-lands. The King has a corps of 2000 troops in his own pay, and entirely dependent upon himself: these troops chiefly consist of ulans, or light horse, who furnish alternately the escort which accompanies his Majesty. The ulans are chiefly Tartars, many of them Mahometans, and are greatly to be relied on for their fidelity. The corps is composed of gentlemen and vassals, all forming in squadron together, though differently armed; they both, indiscriminately, carry sabres and pistols, but the gentlemen, only bear lances, of about ten feet long, instead of which, the others are armed with carabines. Their dress is a high fur cap, a green and red jacket, pantaloons of the same colour, which cover the boots as low as the knee, and a petticoat of white cloth, descending to the knee. Their lances, at the end of which is fastened a long swallow-tailed flag, of black or red cloth, are shorter and weaker than those of the Austrian croats; but they carry and use them much in the same manner, and with no less dexterity. The men are well grown, and handsome, but, greatly disfigured with their petticoats and pantaloons. The horses on which they are mounted, are about fourteen hands high, of remarkable spirit, and with great strength of shoulder. Poland is much esteemed, for its breed of horses; and the King of Prussia procures his light cavalry from this country. The breed has been much injured by the late civil wars, and the nobility are now chiefly supplied from Tartary.
The armies of Poland and Lithuania are independent of each other, being separately commanded, and under the directions of their respective generals; but, in time of war, the King in person generally leads the army. Every Polish gentleman has a right to maintain as many troops as he pleases, which occasions perpetual petty dissentions and disputes, so that the whole kingdom may be a scene of endless commotion; it redounds, therefore, greatly to the honour of the natural disposition of the Poles, that, amid these incentives to confusion, a much greater degree of tranquility is maintained, than could well be conceived.
In delineating the military establishment, we should not omit the Russian troops, which, having been long quartered in this country, may be considered as forming part of the national army.
The whole kingdom till lately was under the protection, of Russia, who ruled over it, with as much unbounded authority as over one of its own provinces. The King in effect, was but a vice-roy, whilst the Russian ambassador had the real sovereignty, and regulated all the affairs of the kingdom, according to his own direction. The empress maintained within the country near 10,000 soldiers. Every garrison was composed of Russian and native troops; a thousand of the former were stationed at Warsaw, and each gate of the town, guarded by a Russian and Polish centinel. Such was the situation of Poland, and to what a wretched state, must that country be reduced which owes its tranquility to the interposition of a foreign army.
Atrocious crimes such as murder, &c. are punished by beheading or hanging; lesser delinquencies, by whipping, hard-labour, and imprisonment. The nobles never suffer any corporal punishment; but are liable only to imprisonment and death. The criminal causes of the nobility are decided in the ducal supreme court, to which the superiors are summoned as assessors; however, an appeal lies to the King, except in causes of wilful murder, burning of houses, robbery, rapes or open violence. Ecclesiastical causes are tried by the chancellor, assisted by the superintendant and provosts. If any disputes happen to arise between the duke and nobility, they are decided only by the King in person. The administration of justice in the towns, belong either to the magistrate, or the prefect of the district, in which the defendant lives, according to the nature of the cause; and the second or last instance, or hearing, is at the ducal court. Torture was abolished in 1776, by an edict of the diet, introduced by the influence of the King; a regulation as expressive of his Majesty's judgment, as of his benevolence. It is an infinite satisfaction, to see the rights of humanity, extending themselves into countries, where they had been but little known; a circumstance that must cast a great reflexion on those nations, which like France, have attained the highest pitch of civilization, and yet, has retained to this period, the useless, and barbarous custom of torture. In laws relating to debtors, the creditor proceeds against the debtor, at his own expence; and, until the trial is finished, allows him three-halfpence a day for his maintenance; when the debt is proved, the creditor is released from the above-mentioned contribution. The debtor continues in prison at the discretion of the creditor, until the debt is discharged; and if he has no means of subsistance, is obliged to maintain himself, by working with the other delinquents in cutting wood, sawing stone, or cleaning the streets. In case a gentleman contracts a debt, an action lies against his lands and goods, and not against his person, unless he gives a note of hand with a double signature, one intended as an ascertainment of the debt, the other as a renunciation of his exemption from arrests; but a person of high distinction, even though he should bind himself by this engagement, can bid defiance to all danger of imprisonment.
From this sketch of the administration of justice in this country, the expediency of a thorough reformation is very apparent. But as any innovations in the courts of justice, calculated to produce any essential benefit, must materially infringe on the privileges of the nobles, and counter-act the national prejudices, the most useful code can scarcely expect to receive the sanction of the diet.
A DESCRIPTION OF PRUSSIA. From
Busching, Hanway, Marshall, Riesbec, Moore, &c.
CHAP. I.
Of the Country, Productions, Cities, &c..
PRUSSIA is bounded partly by water, and partly by other countries. Towards the north, it is bordered by Samogitia; towards the east, by the Lithuanian Palatinates of Trocko and Podolia; on the south lies Poland, and Masovia; and on the west, it is bounded by Polish Prussia, and the Baltic Sea. Its length from the northern extremity near Deutsch-Krottengen, to Soldau, is forty German miles, and its breadth from the great duchy of Lithuania near Schiwind to the western coast of Samland is twenty-four German miles. In other places it is much narrower. Each German mile is nearly equal to five English.
The kingdom of Prussia thus bounded, does not take in Prussia Royal, which was subject to Poland, but only that which was called Ducal Russia, and belonged to the house of Brandenburg. Polish Prussia, in the year 1771, was seized, by the king of Prussia, from Poland; as also the cities of Dantzic, Thorn, and Elbing, free cities, then under the protection of Poland. So that the dominions of the king of Prussia are the largest of any of the German princes, except those of the house of Austria. They contain 3650 square German miles, which is equal to the kingdoms of Naples, Sicily, and Portugal, put together.
As many parts of the king of of Prussia's dominions lie scattered abroad, it may not be improper to enumerate them. In Poland, he has Royal Prussia; in Upper-Saxony, Brandenburg, Pomerania, and Swedish Pomerania; in Lower-Saxony, Magduberg, and Halberstadt; in Westphalia, Ravensburg, Lingen, Cleves, Meurs, and Mark; in the Netherlands, Gelder; in Switzerland, Neufchatel; and add to these, East Friesland, Lippe. Gulich, and Tecklenburg.
With respect to the climate of Ducal Prussia, the last two months of spring, and the first two summer months, are temperate, warm, and pleasant, and the weather generally very favourable to ripen the fruits of the earth: but, before and after these mouths, the air is cold and piercing, the autumn being often wet, and the winter severe. The air, however, is well purified, by high winds, and frequent storms.
The chief rivers are the Vistula, spoken of in our description of Poland, the Pregel, the Memel, the Passarge and the Alle. These are partly navigable, but at certain times of the year, and in high winds, are apt to overflow their banks, and cause dreadful inundations.
The country is watered also, by several large bays, lakes, and canals, which yield great plenty of fish; and the convenience of a water communication between several towns, for the conveyance of merchandize, &c.
The bay or lake Frische-Haf, is from one and a quarter, to three German miles in breadth, and twelve in length; and has a communication with the Baltic. Its mouth into the sea, is an English mile over, and its depth twelve feet. The bay Fische-Haf, is thirteen German miles long, and six broad; and joins the sea near Memel, where it is and English mile broad, and nineteen feet deep. The coasts are every where inhabited by fishermen, called
Curen.
There are a great number of Inland lakes, from one to eight German miles long, and one or two in breadth. Those of Spirding, Angesburg, Rein, and Drausen, are the principal.
The soil produces plenty of corn, esculent herbs, fruits, and pasturage. Prussia abounds with flocks and herds, and exceeding fine horses. Its chief commodities are wool, honey, wax; pitch, pit coal, flax, hemp, hops, and buck-wheat.
This country also affords plenty of game, as white and common hares, elks, stags, deer, roebucks, and wild boars; is is also infested with beasts of prey, as lynxes, wolves, foxes, and bears. In Little Lithuania, are fine flocks of sheep, and very excellent horses.
There are some few woods, but these are diminishing, particularly, those of oak. Among other productions of this country, the Russian manna, called
schwadengrusse
is found in the meadows, on the top of a kind of grass, and gathered in the morning, whilst the dew lies on it. Amber is found in great quantities, on the coasts of the Baltic, in Russia, especially on the Samland shore. It owes its origin to a sulphurous matter, and is pellucid, and generally of a yellow colour. That it was once in a fluid state is manifest, from the number of flies, spiders, and other insects, &c. which are found frequently inclosed in it. Amber is found chiefly in large trees, buried under ground, in a vitriolic earth. The profits arising from it, is one of the Prussian regalia, and amount annually, to about 26,000 dollars. It is chiefly used by turners, who make a variety of toys of it.
The beautiful red colour, so renowned in Prussia, and called St. John's blood, is made of the eggs of a worm, or small insect, there found. The country contains some iron ore, but yields neither salt, wine, nor minerals; being for the most part, a plain, champaign country.
The late King having taken some pains, to promote agriculture, the farmer seems more at ease, than any other class of men. The trading part of the people, and the army, are compelled to consume the productions of their own country; and of course, their provisions are dearer, than those of other countries. The late king has cultivated large tracts of waste land, drained morasses, and built, and improved many hundred villages. In almost every village, is a nobleman whose principal occupation is agriculture; and seeds are imported from Poland, Russia, England, and other countries. There is a privy counsellor, by name
Brenkenhoff,
a man, who born without one penny, has made himself worth millions, by his industry and agriculture. He sent for rye from Archangel, which succeeded so well, that his seeds were begged throughout Pomerania, Silesia, Brandenburg, and Russia; and, the country gained considerable sums, which before used to be paid to the Poles and Russians, for this commodity. In consequence of this, whenever Mr.
Brenkenhoff,
had any thing to ask of the King, for himself, or his province, he always couched his request, in the following manner. "Had I not brought rye from Archangel, your Majesty, and your subjects, would not have had the many thousands you now possess. It is fit therefore, and proper, that you should grant me my request." Mr.
Brenkenhoff
has imported large quantities of camels, and buffaloes, from Asia; the latter of which, seems to thrive very well, but camels do not succeed so well. Rearing of sheep, and the cultivation of tobacco, are next to the corn trade, the great resources of the country. Speculative farmers make a great quantity of coarse silk; 12,000lb. of it are woven here annually.
CHAP. II.
Of the Cities.
THE chief cities belonging to the King of Prussia, are Koningsberg, Berlin, Potsdam, Breslau, and Dantzic. There are many others, but it would be endless to describe them, and indeed to little purpose, as they contain nothing very curious.
The capital of the whole kingdom is Konningsberg; it is situated in N. Latitude, 54°. 46. It is a fine large city, the rampart round which, is seven English miles, it has thirty-two ravelins and eight gates. This rampart incloses several gardens, the large castle, moat, and some meadows and fields. The whole circuit of the city, is above eight English miles; the number of houses about 3800, Koningsberg properly consists of three towns, joined together, and of several suburbs. One part of the town, which is the most modern, stands on an island, formed by the Pregel, and the buildings are erected upon piles of alder, which, by length of time, are become as hard as iron. In this part stands the fine cathedral, in which is a famous organ, consisting of 5000 pipes, and finished in the year 1721.
The city is about the size of Copenhagen, has several palaces, and has seven bridges over the Pregel, (one of which consists of five arches, and is 160 feet long), and being situated at the mouth, where it discharges itself into the Frische-Haf bay; and this bay opening itself into the Baltic sea, it has a commodious port, and is a place of good trade. It lies about eighty miles east of Dantzic, has a university, twenty-five churches, fourteen of which are Lutheran, and eleven Calvinists, and a Roman Catholic church; an academy of sciences of fine arts and painting, with public libraries, fine hospitals, and many public edifices, with handsome gardens; here is also a palace built in the form of an oblong square, and the area within is 136 paces long, and 75 broad. One side has apartments for the Royal family, and the three others, are appropriated for offices of state. In one corner of the quadrangle, is a tower, having 284 steps to the top, which command a view of the whole city and country round. Here is a charitable fund, from which 800 indigent persons receive weekly pensions; besides those who are supported in alms-houses and hospitals. The city is lighted in the manner of Paris, with candles in lanthorns, hung on lines tied across the streets.
Koningsberg has always made a considerable figure in commerce, and shipping, and was formerly one of the Hans-towns. Koningsberg contains 50,000 inhabitants, and 8000 soldiers. Most of the inhabitants are German Lutherans; but here is a small colony of French Calvinists. The Polish and Lithuanian languages are here spoken.
The buildings are in a vile state, and mostly old; the city is a great collection of houses and streets, without gance beauty or order; even our grammar schools, are superior to their academies. Koningsberg has a considerable trade in hemp and flax. It is seven German miles or thirty five English, from Palaw the sea port, so that only one small vessel can come up to the town. The river is very narrow here, but there are some very pleasant gardens on its banks.
Berlin is in the marquisate of Brandenburg, pleasantly situated in a fruitful country, on the river Spree, having vineyards on one side, meadows on another, and a forest on the third, stored with all manner of game. It lies in N. latitude 52°. 30.14 degrees east of London, and 45 miles west of Frankfort upon Oder. It is the capital of the marquisate, and the residence of the King. It is divided into two parts by the river, the north part of which is properly Berlin, the southern part is called Coln, where stands the electoral palace, a magnificent, free stone structure. The town is well built, and the streets are remarkable large, wide, spacious, and well paved, with plantations of trees. Frederick-street is two English miles and a half long; others, which go off at the right angles are a mile, or a mile and a half long. The squares and public places are spacious, the whole encompassed with a wall, and a regular modern fortification. Canals being cut from this city, to the rivers Oder and Elbe, and the one falling into the Baltic, and the other into the German ocean, renders it one of the first trading towns in Germany. It may be reckoned one of the cities in Europe. It has a few, very magnificent buildings; the rest are neat houses, built with a fine white free-stone, generally one, or at most two stories high; but the finishing within, does not correspond with the elegance of the outside. Soldiers being quartered in private houses, and are generally on the ground floor looking to the street, and there being at some times near 200,000 men, here in arms, the houses are generally full of them. Of the public edifices usually visited by travellers, are the King's palace; that of his brothers; the arsenal; the churches of Notra-Dame, St. Nicolas, St. Martin's, the Romish chapel, the opera house, the equestrian statue of
Fredirick
I. &c. The front of the arsinal, which forms one side of the palace, would be extremely fine, but is loaded with ornament, similar to those on the screen of the prince of
Wales
's house in Pall-Mall. The building is full of useful arms. The Romish chapel is a very plain, heavy doric edifice, with a cupola at top, and is by far the most elegible place of worship in the city, but has a very elegant portico. The opera house, is a modern building, on a very grand scale, something like the mansion-house in London, but with considerable more depth, It has this inscription in front. FREDERICUS REX, APOLLINI ET MUSIS. The roof within is supported by pillars, which makes it a fine saloon, but they rather obstruct the scenes. It has three galleries, and is reckoned to hold, 2000 persons. The orchestre is paid by the King, and consists of fifty performers; indeed the whole expence of the opera is defrayed by the King. In the upper galleries, on each side of the stage, are six trumpeters seated, who salute the Royal family on their entrance and going out, with martial music; but the late King, would not have this compliment paid to him. The equestrian statue of
Frederick
I. is a fine performance. The horse is remarkably well executed, and there is great spirit in the attitude of the figure. It stands upon a pedestal, with four human figures, as large as life, one at each corner. This statue stands on the Pont Neuf, a new bridge built over the river Spree.
In the corner of one of the squares, is a statue of Marshal
Schwenin,
represented, holding the ensign, with which he advanced, at the famous battle of Prague. Perceiving his troops on the point of going, he seized this from the officer's hands, whose duty it was to carry it, and marched towards the enemy, calling out "Let all but cowards follow me." The troops ashamed to abandon their general, charged once more, and turned the fortune of the day. But the brave old marshal was killed in the eighty-fourth year of his age.
Instead of saints and crucifixes, the late King intended, to ornament the churches of Berlin, with the portraits of men who had been useful to the state. Those of the marshals
Schwerin, Keith, Winterfield,
and some others, are already placed in the great Lutheran church.
The most fashionable walk in Berlin, is in the middle of one of the principal streets. Before the houses on each side, there is a causway, and between these two causeways are fine gravel walks planted with lime-trees. Tents are pitched under these, and ice, lemonade, and other refreshments sold. The regimental music practice here, in the summer, and the company often walk in the evening till it is very late.
The soldiers here in garrison, are generally pretty quiet, and the police of the town is tolerably well regulated; but, there are some kind of irregularities says
Moore,
that prevail in the highest degree. Public courtezans are more numerous than in any other town in Europe, in proportion to the number of inhabitants. They appear openly at the windows in the day time, beckon to passengers as they walk in the streets, and ply for employment, in any way they please without disturbance from the magistrate. It seems to be a received opinion here, that the peace and happiness of the community, are not interrupted by this species of licentiousness; therefore no one is allowed to molest or abuse those who have chosen this way of life for a profession; and, as little attention is paid to those who frequent the chambers of these ladies, as if they stept into any other house or shop, to purchase any other commodity.
Another species of debauchery is said also to prevail in this capital, but Dr.
Moore
imagines what is said of it, is much exaggerated.
The better kind of citizens and manufacturers, live intirely among those of their own rank, and without affecting the manners of the courtiers, or stooping to the mean debauchery of the commonalty, maintain the decency, plainness, and modesty of the German church.
The society into which strangers may be admitted, in this capital, is not various or extensive. The Prussian officers of the higher ranks, whose time is not intirely engrossed, like that of their inferiors, by the duties of their profession, live mostly with their own families, or with each other. The late king did not approve of their forming intimacies with foreign ministers, or with strangers.
The entrance into Berlin, is airy and elegant; the streets are regular and clean, and the houses uniform. The number of inhabitants, are reckoned at 100,000, and there are from 12,000, to 30,000 men, always in garrison. The palace is the first object that strikes the eye of the traveller; but one of the square sides is an old building, and the wall of the grand front, being seven or eight feet thick, the rooms within do not receive sufficient light from the windows, to shew them to advantage. When
Hanway
was there in 1750, the apartments in the palace, were adorned with silver, in every shape; and so massive, that the fashion of it came to no more than seven per cent. so that 4,000,000, of dollars might be realized on any emergency; but
Marshall
tells us, that when he was there twenty years afterwards, the late King had melted down the greatest part of it, for the war expences, and that very little of it was restored. Here are pictures of
Charles
V. and his Empress, the frames of which are silver, and weighed 660lb. each, and a grand crown lustre, that weighed near a ton weight; also a music gallery in silver, and so on: but
Marshall
says, when he was there in 1760, most of the furniture for a royal palace, was very mean. There are some fine pictures, and several of
Barberini,
the celebrated female dancer. The throne in the audience chamber is velvet embroidered with gold, in a grand taste, but there is nothing extraordinary otherwise, but a bed of crimson, and a clock, which has 200 cyphers with electroral crowns, all set with pearls, and the rooms, are in the same taste. In this bed it is usual to lodge persons of the blood royal on their marriage nights.
The King's, library, would be deemed a mean apartment for a common school. It is open to the public certain hours in the day. Here is a collection of 500 bibles, of different languages and editions. Here is the first bible printed in America; one printed in 1450; the first printed in the German language, and the identical bible which
Charles
I. of England, used when he was beheaded; and presented to the elector of Brandenburg, by Doctor
Juxlen.
The cabinet of curiosites, has among other things, two cannon balls, which meeting in the air, the warmth of the iron, (or perhaps being made red hot) with the violence of the motion, united them together. An oak with stags horns. The stag having been hunted with great violence, ran his horns into a young tree, and there expired; and the tree growing, the horns at length appeared, as a natural production.
In 1750 the late King, was preparing several amusements, for the entertainment of
Frederick
marquis of
Barrille,
who married his eldest sister, the most distinguished of which was the carnival, and the expences amounted to 70,000 crowns. This entertainment consisted of quadrilles, or four companies, in the dresses of Romans, Carpathians, Grecians and Persians; all mounted on horses richly caparisoned, in the same manner; each party being composed of six combatants. The first was conducted by the prince of Prussia; the other three, by his two brothers, and the marquis, the King's cousin. They had also the arms of the several nations, and were followed each by a band of music, proper to the respective countries; and habited and attended, after the same manner. The procession of the whole, made a splendid shew; but to Mr.
Hanway,
who was present, it was only of a theatrical kind, for he saw but little of the pride and beauty of horses or horsemanship, nor was the area alotted for the entertainment, half large enough. What rendered the first trial ridiculous, was, its being exhibited by the light of lamps, the greater part of which, was blown out by the wind. However, the next exhibition, of these tilts and tournaments, was in broad day; and the prizes were allotted to those who were judged to perform best; without any other bloodshed, than that of one of the princes cutting his toe with his own sword.
A mock battle was afterwards fought, which was incomparably a more grand entertainment. Four thousand men being marched out in the morning early, about a German mile from the city, near the village Britz, were followed by another detachment, of the same number. The hussars and cuirassiers had several skirmishes in the way. Both armies plied their field artillery warmly; at length a rivulet was passed, a wood was attacked, and the enemy driven from it to a village, which was carried sword in hand. After this, they went through all the various evolutions, and exercises, of both cavalry and infantry, as might be supposed in a real engagement, changing their position, on a tract of about two English miles, during the space of three hours. At this show almost the whole city of Berlin was present. There are sometimes reviews here of 30,000 men, and there manoeuvres will continue three days. Dr.
Moore
was at one of these.
Berlin, by strangers, has been called a little Paris, the French language, being almost as well understood, as the German. The city abounds in elegant structures, and is computed near one third as large as London, yet not containing above one eighth part of the inhabitants; from whence it may easily be accounted, why grass is found growing in many of their capital streets. The whole of this city, bespeaks but little variety. It is about four miles and a half long, and about three miles broad; but within this inclosure, are many gardens, and some fields, but not more than 6000 houses, whereas in Paris, there are near 30,000. The emptiness of many places, is a singular contrast to the magnificence of the buildings; nor is the contrast of this magnificence, with the circumstances of the people, less striking. Whilst you are gazing at the beauty of a building, in the first style of architecture, finely stuccoed, with a magnificent front, and all the outward appearance of a ducal residence; on a sudden, a window shall open on the lower story, and a cobler shall bring out a pair of boots, and hang them up under your nose, to dry the leather. Lost in wonder at this phenomenon, the second story window shall open, and a breeches-maker shall treat the eye, with a pair of new washed breeches; soon after this, another window shall open, in the same story, and a taylor shall hang out a waistcoat, or some woman shall throw fil
h upon his head. A little further on, a palace of the Corinthian order shall strike the eye, and you shall suppose it belonging to some prince of the blood. Scarce have your wandering eyes reached the top, but you are saluted by a Jew, who asks you, if you have any thing to swop; then cast your eyes a flight lower, and behold, shirts hanging to dry, belonging to an officer, who is shaving himself, and whom you would hardly conceive to have two shirts belonging to him. You may walk on through two or three streets of the same kind, till you arrive at the house of a general officer, known by the centinel at the door; but you see neither porter, nor footman, nor any thing of that train of attendants so visible at Vienna.
Riesbec,
tells us, that the inns throughout Berlin, are little better than the bignios in London; that they keep lists of ladies in their neighbourhood, who are seated according to their prices; and that a servant is always waiting at hand to fetch them. The landlords are very imposing, and every thing is exceedingly dear; six
r seven livres is paid for a bottle of bad Burgundy, and a certain measure of wood, that costs but a trifle at Paris, is sold for a guinea and a half; though Brandenburg is full of woods. But
Marshall
says, he had as good private lodgings for fifteen shillings a week, as he could have in London for thirty-five.
FRED. II. K. OF PRUSSIA & VOLTAIRE
The person who shewed the palace, when Dr.
Moore
was at Potsdam, in the late King's reign; asked him, if he had any desire to see the King's wardrobe. This consisted, of two blue coats, faced with red, the lining of one, a little torn; two yellow waistcoats, a good deal soiled with Spanish snuff; three pair of yellow breeches, and a suit of velvet, embroidered with gold for grand occasions. The velvet suit he had had ten years, and was in good condition.
As I have given a drawing, of
Frederick
II. in his study with Voltaire, and the likeness of both is wonderfully preserved, it may not be amiss to describe his dress, which is seldom observed. It consisted of a blue coat lined and faced with red, and yellow waistcoat and breeches. He always wore boots with hussar tops, which fell in wrinkles about his ancles, and were oftener brown than black.
His hat would be thought extraordinary large in Engand, though it is of the size commonly worn by the Russian officers of cavalry. He generally wore one of the large side corners on his forehead and eyes, and the front cock at one side. His hair was alway
cued behind, and dressed on each side with a single curl, and seldom was it well dressed. He had constantly in his hand a very large gold snuff-box, ornamented with diamonds, and took an immoderate quantity of Spanish snuff, which was scattered about his waistcoat and breeches; and these were often marked with the paws of two or three Italian grey-hounds, which he frequently caressed.
In the old chamber, where the late King died, at the lower part of the window, which looks into the garden, four panes have been removed, and a piece of glass, equal in size with the four, supplies its place. The King's extreme delight through life, had been to see his troops exercise, and he retained this passion till his last breath. When he was confined to his room, by his last illness, he used to sit and view them through the window, which had been thus formed for the purpose. Becoming gradually weaker by his increasing disorder, he could not sit, but was obliged to lie on a couch the whole day. When at any time, he was uncommonly languid, his head was raised to the window, and a sight of the men under arms, was perceived to operate like a cordial, and recover his spirits. By frequent repetition, however, even this lost its effect; his eyes became dim; when his head was raised, he could no longer perceive the soldiers, and he expired. This was feeling the ruling passion as strong in death, as any man ever felt it!
In the garden are many rich statues of a great size, particularly a Neptune and Amphitrite, erected on a sea-car, in a large bason, opposite the east front of the palace. The stables are adjoining, and are well furnished with good English hunters. Near the town is a number of vineyards.
Towns, generally, are formed by degrees, as the inhabitants increase in number; and houses are built larger, and more commodious, as they increase in wealth. But here the matter is reversed. The houses are built first, and beautifully so, to entice the people; but notwithstanding this, few towns are worse inhabited, though the houses are let to merchants and tradesmen, at low rents. The houses here are chiefly uniform, all new, and of one height; several streets have been built at once, at the King's expence. The streets are regular and well paved, and here are some magnificent public buildings. Thus externally Potsdam wears a respectable appearance, but it is internally, like the houses at Berlin. The finishing of the buildings, furniture and conveniencies are poor indeed!
At Potsdam are quartered the King's guards, who are about 2000 men, of great stature and comliness, well cloathed, and distinguished by silver-laced hats, and black cockades.
About an English mile from Potsdam, is the palace of Sans-Souci, which presents the eye with a remarkable fine prospect. It is built on the top of a desolate mountain, with great taste both within and without. The offices are at a considerable distance, and are joined to the body of the palace (now completely finished,) by a double colonade, which has a grand effect. The front of the palace seems rather crowded, by a great number of statues, designed to ornament it, these are chiefly in groups, representing some story from Ovid. This mountain is cut into six terraces, to each of which we ascend by twelve steps, and against the walls on each terrace, are planted the best vines, and are kept under glass cases. On the upper part of the mountain, which affords an agreeable view of the town and its vicinage, stands the palace, it is small and only one story high, yet, on account of its regularity, elegance, and ornaments, consisting of the greatest master-pieces in sculpture, painting, and other arts, is admirable. The statues from the cabinet of antiquites, formerly in the possession of Cardinal
Polignac,
are deposited here. In the centre of this palace, is a round hall, lined with marble, whose magnificent columns, excellent paintings, and beautiful marble-floor, disposed in the form of flowers, in the Florentine manner, strikes the eye very agreeably. On the top is a cupola that gives it light, terminated by a large crown, supported by the three graces. One of the apartments in the palace is wainscoted with cedar, and ornamented with flowers of gold, and here is a small library. Behind the palace is a semicircular passage, adorned on each side with columns, and three sides of the whole is surrounded with fine gardens, but which have nothing extraordinary, except some fine pieces of statuary, done by
Nancie
of Paris, particularly Venus drawing a net, and Diana with game; the pedestals of which are in relievo. The garden is about half an English mile in length, terminated by an Egyptian pyramid. Here is very little turf and no gravel, the sandy walks robbing the place of half its beauty. What it wants in beauty, however, is made up in respect, for no one in the late King's life, was suffered to walk in it with a sword on, on any pretence; nor did the King himself ever wear one in that retreat.
Potsdam was the favourite residence of the late king, where he avoided the empty ceremonies of a court, and where he sat down to table with twelve persons, inviting even his ensigns in rotation. His bed, at Sans-Souci, was in a small niche, consisting only of two matrasses, under the cover of a down quilt, without the least common ornament, or mark of grandeur.
Dantzic is a famous commercial city and sortress, situated on the Vistula, about five miles from the Baltic. It is a sea port town, and has two small rivers running through it. It is a large, populous, and beautiful city, one of the Hanse-towns, and built according to the ancient manner of those towns: but most of the streets are narrow, owing to the galleries of the houses, by which we enter them, projecting ten or twelve feet into the streets. To these galleries there is an ascent by a footstep; they stand even with the houses, and under most of them are good vaults, or cellars.
The city has a beautiful harbour, carries on a considerable trade, especially in corn. The ships belonging to this port are very numerous, and the privileges of the city are of great importance. As the third great city, it sends representatives to the Prussian senate, or council of state, who have likewise a seat in the general diet of Poland, and vote at the election of a king of Poland. It has also the privilege of coining money, gathering amber, &c. This place was subject to the crown of Poland, as was also the city of Thorn; but the late king of Prussia, by no other right than what a powerful army confers on every tyrant, seized upon them, with the countries on the Vistula, the Niester, and other territories contiguous to his own dominions.
The chief burghers, of which there are one hundred, are stiled nobles, and the city was anciently the principal of the Hanse-towns, being one of the first that entered into, that association. It was a considerable place in 997. It has its own garrison, and the fortifications make a good appearance; especially towards the South and West, which parts are surrounded with mountains and eminences; some of these hills being higher than the city towers.
According to the bills of mortality, in 1752, 1846 persons died here. In the same year, 1288 Polish vessels, small and great, from the Vistula, and 1014 ships from the sea arrived at this port, and 58,060 lasts of corn were brought here for exportation. This will give some idea of its population and commerce.
In this city are twelve Lutheran churches, two Calvinistic churches, and one Papist church. The inhabitants are chiefly Protestants, yet the city standing in the papist diocese of Cujaira, is subject to pay pecuniary impositions, upon every frivolous pretence. One of the churches is a Lutheran cathedral, and the first preacher is called
senior Ministerii;
the rest are equal in dignity, but two of them must be doctors in divinity. Here is also a Lutheran academy, with seven professors, and one teacher of the Polish language; though this language is but little used, the inhabitants chiefly speaking German. There is an open library, some publick buildings, and a remarkable water-mill on the river Radaune, with eighteen wheels, which is said to bring in the proprietors ten shillings every hour. Without the walls of the city are a number of small towns belonging to it, and a territory between twelve and fifteen miles round. One of these towns, is that of Oliva, so celebrated for the peace concluded in it. Here is an abbey and a convent. The peace I allude to, was between the Emperor, and the kings of Poland and Sweden.
Charles
s
vus,
king of Sweden, dying during the ratification, all the great conquests made by him, were restored to the crown of Poland: the particulars of this peace, which happened in the year 1617, are engraved on a black marble monument. The Abbot's revenues amounted to £5,000 a year, but the king of Prussia besieged the whole, and allotted him a pension, for life of 550l. and about a fourth of that sum to keep his fine garden in order.
Wraxhall
tells us, on incontestible authority, that the King confiscated the estates of a great number, of Polish nobles, and reduced their families from a revenue of 100,000 ducats, each ducat, nine shillings and three pence, English, to absolute indigence. The city was crouded with Polish nobility, who on that seisure of territory, abandoned their torn and bleeding country, to take refuge in it; but the king of Prussia, having threatened to seize all their estates, unless they returned; they were under the necessity of complying.
In the great church at Dantzic, is a vast pillar hollowed, which they say was anciently used to immure ecclesiastics, guilty of heinous crimes. They let persons down into it, by a rope, and it is forty feet deep; the square dimensions within, about seven feet.
Dantzic, though much superior to Koningsberg, is neither elegant, nor handsome, it very much resembles Hamburgh, both in the loftiness of the houses, the manner of building them, and the narrowness of the streets; they are however much cleaner than any other in this part of the world, but its neatness is not carried to that length it is in Holland. The principal streets are planted on each side in the Dutch way with wild chesnuts, about thirty feet high; the city is not large, not exceeding three miles in circuit, but fortified with a wall and double ditch. Two thousand soldiers would be scarce sufficient to garrison this place, but they have not 700 men, and those neither in discipline, arms, or ammunition, equal to the same number of any regular, European forces.
Dantzic, says
Marshall,
has strength to resist no one but the Poles. They have an arsenal full of useful arms, and they talk of possessing two or three hundred pieces of cannon, but a great train of artillery may be as insignificant, as these at Dantzic are, and be considered as a magazine of match-locks.
The commerce of this place, is the only subject worth attention, possessing as they say, sixteen parts out of twenty of all the trade of Poland, owing to the river Vistula, and all its branches, which spread through a vast extent of that kingdom, and are navigable almost where ever they go. They export, wheat some years, to the amount, says
Marshall,
of five, six, or 700,000 pounds; and once, the amount rose to 1,240,000l. but since the troubles of Poland, the trade has much declined. All the corn comes in sloops, and flat-bottomed barges, carrying from thirty, to sixty tons and more, and wholly on account of the landlords, who are all nobles, in virtue of their possessing lands. It is raised on their estates, by their peasants. The barges are their own, and the watermen are their own vassals. It is sold to merchants at Dantzic, who lodge it in granaries built for the purpose, seven, or eight stories high. Their boats carry back to their owners, all the commodities and manufactures they have occasion for. Iron from Sweden, East-India goods supplied by the Dutch, brandy, limes, and West-India commodities, by the French. The trade of England with Dantzic, is very inconsiderable, owing to our not taking off any part of her commodities.
Hanway
says, the inhabitants of Dantzic are much more agreeable than the place itself. The women are much like the English in their stature, countenance and air, they have the reputation of being handsome, and indeed are so; the bad ones make a market of their beauty, in the worst manner, in the neighbouring empires, where they are remarkably eminent in a profession, which is apt to convert beauty into deformity, and health into disease. Women of distinction, affect the manner of the Poles, so that the most respectful way of saluting a lady, is to kiss her hand, unless you chuse to stoop, as do the Poles, to the hem of her petticoat.
There is an English factory here. Within the double works, which defend the town, is a spacious walk, and a road for coaches. In the outer part is a hillock, under which are deposited the bodies of near 5000 Russians, who, in one morning, fell by an obstinate attack, commanded by Count
Munich.
The Dantzickers, in 1734, having espoused the cause of
Stanislaus,
king of Poland, in his contest with
Augustus,
elector of Saxony, procu
ed the assistance of 10,000 Troops. The Russians, under the command of Count
Munich,
made a desperate and injudicious attack upon the Dantzickers, and were cut to pieces.
The ancient city of Magdeburg, is situated in 52 deg▪ odd min. n. lat. and 70 miles west of Berlin; it is the capital of the duchy of that name, the seat of the provincial regency, the consistory, the war and demesne office, and one of the most principal trading towns in all Germany; it lies on the river Elbe, is strongly fortified, and among other works has a citadel in the island of the river.
Magdeburg is well built, particularly the broad street, which makes a grand appearance, though the principal beauty of the town, consists in its cathedral-square ornamented with large elegant houses, and its area well paved. Among the most remarkable edifices here, are the King's palace, which was anciently the residence of the bishops, and is now converted into public offices. The Lutheran cathedral here, is a superb structure in the antique taste; it was finished in the year 1323, is two hundred and eight ells long, the same in height, and fifty-five ells broad; it is wholly built of free-stone, and contains many curiosities such as a stone, basso-relievo of the wise and foolish virgins, the former smiling, and the latter disconsolate; a number of relics not much regarded; an altar, with a table of jasper, eighteen feet long, two thick, and eight broad, valued at two tons of gold; a porphyry font, a large stone said to be one of the water-pots, in which our
Saviour,
turned water into wine; an old wooden slipper of the Virgin Mary's; a piece of wood, on which the cock stood, that crowed on
Peter's
denying our Saviour; the bason
Pilate
washed his hands in, and many others.
Magdeburg has, from time immemorial, enjoyed the staple: in this town is also a variety of manufactures, woollen cloths, stuffs, cottons, linens, stockings, hats, beautiful leather-gloves, tobacco, snuff, &c. being very advantageous to trade, from its communication with Hamburgh by the Elbe, and lying on the road, between upper and lower Germany. It is the strongest place, belonging to the King of Prussia, and where his principal magazines and founderies are established. In time of war it is the repository of whatever he finds necessary to place out of the reach of sudden attack. The country between Magdeburg, and Brandenburg, within two leagues of the former, is well cultivated and fertile, but at a greater distance, it is as naked and sandy as the desarts of Arabia.
Places where any extraordinary event has happened, even though they should have nothing else to distinguish them, interest a philosophical traveller, more, than the most flourishing country or finest town, which has never been the scene of any thing memorable.
In this city
Luther
records his education, and they still shew the remains of his chamber, among the ruins of the cloister of the Augustine-friars, with his bedstead and table, and on the door, are certain words in high Dutch, which a modern writer has thus rendered into English rhyme.
Luther
lodg'd within this little room,
When first he did into the cloister come, &c.
The ancient city was of a very large circumference, but having been destroyed by Count
Tilly,
the Imperial general, after a brave defence, in the year 1631, it is now scarce half rebuilt. Of 40,000 inhabitants, which this town then contained,
Tilly
caused every one to be massacred, on account of their adhering to the Lutheran doctrine; to the amount of 20,000 citizens, four hundred only excepted, who saved themselves, by swimming across the river, nor did he leave a church or house standing, except the cathedral, and some few fishermen's cottages. In this act of general massacre, such acts of wanton cruelty were exhibited, as disgrace human nature.
The city of Breslaw, being the capital, of the duchy of Silesia, I shall reserve, till I speak of that part of the Prussian dominions.
CHAP. III.
Of the People, Amusement, Religion, &c.
WHEN the late king came to the crown, his own territories contained at least 2,200,000 inhabitants; Brandenburg had 600,000, Prussia, 60,000 Pomerania, 300,000, Magdeburg and Halberstadt, 300,000, and his Westphalian dominions at least, 400,000. His income consisted of at least, 12,000,000 of
lorins.
As the Prussian population does not bear any proportion to the size of the country, and as that is not yet all cultivated, the number of people is susceptible of a great increase. The King's own revenue now is about 30 millions of florins, that is about 370,833l. English. His civil list is incredibly small, and his first ministers appointments are only, 15,000 florins.
Riesbec
says, he has observed no where, throughout the whole Prussian dominions, so much poverty as in the two cities of Berlin and Potsdam. The high price of the necessaries of life in these places, the great number of idle people, the small pay of many civil and military servants, the pinching way in which many of the smaller nobility live, who must have their servants, and the great luxury of dress, may be the causes of it. The equal distribution of the coin among many people, makes the sum not so striking, as it is in other places, in which a nobleman ruins the property of a hundred of his poor countrymen by his dissipation, There are no persons in the Prussian dominions, some of the large nobles in Silesia only excepted, who possess above 30,000 guilders income, in landed estates. Indeed we cannot find more than three houses, which have 20,000 florins, but still the inhabitants are as remote from extreme poverty, as from excessive riches, and there are as few beggars here, as in any other country in Europe.
Since the year 1719, it is computed that 24,000 colonists have settled here, emigrants from Germany, France, and Switzerland, and these Colonists, in Little Lithuania, have erected, four hundred villages, eleven towns, eighty-six seats, and fifty new churches.
The Prussian nobility are mostly descended from the ancient Germans, and most of the peasants are vassals either to the king, or the nobles.
The customs and manners of the people are so similar to those of the Germans in general, that as we shall have occasion to speak of them hereafter, it will be needless to enter on them here at large. I will only mention a few particulars.
On entering the Prussian garrison towns, you are stopped at the gate; the officer of the guard asks your name, whence you came, and where you are going, and takes it down in writing. When the title of Duke, is given in as the name, the guard is turned out under arms, not so for my Lord, being a title treated with very little ceremony either in France or Germany, and often assumed by those who have no right to it, and given to every Englishman, of a decent appearance. But Duke, in Germany, implies a sovereign, and is more respectable than Prince.
The French manners and turn of thinking, prevail very little among the Prussian officers, but the ladies of the court of Berlin, have greatly the air of the French. Though the late king could not endure the company of a woman, the ladies here, are by no means neglected by the men in general. Many of the married women particularly, have a crowd of admirers who attend them upon all occasions, are invited with them to all entertainments, sit next them at table, and whom the master or mistress of the house, takes care to place together, at the same card-table. When a lady is not provided with an attendant of this kind, her husband, as well as herself, is generally a little out of countenance, and both seem rather in an awkward situation.
In this country, when both parties are willing, and there are no children, a divorce may be obtained with very little trouble or expence, and we are frequently in company, where a lady, her present and former husband are at table, and all parties behave in the most polite and friendly manner to each other.
Dr.
Moore
tells a pleasant, story of a gentleman, who having lived in a state of domestic jarring with his wife, got her perswaded to concur with him, in applying for a divorce. It was soon obtained. He married again, a woman with whom he was violently in love; and expected, as usual, endless happiness. After marriage this passion cooled rather sooner than common, and within a few months he became the professed admirer of his first wife. He now saw a thousand charms in her person and conversation, which had entirely escaped his notice, whilst the bonds of wedlock subsisted. He also discerned that certain peculiarities in her manner, which he formerly thought exceedingly aukward, were in reality graceful. He expressed his remorse for his former blindness, in the most pathetic terms; the lady was softened and at last gave the most perfect marks of forgiveness, and it was universally thought, that he thus contrived to live in adultery, with the very woman, to whom he had been lawfully married.
Here jealousy is held in equal contempt, and detestation, and scandal is very little known. People seem so fully occupied with their own private affairs, that they seldom trouble their heads about the business of their neighbours. If, in the course of conversation, an intimacy of a particular kind is hinted at, between people of different sexes, it is mentioned accidently as a fact of no importance, and without the smallest blame, or ill-natured reflections on either of the parties. One reason of this may be, that there is scarce such a thing as an old maid, throughout all Russia.
Some of the amusements of Berlin, I have mentioned, but none delighted
Reisbec
more, than the parkwalks on the south side of the Sprey, I have never yet, says he, seen a finer public walk: the varied beauties of the woods, alleys, groves, and wilderness, beggar all description. It is above three miles round and has water sufficient to give more life than there is in the walks of much larger cities.
In this park, on a Sunday, you see Berlin in all its glory. It is to the people of this place, what St. James park is to London, and the Thuilleries to Paris, only the mixture of the company is much more striking, as you find all the populace, and all the great world here. You ride or walk through, without any molestation. In some parts of the park, you see rows of ladies magnificently dressed, sitting together, and have the freedom of staring them full in the face, and comparing them to one another: you also meet with most of the literati of the place, at stated times, and there are refreshments of every kind provided.
The opera is open only in winter, and it is reckoned one of the best in Europe, but there is no theatre, except an indifferent German one. The manager seems to have some very singular opinions. He places the strength of his company in the number of his actors, and appears to distribute the parts among them by lot. Among fifty performers there is scarce a tolerable one, and his wardrobe is of a piece with the rest. Absurdity upon absurdity; the theatre is so small that the spectators are obliged to take care that the clouds above them do not entangle with their hair; trees are scarce big enough for walking sticks, and so poverty-struck are the players, that they are scarce able to move their hands or arms, the salaries paid them not being more than from 6 or 8 guilders a week; less pay than our strolling companies, are not calculated to give them strength. Their forte consequently consists in fainting away, which is only excelled by themselves in their dying. Dying is the principal excellence of a German actor, and when he knows how to give life to his death, by beginning the convulsions in his feet, he is sure of the applause of a German pit.
Though the inhabitants of Berlin, including the German are about 142,000 persons, it is not able to keep up a good company of players. This is entirely owing to want of spirit in the manager, who suffers half his company to starve, and plays in a building, which, in any other city, would be looked on as a barn.
The distinction between the Prussian and the Austrian character, is not more manifest than in their theatres. Two companies of comedians can scarce find existence throughout all the fine cities of Prussia; whereas in Austria, there is a theatre in every small town. This difference is not owing to difference of fortunes, for there is much more money in Prussia then in Austria, though no single house in the former has an income of 50,100, or even 200,000 guilders. There is an appearance of care amid the middle classes of the inhabitants of the Prussian towns, which is not seen through Austria, The only difference consists in the greater industry of the Prussians and the frugality inseparable from it. The knowledge and manners found among the inhabitants of the Prussian provinces put them in possession of better pleasures, then are to be met with in the theatre, the dancing-booth and the cellar. In the smallest Prussian villages, more happiness is met with than in many large states in Austria, and there is much more good done by private persons in the former, than in any of the latter.
With regard to the sciences and literature of all kinds, Berlin is, doubtless, one of the first cities in the world; it is obliged to the late king, for its pre-eminence, who established a freedom of thinking, not to be met with in any other country, out of England. This king had an academy of men of learning, and there is no state where the public ministers, and effective counsellors, are such chosen men, that there is hardly one but would be a wonderful writer in his own line: there is scarce a single character of eminence but who is well acquainted with the best French, English, and Italian writers. An advantage which neither the English, French, or Italians can dispute with them.
There is a university at Koningsberg under good regulations, and in a flourishing state; and some provincial schools.
The religion of this country, is the Lutheran; but as great numbers of the colonists, are Calvinists, they have also their churches, not only in the cities and towns, but in many of the villages. There are but two or three Popish churches throughout Prussia. Indeed the free exercise of every religion, is allowed all over the Prussian dominions. Here are no bishopricks, but all ecclesiastical matters are referred to the consistories at Koningsberg and Saalfield, which are something like the presbyteries in the kirk of Scotland. The churches in every haupt-amt, or district, is subject to an arch-presbyter or inspector.
CHAP. IV.
Of their Trade, Manufactures, and Government.
THE manufactures in Prussia are daily improving and increasing, particularly the glass and iron-works; paper, powder, copper and brass mills; manufactures of cloth, camlet, linen, silk, stockings &c. Prussia, is very conveniently situated for trade; a college for commerce and navigation has been erected, which has the cognizance of all cases in, and settles all disputes relative to, trade and commerce.
The commodities of Prussia, and Great Lithuania, sold to foreign merchants, and annually exported, are all kinds of grain, pine-trees for masts, deal boards and other timber, tar, wood-ashes, pot-ash, elk-skins, leather, firs, amber, 12,500 stone of wax, honey, grass, manna, linseedoil, flax, hemp, linseed, and hemp-seed, 4000 sacks of the former, 700 of the latter; yarn, hogs bristles, stags horns, elks, horses, oatmeal, mead, dried fish, sturgeon, caviar, lampreys, butter, and about 3400 stone of tallow.
The number of foreign ships, that resort here for lading, annually, are about 550, which import wine, salt, spice, linen, cloth and other woollen, stuffs, herrings, tin, copper, lead, tobacco, sugar, rice, coffee and other grocery, and Koningsberg is the great market.
The Silesia linens are famous all over the world, and the Silesia forests afford a great deal of wood for shipbuilding. The Ville de Paris, taken from the French on the celebrated 12th of August, was wholly built of Silesia wood.
So many thousand of French manufacturers having found protection in this country, gold and silver lace, and wrought silks are hardly to be bought in any place so cheap. They talk of prohibiting those of France. The environs of Berlin produce annually 400lb weight of raw silk. The King has indeed taken the manufactory into his own hands, with a view of increasing it.
The late king having kept his eye on the importation of luxuries into his dominions, making it a rule always to lay an excise on rich luxuries, in proportion to their increase, has always kept down the foreign trade, but on the other hand it increased the industry of his subjects, a demonstrative proof of this is the astonishing increase of towns and people. No country in Europe of the same size, has doubled its population, as Prussia has done, within the space of 50 years.
Before I speak of their government, I will present my readers with a short abstract of their history. They are called
Porussi
or Prussians, being close neighbours of the Russians.
Po
signifies neighbouring. We hear of the Prussians in the tenth century, but the Teutonic knights, who made religion a cloak for their ambitious views, and committed the most inhuman barbarities, under pretence of propagating the gospel of peace, extirpated the native Prussians in 1309, and planted the Germans, their countrymen, in their stead. In 1454, one half of Prussia revolted from the the Teutonic order, and declared for Cassimir III. king of Poland. This occasioned fresh effusions of blood, till in 1466, it was settled that one part of Prussia, should continue under the King's protection, and that the Teutonic knights should retain the other; and after fresh commotions, it was agreed in 1525, that the margrave, grand-master of the Teutonic order, should be duke, or sovereign of the eastern part of Russia, as a fief of Poland. This new duke introduced the reformed religion in 1544.
Ducal Prussia, now the kingdom, was added to the house of Brandenburg, by the elector Joachim, it having been closely connected long before and the elector taking part with the Poles, against the Swedes, was acknowledged by Poland in 1657, as an independent duke.
Frederick,
his son in 1701, raised the duchy to a kingdom, and crowned himself with his own hands.
Frederick
II. his grandson, the late king, annexed to his dominions the greatest part of Silesia, and East Friezland, and all Polish Prussia, by the late partition.
The royal arms are a displayed eagle, and the King's titles are King of Prussia, Margrave of Brandenburg, Duke of Silesia, Arch-chamberlain, and Prince, Elector of the holy Roman Empire, sovereign Prince of Orange, Neufchatel, &c. &c.
There are here two orders, that of the Black Eagle, instituted by the first king, a broad orange-coloured ribbon and a silver star; and the order of Merit, instituted by the late king, viz: a golden star, enamelled with blue, worn appendant to a black ribbon, edged with silver.
The five members of the royal court of regency, which superintends the whole kingdom, whether political, civil, or ecclesiastical, are all privy-counsellors, or ministers of state and war, and these five have two secretaries. There are, besides, two chambers of war and demesnes, one of Koningsberg, the other of Gumbinnen, which have the direction of the revenue, &c.
The late king established a reputation on the surest foundation, by that bold and generous stroke in politics, in delivering his country from the jaws of lawyers, who before his time, at least in Brandenburg, sported with the wretched. In Prussia the decision of causes, cannot be protracted. Suits in Brandenburg are now brought to a speedy issue at an easy expence.
Exclusive of the crown-lands, mines, manufactures, and other royal revenues, the finance system rests on the taxes and customs, which are forty per cent. The land-tax, is about nine shillings in the pound. These taxes are certainly high, but such is the regularity of government, and so little oppression is met with from revenue-officers, that the people are, nevertheless, happy, for they are very industrious, and industry will always accumulate wealth.
Though the King's revenues do not exceed a million and a half sterling, apparently a small sum in England, yet, considering the difference in the value of money, and the uncommon exertions of oeconomy unequalled in any other court, it is as good as five millions with us. The late king, by a ballance of trade in his favour, annually laid by 100,000l. as much as the new buildings, the payment of his troops and the improvements in his country, cost.
The incomes of the Prussian princes are by no means scanty. Every prince has 50,000 rubles (each ruble four shillings and sixpence) a year, settled on him as soon as of age, and the King's brother, and hereditary prince have estates and incomes, to the amount of 350,000 livres a year, each livre ten pence-halfpenny English. At Berlin, though money is more scarce than at London, or Paris, a stranger will find very little difference in the common expence of living.
The spirit of the government is not favourable to great and independant lords, for indeed all landlords are prevented from oppressing their peasants. As the soldiery are drawn from them, care is taken that they shall not be deprived of the chief source of health and vigour, and there is no peasantry in Europe better fed than the Russians.
The Prussian state, considered as a state, is the richest in Europe; and it is absolutely impossible, that it ever should be exposed to any inconvenience, from the want of money; its system of finance being established on such solid foundations, that it any future king, was to think of introducing a change, it would over-turn the whole. The bank-bills of Berlin are bought up with avidity. No one thinks they will ever lose their credit. The Dutch are very happy when this bank will take their money. The late king and his father, solved the three most difficult problems of state that exist, and history affords no examples of their having been solved so quickly, so happily, and so universally, as they have been by these princes. They made a lazy, stupid, and prodigal people, industrious, active, and alert; they gave to a country, which had been entirely neglected by nature, a value which many, of the most highly favoured countries have not, and they placed a small nation in a situation, not only to vanquish in
a favourable moment,
all the combined forces of Europe, but to be able
at any time
to measure swords with the ablest of them, singly.
CHAP. V.
Of the Army.
PRUSSIA has no navy, but her military forces, especially in the reign of the late king, have been no less formidable for their discipline than by their number. And it may be asserted with great truth, that for a fine appearance, military discipline and activity, the Prussian army has not its equal in the world. The corps of cadets at Berlin, is a nursery for good officers. The number of troops in the pay of the King of Prussia, is generally computed at 120,000, half of which are foreigners. He has a body of eighty squadrons of Hussars, each squadron 130 men, fine, comely, youthful, strong, and well-shaped figures. The arms of these men are a light musket and sabre: their cloathing, a coarse, red cloth, made close to their bodies, and strengthened at the elbows, by leather, in the shape of a heart; their breeches are, a well-dressed sheep skin; their boots, short and light, but the soles of them durable; their caps so stout, as to stand a cut.
Besides these Hussars, the King has a small body of men called Hunters, reputed the most faithful couriers in his pay, and are often promoted for their fidelity, in arduous enterprises. These with a single ball, are very dextrous marksmen, and are employed to pick out the officers from the men. When these hunters are taken, no quarter is granted on either side.
The Prussian soldiers are remarkable for their short cloathing, and their elbows being covered with leather, a soldier is never seen the least in rags; on the contrary in cleanliness of person, they all appear like gentlemen.
The Kings guards, and some few other regiments, are cloathed yearly; but, in general, the army has new regimentals only twice in three years. They wear white linen spatterdashes in summer, and black, in winter. In summer their breeches are dimity, and in winter, white woollen: their hair is pig-tailed behind and always powdered, when on duty.
The hats of the foot-soldiers and grenadiers caps are small; they carry their cartouch-box higher than other troops, but their arms are heavier then common. They are kept so remarkable clean, that a soldier can hardly find time to be idle or wicked. They go through their exercise twice a day, and when the weather is bad, they are under cover.
None but the natives of Brandenburg, are employed in any other than military duty, but these in time of peace may, by rotation, follow their respective employs. In summer-time, bodies of cavalry are sent into the field, which are on the look-out to prevent disertion and robberies on the roads. These detachments are computed at 100 men each, and a watch-guard of two men is placed at certain distances on the roads, near their body.
The pay of a common soldier is eight grosch a week. This is fourteen pence English, and his bread. Of this pay three pence is stopped for washing, and materials to clean his arms. Upon this calculation 120,000 men cost but 364,000£. but if we include their bread, cloathing and the pay of officers, it does not much exceed a million sterling. In disciplining the men, the corporals, will, let a fellow be ever so thick-headed, tell him with patience a thousand times; but when once he knows his business, if he fails afterwards, they correct him with a stick.
Wonderful as the Prussian infantry is, in point of discipline and exactness, the cavalry infinitely surpasses them. The English even think that the Prussian army goes beyond all that can be conceived of it. Immense sums are spent upon the cavalry, and horses are sent for as far as Tartary. They ride always full gallop, and yet their evolutions are as exact as any of the infantry. The cavalry are above 80,000 strong, and every year are supplied with 5000 fresh horses. They are accustomed to charge in large bodies, and in full speed.
But the cuirasiers are the flower of the Prussian army; these are dressed in buff coats, and wear very heavy iron breast-plates, which cover all the front part of the body, and are proof against a musket-shot. The infantry, on every attack, are ordered, to shout, from an opinion that it keeps up the spirits of the men, and prevents them from reflecting on their danger. For the same reason, the Prussian regiments have a greater proportion of drummers than those in the service of other states.
Of the officers no one in 20 is a foreigner, and they are all men of high birth, and must have served as cadets. The subalterns have but small pay, but they have the greatest alacrity, and the finest martial appearance.
CHAP. VI.
Of the Duchy of Silesia.
THE duchy of Silesia is divided between the two crowns, that of Bohemia, and that of Prussia; but the greatest part of it is in the dominions of Prussia, taken from the Queen of Hungary, and ceded to the King of Prussia, in 1744. This territory consists of 19 principalities, and contains about 650 geographical square miles.
Silesia terminates to the east on Poland, where the country is level and open. On the south it is separated from Hungary by a chain of mountains, and a wild thicket, in some parts a German mile wide, which both Crowns have claimed, but which is still disputed, and of course remains as a barrier. In the south and west, Silesia is bounded by a chain of hills, for height and extent some of the most remarkable in Europe. In these mountains and all over that part of upper Silesia, lying towards Moravia and Hungary, the winter sets in earlier and is of longer continuance, and much more severe than in the levels. In those very months, when at the foot of some of these mountains every thing is covered with ice and snow; the trees at Breslau in winter are in full verdure. The inhabitants of the mountains are not only confined to their houses by the snows, though in latitude 50 and 51; but like the Laplanders, and people of Carniola, use a kind of scates, by which they travel over the snows with amazing swiftness. In the principality of Glogau, and beyond the Oder, towards Poland, there are very extensive lands, but the deficiency of good crops there is amply supplied, by the fertility of the other, and larger parts of Silesia, which exclusive of wheat, rye, barley and oats, yields, maize or barley, wheat, spelt, buck-wheat, millet, linseed, peas, and beans. The culinary herbs about Breslau Brieg, Neyze, Frankenstein, and Lignitz, are excellent and the neighbourhood of Granberg, and Lower Beuthen affords plenty of fine fruits. Even in the parts contiguous to Poland, are many substantial families who live in the most desirable affluence. Persons of rank purchase estates there, that yield from 6 to 12 per cent. Flax, hops and madder, are grown every where and the latter forms one of their most considerable exports. Scharte, a yellow dye, is gathered by cart-loads: they have also tobacco-plantations and some saffron. In many seasons, the wine made here may be drank with pleasure. In the mountains and upper Silesia, tar, pitch, and rosin is extracted from the pine, fir and beech, the larch-tree yields turpentine, and from the trunks of the coarser pines, the inhabitants of the mountains make a lamp-black.
In the mountains are found agate, jasper and even some gems, particularly amethysts, of uncommon hardness, and beauty, and some diamonds. Here are great pl
nty of blocks of stone, formed into grave-stones, pillars, &c. and at Neusalz, in lower Silesia the King has a manuf
ctory of mill-stones, one of which, four Rhenish
eet an
a half long, will sell for 27 rix-dollars, or but 61. English. Here are, also, some coal pits, silver min
and one of gold; and copper and lead-mines. Vi
riol,
found here in many places, and at Massel and other places, are a great many iron sounderies.
As they breed but few horned cattle, they are chi
fly supplied from Poland, and Hungary; and at the f
of Brieg, Breslau, and Schweidnitz, it is usual to see from
fifteen thousand
ead of Polish and Hungarian cat
e. A great quantity of cheese is here made of goats milk, and two good goats are held equal to a cow. They breed some stout, fine horse
, and the sheep, which are shorn twice a year, are very profitable for their wool. They have plenty of game, and some wild animals, as lynxes, otter, foxes, &c. which are caught for their skins.
In the Oder which traverses Silesia from end to end, and is navigable almost all the way, are caught salmon and sturgeon, the latter sometimes six or seven ells long; s
ate from 40 to 50lb. each; and other rivers, and the lakes, produce various kinds of fish, in great plenty.
In Silesia, there are 169 cities, and 14 market-towns, and the villages are so thick, as to stand within a cannonshot of each other, and the inhabitants of Prussian Silesia are said to amount to 1,800,000. These consist chiefly of Germans and Poles, exclusive of the clergy. In Silesia reside dukes, princes counts, barons, gentlemen, citizens, and peasants. Its dukes or princes, till 1740, were only five, of whom the bishop of Breslau is the first, but the late king of Prussia, added two more to their number.
The chief religion of this place, is the Roman-Catholic; but, there is a universal toleration, and all parties enjoy a perfect lib
ty of conscience. The bishop of Breslau, is of the Romish faith, and is vicar-general of all the Popish cl
rgy, within the Russian dominions, and this diocese, the only one, comprehends seven collegiate churches, seventy-seven archpresbyteries, sixteen pri
ries, eighty-six convents, and 576 parishes. All ecclesiastical benefices, are in the King's gift.
Of the reformed religion, there are Lutherans, Calvinists, Hussites and Moravians. At Breslau is a Greek church; besides which, the Jews, also, are permitted their synagogues.
The principal manufactures, in Silesia, are those of thread, twine, linen, flax, and damask. Printing of linen, here, in oil and water-colours, is carried to great perfection; besides which, canvas, and buckram of several kinds are made, and laces, and paper, more than they have occasion for. Besides stockings and hats, are here also manufactured, linsey-woolsey, druggets, fustians, plush, callimanco, and other stuffs; also cotton, ginghums, leather, &c. They make a beautiful kind of chrystal glass, and polish and cut it, beyond other countries. In Silesia also, are a number of powder, and iron-mills.
The principal exports, are madder, mill-stones, thread, yarn linen, wool, woolen-cloths, stuffs, and paper. Their impor
s are wax, honey, hides, leather, furs, brought
Poland Hungary, and Russia; wheat,
xen, horses, and rock-salt, with wines from Hungary, Moravia, and A
ria, the countries abou
the Rhine, and France, &c.
Of Prussian Silesia, Breslau is the capital. It lies on the Oder, which, on the north side, runs close by the walls. Its fortifications, are of no great importance. It has several large and regular squares; the chief streets are also broad; it has many stately, public edifices, and contains numbers of very elegant houses, and other private buildings. Here are a cathedral, twenty-four churches of different perswasions, with some convents, a bishop's palace, and a Popish university. The city has a governor, a high court of justice, a court of exchequer, a war, a domain, and several tax-offices, a college of physicians, and a mint. It is the third city in rank, next to Berlin, and Koningsberg, in all the Russian dominions, has two fairs, two yearly markets, and two markets for wool. The bishop is a Roman Catholic, but the magistracy is Lutheran. It is the centre of all the trade in Silesia, and carries on divers manufactures. Several villages in the neighbourhood belong to the city, several to the bishop, and several to the chapters of the cathedral.
All the country within thirty miles of the city, is rich, either in corn, meadow, or wool; the arable land is well cultivated, and potatoes are planted, for the consumption of Breslau, in great quantities. The King of Prussia keeps a garrison of 10,000 men, who are drawn up in the great square every day, and go through their exercise.
The manufacture of linen in Silesia, is very considerable, it employs many thousands, enriches the whole duchy, and brings in a very considerable revenue to the King. Most of the linens, which are bleached at Harlaem in Holland, and afterwards are so well known under the name of Dutch, are made in Silesia; formerly, immense quantities were consumed in England, but since the great success which has attended the fabricks of Ireland and Scotland, this impolitic importation has come to nothing.
Landed property here is much disordered. Now and then, says
Marshal,
we see an old barons estate of great extent, around an old castle, with all the marks of antiquity and grandeur; but, in general, the land belongs to persons enriched by trade and manufactures. On these estates, the lands are let to farm, as in England; and the peasants, not being vassals to tenants, are hired in the manner of under labourers. The common rent is from seven to eleven shillings an acre. Wheat yields two quarters per acre, barley three, buck-wheat four, and their flax-grounds, yield a profit of four pounds an acre. They lay most of the manure they make on their cabbage-grounds, make great use of mud from the Oder, and plough their land with oxen.
A DESCRIPTION OF BOHEMIA.
From Brown, Keys
er, Buschin, Reisbec, Moore, &c.
CHAP. I.
Of the Country, Climate, and Productions.
OHEMIA, in German, implies the residence of the Lo
, a p
p
, who with the H
lvet
, inhabited the Hercynian forest,
were thence expelled, in the reign of
Augustus.
Mo
n Bohemia, including part of Morav
a, is bounded by Saxony and Lusatia or the north, by Prussian Silesia, and Hungary on the east, by Bavaria and Austria, tow
d the south, and by the Palatinate of Bavaria and Saxony towards the west. It is near 300 English miles, from north to south, and 250 from east to west.
A MAP
of
HUNGARY
&c.
Bohemia as a country, has been run down by travellers, but
Moore
says, though it is by no means, so fertile, or so fine a country as Saxony, it has many very beautiful places, and varied with the most agreeable, rural objects.
Reisbec
says it is a country favoured of Heaven, and its climate excellent, so that many foreigners have made Prague their constant residence. The spring is not so beautiful even at Rome, as it is here. Spring and summer, are as remarkable, as the winter is at Vienna, where you seldom see a regular spring, but the winter and summer almost join. The climate is not exposed to any of those sudden and inclement changes, which are so fatal to health in other places. The winter colds are neither too sharp, nor the summer heats too strong. The air is dry, clear, and temperate. The country is high, and forms a large extent, surrounded, on all sides, by very high hills, covered with rich woods. The vale in the middle, is watered by the Elbe, the Moldaw, and the Eyer, of which an idea may be easily formed by looking on the map, that it is protected from the force of the winds; though being an inland country, remote, from any other, it is colder than many places in the same latitude.
The several hollows in the middle of the vale, contribute to let out the waters, so that there are neither lakes, nor morasses, to fill the air with unwholesome vapours. Some few parts of the country are sandy, and some stony, but the soil in general, is fat and rich.
Within three miles of Trautenau, on the borders of Silesia is a very wonderful, natural curiosity. As we approach it a great number of high towers offer to the view, several of which, in many places, are in regular rows, and most of them dispersed in an extraordinary manner. We walk through them near a mile, as in a kind of labyrinth, encompassed with these towers on each side. Most of them, are from sixty to seventy feet high, and some from 100 to 150. When viewed obliquely, their summits form a kind of waving line, like the back of a hill, which rises and sinks again. They are all formed of a hard quarry stone, and nature has generally shaped them into more or less regular squares. The general opinion is, that these rocks are the skeleton of a hill
through which the water has made its way, washing away the earth, and, in course of time, has left the rocky or stony part of the hill quite bare.
In this neighbourhood is the famous hill of Bohemia, called Riesenberge, considered by the inhabitants of this flat country, as a mountain; but in fact, though it is 8000 feet in ascent, and requiring three hours time to climb to the top, yet it is a mole hill, compared with mount St. Gothard in Switzerland, whose elevation, above the Mediterranean Sea, is more than 13,000 feet, and yet, by no means, the highest mountain of the Alps. On the top of Riesenberge, is a plain with a chapel on it, visited by pious people once a year, and from its summit, the prospect into Bohemia and Silesia, and the great mountains below it, is striking and magnificent.
The confines of Bohemia are distinguished, by painted brick posts, ten feet high, bearing the arms of the country; and we no sooner pass them, than we meet with a quite different husbandry, a different people, and a different language. That part of Bohemia, between Prague and Saxony, is infinitely richer, and more beautiful than that which lies between Prague and Austria. Agriculture like the country itself, is more varied, the people, live closer together, and seem to be happier. Hills, woods, plains and vales, form an agreeable contrast with each other, and the vine, not to be seen elsewhere, but in the road from Prague to Dresden, here covers the sides of the hills.
Bohemia produces every thing that can contribute to the comfort of life, in astonishing abundance, wine and salt only excepted. But these they have brought to them, at a moderate price. There have been many successful experiments made to produce wine, but the country is scarce able to produce a sufficiency of this article for its consumption. Bohemian hops, are carried as far as the Rhine, in great quantities, and they export a great deal of strong beer. The breed of horses is wonderfully improved here, within these few years, and furnishes a great part of the dragoon-horses, for the army. Any man may get his mare covered in the Imperial studs, or those of the nobility for a guilder, as these studs are furnished with Moldavian, Tartarian, and Transylvanian stone-horses, so that the peasants every where have excellent horses.
Bohemian tin is superior to all but the English, and they carry on a very considerable trade in allum, and several precious stones, particularly garnets. The large woods, in which the country abounds, furnish materials for their wonderful glass-manufactories, which bring a great deal of money into the country, and find their way into all parts of Europe.
Muscovy glass, and stone-coal, are found here, also sulphur, and vitriolic water. Gold, though not at present sought for, has been met with, particularly in their rivers. They have silver mines at Kuttenburg and other places, and mines that produce copper, lead, quick-silver, and salt-petre. Above 100 towns and places, may be named, where mine-works have been established. All kinds of marble are likewise dug in Bohemia. Among the precious stones, are some diamonds, rubies, chrysoli
es, emeralds, sapphires, &c. &c. It has also some mineral waters and warm baths at Calsbad and Teiplitz.
The rivers Elbe and Moldau rise in Bohemia, unite below Prague, run through Saxony, by Hamburgh, and empty into the German ocean; it is navigable at Leutmeritz. The Oder rises in Silesia, washes the shore of Poland, Brandenburg and Pomerania, and falls into the Baltic. There are other towns, but these are the principal.
There are ten principal highways, leading from Prague, through the whole country; they are made in a direct line, and in many places secured by masonry, the hollow parts b
ing filled up, and deep trenches cut on both sides, to carry
f the water. This useful labour, cost some millions of florins, though the Sou
gers must give their labour gratis. Their way of travelling is not different from
urs. Coaches are in use here, though the roads, except the great ones, above mentioned, are none of the best, the lower ponds are deep in winter, and the mountainous parts, inconvenient for wheel carriages, of course they travel by water where they can, and in winter use skate and sledges.
In the inns on the road, we seldom fail meeting with good provisions, as
capons, pheasants, partridges, and hares, but the l
dging
not agreeable to the other entertainment, being general
only some clean straw, spread on the floor, with a boliter or pillow for the head.
As they have a good deal of pasture-ground, they abound in oxen, sheep, and other cattle, they have also most other animals, wild and tame, which are found in Europe, and great quantities of deer and game in their forests; their rivers supply them well with fish and fowl.
Moravia is a large province on the east of Bohemia, one half of it so mountainous and woody, and so rough, as to be almost desolate. In the more open parts are many morasses, bogs, and lakes. The inhabitants, here, can grow sufficient corn for their consumption, plenty of hemp and flax, good saffron, and what is remarkable, in some places, they dig frankincense and myrrh out of the earth. They make white and red wines in the tracts lying towards Hungary, and Austria. Here are plenty of otters, bears, and a species of leopard, as large as dogs, but thicker, and also some boars. The language of the people, is a dialect of the Slavonic, little differing from Bohemian, yet the German language is very commonly spoken.
The kings of this country were, till the 9th century, powerful, and independent. Poland, Bohemia, and Silesia, all belonged to Muscovy. In 908, it became a prey to the Germans, Poles, and Hungarians, and was conquered, and united with Bohemia, in 1086; of course we shall speak of it generally, as speaking of Bohemia; it contributes, about one third part to the exactions, which Bohemia pays to the Emperor.
CHAP. II.
Of the Cities, People, Trade, &c.
BOHEMIA is well peopled, but was formerly much more populous than at present, but during the intestine, religious wars, and the succeeding irruption of the Swedes, many of the towns, villages, and castles were laid waste, so that at present, exclusive of Moravia, it contains only 105 great and small towns, and not much above 6000 villages. In the last century, in the course of three or four years, 30,000 fixed families quitted the country, besides others, and the greatest part of the nobility. On this account, an attentive traveller finds the towns, boroughs, villages, and highways very desolate.
Of 32 royal towns, Prague is the chief, and the capital of the kingdom. It lies almost in the middle; and on both sides of the river Moldau, which is here shallow, and not navigable, but about 800 paces broad. The stone bridge over it, is 742 common paces long, and so wide that three carriages may pass a-breast. It stand on sixteen piers, ornamented on the sides with twenty-eight statues of saints. It was built by
Charles
IV. in 1357. The fortifications are not very important, for the
may be flanked or raked on all sid
s. The houses are wholly buil
of stone, and are generally thre
stories high. It has broader streets, but fewer stately palaces, than Vienna, and contains 92 churches, and chapels, and about 40 convents. The inhabitants are estimated at 70,000 Christians, and
12 and 13▪ 000 Jews. It is a very large city divided into three by the river, is above th
ee miles long, two broad, but is by no means populous. In several parts you seem as in
village. Near the bridge, which stands at the upper part of the city, the number of people is very great, but the further you go from this, the more destitute is the place. The royal castle, which is a very large, irregular building, is built on a hill, that commands an extensive prospect. Not far from hence, stands the archbishop's house, (a pretty modern building) and the old cathedral, in which are some pieces of architecture, which deserve notice. The Bohemian nobility, who can bear the expence, reside at Vienna.
Though the city is, in general, ill-built, the situation is extremely fine; there is a finer prospect from the bridge, than in many larger cities. The mass of houses rises like an amphitheatre to a considerable height. To the right, the hill rises above them, as far as the Imperial palace, majestically situated on the top. On the left it is covered, as far as the middle, with beautiful gardens, and pleasure houses, which have a fine effect; and, a most extensive, and magnificent amphitheatre.
From these gardens, is a very fine prospect over the opposite part of the city. In the midst of the broad but dry Moldau, there are two small islands, called Great and Little Venice, where the inhabitants make parties of pleasure.
The Jews form a considerable part of the inhabitants of this place, and live in a quarter by themselves, called the Jews city. It is pleasant to walk through the place, and see their taylors and shoemakers at work in the middle of the streets. They are distinguished here from the Christians, by a yellow handkerchief, which they are obliged to wear round their arms. Their industry is wonderful. In almost every inn, there is a Jew, who does the business of a house-servant, and does every thing, but will take no money: the only reward they will accept, is some cast cloaths; which they make money of.
In whatever degree, this city may have dwindled in wealth and magnificence, the piety of the inhabitants certainly
ourishes as much as ever. I do not recollect, says
Moore,
so many glaring acts of devotion in any place. The corners of the streets, bridges, and public buildings, are all ornamented with crucifixes, images of the Virgin, of all sizes, and complexions, and statues of saints of every country, condition, age, and sex. People are to be seen on their knees, before these statues, in every part of this city; but particularly on the bridge, where there is the greatest concourse of passengers. Not contented with kneeling, I saw some prostrate on their faces, kissing the earth. Here is a chapel of Loretto, belonging to the Capuchins, in imitation of the holy house of Lorretto, in Italy; it is so rich with jewels and treasure, as to be estimated in value, at several tons of gold. Here is one pyx, set with 6666 diamonds, representing the sun, which cost 200,000 guilders, and 10,000 making.
The houses of the nobility, are many of them built after the Italian model. That of the duke of Friedland, is a stately structure, built on the ruins of above 100 houses, which were pulled down to make room for it, and furnish materials. The gardens are exceedingly beautiful. In the stables, which are very large, stands a marble pillar, between each horse, and to every standing, is a rack of steel, and a marble manger; and over it, the picture of the horse that used it, as large as life, with his name.
In the houses of the peasants, there is a place walled in, to hold the stove, or fire-place, to which they ascend by a few narrow stone steps, as into a cock loft, in this warm apartment, they sleep away the cold winter-nights, very comfortably.
The church of the Cross of, is an elegant piece of architecture, adorned with fine marble pillars, and beautiful paintings. Without the town-house, is a clock, made at the end of the 15th century, exhibiting the revolutions of the sun and moon, the day of the month, the length of the days, nights &c. but great part of the movements are out of order. The horse-market is a very large, airy place, and is adorned with an equestrian statue of King
Wenceslaus
in the centre. The cathedral church of St. Vitus, is very rich in plate, altar-furniture, relics, &c. Among other valuable ornaments, is a crucifix of Hungarian virgin-gold, weighing 10,000 ducats. A considerable part of St.
Wenceslaus
chapel, is covered with jasper, amethysts, and cornelian, some as large as a man's fist, but irregularly set without order.
The prospect from the royal apartments of the palace, is quite charming, and the hall, where the Emperor entertains the nobility, is well contrived and very splendid. Within the palace is a museum.
The whole town, in this city, is a state-prison, and it is said, there was formerly in one of the rooms of this town, a curious machine, made in the shape of a woman, which, when any delinquent was brought near it, would embrace him, and with its arms violently break his back and ribs; but, no such thing is now to be seen. Some say it is removed to St. Peter's, and that this machine, was particularly appropriated for the private execution of ecclesiastical criminals.
On the Ratschin is the palace of Count
Czernini
which in size is inferior to Walenstein-House, which stands near it, but in the magnificence of the building, and richness of the furniture, it has few equals, in any city in Europe. About forty years ago, when
Keysler
was there, the grand hall was not finished, though it was 100 years since it was first began, and workmen were generally employed upon it. The noble gallery of pictures in this palace, is 175 paces long. The count's annual income is 300,000 guilders, (each guilder 2s. 4d. English,) and he spared no expence in its embellishment.
The credulity and superstition of the Bohemians is astonishing; here is a pillar in the church of St. Peter, which they say the devil brought from Rome, and broke, by putting it down too hard; and, it is so universally credited, that it would be dangerous to question its truth. On the altar of St.
Longinus,
the officer that pierced the side of Christ, on the cross, is a large stone coffin, in which the saint is said to have sailed on the Moldau. On the bank of this river, which is 1000 paces broad, they have built a chapel, to commemorate the leap, which a sorcerer took on horseback, over the river: and they tell you, this horse had the talent of conversing with its master. On the parap
t of the wall, where the horse allighted, which is of brick, they shew the print of the horse's feet. These and such like fables abound throughout Bohemia, and are not only very frequently related, very gravely in common discourse, but to obtain greater credit, are published in books. Indeed, many of the Austrian and Bohemian nobility, will swallow improbabilities, without examination, or making use of their reason, even beyond any other Roman-catholics.
There is scarce a bridge in all the Austrian hered
ditary states, that has not a statue of St.
Nepomac,
who is the patron of bridges. This saint suffered martyrdom, by being precipitated from the bridge of Prague by order of King
Wenceslaus
in 1724, because he would not reveal what the queen had entrusted him with at confession. The canonization of this new patron was a great expence to the Bohemians. It was in the pontificate of
Clement
XI.
Prague has been frequently besieged, and frequently taken; not to mention former times. It was taken by the Saxons in 1631; by the Swedes, in 1648; by the elector of Bavaria, in 1741; by the Austrians, in 1742; and by the Russians, in 1744.
An hours-ride from the city, stands the white-hill, where the memorable battle on the 8th of November, 1620, was fought, between the Emperor's forces, commanded by the duke of Bavaria, and the troops of the elector palatine, the head of the protestant league; wherein the elector's army being dispersed, the protestant interest in Germany suffered much, and the elector lost both the kingdom of Bohemia, and the palatinate. This was the son-in-law of
James
I. of England, from whom the present family on the English throne, is descended.
Prague has neither an extensive commerce, nor any manufactory of consequence. There has long been a project of rendering the Moldau navigable, but the expence has hitherto prevented it. Was it once done, Prague would certainly gain a great deal by it. There is a convent of Irish nuns here; indeed, throughout all Germany, we meet with English and Scotch nuns. The women of this place are handsome, and strangers may make love much easier here than at Vienna, because the people here know better how to connect mental enjoyments with sensual pleasures. Free-Masonry flourishes in Prague extremely, and some persons doat on it to enthusiasm. The numerous garrison here lodged, contributes not a little to the liveliness of the place. There are about 9000 men constantly quartered here, the six regiments of grenadiers, are the finest of infantry, and the officers are excellent company, and entirely free from those prejudices, from which other bodies of men are not totally exempt.
The persons of the Bohemians, like their neighbours the Germans, are rather of the largest; they are all very corpulent, of a hale complexion, and wonderfully strong built.
Dubravious,
one of their historians, who was Bishop of Olmutz, in the 16th century, compares them to Lions, "as the land," says he, "according to the writers of those times, lies under the influence of
Leo,
so does its inhabitants possess all the qualities of that noble animal. Their high chests, sparkling eyes, strong thick hair, stout bones, strength, courage, and irresistible spirits when opposed, all shew evidently that the Lion is their star, which they have likewise in their coat of arms".
They are handsome, strong-built, and an active race of people, evidently descended from the Croats, who are some of the handsomest people upon the earth. Their heads are a little too large, but their broad shoulders, and stout, thick-set bodies, render the disproportion not so visible, as it otherwise would be. They are without doubt, the best soldiers of all the Emperor's troops. They can bear the inconveniences of a military life, longer than any; even hunger, that deadly fiend, to every thing that calls itself an Imperial soldier, they support for a considerable time.
The constitution and manners of the country, contribute much to make the Bohemians such soldiers as they are. The farmers live in a poverty which preserves them from effeminacy and luxury, much more
an any positive sumptuary law could do; besides his, the feudal system, which obtains here, in the ex
eme, accustoms them, from their youth upwards, to
nconditional obedience, the great military virtue of
ur days. Their constant labour and scanty food,
der them
ardy; and, like the Spartans, they find
life, far easier, then ploughing the fields of
eir
sters.
This is the first country we come to from the eastward, where the people voluntarily quitted the Asiatic habit, of vests and gowns, and cloathed themselves, in short coats, breeches, and stockings, as with us. The women too have left off their drawers and breeches, which the eastern ladies never go without, and conform themselves to the French dress; though some few, who live on the confines of Poland, still continue to cloath themselves like that people.
BOHEMIANS
"I could not without the greatest commiseration," says
Riesbec,
"look upon the handsome young farmers who, bare-footed, with torn linen, and stockings uncommonly tattered, and yet clean clothes, without neck-cloths, often without hats, were carrying corn or wood for their masters, to market;" slaves to their employers, and yet, in the best temper, and highest spirits.
Credulity is another soible the Bohemians are remarkable for; we every where meet with stories of spirits and apparitions: and, if we may credit the inhabitants, there is not a mine in the country, which is not haunted by one or more of them.
Riesbec
tells us, he went some way out of his road, to a cloister or two to see the manner and way of life of the Bohemian ecclesiastics, in their own dwellings, and he assures us he was richly rewarded. "They are," says he, "the most determined Epicureans, particularly the regular bodies of them, I ever met with. They want nothing in their convents, for the accomplishment of all earthly gratifications, but a cloister of nuns, made up of the maidens, who do business at Prague by night.
Sub jove, pluviis, in triviis et quadriviis.
Whatever bad effects it might have, in some respect, the farmers, and manufacturers who live in the neighbourhood of their convents, and consider their wives as their property, would undoubtedly be pleased with the arrangement. As things now are, the monks, and half-
nks, to whom the villages round belong, appear like so many women-hunters.— In some convents we met with singing women.
The lives of the regular bodies, and even of the Benedictines, who have not given up the pleasures of the world, is a perpetual carousal, interrupted only by country walks, and certain stated belchings in church. They look upon chaunting the service, as a kind of expectoration, good for the lungs. One of them, for whom I expressed some concern, on seeing him
at immense quantities of eggs, butter, &c. on a fast-day, said jestingly, "Pshaw, it will all come up again at afternoon-service."
With respect to handicraft-trades and a
ts, the Bohemi
ns are as much adapted to them as other nations, but apply not themselves to the fine manufactures. Indeed, at L
pa, Neuhau
and Reich
nberg, a good cloth is made; at Beraun and Leipa, good potters work; at Bensen fine paper, and, at at other places, good knife and sword-blades and a fine sort of glass.
Their commerce is but small; corn and malt is exported into Saxony, and the former into Bavaria. Hops and the spaw-waters of Egra are also plentifully sent out of the kingdom, and a great quantity of their paper, pottery, and glass; and to prevent the importation of such articles as are made in the country, a high duty is laid on them.
The Bohemians travel much. Some, as dealers in glass, will go as far as England and Italy, and some as basket and s
eve-makers.
Reisbec
says, he has met with large caravans of them, on the Upper-Rhine, and in the Netherlands. These people commonly return home with pretty large sums of money, and keep together like brothers whilst in foreign countries. They have indeed, an uncommon share of patriotism, and a kind of confidence in each other, which makes them pass in the eyes of strangers for a savage and barbarous people, though in reality they are not so.
Since the days of
Huss
they have a secret hatred to the Germans, and an unspeakable aversion to whatever is German; which does not arise so much from bad temper, as from a kind of national pride. Most of the farmers, who live near the roads, speak German; but as they do not like to talk to a stranger, without necessity; they pretend not to understand a word of what the traveller says, and make their sport of him amongst themselves.
CHAP. III.
Of their Language, Learning, Government, &c.
THEIR language, like that of the Poles, is a dialect of the ancient Sclavonian; a language so copious and sure, that their ancient laws required the true pronunciation and orthography of it to be strictly observed, which was exceedingly difficult, having the use of no other letters than the Runic characters; but afterwards, when Germany came to have a more intimate correspondence with Bohemia, the Roman letters were introduced, and their language became more refined. The modern Bohemians however are very remiss in this particular, and the nobility consider it as beneath them to speak their native tongue, chusing rather the high Dutch, or a jargon between the two.
Learning
a
ri
es but in
fferently here. There is a university at Prag
e, but it lost its reputation about the middle of the fifteenth century. It is under the inspection of the Jesuits, who have, here and there, academical colleg
s, and gymnasia.
The Jesuit
have here one of the largest colleges belonging to their order, those of Go
and Lisbon excepted:
fathers of that order constantly reside here. Their
ools in th
ity are very full, near 2700, Their library is worth notice, very light and lofty, adorned with galleries well contrived. In the mathematical cabinet erected here, among other instruments, are a moving armillary sphere, on
Tycho Brahe's
system, and a large sextant made by him; a kind of perpetual motion, consisting of balls
unning in a circular motion; various sorts of clock-work, &c. To the same great man is owing the following ingenious invention
by fixing two convex glasses, placed at the di
e of 32 feet, opposite to each other, some tinder and gunpowder, laid at the focus of one glass, take fire by blowing on a hot coal at the focus of the other. These glasses are of a parabolical convexity. M.
Du Foy,
in 1728, exhibited this experiment before the academy of sciences at Paris, and maintained that two spherical glasses would produce the same effect, even at a greater distance.
Tycho Brahe
though a native of Denmark, retired here, was a privy counsellor to the Emperor, ended his days at Prague, and was here buried with his wife and children. A monument in one of the churches is erected to his memory, and under it he is represented on a basso-relievo of marble, in armour, with a long sword by his side, a band and whiskers, leaning with his right hand on a celestial sphere.
Prague, like Vienna, abounds in literati, who are content to line their rooms, with the busts, medals, prints and profiles of learned men, but neither think, or write for themselves; and are only called Literati from belonging to no other association of men whatever. It is here, says Baron
Reisbec,
as at Vienna, whoever has neither military nor civil employment, nor is professor, nor priest, nor merchant, nor handicrafts-man, nor manufacturer, nor servant, nor day-labourer, nor (what in the catalogue passes for a man) executioner, is a man of letters, whether he studies or not. In the general acceptation, a man of letters, is only a
negative
quality. I was, continues the Baron, acquainted with a few
positive
literati at Prague, but their number, in companion of the
negative,
is very inconsiderable.
The Bohemians, however, who apply themselves to the arts and sciences, are generally speaking, successful in them. They do not want genius, and have uncommon industry. Their fondness for music is astonishing. I have, says
Reisbec,
heard several orchestras here which equalled those of Paris in brilliancy of execution, and surpassed them in accuracy and exactness of harmony. Bohemian players on the horn and harp, are to be met with throughout all Germany. As they always bring home large sums of money, you seldom see a musician of this kind, who has not travelled. Most of the students of Rome are musicians, and begin, very early in life, to give serenades and concerts in the squares, and public places of the city.
Of the religion of this country, I will be more particular. Christianity was introduced here, about the year 890, but about 1403, some scholars who had attended
Richard
of England's Queen (who was a Bohemian) to London, and had conversed with the disciples of Wickliffe; on their return, communicated their doctrine to
John Huss
a doctor of the university of Prague, who from the hints he thus received, began to reflect on the errors of the church of Rome, and with
Jerome,
a master of arts of that university, began a reformation, by preaching against the Pope's supremacy, and other tenets of the Roman-catholic church, and brought over great part of the Bohemians to their way of thinking. This brought
Huss
and
Jerome
to the stake, and put their adherents under the bar, which occasioned a bloody war, that continued many years. In 1547 the greater part of the Moravian or Bohemian brethren, were banished their country and fled to Poland and Prussia. In the sixteenth century the Lutherans increased considerably in Bohemia, and a toleration was granted in 1575. In 1616,
Matthias,
Emperor of Germany, declared his cousin
Ferdinand,
King of Bohemia, and caused him to be crowned, and this
Ferdinand
so oppressed the protestants, that an insurrection took place, the Protestants. threw the emperor's chief justice out of the castle-window two stories high, or 28 ells (
Keys
er
says, six stories) and after him, one of the council of state, and a secretary of the emperor, (which window they shew to strangers to this day) raised an army, and offered the crown to
Frederick
V. Elector Palatine, who married
Elizabeth
daughter of
James
I. King of England. This prince accepted the throne, and was crowned in November, 1619.
Ferdinand,
King of Bohemia, who had succeeded to the empire, proclaimed him as a rebel, marched an army against him, and on the white hill near Prague, as I have mentioned, defeated
Frederick,
and obliged him to fly into Silesia, and from thence to Holland, whereby, he not only lost Bohemia, but his whole pala
inate; since which the kingdom of Bohemia has been enjoyed by the imperial family. In 1627, the Protestants were deprived of their privileges, and such as would not submit to the Roman-catholic church, were expelled the kingdom. From that time popery has been the ruling religion in Bohemia. The few remaining Lutherans were afterwards obliged to conceal themselves as much as possible.
The archbishop of Prague is legate of the holy apostolic see of Rome, is a prince of the holy Roman empire, primate of the kingdom, and standing chancellor of the university of Prague. He crowns the King, and has two suffragan bishops under him, those of Leutmeritz and Konigingratz. The archiepiscopal consistory has the sole supreme jurisdiction over the clergy, and from it lies an appeal to the King or Pope.
The Hussites are still very numerous in this country, some think that a fourth part of the people are of that sect
which has also spread widely in Moravia. Within these ten years, more than 10,000 farmers made a small stand to recover their freedom of opinion, but they were soon quieted.
Huss
attacked the whole system of the Roman-catholic church, purgatory, fasts, monkery, &c. and, it is certain, his disciples were only one step behind
Calvin.
How strange is the policy of this country! The government of Bohemia allows the Jews, the professed enemies of christianity, freedom of thought, and liberty to serve God in their own way, and refuses it to Christians like themselves. Whilst a hostile, dreadful, treacherous people, are maintained in the full possession of their rights and privileges, contracts have been repeatedly violated with the Hussites.
A word or two of their government, shall close our account of this country.
Bohemia is frequently considered as part of Germany, but, it is one of the Emperor's hereditary countries, and excluded from those privileges, which the other circles and electorates enjoy; except that the Imperial family, as Kings of Bohemia, have a voice in the election of a king of the Romans. For near 200 years the Austrian family have claimed the kingdom of Bohemia, with the incorporate provinces of Silesia and Moravia, as their hereditary dominions, governing them by no other laws than their own will and pleasure. Silesia indeed has been disputed, and is divided, as I have mentioned, between Prussia and Bohemia. The King, as elector of Bohemia, precedes all temporal electors, and owns no vicar of the Roman empire. He is arch-cup-bearer of the holy Roman empire, and on this office rests the King of Bohemia's right to elect a king of the Romans.
The arms of Bohemia are a silver lion with a double tail on a field, gules.
The crown of Bohemia was preserved one hundred years elective by the nobility as in Poland, till it settled in the present Austrian family. Their husbandmen, tradesmen and mechanicks were, and still are, in a state of vassalage to their respective lords, who have the entire disposal of them, and administer justice as they see fit, in their several courts. Nor does the government interfere in their decisions, but in some extraordinary cases, where it may affect the state, or where the life of the subject may be wantonly taken away; so that every lord is, in effect, a monarch in his own territories.
SILESIA.
CHAP. I.
AUSTRIAN, as well as Prussian, Silesia was formerly a part of the kingdom of Poland, but many German colonies having settled there in the 13th century, gave rise to the separation which was afterwards thoroughly effected.
The Poles having entertained a disgust against the Silesian Dukes, on account of their adopting the German manners, soon paved the way for
Wenzel
II. king of Bohemia to ascend the throne of Poland in 1292. This monarch marched an army through Silesia, where several Princes submitted to him, whose example was gradually followed by the rest: thus they all came under the Bohemian government, taking their lands in fief from the crown.
This change was ratified by the Polish kings, for
Casimir,
the then reigning king, entered into a covenant with
John,
king of Bohemia, by virtue of which he resigned Silesia to him and his successors, as the latter also on his part disclaimed all right to Poland.
By virtue of a Golden Bull, procured by the emperor,
Charles
IV. in 1355, Silesia was solemnly united to the crown of Bohemia: which constitution lasted till the death of
Charles
VI. in 1740. But
Frederick
II. king of Prussia, revived after this, the claim of the electoral house of Brandenburg to the duchies of Jagerndorf, Lignitz, Brieg, and Wohlaw; to accomplish which he marched an army into Silesia, and a war was the consequence with the house of Austria; in which the former having successfully reduced all the Lower Silesia, together with the greatest part of the Upper, and the County of Glatz to his subjection, he was confirmed in it by the treaties of Breslau and Dresden, in 1742, and 1745.
Since the latter period, the king of Prussia has ruled this part of Silesia, independant of the crown of Bohemia and the German empire. And hence it comes to pass, that it is only the residue of Silesia the House of Austria is now in possession of, as a Bohemian fief: and thus becomes connected with the German Empire.
The territories of Austrian Silesia consist of four principalities, namely, Teschen, Troppau, Jagerndorf, and Grotkau.
There are no considerable cities in Austrian Silesia, but many small towns and villages; however none sufficiently interesting to give the reader a description of. The inhabitants are, like their neighbours, the Bohemians and Germans, tall, athletic, and robust in stature. The people of quality are said to be naturally brave, and more inclined to arms than to the milder arts and sciences; and of an easy, affable conversation. On the contrary, the lower class of people are brutish and very cruel, given to every species of vice, particularly those that arise from intemperance in the immoderate use of spirituous liquors. For the most part, those people are, like the Highlanders of Scotland, very much addicted to the idle fancies of a second sight, indulging the notions of apparitions and spectres, so that every cave or solitary abode, with which this country greatly abounds, is said to be haunted: this raises a continual dread and terror in the inhabitants; solely from the chimerical operations of a distempered imagination; which to a long indulged habit, create such lively representations of supernatural objects, that the distemper can scarcely ever be eradicated.
Austrian Silesia is subject to Bohemian laws; for neither the arts or laws of the German Diet or empire are of any force here, as with the subjects of Bohemia; they acknowledge only their own princes of the house of Austria.
The manufactures of the country are linen and woollen! in which they are arrived at no great perfection. Copper, tin, and iron are also tolerably well performed in their manufactories. The imports are very inconsiderable.
This country is interspersed with rocks and mountains, which are very barren; but the valleys are fertile, and produce every necessary of life; with several mines of copper, lead, and iron.
The cattle are partly of the same denominations of those in England, therefore we shall omit their description; their fowls, and game are very numerous.
The buildings are erected in the Italian stile: the usual dwellings are of wood; but the churches are of stone. Their way of travelling is much the same as in Germany, but the roads are very bad. The lower grounds are deep in water, and the mountainous part of the country is inconvenient for wheel-carriages; which in winter are supplied by sledges on the ice, both on the higher and lower parts of the country.
In speaking of Bohemia, we have noticed that this province principally belongs to Prussia. It is formed of different sects in their religion. His late majesty,
Frederick
II. king of Prussia, at the peace of Berlin, in 1742, permitted the Popish religion to continue in
statu quo,
though without detriment to the freedom of conscience of his Protestant inhabitants, or to his own prerogative, as sovereign.
The reformation in Silesia was first introduced in 1522, by the principality of Lignitz, under the auspices of
Frederick
II. duke of Lignitz. Breslau and Schwednitz soon embraced Lutheranism: and after these followed almost every principal town of the provinces in Silesia. The Augsburg confession was granted by the emperor as a toleration for its free exercise. Schools were publickly permitted. Yet after the death of
Rodolphus
II. emperor of Germany, great violence was used to bring the protestants into the pale of the Romish church.
The celebrated
Charles
the XIIth, king of Sweden, interfered in behalf of the Lutherans in 1707, and obtained for them a free exercise of their religion. In this famous convention, the Calvinists were not included, consequently the fiery zealots of the Romish persuasion soon found means to extirpate them. However, after some remonstrances and petitions the late great
Frederick
II. king of Prussia recalled them, and gave them leave to exercise their mode of religious worship publicly in Breslau, and several other parts of this province. The Hussites, or Bohemian reformed, have also several congregations here.
Silesia has ever been famous for producing men of learning, of whom not a few have been very eminently distinguished in the republic of letters, baron
Wolfius,
the celebrated philosopher, was a native of this country.
The Germanic body is obliged to take into its defence and protection the kingdom of Bohemia with all its dependencies, and, of course, Silesia is included. But the King of Prussia having obtained the greatest part of it by the partition of 1751, holds it independent of the empire. The Emperor being guarantee for his quiet possession of it; he cannot fail in the sovereignty.
A DESCRIPTION OF HUNGARY. From
Busching, Brown, Keysler, Riesbec, Moore, Montagu, &c.
CHAP. I.
Of the Country, Climate, and Productions.
HUNGARY, with its incorporated countries, Sclavonia, Dalmatia, Bosnia, Servia, and Transylvania, &c. is bounded by the Carpathian Mountains in the north, dividing it from Poland; by Walachia on the west; by Germany on the east; by Venetian Dalmatia and the Adriatic Sea on the south east, and by European Turkey on the south; lying between 45 and 49 degrees of north latitude, and from the 16th to the 22d degree of longitude from the meridian of London. Its northern parts are mountainous and barren; but its southern, level, warm, and fruitful.
The plains of Hungary are clear and open, and if compared with our English plains, as Salisbury, Lincoln, and Newmarket, exceed them in size, as a full grown man does a child. I have travelled, says
Brown,
from Vienna to Belgrade through one continued plain for 400 miles, without any eminencies, except one inconsiderable wood near Bacna, beyond Dotis. Upper Hungary has good store of woods and hills, yet intermingled with large plains. Hungary, with the incorporated provinces, contains 4760 square English miles.
The air is very unwholesome, especially to foreigners; the days in summer being excessive hot, and the nights intolerably cold. Hungary has been called the German soldier's grave, generally producing a fever, which first shews itself by nodes and tubercles on the hands and arms. The plague comes here from Turkey, and spreads by contagion. The Carpathian mountains are over-run at bottom with common trees; higher up, with larger ones, and at a greater interval, which makes, as it were the third region, with brush-wood. The summit is a chaos of frightful crags and precipices, continually covered with snow, and lakes of very transparent water lying between them.
In rivers this country perhaps excells any other in Europe; on the east, it has that noble river Teys, or Tibiscus, rising in the Carpathian mountains, and joining its current with the Danube, between Waradin and Belgrade; on the west, is the Araba, which empties into the Danube; on the south, are two considerable rivers, the Drave and the Save, which run each a course of 300 miles, and empty also into the Danube; and on the north, are two rivers joining likewise the Danube.
The Danube is the greatest of the whole, being swelled by the junction of other rivers. Its runs quite through Hungary, receiving in its course 120 rivers, 60 of which are navigable, and discharges itself by several outlets with such violence into the Black Sea, that both the stream and water are perceptible in it for several miles distance. It begins to be navigable near Ulm in Suabia, passes by Ingolstadt, Ratisbon, Shawbing, Lentz and Vienna to Presburg, and thence continues its course 300 miles through Hungary to Belgrade.
No river has such large and well peopled islands as the Danube, for example, the isle of St. Andrew's, betwixt Vicegrade and Vacia; another a little below Buda, against the west side of which stands Adom, 40 English miles long, and containing many villages; another opposite to Mohatz, another at the confluence of the Drave and Danube, and another new one near Belgrade, where, till within this century, there was not the least trace of an island to be seen. Besides, no river at such a distance from its mouth, can boast of so many considerable, naval engagements as the Danube. The Emperor keeping gallies at Vienna, Presburgh, and Comorrah, as do the Turks at Strigonum, Buda, Belgrade, &c. In Turkish history we are told, that at a siege of Belgrade, there appeared 200 gallies and other armed vessels, and that these were so smartly engaged by the Christian fleet, that besides what were taken, the Turks were obliged to fire their own ships, to prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy. The Christians also had a fleet of 24 gallies, and 80 other armed vessels, besides tenders and ships of burden at the siege of Buda. And when
Solyman
the Magnificent lay before Vienna, the Imperial admiral coming out of Presburgh, sunk the Turkish vessels, which carried the heavy cannon intended for battering the walls.
Here are also two remarkable lakes, one in the palalatinate of Simigen, eight German miles long, and two broad, and another between the palatinates of Oldenburg and Wiesselburg.
These rivers and lakes abound with fish. The Teys is so well stocked, that a thousand carps have been sold for a crown, and in some places fish are so plentiful, that they feed their hogs with them.
Whilst speaking of the waters, I must not omit to mention the many salutary hot baths with which this country abounds. The natural baths of Buda are the noblest in Europe, not only in respect of the largest hot springs, but in the magnificence of the buildings. I will speak of these when describing Buda.
In the district of Torner, in the eastern part of Upper Hungary at Szélitz, near Torna, is a wonderful cavern in a mountain. The aperture which fronts the south is 18 fathoms high, and eight broad, and of course wide enough to receive the south wind, which generally blows here with great violence. Its subterraneous passages consist entirely of solid rock, stretching away further south than has yet been discovered. As far as it is practicable to go, the height is found to be 50 fathoms, and the breadth 26. But the most unaccountable singularity in this cavern is, that, in the heart of winter, the air is warm in the inside, and, when the heat of the sun without is scarce supportable, freezing cold within. When the snow melts in spring, the inside of the cavern, where its surface is exposed to the sultry sun, emits a pellucid water, which congeals as it drops, by the extreme cold: the icicles are of the size of a large cask, and spreading into rarifications, form very odd figures. It is observed also that the greater the heat without, the colder it is within, and in the dog-days all parts are covered with ice. The inhabitants use it for cooling the warm springs; they thaw it also and drink the water. In autumn, when the nights grow cold, and the diurnal heat abates, the ice in the cave begins to dissolve so fast, that by winter, no more ice is to be seen. The cavern then becomes perfectly dry and warm. At this time it is surprising to see the swarms of flies and gnats, of bats and owls, of hares and foxes, that make this place their winter-retreat, till in the beginning of spring it grows too cold for them. Above the cavern the hill rises to a very great height, and on the southern aspect produces plenty of rich grass.
The Hungarians have many species of wild beasts, such as wolves, bears, lynxes, &c. vast plenty of game, great store of sheep, some with spiral horns and long curled wool, and such prodigious numbers of oxen, that 100,000 are sent annually to other countries; and they are all ash coloured, or white. They have also plenty of buffalos, with which they plough their stiff lands. Their horses are rather small but swift, and in the woods are bred the most active, hardy, and spirited race, for their size, in the world. They have been found very useful in war, and the Hussars, or light dragoons, of the Austrian army are mounted on them. They are mostly mouse-coloured. Even their poultry is distinguished by their size and shape. In short, all that breathes here attests either by its growth or agility, the wonderful vigour of nature.
Hungary is, without doubt, the richest part of the Austrian dominions. It not only produces every thing that is produced in other countries, but feeds them with its overflow, and excels them as much in the quality, as in the quantity of what it produces. It has such a superfluity of the necessaries and enjoyments of life, that a traveller has said of it,
Extra Hungariam non est vita, & si est, non est ita;
that is,
Out of Hungary there is no living, or if there be living, it is not life.
But here we have great occasion to observe the truth of that axiom, that the more nature does for man, the less he commonly does for himself. The inhabitant of the Swiss mountains extracts his sustenance from his nakedness, and has changed wildernesses into cultivated and inhabited lands; the Hollander has turned the muddy sands of the Rhine and Maese, what the sea is constantly disputing with him, into a garden, whilst the excellent grounds in Hungary still lie waste. Not only a great part of this fruitful land is uncultivated, but even that which is, is not turned to near the advantage it might be. They never dress their lands, suffer more than half the ground to lie fallow, and their common mode of beating out the grain, is by driving oxen, as did the ancients, among the corn, by which half of it is lost. In travelling over this country, says
Reisbec,
you think yourself going over a wild, though, in fact, you are upon a soil, which with little trouble would produce 50, 60, or even a hundredfold. The roads are of an immense breadth, and the fields adjoining them of so little value, that the postillions drive through them without the least ceremony, whenever a little mud or rain, in the highway, reminds them of its being more convenient.
The inhabitants excuse their bad farming, by the little value which grain bears. Every thing indeed is very cheap in this country. They say that if their harvests were ten times greater, they should gain nothing by them. There may be some truth in this, but the fault is certainly owing to bad government, for the value of grain would undoubtedly increase with an increased population, but strange as it is, says
Ricsbec,
government rather seeks to discourage than promote agriculture.
The exportation of Hungarian wines, one of the richest products of the country, and which if it were free, would ruin the sale of French wines in the north, is clogged with innumerable obstacles, left the trade of Austrian wines should be hurt. Their grapes are both large and of a luscious flavour. Their Tokay wine is in high estimation. There are near 30 sorts of Hungarian wine sold at Vienna. They improve their lands only by paring and burning, and instead of barns or hay and corn-stacks, they stow their harvest away, in deep and spacious caves under-ground, where they retire also with their families, in case of invasion by the Turks or Tartars. Their bread is very light, owing to their kneading it long, and very cheap; as much may be bought for 2
d.
as is sold in England for 12
d.
The artificial appearance of the country is as remarkable as the natural. In one place, perhaps you see palaces upon which art has exhausted all its magnificence, and within a few paces you come to countries where men dwell in caverns like wild beasts. At Presburg, Port and Ossen, which are the largest cities in the country, and each of which contains 30,000 men, you believe yourself in the most enchanted country in the world; and within a few miles of their gates, you seem to be in Mingrelia.
The strongest proof possible of the misery of a country, is the contrast of extreme poverty with extreme riches; and the more striking that contrast is, the greater the misery. A people may be very poor, and yet very happy, but when amidst straw huts, scarce protecting their inhabitants from wind and weather, we see marble palaces towering to the clouds; when in the midst of immense wildernesses, tenanted by wretched skeletons, who barely find roots in the field to keep life and soul together, we meet with gardens decorated with fountains, and in them grottos, parterres, terraces, statues and costly pictures, it is a sure sign that one part of the people live by pi
laging the rest.
I will now speak of the Hungarian mines. I mean the gold mines of Cremnitz, Konigsberg, Schemnitz, &c. all dependant on Austria, having been formerly mortgaged to Austria by the kings of Hungary. There are seven of these mine-towns, to which belong four lordships, three days journey in length, extending to the borders of Poland. The supreme officer here is the commissioner of the revenue. All monies pass through his hands, and he judges, without appeal, both in civil and criminal causes; he has 83 officers under him. His appointment is 4000 guldens a year, and 450 for the expence of his table, (a gulden is 2
s.
4
d.
English.)
These mines are the support of many thousands, and the expence of working the whole amounts yearly to 100,000 guldens. Pure, gold ore, like that of Transylvania is here found in the Hungarian mines, but the latter yields gold ore with a mixture of silver or lead. A quintal of the richest ore yields 35 ounces of silver; but some that is refined does not yield more than two ounces in a hundred weight. That which yields least silver, contains most gold. The mine of Schemnitz annually produces something above five quintals of gold, and, with the alloy, half an ounce of gold makes five ducats, each ducat 9s. 6d. English. In the general mint from all these towns, near 100,000 ducats are coined yearly; yet some affirm that the annual clear profits of these works amount to 60,000 guldens, the Emperor's share only.
As a precaution against mal-practices, or embezzlement, all the officers and persons employed here, are sworn, and excluded from having any share in the mines. The workmen labour eight hours, and are then relieved. One of the mines at Schemnitz, (which is the largest of all the mine-towns; is well built, has three castles, and three handsome churches) is 70 fathoms deep, built and kept open with under-work, at a vast expence; the greatest part of it being a rocky soil. The ore is very rich, and generally blue, covered with a white clay. The ore runs in veins, and as they have no certain method of knowing where they lie, they proceed by guess, and persevere in their labour till they meet with them. There is one place where they dug for six successive years, and when they at last discovered the vein, they found it but two fathoms distant from the place where they first began to dig. There is another place where they dug 12 years, before they found the vein, but this proved so rich, as to pay them well in a short time. Within the mines, they have large wheels, 36 feet in diameter, turned by subterranean streams, which work engines that pump up the collected water. The streams that turn these wheels are not suffered to run into the mines, but are carried off by trunks, and horizontal passages. On the top, or outside of the mines are wheels turned by 10 or 12 horses, that pump up the water also.
The gold mine at Chremnitz has been worked near 1000 years, and is nine or ten English miles in length. It has one cuniculus or horizontal passage, 800 fathoms long, and its depth is 170 fathoms, into which the miners are let down in a kind of leather seat, fastened at the end of a cable, and the cable turned by a wheel. Such cables are worth 7 or 800 guldens each, and will not last above eight or ten weeks. In these mines the air is sometimes very cold, and sometimes so hot that the miners work naked.
The gold ore is sometimes white, sometimes black, some red, and some yellow, but the white, with black spots, is accounted the best. There have been pieces of pure gold found in this mine, as large as the palm of the hand, but such pieces are very rare. In the Emperor's museum at Vienna, is shewn a vine-stock, with a gold wire twining round it, which it is said naturally grew thus out of the earth. It was found in a vineyard near Tokay, in the year 1670, and presented to the Emperor as a most extraordinary curiosity. Tokay is remarkable for its excellent wine, and the spot of land that produces this wine is seven Hungarian, or 56 English miles in circumference. This tract is interspersed with several towns; and as Tokay is not a proper liquor for common drinkers, if all the waste lands in this district was cultivated, no part of Europe would be without Tokay wine at a moderate price.
The occasional damps in these mines have destroyed numbers of miners at a time, when they have not been prepared against them. The method of preserving the gold, is by first grinding and draining the ore, then washing it, and after all melting the sediment.
The number of the several labourers, &c. employed in the mines of Schemnitz, amounts to 5 or 6000 men, and those without the mines are computed at 2000, exclusive of those employed about the carriages: 1500 horses are usually taken up for these works, and a little carriage with two horses is hired for about six or seven guldens per week. The Emperor's expences in the Schemnitz mines alone, is yearly near 59,000l. Out of 128 shares, the Emperor has 123, the other five are private property. Some noble families are settled in the mine-towns, and the greater part of their income arises from the mines. At Hana, near Eperiez, is dug a whitish ore, which yields a great deal of quicksilver, extracted
per descensum.
Within six English miles of Chremnitz, is a warm bath, about the heat of the king's bath, at Bath, much frequented, and where both sexes bathe promiscuously; the men wearing only a kind of drawers, and the women a shift wrapped over their heads.
CHAP. II.
Of the Cities.
GRAN was formerly the capital of Hungary, till the Hungarians lost it; thence Buda became the capital; now Presburg is the metropolis. It is a regular city, situated in a spacious plain, on the banks of the Danube, at the foot of a mountain. Presburg itself is ill-built, the houses of the town, properly so called, not much exceeding two hundred, and the whole strength of its fortifications consists in a double wall and a moat. But the suburbs are large and handsome, and contain four universities, with churches, and two hospitals. Presburg lies in latitude 48 deg. 8 min. and is only 40 English miles distant from Vienna. Some of the suburbs rise on a steep hill, and the citadel or castle stands on the top of it. It is a grand, quadrangular, Gothic building, with four towers at the corners, exactly alike, and is the usual residence of Prince
Albert
of Saxony. From this citadel is a very extensive prospect, commanding the vast and fertile plains of Hungary, towards Belgrade. The crown, and other regalia of Hungary are left in one of the above-mentioned towers, but as the entrance to this castle is through three iron doors, the guards posted between the two first doors, by means of a grate can see every one that comes up the steps, leading to the entrance. In the lower suburbs is a hill, where the king of Hungary, at his coronation, goes in great state on horse-back, and brandishes his sword towards the four cardinal points, to signify that he is determined to protect his frontiers from enemies on all sides. In this city the states of Hungary hold their assemblies, and in the cathedral church the Sovereign is crowned. The regalia, consisting of the crown and sceptre of St.
Stephen,
their first king, are here carefully secured by seven locks, the keys of which are kept by the same number of Hungarian noblemen. No prince is legally their sovereign till he is crowned with the diadem of king
Stephen;
and they have a notion that the fate of their nation depends on the crown's remaining in their possession. It has therefore been moved, in times of danger, to places of the greatest safety.
Old Buda is in 47 degrees 40 minutes north latitude, lying on the south side of the Danube, ninety miles from Presburg. It stands in a plain extending itself from the suburbs of New Buda to the Pellis mountains; at present it is a poor mean place, belonging to the Zichy family: in, and about it, are many ruins, with several Roman monuments. New Buda is situated on a mountain on the Danube, was formerly the capital of the kingdom, the residence of the king, and the largest and finest of all the Hungarian towns, but having been often besieged, taken, and destroyed, it is now very much reduced. The city lies on the declivity of the mountain, and its castle stands on the top of it. The Jesuits here have an academical college, and a seminary; the Carmelite nuns have convents, and the Franciscans have churches. The city is surrounded with walls and moats, and well fortified. On the opposite side of the river stands the town of Pesth, in a plain, the river being crossed by a bridge of boats: here is the supreme court of appeal, and a large military hospital, built with stone, 200 paces square, and three stories high: the town is surrounded with a wall and moat, contains six convents, and several churches.
At Buda are some natural warm baths, which, when the Turks possessed the place, from 1529 to 1686, were the noblest in Europe, not only in respect to the size and heat of the springs, but in the magnificence of the buildings: these baths are seven in number. The emperor's bath is built in the manner of the rotunda at Rome, with a large aperture in the centre of the cupola, besides several small holes or windows for admitting more light into the dome. The emperor's bath, with a pond of mineral water, has this surprizing property, that when the water is wholly turned off, the warm springs cease flowing; but when the pond is filled a little above half full, they return again: the heat is nearly that of the water at Bath in England. The exhalation of the emperor's baths, says Dr.
Brown,
reverberated by the cupola, form long stones, like icicles, which hang down from the capitals of the pillars and irons, which extend from one column to another, as is observed in some other subterraneous grottos, for the cupola is supported with large columns; and though there are many openings to let out the steam, yet the whole seems like a hot stove. In the great bath the anti-chamber is very large, the bathing-room spacious, high arched, and adorned with five cupolas; one over the round bath in the middle, and one less at each of the four corners, where are bathing rooms for private uses. Twelve pillars support the great cupola, between eight of which are fountains of hot water, and between the others are places to sit down, where the barber and servants of the bath attends, and in each of these places are two cisterns of free-stone, into which they let hot and cold water, as the company like. In the large bath both sexes publickly bathe together, the men wearing only a kind of drawers, and the women what they call a fine shift; but the common people, for whom the Raizen bath is appointed, look even upon this slight cloathing as superfluous.
Keysler
tells us, a wide subterraneous passage, leading from Old Buda to the citadel, has been lately discovered, and that it was a way well-known to the Turks. The wine of this place has a good flavour, is red, and much resembles French wine. Besides grapes, Buda is famous for fine melons, which sell for one penny English, each.
The mode of bathing, according to Dr.
Brown,
is as follows; being brought into the anti-chamber, the bather is furnished with a cloth and apron; when stripped, he puts on the apron, goes into the bath-room, where, sitting down between the pillars near a fountain, he is well rubbed, and his hands and arms stretched out by the barber, who next shaves his head and beard, except the upper lip, and then proceeds to rub his breast, back, arms, and legs, with a hair cloth; the bather either sitting, or lying on his belly. Then, the barber having washed the head with soap, and thrown cold water over the body, the bather walks in the steam of the bath for some time, and afterwards bathes.
The nobility here have their villas as in England. The following description of one is taken from
Moore,
who went to visit a nobleman about four miles from Presburg. His house is delightfully situated, but his gardens laid out a little too methodically; the park, however, and fields, where less art had been used, display a vast luxuriancy of natural beauties. Whilst wandering over these, we entered a little wood, in a very retired place, where was a figure of painted wood dressed in a hermit's garb to deceive passengers, and well executed, stretching out his hand, as if to invite people to his hermitage hard by; over the door was this inscription from
Horace;
but which for the ladies is Englished:
Odi profanum vulgus:
How I hate the profane vulgar!
On the inside of the door within.
Fata volentes ducunt, nolentes.
Fate leads the willing, but drags the unwilling.
And in another part within the hermitage.
Omnes eodem cogimur; omnium
Versatur urna, seriùs ocius,
Sors exitura; et nos in aeternum
Exilium impositura Cymbae.
Thus all must tread the path of fate,
Thus even shakes the mortal urn,
Whose lot embarks us, soon or late
On Charon's boat, ah, never to return!
Francis.
With several more inscriptions, taken from Cicero, in favour of the soul's immortality.
But of all the rural residences, that of Estherhasie is the first, being the palace of the prince of that name. He is the first in rank of all the Hungarian nobility, and one of the most magnificent subjects in Europe. He has body-guards of his own, all genteel looking men, richly dressed in the Hungarian manner.
Estherhasie is about 60 miles from Vienna. The palace is a noble building, lately finished, and situated near a fine lake. The apartments are grand and convenient, containing a greater variety of splendid furniture than most royal palaces can boast of. In the prince's private apartments are some musical clocks, and one in the form of a bird that whistles a tune every hour.
Adjoining the palace is an opera-house, small, but neat and elegant; and in the gardens a large saloon, and a commodious suite of rooms for masquerades and balls. In this opera-house, the performers of Venice are often engaged by the prince to perform Italian operas. If any strangers are at that time in the town, he sends to them, and invites them to the exhibition, and the doors are open to all the country people around about. The celebrated Haydn is his composer, at an annual salary.
He has also another theatre for puppet-shows, much larger, and more commodious than most country playhouses; and Dr.
Moore
tells us it is the most splendid of its kind he ever saw. He did not see any piece performed, but was assured they were the best comedians in Hungary. "I had" says he "the curiosity to peep behind the curtain, and saw kings, emperors, turks, and christians, all ranged very sociably together: king
Solomon
was in a corner in a very suspicious
tête-a-tête
with the queen of Sheba.
Among other curiosities at this palace is a wooden house in the garden, built upon wheels. It contains a room, with a table, chairs, a looking glass, chimney and fire-place, with closets, and many necessary accommodations. Twelve persons may sit round this table, and the prince has often entertained a company at dinner, whilst they have taken an airing round the garden, and many parts of his park, which are as level as a bowling green; the vehicle, thus loaded, is drawn easily by six or eight horses.
The gardens are of vast extent, and beautiful beyond description, being diversified with woods, hills, valleys, walks, fountains, and arbours. And the description of Alcina's enchanted island, will give, says
Moore,
a very good idea of the romantic fields of Estherhasie; and which are inhabited by the same kind of animals.
While 'midst the roses red, and lilies fair,
For ever nurs'd by kindly Zephyrs care,
The nimble hares in wanton mazes play'd,
And stately stags with branching antlers stray'd.
Without the fear of hostile hand, they stood,
To crop, or ruminate their grassy food.
HUNGARIANS at OVID'S TOMB
Hic situs est vates quem divi Caesaris ira,
Augusti
Patria
cedere jussit humo.
Saepe miser voluit patriis succumbere terris,
Sed frustra, hunc illa fata dedere locum.
In English thus: "Here lies one whom the wrath of Caesar banished from his native country. Often has the wretched wished to be buried with his fathers, but in vain. Fate has laid this man here."
CHAP. III.
Of the People, Manners, Customs, Trade, &c.
THERE is no country in the world which has a greater variety of inhabitants than Hungary. The ancient possessors of the country were Tartars, and Sclavonians. Amongst the former we may reckon the Hungarians, now properly so called; for their manners and appearance plainly shew that they are of kin to the Calmucks, and descendants of the old Scythians. Their deep eyes, angular cheek-bones, and yellow skins, distinguish them from the Sclavonians, who, besides, are whiter, more fleshy, and stronger built. There are several parts of the country, in which both races are continued pure and unmixed. And besides all these, there are Germans, Walachians, Bulgarians, Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Jews, and Gypsies, which last are the richest of all foreigners.
All these people, a few of the German colonists, and the higher nobility excepted, who are modelled after the fashion of the court of Vienna, are still in a barbarous state. Indeed, it must be owned, that the Court, instead of succeeding in improving them, as it has done the rest of its subjects, has rather done them harm than good, by the attempts it has made for the purpose. Whilst they were left to themselves, they were warlike, and like the children of nature, whom a false policy had not spoiled, open-hearted, hospitable, frank, and steady to their purposes. Experience, as well as true philosophy teach us that partly by religion any state may be successful in civilizing a barbarian: any other attempt, any other restriction, which tends to cure him of his vices, without shewing him the advantage of virtue to himself, only makes a motley composition of the faults of the two states.
On the very aspect of things one sees that the government of this country is insidious. The interests of the higher nobility are different from those of the rest of the country; their under-tenants, which make the greatest part of the people, are not feudal subjects, neither have they any real property; they are farmers who may be turned out of their farms upon the least dissatisfaction.
The nobility contributes nothing but free gifts to the necessities of the state, though it is in possession of half the property of the country. It is almost the only order in the state, for, from the higher orders of these the priesthood is chosen, so that the interest of these two orders is one. In short, the boasted freedom of Hungary is only a privilege of the nobility and clergy to live at the expence of the whole country.
In general, the Hungarians are of a good stature, and well proportioned. The men are of a martial appearance, but the women are exceedingly fair, and some very beautiful. The dress of the men, consists of a fur cap, a close-bodied coat girt about with a sash, and over this a cloak or mantle, which comes no lower than the hips, and is so contrived as to be buckled under one arm, so that the right hand is always at liberty.
The colours they affect in their cloaths are red, blue, or green. Young gentlemen have usually feathers in their caps. The women of fashion, as well as the men, imitate the French mode of dress, but neither sex will leave off the short cloak, or toga. The ladies are generally veiled, when they go abroad. The men shave their beards, but leave whiskers on the upper lip.
Beside a broad sword, the usual arms of an Hungarian are an iron mace, with a round head furrowed, and the balta, made in the form of a hatchet, with fire arms. The women's dress in the mine towns is not unbecoming. They wear knots of ribbons at their shift sleeves, and others likewise hanging down their backs; but the peasants, and lower sort of people amongst the miners, dress very meanly. Among the latter, the men are very proud of a furred mantle. Most of the women wear boots, and many of them a long furred gown, and have a kind of shift of a very coarse linen next their skin, with a girdle round it at their waist. Their head dress is a piece of white linen with two lappets hanging down behind.
In this part of the kingdom sky-blue is the most usual colour worn by both sexes: the predilection of the people here for this colour, is, that it is an emblem of a celestial, or exalted mind.
The Hungarians pique themselves on being descended from those heroes, who formed the bulwark of Christiandom against the infidels. In the mine-towns both sexes amongst the lower classes wear sheep-skin garments. The natives, in general, are an indolent people, and leave trade and manufactures to the Greeks and other strangers settled in their country. Their diversions are of the warlike and athletic kind.
The inhabitants of Temeswar, a province lately incorporated into the kingdom of Hungary, are computed at about 450,000. There are in this country many Faraons or Gypsies, supposed to be real descendants of the ancient Egyptians. They are said to resemble the ancient Egyptians in their features, in their propensity to melancholy, and in many of their manners and customs: and it is asserted that the lascivious dances of Isis, the worship of onions, many famous Egyptian superstitions and specifics, and the Egyptian method of hatching of eggs by means of dung, are still in use among the female Gypsies in Temeswar.
Hungary being plentifully watered with fine rivers, the usual way of travelling in summer is by water, and where they have not this conveniency, an open chariot, drawn by three or four horses a-breast, carries the traveller over this flat country with great expedition. They have also a very fleet breed of horses for riding, but never trim them, long tails and manes being considered as great ornaments. The Hussars, or Hungarian troopers, whose pay is small, are very troublesome to travellers, robbing all they meet, where they can do it with security.
Nor are those numbers of the sturdy gypsies, that swarm in this country less dangerous, though they live in towns, and generally profess some handicraft trade. The wolves too are another great disturbance on the road in the night-time, especially where it happens to be through a wood.
The reader may readily conceive by the plenitude of these voracious animals, that Hungary is not well inhabited, otherwise this troublesome race of quadrupeds would be extirpated from off the face of the land. The great extent of uncultivated plains agreeably diversified with thickets and limpid springs and meandring brooks, as well as the dark recesses of the numerous forests, bespeak the safe retreat of these truly formidable race of quadrupeds: who, when pressed by the wants of nature and the inclemency of the element, are as ravenous probably as the lions were in the den, wherein the prophet Daniel was immerged.
The roads are sometimes only the direction of a mount, a grove, or a post; as few footsteps mark the beaten track so well known in more populous states. The lonely woods know few of the human race to walk within their shelter. The solitary groves and still more pleasing landscapes have no admirers to paint the beauties of the golden west, when the planet of the day sinks beneath the towering hill. The luxuriant sense wants no artificial colouring to delineate its beauties; every object conspires to heighten the beauty of the horizontal boundary. On every hand the prospect varies, yet none to be rejected as less worthy of mental enjoyment and agreeable perspective. All are equally novel, beautiful, and picturesque.
In the mountains near the town of Schemnitz; the hardness of the water produces wens of a great size. These excrescences are almost universal amongst the inhabitants: but the water in the vallies, near that town, is said to be an efficacious remedy for them.
As we are under the head of travelling, we cannot omit the noble bridges that are to be met with in this country; particularly the bridge at Esseck, built over the river Drave, and the marshy grounds beyond it, being five miles long, and railed in with towers at every quarter of a mile's distance.
This has been a pass much contended for in the Turkish wars, and occasioned many smart engagements to gain the possession of it. There lies also a bridge of boats, half a mile long, between Buda and Pesth; and a third over the Danube, between Gran and Barcan. But the bridge built over the Danube, 20 Hungarian miles from Belgrade, far surpassed all the rest, some of the ruins being visible at this day. It consisted of 20 piles of square stone an 100 feet in height, the basis whereof contained 60 feet on every side of the square. The distance between every one of these piles, or pillars, was 170 feet, and joined together by arches. And to perpetuate the memory of this bridge, many silver coins were stamped with this inscription,
"Danubius."
The manufactories of Hungary are very inconsiderable, as hardware and copper are the chief articles of this description. Their exports are, wine, oil, metals, minerals, cattle, leather, wool, tallow, and wax; and their imports are spices, tin, silk, and a few other foreign commodities.
That their trade is no greater may be ascribed to several causes, as first, their's being an inland country, at a distance from the sea. By the Danube indeed a very profitable navigation might be carried on to the coast of the Black sea, and even to the Mediterranean; but as the Turks are masters of the mouth of that river, nothing of that kind can now be attempted.
If we may rely on the veracity of Baron
Riesbec,
the exports amount to 24 millions a year, and the imports to 18, consequently there is a balance of six millions annually in favour of the country.
With respect to the exports and imports, if compared, we shall find it impossible, but that the former is stated too high; for with a balance of trade, as Hungary must by this means have, it ought to be one of the richest countries in Europe. Whereas nothing is scarcer than money in this country.
If we consider a little the variety of commodities which Hungary must import from abroad, it is impossible it should have an equal trade; it is obliged to purchase all the products of art, besides an astonishing number of those of nature. The quantity of the natural produce on the other hand, given by Hungary to the stranger, is very great; but that there remains a surplus, we scout the idea, as an improbability.
The negligence of the police in not straining the torrent of luxury is inconceivable. I have often been tempted to believe, says
Riesbec,
that government did not think it worth its while to attend to the trade and commercial interests of this country, either because it did not yield in proportion to its greatness, or that the impetuous temper of the Court was such, as not to allow of any establishments that were to produce advantage to after ages. Be this as it may, whether the Court is all for present enjoyment, or has not political wisdom enough to erect for futurity, the instances of its neglect are most glaring. For, notwithstanding the extreme poverty of the country, they allow the Jews to go about with coffee, sugar, tobacco, oil, and quack medicines of all kinds, from village to village, where they sell them in small quantities, and much adulterated.
With the power which the present Emperor
Leopold
possesses he might at once cut off all the privileges of the Hungarian nobles, which are contrary to the good of the whole, and which it has for so many years been endeavouring to undermine. A few families would murmur for a while, but the thing would not go beyond murmurs; the inhabitants of the towns, and the peasants would stand up for the interests of the Court, which are their own. The religious animosities, which served formerly as a pretence for an insurrection, would no longer blind the people to their real good. It would open a liberality of sentiment that would soon win over the nobility, whom the artifices now in use, only alienate and corrupt.
If once that part of their privileges which militates against the good of the whole, was well defined, and suppressed, by one single act of authority, they would then be susceptible of patriotic virtues: whereas, at present, they look upon the government to be hostile to them, and do nothing but what they are compelled to by power or bribes.
In that case, the multitude or the inferior orders of the people would not be the abject slaves they now are: establishments for polite accomplishments would become general, and the gloom of despotism and ignorance would soon be removed by the lights of liberty and knowledge; and Hungary would, ere long, be one of the most flourishing countries in Europe.
The natives would be no longer poor, in the midst of a country abounding with every necessary of life. The poverty of the people, and the excessive luxury and riches of the nobility, would no longer offend the eyes of the humane by the shocking disproportion between them. Then the lively native, animated by the love of his country, and a sense of his duty, would no longer refuse to submit to proper discipline, but gladly lay down his life in defence of his natural rights, his liberty and property; and, like a Briton, serve his king, because he is the father of his people, and guardian of their privileges.
There is hardly a Hungarian of rank, at this day, says
Riesbec,
that is either free from debt, or that does not, like the Austrian man of fashion, look upon his debts as an honour. The court of Vienna has consequently little to fear from the commotions of the higher ranks here, as all of them are so strongly attached to the modes of the capital of the German empire, that nothing short of a German lady, and a German equipage is the ton for a noble Hungarian. Therefore, notwithstanding the discontent which reigns in the breasts of the lower class of Hungarians, yet, the want of a leader with power and consequence, will always prohibit their risings from being any ways dangerous.
The dissipation of the Hungarians has bound them to the court of Vienna by an indissoluble tie, namely, their necessities, which will no longer allow them to serve for nothing, but make the pay of the Court an object to them. The Austrian nobility, by privilege, take a most unfair advantage, whenever they find a proper opportunity, and purchase Hungarian estates, in proportion as the owners are obliged to raise supplies for the redemption of their honour, in discharging their debts. Hence the German influence in Hungary is very great: nor is the national court at liberty to shake off the yoke, which their own irregularities has obliged them to be burthened with.
Now, it may be said of Hungary, that it is a mixed nation, at least so far as appertains to the first class of people; for the nobility, both laity and ecclesiastics, are nearly equally divided between natives and Austrians.
Besides what has been already stated, the Court uses several other means that depend upon time and circumstances. One of the most efficacious is, the loading the produce of Hungary with very heavy taxes. These oppressions indeed, immediately affect the nobility only, to whom the exports properly belong, as the rest of the people have no property; but they hurt the whole country, and particularly the manufacturers and merchants in great towns, by the diminution of the coin in circulation.
The duties on the exports of Hungarian wines, are so considerable that the Croats who inhabit the mountains are obliged to buy the wine, which, but for these duties, they might have very cheap from their fellow subjects in Venetian Dalmatia. The fact is, says the honest baron, the court of Vienna had rather let the country lose money than suffer Hungary to be rich.
Almost all the employments of the country which the constitution does not require to be given to natives are possessed by Germans, who often prove the most dreadful despots. Thus in the cities of Illyria which depend intirely on the council of war, and are all under military government, almost all the employments are held by foreigners.
The Germans have made themselves so odious here by their tyranny, that the Croat knows no worse epithet, than that of
"a Swabian;"
under which is comprehended every thing that is detestable and contemptible. By the name of a Swabian the croat defines all the inhabitants of Germany, not excepting the Austrian. For the natives of Austria who get footing in this country, behave there like Turkish Pacha's, or East Indian Nabobs. Their pride leads them to make the Hungarians feel that they are the ruling nation. Their dissipation compels them to use every extortion to procure money; and they are made still worse than they otherwise would be, by the difference of their manners and religion. Thus, it is from the oppression of foreigners, that the native Illyrian has taken the dishonest and stubborn part of his character, which otherwise is very unnatural to him.
Notwithstanding the principal places are generally occupied by great men, it is impossible to be more worthless than the greater number of the public servants are. Generally speaking there is not a grain of patriotism, a grain of knowledge, a grain of good will, or a grain of activity amongst them. Pride, vanity, self interest and hard-heartedness distinguish them all. The only thing they look up to, continues the same author, are pay and titles, and treat business as a matter of indifference.
The native Hungarians who have a share in the government of their own country, have infinitely better understanding of the business and duties of their places, and more delight in discharging them, than the Austrians; and yet these possess almost all the places, and the others are exposed to their tyranny. The Austrians look upon it as indispensibly necessary to bind them in court chains, and take away every feeling of liberty and true honour from them. They do all they can to stifle their national spirit. They have no idea of ruling over a free and sentimental people, but conceive they must make slaves of the whole nation, in order to govern it. The most cruel violations of the national contract and the liberty of mankind, have been those which have arisen on a religious account. It may therefore with safety be affirmed, that it will take two centuries to come, to undo the mischief which this Court hath done itself during the last hundred and fifty years, by the religious persecutions in Hungary. It is indeed one of those contradictions which most seemingly bespeaks the debility of the human mind, that whilst the Court of Vienna, on the one hand, does all it can, to promote the population and industry of this kingdom; on the other, it persecutes, in every possible way, the industrious part of its subjects, and that part whose religious opinions are the most favorable to population.
The great fault of this government is, that they banish the protestants who are the most useful part of the subjects. But the want of freedom in religion explains it: it is greatly owing to this cause that all the useful men emigrate and leave Hunga
y only to the worthless ones. For it must be owned the former can have but little desire to settle in a country, in which they must often go journies of several days, to see a priest of their own persuasion; where they are not allowed to build a church, and where the hatred towards them and their religion effectually and perpetually excludes them from all civil employments.
All these hindrances are removed under the gentle government of the English and Dutch, who of course take all the useful emigrants, and leave Austria the most inferior order. Those that settle in Hungary,
Reisbec
affirms, to be the most abandoned people, who emigrate from Bavaria, Swabia, Franconia, and the country about the Rhine. These, upon their arrival, generally squander away the small sums of money they have raised at home—hence their excesses occasion many to die suddenly, and have given the name of an unwholesome climate to Hungary, without any truth; for no country has a more salubrious air and wholesome mode of diet.
These, however, such as they are, would still be a considerable gain to so poor a country as Hungary is, if Government was sufficiently interested in their fate, to provide for the excesses they must be exposed to from the danger of the climate, and their own inexperience, and to give them some assistance in their first settlement. Hungary is in itself not more unwholesome than Italy, Spain, the south of France, or any other warm country; only, as there are morasses all over it, the difference between the heat of the day and the cold of the night, must be very sensibly felt by a German.
The rich wines and delicious fruits here to be met with, are equally pernicious to the stranger, who must guard against their dangerous influence. The regimen of the emigrant should be carefully copied from that of the native; for from the usage of the inhabitant the favorable diet and exercise of any country may be easily acquired.
CHAP. IV.
Religion, Learning, Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, &c.
THE ancient inhabitants of this kingdom had scarce any devotion, but what they paid to their sword, which they look upon as the great preserver of their country, and the terror of their enemies.
The Christian religion was introduced here about the year 1000, by king
Stephen.
The Hussites of Bohemia propagated their opinions here in the 15th century, and in the 16th,
Luther
's doctrine prevailed; but, like their neighbours, the Bohemians, they were divided into a multitude of sects, and some of them not easily defensible, having various singularities not essential to the cause they espoused: however, all were known under the denomination of Protestants.
At present, about one fourth of the inhabitants of Hungary are Roman-catholics; one fourth, Greeks, Jews, and Anabaptists; and the other half, Lutherans and Calvinists. The latter, it must be confessed, are far behind their brethren in other countries in knowledge and discipline.
From the circumstance of the religion of the country being formerly catholic, it is natural to expect that this religion should be the established one of the state. With this no sensible man can be offended, notwithstanding the comparative diminution of its members to that of the reformed church; but, to take away the 300 churches from the Protestants, whilst the Jews are indulged with building as many synagogues as they please, is a very impolitic, and unchristian-like distribution of justice in the liberty of conscience.
By the restless disposition of the Jesuits, the protestants were not only deprived of the public use of churches, but their schools were prohibited, so that they were obliged to send their youth to foreign seminaries for education. Thus the Court of Vienna was influenced, till within a few months back, to encourage the idle and profligate Calmucks and Gypsies, rather than laborious and moral protestants. This mode may be termed, with a good deal of propriety, a destruction of the national character, without improving the external circumstances of the people.
It is now well known, and the example of the English fully proves it, that the only way out of barbarism is through real religion. Judge then what it must be to tread this road backwards, and to substitute the superstitious spirit of monkery, for the mild, and industrious spirit of protestantism. It is strange to relate, that the late emperor,
Joseph
II. gave sanction to this, and ordered its execution, at the very time when he was endeavouring to curb the power of the priests, by dismantling their religious retirements, both convents and monasteries, in various parts of the German empire, and forming such establishments of education, as must ultimately lead to protestant principles.
The Greek priests, in Hungary arid Illyria, are exactly in the same state of ignorance and semi-barbarism as the Roman-catholic priests were, in the reign of
Charlemagne
the Great, who laid the first foundation for national improvement, and first began with an illumination of the priesthood by knowledge and polish.
There are, at this time, says
Ricsbec,
many of the spiritual pastors of the Greek church, who know not how to read tolerably; and to write, or calculate, is above their knowledge: for, if engaged in any manner where numbers are requisite, their fingers serve as a tally.
One of these pious shepherds of souls, continues the same author, a Macedonian by birth, who valued himself much on his classical erudition of the Greek, and the reputation of his countryman,
Alexander
the Great, took it into his head to instruct a young gentleman in the history of the Trojan war. He said that a prince of the Trojans having run away with a French princess, the Greek, and Roman emperors, the king of France, and the seven Electors, went to Troy, and took the city, after an astonishing long siege, by means of a wooden horse, filled with armed men. Notwithstanding their gross ignorance, yet these priests are the idols of the still more ignorant congregations. The catholic priests who live at any distance from the large towns are little behind the Greeks in being illiterate and vulgar in manners. Their whole library consists of their breviary, and the only thing they study is the Latin language.
The public seminaries, or universities for cultivating literature, are those of Firnan, Buda, Raab and Cascham. All the professors are Jesuits; so that the Lutherans, Calvinists, and other Protestants are obliged to go to the German colleges to complete their academical studies.
Notwithstanding the Hungarians do not want parts, yet it is observed that this country produces but few learned men. The only reason that can be assigned for this, is the poverty of the knowledge of the professors, who neither improve in the sciences themselves, nor admit those from other countries, who are adequate to the task, to become public members.
The church, by law established, is governed by two archbishops and nine bishops. The archbishop of Gran, is primate of all Hungary, and chief secretary and chancellor,
Legatus natus
of the papal see, and prince of the Holy Roman empire. He alone crowns the king, and is a perpetual count in right of his spiritual dignity. He can create peers, confer titles and orders of knighthood, &c. Next to him is the archbishop of Kolacza, who has eight suffragans. The bishops are of a double character and are temporal lords as well as spiritual ones.
The abbots are ten in number, and have voices in the estates of the kingdom, and are reckoned after the bishops in precedency.
The spiritual courts appointed for the discussion of ecclesiastical affairs, are held in every diocese and chapter, but with a power of appealing to the archbishop, and afterwards to the pope's legate; and may at last be carried to the papal court at Rome.
The pure language of the Huns, resembles that of the Hebrew, as it is wholly governed by points and accents. But
Bus
ing
says that it is really a dialect of the ancient Scythia, without the least affinity to any of the European tongues and of one unvaried dialect.
In writing, the Hungarians use the Roman characters; the Germans have their different dialects, according to their nations which are settled here. There are also dialects of the Sclavonian and Wallachian tongues used here. The Latin is not only spoken by the literati and gentry, but also by the commonality; however the latter are not very correct, yet it may be said that the ancient Roman language is still a living one in Hungary, though dead to all the world besides.
Were systems of religion not shackled with penalties by Roman-catholic princes, it is certain the sunshine of science, would chase away the vapours of superstition and gross ignorance, which carry such absurd, and frequently fantastic characters on the face of them, that more polished nations with great reason laugh at. Can the minds of men be confined to any particular mode of thinking; or shall their ideas be reducible to any peculiar form? Surely every moral agent who is possessed of common understanding and impressed by the laws of civil society will readily acquiesce in the happy plan of universal toleration. Britain has been long famed for this excellent rule of faith, and leaves open her church doors for all who are willing to come in, and also to accommodate those that go out of her pales; for certain it is, free privilege gives life to the name of a christian, and a body to the established church of this our favored land, and all its dependencies.
It appears from the writings of the best modern authors, that this crown has been sometimes hereditary, and at others elective. That sometimes their princes have acted arbitrarily, and at others been limited and restrained by the states. That there have been innumerable struggles between the crown and the states. The former for exercise of prerogative and the latter for limiting the sovereign power. In history it is surprizing to find so many kings deposed or murdered either by factious subjects or ambitious rivals. And as their kings could not by their constitution legally oppress their subjects and invade their properties, therefore regicide was less pardonable here than in any other nation in christendom.
If the people indeed are vested with the supreme power, and the kings are but their officers and accountable to them, they will have some pretence for resisting and dethroning them, when they act contrary to the good of the community: and may without imputation of paricide do justice upon them, in the language of our regicides, with Oliver Cromwell at their head,
that the rest of the kings of the earth may hear and fear, and do no more, so wickedly.
But as our republicans go upon that mistake, that kings can have no legal authority, but what is conferred on them by the majority of the people, their princes are always accountable to the majority of the people. And since there is scarce any instance in the world that the majority of the people (the multitude) were ever consulted in the election of a monarch or supreme magistrate, their fancied power over their monarchs must be a mere chimera.
The elegant pamphlet lately published by the Right Hon.
Edmund Burke,
M. P. relative to the divine right of kings, proclaims a new sort of doctrine as far as it touches on the authority and unlimited controul of potentates: which gives a new species of reasoning far beyond any thing we have had the perusal of for many years, and in several particulars may be said to be truly original. This author, in discussing the political crisis of France, endeavours to overturn the new modelled constitution of that country, merely because the government of it has assigned the king but a nominal situation instead of the unbounded field of prerogative he formerly partook of.
This curious address would be more applicable when we come to speak of France; but a short abstract of its leading features, we presume, will here be consonant to the subject.—
Notwithstanding the specious pretences of maintaining the people's rights and privileges by attempts upon the throne, as if they had,
jure divino,
an unalienable, and a feazible right to call their sovereign to account; depose, and condemn him as their wisdoms conceive to be the criterion to promote the public good: for, should it be admitted that they have such an authority, surely it is equally perceptible to an enlightened mind how inadequate the major part of mankind are to a discrimination of the upright acts of their prince? Ambition is at the botton of these combinations, and only flatters the public with the notion of their unbounded right to make and un-make kings: till, by their assistance, the new modellers have got the reigns of government; and then these noble patriots commonly laugh at the many-headed beast that has advanced them, leaving the people to labour under greater difficulties than they did before; or, perhaps, loading them with insupportable taxes to maintain their own possession, pretending, that their establishment and the people's happiness are inseparable.
Here we leave the digression; and, in the genuine spirit of the author's reasoning, cannot but concur; yet at the same time we must observe, much may be said on both sides the question, as circumstances may tend to vary right and wrong very materially.
But on all hands it must be acknowledged, that no nation has ever suffered more in these struggles between the crown and the states than the Hungarians; for, while one side called in the emperor, the other called in the grand signor, to their assistance, and made the country a scene of wars and blood-shed for upwards of 200 years together; till, in the end, the German emperor has become master of the country, and has driven the Turks entirely out of Hungary, and reduced it to the form of a province. They have contended with their princes about their rights and privileges, till the Imperial eagle has decided the controversy by devouring both, and left them only the shadow of their ancient constitution.
The ceremony of the coronation of the kings of Hungary is attended with rather curious formulae.—The general assembly of the states appoint a place, usually Presburg, or Buda. Here the bishops, the nobility, and the representatives of the several countries and cities unanimously approve of the new monarch, who is always the next in succession, notwithstanding the necessary form of election previous to his being crowned. Then the palatinate (whose office we shall presently describe) demands, with a loud voice, three times, whether the assembly approves of the new elected king? And, having expressed their consent by loud acclamations, he delivers a naked sword into the king's hand, which the sovereign brandishes E. W. N. and S. After which he is attended by the states to the great Cathedral church, where, the arch-bishop of Gran, holding the regal robes in his hand, again demands of the people, whether they are satisfied with the king elect, and are willing to become his subjects? And, on receiving an answer in the affirmative, he proceeds to perform the usual rites observed at the coronation of their kings; after which, the prelates and nobility carry the arms and reliques of king
Stephen
I. before the new king, in a splendid procession, to the palace.
The crown of
Stephen
I. is still preserved at Presburg with great veneration, if not superstition; and no prince is allowed to be duly crowned with another crown. The Roman-catholics do not hesitate to declare openly that the fate of the nation depends on the careful preservation of it; and in all their calamities took great care to preserve it in a place of safety. The legend of this crown runs thus. When
Stephen
I. began to propagate the christian religion in his dominions, he sent a trusty person to pope
Benedict
VII. desiring his holiness to confirm him in his kingdom, and send him a crown, and other regal ornaments.
Myscha,
duke of Poland, having sent an embassy to Rome at this time, on the same account, and a crown being provided for him: but, an angel appearing to the pope, the night before it was to be sent away, desired, that the crown designed for the Pole, should be sent to
Stephen,
which was done accordingly. The catholic Hungarians believe this tradition equally with any article of their faith, and give this antique relique almost divine adoration.
The person of greatest authority, next to the king, is the palatine, or guardian of the kingdom, and is elected by the states. This officer has the first voice in the election of a king, and is always the guardian to the infant princes of the blood, and has authority to assemble the states during an inter-regnum, and administer justice in every particular, the same as the monarch himself.
The fate of the new edition of the bible in the Hungarian language, is a recent proof of the bigotry of the established religion of this country. In the confusions of the late wars, and by other calamities, bibles were grown so scarce, that many communities had not above one, or two at most. Upon this, several of the most opulent of the societies of Protestants apprehending that this scarcity of the word of God would necessarily be attended with the total abolition of true christianity, generously undertook to publish a new edition.
The work was printed in Holland; new types were cast; and persons well qualified were sent to super-intend the press. Every thing went on prosperously, so that the impression was happily finished both with accuracy and beauty: and the only difficulty remaining was, how to convey the copies to Hungary before the Roman-catholics should by false representations influence the Emperor to prohibit their importation.
The usual application was made to court for a royal licence, which was readily granted, but the Jesuits party found means to ingratiate themselves with some of the leading men of the Romish religion, so that the books were not permitted to come within the territories of the kingdom, under a wicked suggestion that it was an erroneous translation. By this false assertion the bibles were only suffered to reach the city of Dantzic, where many of them are to be found at the present period.
Since the demise of
Joseph
II. the archbishop of Gran hath summoned the clergy of Hungary in the Roman-catholic interest, and in convocation have deliberated on a requisition to the new king
Leopold,
the present Emperor of Germany, in which they conclusively addressed the throne very uncharitably, making it an act which should carry the penalty of death with it, as well as forfeiture of temporalities to any one who should embrace the protestant religion. And again endeavored to revive the frend-like spirit of persecution with all its concomitant train of cruelties; but the mildness of the monarch stemmed the torrent of these zealots, and in a stile becoming the dignity of a
Leopold;
his Imperial majesty tempered the sharpness of the religious votaries.
What a mistaken notion is it in the breast of man, to conceive that the God of all purity, peace, and mercy, should be honoured by the cruel butcheries of his creatures, merely because their notions of outward forms, or inward systems, were not exactly the same with those of some peculiar mode of their king! Is the outward trappings of woe a proof of the internal sorrow? Or is the shape and air of the man, a token of his truth or falsehood? Certainly none of these things carry evidence sufficient to take it for granted, that truths are appendages that may be taken conclusively, as matters of fact. For the contrary frequently proves the insufficiency of all human systems to arrange the works of providence, and much less to attempt a regulation of the state of spiritual communion with the Creator.
In the ear of a moderate Protestant, how unharmonious must it grate, when he is told that the holy office of the inquisition condemns not only the unhappy victims of their cruelty and malice to the flames, but also assigns them over to a particular species of torment, in a world of miserable spirits.
If this mode of serving the Deity can be reconciled to the gentle aspect of the gospel, where saith must accompany good works, and charity be cloathed with mercy, and an universal benevolence, not only to do good to our friends, but also to our enemies, and even to pray for their happiness both here, and hereafter; what is the office of Catholic love?
CHAP. V.
Of Government, Army Establishment, and Laws.
THE king of Hungary is stiled Catholic, to which is added the title of Apostolic, on account of the zeal, which
Stephen
I. shewed in the conversion of the king. The regalia, namely the golden crown, made in the eleventh century, the sceptre, sword, mantle, and shoes; with the silver cross, the mark of the Apostolic function are kept in the castle of Presburg, and used always at the coronation of all the kings since the above period.
The states are divided into four classes, which, in the laws of the land, are called collectively, The People. The first, are the prelates, who have the direction of religious matters, and have precedence of all others, except the governor of the kingdom. The second class is called the great barons of the kingdom, and officers of the court, according to their precedency, and the counts and inferior barons. The third are stiled gentry; and the fourth are citizens and burgesses.
The king, and these states, through the channels of the diet, royal councils, exchequer and senates of towns, govern the kingdom. The diet is summoned every three years, for the dispatch of public business.
Justice is administered in civil affairs, in the king's name, after the manner prescribed by the laws and customs of the kingdom. In the royal free cities, the first hearing is before the judge of the town; and the second before the council, from which they may appeal to the treasurer.
The mine-towns have a court peculiar to themselves, and all disputes between the nobility and their vassals may be removed, by writ of error, to the grand court of the archbishop of Gran.
In public affairs, we may reduce their constitution and law to similar situations in our own government. Their diet, like our parliament, is a sort of check on the regal power of the prince. The Hungary office, which is established at Vienna, resembles our chancery. The stadholder's council answers pretty much to a British privy council. The Gaspan chafts are like our justices of the peace.
In criminal matters, the judge of the town is, with his council, fully authorized to exercise his power, and life and death are in his hands; but few cases, except those of murder, witch-craft, or here
y, are punished with death; the rest of our catalogue the Hungarians consider a temporary punishment to be adequate to the commission of the crime. And these exactions are generally confined to money, or articles of use and value.
The military strength of this kingdom is ascertained to be 50,000 Hungarians, but the Emperor seldom draws out more than 10,000; and these generally are light-horse, and are well known to modern times by the name of Hussars. They are not near so large as the German horse, and therefore stand on their tip-toes in the stirrups when they strike.
Their expedition and alertness have been found so serviceable in war, that the greatest powers in Europe have troops that go by the same name. Their foot are called heydukes, and wear feathers in their caps according to the number of enemies they pretend to have killed. Both horse and foot are very good at ravaging and plundering an enemy's country, but not equal to regular troops in a pitched battle: however, they make together an excellent national militia.
It is remarkable enough, that, whilst in imitation of the Hungarian soldiers, the Hussar has become an essential part of the Prussian army, and has also been received into the French regular troops, the true original is lo
in his own country. Not one of the 14 or 15 regiments of Hussars, in the Emperor's service, is made up entirely of Hungarians. Experienced officers have, it seems, thought such regiments could no longer be of any service; it may be so, but it is certain that the Hungarians have lost their spirit by their discipline: for, like other wild men, they detest the artificial arms, against which their strength and courage are of no avail; and, if ever they show themselves in their native fierceness, it is only when the firing is over, and they come to close engagement: then each opposes himself to the armed enemy. Here, indeed, the hero sometimes starts out again.
A whole army of these men drawn up in battle array, unpowdered from the general to the common soldier; half their faces covered with long whiskers; a sort of round beaver upon their heads instead of hats; without ruffles or frills to their shirts: all clad in rough skins; monstrous crooked sabres ready drawn and uplifted; their eyes darting flashes of rage sharper than the beams of the naked sabre, would be sufficient to dismay the hardiest troops, and terrify even veterans. But now the polished face of war, puts on a more elegant appearance, and the rough terrors of the warrior are allayed by the becoming habit of fashion; the military man knows his season of changes to the mode of times, as well as the fop of the day.
The English plan is of all others the most sound and well adapted to national policy; their principles is to keep up the spirit of the troops, from an idea that the interests of government are the same as those of the people, and that they have nothing to fear from a mutiny. Upon this ground honest John Bull reduces his people to a common standard, namely, to defend liberty and property generally, as well as particularly.
There cannot be a doubt but in obedient and strong subordination, the principal strength of an army consists; but it is impossible to unite them with an idea of feeling for self, in the subaltern and underling. Can sentiments of personal honour, bravery, and patriotism be prejudicial to an army? Surely every sensible man will answer in the negative. And were it only to meliorate the condition of the poor soldier; were it only to make his hard fate less severe, it should be the policy of princes to promote those feelings which can sweeten so many bitter hours, and alone enable them to meet death.
The Hungarians in general are extremely proper for a military life; they want nothing to be perfect soldiers, but a kind of education which good government might give them. The Croats particularly have all the requisites for service. Their usual height is six feet; they are boney, fleshy, quick and lively, and can bear the extremes of cold and hunger. In a word, there are no better made men in Europe, notwithstanding which they are the most miserable part of the Imperial army; a sure sign that government either neglects them, or does not know how to discipline them properly.
Sometimes it has been proposed to incorporate them with other corps, but this would be only to take away their natural advantages, and furnish them with artificial ones in their stead. Such a change would put an end to their usual way of life, to which they are indebted for their hardiness. They commonly dwell six or seven under the same roof. As their frugality enables them to bring up many children, they marry early, in the vigour of their youth, and their children are the produce of their unimpaired manhood.
Their juices are still uncorrupt, and the destructive distempers which poison the sources of life, are not yet introduced amongst them. The patriarchical government still subsists here, and the grandfather who has grown old amidst his children and grand-children, still retains an authority over them. As by this means their manners are preserved, uncorrupted, and uncontaminated with any species of vice; nothing more is requisite than to humanize their priests; this would render them good subjects to the state without commerce, manufactures, or arts, which the emperor
Joseph
II. lately endeavored to introduce amongst them, and which must be allowed was not to their advantage.
An education more suitable to the nature of their country, and their peculiar constitution would by degrees deprive them of their native ferocity; and they would become the more tractable, in proportion as they acquired better notions of religion and agriculture. Their uncouth manners, the natural consequence of their barbarity, is the true reason why they are so averse to discipline; and the only way of getting the better of this, and making them like the other subjects of the hous
of Austria, fit for military service, is domestic education: this alone can bring them out of their barbarity, without depriving them of their other advantages.
Were the Hungarians to be removed from their own prejudices in a military capacity, the cure might probably be worse than the disease, to effect which, no alternative beside that of incorporating them with other troops remains. Supposing this was to be effected, and to make slaves of them in the best years of their lives and when the voice of nature crieth most aloud, what would be the consequence? Accustomed to all their vices, I mean those of a standing army, they would consume the vigour of their lives in pernicious indulgencies; they would return to their native country corrupted with a variety of wants they did not know before.
Having acquired a taste for pleases of forbidden love, they would either not marry
all, or marry later than their ancestors; all the
domestic ordi
ances would be abolished, nor w
ld their wives be any longer distinguished for th
hastity. Their children would imitate them i
their vices; and the consequence of all would be, that in the second generation, one would be hardly able to distinguish them; and in the third, or at most the fourth, not know them at all from the other subjects of the empire; so totally would they have lost the size, strength, frugality and fine form which now so eminently distinguish them.
To attempt any change that may be proposed would be taking a dangerous leap from barbarous to civil life, and all that could be expected from it, would be a broken limb, if not a broken neck.
Thus to attempt pruning or lopping off the exuberant branches which spring from the stock of nature, would reduce the subject to less than half its pristine vigour, serving no other purpose than that of degenerating the noble acquisition of inbred virtues of hereditary possession, to the frailties of an artificial form, to serve no good purpose whatever, nor indulge any other passion than that of caprice: and then view the reduction of the noble structure in its ruins, without being ever able to erect the edifice, so as to answer the end which the native Hungarian, in his present uncultivated state, happily fulfils in the most unlimited sense of the word.
This nation was formerly remarkable for its coinage, as the cabinets of the curious in all countries clearly shew. Even medals of the exactest arrangement have been produced here, in a historical series which shew the regularity of this kingdom in former times.
The emperor as king of Hungary for armorial ensigns, bears quarterly barwise argent, and gules of eight pieces.
VIEW OF BELGRADE.
CHAP. VI.
BELGRADE.
BELGRADE, Alba-Graecorum, or Greek Weissenburg, having been recently the seat of war, in the Turkish dominions, and before whose walls so many Imperialists have fallen, it must be a gratification to the reader, altho' an innovation in the regularity of our plan, to introduce it here; so
sans ceremonie,
we shall give a minute description of this celebrated fortress, which at this period is a topic of conversation in every polite circle.
The city and important fortress of Belgrade, is situate at the conflux of the rivers Save and Danube, and consists of three parts, of which one is the citadel, erected on an eminence in the middle of the city.
It is the capital of the province of Servia, or Rascia, and, previous to the late siege, it was considered as a strong, populous trading city. It was formerly accounted the barrier and key of Hungary, to which it was at first annexed by the German emperor in 1440, but besieged and taken by the Turks in 1521, and till 1688, it remained in their possession, when the Huns again became masters of it; and in 1739, it was ceded to the Turks, who have since been the possessors of it, till taken by the Imperialists in the late war.
This city lies in latitude 45 deg. 10 min. N. and longitude 21 deg. 2 min. E. The many vicissitudes of fortune which it has experienced, induces us to give a brief account of some of them.
Solyman
the Magnificent laid siege to it in 1521, as before observed, and it was retaken by the Imperialists in 1686, under the conduct of the duke of Bavaria. The Turks laid siege again to it in the year 1688, and the magazine of the town being blown up by one of the enemy's bombs, with part of the walls, the Turks then took it by storm, and put all the garrison to the sword, consisting of upwards of 6000 men, except the governor and about 300 soldiers, who escaped out of one of the gates, while the enemy was busy in plundering the town.
About the beginning of June 1717, the Imperialists under the command of Prince Eugene of Savoy, invested Belgrade again, and the place being of the last importance to the Turks, the grand vizir was commanded to relieve it at all hazards, which he attempted to do in August following. This brought on a general engagement, wherein the Imperial troops obtained a complete victory.
It is remarked by the ablest historians that there never were so many Ottomans in the field at one time, as at this memorable battle. The fire was well sustained on the part of the Turks; and from the number of the killed and wounded, it stands on record to be the most bloody of any battle that ever was fought between infidels and christians.
The Turks lost about 150 pieces of cannon, 50 mortars, and their whole camp: and what is worthy of remark, the Imperialists did not enter the enemy's camp to plunder till the general gave permission, nor till the whole army was rallied and put in order.
The loss of this battle was attended with the surrender of Belgrade, which capitulated two days afterwards. It was computed on a moderate calculation, that there were not less than 80,000 Mahometans within the walls of Belgrade, amongst which near 30,000 were soldiers: and by an exact list of the artillery taken in the town and in the battle, that it consisted of 480 pieces of brass cannon, 250 of iron, and 109 brass mortars. From all of which, the reader may readily conceive what a large and important city this must at that time have been.
We need not give any further history of the sieges of this place, having already observed that it fell to the Turks in 1739. The Hungarians were then obliged to evacuate it, though not before they had demolished its outworks, leaving nothing standing but its old walls, and some fortifications inseparable from them. The two castles hereafter described, were built since that period.
The horrors of a siege are easier conceived than described. The dire necessities of war, obliges the contending parties to the exercise of their inventive faculties to form schemes of destruction by all possible modes of artifice, so as to weaken the opposing power. Every hour is applied to havock, devastation and carnage. Death stalks abroad in all shapes. The pining citizen though in no wise busied in the scenes of war, but active to remove his merchandize to subterraneous stores; on his return perhaps beholds his dwelling blazing fiercely by the hostile heated ball that falls within its attic story. His family, all in tears, lament not for the conflagrating scene, but in sobbing accents grieve for the untimely fate of the hapless mother of the mourning children. Now mark the dangers that await the whole; a deadly shot bereaves the group of life of hope and care, and mingles them with the flying dust or filthy earth unpitied and without notice of their fate! Thus war levels all distinctions, in age, sex, and rank. All are liable to the call of fate.
By the elegant perspective view of the city which we have with great pains procured, the reader may perceive that the Save, which is a large river, runs on the west side of the city, and the great river the Danube on the north side.
The Danube is very broad here, and its current so rapid that it seems to cut off that of the Save; just as the Rhone does that of the Seine, near Lyons, in France.—The water of the Danube seems to be yellow and troubled, and that of the Save greenish and clear. At the mouth of the Save is an isle made there of the settling of the sands of both streams, and is now covered over with a kind of a wood.
On the entrance into the town is the water castle, which is a strong piece of fortification, well constructed for defence; and on a further entrance is the upper castle, which is flanked with divers towns, and forms an irregular fortification of great strength also.
The chiefest trading streets are covered with a sort of pent-houses, to keep off the sun and rain. The shops are no bigger than taylors' shopboards, and very low, the shop-keepers sitting in them as our taylors do, cross-legged, which have a singular appearance to an inhabitant of any of the Christian states of this quarter of the globe.
The chapmen or buyers never enter into these little shops or stalls, but view the goods at the door, and make their la
ga
s under the cover of the projecting pe
hou
s. But besides these, there are two large bezastans, or places where the best commodities are sold; they are built in the form of a cross, like the old cathedrals, with walks within like the Royal Exchange at London.
They have two exchanges for merchandize, which are solely occupied by wholesale venders; these buildings are elegantly erected on two rows of pilars, the one over the other.
The Turks have built since their last possession of the town, a very stately caravanse
or the entertainment of poor travellers of the Musselmen; it has a noble fountain, and a spacious court, at the top of which is a grand mosque. To this is annexed, a kind of a college for students in the Mahometan divinity. These students, as well as the heads of the seminary, wear green gowns and square caps, differing little in the forms of dress from our universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
The sepulchres for the dead are all very properly without the town, a practice highly commendable in all large cities, as the contaminated air, which receives its infection from the putrefaction of the dead, is, in its nature, very prejudicial to the living; for the saline particles of the efiluviae are observed by every one who walks out, either at an early hour in the morning, or in the cool approach of night.
But, it is to be observed, that the trading people and merchants are confined very nearly to the sect of Armenians, which are very numerous, and have the privilege of a large church for public worship here. Indeed their dealings are far more impartial and fair than either the Greeks or Jews.
The situation of Belgrade makes it a place of extensive trade, being so well furnished with water conveyances. For the navigable river Teyse falls into the Danube, near the town; and the Drave and the Merish are also disembogued into the Danube, a little below the fortress. All which advantages contribute not a little to the traffic of this place. Added to which, the adjacent country thro' which these rivers pass, particularly the Danube in its fall towards the Euxine sea, is so fruitful and well supplied with every production of nature, that these advantages are sufficient to make it one of the most flourishing cities in Europe, was it in the possession of such an industrious nation as the English or Dutch: but whilst it remains in the hands of the Turks, it will never exceed its present state, of being far below its meridian.
This city was formerly the main bulwark of Hungary, which has several times stemmed the torrent of the Turkish victories, even Mahomet the Great, and all his numerous forces.
It is a remarkable Epocha, in 1521, when Mahomet appeared upon the Danube near this city with 200 gallies, and other armed vessels, which were so smartly engaged by the Christian sleet, that besides what was taken, the Turks were forced to set their own vessels on fire, to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Christians.
Though the distance from Belgrade to Vienna is about 400 miles, yet it is one continued plain, without a hill or forest, so that it seems to be a post designed by nature, of the utmost importance to the house of Austria. It is about the same distance from Constantinople, but by no means so easily approached to from thence, as from Vienna. Indeed the Germanic court, should exert itself to retain the possession of this key of the empire. For by it the trade of Hungary, Bohemia, and Germany, with all their dependancies might be considerably increased.
This great fortress was with the loss of several thousands of the flower of the Austrian troops besieged for nearly two years by the late emperor,
Joseph
II, and at length taken; but not before a loss of at least 50,000 men, by pestilence and extreme hardships, owing to the severity of the different seasons, in which the Imperialists were before the walls: it may therefore with confidence be said that this ancient city cost the victors an effusion of blood; for though the Turks, who were in possession of the town, made a vigorous resistance, yet the troops that fell by the fortune of war, in actual service were few, when compared with those that fell victims to the sickness that raged in the camp; for the fatigues which
Joseph
II. suffered, were so excessive, that the colds he contracted in the raining season, and the night air, were the causes of his severe illness, which at last terminated in a painful death.
We shall not animadvert on the conduct of the deceased emperor, further than to say, that he acted his part before this town with extreme heat, and at one time, great duplicity, by which means the poor inhabitants of the Greek and Armenian churches, were cut to pieces by the enraged Turks, as they falsely supposed, those Christian citizens had a design to betray them into the hands of the Ausrians.
This massacre will cast a gloom over the memory of a potentate, who under pretence of a flag of truce, could be so mean as to endeavor to deceive the governor, and take the place by surprize; but in this point he was himself deceived, and the Christians butchered through his treachery.
By the late treaty with the Turks, the Austrians have consented to abandon this garrison, but not before the walls are erased, and the fortifications utterly destroyed: so that it will in future, in all probability, be reckoned a frontier city of the Turks, and a mart for European and Asiatic goods. But, be this as it may, it will always be subject to the inroads of the Imperial subjects, in case of a war with the Porte.
Indeed the only advantages which the Turks reap from this place, is to keep the Hungarians and Bohemians from making incursions into the Turkish dominions, and protecting their trade on the Danube: as almost the whole of the merchants, as was before observed, of Belgrade, have always been Christians and Jews, therefore the Mahometans could not be said to be the principal gainers by the trade of this great city.
Before we dismiss this article, we cannot help observing, that were the Germans or Hungarians, a maritime people, this situation would be highly beneficial to them; but as they are too much like the Turks in point of indolence, the city of Belgrade will derive but little benefit from the masters of it, whether Turks or Germans.
THE END OF THE EIGHTH VOLUME.
ERRATA in No. XLI. VOL. VIII.
Dr. TRUSLER having been afflicted with a disorder in his eyes, that deprived him of the use of them for upwards of two months, was under the necessity of leaving the correction of No. 41, and some few other sheets, to another. He has since read them over, and is sorry to find the following material errors, which he hopes his readers will excuse, and alter with their pen. The literal errors are not of any consequence.
PAGE 160 line 14
for
family
read
families
PAGE 161—8
for
it
read
the part
PAGE 163—10
for
present
read
presents
PAGE 165—19
for
patronag.
read
patronage
PAGE 172—3
dele
not
PAGE —last line but one,
after
legate
read
a title
PAGE 176—24
dele
and impose the
PAGE 179* last line,
dele
the comma after voice
PAGE 180*—24
for
is
read
in
PAGE 191*—last line but one,
for
execution,
read
contribution
PAGE 196*—10
for
carabines
read
carbines
PAGE 175—24
for
notra
read
notre
PAGE 176—11
for
orchestre
read
orchestra
PAGE —25 for
Schwenin
read
Schwerin
PAGE 177—16
for
practice
read
practise
PAGE 179—18
for
are
read
were
PAGE 180—11 for
Juxlen
read
Juxon
PAGE 181—14
for
was
read
were
PAGE 182—6
for
there
read
their
PAGE 183—5
for
his
read
your
PAGE —20
for
seated
read
ranged
The same excuse must be alledged, for a repetition of the pages, from 167 to 199; but in atonement, it has given to No. 41. two additional pages of Letter-Press. Dr. TRUSLER, hopes the public will see, that the plates are very much improved; that of the King of Prussia, in No. 40. would sell for a crown, in any shop.
April
20.