zette! which removes one objection formerly urged, and furely not with out reason, against the observation of the day.

Some have complained, that to read all the news-papers, and compare them accurately together, as it is neceffary to do before a right judgment can be formed of the flate of things in general, is grown to be a very laborious task, which, whoever performs properly, can do nothing elfe. And why fhould he? Perhaps he has nothing elfe to do: perhaps if he had, he would not do it; or, perhaps if he had not this to do, he would be in mifchief. The complaint fprings from a very criminal indolence, the child of peace and wealth, No man knows what may be done within the compafs of a day, till he tries, Fortune favours the brave. Let him buckle to the work, and despair of nothing. The more difficulty, the more honour. The Athenians, we are told, spent their time only" in hearing or telling fome new thing." Would he with to spend his time better than the Athenians did?

It has been thought that tradefmen and artificers may fpend too much of their time in this employment, to the neglect of their own refpective occupations. But this can be thought only by fuch as have not confidered, that to an Englishman his country is every thing. Self is fwallowed up, as it ought to be, in patriotifm: or, to borrow ecclefiaftical language, the conftitution is his diocefe; his own bufinefs can only be regarded in the light of a commendam, on which, if he caft an eye now and then, as he happens to pafs that way, it is a bundantly fufficient.

The fpirit of defamation, by which a news-paper is often poffeffed, has now found its own remedy in the diverfity of them: for tho' a gentleman may read to-day,

that he himself is a fcoundrel, and his wife no better than the fhould be; he will be fure to read, that both of them are very good fort of people to-morrow. In the fame manner, if one paper, through miftake or defign, kill his friend, there is another ready to fetch him to life; nay, if he have good luck in the order of his reading, he may be informed that his friend is alive a gain before he had perused the account of his death.

The expence of advertising in fo many different news-papers may, perhaps, be deemed a hardship upon authors. But then they have, in return, the comfort of reflecting what benefactors they are to the revenue. Befides, how easy is it for them to balance the account, by printing with a large type, due fpace between the lines, and a broad margin Great advantage may be obtained by throwing their compofitions into the form of letters, which may be as fhort as they pleafe; and a reader of delicacy thinks, the fhorter the better. A letter of fix lines is a very decent letter. It may begin at the bottom of one page and end at the top of the next, fo that eight parts in ten of what the reader purchases confift of blank paper: his eye is agreeably relieved; and if the paper be good for any thing, he has, upon the whole, no bad bargain.

That the vehicles of intelligence, numerous as they are, yet are not too numerous, appears, becaufe there is news for them all, there are purchafers for all, and advertisements for all: thefe laft not only afford aid to government, and are pretty reading, but fometimes have an influence upon the more important affairs of the world, which is not known or even fufpected.

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There is one argument in favour of a multiplicity of news-papers, which I do not remember to have

IF the reader can imagine a flat country, furrowed with canals, three months overflowed with water, three more muddy and rank with vegetation, dufty and parched during the rest of the year if he can fancy this country interfperfed with cottages of clay and crumbling bricks, tawny naked peasants, puffaloes, camels, fycamores, thin-fown date-trees,' lakes, cultivated fields, and large-neglected Ipaces; if he can add to thefe, a glaring fun in a fky generally cloudlefs, with winds more or lefs ftrong, but perpetual;-he will form an idea nearly approaching a true one of the phyfical ftate of Egypt. Of its political ftate, a judge ment may be formed from the divifion of the people into families, fects, degrees; from the nature of a government which knows neither

property nor perfonal fecurity, and from the unlimited power allowed to a licentious and favage foldiery. The ftrength of the government may be appretiated, by confidering its military establishment and the quality of its troops; by obferving, that in all Egypt, and over all its frontiers, there is neither fort, redoubt, engineer, nor artillery; and that for a fleet, nothing more can be reckoned upon but 28-barques at Suez, armed each with four rufty pattereroes; and manned with fea men who are ignorant of the compass. From thefe facts, the reader may judge what opinion ought to be formed of this country. If I have reprefented it in a different point of view from other travellers, he need not be surprised. In their relations, uniformity of opinion is the

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laft thing to be looked for. One abufes what another has celebrated; one defcribes as a paradife what another finds quite indifferent. For thefe contradictions they have been reproached but even their critics are equally contradictory; and it is in the nature of things that it thould be fo. In fpite of all our endeavours, our judgments are founded, much lefs in the real qualities of objects, than in the affections we conceive for them. Daily experience proves, that in thefe, extraneous ideas perpetually are mingled; and hence the fame country may appear beautiful at one time and difagreeable at another. Befides, the prejudice of early habits is fo great as scarcely ever to be thrown off. The mountaineer hates the plains; the lowlander defpifes the mountains. The Spaniard delights in a burning fky; the Dane enjoys the ftorm. We love the verdure of woods; the Swede prefers the white glare of the fnow. The LapJander, tranfported from his fmoky hovel to the groves of Chantilly, would die of heat and melancholy. Every one has his peculiar tafte, and judges accordingly. I know that to an Egyptian Egypt is, and ever will be, the finest country in the world. But if I am allowed to give an opinion, formed from occular infpection, I confefs I cannot estimate it so highly. I do justice to its extreme fertility, the variety of its products, and the advantage of its fituation for commerce: I allow that Egypt is little fubject to thofe inconftancies of weather which of ten make our harvests fail: that the hurricanes of America, and the earthquakes of Portugal and Italy are there almoft unknown: I allow even that the heat which totally overpowers Europeans, is hardly felt by the natives. But I cannot be reconciled to the deadly South wind, nor to the Northern blast which gives fuch torturing head

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achs; ftill lefs to that army of fcorpions, gnats, and flies, which will not allow one to eat without danger of fwallowing them. No country, befides, has a more monotonous afpect a dead plain as far as the eye can reach; a horizon for ever flat and uniform; date-trees with bare ftems, and huts of earth on the dykes of canals. No where appears that richness of landscape, in which the variety of objects and diversity of fituations occupy the mind with a fucceffion of agreeable feelings. No country is lefs picturefque, none lefs proper for employing the talents of the poet or the painter. Of those objects which give the highest charms to their pictures, here are none. And it is remarkable, that neither the Arabians nor the Ancients have mentioned an Egyptian poet. What ftrains, indeed, could the Egyptian invent, though he had the pipe of Theocritus or of Gefner. He has neither limpid brooks, nor velvet turf, nor whispering folitary caves. He knows neither valleys, nor hills, nor hanging rocks. Thomfon could not have heard there the fobbing breeze of the foreft, nor the thunder rolling in peals among the mountains; he could not have feen the ferene grandeur of aged woods, the awful füry of the tempeft, nor the charming foftnefs of a fucceeding calm. An eternal uniformity ftill prefents herds of fat cattle, fertile fields, a muddy river, a motionless fea, and villages like iflands. If an obferver cafts his eye to the verge of the horizon, he is terrified to find there nothing but favage deferts, where the wandering traveller, worn out with hunger and thirst, abandons all hopes of traverfing the meafurelefs fpace that separates him from the world; where he implores heaven and earth in vain; where his cries, loft over a naked plain, are not answered even by an echo ; where, bereft of all, and left alone in the univerfe, he perishes in rage

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gloomy and defolate Nature, without the confolation of thinking that a tear shall be shed over his woes. This contraft fonear, is what doubtlefs makes the fun of Egypt, fo valuable. The nakedness of the defert makes the fertility of the river appear more luxuriant; and the view of want heightens the delights of abundance. Thofe have been more numerous in former times, and they may revive under the influence of a better government; but in their prefent state, all the bounties of Nature are lavished in vain. The gardens of Rosetta and Cairo have been highly celebrated; but the art of gardening, fo highly prized by polished nations, is unknown to the Turks, who defpife the fields and their culture. Over the whole empire, gardens are nothing but wild orchards, where the trees, carelessly fcattered, have not even the merit of agreeable diforder. Much has been faid too of the orange and citron growing in the open air. The mind is here deceived by being accuftomed to connect ideas of opulence and improvement with the culture of these plants. Common trees in Eygpt, they are affociated with the wretchedness of the hovels they cover, and excite only the ideas of neglect and poverty. The Turk is defcribed, foftly reclined under their fhade, fmoking his pipe, thoughtless and happy. Ignorance and folly, no doubt, have their enjoyments, as well as wit and knowledge; but I confefs I cannot envy the repofe of a flave, nor call the apathy of an automaton happiness. I could not even have conceived the fource of that enthusiasm which travellers have manifested for Egypt, had not experience discovered to me its fecret caufes.

A particular affectation of extol ling the countries they have explored, has long been remarked in tra

had honefty enough to confefs the exaggeration of their accounts. Yet ftill the fault is repeated, for its caufe ftill remains. Let a traveller, arrived from a diftant country, be examined in an idle and inquifitive company. The novelty of his details procure him attention, and even a fort of liking to his perfon; he is loved because he amuses, and because his acquirements are fuch as cannot give offence. On his part, he foon perceives that he can command attention no longer than he excites new feelings. The neceffity of fupporting, and the defire of increafing his intereft, incline him to heighten the colouring of his pictures: he paints his objects greater, to be more ftriking; fuccefs encourages him to proceed; the enthufiafm is reflected on himself; and between him and his auditors there is foon established a kind of commerce, by which he pays back in new wonders what he receives in admiration. The world, befides, is more willing to be amused than inftructed, and hence your tale-makers have always been favourites of the public.

There is yet another caufe for this enthufiafm of travellers. Far removed from objects which they had enjoyed, the imagination is heated, abfence rekindles every defire, depreciates prefent objects, and enhan ces thofe that are diftant. A country is regretted,to efcape from which was a triumph; and scenes are reprefented as charming, the prefence of which would foon be a burden. Travellers paffing rapidly through Egypt do not come under this defcription, for they have not time to lofe the delufion of novelty; but it applies to every one refiding there. Of this our merchants are fenfible: they have remarked, that fuch of themselves as have felt the inconveniences of the place most sensibly,

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seem, to our astonishment, to have forgot it quite." I confefs I have not been able to escape the influence of caufes fo general and powerful, but I have taken particular care to de fend myself against them,and by preferving my first impreffions, to give my details the only merit they carr have, that of Truth,

Greville, which we received from a correfpondent, and inferted in the Magazine for MAY, having been thought fomewhat fevere; to fhow our impartiality, we fubmit to our Readers the following notice of the fame book, from the Monthly Review; leaving to those who are acquainted with Mifs Greville to determine which of the two characters approaches nearest to the truth.

"We have seldom perused a novel with which we have been better pleased, or more affected, than with the prefent; and we regret that the limits of our Review will not permit us to expatiate fo much upon the merits of this production as we could wish. Many and beautiful are the paffages we could felect for the gratification of our readers, did not this reafon prevent us. Some of the scenes are drawn with exquifite tenderness and pathos,

ous, and the language in which they are clothed is for the most part elegant. We are not of opinion that the author has altogether proved what she was defirous of illuftrating

the poffibility of overcoming a first attachment. After frequent and great struggles in the mind of the heroine to acquire a victory over her unhappily-placed affections, many and deep regrets appear to difturb her happiness and interrupt her tranquillity. Mrs Keir holds a diftinguished place among the novelifts of the prefent age; and what age has abounded more in this fpecies of writers! It is beyond the power of any one, endued with the fmalleft fhare of divine fenfibility," to rife from the perufal of thefe volumes, without feeling his heart meliorated, his affections expanded and directed to their proper objects, and his virtuous inclinations confirmed." Month. Rev.