and, from the different dishes, the reader must help himself according to his taste. As the work is chiefly calculated for antiquaries, we select an anecdote addressed to this class of the literati :

Pine, the engraver and herald, used to relate the following anecdote of Dr. Stukely.

As the Doctor and some other curiosos, among whom was Mr. Pine, were visiting certain antiquities in Hertfordshire, they came to a place called Cæsar's stile, situated on the brow of an eminence. No sooner was the place named, than the Doctor stopped all of a sudden, and, after an attentive survey of the neighbouring ground, pronounced it to be directly the scite of a fortified pass, which Cæsar had left behind in his march from Covey-Stakes to Verulam. Some of the company demurring against this opinion, a debate arose, and an aged man, a labourer, coming up, the Doctor asked him, with great confidence, "whether that was not called Cæsar's Stile!" “Aye, master," said the old man, "that it is, I have good reason to know it, for many a day did I work upon it for old Bob Casar, rest his soul; he lived in yonder farm, and a sad road it was before he made this stile.

We have many Dr. Stukelys, who, in their zeal for antiquity, fall into mistakes equally ludicrous.

A few Reflections on passing Events. 8vo.

JS. Hatchard,

Art. 23. PP. 22. The author of this little pamphlet professes to discuss no question of a political nature, but to trace the effects of Blasphemy, Infidelity, and the New Philosophy. France, because she sacrificed to the Goddess of Reason, has been severely visited: while Great Britain, having been true to her religion,' has been protected from the effects of that storm which has desolated the other kingdoms of Europe. Such is the doctrine of these reflections. We are finally put on our guard against the contagion of French principles, and adyised to export our commodities, but to keep our children at home.

SINGLE SERMON.

Art. 24. A Discourse delivered in Boston, North America, at the Solemn Festival in Commemoration of the Goodness of God in delivering the Christian World from Military Despotism, June 15. 1814By William Ellery Channing, Minister of the Church in Federal Street, Boston. 8vo. IS. Black, Parry, and Co. London.

Many of our readers, perhaps, will be surprized to find that a large party in the American States warmly participates in the exultations of Europe on the subversion of Napoleon's power, and hails with satisfaction the restoration of Louis XVIII. to the throne of his ancestors. No English or French royalist-preacher could be more animated than this minister of a republican church, in the condemnation of Eonaparte, as a conqueror, usurper, and tyrant; nor paint in blacker colours the fruits of his tyranny. We abhorred,' saye Mr. C the prosperous, as much as we contemn the fallen tyrant, who had no pity for the weak, no justice for the innocent, no regard for pigara fall, no settled end but universal conquest.'

Mr.

Mr. Channing's eloquence glows with increased fervour when he contemplates the moral influence of Bonaparte's despotism, which has given it peculiar horror. We would have forgotten it,' adds the preacher, had it only robbed and impoverished, but it degraded Europe.' When Mr. C. reviews the splendid career of the tyrant, he reflects with satisfaction on the circumstance that a little island now holds the conqueror of the world;' and when he descends, like other preachers on this occasion, to deduce some general and (as they are usually termed) improving reflections, he cautions his hearers against being ever dazzled by triumphant crimes, and calls on them to rejoice in the fall of the usurper as a death-blow to the system of atheism and infidelity.

CORRESPONDENCE.

The reserve which Dr. Hill lays to our charge we are ready to avow; for it may be prudent, in some instances, to state the existence of errors, (as we conceive them to be,) without specifying them. In perusing the Doctor's Lectures, we were impressed with their merit, but we did not agree with him on certain points; yet we wished to avoid controversy, and therefore we expressed our doubts of the correctness of some of his views without a direct statement of our objections. As to his remarks on the Endor apparition, he allows that, even if the words which we quoted do not fully establish our assertion, it is confirmed by the following passage, which we did not cite. We think, therefore, that Dr. H. has no reason to be dissatisfied.

We should have no objection to direct the attention of our readers to a subject on which humanity is much interested,' which are the concluding words of a letter accompanying a communication on that subject: but we can make no use of any such paper without knowing from whom it comes. The writer's name, if conveyed to us, shall be in confidence.

Mr. G.'s polite letter, dated August 1. has hitherto by chance escaped our notice. We are truly glad to receive such assurances, as this letter conveys, of an impartial desire on the part of the writer to profit by the criticisms which our public duty has drawn from us.

We know nothing of the tract respecting which A Constant Reader' inquires.

A. B.'s book was received, and has been considered. sorry that our opinion of it was not favourable.

Philo-Agris is just received.

We are

The APPENDIX to Vol. lxxiv. of the M. R. is published with this Number, and contains (as usual) a variety of articles in FOREIGN LITERATURE, with the General Title, Table of Contents, and Index for the Volume.

THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For OCTOBER, 1814.

ART. I. Travels in the Caucasus and Georgia, performed in the Years 1807 and 1808, by command of the Russian Government. By Julius Von Klaproth, Aulic Counsellor to his Majesty the Emperor of Russia, Member of the Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburgh, &c. Translated from the German by F. Schoberl. 4to. pp. 436. al. 2s. Boards. Colburn. 1814.

READERS

EADERS of German publications are already acquainted with the name of Klaproth, a literary man, (not the celebrated mineralogist,) who, like many of his countrymen, has devoted himself to the service of the Russian government, and has at→ tained in that country a situation superior both in rank and emolument to any which he could have reasonably expected in his own. Having accompanied Count Potocki in the Russian embassy to China, and created a very favourable impression on the mind of that young nobleman, he was selected, by the Count's recommendation, to make the survey of the region of the Caucasus which the Russians had for some time meditated. This appointment took place in 1807, and was the more expedient because the country in question had been only for a few years subject to its northern masters. The ambitious Catherine had at first appeared in the unassuming character of auxiliary to the king or Czar of Georgia: but she soon found means to persuade this prince that the only effectual manner of resisting his enemies, the Turks and Lesgians, was by placing himself in a state of direct dependence on her crown. This first approach to submission occurred in 1783; and successive years continued to rivet the ascendancy of the Russians, until in 1800 even the name of independence was withdrawn, and Georgia was reduced, directly and unequivocally, to the condition of a province of the empire. Not satisfied with this extensive acquisition, the court of St. Petersburgh determined to reduce by degrees the whole of the Caucasus, and to push the boundaries of the empire to the river Araxes. Hence the im portance of procuring accurate information regarding the manners of the inhabitants, and their relations with each other; a task which, in the case of the Caucasus, as of other provinces, VOL. LXXV.

I

was

was delegated by the government to the Academy of Sciences re sident at St. Petersburgh. From that body, M. Klaproth received his commission; and he proceeded on the execution of it in September 1807, accompanied by a young Russian, who supplied his deficiency in the language of the country. The result of his labours is a volume containing a very considerable stock of new information, collected (we believe) at the price of much exertion, but unfortunately published in a manner that is little calculated to excite general interest: a circumstance which is the more to be regretted, as various considerations have concurred to lessen the value of the reports of other travellers; the premature death of Guldenstadt having rendered the publication of his MSS. extremely imperfect, while the descriptions of Reineggs bear marks, in numberless passages, of the haste and eagerness of an adventurer.

The volume opens with a copy of the instructions proposed to the Academy of Sciences by Count Potocki for the guidance of M. Klaproth in his intended expedition. This paper bears the marks of a thorough acquaintance with the subject, and is ushered in by the following preamble:

The personal knowledge which I have of Mr. de Klaproth is of great advantage to me in pointing out to him what should be the drift of his observations. He is a man of letters; his mind is accustomed to reflection; we have therefore a right to expect from him such results as would not be required of a traveller who had studied only one single branch of human knowledge, for instance botany or mineralogy.

• What is particularly expected of Mr. de Klaproth is to make us acquainted with the country. Whatever can furnish useful information ought to engage his attention. Thus, each principality of the Caucasus should occupy a place in his pages. The inhabitants of those regions have one general character, but its different shades ought not to escape him. Some are susceptible of civilization, and others not. Some are capable of being governed by Russia, and others not.

It is expected that the Caucasus shall be better known after Mr. de Klaproth's journey than it was before. Such is its aim. As to the means, they must be left to the sagacity of the traveller. The principal persons in each district, for example, should be mentioned in his narrative; he will see them, he will converse with them, and he ought to state the opinion which he forms of them.

Concerning officers of the Russian government we request him to say as little as possible. The object is to make the Caucasus better known. On this head the utmost latitude should be given to the traveller. Olivier or Volney may be proposed to him as a model. Perhaps he will not equal, but at least he will approach them. It is certain that many calamities have happened in Russia in consequence of the want of information respecting distant provinces; so that he who furnishes correct notions concerning them renders an essential service to the state.'

The

The general directions are followed by specific instructions relative to the topography of the country which was to be vi sited, and the various tribes that inhabit it. These instructions enter into a variety of details, and recapitulate a list of names, uncouth and of little moment to the general reader, though important in the eyes of the Russian government. However, amid a variety of topics of this comparatively uninteresting character, we find a few sentences which deserve to be extracted, both as indicative of the zeal of Count Potocki and as connected with subjects of general notoriety:

Mr. de Klaproth will take pains to investigate the tradition yet extant relative to the Amazons. It is among the Circassians that it must be sought. The Mermadalis, on the banks of which the Amazons resided, according to the testimony of Strabo, still retains the same name. The Circassian fabulists clearly distinguish the ancient Seythians, to whom they give the appellation of Nogays. While all these ancient traditions yet exist, they ought to be collected and preserved. It would likewise be well to collect the genealogies of the Circassian princes, which date from about the year 1500, and are both curious and historical.

The pagan Tartars, subject to the Circassians and the Abassas, and inhabiting the country behind them, ought to attract the notice of the traveller. These people are the purest descendants of the Scythians described by Herodotus; they deserve particular attention on account of their manners, their language, their religion, and their art of divination.'

In general the traveller will have at hand the fourth volume of Stritter, and study it continually.

Of all the tribes in the Caucasus the Ossetes are perhaps most susceptible of civilization, and the traveller will consider them in this point of view; he will observe what may have hitherto retarded, and what is likely to promote its progress. I was acquainted with an archbishop in that country called Cajus, who had printed a catechism and several other things in the language of the Ossetes. The traveller will inquire what success attended the archbishop's exertions.

A geographical difficulty, which has not been sufficiently eluci: dated, is that which relates to the Caspian gates and the Sarmatian gates. The traveller, by extracting and carrying with him all those passages of the ancients which refer to them, and making minute inquiries respecting all the passes of the mountains, will probably come at a satisfactory solution.'.

We know scarcely any thing of the banks of the Abassa, from Anapa to Mingrelia; yet we are pretty sure that at the foot of the mountains there are tribes totally different from the other Caucasians. Among others, there are on the high lands, and towards the sources of the Ubbuch, the Azge, also called, according to some accounts, the Alans. They are said to speak a peculiar language, and to wear hats. I have no need to observe how interesting it would be to learn something concerning these people, who are the Asians and Ascipourgians of the ancient geographers...