A brother of the famous Tottelawitau, the colonel of that corps, loft his life on the fcaffold. This brother, named Ofakoi, whofe goods were confifcated, left a fon in the utmost mifery. This unfortunate child was faved as by a miracle from the pursuits of the Emperor's emiffaries, and concealed in a village by an old flave of his father's. When he was grown up, this domeftic informed him of the fecret of his birth, and fuggefted to him.the means of avenging his family, by the murder of the Czar. The youth fhuddered at this propofal, but diffembled. Upon which the flave, who imagined he had made an impreffion on him, engaged him to depart for Mofcow, where he would find confpirators, he faid, ready to affift him in his defigns. Whether from weakness or the hope of revenge, Ofakoi followed his conductor; and arriving in the night, they stopped at an inn near Kremlin, the refidence of the Emperor.

There the flave found his friends; and it was refolved that that very night a council fhould be held in the ruins of a houfe not far from the palace.

Ofakoi, who hitherto had not been able to learn from his companion who thefe confpirators were, urged him anew to fatisfy his curiofity, but in vain.

"The hour of meeting draws near, faid the flave; you go to find men animated with the defire of vengeance, and who notwith ftanding your youth and inexperience, wifh to have you for their leader. The humiliat ing ftate to which you are reduced, and the blood of your father ftill warm, ought to fire your courage, and make you despise the dangers that ftand in the way of your revenge.'

These words made the young Ofakoi tremble, and with reafon; for the inn was crowded with Ruffians, who, according to the cuftom of the country, were getting drunk with their usual expedition. It is true, the flave spoke low, and in a provincial dialect unknown to the people of Mofcow: but as guilt is generally blind, and often betrays itfelf, he did not confider that it was poffible he might be overheard.

The flave and Ofakoi repaired to the house where this fatal council was to be held, and found the confpirators already afssembled.

You fee,' faid one of them to Ofakoi, · a number of wretches who have escaped the tyranny of the Czar: that barbarian, by whofe own hand, or by that of the executioner, the greatest part of our brethren, the Strelitz have fallen, has not been able to facrifice us to his rage. Heaven hath preferved us to accomplish its vengeance; and the time at laft is arrived. Confider, young Ofakoi! thefe eyes beheld the blood of your unfortunate father, whom 1 followed to the

fcaffold, but could not fave! The gloomi defarts having now for ten years been o abode, the horror of our fituation obliged to take by force a fubfiftence which our qu lity of foldiers and citizens ought to have e titled us to. But after to morrow, this cru tyrant and his principal courtiers fhall be th victims of our revenge. Young man! V loved your father; he was our chief, as v with you to be now; and may your courag make you worthy of our choice! When fovereign hath overleaped the bounds whic law prefcribes to his power, mifery over whelms his fubjects and the means the adopt to emancipate themselves, ought like manner to extend beyond the limits duty and humanity.'

Ófakoi perceiving, that, circumftanced he was, there was no time to deliberate, an that the very fhadow of timidity would b his fentence of death, affected a courage h did not feel. It was agreed at parting, tha the confpirators should meet again next da at the fame hour; and that for the greate fecurity Ofakoi and the flave fhould retur to the inn by different roads.

Ofakoi had proceeded but a few steps, wher he found himself escorted by a Ruffian, who begged he would follow him: the youth fup pofing him a confpirator, allowed himself to be conducted. They at laft came to a very narrow ftair-cafe, which they afcended with difficulty; and entering a little elolet, the Ruffian fhut the door.

Don't be furprifed,' faid he' to Ofakoi at my behaviour; what I have to fay to you demands the utmoft fecrefy. I have juf left like yourself that affembly in which the death of the Czar hath been determined. Like you, too, I have been there for the first time, and like you I have wrongs that make me the irreconcileable enemy of my fovereign. But if his blood is due to the crueltics with which he is reproached, the fuccefs of our enterprize is not very certain. For who are thofe confpirators? They are guiltyjects, ftained with crimes, who have efcaped the juftice of the laws. They are ruffians who with only for murder, for robbery and plunder. And who are their accomplices? The chief people of the ftate, fay they; and yet they have not ventured to mention a fingle name. Who would abafe himself fo far as to affociate with fuch banditti? what plot have they laid open to us? of whofe revenge are we the inftruments? for whom do we hazard our lives? we know neither their fchemes, their power, nor their refources; and yet they require us to be the blind perpe trators of fuch an atrocious deed. Thefe, young Ofakol, thefe were my doubts and fears while I remained in the affembly. The confpirators have named you for their leader

and

1766.

Obfervations on the Baron de Tott's Memoirs.

and I approve of their choice; but I befeech you to explain this impenetrable myftery, and you may depend on my affiftance.'

A heart, under the guidance of nature alone, which chance bath removed from the intrigues of the city and the poifon of courts, is incapable of treafon and unfufpicious of deceit. Ofakoi was ftruck with the confidence of the Ruffian; and this confidence emboldened him to truft him in his turn. You may have remarked my furprize (faid e) when I found my felf in the midst of fuch an affembly. Satisfied with my own condition, I lived in my cottage without ambition, and enjoyed a tranquility undisturbed till now: but my eyes have been opened, and I am told I have an innocent father to revenge; and that in order to revenge him, Imut mallacre ny prince. Alas! as I never had the happiness of knowing my father, I anguorant of his innocence or of his guilt. Yet in this neceffity I am required to affaflihate my mafter! These maxims, I confess, are repugnant to my nature for who am I that I fhould judge the Emperor, or what authority has heaven beftowed on me that I ould punish him? That propofal made me fudder; but the fear of death kept me filent.

89

ordered him to rejoin his companion at the inn, and to excufe his late return from his ignorance of the ftreets of Mofcow.

The flave was fatisfied, and Osakoi went with him the next day to the meeting. There it was resolved to set fire to the palace, and to plunder it during the confufion occafioned by the flames; Olakoi was to head a party to join the confpirators in the castle, who were now named, and who proved to be the chief people of the state: then he was to advance to the Emperor's apartment, and affaffinate him. They were juft about to take the oath that was to bind together this barbarous affociation, when the guards of the Czar burft in upon them and feized them. They were all thrown into prifon, and their accomplices arrefted. Ofakoi rofe at once to the pinnacle of fortune, while the reft were that very day delivered to the executioner.

Obfervations on Baron de Tott's Memoirs: by M. Perfonnel, formerly French Conful at Smyrna.

See our laft Year's Magazines, Page 144, . 262, 282, 338.)

face you have opened to me your heart, IM. PEYSONNEL, who lived thirty

years in Turky, proposes in this will difclofe to you what paffes in mine, I letter to examine the obfervations which abhor guilt, and especially the guilt of fuch Baron Tott has published in his Memoirs on an action as this A voice within me ex- that country. In them M. Peyfonnel has claims, love and refpect your fovereign.ifeovered feveral errors; and alleges that Have pity then on my youth; I refign, Baron has not given a fair account of felf to your advice. Save me from the try the government, laws, manners, cuftoms, of thofe barbarians who have felected me as and character, of the Turks; and that it the executioner of our common lord For if would be easy to reprefent them in a more I muft either perish or attempt the life of the advantageous, and at the fame time a jufter Czar; let me perifh in innocence.'- point of view. We fhall not follow him through the whole of this critique; but confine ourselves to a few of the most interesting particulars.

You fhall not perish, my child! (cried the Ruffian) it is the Czar himself who speaks to you, and who will reward the noble ingeKoufnefs of your heart.'

It was actually the monarch himself, who, sader the difguife of a flave, had overheard ething of the plot in the inn. This difvery fuggefted to him the idea of mixing in the affembly where his deftruction was to be wern. Here he obferved the confufion of Ofakoi, marked the faultering of his tongue, and refolved to fave him if he was not really pkkv.

This Prince, who chose to fee with his own res, often disguised himself, and went to fe public affemblies where debauchery es away circumfpection, and makes the ngue communicative. Te this activity was owing the discovery of many conípirahes that were formed against him. Thus speople, who feared as well as reheted him, often faid, Let us beware, Emperor overhears us.'

After having comforted Ofakoi, by loadg him with commendations and carelles, he Hib. Mag. Feb. 1786.

Baron Tott attributes that grofs ignorance with which he reproaches the Turks, to certain difficulties found by him in their writings; and above all to their wretched tafte for ambiguities, double meanings, and tranpofitions of letters; which, fays he, impedes the progrefs of their ftudies, conftitutes their chief delight, and excites their admiration. Is it poffible that Monf. le Baron was never in a Turkish college,' fays M. Peyfonnel? If he had, he would know that there they teach grammar, rhetoric, poetry, logic, metaphyfics, morality, phyfics, theology, jurifprudence, and the mathematics, even to conic-fections and fluxions: The Turks have Euclid's elements, the whole works of Ariftotle and Plato; vaft number of authors of their own nation, befides Perfians and Arabians, who have wro on all the feiences, hooks of every kind, on ufeful and inftructive subjects, as well as upon thofe that are only agreeable M

and amufing. Thus we fee they are not altogether confined to labour in the ac quirement of double-meaning and tranfpofition of letters.

In his relation of what concerns the colleges, we alfo find the Baron guilty of reprefenting them as fimple fchools, where nothing is taught but the art of reading. The Turks, fays M. Peyfonnel, are by no means negligent of the education of youth. Thefe fuppofed fchools are real colleges, where we find different claffes for the different branches of fcience, and ftudents of every age from infancy to manhood. There are fchools where children are taught reading, writing, the principles of religion, and the forms of prayer. Thefe are called mek el. Such as incline to push their ftudies a greater length, next attend the medreffe, or the mafters for teaching grammar, the Arabic language, rhetoric, philofophy, theology, religion, and jurifprudence. Thefe alone can attain to the higher offices in the ftate. The others remain in the more fubordinate places,

kifh emperor. Every Friday, while he
going to the mofque, he receives petitio
from people of all descriptions, wheth
they be Mahometans, Jews, or Chriftian
Those who have any particular complaint
produce, have upon their head a fmall pie
of lighted match. As foon as the Emper
perceives the froke of this match, he fo
receives the petition, and puts it up car
fully. Muftapha IV. never failed to read
thefe petitions; and often, in complian
with them, he pronounced the most equit
ble and celebrated decrees. But what
ftill more to the purpose, M. Peyfom
quotes a variety of codes, in which are
nited the whole precepts of religious wo
hip, together with the whole of jurifpr
dence both civil and criminal. In the co
lection of decifions by the most celebrat
'muftis, are to be found a great number
fage and well digefted laws, equitable an
ingenious. The author makes it appea
that Baron Tort contradicts himself who
he fays, that depotilm is established up
the Koran, and that the interpretation

book is left folely to the lawyers. that were the cafe, there muft confequent exift, as M. Peysonnel remarks, an inte mediate power between the prince and th people. On this head he, points out var ous omiffions, although the author of th Memoirs had promiled the most impor tant elucidations, and the most interefin

become imams or curates, motte-villis or and
ministrators of the revenues of the mofques,
naijs or firft clerks to the judges, mehkemé-
katibis or register-keepers in the courts of
juftice; while fome of them become teach-
ers of reading, writing, and the fciences,
or are employed in copying books. Ac-
cording to ftrict rule, the gentlemen of the
law cannot be preferred to the higheft ftati-tails.
ons, unless they have first been fob as; a
clafs of ftudents who have gone through a
regular courfe at the colleges, and received
the Imperial diploma. It is neceffary alfo
they fhould pass through the feveral offices
of judge's firft clerk, judge, chief juftice,
before they can be promoted to the rank of
lieutenant of police, high-judge of the ar-
my, or finally, that of grand mufti.

Sometimes, by favour of the fovereign, the defcendants of thofe of noble birth, who have filled thefe high stations, are exempted from the neceflity of paffing through all the fubordinate offices: he fupplies the deficiency by a fpecial brevet, conferring the title; for an appearance of maintaining the eftablished forms must be ftrictly adhered to: a breach of them is often attended with mutiny and outrage. Thus we fee these colleges (whofe eftablishment is for the moft part conjoined with that of the mofques) are furely intitled to a more respectable appellation than reading fchools; and alio, that the Turks are not funk in fuch univerfal ignorance.

Baron Tott and fome other modern travellers have expatiated on the defpotifm of the Sultan. It is to be obferved, however, that no monarch on earth is more acceffible to the complaints of his subjects than the Tur

The Baron's account of the Turkish ft tutes alio very imperfect. M. Peyfonn thinks he fhould have given a fhort view thofe of the great Solyman, who regulate and determined every thing relpecting c vil, feudal, and military government, ar the adminiftration of finances; he thou have traced the great out-lines of civil a criminal jurifprudence, that we might ha been enabled to distinguish between law the violation of it by officers who are trufted with its execution. He reproach the author with fabricating declamations a determinations that feem calculed more difhonour Ottoman Juflice, than to con any exact idea of it to his reader.

Mr. Peyfonnel, however, does juftice Baron Tott with refpect to his account the Tartars: that appears to him the and moft interefting part of the work: accurate, and gives a faithful reprefentati of their manners and cuftoms, excepting one or two infiances. The Baron co plains of the bad cheer he met with ame thefe people. M. Peyfonnel, on the oth hand, fpeaks much in its favour. The proach of their not knowing how to ma butter, is the more unjuft, fays M. Peyfo nel, fince that commodity forms one their principal articles of commerce.

Crim

de Cervantes Saavedra, whofe writings have given celebrity to Spain, amufed all Europe, and improved the age in which he lived,himtelf dragged of a iníferable existence, and died scarcely regretted.

It is but very lately that the place of his birth has been afcertained. Madrid, Seville, Luchen, and Aikala, have feverally laid claim to him. Cervantes, (as well as Homer, Camoens, and other illuftrious' men) has; fince his death, been held in the higheft eftrmation, though he lived almoft in want of coinmon necellaries.

1

The Spanish academy, under the patron-
age of the King, has at length thought pro-
N 0 T E.
Prefixed to the late fplendid edition of
Don Quixote, published by the Spanish
Academy.