:

increase, which is ufually the latter end of May), is green; and the reafon of this is, that they fow melons, cucumbers, and fuch vegetables in the fediment which the Nile leaves when the retires to her natural bed, and they never give themselves the trouble to clear away the leaves and roots and as they know the Nile will fweep them away before they can make ufe of the ground again, fo they lie and rot; the heat of the fun too draws from the flime or fediment of the Nile fo many falts, that you fee falts in large flakes upon the furface. As foon as the Nile increases the water diffolves thefe falts, as well as the putrid leaves and roots. Tiefe give the water a green caft, and at the fame time it is fo faturated with falts, that it agitates the blood in fuch a manner as to throw out whatever peccant humours it may have; fo that when the pure water comes down,, you fee every body with, more or lefs, pimples or boils (which, though inconvenient at the time, yet, as I imagine, cleanfe the blood). When the Nile is got to a great height, and rolls down with weighty rapidity, fhe breaks down most of her banks in Egypt and Nubia, and arrives here red and muddy. From the quantity of earth fhe has fwallowed fhe is then impregnated with falts of a different kind; thefe carry the blood through another purification, fo that there is little left for difeafes to prey upon.

its fuperfluities: which making an obftruction to their evaporation, muft of confequence form a depofit fomewhere. This I imagine to be the reafon of all the fwelled faces and of all the inflammations of the eyes, fo common in this country. This feems pretty clearly to be the cafe from another obfervation, which is, that the better fort of people, who wear caps, are not troubled with thofe fluffioni, as the Italians call them. They are worfe and more frequent in fummer than in winter, and that à fertiori for the fame reason, for the pores are then more open, and the daily Etefian winds are cold, and the colder they are the more people expofe themselves to them; but the better fort of people are never without at leaft an ermine cap upon them; for though the skin be ever fo thin, as it is lefs porous, fo it defends against the penetration of a cold wind better than the thickeft cloth.

I believe you will think that this letter ought not to be feen by any one; I am fure you will think fo, if you fee in it (as I do) a ftyle and language fhamefully inaccurate: but you will excufe it, when you confider that I have fcarce talked or read English once thefe ten years, and have not wrote it, except in a few letters on bufinefs to Mr. Anderfon; add to this, that I am buried in Arabic MSS. I am folely and totally taken up with that language, which I myfelf cannot forgive. If any Arabic has been tranflated and published fince I left England, pray fend it to me; and pray fend me fome literary news: Mr. Soame Jenyns's Letters on the Origin of Evil, and Dr. Robertfon's Hiftory. I am anxious to have.

A French Gentleman of my acquaintance is going, by order of his Court, to the Southern Continent, Terra Incognita.

People here are very fubject to fore eyes, ear achs, and tooth-achs, which are generally attributed to the moisture of the air, and to people's lying out at night. The fore eyes they attribute to the conftant reflection of the fun. I am of a different opinion; how far founded I know not, You fee by the ftate of the thermometer (which I fent you), that the pores of the fkin muft be always in a flate of dilatation, and that to a great degree. We have in winter, pretty frequently, cold easterly winds, which AS Quin was one morning walking are brought to us from the Syrian Mountais, and northerly breezes from the fnowy cliffs of Armenia. People are fond to receive thefe cooling breezes, and expofe themfives to them; but this clofes the pores, and fhuts up the paffas by which the blood before difcharged

Anecdote of Mr. Quin.

near the lower rooms in Bath, he was met by a celebrated gambler, who faid to him, So Mr. Quin, I fee yon are going to take your ride, to get you an appetite to your dinner."-"Yes," replied Quin, and you are going to get a dinner to your appetite,"

66

Affairs

Affairs of Poland.

POLAND, ever fince the death of king John Sobiefki, in the year 1696, has been fubjected to all the miferies of internal hoftilities, occafioned by the frequent contefts for the fucceffion to an elective monarchy, and to all the confequent degradation of a foreign interference in thofe contefts. The power of the king was too limited to be efficient; the nobility, arbitrary and tyrannical, were, in reality, the fovereigns; the citizens were oppreffed; and the peasants were flaves. Powerful neighbours took advantage of the weaknefs which refulted from fuch a fituation; and, in the year 1772, formed a confederacy, by which fome of the fineft provinces of Poland (amounting to about a third part of the whole) were wrefted from the republic, and annexed to the dominions of Catherine of Ruffia, the emperor Jofeph II, and Frederick III, king of Pruffia. To this injuftice, the emprefs Catherine added infult; for, in order to preferve the unbounded influence the had acquired in the court and diet of the republic, the infifted upon becoming a guarantee of the conftitution as it then exifted, although it was fuch as was incompatible with the real intereft and happiness of the nation, and kept it in a perpetual and degrading ftate of dependence upon foreign powers, and upon Ruffia in particular.

Ruffia, however, being engaged in a war with Turkey, the king and fome patriotic nobles took advantage of this and other fortunate circumftances, and, on the 3d of May 1791, effected an entire revolution in the conftitution of their country; a conftitution unanimoufly approved of by every perfon of worth and character in Poland, as founded, upon what all government ought to be founded, the reciprocal rights of the governors and governed.

Whatever difference of opinion may exift in this country refpecting the ever memorable revolution in France, we have but one with as to that of Poland; which is, that it may triumph over the oppofition of a few difcontented nobles, who, enraged at the lofs of fome priviHib.. Mag. July, 1792.

leges, have invited an ambitious princess to fecond their efforts to deftroy the new conftitution, by invading their country. By this new conftitution, while Catholic faith was declared to be the established religion, a toleration. was extended to all other religious perfuafions; the citizens were exalted to their proper rank in the ftate; and the peafants were emancipated from that deplorable ftate of flavery, in which they had been confidered as mere appendages to the eftates of their powerful lords. The king, moreover, was invefted with fuch powers as the firft executive magiftrate, as gave his authority all the efficiency which a patriot monarch could defire; and, to prevent a repetition of the calamities attending a contefted fucceffion, the crown was declared hereditary, and was to be offered, under certain limitations, to the house of Saxony.

To overthrow this glorious Conftitution, the emprefs of Ruffia, now releafed from the embarraffment of the Turkifh war, is exerting all her efforts, and, under the pretext of being guarantee of the old conftitution of Poland, has entered that country with a powerful army. On the 18th of May, the Ruffian minifer at Warfaw prefented an official declaration, which announces the entrance of the Ruffian troops on the territory of Poland, and the formation of a new confederation. War is therefore declared. The republic, affured that all Europe is fully convinced that it neither merited nor provoked fuch a ftep, has taken fuch meafures as may fupply the deficiency in point of forces; and among other refolutions adopted by the diet, a decree was iffued the 11th of this month, entitled, a Meature for a juft Concurrence of Citizens for the general Defence of the country; the fubftance of which is, that whoever in the prefent war fuffers by the inroads of the enemy, fhall be indemnified by a fraternal contribution of the whole nation, agreeable to the report of an extraordinary commiffion, which fhall be appointed to examine their claims; but thofe Poles who prove rebels and traitors to their country, thall forfeit their fortunes, and fuffer the death they deferve.

The diet have entrusted the entire I condu

The Ruffian army has entered the territory of the republic in feveral columns, each of which is accompanied In the mean time, in order to animate the whole nation in their prefent noble and unanimous defence of their country, the king has published the following admirable

to another. The abovementioned de- prefent ftate of Poland, is that of claration breaks and violates all the felf-defence against the Ruffian power laws of nations, addreffing Poland not that Ruffia has declared war against Polike a fovereign state, but as if iffuing land; but at the fame time let us inform arbitrary orders to a conquered pro- you, that confident of the courage and fpirit of the nation, the more efforts our enemies make to deftroy our government and country, the more vigorous will our measures be to repel this foreign invafion.

their king, have boldly ftood forward in defence of their national laws, immunities and territory? You will foon hear, dear citizens, the voice of falfehood and deceit? you will receive writings full of treachery and fraud. Thofe whofe blindnefs and obftinacy have carried them fo far as to make them infenfible to the horror of raifing their arms againft their own country, and of bringing foreign foldiers against her, will calumniate the prefent government, will create diftruft against us and the virtuous diet, will try to divide and feparate you, knowing that they cannot refill your united ftrength and endeavours. Arm yourfelves with fortitude and virtue, and give proof of fuch unanimity, fuch concord, in the de-. fence of your country, in refifting perfiely and deceit, as you have demonftrat ing in accepting, in voluntarily fwearing to maintain this happy conftitution, and lately on the fame occafion in the expreffion of your patriotic fentiments, fo dear to our paternal feelings. They who have brought a foreign army against your country, deferve your vengeance, and not your confidence. That army which comes for the purpofe of deftroying your government, prepares only the return of your former flavery inftead of liberty. You have already experienced at how dear a rate Ruflian protection is obtained. Violently carrying off from our refidence, and during the diet, fenators, minifters, and nuntios; the contemptucus treatment of our nobility, the violation of property, the oppreffion of towns, the feizure and forcible tranfportation of pesfants and their families; and, finally, the difmembering of the republic-thefe are the effects of the guarantee impofed upon us by Ruffia. And can you expect any thing better at prefent from this power? As foon as Ruffia has feduced you, fhe will renew the antient wounds of our country, fhe will renew all our misfortunes. The nobility and citizens will only feel the heavier the preffure of a new enforced yoke, for having dared to become free and independent; the poor villagers, our labourers, and hufbandmen, whom the law (benefiting all the Polish inhabitants) has received rits protection, will be driven in from their fertile fields, into

defert waftes; and laftly, the partition of the republic, and the final extinction of the Polish name, will be the fatal confequence of the difunion of Polanders.

Citizens and dear countrymen, this is the advice and warning you receive from your king and father, and from the confederate ftates of the republic. But your virtue, the love of freedom, fo natural to every Polander, affures us that fraternal concord will unite you in the defence of your country; that, infpired with the fame fpirit which guides your king and father, you will affemble round him, and will make a rampart impenetrable. to all the attempts of the enemy.

In the prefent convulfive ftate of the republic, you plainly percevie, that it is improper to put an end to the diet, or to diffolve the confederation, without endangering the fovereignty and freedom. of the nation. There remained, indeed, but little to accomplish; but in the moment when action is required, when we go in perfon to head a nation entrufted to our care, peaceful deliberations must be fufpended. From this motive we, with the affembled confederate ftates of the republic, find ourselves obliged to terminate the prefent fittings, and to prorogue the diet and confederacy to a more diftant period.

The writing prefented by the Ruffian minifter, under the name of a declaration, does not acknowledge the prefent diet, it treats it with contempt, though diftinguished by a double reprefentation and the univerfal will and confent of the nation, confequently it infults the will of the whole nation, who has not only delegated its power to this dict, but by a voluntary oath, and a univerfal expreffion of thanks, has given the most folemn fanétion to its proceedings. The dignity then of the fupreme national authority demands the continuation of this diet. The invafion of foreign troops cannot be reconciled with the freedom of dietines. The remembrance is but too recent of thofe unfortunate diets, when the election of nuntios was carried on under the influence of foreign arms. The nation fil deplores their fatal confequences, and fpeaks of them only with horror. To guard the republic againft fimilar violenges, it is neceffary that the fupreme

authority