the counts Rosencrantz and Bernftorff, being recalled from their long exile, and placed at the head of a new adminiftration, in which only one of the late cabinet was retained. At their first meeting a new plan of adminiftration, faid to be compofed by the prince, and to have already received the royal fanction, was read by him in the prefence of his father; and, being approved of by all, and then figned by the king, became an authentic inftrument of government. The prince was immediately appointed prefident of the new council, which was compofed of his uncle prince Frederic, and five or fix of the newly-appointed great officers of ftate. No revolution of the fort, under fuch a government, affecting a party fo long and fo firmly rooted in power, and fupported by fuch great interefts, was ever accomplished with greater facility; nor has the temper, moderation, and wisdom, which prefided in the whole conduct of the bufinefs, been often equalled. No other marks of reprobation or refentment were experienced by the members of the late cabinet, than the mere deprivation of their power, and lofs of their places: the fmalleft harshness, or remembrance of paft injury, did not appear in any part of the proceedings. This conduct will appear the more exemplary and wife, to those who recollect the unequalled cruelties which ftained the preceding revolution, and who confider the bitterness of spirit which their remembrance could not still but inevitably excite. The fame moderation and wifdom prevailed in every thing. The queen dowager, as fome confolation for that disappointment which her ambition fuffered, and for that loss of mafked power, which holds out fuch irrefiftible charms to her fex and time of life, was gratified by the princely donation from the king, of the fuperb caftle of Fredericfburgh, in the duchy of Holftein, with the extenfive demefnes, eftates, and royalties appertaining to it; and, to render this free gift the more pleasing and complete, it was granted in perpetuity, with full authority to the queen to transfer, fell, or difpofe of it by bequeft, in whatever manner the might think proper. Similar large poffeffions, with the fame unlimited rights, were conferred upon prince Frederic, whose conduct through all the past tranfactions had been so blameless, that even his being the inftrument or object of another's ambition could not throw the fmalleft degree of imputation upon his character. The queen dowager retired to her caftle in Holftein, and the most perfect tranquillity prevailed and continued throughout the kingdom. The prince royal of Denmark has had the happy fortune, inftead of diminishing the early hopes that were formed of him, or lofing any part of the estimation in which he was held, to confirm and increase both in a very high degree. Befides his unufual attention and application to public bufinefs, he fhews a moft laudable difpofition to letters, and is become the patron of learned men, and of literature. Inftead of wafting his time in the amusements and sports incident to his time of life and condition, he is already erecting an indelible monument to his fame, by becoming the reftorer of the learn ing, history, and antiquities of his country. country. The early hiftory of the thors. The moft valuable difcoNorthern nations has been buried in veries are faid to have been made; the deepest darkness, which has like- and it is farther faid, that great wife ferved to involve that of a great ability, judgment, and industry, are part of Europe in much obfcurity. ufed in felecting, collating, and Yet fuch a fhare of learning as was preparing for the prefs, thofe parts equal to the preservation, in fome which appear deferving of publicaform or degree, of the traditions tion. From fome detached parts or and monuments of antiquity, pre- fragments of them which have alvailed in feveral parts of the North, ready appeared, it may be expected which now retain no vestiges of that they will throw no small light their ever poffeffing any fuch light; upon the early hiftory of these kingand late discoveries fhew, that it doms, at least upon that of the was extended 'even to remote parts northern parts of Great Britain, of of Ruffia. But Iceland, which was Ireland, and of the numerous islands first the great and laft depofitory of appertaining to Scotland. It is not the old Runic learning, fables, and impoffible, nor even improbable, mythology, became fuddenly the confidering the long depredations great luminary of the North, with of the Danes in thefe countries, but refpect to the new Chriftian litera- that fome valuable records or moture. Iceland soon sunk, under the_numents, of which no memorial is preffure of calamity and the gloom exifting at home, may be difcoof ignorance, into nearly a forget- vered in these researches. fulness of its paft ftate; while the labours of its bards and fages, with the ftill more early remains of antiquity, were buried in obfcurity. The prince has moft liberally applied a confiderable fhare of his perfonal income or revenue to the recovery and developement of this antient lore. For this purpofe he has employed learned men and judicious antiquaries to examine the public archives and private depofitories in Denmark and Norway, including the royal libraries and mufeums, for every thing that could tend to throw light upon the objects which they had in view. The long-forgotten repofitories of Iceland were fcrutinized in the fame manner; and the remains of antiquity, in profe and verfe, have been retrieved from duft and ashes, once, more to behold the light. The refult of this fearch has been highly favourable and flattering to its au It may not be thought improper to turn our eyes for a moment from the contemplation of political revolutions to thofe great events of nature which feem to have marked the prefent time. They are equally, interefting to all nations, as they affect the concerns we hold in common, and ftrike the imagination with the greatest force, because in thofe calamities which we inflict upon each other the power as well as the feeblenefs of man is dif played, and his fufferings feem alleviated by the gratification of his vanity: but in those which proceed from natural causes, we are entirely impotent and paffive; we bow down, and recognize the imbecility of our condition. A fucceffion of fevere, irregular, and what are deemed unnatural seafons, attended with many violent fhocks of the earth, and extraordinary commotions in the heavens, being without example in their feverity; from deftructive tempests, violent and untimely rains and fnows, long droughts, and exceffive heats; and, to fum up all, from an excefs and irregularity in the usual operations of nature, the labours and hopes of the husbandman have been frequently frustrated, and a very great failure of the fruits and products of the earth has very generally taken place. have, for fome years, grievously afflicted mankind in various parts of the world, and in every quarter of the globe. The defolation occafioned by earthquakes was not confined to Calabria or to Europe. Few great portions of the earth, from Formofa in the Eaft, to Santa Fé and Mexico in the Weft, have efcaped being injured or alarmed by thefe awful concuffions of nature. In the fame manner, tempefts, hurricanes, tornadoes, attended with their ufual concomitant, violent irruptions, and fatal inundations of the fea, have more or lefs fwept the feas, and defolated the coasts, nearly in all countries and climates: thofe of the Eaft, and of the Weft Indies, at all times liable to their influence, have now experienced their fury in a degree before un known. That other great fcourge and deftroyer of mankind, the peftilence, has defolated, with unequalled malignity, thofe countries which, from whatever cause, seem to lie more peculiarly within the fphere of its action. From the Atlantic borders of Morocco to the extremities of Egypt, and from Palestine to the mouth of the Euxine, the African and Afiatic coafts of the Mediterranean, with those of Thrace on the European fide, the cruelty of its ravages has been more fevere, and the deftruction of mankind greater, than at any period within the reach of memory, or perhaps within the records of history. Europe has likewife had its fhare of thofe evils, which no wisdom can forefee, no art or force prevent. Through a fucceffion of fuch untoward feafons as we have mentioned; from the fummer's partaking of the nature of winter; from the winters To increase these calamities, fome of the finest parts of Germany, Hungary, Italy, and France, where the fertility of the foil, or the height of cultivation, feemed in fome fort to bid defiance to the afperity of the feasons, have been defolated by the repeated and untimely inundations of their great rivers; which, having frequently taken place in the fummer and autumn, were the more fatally deftructive in their effect. It was upon one of thefe afflicting occafions, that the illuftrious prince Leopold of Brunfwick, became a victim to his humane and heroic endeavour (on the 27th of April 1785) to fave the lives of a diftracted mother's children, who were enclosed by the ftill-increafing waters of the Oder, and on the point of perifhing before her eyes. The prince, partly perhaps as a rebuke to the cowardlinefs of the peafants, but more through the generofity of his nature, put off in a fmall boat to their affiftance, which being driven by the violence of the current against the ftump of an overthrown tree, it was unhappily ftaved and overfet.Poland and Lithuania, bowed down as they already were under the weight of their moral and political evils, were likewife doomed to bear their proportion of thefe phyfical calamities; nor did Pruffia (now only only their neighbour) efcape any better. It was estimated that Germany alone loft a million of sheep by the inundations, and by the confequent want of food, and diftempers which they produced; the lofs in cattle was proportional. The most fertile countries in Europe, and thofe which had been wont to relieve the neceffities of others, being thus reduced to penury by the failure or deftruction of their harvests, it is no wonder that the frozen and fterile regions of the North fhould now experience the greatest diftrefs. Their winters for three or four years had been fevere beyond all known example. The extremity of the cold was infupportable to man and beaft. The most fertile provinces of Ruffia, and even Livonia itself (the plenteous granary of the North) failed of producing their accuftomed harvests. This afforded either caufe or pretence to the court of Petersburgh, (for it is fuppofed that political fufpicion or jealoufy operated at least equally) to withhold the ftipulated fupplies of corn from Livonia to Sweden, which he was by treaty bound to permit the exportation of. By this means Sweden was reduced to the greateft diftrefs, and her northern provinces particularly fuffered every degree of calamity. The Danish iflands would have been abundantly supplied by their German provinces, if other wants, much more extenfive than their own, had not demanded immediate fupplies. The great kingdom of Norway had for fome years laboured under almost every degree of natural evil which the irregularity or violence of feafons could inflict. Nearly all the refources of fuftenance and means of fupporting life were cut off, at the very time that the extremity of the cold rendered a more than ufual fupply neceffary to its prefervation: even the prolific northern feas refufed their tribute of fish, a fupply which had ever before appeared inexhaustible. Government did every thing in its power to affift a nation which forms its principal ftrength; but the country was too extenfive, and the demands too vaft, for any foreign fupply. The confequences were dreadful: many thousands perished through abfolute famine; and a much greater number through the` fatal diforders which it produces. But the heavy portion of calamity allotted to the unhappy country of Iceland, befides being fingular in its nature, feemed in the amount to exceed that of any other. That sequeftered ifland, once the feat of the northern muses, had been before defolated by a dreadful peftilence, which in the 14th century fwept all the regions of the north, but had been particularly fatal here. It never recovered in any respect the effects of that shock, nor in any degree its former flate of population. Its paftoral inhabitants, being in a great meafure fecured by poverty and diftance from rapine and oppreffion, and ignorant of the artificial wants which alternately fweeten and embitter human life in more genial climates, were contented and happy under all the rigours of their inclement fkies, and found in their flocks, herds, and fisheries, a compenfation for the fterility of their country with refpect to corn. But they had been at all times expofed to a dreadful internal enemy, whofe rage was as irresistible, as its operations were uncertain and unlimited. Mount Hecla, and the other other volcanoes which fo much diftinguish that ifland, although, perhaps, they promote the purposes of vegetation, by communicating a genial warmth to its frozen bosom, have at all times been the ter ror, and at particular periods the fcourge and deftroyers, of the inhabitants. The calamity, however, in the prefent inftance, was of a nature hitherto without example. Inftead of the open defolation common to the aweful eruptions of volcanoes, the country itself, together with its products, were now confumed by a creeping fubterraneous fire. This deftroyer of nature in its fource, made its first appearance in the month of June 1784, in the western part of the district of Skaptfield, and on a mountain called Skapton Gluver. The devouring fire, which confumed, or reduced to cinders, every thing in its way, continued burning until the month of May in the following year, having in that time extended its devaftation about twenty leagues in length, and from four to five in breadth. The great river Skaptage, which was from feven to eight fathoms in depth, and fome leagues in breadth, was entirely dried up, its bed and channel' prefenting a dreadful yawning chafm. About a fourth part of the confumed foil confifted of a lava of great antiquity, and of moffy bogs or marfhes; the remains of the burnt earth refembled vast heaps of calcined ftones, and were of the colour of vitriol. A fimilar fire broke out about the fame time on the eastern fide of the fame range of mountains, and purfued its courfe in the oppofite direction. This made its first appearance in a place which feemed the leaft capable of any of exhibiting fuch a phænomenon; it broke out in the very channel of another great river called the Herervifiodt, which was nearly of the fame depth with the Skaptage, but, in that part, not above a league in breadth. The contention between the two elements, however violent, did not continue long, the waters being foon loft in the fuperior magnitude and force of the outrageous flames. This fire was far more dreadful than that on the western fide, the flames foon after their first appearance, forming an area of about ten leagues in extent. At first they darted perpendicularly upwards, and feemed to proceed from the lower regions of the earth, but afterwards they rolled along the furface, in waves refembling thofe of the fea; and when they reached the frozen mountains, whofe bowels were impregnated with immenfe quantities of fulphur and nitre, these powerful materials endued them with fuch activity, that nothing could efcape any more than withstand their fury. Cattle, men, houfes, villages, every thing living and dead was confumed in a mo ment. We are not furnished with any precife account, either of the extent of this ravage, or of the time of its continuance; it being only given in general terms, that feventeen diftricts had been entirely ruined; but whether this proceeded from the immediate action, or whether it includes the confequent effects of the conflagration, is left unspecified. The former was, however, happily limited in its progrefs; but its pernicious effects were widely dif fused, and afflicted in different degrees the greater part, if not the whole, of that very extenfive ifland. For |