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Mr. URBAN,

Sept. 5, 1792. ΤΗ HE drawings which accompany this were taken on the fpot a few months ago, and arrived in England the other day: they were the amufement of an ingenious young Englishman, and are faid to be clofe copies of Nature. (Pl. I.) The bay of St. Auguftine, on the fland of Madagascar, is in the dif trict, or kingdom, of Baubau. We here prefent you with the king of this part of the island, whofe chief refidence, or palace, is at Tolcar, which is 14 or 15 miles to the North-west from St. Auguftine. He is fitting in ftate, receiving homage. His head is covered with a clofe cap, or cowl, of bright fcarlet, which is, as you fee, bound with a chaplet, or wreath, of myrtle. His robe is a deep yellow, friped, and drawn clofe to his body in the front by being tucked up and thrown into a pouch behind him. His form feems well proportioned, and his features partake more of the European than the African. The completion of the fe iflanders is of a bright copper hue, not eafily conveyed on paper. The cush on which the three ladies are employed is, I think, the Indian corn, which they grind into foft food with ticks P. in a trough, or mortar.

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Mr. URBAN. Cowbit, March 8. HAT his late Mft Chriftian his children

W Majefty faid to

brings into my mind what Cyrus Lid to his fons before his death, Xenophon, Hutchinfon's edition, p. 503, which may be thus tranf.ted:

"Yours, O Cambyfes, be the Kingdom, the Gods and myfelf (as far as in me lies) bestowing it upon you: and you, O Tanaoxares, I make governor over the Medes, and Armenians, and thirdly the Cadufians: thefe things I give to you; to the elder brother I leave a greater empire and the name of a kingdom; but to you more happ nefs and greater freedom from trouble. Indeed, I do not fee what human fatisfaction you can want; for, you will have every thing But to love that affords pleasure to men. things that are hard to be attained, and to be folicitous about a multiplicity of things, and not to be able to enjoy quict, ftimulated by an emulation of my exploits, a conftant endeavour to furprize, or apprehenfion of being furprized: thefe things, 1 fav, muft neceffarily attend him, who poffelleth a kingdom, rather than you: which things, know certainly, are great hindrances to GENT. MAG. March, 1793.

a happy life. And you may be affured, OC mbyfes, that this golden fceptre is not the fecurity of a kingdom, but that faithful friends are the trueft and fafeft fceptre to J. M. kings.

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A. The fufferer.-B. The pulley.C. The sxe.-D. The peg, to which the rope is fixed after the axe is drawn up; which being cut by the execu tioner, the axe falls with great velocity, and at one ftroke fevers the head from the body.

When the old Lord Lovat was under fentence of decapitation in the Tower, being informed there was a report that fuch an engine was defigned for his execution, he greatly commended the contrivance; for, faid he, with the fame jocularity that he carried with him even on the fcaffold, "as my neck is very fhort, the executioner will be puzzled to find it out with his axe; and, if fuch a machine be made, I fuppofe it will get the name of Lord Lovat's Maiden." I herewith fend you a rough sketch of it, as reprefented in the prints of that time, by which you will fee that it exactly refembles the defcription that has been

given

given of the machine, which has been rendered fo interefting to our curiofity under the name of La Guillotine; except that the culprit feems here to have been placed in a kneeling pofture, which certainly was more decent and fuitable than that aukward proftrate pofition, in which the royal fufferer is defcribed to have been executed in France.

It is faid too that the unfortunate Louis was a corpulent man, and, like Lord Lovat, had likewife a very fhort neck but I doubt whether his cruel judges had fo much humanity as to adopt this inftrument for the purpofe of rendering the fatal Atroke more expeditious and certain. 'Tis more probable that no one could eafily be found fo callous as to undertake the odious office in the ordinary way, after it had been declined, as is faid, by the com

mon executioner.

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I beg leave however, Mr. Urban, to obferve, that in your account of this fhocking tranfaction in your Magazine for January, p. 85, you have reprefented this tragical catastrophe as attended by two ill-looking brutes, one of whom held the axe;" which would perhaps have been more accurately expreffed by "guided the machine." If you can favour us with an account of the real inventor of the Maiden, or Guillotine, you will probably fatisfy many of your readers, as well as

SCRUTATOR VARVICENSIS.

Mr. URBAN,

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Feb. 13.

F the charge of petulance falls on any man, it must be on the head of him who figns his name in your laft month, p. 29, to the illiberal attack on Bp. Tanner's Collections; which, if his Lordship's own brother's affertion, at the end of the Preface to his Notitia Momaftica, is to be believed, may be fairly prefumed to be ALI. in the Bodleian library at Oxford. See alto his Life in the Biographia Britannica; in the new edition of which, I hope, it will be confiderably improved and enlarged.

Not, therefore, the man who defends Bp. Tanner's accuracy and exactnefs, but he who calls it in question, is petulant. That I may not, however, be thought fevere on embryo county-biftorians, I fhall proceed to examine the pretenfions and promifes of one of them. From Propofals by Mr. W. Hutchinson, dated 1778, for "A View of Cumberland, with an Excurfion to the Ab

bey of Furnefs, in Lancashire," to be published in the courfe of next year, in two volumes 4to, compared with those for "A new and complete History of Cumberland," iffued by Mr. Jollie, with the fame name, dated Carlisle, April, 1791, in 25 numbers of 40 pages each, to be published every two weeks, at one fhilling and one fhilling and twopence each number; with thofe repeated, November, 1791, under the fame naines, on the first plan of one shilling and one, filling and three-pence each number, in 30 numbers, with a lift of about 170 fubfcribers; and with a fourth fet of Propofals, dated Carlisle, Jan. 3, 1792, in two volumes, 4to, in fix parts, each containing 25 fheets; the cheapest, 55. each; the next, 6s. 3d.; the fuperfine medium, 7s. 64.; and the fuper-royal, 8vo, 6s. 6d. each part, to be paid for on delivery, by Wm. Hutchinfon, F.A.S. the MS. being almoft ready for prefs; one may form fome judgement of the work. In the Propofals of April, 1791, the cuts were to be executed in the antient manner, on wood, by T. Bewick;" but, in thofe of 1792, we learn "the publifher has engaged an experienced engraver on the work," without telling us his name. To the Propofals of April, 1791, were fubjoined queries, and premiums for anfwers, referred to in those for 1792. Thofe of April, 1791, have two editions, materially different; to one of them is fubjoined Mr. Hutchinfon's letter, offering his MS, with an account of his plan, and correct copies of the monuments and inferiptions published by Camden, Gordon, Horley, and Gough, dated July 7, 1791, it be ing feven years fince he visited the county on the laf journey.

Such, Mr. Urban, is the ftate of the intended Hiftory of Cumberland, of which "Mr. H. engages to be one of the editors, to digeft the new materials, and incorporate them with his own." You have been told by your correfpondent R. G. vol. LXII. p. 105, that Mr. H. ftands pledged, as the fashionable phrafe is, to complete the History of Durham by a third volume; and of his Hiftory of Northumberland you have had a review by a correspondent, vol. XLVIII. pp. 373, 507. I have fince feen a Propofal, dated December 1, 1787, and a receipt of the fame date, in which he promifes to deliver a third volume of Durham gratis, and gives a lift of plates intended for it. There is no doubt Mr. H's fubfcribers would

have confidered his cafe, and cheatfully faid for this third volume, efpecially if one may judge by the readiness with which fubfcribers to fuch works have fubmitted to be made to pay an advanced price to other writers. If what is here fuggefted be deemed petulant, I am free to confefs I do not approve fuch methods of making county hiftortes, either in defcription or reprefentation. If I were to call fuch proceedings equivocal, I thould not think I faid too much; and I do hereby call on fuch compilers to redeem their plighted faith. My choler rifes when I refle& that the rafk does not devolve into abler hands, or that abler hands do not offer themflves to undertake it.

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Such fhifting of ground can be no credit to the undertakers of county biftories; and yet this character applies to more than one undertaker. Wanets the Hiftorians of Somerfer, Devon, and Staffordshire, who were fo little acquainted with the nature of their undertaking, that they twice changed their plan and their Propofals. tore to affirm, that every hiftorian fhould confider maturely what he is about, and should bring forward no defig till he has all his materials duly aranged. He should not deal out his works by bundreds, or by numbers, as if he fhrunk from the enterprize, or was dealing out a Family Bib'z or an Encyclopedia. He fhould not diffuß his materials, as the Hiftorian of Derbyfhire with all his boaft appears to do, in the reflexions he cafts on a departed Antiquary. Believe me, Mr. Urban, the Collections of departed Antiqu ries will ever outweigh, in intrinfic merit, all that modern collectors make fuch a parade about. But the grand le cret of all this is, that the fashionable fpirit of book-making pervades the whole circle of science. Why elfe have we one man's gigantic fhoulders fet to fupport the weight of three Northern counties,

or another's that of two Wettern ones,

any one of which would have occupied the life of a genuine Antiquary? Why eife are we to have counties dealt out by hundreds, which Mr. Morant firft fet the example of, and, writing for bookfellers, wrote accordingly? To what foarce, but that of profit to the writer or publisher, are we to afcribe the many tours, journeys, environs, picturesque beauties, and the long et cætera of defcription and anecdote, which multiply upon us? So that, from

the grand fcenes of rivers to the picturefque beauties of the New River, we may by and by expect the fcenery furnished by the banks of every canal, from the Duke of Bridgewater's to HamptonGay canal, if peradventure it fucceed. To this fource must be afcribed fictitious fcenery, or falle reprefentation; of which inftances enough might be quoted in our engravings. G.

Mr. URBAN, Chefbunt, March 7. Obfeive a very fhort extract, p. 8, remarkably prophetic, from Mr. Fleming's Difcourfes publifhed in 1701. Many of your readers will perhaps be glad to fee a little more full account of what Mr. Fleming advanced in his interpretation of the paffage he was dif courfing upon. I have not his book: but a more fatisfactory intelligence could hardly be hoped for at fecond-hand than the following.

In "the Hiftory of the Works of the Learned, or an impartial Account of Books," Vol. III. No. IV. (which is the Number for April 1791), thofe Reviewers give a long account, for which they hope the curiofity of the fubject, and his new method of handling it, will atone, of

"Difcourfes on feveral Subjects: the first containing a new Account of the Rife and Fall of the Papacy, &c. &c. by Robert Fleming V. D. M. London, printed for A. Bell, at the Bible and Crois-Keys, in Cornhill, 1701."

"Two preliminary confiderations.

I. That the three grand Apocalyptical Numbers, 1260 days, 42 months time times and a half, are fynchronical, and must be interpreted prophetically, fo as years muft be underfood by days, &c.

II. That, in order to understand the Prophetical years aright, they must be reduced to Julian years.-Providence has given us the exact compats of the Prophetical year in the Revelations, by fixing the fynchroni(m of the three numbers above mentioned:30 days make a month; and 12 fuch months a year ;-which makes them (i. e. the 1260) in the Prophetical reckoning 18 years fhort of Julian years:-adding the 3 years and a half at 350 days per ann. makes 1260 days; adding the fame at 365 days per ann. it comes to 1278 days. If Antichritt began his reign in 605, 1260 Julian years added would bring us to 1866, as his last period; but deducting 18 years, the period must be 1848."

After explaining the Seven Seals, Seven Trumpets, and Firft, Second, and Third, Vial, he goes on, "The

"The Fourth Vial poured upon the Sun denotes the wars that followed the Peace of Munster, 1648;--and the bumiliation of fome eminent Romish Potentates, who fupport the papal caufe, and principally the houfes of Auftria and Bourbon; and, as France was made ufe of to fcorch both branches of the Auftrian family, fo France itfelf was fcorched when their king was forced to leave Holland which he had ala oft furprized in 1672, and especially when obliged to refign fo much of his conquefts by the Peace of Refwick. The remaining part of this Vial will come to its highest pitch about 1717, and runs out about 1794. Perhaps the French Monarchy may be humbled about that time: whereas the prefent French king takes the Sun for his emblem, and this for his motto, Nec pluribus imper, he or his fucceffors may be forced to acknowledge that, in refpect to his neighbouring Potentates, they are fingulis impar. The expiration of this Vial with no be till 1794, because Juftinian eclipfed his own authority to advance that of the Pope in 552; to which if we add 1260 Propherical years, it brings us down to 1794 *, and then the Fourth Vint will end, and the Fitth commence by a new mortification of the Papacy.

The Fifth Vial poured out on the feat of

the beaft denotes the judgements to be poured out upon the dominions that more immediately belong to the Roman See: it will begin about 1794 *, and expire about 552 1848; adding 1260, Prophetical 1260 years to the year 6c6, when the Pope received the title of fupreme 18:2 bimor.

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[See the quotation above from his fecond prelimuty, "It Antchrift 1794 began his, &c”. p. 203.]

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Yours, &c.

W. H.

Another Correfpondent adds,

Mr. Robert Fleming (in the dedication of his volume of Difcourfes to Laid Carmichael, principal Secretary of State for Scotland, and chancellor of the College of Glasgow) mentions his being related to his lordship, and acknowledges his obligations for the offer of fo confiderable an office as that of principal of the College of Glafgow: which very honourable and beneficial fituation he declined, being a Diffenter from the Church of Scotland.

His Epiftolary Difcourfe concerning the Rite and Fall of Papacy, (in 177 pages), whence the extracts have been made is a preface to three Difcou: fes preached by him at the new meeting-place in London, at the clofe of the laft and the beginning of the prefent century. who compofe the Church to which he was related as minifter, particularly to thofe of

It is addreiled to thofe

the English Church of Leyden, and the Scots Church in Rotterdam, where he had been paftor; and it is dated from London, January 1, 1671-exclufive of his very learned and curious folutions of the Apocalyptical Prophecies, at this time fo peculiarly interefting to the fpeculative mind, his preliminary Difcourfe exhibits a liber lity of fentiment in matters of religious faith and doctrine; and lays down fuch excellent rules for the improvement of time, from the confideration of its worth and value, as camnot but entitle the author to a very confpicuous place amongst the divines of the age in which he lived.

A third Correfpondent refers us to the "Tableau de Paris, 1782," for another kind of Prophecy, which is fomewhat curious:

"Que deviendra Paris?

... Eft-ce la

guerre, e-ce la poite, eft-ce la famine, elt-ce un incendie, eft-ce na révolution publique, qui anéantira cette fuperbe ville ? ... Ou, prutôt, plufieurs caufes réunies opéreront-elles cette vaste destruction ?”

Mr. URDAN,

Feb. 8.

p. 8, reminds me of another, eTHE remarkably prophetic paffage, qually fingular, in Harrington's Oceaxa, which has not yet been noticed in your Mifcellany:

"Look you to it: where there is tembling and tolling upon the bed of ficknets, it Though muft end in death or recovery.

the people of the world. in the dregs of the Gothic empire, be yet tumbling and toffing* upon the bed of fickness, they cannot dy, nor is there any means of recovery for them but by ancient prudence, whence of necellity it muft com to país that this drug be better known. If Feince, Italy, and Spain, were not all fick, all corruped together, there would be none of them fo; for the fick would not be able to withstand the found, nor the tound to preferve their health without curing of the fick. The first of these nations (which, if you ftay her leifure, will, in my mind be France) that recovers the health of antient prudence, fhall certainly govern the world. For what did Italy when the had it? And as you were in that, you fhall in the like cafe be reduced to a province. I do not fpeak at random.” Oceana, edit. 1747, P. 203.

This paffage will not appear fo extra

* Milton feems to have borrowed this image in Paradife Loft, XI. 489: "Dire was the toffing, deep the groans; Defpair [couch." Tended the fick, bufet, from couch to ordinary

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