Manners and Customs of the People in the Eaft. of difcovery is the fame. Poifon and the poignard are always the reward of indifcretion, and the women often punish it with the greateft cruelty. This feverity maintains a great chastity of manners in the country; but in great towns, where intrigue has more refources, there is not lefs debauchery than in our own; with this difference, that it is more anxioufly concealed. Aleppo, Damafcus, but efpecially Cairo, do not yield in this point to our capitals. In confequence of the polygamy authorized by the Koran, the Turks are very foon enervated, and no thing is more common than to hear a man of thirty complaining of im becility. This is the difeafe about which they moft frequently confult the Europeans, afking of them Mad joun, or Aphrodifiac pills. The vexation it occafions is the more intolerable, as fterility is a reproach among the Orientals: they have all the esteem of ancient times for fruitfulness; and the beft wifh for a young girl is, that she may foon get a husband and bear him many children. This idea makes them marry their children fo foon, that it is not uncommon to see girls of nine or ten years of age married to boys, of twelve or thirteen. It is true, that the dread of libertinifm and its fatal confequences induces them to encourage this practice. The ignorance of the Turks prevents them from believing that fuch early in dulgence is one of the caufes of premature imbecility, and they are deaf to the remonftrances of nature even when their health has fuffered. Montefquieu has faid, that polygamy is one cause of depopulation, it is, however, one of the leaft; for the rich only can have feveral women; the poor, and especially the peafantry, are content with one; even people in the higher ranks are often wife enough to follow their example. 27 What these relate of the domef tic life of the polygamift is not calculated to make us envy his privilege, nor does it give us a high idea of this dogma in the legislation of Mahomet. His houfe is the scene of eternal civil war. The appeals of the women to the husband, and their quarrels among themselves are continual. The four lawful fpoufes complain that the flaves are preferred to them; and the flaves, that they are abandoned to the jealoufy of their miftreffes. If a wife obtains a trinket, a favour, or a permiffion to go to the bath, the reft must be allowed the fame, and a league is inftantly formed in the common caufe. To establish peace, the polygamist is obliged to exert defpotic authority, and from that moment he finds nothing but the most abject fubmiffion; attachment in appearance, and hatred in reality. In vain does each proteft that the loves him more than the rest; in vain do they prefs with eager nefs when he comes home, to prefent him with his pipe, his flippers, or his coffee; in vain do they stand round his couch to drive away the flies that would moleft his repose: all these cares and careffes are bur interested attempts to procure an addition to their ftore of jewels or drefs, that if he fhould repudiate them, they may be able to tempt another husband, or to find a refource in those trifles which are their only property. It is remarkable that the difference of religious worship produces between the Chriftians and the Muffulmans of Syria, and even throughout Turkey, a difference of character as great as if they were people living in oppofite climates. Travellers and merchants agree in defcribing the Greek Chriftians as rogues and liars, abject in poverty, infolent in profperity, and in general of an inconftant and flippery D 2 difpofitions difpofition; while the Muffulmans, though indulging a pride bordering on difdain, yet exhibit goodnefs, humanity, and juftice, and especially great fortitude in adverfity, and a character of decifion, on which one may rely. This contrast is aftonishing in men that live in the fame climate; but the prejudices of education, and the effect of the government to which they are fubject will fufficiently account for it. I once obferved to a fenfible prieft, that of all the chriftians who in thefe latter times had arrived at power, not one of them appeared worthy of his fortune. The hands of our Chrif<< tians, fays he, are not fitted to "hold the reins of government, for they are accuftomed in youth to 46 nothing but the beating of cotton. "They are like thofe who walk "for the first time upon a terrace, "their elevation makes them giddy; and as they are afraid of being "fent back to their olives and their "cheese, they are in hafte to pro"vide against the chance. The "Turks, on the contrary, are accuf"tomed to rule; they are habi"tuated to their fituation, and proceed as if it were never to " change. We must likewife re member, that the Muffulmans are bred up in the belief of predeftination: hence that fecurity that moderates fear and defire; hence that refignation which accompanies them in profperity and in adverfity; that apathy which neither looks back with regret nor forward with anxiety. If the Muffulman meets with heavy loffes, if he is plundered and ruined, he fays calmly, it was fo ordered, and paffes without murmuring from opulence to want. If he is on his death-bed, nothing affects his tranquillity; he performs his ablutions, fays his prayers, and confides in God and in his prophet: turn my head towards Mecca, fays he calmly to his fon, and he dies in peace. After what I have related of the cuftoms of thefe people, it will not be thought furprifing if their genius fhould refemble the monotony of their private life. Even in the bufieft cities, fuch as Aleppo, Dámafcus, and Cairo, their chief amusemeuts are going to the bath, or to coffee-houfes, which refemble ours in nothing but the name. Here, feated on tattered matts, in a smoky chamber, they pafs whole days with the pipe in their mouth, fpeaking little, and often not uttering a fyllable. Sometimes, to animate this filent affembly, there enters a finger or a ftory-teller, or dancing girls. Nothing can equal the attention with which they liften to the Nachid or ftory-teller: great and fmall among them are captivated with his tales. A European traveller is not a little furprised to see the failors croud together on the deck during a calm, and fpend three or four hours in fixed attention to one of those Nachids reciting his metri cal romances, which are evidently in rhime. The populace, even in the towns, though noify, are not brutal like ours; and they are abfolutely free from that drunkennefs which infests our streets. This is perhaps the only real advantage produced by the legiflation of Mahomet; to which we may add the prohibition of games of chance, for which the Orientals have no inclination: chefs is the only game they are fond of, and in this they are fometimes very skil ful. The only spectacle they know is that of the Baladins, who refemble our jugglers and dancers on the rope. Thefe are ftone-eaters, fire-eaters, and ferpent-eaters. The populace, from whom they carefully conceal their fecret operations, have a fort of reverence for them, and call their tricks by a name expreffive of afto❤ nishment, as Monster, Prodigy, and Miracle. Whitaker's Vindication of Queen Mary. Miracle. This propenfity to wonder and facility of believing the moft extravagant abfurdities, is a remarkable attribute in the minds of the Orientals. Their judgment, tutored from infancy to credit the ridiculous tales of the Koran, has no affistance from analogy in eftimating probability or truth. In general, the eaftern people are endowed with quick conception, eafy elocution, ardent paffions, and juft decilion in matters within the fphere of their knowledge; they have a particular regard for what is honourable, and their proverbs 29 fhew that they can unite delicacy of obfervation and depth of thought with apt expreffion: their conver fation appears diftant at first, but in time they become fo gentle and attractive, that the greater part of our voyagers and merchants agree in afcribing to them a humane and generous temper, and fomething more noble, more polite, elegant, and open in their manners, than is to be found in the people of our countries; as if having been long polifled before us, the Afiatics ftill preferved the traces of their first education. SIR, MR PI To the EDITOR. [R PINKERTON, who takes delight in running a muck at literary characters of eminence, lately teftified a great contempt for Dr Stuart's Hiftorical Vindication of MARY; profeffed his furprize at the world being fo eafily duped; and promised, that if within fix years no other Drawcanfir fhould arife, to discomfit the defenders of the Scotish Queen, he himself would undertake the adventure. How will he be mortified to fee, instead of an affailant, another defender appear, driving the remains of the enemy from the lifts, and prancing in triumph with the wreath of victory on his helmet. This alludes to the new publica tion of Mr Whitaker, which the friends of Mary will, no doubt, regard as a decifive and final vindication of her innocence. This writer has, with infinite acutenefs and industry, explored the mazes of deceit in which her unhappy ftory had been involved. No circumftance of any moment paffes unnoticed, no loop-hole is left whereon to hang a doubt. The heroine appears unfullied and bright as an angel, fall ing a facrifice to the turbulent paffions of thofe diabolical fpirits with whom her hard fate connected her. This work certainly entitles its author to confiderable reputation, and, had his matter been equalled by his form and ftyle, his praife had been ítill higher. Diligent, ingenicus, acute, and animated, he muft be allowed; to elegance or liberality of fentiment he has no claim. His language more frequently refembles the ravings of a fanatic preacher, than the chafte and digrified ftrains of the Hiftoric Mufe. He is not "cunning in fence," but a mere controverfial bruifer. He treats the characters of Mr Hume and Dr Robertson in terms fo coarte and indecent, as muft injure the caufe they are meant to ferve. Had his reproofs been conveyed in more courtly phrafe, they would perhaps have been more keenly felt. In fupport of those opinions, be pleafed to infert the few quotations, which follow. He places the character of Eliza, beth in a deteftable, but very juit light. All united to make Elizabeth an enemy to Mary. As a queen, and as a woman; as actuated by political jealoufies, as ftimulated by perfonal humours, and as impelled by female vanities; fhe became at firft a pretended friend to betray her, and the appeared at laft an open enemy to destroy her. She lavished all her arts of deception upon her. She then found herself fo intangled in the ftrings of her own nets, that she could not either retreat or advance and the thought herself obliged in the end, for the fake of her own fecurity, to terminate in defperation what the had commenced in jealoufy. She arraigned a Queen of Scotland before a tribunal of English nobles; fhe thus fet an example, infamous in itself, pernicious to fociety, and peculiarly pernicious and infamous to her own country, of having a fovereign condemned to the block by fubjects: fhe urged her meaner dependents upon ASSASSINATING Mary, that fhe might not behead her, but fhe found even their confciences revolting at the villainous intimation. She then figned the bloody warrant with her own hand. She could be wantonly jocular at doing it.' She could pretend to recall it, when it had been fent away. She could pretend to lay the guilt of it upon her fecretary's head. She could yet deny to Mary for ever, what was never denied to the meaneft criminal before, the favour of having a clergyman of her own communion to attend her. She could point her perfecution against the foul, as well as the body of Mary. And at length fie ftained her confcience with one of the fouleft murders that the annals of earth can produce." "On these flagitious principles, and with this horrible iffue to them, Elizabeth engaged in intrigues against Mary. She banded with her ambitious brother. She banded with her feditious clergy. She furnished them with affiftance fecretly. She lent them her countenance openly. And, from both, they at length drove their fovereign out of the country. She took refuge in Elizabeth's dominions. She thus gave her one of the finest opportunities, that time had ever prefented to an heroical mind, of acting with a dignified fpirit of honour at the last." "But Elizabeth had no fenfibilities of tendernefs, and no fentiments of generofity. She looked not forward to the awful verdict of hiftory. She had no dread, even for the infinitely-more awful doom of GOD. Regardless of her own invitation, regardless of her own promifes, regardless of every fanction human and divine; fhe flew upon the unhappy Queen, feized her as a prey, and imprifoned her as a felon. I blush as an Englishman to think, that it was an English Queen who could do this; that it was one of the moft enlightened princes which ever fat upon the throne of England; and that it was one, whofe name I was taught to lifp in my infancy, as the honour of her fex, and the glory of our ifle. Yet fhe did even more than this. She obliged the unwilling rebels to come forward with their afferted evidences against her. She forced them, upon pretending to fubftantiate their accufation of adultery, and to authenticate their charge of murder. And, at last, she entered into a DIABOLICAL COMPACT with them, to receive their spurious evidences as genuine; to receive them in fuch a manner, as fhould preclude all poffibility of detecting their spurioufnefs; and to vouch them for genuine by her own authority: fo to blaft the character of Mary with all the world, for the gratification of her own paltry revenge; and then to keep her in prifon for life, or to deliver her up to her rebels for the fupport Whitaker's Vindication of Queen Mary. fupport of their fcandalous ufurpation." "When Murray produced his falfe credentials at York, they were Speedily returned to him. Yet being privately exhibited to Elizabeth's commiffioners, and therefore in no danger of being fhewn to Mary's; they were left long enough in the hands of the former, to be defcribed, abstracted, and even copied in parts, by them. But when they were re-produced at Westminster, a different form of procedure was followed by Murray. They were publickly produced then. They were therefore returned immediately. We have a minute of the whole in the journal of the Commiffioners. And it carries all the marks of the shuf, fing trepidation of a villain, fearful of being detected in his villainous operations. The letters, fays the journal, "being copied, were read, "and a due collation made thereof, as neere as could be, by reading "and inspection, and made to accord with the originals, which "the faid Earl of Murray required "to be re-delivered, and did thereupon deliver the copies being col"lationed." He exhibited the originals. He exhibited alfo copies of them. He had taken care to bring copies with him, because he meant to leave copies only. He induced the board of Commiffioners to comply with his wifhes. They proceeded inftantly to collate his copies with his originals. This done, Murray demanded back his originals, received them, and then delivered up his copies. And thus the originals were just fhewn and withdrawn." "Mary was thus cut off from all poffibility of inspecting the originals, and of expofing the fpurioufnefs by detecting the hand-writing of them. She was reduced to the fituation of a warrior in an Indian ambufcade. She could be wounded at will by ser foes; yet she could not retuin 31 the wounds. She could not fee her enemy. And the might, therefore, with the utmoft propriety of fentiment, and with more than the original fublimity of courage, have faid with Ajax in the Iliad, Give me but light, and Ajax asks no more. But then, this very fituation is an ample vindication in itself. Had the been guilty, had fhe in the fighteft degree been acceffary to the crime charged upon her, had there been even a fair probability of proving her guilty of the charge, in fpite of her innocence; her enemies would have acted in a very different manner. No ambufcade would they have laid for her. They would never have skulked behind the bushes, and wounded her with invifible fhafts. They would have come forward into view. They would have engaged in open fight with her. They would have produced the originals, with pretended regret and with real triumph. They would have lodged them with the commiffioners at York. They would have lodged them with the commiffioners at Westminster. They would have compelled both to collate them, carefully with private and with public, with foreign and with domeftic, writings of Mary's. Her commiffioners would alfo have been called upon to inspect them, would have been urged to compare them, would have been challenged to difprove them. Mary herfelf would have been brought up from her confinement in the country, as the frequently requested to be; have been fuffered to enjoy the freeft accefs to them; have been allowed to make every objection to them; and have been heard with all the patience of candour, for days and for weeks, in her attempts to invalidate their authority. Such must have been the demeanour of Murray the producer, and of Elizabeth the receiver, of the letters; if they had thought |