the administration of viceroys, arifing from continual exactions, increafing taxes, fcarcity of provifions and a weak government; The grand infurrection under Maffaniello wore a more difmal complexion than all the preceding difturbances, and threatened the difmembering of this valuable branch of the Spanish monarchy. Since that period the annals of this city are barren of memorable events. Thefe facts are by no means interefting as they are here related; and if they were, it is not neceffary that we should accompany Mr. Swinburne to Naples to be informed of them. Again, our author takes up nearly two fheets with a sketch of the Hiftory of Sicily from the earlieft fables of Sicilian Chronologifts, who he tells us, deduce the pedigree of their nation in a regular line from Gomer the fon of Japhet, whom they fuppofe to have fettled in Sicily very foon after the flood, to Ferdinand the third of Sicily and the fourth of Naples; this is a very good abridgment of the Sicilian history for the ufe of fchools: but it is deftitute of that circumftantiality and thofe general views which beftow fo great a charm on particular facts, and which we cannot expect in the productions of the chronologift. But if Mr. Swinburne had in one or two large volumes given a legitimate, a noble, and interefting hiftory of the Sicilies, ftill we should have faid that a book of travels is not the place where we should naturally look for fuch an hiftory. In all juft compofitions there is an unity of defign, even travels and voyages not excepted. In these we expect, not a hiftory of kingdoms, cities, and towns, but rather a defcription of their prefent fituations. Or, as we have already hinted, if an historical sketch is at all proper, it is only then proper when fome ftriking circumftances carry back the mind to the caufes that gave them birth. The weakness, the fuperftition, the credulity of mankind untutored by letters, are in the prefent enlightened period fo generally known and acknowledged, that to cultivated minds they are fubjects not of pleafantry or ridicule, but of pity and very ferious fpeculation. Yet Mr. Swinburne very often entertains his readers with fuch legendary tales as the following of Mafter Peter Barliardus, which he acknowledges to be childish but which he relates because it is univerfally believed at Salerno. Peter Barliardus was a famous fchoolmaster, ninety-five years old, confequently a great magician. One day his grand-children, who were under his tuition, happened to meet with his conjuring book, and to read aloud a cabaliftical paffage in it; at this powerful fummins the devils appeared to know their pleafure, and frightened the boys to death. When Peter came home and faw the fatal cataftrophe of his family, he evoked his infernal spirits and chided them for having killed the children; but the imps proved rheir innocence S clearly clearly, and the accident brought the old wizard to fo fpeedy and 1.vely a fenfe of his crimes, that in a fit of compunction he inftantly feized his pernicious books, and kneeling before the door of this church, burnt them all to afhes; a fountain bubbled up immediately on the fpot, and runs to this day in commemoration of the event; Peter having ftill doubts of his falvation, begged a crucifix, which hung before him, to give him fome fign of forgiveness, and lo! the image opened its eyes, bent its head forwards, and the old man dropt down dead overwhelmed with joy and contrition. The Reader would alfo have excufed Mr. Swinburne if he had omitted many of his defcriptions of churches, ab. beys, convents, and other edifices. At the fame time that juft criticifm cenfures the vaft collection of folemn trifles which fwell this volume, it is but justice alfo to acknowledge that Mr. Swinburne has not omitted to take notice of what commerce there is in Sicily, and of its natural productions. He has alfo occafionally defcribed the condition and the manners of the people. For example he compares the character of the ancient and prefent Neapolitans. "From the few hints dropped by the claffic authors, we collect that the ancient Neapolitans were a race of Epicureans, of a foft indolent turn, averfe to martial exercifes, paffionately fond of theatrical amusements and mufic, expert in all the refined arts that adminifter to the caprices of luxury, extravagant in their expreffions and geftures, credulous, and dupes to fuperftitions of various forts. If we make an allowance for a quantity of northern blood which has joined the original Grecian ftream by intermarriages with a medly ofconquering nations, and has imparted a roughness not yet worn off by the mildnefs of the climate, we fhall find the prefent citizens of Naples very like the former inhabitants of their city. The following scene in the mountains may afford fome amufement to our readers. Calatagerone, a royal city, containing about feventeen thousand inhabitants, living by agriculture, and the making of potter's ware is twenty miles from the fea, and fituated on the fummit of a very high infulated hill, embofomed in thick groves of cypreffes; the road to it, though paved, is very steep, difficult, and dangerous for any thing but a mule or an afs. I was conducted to the college of the late Jefuits; and, as the house was compleatiy ftripped of furniture, full of dirt and cobwebs, I apprehended my night's lodgings would be but indifferent. The fervant belonging to the gentleman who has the management of this forfeited eftate, and to whom I had brought a letter requesting a lodging in the college, perceiving the difficulties we lay under in making our fettlement, ran home, and returned in a fhort time with a polite invitation to his master's · houfe. There was no refufing fuch an offer, though I was far from expecting any thing beyond a comfortable apartment, and homely fare, in a family fettled among the inland mountains of Sicily; but to my great furprize, I found the houfe of the baron of Rofabia, F 4 large large and convenient, fitted up in a modern taste, with furniture that would be deemed elegant in any capital city in Europe. Every thing fuited this outward fhew; attendance, table, plate, and equipage. The baron and his lady having both travelled, and feen a great deal of the world, had returned to fettle in their native city, where they affured me I might find many families equally improved by an acquaintance with the manners of foreign countries, or at leaft a frequentation of the best company in their own metropolis. Nothing could be more eafy and polite than their address and converfation, and my aftonishment was hourly increafing dur ing my whole stay. After I had refreshed myself with a short but excellent meal, they took me out in a very handfome coach. It was a fingular circumftance to meet a string of carriages full of well dreffed ladies and gentlemen on the fummit of a mountain, which no vehicle can afcend, unless it be previoufly taken to pieces, and placed upon the backs of mules. We feemed to be feated among the clouds. As the vast expanse of the hills and the vales grew dim with evening vapours, our parading refembled the amufements of the heathen gods, in fome poems and pictures, driving about Olympus, and looking down at the mortals below. The hour of airing being expired, which confifted of fix turns of about half a mile each, a numerous affembly was formed at the baron's houfe; the manners of the company were extremely polished, and the French language familiar to the greatest part of it. When the card tables were removed, a handfome fupper, dreffed by a French cook, was ferved up, with excellent foreign and Sicilian wines; the converfation took a lively turn, and was well fupported till midnight, when we all retired to reft. Calatagerone has feveral houfes that live in the fame elegant ftyle, and its inhabitants have the reputation of being the politeft people in the island. The climate in this elevated region is extremely different from that of the tepid fhores I had lately frequented; the night air was fharp and froity, and a cloth coat very neceffary. Every perfon in the affembly carried a small filver vafe full of hot embers hanging at the wrift.' From this elegant affembly let us pafs to the Calabrian fwine-herds. 'We travelled, (fays our author) fome miles near the fea, through a marshy country. It is ftocked with fwine, of which Í faw many very large herds attended each by one or two youths; they conduct their hogs by the found of a great bagpipe, playing just what notes their imagination fuggefts. The excentric wildnefs of their mufic, their fimple attire, long fhaggy locks, and unconcerned vacant countenances, gave me the idea of beings as near the ftate of primitive nature as any favage in the most unfrequented deferts of the globe. I am perfuaded the Calabrian fwine-herds of thefe days are exact copies of the ancient ones, and alfo that their mode of managing the ftubborn animals entrusted to their care has been tranfmitted to them by a regular tradition; Polybius, who was an exact obferver, fays, that the Italians do not pen their fwine up in fties, but lead them abroad to feek provender on the wafte and in the foreft: the keeper does not as in Greece, follow and whip them on, but walks before them, and occafionally founds founds an instrument to call them forward; the swine keep near, and are perfectly well acquainted with its note, and even when by accident different herds are mixed together, one company of hogs will, at the blowing of their leader's horn, feparate from the ftrangers, and with great impetuofity flock to their ftandard. I faw this very circumftance happen as I rode up to the Fondaco del Fico, where we baited.' This ftory of the fwine herds is well worthy our attention; but our author, according to his manner, proceeds to trifle with his reader thus 'I dined at the door of this folitary inn, under the fhade of a venerable cork-tree, and from my feat enjoyed a view of the whole gulf between it and the road is a fwamp full of ponds that abound with water-fowl. Behind the house ends a foreft of oaks and corktrees, which covers a great part of the plain and of the Appenine, furrounding a rich corn country, diverfified with patches of oliveyards.' He From the extracts we have made our readers will readily be difpofed to give us credit, when we fay, that Mr. Swinburne is capable of just and even deep obfervation, but that, either from a deficiency of tafte, or from a defire to fwell his volume, has intermixed with fome curious and important, a great deal of trifling and unimportant matter. is a naturalift rather than a moralift, and a landfcape painter ftill more than a naturalift. He is well verfed in ancient literature, and capable of tracing the remains of antiquity amidst the ravages of time. He has a turn too for fuch refearches; but this turn often degenerates into puerility, and indicates in general, not the philofopher, but the virtuofo. In his first volume he made many obfervations which might have been introduced in this tour. And had is travels to Sicily been published firft, they would, probably, have had more merit than his travels in Naples. ART. II. Memoirs of Baron de Tott. Containing the State of the Turkish Empire and the Crimea, during the late War with Ruffia. With numerous Anecdotes, Facts, and Observations, on the Manners and Customs of the Turks and Tartars. Tranflated from the French. 2 vols. 8vo. 1os. 6d. boards. Robinfon. 1785. ART. III. Memoirs of the Baron de Tott, on the Turks and Tartars. Tranflated from the French, by an English Gentleman at Paris, under the immediate infpection of the Baron. 2 vols. 8vo. Ios. Printed and fold by Jarvis, Debrett, Becket, Sewell. EFORE we enter into a difcuffion of the merits of the prefent work, it will be proper to lay before our readers fpecimens of the two tranflations, which we have above announced to the public: which of them they fhould prefer fhall be left entirely to their own determination. "PRELIMINARY PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE." Jarvis, &c. Hiftory appears, at the firft glance, to prefent us with nothing but a fcene of horror, where the victims are brought upon the ftage, only to throw a luftre on thofe executioners of mankind, who facrifice them to their paffions, but it lays before us at the fame time the valuable defcription of manners; and that part of hiftory will appear undoubtedly the most interesting, when we confider that a nation is governed by its an-cient customs, as the conduct of an individual is guided by his perfonal character. From what more fertile fource can we derive a perfect knowledge of mankind, or learn to govern them? In this point of view, history ought to form a most interesting object of attention in the policy of all governments: it will there be feen, that customs, by creating and modifying, infenfibly, their manners, form, in every part of the world, the great fpring by which mankind are put in motion. Customs lay the foundation of, and produce the great revolutions of empires; they form the ftructure, and either infure its stability, or undermine it by degrees; and are the caufes of its total deftruction. The flowness of the approach conceals the progrefs of the evil; and its fatal advances are unperceived until the moment when he, who could apply the remedy, receives himself a ftroke he is unable to repel without that force of which he is no longer master. If we leave in obfcurity thofe torrents of robbers, who, in ravaging the earth, have trampled under foot thofe finall focieties which affumed the pompous title of empires; if we except too fome petty states, who, after increaf "PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE." Robinfon. a Hiftory, on a first view, fecms a theatre of horror, on which victims are prefented only to render the names of thole executioners illuftrious who facrifice them to gratify their own paffions. But it likewife exhibits most valuable picture of manners; and this part of hiftory, no doubt, muft always appear the most interesting, when we confider, that a nation is governed by its customs, as individuals are by their proper characters. Where can we find a more fruitful fource for the knowledge and government of men? For this reafon, governors ought to fearch hiftory. They would perceive that customs, by infenfibly modifying and giving birth to manners, are every where the spring of action, among mankind; they prepare, they ef fect the revolution of empires; they furnish materials for the edifice, and render it durable, or undermine and fake it to deftruc tion. It is the filence of evil that conceals its progrefs; and this fatal progrefs is not perceived, till the very moment when he who might apply the remedy, re-" ceives himself an infection which he wants the power to repel. 'If we leave, in the obfcurity of time, those banditti, who, like torrents, ravaged the earth and fwept away fmall focieties, affumning the pompous title of empires; and if we, likewife, except a few fmall ftates, which, after having |
