clufion of a letter, dated from Vienna; in which the Author describes the caules of the univerfal weaknefs of the moral feelings obfervable in the inhabitants of that city:

The confequence of this people's want of fpirit is, that their vices are as few and as weak as their virtues. Nothing is heard here of the tragedies which are fo frequent at London, Rome, and Naples. Pickpockets, cheats, bankrupts, thieves, fpendthrifts, pimps, and bawds, are the only criminals known at Vienna. The Auftrian has not strength of character enough to be a highwayman; and a Saxon gentleman, who has been fettled here fome years, and has travelled over the whole country, affures me, that he does not remember to have heard of fuch a thing as a duel. I was witnefs to a fcene yefterday which strongly marks the character both of the people and the police of this place. A well-dreffed man had a quarrel with a hackney coachman about his fare. They foon came to high words. One of the 600 fpies, who are divided about the different parts of the city, came up. The gentleman grew warm and gave bad words, which the other returned with intereft. At length they fhook their fifts at each other, but neither ventured to ftrike; for it feems there is a law, by which, whoever ftrikes firft is punifhed, let the previous provocation have been what it will. Had either but touched the hat of the other, it would have been reckoned a blow, and he would have been immediately taken up by the watch. As it was, they parted, after affording a quarter of an hour's laugh to the populace. The duration of thefe frays may be longer or fhorter ad libitum; but there are few examples of their ever being carried farther than words.

The court has nothing to fear from a revolt. In the beginning of the last century, indeed, the Protestants made a little fir; but all was foon quiet again. Indeed, the Viennois is too enervate for an infurrection.

Subordination is the only characteristic feature of this people; nor have I ever feen a spark here either of the Englishman's love of liberty, or the Frenchman's feeling for the honour of the grand monarch. The pride even of the army is too períonal, ever to admit of any fenfibility for the honour of the state.

The individuals of a country which exifts only by fubordination, will of courfe be weak and feeble characters. It is true, that the moft illimited obedience did Sparta no harm; but the reafon was, because it was not the reigning feature of the people, but only a means of fecuring the freedom after which the nation thirfted. The British laws are fome of them very fevere, and the difcipline of their navy as ftrict as that of the Pruffian army; but as thele feverities do not run through the whole of their government, they do not destroy the feelings of the people. Though no nation has fo much checked the power of their kings at different periods as the British has done, yet the hiftory of no nation affords more inftances of the devotion of individuals to the fovereign. The fame love which the Englishman has for liberty extends to the perfon of the prince, whenever the prince leaves the conftitution unimpaired, and manifefts a love for it. The upshot is, that the Briton will preferve ftrength of character APP. Rev. Vol. LXXVI.

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as long as the conftitution of his country lafts; whereas the fubjects of defpotic princes will be weak and grovelling in fpirit.

The government of this place endeavours to make some amends for the univerfal fubjection under which the people are held, by a most exact adminiftration of justice, by taking measures for univerfal fecurity, and by the free admiffion and encouragement of every pleafure (the fingle one of lawless love alone excepted) that can delight the human mind. Whilft in France a country gentleman may be thrown in prifon by a governor of a province, and continue there all his life, the loweft footman here is affured of having the ftri&teft juftice done him, if he has occafion to complain of his lord, even though he were the Lord High Chamberlain. The police is fo vigi. lant and acute, that the moft fubtle thefts are commonly discovered, and the owner gets his goods again. Almost all the imperial houses and gardens are almost conftantly open to the public. The players are under the peculiar protection of the court, who fhews, in every thing, that the refraint it lays the people under arifes more from principle than the defire of tyrannizing over them. And yet, notwithstanding all this pleasure, and all this fecurity, I had rather be expofed to a London footpad, or have the bottles and glaffes whistle round my head on the laft night of Vauxhall, than enjoy all the placid tranquillity of this place. Thefe laft are diforders, indeed, but they are disorders which are infeparable from a strong national character, fuch as is that of the people by whom they are committed.'

By the above extract, our readers will eafily perceive the author's judgment in forming, from external appearances, a true idea and juft eftimate of the manners of a nation. We could have wifhed, however, to have feen his remarks clothed in a more elegant English drefs. The ftyle is indeed free from grammatical errors; but it wants that polifh, and felicity of expreffion which is pleafing to every judge of good language.

The Author, who is a German, a native of Wirtenberg, affumes the character of a Frenchman, and addreffes his letters to a fuppofed brother at Paris. Indeed, the many fevere ftrictures on German manners, which are to be found in various parts of the work, were perhaps tho. ght more becoming a foreigner than a native and, probably, on that account, the Author affumed the character of a Frenchman; although the freedom and severity with which he frequently treats France and is inhabitants, fometimes equals that which he has bestowed on the Germans.

Baron Riefbeck commences his travels at Strafburg; and, proceeding through Swabia and Bavaria, he defcribes whatever is worthy of notice in the fouthern part of Germany. After remaining fome time at Vienna, whence he dates many of his letters, containing ample accounts of Auftria, Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia, and Poland, he proceeded to Prague; and thence, by the way of D.eiden and Leipfic, to Berlin. The letters dated from this last mentioned place are, in our opinion, the most interefting part of the work. The Pruffian King and government

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are set forth in a true light; and here many curious and useful political obfervations will entertain and inftru&t the inquisitive reader. From Berlin, our Author went to Hamburg, Denmark, Hanover, Caffel, Wurzburg, Francfort, Mentz, Cologne, Amfterdam; and his last letter is dated from Oftend.

It was with pleafure that we followed Baron Riefbeck through this long journey and we doubt not that the entertaining variety, and the ufeful inftruction, which the journey affords, will also please our intelligent readers. We recommend it rather for the matter it contains, than for the ftyle in which it is written: feveral faulty expreffions occur in the original: and the painful and tedious illness under which the worthy tranflator laboured, and which ended only with his life, will ferve, with the candid reader, as an apology for many of the inaccuracies which we have observed; and with all its imperfections, we hesitate not to pronounce this work much fuperior (in our judgment, at leaft) to most of the voyages and travels, which have lately employed our attention.

ART. XX.

Hiftory of the Voyages and Difcoveries made in the North. from the German of John Reinhold Forfter, J. U. D. by feveral new and original Maps. 4to. 11. 1 S. binfons. 1786.

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Tranflated Elucidated Boards. Ro

HIS work is not merely a compilation, or collection of the voyages which have been made toward the northern parts of Europe, Afia, and America; but an original compofition, giving an hiftorica! account of voyages and travels to those dreary and inhofpitable regions, from the earliest ages to the prefent; the perfons who undertook them; the times when they happened; and the principal difcoveries which were made in each.

The work is divided into three books; and these are again. fubdivided into feveral chapters, fections, &c. The first book treats of the most ancient difcoverics.' · It contains three

chapters. The Voyages and Discoveries of the Phoeniciansof the Greciansand of the Romans.' The materials from which these three chapters have been compofed, are chiefly extracted from the writings of Mofes, Herodotus, Diod rus Siculus, Strabo, Plutarch, Livy, Q. Curtius, Arrian, Tacitus, Cafar, &c. Nor has our author difdained to admit, as good authorities in these matters, not only Homer and Virgil, but even Ovid, and Pindar, with, occafionally, a long lift of poets of ye: more doubtful note. But we are conftrained, nevertheless, to allow, that if the author does not treat us with much certain information, in this part of his performance, he has, at leaft, contrived to amufe and entertain us.

Dr. Forfter fupposes that the first perfons that ventured out to fea, were a fet of banditti, who had been driven from the more civilized part of mankind on account of the brutality of their manners; and who inhabited the northern shores of the Arabian Gulf, and afterward fpread themfelves over all the land of Canaan. They are called "Horites," and "Anakims," or "children of Anak,” in the Scriptures; but were known to the Greeks by the appellation of Troglodytes; and in fucceeding times were better known by the name of Phanicians. He contends that the commerce and navigation of this people extended to the British Ifles fo early as the time of Mofes; and to the most northerly parts of Germany, in the days of Herodotus, and, perhaps, in thofe of Homer, because lead and tin, which, he fays, are found no where but in Britain, were known to the former *; and tin and amber, the latter of which, according to him, is met with only in Pruffa, and on the fhores of the Baltic and German feas, are mentioned by the latter + authors. He feems clear that the Tarfifh of the Scriptures was the ancient city of Tartus, the remains of which are still vifible near Cadiz, in Spain; and hints, by a note of reference, that it took its name from Tarthith, one of the grand fons of Japheth, the son of Noah . Another point warmly contended for by our author, is, that Africa is the Ophir of the ancients, and that it had been circumnavigated four times before Vafco de Gama effected that arduous task, in 1597 and 1598. The firft of these circumnavigations he fuppofes was made jointly by the Phoenicians and Egyptians, in the days of Amafis I. and Sefoftris, kings of Egypt: and hence it is,' he adds, that we meet with fuch admirable, and, in fact, comprehenfive accounts of the natives of Africa, fo early as the time of Mofes, in the tenth chapter of Genefis.' He places the fecond circumnavigation of Africa in the reign of Solomon, about 500 years after the first, when his fhips went to Ophir for gold; for, adds he, Thefe celebrated voyages of the Phoenicians and Hebrews to Ophir were nothing else than circumnavigations of Africa.' Three hundied and eighty years after this, he fays, Pharaoh Necho gave orders for the circumnavigation of Africa to be performed; and in the reign of Ptolemy Euergetes II. one Eudoxus failed once more round Africa,-which is 450 years later than the voyage of Nacho'

About 70 years after the time of Herodotus, that is, about 350 years before the birth of Christ, the Greeks, ftimulated by the defire of sharing with the Phoenicians in the lucrative trade for tin and amber, fent out two fhips with a design of disco

Numbers, ch. xxxi. v. 22. and lib. iv. c. 27 and 31: alio Homeri 0.459. 2. v. 295. and Iliad 2. v. 474.

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+ Herodot. lib. iii. c. 115. Odyff. ^. v. 14. A. v. 73. Genefi, ch. x. v. 4.

vering the countries which produced thefe two valuable articles: one, commanded by Euthymenes, who, after he had paffed the ftraits of Gibraltar, was to proceed fouthward along the coaft of Africa; and the other, which was commanded by Pytheas, a very celebrated aftronomer of that age, was to follow the coaft of Spain and Gaul, northward, until he came in fight of that of Britain, along which he is faid to have coafted to the most northerly point of it; and thence he failed northward, fix days longer, until he difcovered Thule *, where, at the fummer folftice, the fun did not fet for 24 hours. Not fatisfied with having made thefe difcoveries, Pytheas was defirous of becoming perfonally acquainted with the region whence the Phoenicians fetched amber, and was fo fortunate in his refearches, or had fuch exact accounts, either written or oral, that he penetrated quite to the fartheft part of the Baltic, and there hit exactly on the very fpot of the fouthern coaft, where it is found in the greatest abundance.' What confequence thefe difcoveries of Pytheas proved of to his native country, we are entirely ignorant; as alfo what became of Euthymenes, who is not mentioned afterward.

It does not appear from Dr. Forfter's account, that the Romans made any discoveries worthy of notice.-What he has recorded is rather a fhort abftract of the hiftory of their wars, than an account of their navigations.

We cannot help admiring the extent of our author's reading, and the industry which he must have exerted in working on the fcanty materials that furnish the fubject-matter of these three entertaining chapters. Neither have we been lefs amufed by the ingenuity which he has fhewn in making his deductions from them. The firft ages of the world furnifh a large field for fancy and conjecture; and Dr. Forfter has freely put his fickle into the crop which it produces: but how far his fancy may have mifled him; or how far his conjectures may be true, is not for us to determine;-to attempt it, would only be like gleaning the fame field after him. So far as we are judges of the matter, he reaps little from any man's land but his own; and the fheaves which he binds up, are not lefs pleafing; nor, perhaps, lefs profitable, because he has generally gone on one fide of almost every other perfon. It is, however, our duty to remark that it is rather "an hard thing" to admit, because Mofes tells us the fons of Javan were Elifhah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim," that he had, therefore, heard of the city of Tarteffus in Spain. That, because he mentions tin and lead +, which are the produce of Britain only, the navigations of the Phoenicians must have extended to these islands before his

• Pliny, Nat. Hift. lib. ii. c. 75. & lib. iv. c. 16. + Numbers, ch. xxxi. v. 22.

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time;