his own poffeffion; they manifeft erudition, ingenuity, and li berality. He pronounces them both to be fpurious. The firft forged by the monks to obtain advantages in the reign of William I. and the fecond having a like intention. Thefe difquifitions are worthy of notice: but we can only add a few words by which the laft of thefe effays is concluded:- Your charter (he fays to R. Auften, Efq.) is a curious monument of the ignorance, as well as of the art and knavery, of those who were the fabricators. These remarks may alfo caution antiquaries against having too much veneration for charters, or. other documents which appear to be ancient, without inquiring into their authenticity.'

Here, for the prefent, we take leave of this volume:-engravings, as ufual, accompany fome of these articles, among which are a number of fonts.

[To be continued.]

H.

ART. XI. Selea Views of the Life, Reign, and Character of Frederick the Great, King of Pruffia, containing, befides many profound Remarks on the prominent Features of the Reign of that unrivalled Sovereign, ferving to illuftrate his pofthumous Works, two very remarkable Letters of the Empress of Ruffia to the Author; a great Variety of Anecdotes, relating to eminent political and literary Characters of Great Britain, and other Countries; and alfo an authentic Expofition of the Origin and true Caufes of the British Alliance with Pruffia, &c. &c. Tranflated from the German of Dr. De Zimmerman, first Physician to his Britannic Majefty at Hanover, Knight of the Ruffian Order of Wlodimir, &c. By Major Neuman, of the Naffau Guards. 12mo. 2 Vols. pp. 270 in each. 6s. fewed. Hookham. 1792. THIS work is Dr. Zimmerman's German antidote to the

poifon diftilled by the late M. De Mirabeau in his Pruffian Monarchy, and his Secret Hiftory of the Court of Berlin.~ In 1788, the Doctor published a treatife on Frederick the Great, which went through four editions. The prefent is an enlargement of that work into an ample vindication of the late great King of Pruffia from the afperfions of his flanderers. It was written, we are told by the tranflator, in compliance with the wifh, and with the affiftance, of Baron Horft, Frederick's confidential friend, and of the Count DejHertzberg, his famous minifter of ftate. The original was publifhed in 1791 at Leipfic, in three volumes fmall octavo: but the third volume contained Frederick's converfations with the Doctor during his laft illness; which have already appeared in English; and many chapters were fwelled by altercations with German literati, which are totally uninterefting to the English reader. Major

Neuman

Neuman has omitted this fuperfluous matter, and reduced the work within the compafs of two duodecimos.

In this performance, of which the contents are exremely miscellaneous, Dr. Zimmerman continues, not "vitam, fed famam, impendere vero;" relating, with equal indifference, "dicenda tacendaque ;" and, with the greatest ftoical pretenfions to Helvetic liberty, complimenting moft of the great perfonages who fall in his way. Of the grandees of this country, indeed, he speaks not very refpectfully, but rather endeavours to cover them with reproach or ridicule; knowing, probably, that it is not their custom to write complimentary letters, and fend gold fnuff-boxes, &c. to authors :-witnefs the following anecdote, which pretends to account, by a very frivolous circumstance, for the differences between England and Pruffia toward the end of the war of seven years:

The Pruffian refident at Venice had engaged Madame de Barberini for the opera at Berlin, at feven thousand dollars a year. A contract in due form was drawn up between her and the refident. At the time that this was done, the had quarrelled with her lover, a Scotchman of the name of Mackenzie. The two lovers were reconciled, and Madam Barberini did not choose to fulfil her engagement. The king bid his refident fue her before the fenate of Venice. The fenate laughed, and refufed juftice. About that time, the baggage of a Venetian ambaffador to the British court, Signor Campello, was paffing the Pruffian dominions, in its way from Hambrough to London. The king gave orders to arreft it, and to declare at Venice, that nothing of this baggage fhould be given up, before Madam Barberini were furrendered to him. Campello had many near relations in the fenate; and this candid and enlightened court of justice, found now, that the king was perfectly in the right. The fair dancer, duly escorted, was fent by the fenate of Venice to the confines of Auftria; and thence by the courts of Vienna and Drefden, to the borders of Brandenbourg. Mr. Mackenzie followed her every where, but, on the defire of his family, was obliged to leave Berlin, and to return to England. Madam Barberini foon forgot him; for fhe pleafed the king, and her pay was increafed to twelve thoufand dollars. She married afterwards a fon of the high-chancellor Cocceji, now prefident of the regency at Glogau, and is fill living. Mackenzie, as easily may be conceived, bore an inveterate fpite to Frederick, and being a near relation and intimate friend of Lord Bute, infpired him likewife with his implacable hate. It is well known from Frederick's hiftory of the war of feven years, how, towards the end of this war, Bute treated the reviving hero. The refufal of a fair dancer to a favourite of this Lord, had, of courfe, the fame influence upon the conclufion of that war, as a pair of gloves, refufed by the duchess of Marlborough, on the end of that for the Spanish fucceffion.'

The anecdote-writer might have ftrengthened the probability of his story, had he known that the Mackenzie here mentioned.

is the brother of the late Earl of Bute, and a man whom, whatever may have been the follies of his youth, muft ever be named with praife. The following anecdote is of a piece with the former:

⚫ Stormont endeavoured, through the whole of his administration, to increase the variance between Great Britain and Pruffia. He was of opinion, that, notwithstanding the family treaty, concluded by the Bourbon courts, England fhould renew her old connexion with Auftria; and this opinion was no less a political blunder, than the war with Holland, which originated with him.

Frederick would often relate, fmilingly, how, in Saxony, he became acquainted with his great enemy, Lord Stormont. At the beginning of the feven years war, Stormont was British ambassador to the court of Drefden.-Frederick had juft, near Pirna, inclosed the Saxon army, and Lord Stormont had married a Saxon lady. At firft, by way of letter, Stormont intreated the king to let the whole Saxon army escape; and, as Frederick did not choose to comply with this demand, the Lord went himself to him in his camp, and tried, in an elegant speech, to perfuade the king, that it was highly his intereft, to compound with Auftria and Saxony as foon as poffible.

This elegant Speech of an English ambaffador was directly adverfe to the intereft of England. Sir Andrew Mitchel was prefent. The king, without giving any anfwer to the orator, contented himfelf with looking at Mitchel, who was not fo forbearing as Frederick. He took Stormont to the window, rebuked him feverely, threatened, and then returned to the king, to whom he whispered fomething, the purport of which I know, but keep to myfelf. All this, and what Mitchel whispered to the king, I learnt from Baron Horft, who had it from Frederick himself.

But, notwithstanding this ftrange conduct of the noble lord, he was afterwards made minister of Great Britain. Had he had power and influence enough to maintain himself in this place, Britain would never have been united with Prufia, becaufe Frederick could not oblige Lady Stormont, with letting the whole Saxon army escape. King George the Third, of his own accord, and uninfluenced by any English minifter, founded afterwards, and effected that wife and happy union with Pruffia, in agitation between these two courts, fince the commencement of that negociation which brought about the league of the German princes. Frederick, at that time, with friendly confidence, applied to George the Third, and this monarch acceded to that league, with all the fincerity of his fair and candid mind.'

The English reader is here informed of two things which he did not know before, that Lord Stormont was made Minifter of Great Britain, and that George III., of his own accord, and uninfluenced by any English minifter, effected the wife and happy union with Pruffia. Dr. Zimmerman, or even Dr. De Zimmerman, who ftrains our confidence in his veracity as

a gentle

a gentleman, by relating many extraordinary and unknown events, should have taken care not to entirely deftroy that confidence. by erring egregioufly as to things univerfally known. He pretends to correct accounts of other writers refpecting the quarrel between the King of Pruffia and Voltaire, yet is totally mistaken as to the year in which Voltaire's Commentary on his own life and writings was publifhed; though that is the principal piece, now extant, concerning that affair, once fo important to the idle world.

Of the letters announced in the title-page from the Emprefs of Ruffia to the author, the first is curious; the fecond is merely an invective against the then French minifter, Choiseul. In the firft, (dated June, 1789,) the philanthropic and peaceful Catherine speaks as follows:

"I am forry that my cotemporaries dread me. It was never my intention to terrify any one. It has always been my with to be beloved and respected as much as I deferve, and no more. I always thought they flandered me, because they did not know me. I have feen many people endowed with much greater faculties than mine, but never did envy or hate any human being. 'Twas my defire, and my pleasure would have been to make others happy. However, as no man can be fo, but in his own way, I often met with oppofi tion, I could hardly understand. My ambition certainly was never of a wicked kind. Perhaps, fometimes, I undertook too much for this only reason; that I fancied mankind much more reasonable, more inclined to justice, and more fufceptible of happiness, than they really are. Almost every man has a caft of dulnefs and iniquity, that makes him never happy. Did man better liften to the dictates of reason and juftice, they would have no occafion for us or others upon thrones. I was always fond of philofophy, and my mind has ever been altogether republican. This my innate love and regard for liberty, to be fare, forms a ftrange contraft with my boundles power; but no one in all Ruffia, can ever pretend to fay that f abufe it. I care but very little for my own writings, yet have amufed myself with feveral effays, without fetting any great value upon them, after the pleafure I feel in their compofition is paffed away. The whole of my political conduct has ever confifted in endeavours to execute fuch plans, as feemed to me the most advantageous to my country, and the leaft hurtful to others. I should have purfued better fchemes, had I known them. Europe had no reafon to be uneasy about my enterprizes. She might have been a gainer by every one of them. Very often I have been paid with ingratitude, but never forgot what was due from me to others. Not unfrequently, have I taken no other revenge, but to forgive my enemies and do them good. I always was a friend of human kind, and never fhall cease to be fo."

Dr. Z. thinks this letter the true portrait of the mind of that • matchless princess, whofe exalted character is fo often mifunderstood. His credulity, on this occafion, fhews him to

be

be a proper inftrument for the purposes of greatness, and a fit trumpeter of the fame of princes; because he is the best qualified for circulating extraordinary anecdotes, who is himself moft fufceptible of full conviction as to their veracity.

In Dr. Z.'s Select Views, we find nothing that throws new light on the character of the great Frederick, nor on any important tranfaction of his reign. Of the tranflation, the reader may judge by the above fpecimens. Though neither elegant. nor accurate in point of style, it is, in general, fufficiently perfpicuous, and the work will be read with pleasure by those who are fond of anecdotes.

Gil.

ART. XII. An Hiftorical Sketch of the French Revolution, from its Commencement to the Year 1792. 8vo. pp. 560. 75. Boards. Debrett. 1792.

T

o compofe a faithful and impartial narrative of events fo recent, and at the fame time fo interefting, as those of the French Revolution, is a task approaching to impoffibility. The author of this Hiftorical Sketch,' writes under what will be called an ariftocratical bias, fince he openly acknowleges that

he heartily efpoufes the greatest part of Mr. Burke's fentiments, although fome of them are carried a little too far.' Viewing the wonderful changes, which have taken place in Gallic politics, through the medium of these principles, he records the proceedings of the popular party with cenfure, and attributes the violences and atrocities that have happened, to caufes to which, we think, they are not altogether affignable; for it is to be confidered that a revolution, especially fuch an one as France has experienced, implies much pre-exiftent evil; and it feems but fair, when we are narrating the cruelties which darken the dawn of liberty, to attribute them, in part, to this pre-exiftent caufe, and to the refentment which the recollection of long-endured injuries will excite. The extreme fury which the French manifefted on bursting their chains, proceeded, no doubt, in fome meafure, from the cruelty and oppreffions of their former government.

We offer thefe remarks, not with a view of palliating the enormities which this hiftory recounts, for we read them, and with our countrymen to read them, with horror, but in order to bar an inference which fome are apt to draw, that the principles of liberty tend to make men fanguinary and ferocious. Though, unfortunately, the birth of freedom, in a country long oppreffed by defpotifm, is almoft of neceflity accompanied with fome convulfive pangs, it would not hence be fair to conclude that no people ought to think of breaking their fetters,

and