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the same.

Character of Cardinal Fleury. From Character of Maria Theresa. From Coxe's History of the House of Austria, Just published.

"FRANCE, at this period, had attained an enormous preponderancy among the powers of Europe, not only from a dread of her strength and resources, but from the character and system of the prime minister. "Cardinal Fleury was in the 84th year of his age; he was of a circunspect and cautious temper, and pos. sessed the art of winning mankind by an unaffected air of candour and simplicity. His great prudence and sagacity enabled him to distinguish the precise bounds to which he could push his intrigues, and to conceal his designs under the semblance of moderation; his progress was, therefore, more dangerous, as it was silent and unobserved. From temper and principle he was anxious to maintain his country in peace; but, as his great aim was to remove every obstraction to the asendency of France, he directed all his efforts to divide, though he avoided provoking, the other pow'ers of Europe,

"In the pursuit of his plan, he had imperceptibly brought the Emperor to an entire dependence on France, and had more reduced the house of Austria by his intrigues, than his predecessors by the sword. Although France had guaranteed the Pragmatic Sanction, yet he looked forward to the prospect of dividing the Austrian dominions between the two Archduchesses; and thus hoped to diminish the weight of a power which had hitherto been the rival, and might again become the enemy, of the house of Bourbon. With this view he filled all the courts of Europe with his intrigues, and endeavoured to isolate the house of Austria, by uniting her enemies, and paralising the efforts of her friends."

"Maria Theresa had not completed her twenty-fourth year, when, in virtue of the Pragmatic Sauction, she succeeded to all the dominion of the house of Austria. Her person was formed to wear a crown, and her mind to give lustre to her exalted dignity; she possessed a commanding figure, great beauty, animation, and sweetness of countenance, pleasing tone of voice, facinating manners: and united feminine grace with a strength of understanding, and an intrepidity above her sex. During her father's illness, the young princess was exposed to great danger in consequence of her advancing pregnancy; but sufficiently recovered her spirits the day after his death, to give audience to his ministers of state and to assume the government"

"On surveying this deplorable state of affairs, the cause of Maria Theresa appeared wholly desperate; attacked by a formidable league, Vi. enna menaced with an instant siege, abandoned by all her allies, without treasure, without sufficient army, without able ministers, she seemed to have no other alternative than to receive the law from her most invetcrate enemies."

"Soon after her accession she had conciliated the Hungarians, by reviving, with the exception of the thirty first article, the celebrated decree of Andrew the second, which had been abolished by Leopold; and at her coronation had received from her grateful subjects, the warmest demonstrations of loyalty and affection.' Mr. Robinson, who was an eye-wit ness of this ceremony, has well described the impression made on the surrounding multitude. “The coronation on the 25th was leste magnificent, and well ordered. The Gg

*

Queen

Queen was all charın; she rode gal-
lantly up the Royal Mount, and
defied the four corners of the world
with a drawn sabre, in a manner to
shew she had no occasion for that
weapon to conquer ail who saw her.
The antiquated crown received new
graces from her head, and the old tat-
tered robe of St. Stephen became her
as well as her own rich habit, if dia-
monds, pearls, and all sorts of preci-
ous stones can be called cloaths."
"Illam quicquid agit quoquo vesti-
gia vertit,

Componit furtim, subsequiturque

decor."

"An air of delicacy, occasioned by her recent confinement, increased the personal attractions of this beautiful princess; but when she sat down to dine in public, she appeared still more engaging without her crown; the heat of the weather, and the fatigues of the ceremony, diffused an animated glow over her countenance; while her beautiful hair flowed over her shoulders and bosom. These at tractions, and the firmness of her mind, kindled the zeal and enthusiasm of that brave and high-spirited people, and to them she turned as to her principal recourse. The greyheaded politicians of the court of Vienna in vain urged, that the Hungarians, who, when Charles first proposed the Pragmatic Sanction, had declared they were accustomed to be governed by men, and would not consent to a female succession, would seize this opportunity of withdraw ing from the Austrian domination. But Maria Theresa formed a different judgnient, and her opinion was

"Near Presburgh is a barrow or tumulus, called the Royal Mount, which the new Sovereign ascends on horseback, and waves à drawn sword towards the four cardinal points."

justified by the event. She felt that a people ardent for liberty, and distinguished by elevation of soul and energy of character, indignantly reject the inandates of a powerful despot, but would shed their blood in support of a defenceless queen, who, under the pressure of misfortune, appealed to them for succour.

"Having summoned the States of the Diet to the castle, she entered the hall, in which the members of the

respective orders were promiscuously assembled, clad in deep mourning, and habited in the Hungarian dress, with the crown of St. Stephen on her head, and the scymetar at her side, both objects of high veneration to the natives, who are devoted to the memory of their antient sovereigns. She traversed the apartment with a slow and majestic step, and ascended the tribune, from whence the sovereign is accustomed to harangue the states. After an awful silence of a few minutes, the chancellor detailed the distressed situation of their sovereign, and requested immediate assist

ance.

"Maria Theresa then came forward, and addressed the deputies in Latin, a language in common use among the Hungarians, and in which as if emulous, of antient Rome. they preserved the deliberations of diet and the records of the kingdom. "The disastrous situation of our affairs," she said, "has moved us to lay before our dear and faithful States of Hungary the recent invasion of Austria, the danger now impending over this kingdom, and a proposal for the consideration of a remedy. The very existence of the kingdom of Hungary, of our own person, of our chil dren, and our crown, are now at stake. Forsaken by all, we place cur sole resource in the fidelity, arms and long tried valour of the Hunga riaus ; exhorting you, the States and

Orders,

Orders, to deliberate without delay in this extreme danger, on the most effectual measures for the security of our person, of our children, of our crown, and to carry them into im. mediate execution. In regard to ourself, the faithful States and Orders of Hungary, shall experience out hearty co-operation in all things, which may promote the pristine happiness of this antient kingdom and the honour of the people."

"The youth, beauty, and extreme distress of Maria Theresa, who was then pregnant, made an instantaneous impression on the whole assembly. All the deputies drew their sabres half out of the scabbard, and then throwing them back as far as the hilt, exclaimed, "We will consecrate our lives and arms; we will die for our queen, Maria Theresa !" Af fected with this effusion of zeal and loyalty, the Queen, who had hither to preserved a calm and dignified deportment, burst into tears of joy and gratitude; the members of the States, roused almost to frenzy by this proof of her sensibility, testified, by their gestures and acclamations, the most heartfelt admiration, and, repairing to the diet, voted a literal supply of men and money."

In a note Mr. Coxe gives the original Latin speech, which he transcribed from the Archives of Hungary.

Letters from England, by Don Ma.

nuel Alvarez Espriella.

ON WATERING PLACES.

"The English migrate as regularly as rooks. Home-sickness is a disease which has no existence in a certain state of civilization or of luxury, and instead of it these islanders are subject to periodical fits of what I shall

beg leave to call oikophobia, a disor der with which physicians are perfectly well acquainted, though it may not yet have been catalogued in the nomenclature of nosology.

"In old times, that is to say, two generations ago, mineral springs were the only places of resort. Now the Nereids have as many votaries as the Naiads, and the tribes of wealth and fashion swarm down to the sea coast as punctually as the land crabs in the West Indies march the same way. These people, who have unquestionably the best houses of any people in Europe, and more conveniencies about to render home comfortable, crowd themselves into the narrow apartments and dark streets of a little country town, just at that time of the year when in stinct seems to make us, like the lark, desirous of as much sky-room as possible. The price they pay for these lodgings is exorbi taut; the more sxpensive the place, the more numerous are the visitors; for the pride of wealth is as ostentatious in this country as ever the pride of birth has been elsewhere. In their haunts, however these visitors are capricious; they frequent a coast some seasons in succession, like herrings, and then desert it for some other, with as little apparent motive as the fish have for varying their track. It is fashion which influences them not the beauty of the place, not the desireableness of the accomodations, not the convenience of the shore for

their ostensible purpose, bathing. Wherever one of the queen bees of fashion alights, a whole swarm follows her. They go into the country for the sake of seeing company, not for retirentent; and in all this there is more reason than you perhaps have yet imagined.

"The fact is, that in these heretical countries parents have but one way of disposing of their daughters,

and

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mon and uninstructed eye shall immediately perceive it; and nothing seems so likely to effect this as a plan which they are said to have rejected, -that in every bill there should be two engravings, the one in copper, the other in wood, each executed by the be-t artist in their respective branch. It is obvious that few persons would be able to imitate either, and highly improbable that any sin

and in that way it becomes less and less easy to dispose of them every year, because the modes of living become continually more expensive, the number of adventurers in every profession yearly increases, and of course every adventurer's chance of success is proportionately diminished. They who have daughters take them to these public places to look for husbands; and there is no indelicacy in this, because others who have nogle one could execute both, or that such motive for frequenting them go likewise in consequence of the fashion, or of habits which they have acquired in their younger days. This is so general, that health has almost ceased to be the pretext. Physicians, indeed, still send those who have more complaints than they can cure, or so few that they can di cover none to some of the fashionable spas, which are supposed to be medicinal because they are nauseous; they still send the paralytic to find relief at Bath or to look for it, and the con. sumptive to die at the Hotwells; yet even to these places more persons go in quest of pleasure than of relief, and the parades and pump-rooms there exhibit something more like the Dance of Death than has ever perhaps been represented elsewhere in

real life."

ON THE BANK.

(6 Surely, it is the duty of the Bank Directors to render the commission of forgery as difficult as possible. This is not effected by adopting pri. vate marks in their bills, which as they are meant to be private, can never enable the public to be upon their guard. Such means may render it impossible that a false bill shall pass undiscovered at the Bank, but do not in the slightest degree impede its circulation. What is required is something so obvious that a com

two persons sufficiently skilful should combine together. As it now is, the engraving is such as may be copied by the clumsiest apprentice to the trade. The additional expence which this plan would cost the Bank would be considerably less than what it now expends in hanging men for an offence, which could not be so frequent if it was not so easy. The Bank Directors say the Paternoster in their own language, but they seem to forget that one of the petitions which He who best knew the beart of man enjoined us to make is, that we may not be led into temptation."

ON LONDON.

"It was a sight that awed me and made me melancholy. I was looking down upon the habitations of a million of human beings; upon the single spot whereon were crowded together more wealth, more splendor, more ingenuity, more worldly wis dom, and alas! more worldly blindness, poverty, depravity, dishonesty and wretchedness, than upon any other spot in the whole habitable earth."

ON BIRMINGHAM.

I cannot pretend to say, what is the consumption here of the two-legged beasts of labour; commerce sends in no return of its killed and wounded. Neither can I say that the people

look

look sickly, having seen no other complexion in the place than what is composed of oil and dust smokedried. Every man whom I meet stinks of train oil and emery. Some I have seen with red eyes and green hair; the eyes affected by the fires to which they are exposed, and the hair turned green by the brass works. You would not, however, discover any other resemblance to a Triton in them, for water is an element with the use of which, except to supply s'eam engines, they seem to be unacquainted.

The noise of Birmingham is beyond description; the hammers seem never to be at rest. The filth is sickening filthy as some of our own old to vns may be, their dirt is inoffensive; it lies in idle heaps, which annoy none but those who walk within the little reach of their effluvia. But here it is active and moving, a living principle of mischief, which fills the whole atmosphere and penetrates every where, spotting and staining every thing, and getting into the pores and nostrils. I feel as if my throat wanted sweeping like an English chimney. Think not, however, that I am insensible to the wonders of the place in no other age or country was there ever 30 astonishing a display of human in. genuity but watch-chains, neck. laces, and bracelets, buttons, buckles, and snuff boxes, are dearly purchased at the expense of health and morality; and if it be considered how large a proportion of that ingenuity is employed in making what is hurtful as well as what is useless, it must be confessed that human reason has more cause at present for humiliation than for triumph at Birmingham."

Anecdote of General Putnam. IN the American war, a British officer was found lying on the ground, and desperately wounded. General

Putnam ran to him from the head of his detachment; but, having no carriage with them, his men were at a loss in what manner to convey the officer to a distant village. The general perceived their difficulties; and, taking a hatenet from one of them, cut down some branches of trees, and in an instant se' himself to work, and made an excellent litter, on which the poor officer was supported as easily as bis case would admit. Now,' said the general to one of his men, I rejoice more in baving been bred a carpenter than if I had been born a prince.'

Mathematical Question. Question about nothing, which no bodu can comprehend, but those Mathemaricians, who see furthest into a Mill-Stone.

NOTHING divided by nothing, is equal to one nothing in the power of nothing is equal to one; so say very great, and deep, and learned, mathematicians. If thes propositions are true, then 1°=2° =3°=4°=5°=6°=7°=8°=y°. Take the nothing root on each side of these equations. Then 1

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therefore 1'=2'=31 4'5'6'=7'=81=91. That is 1=2=3=4=5=6=== 8=).

That is, all numbers are equal. The sublime mathematicians are requested to point out the fallacy, if there is any, in the above mode of reasoning; and thence to determine, that the principles laid down about nothing are true: but if there is no fallacy in the above reasoning, then from the eviden nonsense of the conclusion, it is certain, that the three propositions on the division of nothing by nothing, nothing in the power of nothing, and a number in the power of nothing, are all wonsense.

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