to believe, that the following boast of his exploits, from the age of seventeen to twenty-one, was made by the young Abbé himfelf. During five years (be faid), that fix husbands, from jealousy on his account, had blown out their brains, and eighteen lovers had perished in duels for ladies who were his mistreffes. Ten wives, deferted by him, had retired in defpair to convents. Twelve unmarried ladies, from doubt of his fidelity or conftancy, had either broken their hearts, or poisoned themselves in desperation. All thefe were perfons of haut ton ; and in their number he did not therefore include the hundreds of the Bourgeoifie at the Grifets, or of chambermaids, who, forsaken by him, fought confolation from an halter, or in the river Seine. He had, befides, during the fame fhort period, made twenty-four husbands happy fathers, and forty maids folitary and miserable mothers!' p. 19 Whoever would have more of this, may go to the book itself; and delight themselves with staring at this moft wonderful and peftilential dragon, and with learning alfo, very profoundly, the manners and customs of the French nation. They may think it a new view also of the pious character of Louis XVI., that he conferred on this public devouring monster the bishopric of Autun. Surely the compiler, if he is honeft in his profefsions, must have utterly loft his understanding, when he believed that he was ferving the cause of the old government, by this flagitious fatire of a court, where the greatest enormities led to the highest honours. But it is foolish to be serious on fuch an occafion. The ignorant libellift makes him Bishop of Autun several years before his advancement to that dignity. He was not promoted till the end of the year 1788 or 1789; and during the time that he is placed in exile at Thoulouse or Autun, for crimes that would have deserved the scaffold, the Abbé de Perigord was actually difcharging with great reputation one of the most eminent functions in the church, that of Agent du Clergé de France. The Revolutionary Plutarch knows nothing of this fact, which is enough to anfwer a whole volume of calumnies. It was in this diftinguished fituation that he addreffed to the clergy his famous difcours fur les loteries, which first announced his talents to the world, and opened to him, under the patronage of Louis XVI., the first dignities of the church. We have the fame ignorance and absurdities, in what is said of the tranfactions of the National Affembly. In order to give Talleyrand a participation in every crime, he is made a confidential affociate in all the different parties. He is represented as the friend * We do not stop to inquire, which of the two languages it is that the compiler does not understand. friend of the King and Mirabeau, of Necker and Sieyes, of Barnave and Marat, of Danton, Petion and Robespierre, and always contriving and conducting all the oppofite intrigues. This, to be fure, is mere raving. The only thing omitted is, the whole real labours of the Bishop of Autun in the National Affembly, and its committees. We hear not a word of his report on the uniformity of weights and measures, his work on public education, &c. Nor is any notice taken of the time when he was member of the Department of Paris, and undertook the defence of the perfecuted clergy; or of the addrefs which he composed for the Department upon that unpopular topic, which was fo much admired for its eloquence and force of reafoning. The account of Talleyrand's refidence in England shews still the fame mifreprefentation and total ignorance of facts. For inftance, he is described as bringing from France fifty thousand pounds Sterling at leaft; whereas we recollect very well, that he was actually forced to fupply himself by felling his library. But there would be no end of expofing in detail this compiler's violations of veracity and probability. He has adopted, to be fure, a moft effectual method for the compofition of true memoirs. He has brought together every calumny he could find, in all the obfcene and fanguinary libels that were printed during the worst licenfe of the Revolution. English readers can form no conception of the atrocity of such publications, by any thing that they fee in their own language, except when fhameless venality makes a trial, like the prefent, how much our public tafte is grofs enough to bear. This compiler fomewhere pretends to have had accefs to original information; and yet, upon every occafion, we find him reforting to extracts from fuch works as thefe, the titles of which, one should think, are quite enough to give the lie to their contents: La Nouvelle Chronique Scandaleufe; Le Diable Boiteux Revolu tionaire; La Vie Laique et Ecclefiaftique du Monfeigneur l'Evêque d'Autun; Les Miracles Carnales de St Charles Evêque d'Autun, printed in 1792 at the Palais-Royal; La Politique d'un indigne Perigord; Les Candidats de la Potence; La Correspondance d'infames Emigrés, and other fuch notable materials for genuine hiftory. From the laft, in particular, he favours us with long letters of Talleyrand himself, and of Madame de Flahault, full of political and amorous confidences; in which a Bishop and Statefman, famed over Europe for his wit and his difcretion, and a lady, diftinguifhed in the modern literature of France, are reprefented as correfponding with each other in a tyle of the utmoft vulgarity and imbecility. But we have faid more of this book than was necessary. It is not not likely to find readers ignorant and credulous enough to be fo imposed on. If the political memoirs of the prefent Foreign Minister of France are ever difclofed, we fhall receive amusement, not much real inftruction, in tracing the viciffitudes of a life, fo intriguing and eventful. They must come to us, however, from his own hand, or from those who have stood very near him. His is far from being a character, about which we feel much curiofity; he has disappointed the hopes that he once infpired, of playing a great part; and, with talents to have done his country eminent fervice, he is content to be a sharer in its oppreffion and plunder, without even meriting the fame of hazardous ambition. But whatever his conduct may have been, it is to us a fubject of calm condemnation, not of perfonal refentment, or impotent revenge. And all English readers owe it to the purity of their own manners, and to the rectitude of their understanding, to reject such libels as the prefent; which are fabricated for the profits of a moral proftitution, by offering an indulgence to the bafeft paffions. ART. XI. Travels to the Weftward of the Allegany Mountains, in the States of the Ohio, Kentucky, and Teneffee. By F. A. Michaux, M. D. Member of the Society of Natural History of Paris, &c. London: 1805. PP. 350. 8vo. THER HERE are, according to Volney, * three great natural divifions of the territory of the United States of America: the first, lies between the Atlantic and the Apalachian or Allegany Mountains; the fecond, is that district which is covered by thefe mountains; and the third, lies beyond them to the weft, and now extends, by the ceffion of Louifiana, to the frontiers of Mexico. That portion of this vaft territory, which lies between the Mountains and the Miflifippi, contains the newly erected States of the Ohio, Kentucky, and Teneffee; and is commonly called the Western or Back Country in America. Till lately, this region has been the subject only of vague and fabulous accounts, derived from ignorant or interested landjobbers; and, even now, it is but imperfectly known. This is eally accounted for, when we confider its recent occupation, its great extent, and the uninviting afpect which it prefents to travellers. Here are no champaign districts, or elegant cities; nothing meets the eye but * View of the Climate and Soil of the United States. but the dusky fhades of interminable forefts, where filence feems to have established her reign, and where the lonely traveller must hold his irkfome way, amid perils and privations, without the hope of any brilliant discovery to reward his toils, and embellish the narrative of his adventures. Notwithstanding all these obstacles and difadvantages, the author of the book before us was induced to undertake a journey through this remote country, principally to make obfervations upon the vegetable productions which are to be found there. But, although natural history was his chief object, he does not confine himself to his hortus ficcus; his obfervations take a wider range, and enable us to form fome opinion regarding the progrefs which thefe ftates have made in agriculture, commerce, and population. It muft, however, be confeffed, that he treats thefe fubjects in an unconnected and defultory manner; and that the information which he communicates is, in many respects, fcanty and inadequate. But, as his narrative was not originally intended for publication, and as he was limited to a very fhort space of time for the performance of his arduous journey, it would be unfair, perhaps, to blame him for deficiencies which, in his cafe, were in fome measure unavoidable. We are, indeed, upon the whole, more inclined to praise than to cenfure M. Michaux. He is not one of thofe travellers who, to use Bacon's phrafe, when they go abroad, go hooded,' and fee nothing; for he feems to have made every inquiry that his time permitted: and, befides, it is feldom that we meet with a writer of his country fo free from every kind of trifling, romancing, and affectation. His book has no pretenfions to philofophy, but it is plain, fenfible, and inftructive. They, however, who read travels only for the fake of the marvels they contain, will find very little amufement in it; for the author is very deficient in wonderful ftories, having neither feen mammoths, fought with cannibals, nor intrigued with Indian princeffes. The expedition, we are informed, was undertaken under the aufpices of M. Chaptal, Minifter of the Interior. Our traveller failed from Bourdeaux, and arrived at Charlestown in South Carolina in October 1801. This city is the feat of an active commerce between the northern and the fouthern ftates; it contains nearly twenty thousand inhabitants; and it is curious to learn that, in this land of liberty, upwards of nine thousand of this number are flaves. Before fetting out upon his weftern expedition, Dr Michaux made a confiderable stay at this place, as well as at New York and Philadelphia. The population of the former is reckoned at fifty thousand; that of Philadelphia, the largest, handsomest, and moft populous city of North Ame rica, is estimated at feventy thoufand. Upon the 27th of June 1802, our traveller fet out from this city to cross the Alleganies, having before him a journey of near two thousand miles, to be accomplished by the following October. From Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, the northern entrance into the western states, the distance is three hundred miles, and the road lies through a country whofe hilly furface, covered with dark forefts, gives it the appearance of an agitated fea. There are, however, intermediate spots of rich and cultivated foil, yielding crops of wheat, oats, and rye. Beyond Shippensburgh, which is one hundred and forty miles from Philadelphia, there is no public conveyance upon this road; but, as the Americans are always thirsty, there is no want of inns, which are frequently kept by captains, colonels, and other military dignitaries, with the appropriate fignof a General Washington. The breakfasts at these inns are, we find, much in that ftyle which Dr Johnson, when in Scotland, fo highly approved; fried ham and eggs, with a broiled fowl, being generally ferved up with the tea and coffee. Upon our traveller's arrival at Bedford, a town near the foot of the Allegany ridge, he found all the inhabitants of the country engaged in a high feftival, to commemorate, not a victory over the royalists, but the repeal of the duty upon whisky; and, upon this memorable occafion, every independent American thought it a civic duty to get exceedingly drunk. We find the German colonists are the most fober and induftrious people in this part of America. • With them,' fays our author, every thing announces that comfort which is the reward of affiduity and labour. They affist each other. in their harvefts, they intermarry with each other, and preferve as much as poffible the manners of their European ancestors. They live much better than the American descendants of the English, Scotch, and Irish. They are not fo much addicted to fpirituous liquors, and have not, like them, that unfteady difpofition which frequently, from the most trifling cause, induces them to emigrate feveral hundred miles in the hope of finding fome more fertile territory.' p. 64. Pittsburgh, the key of the western country, is a thriving commercial town: it ftands at the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegany rivers, which there unite to form the Ohio. This magnificent river falls into the Miffifippi eleven hundred miles below Pittsburgh, and nearly as many from New Orleans, where the Miffifippi discharges itself into the Gulf of Mexico. In the fpring and autumn, this river is navigable by veffels of 300 tons all the way from Pittsburgh; and from Limestone, four hundred and twenty-five miles farther down, it is navigable the whole year. In the fpring, the current is extremely rapid; the boats, therefore, with which it is then navigated, are |