The memoirs are here carried down to the year 1748, and are diftributed into feven books, which contain an account of the intrigues and vices of the principal perfons who compofed the court of the most chriflian monarchs, from the time of Madame de Montefpan's dugrace to the peace of Aix la Chapelle. Moft of the characters reprefented are fo bad, that one would imagine virtue had been banished from the court by a royal edict, and that none of either fex were admitted to favour, except fuch as had loft all fenfe of fhame as well as of honour. The complacency with which M. DE MAUREPAS feems to dwell on the infamous conduct and private vices of many of thefe perfons, gives us no very high opinion of the delicacy of his moral fenfe.

Among the many difgufting facts which are here related, are fome which difplay, in a very striking view, the folly, as well as the vices, of thofe on whom mankind, dazzled by the fplendour that furrounds them, have beftowed the title of GREAT. M. de Chamillart, who was made minifter of finance in 1699, owed his promotion to the circumftance of his being the only man that cou'd beat Lewis XIV. at billiards. This was indeed his fele merit; for, after having enjoyed this high ftation during fix years, he was difiniffed with a penfion of t0,000 livres, for having, by his rapacity as well as want of ability, brought the finances into the most ruinous fituation.

M. DE MAUREPAS tells us, that the celebrated Baffuet, while pursuing his ftudies at Paris, was privately married and had two fons, who died while infants; his wife afterward confented to his taking orders in the church, becaufe his father could not otherwife make any provifion for him: fhe lived in Paris; and when the bishop came up to the metropolis, he ufed to visit her twice in a week.

One of the moft decent anecdotes in the work, is hat of the Prince of Bourbon, grandfather to the Duke who was afterward prime minifter. He was hypochondriacal, and his diforder, though it did not prevent him from applying to business, efpecially when his intereft was concerned, infpired him with very frange fancies. At one time, he imagined himself traniformed into a hare, and would not fuffer any bell to be rung in his palace, as he faid the noise would drive him into the woods. At another time, he fancied himself a plant, and, as he flood in the garden, infiited on being watered. He fometime afterward took it into his head that he was dead, and obftinately re1ufed any nourishment, for which he faid he had no farther occation. This whim might have been fatal to him, if his attendants. had not contrived a method of perfuading him to eat, without contradicting his humour. For this purpofe, they diiguifed, in

a very mafterly manner, two perfons who were introduced to him, as his grandfather, and the deceafed Marshal Luxembourg. After converfing for fome time on the abode of the dead, and congratulating the prince on his becoming an inhabitant of it, they invited him to accompany them to Marshal Turenne, with whom they faid they were to dine. The Prince expreffed his furprife, but was perfuaded to follow them into a cellar fitted up on purpose, where he found the pretended Marshal, with whom he made a very hearty meal; and while this turn of his diforder prevailed, he always dined in his cellar, and constantly fancied himself invited by fome deceased nobleman.

The clergy of France were by no means exempt from the vices of the age; many of thofe who were advanced to the highest dignities of the church are known to have led the moft fcandalous lives, and to have died from the effects of their debaucheries. M. DE MAUREPAS has not omitted to display thefe worthless characters, and has related the intrigues of feveral other divines, whofe names were not fo well known in the annals of libertinifm. Even the celebrated Maffillon is accused of a very unfpiritual connection with the wife of the Marquis de l'Hôpital, the famous mathematician.

Not all the feverity, with which the French government punished fatirical reflections on the minifters and mistreffes of the king, could prevent the publication of a number of fongs and epigrams, in which even the royal family, as well as the principal perfons of the court, were held to ridicule. Many of thofe fquibs are inferted in thefe memoirs; fome of them were written by M. DE MAUREPAS, but most of them are a grofs mixture of obfcenity and profanenefs, and the Editors would have acted more judicioufly in fuppreffing than in publifhing them. The moft unexceptionable, and at the fame time the most witty, fatire on the times, was what was called le regiment de la calotte, the regiment of the coif. This inftitution commenced under the reign of Lewis XIV. when fome officers, after rallying one of their companions on the folly of his conduct, clapped a leaden coif on his head. In the course of their converfation, one of them propofed to form a regiment, confifting only of perfons remarkable for the fingularity of their conduct, for the depravity of their manners, or for the folly of their behaviour. In confequence, when any perfon about the court had diftinguished himfelf by any extrava gance of conduct, a brevet was fent to him, appointing him to fome office in this imaginary regiment. These brevets were generally in verfe, and defcribed the extraordinary merits of the perfon promoted. M. Aiman, who was the firft contriver of the fcheme, was ftyled the general; and as he was in high faAPP. REV. VOL. IX.

M m

vour

vour with the king, every one affected to be pleafed with the commiffions which he iffued, except the members of the French academy, who could not bear to fee their pedantry and affectation detected and expofed. This regiment flourished till the year 1744, when Madame De Pompadour, who had been offended by fome of its fatirical brevets, procured its fuppreffion: feveral of its commiffions are here inferted: but they are not of fufficient importance to merit the attention of our readers.

The editors of this work have thought fit to preserve several libels*, which were publifhed during the administration of Cardinal Fleury; and particularly a letter, fuppofed to be written by Cardinal Richelieu, to the Duke de Richelieu, and another by Lewis XIV. to his fucceffor, in which the Cardinal is treated with the utmoft contempt, and accused of facrificing the profperity of the kingdom and the welfare of the nation to his attachment to the Pope. This letter was burned by the common hangman but it is faid that the fentence was not obtained without bribing the members of the parliament of Paris. the end of the third volume, we find the caricature prints of Maintenon, Louvois, Boufflers, Boffuet, and other perfecutors of the proteftants, as they were publifhed by the French refugees in London.

The only political papers of any importance, to be found in this work, are a ftate of the commerce and navy of France, drawn up by M. DE MAUREPAS in 1730, addreffed to the king, and an account of the king's revenue and expences for the year 1726. In the former of thefe memoirs, the minister fhews that the annual fum of nine millions of livres, which was at that time allowed for the fupport of the navy, was by no means fufficient for the neceffary difbursements; and from the latter, it appears, that the king's income amounted to 583,255,873 livres, which, in time of peace, was fufficient for his expences: among these we find an article of 2,600,000 livres for extraordinary expences for prifoners in the Bastille, befide 200,000 livres for ftate prifoners.

The fourth volume, which the Editors ftyle valuable, on account of the curious anecdotes which it contains, is of a piece with the reft of the work, and only renders it more tedious. The whole confifts of minute details, that are either not worth knowing, or that have already been repeatedly related: and to

We mean not to invalidate thefe publications by giving them. the name of libels: under a defpotic government, truth is always deemed dangerous, and often feditious; even in a free country, fome judges have determined that a work is not lefs a libel for containing

truth.

make

make it ftill more infipid, the fame unimportant tale is fometimes told twice or thrice. In fhort, we never met with a work of a fimilar nature, which afforded lefs pleasure and lefs ufeful information: it ferved only to increafe the contempt and averfion which we have long entertained for the spirit and government of the late court of France.

On perufing the accounts here given of the theological quarrels, which fo long fubfifted in France, and of the mean intrigues and unworthy measures cnployed by the court of Rome to extend its influence and authority in the Gallican church, we cannot help juftifying the national affembly in confidering the nonjuring clergy as a fet of men too dangerous to be trufted with that influence, which is infeparable from their public functions as priests and bifhops. We fincerely pity thofe who, by fcruples of confcience, were with-held from fwearing allegiance to the conftitution: but our compaffion mult not make us lofe fight of the maxims, that every free government has a right to provide for its own fafety, and to demand the allegiance of all its fubjects; and that it may, without any injuftice, banish such as obitinately refufe to give fecurity for this allegiance, when, efpecially, at the fame time, the profefled principles of these recufants tend to the introduction of an authority foreign to that of the conftitution, and inconfiftent with the views on which it is founded; an authority, which hiftory proves to have been inimical to the liberty, peace, and happinefs of mankind, where ever it has prevailed. Had the decrees of the national affembly respecting the clergy and emigrants been properly moderated and firmly carried into execution, inftead of being totally rejected, it is probable that many of the horrid fcenes which blacken the hiftory of the prefent year would not have taken place.

Sow..n.

ART. VI. Anecdotes et Recueil, &c. i. e. Secret and interesting Anecdotes of the Court of Ruffia, together with Obfervations relative to the Cuftoms and Natural Hiftory of the several Nations of the Ruffian Empire. By a Traveller, who refided during thirteen Years in the Country. Small 8vo. 6 Vols. About 300 Pages in each. Paris. 1792.

WH

WHEN works of this kind are publifhed, it is natural to afk who is the author, and how came he by his intelligence? To the first part of this question, we can give no answer; and, as to the fecond, we can only inform our readers of what this writer afferts in his preface, that he had access to several memoirs and manufcripts not intended for the public eye, in confequence of his connections at the court of Petersburgh, and

in the city of Mofcow; which laft is the ufual refidence of those who are disgusted and out of favour with the miniftry. Among these acquaintances, he names the Counts Munich and Leftoc, the Princes Tfcherbatoff and Trubetzkci, and the Chamberlain Rfchefffky. With the particulars relative to natural hiftory, he was favoured by Profeffor Fischer, and other members of the academy. Such, he tells us, are his credentials, and we must leave the reader to judge concerning their authenticity.

This work might juftly have been entitled, A Book of Scraps; for the fix volumes, of which it confifts, are filled with ftories of various perfons, and accounts of the cuftoms and productions of different countries, thrown together without order or connection. In fhort, the contents could not have been more promifcuous, had the feveral anecdotes been fhaken together in a bag, and printed in the order in which they were drawn out. Notwithstanding this defect, the work is not unentertaining; many of the hiftorical anecdotes are highly interefting; and, as far as we can judge from the manner in which they are related, as well as in fome cafes from collateral evidence, the author feems to have had good information, and to have been a judicious obferver of men and things.

We find here many anecdotes concerning Peter I., whose character was a ftrange mixture of good and bad qualities; though it is but juftice to obferve, that many of the latter were excited by the obftinate brutality and ignorance of his fubjects, and by the peculiar circumftances of his life. He was exceedingly fevere, and zealous for the ftrict administration of justice. One day, when at Cronstadt, he happened to go on board of a man of war at the time when the crew were at dinner; as he always behaved with great affability to his failors, and encouraged their familiarity, he fat down with them, and, tafting their meat and peas, which were very bad, expreffed his furprize and indignation. He immediately examined the rest of the fhip's provifion; and finding that the whole was totally fpoiled, he ordered a fignal to be made for all the captains to repair on board the admiral's fhip. After briefly explaining to them the bufinefs on which they were fummoned, he fent for the commiffioners of the victualling-office, demanded a fight of their inftructions and contracts, and having convicted them of their fraudulent conduct, by examining the feveral casks in their prefence, he ordered the captains to try them before he left the hip. The commiffioners fell at his feet, endea vouring to excite his compaffion by an avowal of their crime, and by repeated promifes of amendment: but this only increased his refentment; and feven of them, being found guilty and condemned by the captains, were directly hanged.

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