. other affertions of that author, is much exaggerated. "There is a great number of vagabonds in Lisbon, for all idle people from the provinces come in torrents to the metropolis, and are permitted to live in the open town without impediment. Hence arife the immenfe number of beggars, who partly rove about, and partly remain in fixed places, crying out continually, and promifing to mention this or that perfon to Noffa Senhora in their prayers. A phyfician might here meet with an uncommon number of remarkable cutaneous diforders; I have often observed a true leprofy, and endeavoured by obfervations of this kind to render myfelf infenfible to the difguft they infpire. Thefe beggars receive a great deal in charity, through a mistaken fenfe of piety prevalent in Catholic countries. They alfo often practife artifices to obtain charity. I remember an old man who fell down before us through hunger, as he afterwards faid, and thus immediately obtained from my youthful companion a confiderable piece of gold; while I, fomewhat colder, remarked his theatrical performance, withheld my charity, examined into the affair, and found my fufpicions grounded. Another clafs of begging is that for fouls in purgatory. The religious fraternities, to whom it properly belongs to collect these alms, and to have maffes performed in a certain church for that purpose, farm out this employment to certain people, who poft themfelves in the neighbourhood of this church to beg, for which they generally pay eight milrees annually, and by this contract frequently gain one hundred milrces a-year. Every thing is done in Portugal pelo amor de Deos e pelas almas (for the love of God and of the fouls). The monafteries fend their fruit, ufually grapes, to be fold in the ftreets as it were by auction, in order to perform maffes for the money. They are cried about the streets as uvas pelas almas (grapes for the fouls); and when the price is afked, the afwer is generally confiderable. In the Calzada de Estrella fat a beggar, who always cried fnuff for the fouls. Snuff is a great article of neceflity for all ranks, for bo h fexes, for every old man, and in fhort for the whole nation. Nor is it difficult to obtain the partiality of any of the common clafs of people, if the traveller but offer him a pinch of good snuff. I faw a beggarwoman put fome fnuff to the nofe of her child who was ftill in arms. On a botanical excurfion near Lisbon I met a well-dreffed lady, who asked me for a pinch of fnuff, as fhe had lost her box; and when I told her that I never ufed one, the replied, with an expreffion of the most violent grief, Estou defefperada (I am quite in defpair). Nor can we blame Alphonfo IV. for giving the English foldiers, who had fought fo bravely for him at the battle of Ameixial, two pounds of tobacco each. The fmoking of tobacco is, however, very uncommon; nor are even cigarros, though fo customary in Spain, ufed by any but failors." P. 201. "Both the higher and lower claffes are very fond of a profufion of compliments, which flow in a torrent from every mouth. A common peafant meeting another takes off his hat quite low down, holds him a long while by the hand, inquires after his health and that of his family, and does not fail to add, I am at your commands, and your humble fervant (eftou a feus ordens, feu criado). This is not a remark taken from a fingle inftance, for I have heard it extremely often from afs-drivers, and others of fimilar claffes. The Portugueze language indeed, even in the mouths of the common people, has naturally fomething well-bred and elegant; nor do they ever ufe oaths and indecent expreffions, like the English, French, and Spanifh low execrations, though the loweft claffes indeed fometimes mention the devil. All the Portugueze are naturally talkative, and fometimes very insipid. The rich are faid to conceal a falfe heart beneath a profufion of polite expreflions. I have nothing to fay in defence of the higher claffes; they are as inferior to the Spaniards as the common people excel them. The want of fcience and tafte, which perhaps arifes from the total want of works of art in this country; a government which never had wifdom or opportunity to bring into action the nobler paffions of mankind, the conftant and oppreffive neighbourhood of the English, who juftly feel their fuperiority, and the total decay of literature, are, I conceive, the chief caufes why the Portugueze nobles are formed of werfe materials than any European nobility." P. 210. (To be continued.) SECT. I. Inquiries concerning the Alexandrian Column-Obfervations on Pompey's Pillar, by Edward Wortley Montague, Efq. (from the Philof. Tranf. vol. lvii. p. 438.)— Remarks on Ditto.-II. Opinions of Brotier, Father Sicard, De Maillet, Niebuhr.-III. Opinions of Michaelis, Browne, Savary, and Bishop Pococke.--IV. Temple of Serapis.-V. The Alexandrian Library- -The Opinions of Gibbon criticifed.-VI. Further Inquiry concerning the Alex. andrian Column.-Appendix, No. I. Notes.-II. Concerning the Site of the Serapeum-III. Further Particulars refpecting the Pillar-Additional Notes. EXTRACTS FROM THE PREFACE. "THAT magnificent Pillar, which is the chief subject of the following inquiry, may be ranked with the moft illuftrious remains of ancient art. It has excited the attention of the travel ler, employed the pen of the hiftorian, and exercised the skill of the antiquary: and all these have united in holding it forth to the notice and admiration of mankind. But while the object of curiofity is admitted to be interefting, the attempt to write after fo much has been written, may be deemed an idle prefumption: and the fceptical inquirer, who has in vain fought for fatisfactory information from thofe witnesses who have visited the spot, will perhaps difdain that which is offered him from the receffes of an univerfity. To ob viate fuch a prejudice (if any fuch fhould be entertained), let me here explicitly inform the reader, that in the enfuing pages he will fee no paradox advanced to contradict and perplex the concurrent testimony of ages; but he will find that the commonly received accounts have fome material defects to be supplied, and some grofs errors to be corrected, and that fuch corrections have been made, it is hoped, upon the authority of unexceptionable evidence." P. i. "In approaching this great object of curiofity, we enter upon a land of wonders; in its hiftory and fate diftinguished from all others, and suggesting matter of the most serious and awful reflection. For what country may compare with Egypt in early renown for power, and wealth, and fcience, when other nations were fed with the produce of her foil, and enriched with the treasures of her wisdom? Where works of art; which, no lefs in defign else can we behold fuch stupendous than in magnitude, seem almost to exceed the ability of human agents? And, laftly, where shall we find a degeneracy like that of the prefent race of Egyptians; or where an ancient inheritance of greatnefs and glory, which has been fo totally wafted and loft?" P. ii. late to raife this country from its de"But an attempt has been made of graded and fallen condition, to restore it to liberty and independence, and replace it in its station among the kingdoms of the earth. Or rather, let us fay, that, under the pretence of conferring these unfolicited benefits, a people, regardless of every principle of moral propriety, and every law of civi lized nations, has carried thither with. out provocation all the miseries and horrors of war. It is not improbable, that 'tion both political and civil.' that their hopes of fuccefs in this atro-than to effect in Afia a great revolucious and daring enterprise were en couraged by the reports of certain travellers of their own nation. Thefe men had gone through the land with the fentiments of robbers and fpies. They faw in its wealth an object of plunder, and in its weakness and divifions the opportunities of eafy acquifition. To minds occupied with fuch profpects, the face of a country would appear little interefting: the most intelligent of them looked with disgust on the fairest features of Egypt. Volney afcended the river from Rofetto to Cairo, and thus he defcribes the Delta: The fcenery of the country ' offers little variety. It has ftill a few palm-trees, which stand thinner as ⚫ you advance; villages built with mud • walls, and of a ruinous appearance; a boundless flat, which, according to the different seasons, is a frefn-water fea, a miry fen, a green carpet, or a 'dusty field; and on every fide a diftant horizon loaded with vapours.' But although the beauties of the country failed of making an impreffion, its various produce both of art and nature was viewed with eager and avaricious eyes; and the pillar of Alexandria was not omitted in the catalogue of premeditated plunder. "This is the key to open the fecret meaning of many of their obfervations. They not unfrequently enumerate all the articles of commerce, by which Egypt might become profitable to France. Its civil and military state is expofed; the expiring authority of the Porte; the fmall number of Mamelukes; their continual diffenfions and fends; the miferable state of their difcipline; and their ridiculous ignorance of the art of war. On the other hand are represented, in the ftrongest colours, the oppreffed condition of the people; their ftrength in labour, and fortitude in fuffering; and, above all, the probability of their taking arms against their oppreffors, whenever a favourable opportunity fhall offer. Now, if it should be afked, with what view all this has been done, one of the moft acute and mischievous of French travellers will fupply us with an anfwer; not directly to the point indeed, but too plain to be mistaken-I have for fome time entertained an opinion, fays Volney, that nothing is ealier VOL. V.-No. XLVIII. "Let us however do juftice to these unprincipled spoilers, and acknowledge, that they are not the first of their countrymen, who have entertained ideas of aggrandizing France at the expense of this devoted kingdom. In the beginning of this century, Maillet, the French conful at Cairo, suggested a plan for removing the pillar to Paris. The fcheme indeed was not perfectly honourable; for he was to obtain it under falfe pretences; and he had fo far arranged the particulars in his own mind, as to give the details, and even ftate the expenfes of the undertaking. But his project was cheap and easy, compared with another, which amused the vanity of his nation fome years before. What this was, we may learn from a dedication to Louis XIV. prefixed by the French tranflator to Murtadi's 'Wonders of Egypt.' The conqueft of thofe unknown regions, which conceal the fource of the Nile, he flightly mentions as the preliminary ftep to his defign. Your Majefty then, continues he, will caufe our admiration of the pyramids to ceafe, by a work of importance and grandeur, ' and of a character entirely different. That will be (if our prayers are heard, and our hopes fulfilled), to turn the 'courfe of the Nile, and withhold its 'fertilizing waters from Egypt, till the prefent infidel inhabitants have abandoned it; and to restore the 'ftreams to their former channel, when more worthy and lawful poffeffors fhall arrive to cultivate the country.' How little do the banishment of the Hugonots and the burning of the Palatinate appear, when compared with this grand and comprehensive projec of famine and extirpation!" P. v. ceives no colour of probability from any authority of ancient hiftory. Other remains of antiquity have been in like manner afcribed to the celebrated rival of Cæfar. At the eaftern mouth of the Bosphorus a fragment of uncertain age and character is called by his name, though ftanding on a fpot which he certainly never vifited, and which was never fignalized by his arms. But by whom, it may be asked, could the Alexandrian column, a monument of fuch extraordinary splendour and magnificence, have ever been erected in honour of Pompey? There is neither evidence nor probability, that it was raised by the weak and effeminate prince whom he had reftored to the throne of Egypt. It is ftill lefs likely to have been erected by the treacherous boyt, who, regardless of the obligations of gratitude, was induced, from motives of the most refined but deteftable policy, to murder the patron and benefactor of his family. Nor can we poffibly suppose it to have been dedicated to the honour of this illuftrious Roman by his more fortunate rival Cæfar, or any of his fucceffors in the empire. Difregarding therefore a name, which apparently refts on groundless tradition, and has its foundation only in vulgar error, let us endeavour to obtain fome more fatisfactory information, and to arrive at a conclufion, which history may warrant, and reason approve. "And here it evidently becomes an effential and leading object, to inquire at what period this ftupendous column was erected. For, whether it were the production of regal power and munificence, or were reared by a loyal community in gratitude to an imperial benefactor; whether it stood fingle, and formed a whole by itself, or were a part only and appendage of fome great edifice:thefe are either fubordinate queftions, or would receive a fatisfactory anfwer, if its age were once completely afcertained. The elucidation of this point, therefore, has generally been the firft aim of every author who has written upon the subject; and the attempt has given rife to conjectures the moft wild and extravagant. Paradoxical inquirers have difagreed fo widely refpecting the age of the column, that on the one hand its origin has been affigned to the fecond century of the Christiar. æra, and on the other to the remote and unknown period which witneffed the building of the pyramids." P. 2. "The Arabic expreffion Amúd Iawari, by which Pompey's Pillar was diftinguished in the middle ages, has no other fignification whatever than The Column of the Pillars.' "To an English ear this phrase will perhaps appear rather tautologous. Our language affords no correfpondent term, no word equally extenfive with Amûd ; which includes both the round and the square pillar; and may be ap. plied to a Grecian column, or an Egyptian obelisk. At the time when the Arabic language first prevailed in Egypt, there were only two extraordinary objects of this kind remaining in Alexandria; Cleopatra's Needle, and Pompey's Pillar; and the inhabitants appear to have diftinguished them by their local fituation; calling the one, Amûd il Babri, The Column of the Sea,' and the other, Amúd Iffawári, The Column of the Pillars + "It is, however, necessary to show that some reason exifted for the use of this appellation, as defcriptive of the column. Now Bifhop Pococke informs us explicitly, that there ftill remain fome fragments of granite pillars, four feet in diameter, near the column of Pompey: and we have the most po fitive teftimony of the Arabic writers of the middle ages, a teftimony as much to be depended on in this inftance as that of any Greek or Roman writer, that, in the time of Richard Cœur de Lion, there were more than four hundred of thefe pillars standing in the immediate vicinity of the column. So that this magnificent monument at that time might evidently be called, with fingular propriety, 'The • Column of the Pillars'." P. 31. "Ptolemy Auletes." +"The fon of Ptolemy Auletes." "That is, perhaps, by or near the pillars. In the fame manner Bishop Pococke understood an analogous expreffion, Akmud [i. e. Amûd] Bijige, to fignify the column near Bijige: and that the expreffion, The Pillars,' was fometimes used as a local term, may perhaps be inferred from hence, that the ruins of Perfepolis are to this day called in the language of Perfia, Chebel Minar, The forty Pillars'." THE THE ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY--OPINIONS OF GIBBON CRITICISED. "THE sentence of Omar,' fays Mr. Gibbon, was executed with blind 'obedience: the volumes of paper or parchment were diftributed to the four thoufand baths; and fuch was 'their incredible multitude, that fix ❝ months were barely fufficient for the 'confumption of this precious fuel. Since the Dynafties of Abulpharagius have been given to the world in a Latin verfion, the tale has been repeatedly transcribed; and every scholar, with pious indignation, has de'plored the irreparable fhipwreck of the learning, the arts, and the genius, of antiquity. For my own part, I am ftrongly tempted to deny both the fact and its confequences. The 'fact is indeed marvellous; "Read and wonder!" says the historian himfelf.' Edit. 4to. vol. v. p. 343. "This anecdote,' fubjoins Mr. Gibbon in a note on this paffage, will be in vain fought in the annals of Eutychius, and the Saracenic history of Elmacin. The filence of Abulfeda, Murtadi, and a crowd of Mollems is lefs conclufive, from their ignorance of Chriftian literature.' "But firft, we may afk, is the ftory of Abulpharajus itself correctly reported by Mr. Gibbon? Surely it is an unfair inference, which he has made from the hiftorian's words, that all the four thousand baths of the city were fupplied with these books for fuel. Their diftribution amongst any number of the baths would juftify the expreffion of Abulpharajus, and the meaning which I would affix to it. He does not fay, that fix months were barely fufficient for the confumption: this is a false comment upon a mistaken text. The Arabic hiftorian fays nothing like it; he fimply relates the fact, that in half a year the books were entirely confumed: but how many baths were employed in their deftruction, he neither fays nor infinuates. The incredible multitude of the volumes, therefore, vanishes at once. If during the whole time which elapfed, whilft these precious monuments of antiquity were gradually confuming, no fentiment of remorfe or compunction arofe in the breafts of the conquerors, no wifh to rescue the ftill remaining treafures of this ineftimable library from further ravage and deftruction, well might Abulpharajus exclaim, Hear and wonder!' Hear and wonder at the brutal ignorance and unrelenting fury of the barbarians! "Secondly, even if I fhould grant to Mr. Gibbon, that we have only the evidence of Abulpharajus for the ge neral fact, I fee no ground for rational fcepticifm with regard to its reality. I will concede even more; I will allow that Abalpharajus himself does not mention the circumftance in his Syriac Univerfal Hiftory, though he generally defcribes the period when it happened." P. 58. "They both contain in general the fame narrative, but with occafional additions and omiflions, as appeared to the author moft interefting to the clafs of readers for whom he was writing. Thus many particulars concerning the fiege and capture of Acca, with the various meilages which paifed betwixt our lion-hearted Richard and his generous rival Saladin, are given at large in the Syriac, but entirely affed over in the Arabic: on the contrary, the requeft of Philoponus, and the burning of the Alexandrian library, are given in the Arabic, but omitted in the Syriac. Inftances of this kind are numerous; and every general fcholar may judge for himself, as both the hiftories in the original languages, together with the Latin tranflations, are before the public. I truft, therefore, that we fhall hear no more of the objection urged by Mr. Gibbon, that the foli'tary report of a ftranger, who wrote ' at the end of fix hundred years on the confines of Media, is overbalanced by the filence of two annalifts of a more early date, both Chriftians, both natives of Egypt, and the most ancient of whom, the patriarch Eutychius, has amply defcribed the conqueft of • Alexandria.' 6 "If Abulpharajus himfelf, in his Syriac Univerfal Hiftory, has both given the life of Omar and noticed the capture of Alexandria, and yet omitted mentioning the burning of the library, and even the very name of Philoponus, why might not the two annalifts do the fame? * «The two univerfal hiftories of Abulpharajus, written in the Syriac and Arabic languages." Tt 2 "The |